***this pic is of some kids that live in the neighborhood we gave out bibles in*** HOLA!! MI NOMBRE ES CRYSTAL, and i'm going to tell you ALL about my class trip to mexico. let me explain what this trip was for. well, it was NO vacation, it was a mission trip. we went with the group called YWAM (youth with a mission). first, ill tell you all of the people who went from my class and some adults. the kids: myself, sammy, sara, minty, renee, amanda, becca, danielle, matthew, mark, josh, ben, shawn, and connor. the adults: mr. riemer, mr.atkinson, mrs.garrow, mrs.doby,mrs. eiff, mrs.braatz, mr.braatz, mr.eiff, mr. yencheske, mr.heckert. then, there was our student teacher, he didn't fit in any group (i'll explain later) and his name is mr.griffen. the school we go to is northwest lutheran and it is located in milwaukee,wisconsin. now, im going to give you the details of our whole trip, from April 10-20 of 2003. the states we had to go through were wisconsin, minnesota, missouri, iowa, kansas, oklahoma, and texas. Thursday, April 10, 2003 we have our regular classes for the morning, but, at noon, we have a special lunch in the library with our parents. at 1:00pm, we got into our vans and drove to eau claire, wisconsin. that night, 5 other girls and myself and 2 parents stayed at the pastor's house. that house was awesome and we had some GREAT home cooking!! then, we realized that this was our last day of actual luxury for quite a while. well, they had 3 "bedrooms" in their basement and that's where us girls were SUPPOSED to sleep. me,minty,and sammy were gonna sleep in the main room, sara was gonna sleep in a room by herself, and becca and danielle were gonna sleep in another room. well, minty started getting scared because it was so dark and we heard scary noises so she got up and was like, "IM GONNA SLEEP IN DANIELLE'S ROOM!!!" and i said, "MINTY, GET YOUR BUTT BACK HERE!!" so she came back and tripped over the couchbed and fell flat on her face on the bed. it was hilarious. then, we all got scared and went into danielle and becca's room to sleep. there were 2 TWIN size beds in there. thats not big enought for all of us!! well, minty,sammy,and danielle all slept in one bed and becca and i slept in the other. it was funny. Friday, April 11, 2003 we got up at like 6:30am because we had to be at this radio station at like, 7:30 to get on the bus. well, it was FREEZING cold outside. we got everything packed onto the "banana" and got on the bus. we were finally on the road to mexico!!!!! everyone was excited and everything so we were talking and singing. well, our student teacher, mr. griffen, plays the guitar. he also likes to make up funny songs while playing the guitar. he made up this one song, i cant remember the whole thing but it was like, " adults are in the front, the kids are in the back. i fit in neither group. so im packed, packed in the back.........between the trash can.......and the poop." it was hilarious!!!! then, he made up a song about keanu reeves. it was like, "WHOA! DUDE! my name's keanu! i know kung fu! i have excellent adventures! im goin into the matrix! theres a bomb on the bus?!?" he also made up songs about people. the song he made up about me said how short i was and he said i would never have to worry about my feet hanging off the bed, lol! yeah, those were good times and then, mark got sick and threw up a few times. we also had to sleep on the bus that night. it was late and it was pitch black at the front of the bus but there was a little blue light in the back of the bus and me, mark, and mr.griffen were having a dance party. it was great, G-UNIT(mr.griffen) was the dj and he sounded like a monkey and me n mark were dancing, it was so funny. then, mr.griffen covered up the light and he was like, "im invisible, OR AM I??!!!" and he was doing stealth mode!! it was great and i would do anything for us to be able to be on a bus again because we didnt go to sleep until like, 3 in the mornin. Saturday, April 12, 2003 we got up that morning and we were in texas!!!! we stopped at a mcdonalds for breakfast. then, we got back on the bus and were back on the road again. we were stopping for lunch and we saw this awesome bus and amanda was like, "shh!! thats our real bus, this isnt, we just dont know it yet!" then, we pulled into the parking lot and they told us to put our stuff on that bus!! i was like WHOA!! lol,that bus was off the heezy, fo sheezy!!lol, we went to lunch, and then, we had to drop the "banana" off at a church in texas. thats where we met up with ryan (hot sauce) and jeremy(my big brotha). then, we went to the border and had to go through customs. we unpacked everything, pressed the button for the "RANDOM" search thing and only one person got ALTO, and it was the last person.........mr.atkinson. mrs.eiff is so crazy, she wanted mr.a to press the button again so that she could get a stinking picture of it!!!! what the heck??!! then, we had to get our $money$ changed from dollars to pesos. i got a 20 changed into like 200 somethin pesos and it lasted me the whole time. well, there was this guard with a machine gun and he did NOT look like he was a happy camper. mrs. eiff decided she wanted her picture taken with the guy! she is sooo messed up,lol!!! we were going crazy!!or maybe she