My first days as an East-coast missionary

So here I am, sitting in an office full of my fellow missionaries, trying to figure out what in the world to write about to summarize the first four crazy days of what I think is going to be one of the most awesome years of my life. 

Daunting task? Yes. 

I'm writing run-on sentences just thinking about it. 

Leaving home wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, surprisingly. I didn't even cry once. Despite how sad I was to leave the BKLT family, and how much I knew I was going to miss my family, I have been nothing but excited since I knew I would be coming to Covecrest. And it hasn't really stopped since. 

I am already loving the community here at Covecrest; it is so great to walk with God in the company of a bunch of great, holy people! Even though we haven't even been here for a full week yet, I can already see ties starting to form, and true community life beginning to happen. A couple days ago, we were deep-cleaning the San Damiano Inn, a task that is not for the faint-hearted--you would be suprised at what teens leave behind underneath mattresses when they come to camp (we did get a total of 4 dollars though!). It was dirty. It was hot. There was a lot of bleach involved.

Not exactly how I would choose to spend a Wednesday afternoon.

But a funny thing happened...every time I would flip over a mattress, find something less-than-desirable, and start complaining to myself, I would look around and see Colleen cleaning off the top of a window frame, or Carla underneath a bed scrubbing a floorboard, or Alex vacuuming an air conditioning vent; and it made me check myself, pick up my bleach bottle, and have another go.

I've been reading A Simple Path by Mother Teresa, and in it is a quote from one of the Missionaries of Charity sisters that I was reflecting on during Holy Hour the other day: "Whatever I do, I do it for Jesus. Otherwise it is worthless, useless. So when I know I am doing it for Him, I can do it more lovingly, more compassionately...It gives a lot of meaning to my life to know I am doing it for Him." And you know what? As unglamorous as cleaning out all those rooms was, and as much as I really wanted to sigh out loud when we finished and then went over to clean Cole House, I looked around at the other 7 people carrying buckets and bleach, and remembered that quote, and I knew that as hard as the work may be, we're doing it for God. And it was so encouraging to know that we, as a community, are all in this together.

Who knew that all that would come from flipping mattresses?