Exciting Things! :)

I haven't written in so long! Well, no better time to start than now :) I went to Hume Lake Christian Camp at the end of July. It was the best week of my life!!! The people that went with our youth group were incredible. Stronger friendships were formed and I got to know everyone better. The girls in our cabin were so nice! I love them so much! :) It was the first time that they really got to see me. I think they like the real me haha :)
               I went to week 6. Chris Brown was the speaker. He presented the Bible as a movie, and made it so much more interesting. I'd never heard the story of Moses and the Israelites quite like that. One of his main points was "The scariest thing I know about God is that, given enough time, He'll give you exactly what you want." I'm so glad I got to go to Hume this year. It is Megan "Fate" Marshman's last year in Ponderosa. I can't imagine not being able to have her as spirit girl. She is so amazing and unique and fun! She did a seminar called "Life." She talked about how to live each day right, following Jesus, and just not caring about what other people think of you. She shared a story about how she and her friend had/have "Tuesdays with Jesus," where they spend all of Tuesday pretending that Jesus is really with them. They would open the door for Him and save a seat for Him and even buy Him food. Then she said that one day, she forgot Jesus. She started driving to meet her friend and was about 7 minutes away when she remembered. So she turned around, drove back home, opened the door for Jesus and apologized for forgetting Him. It was so funny but teaches a good lesson about not forgetting God and Jesus, and not caring about what others think. Her main analogy was a cup. A cup for love and happiness. She talked about how if you try to fill up your cup with other people's approval and love, then it won't last and you'll feel empty very soon and won't be able to splash your love on others effectively. However, if you fill up your cup with the love and approval of God, your cup will never run out and you will always have enough to overflow onto others. She shared the way she prays. It is so powerful. She puts out her hands, palms up, and just lets everything go. She apologizes to God and lets everything that keeps her from being fully with Him. Then she asks Him to fill her up with His love so that she can overflow on others. At the end of her seminar, Megan asked us all to pray with her like that. I was crying. I'm so thankful to God for letting me be at Hume this year, so that I could hear that seminar.
               On two nights, our youth group did swing dancing in the parking lot. It was so much fun! I didn't think I'd like it so much, but I did!!! I danced with three guys multiple times. For someone whose shy, like me, I think that's pretty good! haha :) On Fancy Friday, we took some fun pictures. Two tall girls from youth group told me to put my arms around their shoulders. Little did I know that they were going to stand up, and my feet were left dangling about a foot off the ground! haha :) Another one was a group picture and two of the tall guys stood in front of everyone, so some people were looking around them, some over them, and I stuck my head inbetween them! haha :) Hume was so fun, I wish I never had to leave! Well, there's always next year! :)
               Last week, my aunt, uncle, and cousin came to visit! We had so much fun with them. We hadn't seen them in such a long time. I can't believe my cousin is 20 now! On Thursday, we went to the Tech Museum. My cousin really loves astronomy so we spent alot of time looking at those exhibits. We saw the Imax movie "To the Arctic." I enjoyed it. On Friday we went to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and Seascape beach. My cousin went on the rollercoasters with me because we were the only two who wanted to ride all of them. It was so fun! I rarely get to ride rollercoasters. After the boardwalk, we went to Seascape. As we were walking down to the beach, a golfcart of teenage girls was driving up. They saw my cousin and started yelling "Hey! Guy in the green hat! You're really cute!" It was kinda embarassing but also really funny. haha :) On Saturday, we spent the day in San Francisco. We went to the botanical gardens and Lombard Street. There was so much traffic! Half of our day there was spent driving! We went to Pier 39 for dinner and then we had to drop them off at the airport. Their stay was short but so much fun! We get to see them again in December, for Christmas in Tennessee! I'm really looking forward to that! Well, that's pretty much all the really exciting things that have happened to me since last time I posted, save school starting. Hopefully it won't be so long before I post again! :) Ttyl!