The Sandlot

I hope that you all have seen the movie "The Sandlot". It is one of my favorite movies of all time. If you haven't seen it, you need to. You might have heard, there is quite a few kids on our street that my brothers and sister and I hang out with everyday. We have noticed that they don't have many other friends other than the ones that live on this street. We are just our own little group. If you live on our street you are in the group no matter if you are a boy or girl, how old you are or what school you go to. We are all friends and when you play, you get as many kids together as you can, the more kids, the more games you can play, the more games you can play, the more fun. It is kind of like the Sandlot where you all hang out together and you are all buddies, you don't have many other friends just the kids that live on your street. I like all the kids that live on our street, we have fun hanging out together. There is a park just around the corner of our house and we love to go and hang out there, if we don't go to the park we hang out in the street or at one of our houses. We love to play hide and go seek, basketball, monkey in the middle, volleyball, cops and robbers, board games, ride bikes, futbol, futbol Americano and just hang out.

There is a picture of our "Sandlot" group above. Not all of the kids that live on our street are in the picture but this is a good portion of the kids that come out every day.

Mackenzie and Ellie

Yesterday was a very exciting day in the Bruggeman house. A while back my dad promised us that once we got on the mission field we would get a dog. Yesterday we finally got our puppy! She is two months old and as cute as can be, her name is Mackenzie and she is a Golder Retreiver. Yesterday, I also got a pet turtle; I know it is kind of random, but we were in the pet store and when Dane and I saw them we fell in love with them. My turtles name is Ellie, she is really small right now but she will grow and get to be quite a bit bigger! I haven't had a dog since I was like three years old and I have never owned a turtle so I am very excited to have these two new pets. They are so stinkin' cute!

Welcome To Mexico

There has been a lot to adjust here in Mexico as we are living in a new culture. We cannot flush toilet paper,we have to brush our teeth with purified water, (Those of you that went to Philly, note we use PURIFIED water.) There isn't many people around that speak English, and we don't speak Spanish yet. My dad and I begin language school on Monday!!! We live in a HUGE city instead of a small town, Taco stands are within walking distance of our house and you can buy Manzana Lift at the end of our street. (That though, hasn't been hard at all to adjust to) That is just naming a few. Right after we moved here, we went to Costco to get some grocery's; we decided to just grab something frozen to heat up for dinner when we got home. We were walking down the frozen food isle and my dad found these breaded chicken patties. We decided that would be good and we got some cheese sticks to go along with them. We got home and my mom put our lovely gourmet dinner in the oven. We were all really hungry and we were really excited when our food came out of the oven. We all got some chicken on our plate and my dad took a bite, he got a weird look on his face and figured out that what he was eating was not a regular chicken patty, It was Chicken Fried Steak. We all thought that it was kind of funny and were excited for the cheese sticks to get done. When they came out my mom said "watch, these will be fish sticks." She was totally joking, but when we took a bite of them, we realized that they actually were fish sticks! So we came to the dinner table expecting to eat chicken and cheeze sticks, we left the table having eaten chicken fried steak and fish sticks. That is just one example of how life can be different in a different country where you don't yet know the language. WELCOME TO MEXICO

My Song

So any of you that know me know that Relienk K is my favorite band in the whole world. I have almost all of their cd's and I listen to them just about every day. Just a few days after we left for Mexico, Relient K was having a concert in Salem and I was totally bummed that I couldn't go. I decided that since I couldn't be with all my friends at the concert, I would listen to all of my Relient K cd's on my ipod that evening. I was listening to Relient K's first cd and I had just got it recently so I hadn't got all of the songs memorized yet. A song came on towards the end of the album and I really liked the lyrics. The lyrics say " It smells so sweet outside today. The sun smiles down, I'm in the shade. I sit and think about all my friends and how good they are. But when today is yesterday, I know that things won't stay the same. But I know that the memories won't go too far. Round and round the world will turn. Lessons taught and lessons learned. Jesus gets through the good and bad times. And lets us know that everything will be just fine. A year's passed since I wrote this song. A lot's gone right and a lot's gone wrong. But I know that Jesus has been there right by my side. And I see the sun still shines. It shines outside and in my life, and I know that everything is gonna be just fine."
This song fits in perfectly with where I am at in my life right now. I love Relient K and I love this song!
This is my song.

Hola From Mexico!

Hey Everyone!
Wow, so much has happened since we have left I don't know where to start...
We arrived in Guadalajara last Wed. November 5th. (Jensen...that is where I live in Mexico, Guadalajara.....just in case you wanted to know) We stayed at some peoples house that go to the language school for a few nights while we looked for a house to rent. The family that we stayed with has two kids, Zane who is 15 and Vanessa who is 13. It was really cool for Brent and I to get to know them, and it was really cool for me to just be able to hang out and get to know kids my age. After like three days we found a house. We live in an Oregon Ducks mansion! The outside of the house is painted bright green and yellow. I have my very own bedroom with it's own bathroom; I haven't had my own room since I was like four years old so I am very excited about it. A lot of the walls are painted bright mexican colors, orange, yellow etc. We have unpacked a lot of our boxes already and it is beginning to feel like home.
We took a trip to Autlan yesterday and we will stay here for about a week. (Jensen...Autlan is where I will live after we go to language school in about nine months....just in case you wanted to know) We are staying at the training center and having a great time. Today is my sister Morgan's 7th birthday so we are having a little party for her this afternoon.
I love Guadalajara, I am already sad for when we are going to have to leave there. There is a lot of kids that live on our street and they are always wanting to play futbol with us. There is a really big, nice park around the corner to our house that has a volleyball court and all sorts of stuff so I will be able to go and play volleyball anytime I want!
Last night we got to go to La Roca, which is a coffee shop that some of the other missionaries in Autlan run. Not only do they serve coffee at this shop, but they also teach free english classes to the mexicans using the Bible. Last night when we were there we got to sit in on two of the classes and it was very fun. La Roca will be one of my main ministries once we move here to Autlan. My dad and I will actually be teaching the level one english class as soon as we move here. I am really excited to be able to get involved with that.
I watched the movie that crosswalk made me the other day; thank you VERY much! It meant so much to me...I laughed, I cried and I loved seeing all of your faces again. Thank you so much!
Even though I get to drink Manzana Lift just about every day, enjoy the great taste of traditional mexican tacos, move into a super cool house, adapt to a new culture and meet new people, I have to say that it has not been easy. I feel alone a lot and I miss my friends a lot. Feeling sad the other day, I was looking through my summer of go notebook remembering all of the fun times I had on the missions trips this summer. While I was looking through it I came across something that really encouraged me. I came across my lesson outline that we had to make on the salem missions trip for the movie Miracle. I started reading and my main passage that I was talking about in my lesson was Romans 12; being a living sacrifice. I read through the first part of the chapter and I just love the first two verses. Those verses say: " Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your sprirtual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will." Even though times are tough as I adjust to life in a different country, I know that God will always be at my side. He will be the eagle flying over me as I am in the shadow of His wings.