Birthday Trail

You know what I got for my birthday?
Bruises, I got tons of bruises all over my legs!

I guess that's the price of adventuring though. Particularly when your adventure involves scaling mountains and swimming up waterfalls. This last week on the trail was the craziest! (And the lead TrailWalker for my band has been here 9 months and she admits it was the craziest). If you can imagine it we did it. Tons of up and overs, a few swimmers (we really did have to climb a waterfall and it was ridiculous), rock climbing, hiking up dry ravines, drinking from cow tanks, etc.

The first couple days I was charged! I was feeling so good and ready to take on the world! The started to get a bit tired the day of the swimmers but bounced back and kept charging ahead. But by Sunday, I hit a wall. Suddenly, every step was the most laborious effort and all I could do was tell myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. After taking a Wilderness First Aid class on Fri and Sat I learned about "hyponatremia" and I think that's what I had. I was drinking water like mad but it never seemed enough. I still always felt dehydrated. Now that I know what I'm dealing with, I know to keep a salty snack on me at all times and put some salt in my canteens whenever I fill up. It's funny, retaining water is such a bad thing when you're at home, but out there you really need to.

Anyway, this week was hard. I feel pretty safe saying it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Not that other things I've dealt with (college, mission, etc) weren't intensely difficult, but this was different. This was all around difficult. College was a test of my mental capacity. The mission pushed my spiritual and emotional limits. But this tested it all and all at once. I was physically exhausted in a way that I have never felt, it was like there wasn't an ounce of energy in my whole being. And while physically depleted the mental attack begins: what am I doing here? I'm not even contributing. Why am I putting myself through this?! I can't do this. And the emotional/spiritual battle, I'm here for these girls but I can't even help them like I'm supposed to. How can I help them learn and grow when I can't even move? Why am I so weak? Why is this happening to me? Where is the creator when I need him? Why is he not making this better so I can actually fulfill my purpose here?

Luckily, he carried my feet through and surrounded me with angels to help me. These angels didn't all come in at once but he brought them at just the right times. One of them was another TrailWalker. Just when I would be ready to give up and relent that I just couldn't do it, she would step in and give me the courage and hope to keep going. She probably doesn't realize just what a difference her little pep talks made and how much strength I gained from knowing she believed in me but she was the angel bearing me up from D&C 84:88

Another angel came when I got off the trail. This was my first week on the trail without her and yet, in a way, she was with me the whole time. We crossed paths a few times and each time was a glorious reunion! We also had very similar experiences this week and being able to talk about it afterwards with someone who understood was something I needed. She has a way of making things feel ok and showing that maybe I wasn't a total failure in my efforts on the trail. Granted I may not have made the kind of impact that I wanted but maybe my experiences and my hardships taught the girls in the way they needed most this week.

And the creator gave me an angel of a mentor. She said exactly what I needed to hear and because I respect her so much and I know her character, I know that it wasn't empty words to her. She knows the trail (the one in the mountains and the one in the heart) and when she says what I bring to the trail I know that she means it and that it's real.

One day I hope to be an angel to others the way these wonderful people have been to me but in the meantime, I am learning so much from my walking. It's interesting: before coming here, I seemed to have this arrogant idea that I would come here and help others learn from their experiences and their consequences without having to deal with the trials and consequences myself. Good thing the Lord is patient and lets us continue to grow.

Update/Novel of my Recent Life

Since I posted last, my life has had several new developments and twists that I didn't expect. I'll give a quick overview and then go into depth a bit .I successfully completed my student teaching in Arizona, officially graduated, spent some time in Utah and Idaho, and started a new job (back in Arizona)...in the mountains.

These past 6 months have flown by! I came down to Mesa at the beginning of January with my mom (at the last second we decided she should make the road trip with me and it was so much better to have a navigator/driving buddy!). I showed up at Summit Academy (a middle school that takes part in the International Baccalaureate Programme) where I would work with about 150 8th graders. I had a great mentor teacher, excellent student teaching supervisor and a wonderful experience. So much so that I was reconsidering my grad school plans and thinking that I might actually want to be in the classroom for a few years. This probably seems obvious for an education major, but as I finished my time at BYUI I began thinking that a traditional classroom was not right for me and that - as soon as I paid my time, made the field services office happy, and graduated - I wouldn't set foot in a classroom again. However, I loved my teaching time and started reconsidering this plan. Maybe grad school could wait.

However, my time in Mesa also brought another option to the surface. Fall semester, I lived with a fantastic friend named Alex. Alex spent last summer working for a wilderness therapy program in Mesa and spent the semester trying to get me to do it. When I got to Mesa, I discovered that the program's office was right near my student teaching friends' house, thus I passed it every time I would visit them (which was quite a lot) and each time it reminded me of all the wonderful things Alex had to say about this program and what a great experience I could have there.

As the semester came to an end, real choices were coming. I decided to put all my feelers out there and let the Lord help me decide. I sent resumes or applications to at least a dozen schools, I filled out the Anasazi application and I followed up on a few of these. My top choices were either Anasazi or a school district in northern Utah. In the end, it was Anasazi that contacted me and asked me to come to their May training. I told them yes, but still wasn't sure if that was what I wanted most.

