In tj halloween still goes on even though Mexicans dont celibrate this holiday further south. We were invited to go watch a Christian movie at our friend's church near the border. Everyone was nice and they fed us nachos and jello, it sure was good to have.
The holiday they really celibrate around the same time is el dia de muertos, day of the dead. they go to the grave yeards durring the day and put things on the graves, like food or flowers. The whole graveyard is decorated in some way or another. everyone from the school here went, but i stayed back and slept. I have been really tired lately and i wanted to be able to hang out after everyone got back.
This week we are studying the parables that Jesus gave. I am really enjoying the stuff we are talking about and if i have some sort of epiphany i will pass it along.
This weekend the students are going to help out the a town further south called por vinir wich means for coming or to come. There is a ministry down there that we are going to help put on a missions thing, im not really too cure what we are doing, but im happy to go somewhere new and be a help to them.

It’s been a while since I have written on here, partly because I have been really sick for the last week and partly because I am getting lazy with it.
Last Saturday Kelly’s Mom and Grandma came down to visit him for his birthday. They took us to a town called Puerto Nuevo south of Rosarito. The town is a tourist town, so all of the shop owners were out harassing everyone to come in and shop at their store. I wasn’t there to shop and I couldn’t escape from everyone trying to get me to shop there. It was a very stressful walk down 1 or 2 blocks of vendors. Finally we found a restaurant where we were going to eat some lobster. The lobster was a nice lunch to have with a beautiful view of the beach to our side.
The next day I went to a church in El Florido with the Director, the speaker for the week and My roommate Rory. We arrived an hour early because Mexico had a time change a week before the states did, so it threw us off a little. It was ok because they have Sunday school classes for different ages. Rory and I went and sat in on the jovenes class, which is pretty much anyone not married from 15-30. We talked about what we thought we would see in heaven and what the Bible says what we will have there. After class, the teacher asked me if I would explain the congregation what we learned in class, so the English speakers would know.
After class, Rory and I had Ryan drop us off at the border so we could go into San Diego. I wanted to take Rory to get a burger at In and Out, because he is not from California. We also did some shopping at a target and walked around down town. That night is when I started to feel sick. I was feeling dizzy and I had a cough. The next morning, I woke up feeling like poop so I went back to bed and wasn’t able to go to class. I had my temperature checked and it was at like 100.8 so I took some Nyquil to help with that. I was still sick the next day and I continued to mostly sleep all day. When I wasn’t sleeping I got really good at freecell and spider solitaire. My back was killing me from all the laying down and I just was tired of being sick. On wed I started to feel better and I even made it to class for half of a session but then went back to bed because I was not ready to be out and about. Finally Thursday I was well enough to come out and participate in class, but I felt so far behind that a lot of the material went over my head.
On Friday after class, I went to San Diego to meet up with my Friends Raylyn and Bailey at a piano bar in the gas lamp district. It was nice to be in that environment because I love to sing aloud with other people. Some of the material was pretty bad, but I didn’t stay too late so I could make it back home in time for curfew. On the way home I was ridding the trolleys and I got off in the wrong part of town, it was pretty scary and I thought it was the last stop for a trolley in that area. So after some fast thinking I realized that if I walked 12 blocks east, I could catch another trolley and hopefully make it to the border before too late. Along the 12 blocks there were random ghetto people and a crack head who yelled at me when I asked for directions; I ended up running half of the way to the train station just in time to catch the trolley. I ended up getting on a trolley that was too full and a lot of the people on the trolley were on some sort of drugs. I met a cool guy though names tc from Chicago, he is trying to get into the movie writing industry and I hope he makes it big someday because he was a nice guy. I finally made it back home to the Castillo and felt so relieved after the crazy trip back home.

So, this is our first week after our Spanish teacher has left. We all miss having our teacher/ne friend around. It's funny when we meet people and they often times say they hope that we would visit. I always take those offers lightly, because many people do it as a kind gesture. Jorge said we were like family and offered me many times to visit him in Chiappas Mexico, I am pretty sure he was serious about the offer, but if he wasn't, he is going to just have to deal with it because i want to check out this town he told me about. He said the whether there is always perfect, well sometimes it can be cold, but there is jungle and beautiful mountains and waterfalls and a lot of short people. I can maybe become a tourist attraction down there ha-ha.
Well now that we don't have Spanish in the afternoons, we are trying to plan things to do, on weds the guys are meeting together and will be in small groups( spiritual growth groups, or accountability groups). I am glad that we are going to be having a formal time where we can get closer to one another and help one another out with our struggles along the way.
We will be required to commit to a ministry in town once a week for a few hours and also become friends with someone in the area who we can practice Spanish with and really get to know. This will help us with culture and help us get more comfortable here in town. Another reason, is we want to have an impact on the town we are in, if we just stay on campus all day, we will never have the chance to get out there and love on the town we are in.
I was thinking about what i will do, and i think i want to help teach English in some way. I always though teaching English was what every missionary does because it is the only thing we really have to offer, but i jokingly tell everyone the reason i struggle with Spanish is i never really learned English the proper way. Maybe i can teach myself as i go along. And for a relationship, i was thinking about going down the the gym on the weekends and making a friend. At one of the gyms, there is a climbing wall. I don't know how serious of a climbing wall it is, but i bet if some tall white guys is at it every week, i will meet someone here or there. It worked in Riverside, maybe i can do it here too in Mexico. it is also good, because i enjoy rock climbing, so its a win win situation.
well, time to go bug the roomy.

