The goings ons...: You must be kidding me.

So, I'm late again.... This is from over a week ago.

Last weekend, I went up to Seattle to visit fellow MTS-er Justin Gehring and to be there for a talk he had out in a neighboring congregation. It was oodles-kaboodles of fun. We actually managed to pack the weekend with alot of stuff. If you wish to know read the next paragraphs, if not, well then just go ahead and skip down to the pictures...

I got there Friday night and after a few calls we got a couple of the other Washington MTS boys to meet up with us at Justin's place. Schlag, and Michelle... no wait Misael Calderon :) showed up along with a few Seattle folk. Justin had recently bought a wok and some amazing stirfry was happening. Foosball, icecream, sleep.

Saturday, it was service in the morning, then we met up with Chong and Konopik from some super good mexican food and coffee, took some pictures with the troll under the bridge and went our seperate ways. Justin's buddies came over and hung out with us for a bit, then sleep once more.

Sunday, we went to meeting to a neighboring congregation, Yessler, and Justin gave a stellar talk. The talk was "Should You Fear the Future" ... or something close to that. It was the congregation Schlag's cousin goes to so they had us over for hospitality, ate well, good cookies, and played Nerts. Nothing like haveing a self imposed group anxiety attack for a couple of hours. After that we had an epic ping pong tourney at Justin's place. It was all sweat and finesse, and in the end, Austin, well.. he lost alot. (right Justin?)

I left early Monday morning to meet up with an old friend that moved up to Seattle from Portland a few months ago, drove down to Federal Way and had my favorite Korean soup with Chong in Tacoma, then made it home by the afternoon.

On the Saturday I got the news of Sean's assignment to Fossil, OR. Whoa! Right? ... then I get home... letter from Patterson in my mailbox. Well, Canyon City, OR here I come!! It is with a bit of apprehension that I eagerly look forward to this assignment. It will be something completely different than how I have lived my whole life. What am I going to do over there? Work, housing, etc... I'm really excited to see how Jehovah will help me to work it out. I guess Sean will be close... we'll be able to kick around eastern oregon stories. Yeah buddy! Then again, there is Forrest and Alabama, who will be chumming it up in Marquette, MI, I read they get a 12' annual snowfall. ... there are so many southern jokes to be said here, I can't choose which one to use.

Over the week since I recieved my assignment, a flurry of new assignments have been recieved. There are congregations in this country that need great help, and for this reason we have been trained. This is the goal we each set before us when we went to the class: Be Used. Be in a position to be used by Jehovah. So far it has only been in this country, but who knows where we will be in 5, 10, even 15 years from now! There is a need, and hopefully we can do justice to the trainng we have recieved. From big cities like Downtown Seattle with a population of 600,000 to the 469 in Fossil, Oregon, we can help. It is our assignment to do so. May we do it well.

I will be putting more pictures on this post later. For some reason my camera saved the pictures to my phone and not my memory card, and then I lost the cord that connects it to my computer... so there are a buch of pictures that I will put on once the cord I just ordered comes in the mail.

Justin's HALL. This is NadiaTan, a sister from Portland that moved up to this congregation.

Chong! What are you drinking?

Outside the mexican resturant. Get the Pesole. It's SUPER 'LICIOUS

Chong creating common ground with the barrista

Gehring is explaining something here... I dont' remember what it is, but look at Konopik... it must be intense...

The Troll under the bridge... it was supposed to bring the community together... or something. Didn't the Troll under the bridge in teh story eat the things that passed over it? ... that's happy.