Perspectives.

The best thing that could have happened to me happened just the other day. Let me explain...

I'm not sure that I've ever told you about my extreme love (perhaps an understatement) for the delightful music performed by Mike Mangione and the Union, but let me tell you:  I love it. I really love it. Theresa Strand (now Krausert!) introduced me to the wonderful sounds back in Freshman year of college when I was still learning how to stand and walk on my own two feet in the college world.

T: "Kelsey, you have got to come to Alpha Omega this Thursday! My brother's friend is in a band and they are sooo good! You just have to see them to understand. I guarantee you'll like them."
K: "Umm, ok."

In all reality, I had no reason not to go so I figured I'd give it a shot. If someone I love suggests something, there's really no reason not to give it a whirl. I remember walking in, sitting down in the pew and watching Mike strum, sing and even tap a foot tambourine, Kristina play the violin like it was her job, and a tall, thin man play a giant bass (the instrument, not the fish, obviously. But wouldn't that be something...) along with the other members of the band doing their thang. I had never heard anything like this music before, and as I sat and absorbed the experience I knew that I would want more. After the show I bought their CD's and t-shirt (which is still my favorite to this day) and signed up for their email list to ensure I wouldn't miss an opportunity to see them live if they came back to Madison. And so, over the course of the next three years I frequented their stops as they came to the same coffee shop down on Willy Street.

Fast forward to this year, and I think I already blogged it up about this, but I have been plotting to try to bring them to Fargo since I got here, there was just never a chance and ND isn't exactly on the way to anywhere else....except Montana and Canada. And from what I've heard those aren't exactly the hottest tourist destinations these days. But anyway, a few months ago Mike tweeted his desire to book more shows and asked for living rooms to play in. I knew it, this was my chance. I tweeted back, telling him Fargo would welcome him anytime and as soon as he responded with, "@kelseymarie1989 ok lets make fargo happen" I knew I was in!! I instantly started scheming ideas with my teammates and before long we planned a slightly but not at all arbitrary date of Saturday, April 20th for them to come play for not only us, but also the other missionaries in the region as we also planned our Great North FOCUS regional gathering for that weekend. That was way back in January and I was already 100% elated for the possibility of a chance. Sharing a CD from MM&U is just not the same as sharing a live, concert-esque experience. I even recall the time Molly and I drove all the way to Milwaukee to see them and couldn't get in because they were playing at a 21 and up venue and we were 19 and 20 years old. Oh, the innocence of the youth.

With plans finalizing of a coffeehouse event featuring my favorite band ever, I began counting down the days until 4/20 months before, and not for the same reasons that some other individuals might if you catch my drift (slight pun, also slightly inappropriate). Cari made some killer signs and we plastered them all over campus and even downtown wherever we could find open places. That included Pita Pit, Spicy Pie, the restrooms (yes, male AND female) at Atomic Coffee, and a few other local gems. I found out after the event that people showed up just because they saw a flyer! How neat is that? Pretty neat.

One of Cari's flyers hanging in an undetermined location :)

Friday afternoon rolls around and the few missionaries actually able to make it showed up for the gathering, and Jenne Forman even came with one of her students, Melissa! Such a huge blessing to have Jenne come, knowing that the next time I leave and come back to Fargo she will already have been living here for three months! I can't believe it. We had a great time socializing, catching up and sharing life on Friday night at my favorite Fargo tavern, Three Lyons Pub. Saturday, however, was the day. I woke up that morning on little sleep as though it were Christmas morning. "Today's the day," I thought to myself. "Mike and crew will be here. Tonight." Without even thinking, the words "Guess what today is! Mike Mangione is coming!!" would slip through my lips at every opportunity throughout the day and the other missionaries started getting a little bit more excited as time went on, simply because I was so beside myself with joy.

