Tillamook!

We spent two weeks in Tacoma and then came back to Forest Grove yesterday. Some of us decided to spend our afternoon off at the beach. We went to the Tillamook cheese factory and then went to the beach to play for the afternoon. It was a great Saturday.

I Love to See the Temple!

After our first session of EFY, our leaders challenged us to spend a few minutes on the grounds of the Portland temple on our way from Forest Grove to Tacoma. I could feel the amazing Spirit that surrounds the house of the Lord as soon as I entered the gates. This temple is so beautiful! I've decided that I would really like to get married in the Portland temple.

Dehydration Never Was Happiness

One of our great purposes in life as health counselors is to try to convince the participants to drink water so that they don't end up dehydrated. We motivate them by offering stickers to anyone we see drinking water. As a result, people randomly start drinking water around me all the time. I was talking to a friend at the dance on Friday when I was suddenly surrounded by boys sipping water. I thought it was hilarious. Way to be hydrated, boys. This picture is also an excellent display of how unflattering my wonderful red polo shirts are.

The Most Official Part of My Week

Meet my partner, Lynn. They say that a picture is worth 1000 words. This one captures Lynn perfectly. Participant check-in is one of our favorite times of the week because we feel like we are doing something really organized and official. We go through all of the kids' records and then talk to them at check-in if there are any medical concerns. We get to meet lots of awesome kids and parents this way. Notice the sweater. It always manages to be freezing during check-in, even last week when it was super hot all of the other days.

On to New Adventures!

I have spent the last three weeks at home relaxing and recovering from my exhaustingly great time in Ecuador. My R&R time ran out this weekend. I drove down to Portland last night so that I could start my job as an EFY health counselor today. It took some convincing to get Mom to let me drive down here by myself, but I made it just fine. I stayed with Aunt Kerri and Uncle Sherwood last night. I spent this afternoon in a training meeting, and the real work starts tomorrow and Monday. The next few weeks are going to be great! I got to know a few of the awesome people I am going to be working with tonight by spending the evening at Toy Story 3, which is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. I would highly recommend it.

Last Day Teaching in Ecuador :(

I finally caved and tried the guinea pig. It tasted like chewy, fatty, dark chicken meat.

The last school we taught nutrition at was full of adorable kids.

I became very popular when I let them take pictures with my camera.

I love little Ecuadorian children!

The drive to get to this school was long and bumpy up a little mountain road,

but who cares when you get to look at this all the way!

Church and Tourist Fun in Otavalo and Quito

On top of the world! We rode a tram up the mountain above Quito, and the view was amazing! We could see the city stretching out as far as we could see in every direction, and the mountains were gorgeous. The elevation here was over 4100 meters, which is about 13,400 ft!

Straddling the equator! It was bizarre to see the different science experiments you could do on either side of the line. You literally only have to move a couple of feet, and the water spins the opposite direction. Weird!

Sometimes, things get lost in translation. Creeps, anyone?

These are some of the awesome ladies we met at church in Otavalo. The lady right next to me was kind enough to a couple of us hang out in primary instead of staying in Relief Society. We sang primary songs with them, and it was so much fun!

Our whole group of students in front of our church building in Otavalo. Check out the fun colors! I think Ecuador rubbed off on all of us.