TrueLife: Inside the Mind of Kelsey Kaufman.

Have you ever wondered, what the heck goes on in that girl's mind? Probably not. But I definitely have. In fact, I do nearly every day and only every once in a blessed while do I actually have the opportunity to see an internal process from an external point-of-view. The parts in italics are what I would assume is the voice in my head that always responds when I ask things and ponder curious subjects. Call it divine or a simple version of my own conscience, but I'll just refer to it as my "self #2".

"Wow, Kelsey, you sure haven't posted on your blog in a while. Like, a reallly long time."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But there's been nothing exciting to write about."

"Bologna! You know better than me that there's been tons of stuff going on that people want to hear about!"

"I'm not so sure, self #2. Being a missionary has been exciting and everything, but people want to hear about über exciting stories, like climbing mountains, big-time conversions, or incredible self-realizations. And you know, nothing like that really comes to my head."

"Oh really?!"

"Well, I guess there is that one girl, and that other girl's roommate, and that girl I had coffee with the other day, oh and bisonCatholic week with the stump the priest panel, oh and my meeting with Tim the other day, and those three new girls I asked into discipleship last week, oh and that Padre Pio movie that changed my life, and the mission trip, and scoring 10 points (!!!!) in my basketball game last Sunday, and that book I just finished, and that scrumptious apple-cinnamon coffee cake I threw together a couple weeks ago, and everything that's happened since I got back to Fargo a month ago!"

"So you thought of a few things to write about, 'eh?"

"I suppose so, I guess I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for putting me in my place, self #2. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You're welcome, now stop being so dang lazy and get to it!"

As you can see my mind works simply, but tends to be filled with extremely high expectations, misunderstandings or a lot of self-doubt, plain and simple. I got back to Fargo about a month ago after an extremely relaxing and much needed break at home with ma and pa Kaufman--which may be summed up with the following: prayer, going to Mass, reading, watching LOTR with mom, helping dad on a puzzle, watching football, scrapbooking and playing with the dog. Basically a dream. Oh, and that's on top of visiting one of my favorite places on earth: Metcalfe's Market, the grocery store I fell nearly head-over-heels for last year when I decided to pick up another part-time job. Isn't it funny how the simplest things give us the most joy? That's something I think about pretty often, but I digress...

As you just read there have been a lot of very exciting things happening since we all returned to the FOCUS grind at NDSU. Our team took off running with the beginning of a second semester and the second annual bisonCatholic week. A quick and cheap overview looks like this:  booths all week on campus, religious brothers and sisters coming to visit from multiple orders, Mass on campus twice (once with and once without Bishop Aquila of the Fargo diocese!), bisonCatholic t-shirts up the wazoo, Devin Rose coming and sharing his testimony and a talk titled, "If Protestantism is True" followed by a stump-the-priest panel with over 300 students and community members attending, and having deep conversations about the Faith with Catholics and Protestants alike, especially in the weeks following.

Overall life has been busy, but really wonderful. The team helped me realize it's important to have more personal time so I've picked up some old hobbies such as crocheting and scrapbooking, and surprisingly not having cable (though I never did in college either) is very freeing. My main love language is definitely quality time so by crocheting with Jenne and reading books out loud (we just finished The Help) I have just been flying high and Jenne and I have grown even closer as sisters, teammates, roommates and friends, it's incredible.

The both of us most likely don't have adequate time for me to continue rambling so I guess we'll just have to wait until next time!

Thanks for your many prayers, I can certainly feel them and am sending them back for each of you!

In Jesus,
Kelsey Marie