After student teaching ended, I went up to Utah and Idaho to spend some time with family and get things figured out. This "figuring things out" proved to be harder than I wanted (although, just as hard as I'd expected :P ). I spent a lot of time pondering, praying and fasting about where I was supposed to go. I felt like Anasazi was right. By this time though, I was getting a little...no, a lot nervous about doing Anasazi. I started realizing just how intense this program was and was scared that I was not up to the challenge. Thanks to some guidance and help from my wonderful parents though I decided to give it a shot and see what happens.

That was almost two months ago. I now find myself heading out on the trail for 8 days at a time and meeting the most wonderful people I could imagine. Alex was right, this is the closest thing to going on a mission that you will find. I get to help those who have lost their way and are seeking the right path, I get to testify of eternal truths like the creator that knows and loves them and I get to do it all in the beautiful wilderness of Arizona's Tonto National Forest. Can life get any better. I actually find myself yearning for the wilderness and sad when it's time to come back to the real world. Life is so much better on the trail. It's simple and clear. Right and wrong are marked in black and white/pain v. not pain. And the trail is where we can really come to know ourselves and what we are capable of.

So that's what I am doing now. I don't know how long the creator will keep me here but I hope it's about a year. We have lots of adventures and can't take cameras so this will be the place that I come to tell about them and hopefully we can all learn something from my experiences.

Sure Love Ya

Thought I'd published this last semester...

I guess since this hasn't been added to in about 3 years it's time to do something with it. I still don't know how much I'll be updating this but I figured I'd give it a whack with the few free minutes I am taking right now.

Life has been pretty crazy in the last few years. I finished my mission having served in five areas (2 for 5 transfers - which is a lot; and 3 for a single transfer or less). I had 9 wonderful companions during it all and am friends with every one of them still. When I got home I stayed in the country for approx 5 months and left the continent again for Asia to pick up my brother in the Philippines. It was great, I loved the Philippines; Brett and I are talking about starting a water-buffalo ranch there someday - we'll make bank!

Then I came back and did another crazy year of school (which was supposed to be my last but BYUI just won't give me up). So instead of graduating I went to Jerusalem for a semester. Best decision ever. I learned so much, had many incredible experiences, went to amazing places, made some great friends and came to know Christ better. What more could one ask for? (*Note - I made a blog just for that semester http://jerusalembells.wordpress.com/)

And now, I'm here in the Burg, working on (what's supposedly) my last semester before student teaching. It's pretty crazy trying to learn as much as I can, do well in school, and have a balanced life all at the same time. Suffice it to say I rarely, if ever, succeed at it all but it's interesting trying! Brett and I have fun and once in a while I get to see my roommates. That's life. Completely unique and unoriginal. Well, I should get back to it. Have a good one!

Buon Natale!

Alicia celebrated Christmas in Italy this year.

"The holidays here were interesting. It was surprisingly difficult to meet with people during this time and we got SO MANY bedones (bee-doe-nays, cancelations) in the last week. My comp said she hasn't gotten this many since a legendary transfer in Ragusa, so it was hard, but it brought us together and helped us reevaluate certain things that are making a difference in these last couple weeks of the transfer. I can't believe the transfer is almost over!! It just started! Christmas here was pretty anti-climatic, esp, w/o snow, I missed the snow. But we had some good experiences and were able to bring joy to some of our members and friends that are also far from their homes right now."

"We spent New Years in Mistretta which meant we ended up spending NYE eating a huge, and delicious lunch, then going to some members' country space and eating tons of freshly picked mandarinis and oranges and a lemon that was really sweet and tasty and not sour at all - it was weird! Then we went to the members' home for shrimp (still in the shell with the legs), calamari, and baby octupuses, tentacles, suckers and all!"

"With regards to cultural experiences we went to teatro Massimo last night to watch the opera Rigletto. It had nothing to do with the feature films for families version, and I wouldn't necessarily tell all my friends to go see it, but it was a wonderful experience to see an italian opera in Italy in a sweet theater. Of course now I want to watch phantom."

Palermo, Italy

Alicia is currently serving in Palermo, Italy. She is serving with Sorella Sleight and continues to learn the language. These first two pictures are in Erice. The first one is a castle, and the second one is in front of a church.

Sorella Jenkins & Sorella Sleight

Here is an excerpt from one of her recent letters:

"We had some time so we decided to do Parco, which is now one of my favorite things in the world to do. Slla Jones worked with us on parco so it was something I was eager to make the most of, and to this point parco was going in and trying to share the gospel and getting rejected. But on Thursday we went in and Slla Sleight found someone she felt she needed to talk to. I didn't want to stand there while she was doing this so I tried to talk to someone else, and she turned me down. Then I saw a woman sitting on a bench by herself. I had noticed her when Slla sleight was approaching her new friend, Vittoria, and this woman seemed apprehensive that we would come talk to her, but I decided to go sit by her anyway. I went and sat down and just chatted with her. Her name is Liliana, and she asked if I was italian (did NOT think that would happen in my first month!!) but she's from Romania so everyone seems as italian to her as they do to me. I commented on how I'd met a couple other Romanians and they are all wonderful people. As we talked I could see in her eyes that what I had previously thought was apprehension, and gathering her things to leave, was actually an eagerness to talk to us and she was gathering her bags to her so there was room to sit down. She was a miracle for me. And, because she just got to Italy 4 months ago, she speaks about as much italian as I do so it was perfect! She gave us her number and her romanian address and her palermo address, so no matter what we can find her. We're meeting with her tomorrow and I'm praying with all my greenie soul that everything goes well."

This picture is in the Catania Italy Mission Home: Sister Jenkins with her MTC companions and their respective trainers.