was! well, we then got back on our NEW bus and drove to monterrey, where our camp was. we were driving and it was a whole different world compared to ours. the people were so poor and lived in totally different homes than us. we got to our camp and we were like WHOA! some of us thought it was better than what we thought, but others thought it was worse. people were complaining because we couldnt flush down the toilet paper (FISHING!!) and some of the windows had screens but others were screenless. then, i heard renee say, "WHERE'S THE PHONE????" i started laughing. that night, we sat in a little group, well, some of us did. G-UNIT played his guitar a little and we played all these different games. then, we went to bed, who woulda thought we'd ever sleep?? Sunday, April 13th, 2003 We all got up around......8:30am and had breakfast. then, around 10 or 11, we went to a church service. it was amazing!the people were jumping up and down and they were singing and holding their hands in the air. they were singing in spanish but i knew i was praising God so i sang with them and stuff. the people there were so nice. after that, we went back to camp and were hanging out. we were playing basketball and a couple mexican boys came over to play with us. their names were jesse and adrian. they are really good at basketball! we were playing hustle and all that fun stuff. then, we went to sleep. Monday, April 14th, 2003 we got up really early. first, we had breakfast. then, we had to read a passage from the Bible and answer some questions. after we did that, we got into our groups and went over our questions and the Bible story and at the end, we prayed about testimonies, sermons, and our first day of Bible distributing. then, all of our groups came together and we sang a couple songs. then, jeremy, my favorite counselor person, gave us a little orientation.after the orientation, we had to do FUN CHORES!!not really. my group had to clean the girls' dorm. not fun! after that, we had free time and lunch YUMM!!! then, at 1:00pm we got on our bus and went to a poorer area to distribute bibles. i was soooo scared at first cause i didn't know if they would accept the bible or accept me, cause, after all, I AM A GRINGO(american)!!! well, after a couple houses i did a page by myself and found out that i've got an awesome spanish accent!! we brought 10 families to faith that day and it felt so awesome. then, we went back to the church to eat sandwiches for dinner. after dinner, it was time for our church service! we did awesome in the "heart skit" and every1 who did testimonies did good, and so did G-UNIT with his sermon. before the service, we painted kids faces and played football with them and they were having so much fun. then, we went "home" and went to sleep. Tuesday, April 15th, 2003 everything was pretty much the same as monday except that when we were hanging with the little kids, there was one boy and he was the cutest kid ever! his name was julio and he followed mateo and mrs.doby's group. mrs.doby wasnt too good at spanish but when little julio was standing by her, she got through it. then, when we went "home", the kids wanted to go with us. they were getting attached to us and it was amazing! i loved it. when we got home, we went to sleep. what else is new? Wednesday, April 16th, 2003 everything was the same in the morning, but when we went to the church service, we heard rumors that a gang was gonna try to start stuff with us. so, then, all the girls were told to quickly get their stuff onto the bus and i was like, what the heck? i can stick up for myself! all the girls were getting scared and stuff so we had to hurry up with our good-byes. i started crying and then, i hugged julio. i glanced at that adorable little face and saw tears in his eyes. i didnt know what to say so i told him i would see him in heaven and that jesus is in my heart and his heart forever. we got on the bus and the kids were banging on the sides and stuff and shouting MATEO MATEO MATEO!!(matt's nickname) we cried the whole way home and after we got back to camp too. it was horrible, but we felt to awesome that we helped all of those people get a spot in heaven! they could go to heaven because of us! then, we went to bed. Thursday, April 17th, 2003 we woke up and ate breakfast. then, we went to a soup kitchen and helped hand out food and sang songs. after that, we went to a store and ate lunch. after we were done with all of that fun stuff, we went to a REALLY poor neighborhood to hand out food. it was totally different from our country and even from the neighborhood we were in earlier that week. there was this one lady and she had 2 sons. we gave her some food at her house, but she sent her son to someone else's house to get their food. i knew it wasn't his house, but ryan made us give him food anyway. then, she sent her son (who was even younger than the first one) to someone's house to get their food but we didn't give him any. it was a majorly different experience but it was what we went to mexico for. after we were done with handing out the food, we held a church service there. we did some skits, some people did testimonies, and we had a little sermon thing. well, the people didn't seem to into it, but it was something we needed to do. we gave