Massive Update

Hello!!
Once again it has been way too long since I updated this blog. Sorry!
Life here in Branson has been very good but very busy. (thus the lack of updates...)
So much has happened since I last wrote, so I will do my best to not leave out too much!
I'll start with work because that takes up so much of my time: Silver Dollar City is (as always) pretty awesome. Most of my days there I end up driving the tram most of the day because at this point we have a bunch of people who are signed off to conduct on the trams but not to drive them, so most of us who can drive and conduct end up driving. I don't mind that, though! I do like driving! And it is nice to still be driving something while I'm down here since I don't have a car--so driving the trams and the occasional valet car takes care of that. Also, it has been good to get to know everyone who works there more and be able to hang out in the "P.L.O." (parking lot office) and play cards with people or talk to them.
Life outside of work has been good as well!
The weekend after my last post was the mens & womens retreats. That was a lot of fun! Us women went down to Eurika Springs Arkansas. We did a lot of hanging out and talking, and we walked around town a bunch (it was a really cute town-looked almost European or something) and did a bit of shopping (window shopping at least...the only thing I ended up getting was ice cream) and we made jewelry at a cool little store. Saturday night we had a hang out/party time where we did manicures/pedicures, (which was very interesting,) and a dance party. Overall, lots of fun and a good time to get to know all the girls on the trip better.
Our adventure day two Fridays ago was pretty intense--it was hiking and the trail ended up being sorta harder than people expected. But I loved it! We hiked down and had lunch at a waterfall, which was gorgeous, then we went to a deeper part of the river and went swimming, and hiked back up, which was the intense hard part. (the hardest thing was that we ran out of water partway back, so we got wicked thirsty...but everyone made it!!)
That was on the 2nd...since that weekend was the 4th of July weekend, a bunch of us decided to shoot off some fireworks, which was a lot of fun!! I had never shot off fireworks before, so it was a great new experience for me! A few of us went on Thursday (the 1st) and then a bigger group went out on that Saturday--the 3rd. It was basically awesome!
This past week we have had a slightly different schedule than normal. The staff left on Wednesday, so on Tuesday we had a goodbye banquet thing for them. Then on Wednesday instead of going in to work, we all helped to move stuff out of the Honeysuckle and set up some of the rooms like they were when we got here. Since the staff left, some of the students switched rooms so that we would all be in the same part of the inn, so we spent all day taking apart and setting up bunkbeds and moving mattresses and stuff like that. It was a long day, but lots of fun!! (and I got to stay in my own room!!!) Since we didn't work on Wednesday, we ended up working on Friday, so we did not have an adventure day. But Friday night, the prayer team put on a bonfire where we sang a lot of worship songs and had some prayer time and a message and stuff and then did s'mores and a dance party/game time. That was a lot of fun!!! Oh---and side note about that: I am now one of the two prayer team leaders since the staff has left: they chose two leaders, so me and one of the guys on the team are co-leading that for the rest of the summer!
Let's see...what else has been happening...outreach has gone really well! The weekend of July 4th we did outreach on Sunday instead of Saturday because we did it at a place where they were shooting off fireworks so we knew a lot of people would be there. I walked around with someone in my growth group, and we ended up having a good conversation with a couple ladies (started with the solarium thing I mentioned before). That was pretty cool!! Then yesterday our outreach was basically free-form: they told us to do whatever we wanted and go with whoever we wanted. So I went down to this place called "the landing" where there are just a lot of small shops and stuff. We went around and asked people if they had anything that they wanted us to pray for. It was pretty interesting. There were some people that said that there was nothing that they needed prayer for, but a few people actually let us pray for them. We didn't really have many deep conversations, but God really helped me personally to be less nervous about walking up to people and talking about Him, which is neat to see!
I'm trying to remember what else has been going on--I saw Toy Story 3, went to the cave at Silver Dollar City, went on a group date where my growth group was asked out by one of the guys growth groups, bought a dress, played a bunch of cards (learned a new one too!!!) and just basically had a bunch of fun! I found a new place where I've been going for reflection time, so that's really exciting! It's on a lake and at the time when we go the sun is always setting, so it's BEAUTIFUL!! :)
I think that's about it, and you are probably tired of reading at this point anyway! Thanks for sticking with it!