The end of Outreach Week is only the beginning!

Filled pews for the first Sunday morning Mass!

Ahhhh. This may be perhaps my first Saturday of college (or at least living the college lifestyle) where I have not needed to either study, work, meet up with someone for coffee or spend time preparing for one thing or another. WOW. My day began as follows: woke up nice and early, went to the church to get to morning Mass only to find out that this week's is canceled due to a wedding and then coming back to have a delicious breakfast with Jenne and Sarah and hang out with them. You could say that for me, this is bliss.

The epic team "jump photo"

This past week was a whirlwind and a total blast. I had no idea how tired I was until Thursday night when I went to bed at 10 pm and woke up at 8, still needing more sleep! I suppose that means we were working pretty hard all week, 'eh? Working hard entails the following (and basically, these are all of the things I always wanted to do in Madison but did not have enough time to do them all): handing out freezie pops to students and asking them to take surveys-luckily all of the days we did this were really hot and sunny so more people were likely to take the survey, playing volleyball, ultimate frisbee and capture the flag at night, enjoying a barbeque after Sunday evening mass, having an ice cream social and then the culminating event on Friday--the 90's night. It was so different to have absolutely no excuse not to be completely bold and "out there" when grabbing students on their way to class and pestering them on their way out of the memorial union to take our surveys. I mean heck, this is my actual job! I still cannot believe it. Every single day due to either something that Jenne says, a joke that Fr. Cheney makes or a snide comment uttered by Tim I am made more and more aware that I was seriously born to come to NDSU as a missionary. It's a bit ridiculous.

Jenne with some of our rockstar leaders

On Wednesday night I re-learned how much I absolutely love ultimate frisbee! I haven't played since the good old days of SPHS and man have I been missing out! It delights me to know that I still have all sorts of opportunities to do these kinds of things with other young people who want to do them as well! As all of us missionaries have been around the Newman Center (or as Fr. Cheney likes to call it, "The Center for the Revitalization of the Divine Indwelling") seemingly 24/7, I have also been introduced to and have gotten to know most of the wonderful student leaders! They have incredible courage and zeal for souls and truly make me want to become a better missionary. Most of them have been involved with FOCUS and in discipleship much longer than I have personally, so it is even more clear that I need to be here not to teach but to learn. Watching the students be fearless in inviting strangers to events, asking their peers to take surveys and inviting freshmen to Mass has been very inspirational and such a blessing. I'm excited for them to be student missionaries reaching out to people in their classes, dorms, sororities, fraternities and friend groups!

Aerial view of Detroit Lakes

As an aside, yesterday was a wonderful day. After heading home to take a nap around 1:30 I received a phone call just as I was pulling into our lot from none other than Fr. Cheney himself. He called to inquire if I would like to go for an airplane ride! He actually has an airplane and his pilot's license, which is AWESOME! I instantly regained all of the strength I thought I needed a nap to obtain, and Jenne and I got to go up in Father's Bonanza for a ride to Detroit Lakes and back! Flat Fargo looks much prettier from up above when you can actually see the patchwork quilt of the landscape and all of the lakes in Minnesota. Later, and after the packed 5:15 daily Mass, he treated the female missionaries to dinner at Applebee's with a side of laughs. Tonight we're having Lucas and Becca (our teammate and his wife) over to treat them to dinner and we will see what next week has in store for us!

Much love and many prayers,
Kelsey Marie

Jenne and I holding our two youngest team members! Dominic and Caleb