We went to Grazies for a big dinner *on the region* (which means we can eat yummy food and FOCUS picks up the tab) but I left early so I could pick up some water bottles (as requested by Fr. Cheney) and still get to greet the band before the show. As I drove all the way back up north from the restaurant I was so excited I was literally shaking and I ran into the gas station--I'll be honest, I'm surprised I didn't hurt myself--left my car running, and couldn't find any packs of bottled water. I snagged 6 large bottles of Ice Mountain from the cooler and clumsily got them to the counter. The clerk gave me a pretty strange look but I wasn't too concerned. I asked for a bag and he shot me a questioning look as if to say, "you got all these bottles up here, I bet you could get them to your car too." Although that's probably not what he was thinking. I threw the bag in my front seat and when I pulled into the Newman Center I reached for the handles and without any hesitation the bottles all tumbled out the bottom through a giant hole in the bag. I laughed to myself but was so excited I just swooped 'em all up in my arms and made my way into the Newman Center to find a 12-pack of Ice Mountain water bottles sitting already on the stage. *facepalm*

After walking in, I noticed Jeff and Mallory already sitting at a table, waiting for others to join them. Jeff and Mal are my friends outside of the "FOCUS world" and it meant so much that they came! The four band members were in Fr. Cheney's kitchen chowing down on some Papa John's 'za. I never

Thomas, Mike, Kristina, and Patrick.

would've guessed that pizza was their pre-show meal, and I've always wondered if musicians had to eat specific foods before performing, but I guess the answer is no. They do what they want.
I was so giddy. That's actually an understatement. TJ mentioned the next day that I "was levitating" although I don't remember my feet leaving the ground. If they did, it was because Cloud 9 had literally enveloped me and swept me away. The social hall continued filling up throughout the course of the night and nearly 150 people showed up, many of whom I personally invited (insert extreme feeling of being loved here). I snagged a seat next to Jenne and the band began to play. As their music filled the large, square room, a certain part of my soul began filling as well. When people affirm me or spend copious amounts of quality time with me, I often refer to my love tank as "filling up." There was a part of me that was so empty I had actually forgotten it existed: a tank that can only be filled

Kristina; she is extremely talented!

with joy-filled, God-centered beauty. I often encounter this beauty at weddings, Italian basilicas and Mike Mangione/other concerts. As my depleted "beauty tank" began filling back up, it didn't take long for my cheeks to be wet with tears. It's hard to describe the moment, really. Something I dreamed about for a long time just, well, happening. Sharing something that has played a huge role in my life with over 100 of my friends. Wow, what a gift.

You might be wondering why I titled this post, "Perspectives" when I have not yet shared my perspective on much, simply that I'm obsessed with this particular band. Well, it came to a certain point in the evening when the Lord side-swiped me with what I shall call a "perspective slap." Jenne still at my left, Marissa had come to sit at my right, Josie and Cari were just in front of me, many of my other friends came just because they love me, and Mike Mangione was singing one of my favorite songs. I desired absolutely nothing else in that moment. This wouldn't have been any better sitting with a boyfriend, a relationship I often desire and convince myself I need right now. As they played 'Wear My Name' I heard these lyrics:

"And I never wanted nothing but that girl to wear my name."

In that moment God shed a simple yet profound perspective into my life. He is not only leading me to my future husband, but simultaneously leading him to me! I often feel a lot of pressure to "find him" (so to speak) and want to take control. Those lyrics encouraged me to trust and abandon myself a little more to God's beautiful and Divine providence. When the time is right I will wear the right person's name, provided that is God's plan for for my life. Now, however, is not that time. Josie and I are reading and discussing a short and powerful book titled, Clean Love in Courtship by Fr. Lovasik, and the other day she mentioned a quote she had read in a different book recently.

"It is better to be single and wish you were married than to be married and wish you were single."

Isn't that the truth? This certainly fits the age-old adage, "you always want what you can't have." But so often we single girls convince ourselves that we just want to be married right now, when in fact the good Lord is giving us the gift of singleness. We have the opportunity to be single-hearted in our love for Him and preparing ourselves for that future someone, while God prepares that future someone for us. We just need to trust Him. What a treasure.

I love these two! Jenne, Marissa and I at the "after-party."

After the concert we had a pretty awesome yet small party with a few people, including Mike and the violin player Kristina (the other two were pooped and headed to the hotel to get some sleep, no judgment there). It ended up being a great opportunity to evangelize for a few missionaries and Josie and I got to hang out with Mike for a solid while just chatting it up on our couch! He even suggested potential people for me to date? Did that really happen? Yes it did. And no thanks, by the way. The last people left at 2 am! That's the latest I've stayed out in a while, and I was in my own home! That deserves a true Fargo "uff-da," especially when the alarm sounded not long after. Let's be real though, even if I would've gone to bed at 10 I would've been so excited I couldn't sleep. I was pretty stinkin' excited.

