Sunshine State

So I finally found a corner in my hall that will get one bar of internet service.

I arrived in Florida Wednesday safe and sound. There are 17 other people on my team and we are getting to know each other better as the days go by. I've only been here for 8 days, but it sure does seem like much longer. From Thursday until Sunday I've been doing orientation. It was for the whole state of Florida so all the summer missionaries stationed in Florida were here at the camp. It all went well, just listening to people speak, but I did learn some. :)

Thursday, before all the other missionaries got here, our team went to Downtown Disney. We were split into 2 groups and went on a scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun! My team won, of course. Haha. Our trophy was a toilet seat that had been decorated. Cute huh? We were proud of our seat though!

Me and Cyle Haulcomb are the only 2 from our whole team that will be working at Give Kids the World. Yesterday (Wednesday) was our first day. We were there at 8 a.m. for our first shift. Let me back up. See, our camp where we are staying is right down the road from GKTW. Vehicles are limited here at camp, so we suggested to our supervisor that we could just ride bicycles to work everyday. We went to Wal*Mart and the organization bought bikes for us to use (they are going to be a donation to the camp, can't take them home). So Tuesday Cyle and I were sitting at camp by ourselves because the rest of our team went for their orientation. We were really bored and decided to ride our bikes to Wal*Mart, which is just up the road. We did and it wasn't too bad. However, on the way back to camp, it had gotten reeeeally hot outside. We got back and just collapsed in the living room thinking maybe this whole bicycle thing wasn't a good idea. Yes, you can stop laughing now...Anywho, we rode our bikes to GKTW Wednesday morning stayed there until 11 doing horse rides. We were the people on either side of the horse with our arm over the child's leg, holding on to the sadle. We got to talk to the kids as we walked around. Seeing their faces light up when they got on the horse just melted my heart. They are so incredibley happy to be here. It was hot and I had to dodge a couple of poop piles after a while, but it was so much fun!

We came back to camp after that shift and rested. I went back at 5:30 that night for Kids Night Out. This is just for the kids and the volunteers, the parents get a night off. The volunteers, or angels as GKTW calls us, are partnered up with kids for the night. I had 2 brothers and we went and played putt-putt first. Then we all went to eat supper together. After supper we went to the theater for Village Idol. The kids could get up there and sing, dance, tell jokes, or just stand there; whatever they want to do, they do it. After everyone had a turn, all the contestants got back on stage to find out who the winner was. Of course, we knew that there wasn't going to be just one winner, but when the MC read the envelope and that "this was the first time in Village history that everyone is a winner!" the kids were smiling so big, hands went up in the air, and they were all just so excited that they were the Village Idols! It gave me goosebumps to see how happy they were.

This is going to be such an amazing summer. I am looking forward to all the things I'm going to get to do. I go in today from 2-4 & 6-9. Thursday nights are Christmas, every week. Santa and his elves come and they bring presents. This place is amazing.

This is my team.

This is my partner Cyle. We're the 2 Mississippians here!