As my time here winds down, I've been trying to take advantage of each minute and enjoy my time here as much as I can. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

My good friend Allan and I with the brownies I made him for his birthday.

Here in Mexico, Independence Day is September 16, but most people go out and celebrate on the night of the 15th. I went salsa dancing with some of my friends, including Selene, Chef, and Lalo.


On the 16th, we had our annual Noche Mexicana event at the CEB to celebrate Independence Day. I think Kim and I were more patriotic than most of our Mexican friends.

This year we had a great performance of some traditional folkloric dances


Of course the night wouldn't have been complete without tacos


We had a great turnout at the event and I was especially glad that both Karla and Misael's family came

Karla and Misael are two of my best friends here. I met them in my conversation club and never could have imagined how good of friends we would become. It's been amazing to see them begin to seek God and ask questions about Him, to see them come to know Christ personally, and now to see them grow in their relationship with Him.


My closest friends from my conversation club: Allan, Laura, Misael, and Karla

One of the best parts of the night for me was hearing Hugo share his testimony. Hugo is Misael's cousin and came to know Christ as a direct result of Misael sharing the gospel with him.


From October 2 to 6, Kim and I took a trip to Mexico City. One of our first stops was Krispy Kreme since we don't have one in Guadalajara. I'm pretty sure we have a picture almost identical to this from a trip we took to Mexico City last October.


Believe it or not, the real purpose of our trip to Mexico City was not to go to Krispy Kreme, but to go to a Passion conference. Passion is more than just a concert or a conference, but is a movement committed to spreading the fame of Jesus Christ to university students around the world. Currently, Passion is on a tour of some of the largest cities in the world since that is where the majority of university students are found. The above picture is Mary (a new journeyman here in Guadalajara), me, Lauren (a friend of Kim's from the States), and Kim.


We had a great weekend of worship led by Kristian Stanfill, Chris Tomlin, and the David Crowder Band. We sang a few songs in Spanish, but most of the songs were in English with the spanish translation below.


While at Passion, I ran into Lila, who was a good friend of mine back when I was in Queretaro for language school. It was great to see her since I had not seen her in over a year and a half.


I was also able to see my other good friend from Queretaro, Alma Rosa.

Kim and I with some of the students from the CEB who went to Passion: Fer, Susie, Sara, Manuel, and Misael

Misael and IOne of my favorite parts of the weekend was Saturday night when Chris Tomlin led the over 7000 students there in the song "God of this city." Some of the lyrics of this song are "You're the God of this city, You're the King of these people, You're the Lord of this nation, You are...Greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done in this city." We sang some of the song in Spanish and instead of saying "in this city" we sang about how greater things are still to be done in Mexico. It's exciting to be a part of the work here in Mexico and to pray in expectation for the great things that God is going to do in this country.
On Sunday, Amy, Lauren, Kim, and I spent the afternoon in downtown Mexico City. Amy was on the university ministry team with me here in Mexico but finished her term about a year ago and has been living in the States. She came to Mexico City to help with the Passion conference. Amy used to live in Mexico City and I had already been there several times before so we chose to opt out of the sightseeing several times during the afternoon. We were also really tired from the busy weekend as you can tell from this picture.
I love the huge Mexican flag in the center of Mexico City. I really have come to love this country, the culture, and the people here and it's hard to imagine going back to the States in less than 3 weeks.

This week, I went with my good friend Daniel to dance on a morning TV show. A salsa band that we know was going to be on the show playing a song to promote an event so they invited Daniel to come dance during the song. He needed someone to dance with, so he asked me to go with him. We only danced one song, but we made it on TV so now I can say I've danced on TV here in Mexico!