Genuine joy in those smiles. Ali and I post-concert.

To wrap up, this weekend the Lord said to me through many graces, "Kelsey, I see you. I love you, and you are worth all this and more." He showed me a glimmer of my true worth this weekend, simply with the reception of the Holy Eucharist at Mass on Sunday. After receiving Holy Communion He gently whispered in my ear, "Kelsey, I love you. This was all for you. Even if nobody came, I still would have done this for you."

This is the God I serve and the Father I love! And he loves me too.

Blessings,
Kelsey Marie

Habemus ebiscopus!

That's right my friends, the Fargo Diocese officially has been appointed a new shepherd to lead the flock!

I suppose I should include here a brief apology for having strayed from all of you faithful readers for a couple of months now (ouch). Many times I have started to write and then just could never get my thoughts all together. Let's hope I see this post through to completion...

Anyway, that's the exciting news of the day/week/month! We are no longer a wayward diocese praying for a new bishop; we are now uniting and praying for a specific bishop-elect, Msgr. John Folda from the Lincoln, NE diocese! I woke up this morning to a phone call from Tim, my old Team Director at 6:46 a.m. I had no idea why he would possibly be calling me until he groggily uttered two words that completely changed the way my day could go: "habemus ebiscopus!" In other words, we have a bishop! He gave me a quick run-down of who it is, where I can find more information, and then hurriedly said goodbye, probably so he could continue calling his other Catholic friends who would be oh-so-excited at such news.

Seeing as I had a pretty late night last night I thought I'd take another peek behind my eyelids, but man, I was so excited there was no way I was going back to sleep anytime soon! Rather, in my excitement I hopped out of bed, randomly did 30 push-ups, put on a pot of coffee (which was probably actually not necessary at this point), cleaned my room, folded and put away two loads of laundry and did a full sink's worth of dishes. All of that was of course after blowing up my twitter feed about the new Bishop and before getting myself ready for the day. Excited much? I'd say so. I honestly felt like a little kid at Christmas! I stopped myself at one point and realized, "Wow Kelsey, this is where you've come. You freaking love the Catholic Church." And then I said to my sarcastic self, "Yes, yes I do."

After holy hour on Mondays we normally have our weekly "team development," but with Cari being gone at a wedding this weekend it's hard to do things without her! FRC (Fr. Cheney, that is) strolled into our office to check the thermostat, holding his usual John Deere mug filled with his deliciously unique brew while Bryan and I excitedly jumped around the office like schoolchildren. Both of us dressed for the occasion: Bryan in his huskerCatholic shirt, me donning the shirt in the picture to the right. The three of us made a last-minute decision to quick hop in the caddy and drive down to the diocesan Pastoral Center in South Fargo for the press conference being held in 20 minutes with the new Bishop-elect. We got there a few minutes before it started and Bryan and I quickly realized how out of place we were, being the only non-reporters and non-clergy present. That's alright though because 1) we got to see Bishop Kagan again, who we just met last Thursday and 2) Valley News Live interviewed Bryan and Fox News interviewed me for their nightly news story for this story!

If you'd like to see the news clip featuring Bryan, and a few smiles from yours truly, click here!

If you'd like to see an article where I'm quoted, click here. Unfortunately I never did get to see Fox's story, but they did pick a line out of my interview for the article--so cool!

We had the honor of meeting Msgr. Folda after the press conference and he told us how excited he was about the work FOCUS does and how much he appreciates us missionaries. Whew! We are officially in with the Bishop before he even gets here! Solid. That is totally fine by me.

So that was the excitement of the week--and so early on, too! A lot has happened since I've last written, so it's kind of difficult to just pick up where I left off. However, I will give you a quick list of highlights....at least to the best of my ability.

