Dear blogger, I'm sorry I was gone for a few days.
I have pretty good excuses though.

Friday morning, I packed and got ready
to leave for Michigan. There was a two
day convention there, and my crew went.
So... the ride was 4 hours long. It wasn't so
bad until people started complaining.
And that's when I tried to listen to my ipod.
Anyway, after the most boring car ride..
we made it there. And the hotel was beautiful :D
I love staying in hotels. So, we had 2 hours before
the convention was to start. In my room, we ended
up watching "Blindside" to kill the time. I love that
movie. Anyway, night one... we headed out to the
convention thing, "Inferno". They started it with
just happy praise songs, you know. Then wow, the
sermon... it was incredible. I mean, it was kind of
something you've heard before.. but the preacher
guy spoke it in a new way that really hit me finally.
So, I've been working on leaving everything behind
to follow God. Peter had always wanted to be a fisherman,
he went out and watched people... studied it, and finally
he was old enough to be a fisherman. He was a great
fisherman and whatnot, and everything was working out.
But one day, this "Jesus" guy showed up on his boat. And said,
"Peter, leave your nets behind and follow me." Well... he had
a hard time with that... he was such a great fisherman and he
loved what he did. But in the end, he loved Christ more. He left
his nets and fishing behind. And it was worth it. Sure, he didn't have
the money anymore that he got from fishing.. but he had peace, happiness,
truth, hope, and love. And he got to follow the creator of the universe around,
and ask silly questions. There was a lot more to it, but that was the basic
message. It was awesome. In the end I ended up going to the alter and having
a good cry. Not a sad cry, but.. one of those "God, I submit myself to you, I know I
can do better" type of cries. You know? So that was day one. Afterwards there
was a thing called "afterburn" but I didn't want to go. It was just like, playing games
and stuff. So everyone in our crew went except Steph, Ivana, Sam, and I.
We stayed at the hotel. Sam sat on facebook, so the rest of us got nachos and sat
around talking. And I had the most awesome cappuccino. I asked what flavours they
had, and the guy said like... a billion different ones. And in the end I asked "Is it possible
for me to get vanilla and toasted marshmallow mixed?" And incredibly enough, he did
it. It made my taste buds sing for joy. Well, not really. But you know. Then we watched TV
and I went to bed around 2am. I woke up at 9 and got ready, then packed up my bags.
And we all headed to day 2. The praise songs were hardly any that I knew, so I just kinda
listened and worshiped without singing... and the sermon... it was about the guy in the
bible that had the withered hand and tried to hide it because he was ashamed of it. He
couldn't work or take care of himself because of his hand so he was a beggar. He hid his
hand in his cloak, and held out a cup while looking away so no one would recognize him.
He had a good successful job before his hand withered, I would imagine. So... he's in the
synagogue on a Sunday, and Jesus happens to be there speaking. And Jesus says something
like, "You, in the back. Come up here." so, mr. withered hand makes his way through the
people and they all watch. He's hiding his hand in his cloak too.. and is getting a little nervous.
He doesn't want anyone to see his weakness. Jesus then looks into his eyes, and says "reach out
your hand." Jesus doesn't say which hand. But guess which hand the guy reaches out?
The withered one. He took the step of faith, and trusted that Jesus wouldn't make him do that
and embarrass him. Jesus healed his hand. And then all was well. All because he took the leap of
faith, and revealed his weakness to Jesus. We all try to act like we've got it together, when
in reality we're just hiding our weaknesses in our "cloak" afraid to show anyone. And that kinda
really hit me, because I've been known to be that way. We were about to leave, and then preacher guy said something that really spoke to me... you see, before I went to Michigan I read in a book something about reading the Psalms out loud with confidence.. so I tried it. I opened to
a random Psalm, which so happened to be Psalms 51. And I really liked it, so I kept on reading it for a few days. Then, right before we left the service... preacher guy said something about a Psalm of repentance, and David exposing his heart and weakness. My first thought was "hey,
my Psalm I been reading is about repentance... nah, can't be the same one." But sure enough,
preacher guy says "Psalm 51." and I about explode. He then says a bit about it, and about a part in that chapter that some people like to forget about. And I was like "wow. God, you are listening to me." You see, I had been looking for God to speak to me specially over the weekend. Though, I hadn't expected something like that. I just kept my eyes opened. And I thought "well, we're about to leave.. I guess I don't get a special word, but that's okay." then... the Psalm 51 thing happened. It was just really awesome. I wanted to go up to the alter again.. but we were leaving,so I didn't get to.

After that we went to Fridays for lunch. And oh what a fun time. Steph,
her straw kept missing her mouth and she was all "I'm afraid I'm gonna poke my
eye out." and I said "that's why I wear glasses." and then she exclaimed
"OHHH that's why you wear them! You know, not to see or anything."
hehe. Fun times. Anyway, the 4 hour ride home. Bleh.
It was boring and I was super tired, but eventually we made it home.
And I went to bed.

Then the next morning I woke up for church,
and went to church. It was nice. Then I ran into
the store and got some soup and cajun and chicken.
So dad and I would have something to eat for lunch..
and came home and made it. And oh my gosh it was
good. After that, I took a nap. Still recooperating. ha.
When I woke up, I dressed up as tinkerbell(lame, I know)
and went to the nursing home to give the residents
pudding. It was nice. Then I got ice cream. And it was
so good.

I called Jake after a while. And it was really nice to talk
to him because I missed him a lot. And then I went to bed.
And that, was my weekend (:

So.. that's my excuse for not writing.
:D

-Ms. Conduit