Today in class, we read some more of 1st peter, where it talks about women submitting and husbands need to respect your wives. I never thought growing up that men were more superior to women and i still don't. In chapter 3 vs 8,it says "Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing".
I struggle with this more now than ever, i know we need to live together in harmony but i seem to always want to stir things up. sometimes i think it is good to have ideas stirred up and to be on your toes, but i am starting to feel bad when i poke fun at someone or don't feel for someone when they are feeling a certain way(pain, sadness, joy) i have become so guarded that i don't care about people anymore.

The next few are tough as well because it says something about loving others as brothers/sisters. my family has never really been super lovey dovey, so when i think of love like a brother, i think about the way i love my brother. He may never know it, but i have always been one of his protectors. Yeah i picked on him and we never have deep conversations about our lives. I would love to have a relationship with him like you see on TV, but he is so anti social. so back to loving others like i love my brother, I think i already do this in the way i love him, i show my love in weird ways, like making fun of everyone and always having people back when they need me. I'm there when they need money, a ride or even someone who will just listen. Maybe i should stop beating myself up about the way i love, because it truly is my way, i just need to be more conscious of how the other party receives my actions of brotherhood.

Today is day two in our study on 1st peter. The teacher this week is the student pastor from a church in Olympia Wa. He seems to know his Bible and seems to read a lot of books. We are going through a chapter a day, so we are taking it kinda slow. This study has opened up a few topics for debate and discussion. We discussed the topic of predestination, like if God predestins who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. We were also talking about suffering and trials, if they were the same of different. I think suffering is trials, but not all trials cause suffering. I hope to discuss more of these topics tonight or tomorrow with my roomate Rory, he seems to have studied a lot of this prior to Baja Bible.

This last thursday we had spanish class at the beach. After the party Kelly and i walked across the border to meet our friend Matt. He brought us to the castillo where we were having a fairwell party to say bye to the group from Ventana Minestries. The party was a retro party, so everyone was dressed up. We had a BBQ, retro music and a pumkin carving contest.
After the party, Matt drove me to my parents house in Riverside. I had to take care of some things in town so i was verry lucky to have the help of him and Brandon to be my transportation. On Friday, i went to the beach and had a bon fire with a few friends. We did manly things like walk across 2x4's that were on fire and stand next to the fire to see who could do it the longest. I had a good time hanging out with them, and enjoyed our good conversations that we had about missions. Saturday i had lunch with a friend and even fed the ducks at freemont park. It was a good time, i dont think that i have fed the ducks in over a year or so. Sat night i watched the angels game at Brandons house with a few other people.
Sunday was church at sandals. The sermon was really good, Matt was saying how we need to represent God wherever we are. The way i took the message was, that so many people want to go out on short mission trips to help others, when they dont even help their town. Riverside needs tons of help and people make excuses for why they are unable to help around town. Yeah i may be in T.J right now, and im not here for the sole purpose to help the town of T.J. but i do plan on helping around town however i can. I do the same thing when im home, bassically we need to help and spread God wherever we are.

Today in class we are going over the Sermon on the Mount. Our teacher is pastor Jason from Astoria Oregon. Today we were discussing what was the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount. Was it a way to live by so we can reach salvation? Is it rules to follow as believers in Christ? The conclusion that we came up with was it is neither; The sermon on the mount is an image of what the kingdom of God should look like in us.
So the next question is, how do we live this way? The spirit of God is the only way we can truly change. Jason had a cool quote that I enjoyed because it made things more clear. He said “Growing up in a town with lots of trees, I never saw a single fruit tree struggling to pop out a fruit from its branches”. Fruit is not produced by machines. We as Christian often try to do “good things” or things that we think and know God would want us to do, but we sometimes do it just because we know we should do them, not because we want to. So I think the way to answer the question, as to how we live the way the Bible teaches, is to Abide (stay) with Christ. By doing so, his spirit will run our lives. We want to create our own fruit rather than let God create in through us.
We need to stop trying so hard to be good people and “relax” and let go of things so that Christ will lead us and run our lives, then we will be able to truly represent Christ and his teachings. If I would just do this, it would change me more and more. I would be a better Brother, son father (in the future) Example to others as a Christian. So what’s holding us back?
Another thing that came in to my brain during class was, have you ever been in love? I mean like really in love? With a women, man? If so, you know how it feels to just desire and to really Love them. That’s what God gives us, and for what? Nothing, he loves us and gives us Grace because of it.
So this is what I got out of the first day of class on the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount was not intended to be a list of rules for us as Christians to follow or for people to do these things for Salvation.