Kristen, Josie, Kelsey, post-Easter Vigil Mass

1. Theology of the Body study on Tuesdays. This is seriously the highlight of my semester. I'll probably have a feature story about it in my next newsletter, but anytime someone asks me to tell them a story I often refer back to this. Watching the women grow, myself and Cari included, in this important knowledge of the beauty and intricacy with which we were created is completely blowing my mind! I look forward to 7:30 on Tuesday all week, and whenever 8:30 rolls around I'm never quite ready to be done. It's just. that. good.
2. Lunch with the Bishop. Unfortunately Cari was out of town, but every year team NDSU and UND up in Grand Forks try to get together for a dinner with the Bishop. Last year we all got to chum it up with now Archbishop Samuel Aquila, but unfortunately the Fargo Diocese has been sede vacante since July. We randomly emailed Msgr. Goering, the Vicar General, to see if he would mind humoring us with a meal, and he replied with a most delightful message: the bishop would be coming into town in two days and would be delighted to have lunch with us! Needless to say, we were able to meet and chat with Bishop Kagan of the Bismarck Diocese (our Apostolic Administrator) and he is also very delighted by FOCUS' work on the three campuses in ND.
3. Easter in Duluth. Josie and I traveled over to Duluth for Easter this year! Kristen, as you may remember, was an inherited disciple of mine last year and she has now gone on to be a missionary (and a mighty good one, might I add!) in Duluth this year. This was her first major holiday away from her family (which is quite large--she has 8 younger sisters!), and Kelly Pechous, a young woman who used to go to school at NDSU but transferred to UMD was getting confirmed during the Easter Vigil. I thought it'd be neat to both witness that and see Kelly as well as be with Kristen during the holiday. A nice twofer, I'd say. It wasn't until the drive home that I realized how our trip up there really stirred up a longing for home within me, and I decided that I'd be coming back home in time for Mother's Day on May 12th. Yay.
4. Rodeo. That's right, the official PRCA rodeo came into town this past weekend! It was my first rodeo ever and oh-so-fun. We watched a 53-year-old man break the arena record in steer wrestling with a time of 3.8 seconds! If you want to watch some videos check out youtube, I'm sure they're on there. This was my first experience with the "cowboy culture" and boy did I love it. I think my new dream is to save up for a pair of my own cowboy boots, if I could ever get past the fact that I'd be a complete and total poser. Are you kiddin' me? I grew up in Sauk City, WI where cowboys were only seen on my favorite TV programs. But man, what a fun group of people. I knew I'd like it when the announcer opened the evening's events with this line: "They can take it out of our schools, they can take it away from our children, but our country will never take prayer out of the rodeo, let us pray..." and he proceeded to open with a prayer in Christ's name. Nice way to start any evening, I'd say!
5. Scavenger hunt at the mall. That's right, we pulled it off. We wanted to do something fun and joyful for our April student missionary night, being during the Easter Octave and all, so we racked our brains and came up with the idea of a scavenger hunt...in the mall! One Wednesday morning the four of us went over to the mall, walking around for a solid two hours looking for ideas of clues we could use. We ended up coming up with some pretty fun and difficult ones, and the 60 students that came to our mountain that night (which is only half, unfortunately!) went crazy! There was also a $50 gift card/person for the group that won, so that was a little incentive to try hard. I was impressed with the students' indomitable spirits as we split them up into arbitrary groups, many not with the friends that they normally hang out with. It was just a really great time, and because we wanted everyone to win, so to speak, we totally clogged up the DQ line in the food court and bought them all ice cream afterwards, much to the employees' dismay.

Many other fun and exciting things have been happening in the past few months, but those were just a few from the past week! I am looking forward to hear about my placement for next year, as I've officially stated my desire to stay on staff as a missionary, and hopefully at NDSU! Please continue to pray for us and our students during this last month of the semester--exciting things are happening everyday!

Peace and blessings,
Kelsey Marie

Does "Life as Usual" Still Exist?

I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but while trying to brainstorm a clever title for my long overdue update to all of you, that was the only thing that came to mind. Well actually, I first wanted to title this, "Back to Life as Usual," until I realized that that doesn't really exist for us, or anybody for that matter, regardless of what we tell ourselves. To be frank, I'm not sure I would actually like to have a "usual" life. For those of you who don't know me very well, I greatly enjoy being kept on my toes, bouncing from place to place--so long as I have opportunities to actually rest and drink a delicious cup of Caribou coffee every once in a while (which I just might be doing at this very moment...).

