¡Hola y bienvenido!

Today was the day I returned from the ELCA National Youth Gathering in San Antonio, Texas. The theme was Cruzando: Journey With Jesus. How was it? It was fun, informative, and hot.

We left at about 9:30 on Sunday night (the 9th), and drove to Oklahoma City. I slept for aobut 3 out of the many hours it took to get there. We we arrived, we were officially rained out of the so-called Six Flags. We went in and saw a "magic show" (was really a thing for little kids) until the rides opened up. We rode most of the rollercoasters and a few of the other rides, and then we left to check into the hotel. It was a very, very nice Holiday Inn. Huge rooms, nice restaurant and bar, and power outages.

Things I learned on the bus ride:

- Ian will kill you if he doesn't sleep.

- Found one of the nation's top places for fountain drinks.

- There is only 1 comfortable position to sleep in on the seats of a charter bus. Only God knows what it is. Good luck finding it.

Things I learned in Oklahoma City:

- Don't mess with the lady at the Swing ride. She's tough.

- Filming a documentary in a hotel without electricity is highly entertaining. Blair Witch makes a great twist in the plot.

The rest of the ride to San Antonio was fairly simple. We went through one of the greatest towns on the planet: Kyle, Texas. I think I shed a tear of joy as we passed by. Our hotel in San Antonio was 9 miles away from the downtown area where most of the Gathering activities were, and it also wasn't as nice as the Holiday Inn in Oklahoma. Yes, it was the Airport Hilton, but the rooms were small and a bottle of Fiji water cost $4.50 if you opened it. We just hung around the hotel for awhile until we decided to head for the Riverwalk. After deciding not to wait an hour at Hard Rock for a table, I went to an amazing Italian restaurant called Paesano's with a few people. Afterwards we met up with Fran, Boyum, Amanda, Dan, and Julie upstairs at Ben and Jerry's. It was great to see some TEC folks down there on the first day.

What I learned:

- Jorge is not an Italian name.

- Cheese tortellini is on my list of top 3 Italian dishes.

- There is a $500 fine for even pretending to jump into the San Antonio River.

The next day was the start of the actual Gathering. We had a good time seeing Hawk Nelson and Superchic[k], and Tony Campolo was a great speaker. We were also introduced to Bond....Steve Bond. He was the Bibly Study leader for the week. The last thing I remember from this night was doing open mic with Melissa and Jenny. What did we sing? It's a very repetitive and mostly annoying TEC song. First person to guess it wins a not-so-shiny penny.

What I learned:

- Don't tune your guitar while Tony is speaking.

- Hawk Nelson needs more energy in their shows.

- Taking a zip line over thousands of people onto a stage looks too fun to be legal.

Donald Miller, one of my favorite authors, turned out to be a great speaker. He has so much humor to add to his stories, and he seems like a very down-to-earth guy. I still dont' like the music of Krystal Meyers, but I was very impressed with The Katinas, who I'd never heard of before. They had a lot of energy, and their exit was very humble and incredible.

What I learned:

- 25,000+ voices singing "Here I Am To Worship" sounds so beautiful....

- "Dish soap makes you skinny."

- Krystal Meyers still can't sing....I'm sorry....

- Thousands of cell phones lit up together looks incredible.

I can't really remember any other specifics from each day, so I'll put general comments from here on out.

- On the first night, our group was first in line at the Alamodome to get good seats. We sat there from 4:30 until the doors opened at 6:30.

- On the last night of gathering in the Alamodome, a group from a TEC east of the Cities got in line at 1:00 (they wanted to get good seats for Newsboys). What did they do to pass the time? Made over 80 placemats for TEC 75.

- Mark Hanson, the presiding Bishop of the ELCA, can dance. They did a version of the "YMCA" that was called "ELCA" (written by none other than Lost and Found).

- Lost and Found, though an acquired taste, is still amazing. Even if you don't like their singing voices, you have to see one of their shows to hear the humor. Absolutely hilarious. Be prepared for me to pull some of their humor at the upcoming TEC.

I'm not sure what else to write other than my overall thoughts on the week. So here it goes:

I did feel God there this week, but I didn't think this experience did anything to strengthen my faith. I feel like there was too much emphasis on poverty, slavery, and immigration to do anything for me other than make me aware of and understand these situations. I did have a great time, and I would gladly do it again. I just wish there would've been less of the politics involved. At morning worship every day, it was pretty good. The Bible Study always had a good message, but they still took it to the extent of the things that politics usually cover. The only thing I liked about all that was the fact that governments aren't doing enough to stop these situations, and we as Christians can at least take steps in the right direction to help out.

That's all I've got. I'm having one heck of a time keeping myself away from Fight Night Round 2 right now, so I'm going back to that. Feel free to ask me anything more specific in a comment (I'll reply as a comment also).

Much love to you all, and God bless!

P.S. Sorry for the humidity up here while I was away. We had beautiful 100 degree weather with a nice dry breeze. Humidity? What humidity?

Random quote del día: "He's mad because he couldn't stop the knockout because he couldn't get the two little circle things into the middle thing to get up." -- Tommy