It's hard to believe that then end of the year is upon us. With the end of the year come Christmas. Probably my favorite holiday of the year because you get to spend time with family! However, this year I will spend Christmas abroad. This will be my first Christmas away from family. I said the same thing last year and ended up going home early, however I don't think that will happen this year.

A group of us (our family here) went out to Christmas dinner at the Mariott. It is so beautifully decorated and the buffet had tons of delicious foods!!

Rocking my UK scarf during this scarf weather :).

Sometimes it is hard to believe it is December let alone Christmastime. The weather here has just recently dropped to the low 60's. Back in the States I would have welcomed 60 degree weather with a light hoodie and jeans. However here 60 is like 40 so people are breaking out the winter coats and gloves and scarves, I love it though!

The tree that decorates the door to 2nd grade. Also there are handprint trees on the window with all their hands.

My school has decorated for the Christmas holiday. My roommate and I are on the event committee for our Christmas party so it has been fun (and stressful) getting everything together. This week our 1st and 2nd graders painted salt dough ornaments to hang on our beautiful Christmas tree. I also painted their hands so that we could paint the windows in each class. Grade 2 has handprint Christmas trees on the door window. Grade 1B has two wreaths on their middle window. Grade 1A has reindeer going across their windows. It was so awesome to see the smiles on their faces as they get to paint the window. They laughed so hard when I painted their hand. At the end of the lesson we had some beautiful decorations :).

2nd grade's Santa and reindeer handprints.

On Friday our staff is coming to our apartment for a Christmas party! We decorated our apartment this week (well actually Jen did most of the decorating). It's looks beautiful! We made sugar cookies to be iced and decorated at the party. Then we will share the Christmas story with them and then listen to and sing some Christmas carols!!!

It's beginning to look like Christmas, everywhere you go!!!

Living in a foreign country can be difficult especially when you are there for mission work. There are many times that it feels like you are constantly being knocked down before you even have a chance to stand back up. This just means you are in the right place! But a great place for support is the church! At HIF there is a young adults group and a women's group. And since I am a young adult woman I get to be apart of both!

The young adult group is great! I love everything about them! The people are always friendly and you almost connect right away. When everything familiar is 8,000 miles away it is easier to connect with people who are feeling the exact same way. Or have experienced the same things before.

On August 23, the message at church was amazing and it hit me hard. It was about Believers not being exempt from troubles. And it just seemed like the week prior was full of trouble. Just bad things turning into worse things and worse things getting worse. But the best part is that we serve an AMAZING GOD that is always with us. And even though I cried Sunday morning, God has provided this awesome group of young adults that we spent the day with.

After church we went out for August Birthdays celebration (which was Jen). We got pizza for lunch. There was 25 of us at The Pizza Company! Lets just say we took up most of the restaurant! LOL. After lunch we went bowling (at the same place! There is a mall here called Royal City that has an ice rink, movie theater, water park, and bowling plus all the shops we wish we had and tons of food places). It was so much fun to hang out with friends and bowl! God provided this awesome experience, reminding me that he is always with me. Then after bowling we went for ice cream, because no birthday celebration is complete without ice cream!

Bowling with some great people! Each lane could hold 6 people and we had 3 lanes. I scored 112 points! One of my personal bests!!! :)

We also hosted the young adults at our apartment for our gatherings on Thursday nights. It was such a blessing to have 15 young adults in our living room worshiping and studying the Word. I am so glad God has blessed us with such a big living room. I can't wait to host more gatherings here. I think it is part of the reason we have such a large apartment.

I also get to be apart of the Women's Group at HIF. I am slowly learning more about these lovely ladies. There are women in this group who have been here for less than 1 month and women who have been here for more than 18 years! So many experiences and everyone wants to help and be connected. Building relationships to help reach the people!

God is doing amazing things here! I am so glad he has called me! Even though times are hard, GREAT things are happening! Thanks for praying and taking this journey with me!!!

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!!!

Getting Connected