out some toothbrushes and toothpaste. there was one little girl sitting all by herself on a mattress and she was brushing her teeth. it was adorable. then, we went back to camp, i think. we had to do our little chores again and had some free time after that. it was connor's b-day so his parents bought him a pinata and it was hilarious. he missed that thing so many times. then, he finally got it and we had some cake. then, we slept, what else is new?? Friday, April 18th, 2003 we got up and ate breakfast kinda early. then, we had to do our chores in a hurry and get ready to go to the nursing home. well, the bus was SUPPOSED to come at 10:00am but it didn't come so we couldn't go to the nursing home. well, the adult guys and G-UNIT went to put up drywall so it was pretty much just the kids, the women, and some of the YWAM staff. we played a game called MAFIA and it was so much fun. mateo and me were teammates, i guess, and he "cheated" me because he was part of the mafia and killed me!!! it was a whole bunch a fun!! well, then, we ate a quick lunch and got ready to go to our awesome party!!!see, there was a wealthy man and his family goes to the church that we went to on sunday. he invited us to the church picnic that they were having at their house. we went and that place was awesome! we got to see yet ANOTHER whole different side of mexico. they had a HUGE house and a HUGE yard and this awesome little tiki hut thing with a grass roof to it. they also had an awesome pool that some of us went swimming in and a trampoline that a bunch of us were jumping on. ryan was showing off on the trampoline, he looked like a little kid. the people breeded rotweillers and they put their dogs in shows. in one of the rooms in their house, there were a bunch of ribbons that their dogs won. they also had a few little dogs, i'm not sure which kinds, but i remember a chihuaha. we also got to play softball with them. that was kinda fun. after the party, we went back home and the guys grilled out hamburgers. they were really good. while they were grilling and after we were done eating, we were playing lightning. it was cool because there were a lot of people playing and we had this rule where if you got kicked out, you had to remember the person who got you out so that when they got out, you got back in the game. it was so awesomely awesome because bethany was playing and me and her kept saying HE SO GOT YOU OUT!! I AM SO OUT!! and we were like AWWWW DUDE!! DUDE!!YOU'RE OUT DUDE!! it was cool. that night we sang a bunch of songs and said bye to all the YWAM staff who we thought might not get up as early as we were to say goodbye. then, time to sleep again, well, some people made attempts to stay up all night, but not me!! i was tired. Saturday, April 19th, 2003 we got up at like 3:30am and got our stuff outside and all that fun stuff. then, the bus came and we had to leave. i was so surprised that jesse actually got up at 4:30am just to say bye to us. it made us feel special. we were on our AWESOME bus and i sat by mateo until we got to the border. we got over the border without any problems so it was all good. then, we had to go BACK over the border to go shopping in the little shops. it was cool because you could get stuff cheap and you could "bargain" with the shopowners. i got a bracelet for keshona, mrs.garrow bought me a ring for helping her out with her spanish. then, at the last store, there was this lady and she wanted $12.00 for a ring and i only had $6.00 so i was like, do you want $6 for it? and she said $12. i told her, i only have 6 so that's all i have to pay for it and she was like $8.00 and i was like, I ONLY HAVE 6!! so, she took $6.00 for it! i was proud of myself. then, we went back over the border and ate lunch at mcdonalds. then, we got on the bus once again. we were FINALLY going home. a part of me wanted to go home SO bad, but the other part wanted to stay and help out more! i made a decision while on that bus, i was going to go back to YWAM when i turned 16 so that i could have an internship there. well, we had a whole bunch of more fun on the bus. G-UNIT was sleeping and i had a big bag of suckers so i was like, IM GONNA STICK THIS STICK FROM THE SUCKER UP HIS NOSE!! i did it and he woke up and he was like OWW!!! WHAT WAS THAT??? NOW, MR.GRIFFEN NEEDS SLEEP TOO SOMETIMES!! later, he was sleeping again so i was like, EWW! HE KEEPS OPENING HIS MOUTH!! so, we stuck a sour lemon sucker in his mouth and he picked it up after it fell and he threw it at minty. it was great. later, he was singing songs about people AGAIN and he made one up about me. it was like, MR.GRIFFEN, YOU'RE SUPER NICE!!! IS HE ASLEEP YET??GIMME A BUCKET OF ICE!! it was funny. we made a bunch of stops and stuff. then, we went to sleep. i fell asleep early because i was so tired from all the work we did that week. well, we got back to eau claire and got in our vans again and were actually going HOME HOME!! we got there and there were people standing outside waiting for us. well, now you guys know a little bit about what it is like to be a missionary. i loved that experience so much that i plan to go back there when i turn 16 so that i can be an intern for a month or so. that was an awesomely awesome experience, dude!!(i learned it from bethany!!)