The last few weeks went by so quickly it's hard to believe February already arrived! As soon as we got back from Orlando we literally hit the ground running, the very next day. I remember being together in our office on Tuesday morning, entirely sleep deprived, to map out the next couple of weeks, which have now officially ended. And now that bisonCatholic Week 2013 is over, we've already hit the ground with planning next year's--which I know will make a world of difference for next year's missionaries and event line-ups! We've been doing some serious dreaming and I am praying that we all get sent back here next year to see it through!

Sure wouldn't mind being blessed w/these amazing teammates next year...

I guess that's an update I should probably share with anyone concerned about my future plans:  I have to admit, I'm a little embarrassed to share this with you, seeing as most of you have been hearing me say how "this will definitely be my last year in Fargo." However, after doing some serious soul-searching, or at least some soul-searching, I realized that I actually really don't want to leave this wonderful city I've come to know and love so much over the last 18 months. Yes, you've read me right - I want to stay at NDSU for another year. This came about after some prodding by my spiritual director who insisted I explain to him my dire need to leave Fargo. "Well...." I hummed and hawed, "it's just time that I leave. These girls need someone new to walk with them towards the Lord and my time here has ended." What a bunch of bologna! Helloooo, Romans 12:2! Padre didn't hesitate on calling BS as I sat there dumbfounded, wondering how he always knows the right questions to ask. He asked me how I knew it would be better to go to a different campus and then it hit me--I absolutely love it in Fargo. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways in this city, why do I feel like I need to leave?!

When all is said and done, the most that really comes out of understanding these desires is simply that I have a better self-awareness, it means nothing for my actual future at NDSU. I voiced my concerns to the regional directors, but if not enough missionaries stay on staff next year our team will likely be split up to spread the wealth of "veteran staff" throughout the other campuses. Not to mention that Curtis and the rest of FOCUS National seem to just love what's going on at NDSU. I do legitimately feel honored when they talk of the "amazing things blowing up at NDSU," but being here in the heat of things I don't always see the "fire," so to speak. I see the areas that have yet to be set ablaze with the love of Christ and desire our students to continually seek deeper conversions as I seek my own.

Cari Devlin, what an amazing woman/teammate/friend...etc.

You might be wondering, "Wow, FOCUS really likes NDSU, huh? I had no idea..." That's right! As you may remember--although if you get all of your NDSU happenings from my blog you might not, seeing as I've been a bit out of touch since this all happened--Curtis Martin (president and founder of FOCUS) paid us a visit last week to be our keynote event for bisonCatholic week. Let me set the scene for you:

It's Wednesday of bisonCatholic week. The team usually prays a "power hour" early in the a.m., but due to the long day ahead we moved the power hour back until 8 am. (No complaints here!) Bryan, TJ, Cari and I met and walked over to the Union where we parked outside the Great Plains Ballroom, the same room which would host our event only 12 hours later, with our rosaries and hearts open for the Lord to work. We prayed each Glorious mystery carefully, interceding in between for all of the different aspects of the event that would take place later that night, making sure that the Lord knew all of our desires for the event and would take care of them all, as He promises us over and over, and over again...

We spend the rest of the day getting things ready for that night, hanging out on campus at the Ask a Catholic table, spending time in Eucharistic Adoration at the Memorial union (yes, you've read me right! Every week from 11-4 Jesus comes to campus and students spend time with him in the upstairs of the union!), discipleships, meetings and the like. As the day progresses the team starts sweating a little more, awaiting Curtis' arrival to Fargo, praying that his flight lands and everything goes well. He doesn't arrive in time to celebrate the 5:15 Mass with us so the few of us that don't need to run to Olive Garden to pick up dinner for 80 people go to Mass. Afterwards, we joyfully join the students in eating a delightful dinner of Olive Garden lasagna, salad and breadsticks at the Newman Center and anxiously wait for Martin to show up. Finally, 6:30 rolled around and Curtis Martin strolls into the social hall of the Newman Center. The same social hall that holds hundreds of bikes each April for the annual bike race fundraiser, the same social hall that boasts of its numerous dances, buckluck dinners, talent shows, etc. FOCUS has finally come to us, and the excitement of the student missionaries present is so palpable you can taste it. And it tastes like lasagna.

Student missionaries, social hall, lasagna and Curtis.

