Sorry for the break in updates. We have had a busy last week and a half but a blessed one as well. Last weekend we had a youth retreat that was put on by our team. It was a great opportunity for us to get to know the youth and our team better. This was a retreat that was meant for believers. The theme was our mission as believers. There were many challenging messages given (even though we might not have been able to understand all of them). Seth spoke during one of the chapel times. He spoke with a translator which is very different but he did very well and many of the youth really engaged in the small group discussion groups that directly followed his talk. We lead the games together ranging from icebreaker games to tackle football (american) to Alpha Wolf in the snow on the side of the mountain. A good time was had by all and we began to build relationships with many of the youth. (be praying that those continue to grow)

 Yes this was an excellent series of pictures but if you look at my face on the left...the ball had fallen out and nobody seemed to notice but me (the snow helped hide it) but I was able to return it for a touchdown but just barely...

 There were literally hundreds of amazing pictures taken of this game. There are more that we are tagged in on facebook if you want to look at them!

Once we arrived home (after little sleep) we were back into the full swing of things. With German classes each morning followed by the after school tutoring at the lighthouse. German classes have been going well, we are understanding most of what the teacher says (she only speaks in German). We are doing well with keeping up in class and are working hard at studying on our own. God has definitely been blessing us in our language learning. We are understanding more and more of what people are saying outside of class too. Language learning will be a continual challenge, in our class we are learning high German which everyone here can understand but they speak their own Tirolean dialect. This dialect is very similar but we will still need to learn more after we are done with our German classes.

Please be praying for us as we are seeing exactly where and what God wants us involved with as we are here. We have had many opportunities and need to start narrowing them down. We appreciate all of the love and support that you all have shown us!

Alyssa