Tuesday, July 26th

Hey everyone! Its Kelsey and i just wanted to let you know that its also my first year on mission and i'm having a great time. i was nervous coming here with no idea of what to expect, but its been a blast learning from the others. Everyone here is so friendly! I'm on the ramp-building team here and we all get to learn from the best, Lowell. He's amazing and has been helping us build ramps for people who really deserve them. Its a humbling experience and i'm enjoying every minute!
Kelsey Nolan

hi uh, Mary here. Mission 2011 is off to a splendid beginning! Its Tuesday and though we are all quite tired and somewhat sleep deprived the full experience is still taking place. Started off working with rain on Monday morning but the sunshine has returned. Running in the mornings, waking up at 5:30 can sound somewhat painful, but has turned out to be refreshing and a great start to the day. The beautiful scenery amongst Yakimas vast rolling hills and blue skies are nice to glance at. Days to go, and people already met it seems to be a successful year already. Digging deeper internally with shares of others is a wonderful part of the mission experience.
Love,
Mary Ryan


Hi everyone! Nathan here from the White Swan reservation in Yakama. To start off this year, I met up with some friends I met from the previous year, but quickly started getting to meet new people, which is a goal I always have for mission. On our site, the first house we were supposed to work at had to be pushed back to later this week because the weather conditions could not let us paint the outside of the house. After we talked it out, we went ahead and started to work on our second house, which wasn't too far from the first. When we got there, we were greeted by 3 dogs, and a few cats. The lady who we worked for was very friendly, and preferred that we call her "Grandma" or "Grammy". Throughout our work of pulling up the tiles and installing new cabinet doors, she baked us a carrot cake with almonds, cinnamon, and apples which we really enjoyed. I look forward to finishing up our job with Grandma, and am looking forward to our second house.

-Nathan Miller