Curtis gives a great and succinct talk to the students to get them pumped up about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to bear much fruit (Jn 15:8). Nearing 7:00 I realize someone needs to head over to the union to set up some sort of table with goodies, etc, welcoming hopeful students to the event taking place at 7:30. I pack up a box of goodies, hop in TJ's car and he graciously totes me to the union only to see handfuls of students standing outside the ballroom waiting for the doors to open! Curtis and the rest of the students come on over and another 200 or so join us as Curtis gives a talk more pertinent for any Christian: Set the World on Fire: Spitting out Lukewarm Christianity. A "Stump the Priest" panel follows and ends up going for 90 minutes! Catholics, Protestants and non-Christians alike all bring their questions about the Faith and after this event running two years strong I am still amazed at the student's desire to learn on their quest for the Truth.

Curtis schmoozing with students in our apt. Cari looks on.

Immediately following this comes the best part of the night (at least for me): a recruitment event for juniors and seniors at Cari and I's apartment! This consists of: cheese and veggie trays, a few varieties of good wines and beers (including Leinie's and Blue Moon--everyone there is over the age of 21, don't be scandalized!), and a bunch of students excited to hang out with Curtis and hammer him with questions for a few hours. Yes, it ends up being a late night but man, it pumped us up! It reminded me how much I love this mission and being right where I'm at.

The next night was Mass with Bishop Hoepner from the Crookston Diocese in the same ballroom, and that also rocked my socks. Having successors of the apostles around to celebrate Mass always makes for a great time for any overly-zealous young Catholic. Big smiley face.

Bryan & FRC welcoming Bishop Hoepner to bisonCatholic.

We finished the week with a few other things--the annual talent show, more priests at the "Ask a Catholic" booth on campus and I treated myself to a much-needed (yet slightly unsatisfactory) haircut on Saturday morning. What a week! That much excitement could only call for one thing:  a team retreat.

Wednesday morning Bryan, TJ, Cari and I packed up Lady and headed south. Not that far south, don't worry all you chilly Midwesterners--we went to Irene, South Dakota to the Broomtree Retreat Center where Bryan rented us a few cabins for a just a couple of days. I'll admit, I hesitated to go at first because things  really started kicking off on campus with the momentum from Seek, bisonCatholic week, our newly formed women's Theology of the Body study, men's nights, etc, and I didn't really want to interrupt any good progress. In hindsight however, I think going on retreat was probably the best thing we could have done for the students. It gave them the opportunity to see our need to rest and that we aren't as "superhuman" as some of them (...and some of us...) might like to think.

The first 24 hours of the retreat were in silence and as you may imagine, a few funny things happened, my favorite being dinner on Wednesday night. To make things easier I prepared a casserole the night before (my favorite in fact, called the "Night Before Casserole") so it could just be stuck in the oven when we arrived. We're all sitting around the table, silently, saying our our meal prayer, silently, and then dig in. In a last ditch effort to clean out some blood oranges in my fridge I bring those to the table, too. TJ finishes a big portion of casserole, grabs an orange and eagerly starts to peel. He gets all the peeling off and there's a look of disappointment on his face: he notices the reddish color to the flesh of the orange, unlike the usual tangerine-orange color. He honestly looks distraught, and without daring to break the silence to simply tell him "TJ, it's a blood orange," I think of an idea: I'll get the bag out of the fridge that says "blood oranges" and has pictures of them on it. Then he'll get it. I go to the fridge, grab the bag and while attempting to stifle a giggle hand him the bag which he takes without any reluctance. A look of relief washes over his face as he completely ignores the pictures on the label and reaches in for another orange, thinking this one will be better. And that's when we all lost it. Bryan and I can hardly contain ourselves, and at this point tears are literally streaming from my eyes as they've been held back long enough now. So that was funny.

Freshman year of college, UW Hockey with my roomie!

The rest of the retreat consisted of sleeping, praying, reading, napping and then playing a massive game of hide and go seek in the pitch black darkness. That was fun, and Cari was by far the best hider of all of us, with TJ as a close second. What a hoot; being able to just let loose and be childish is so good for the soul, and was the perfect way to end our second night in the cabin.

We got back yesterday refreshed and ready to hit it hard on campus the rest of the semester! Tonight Bryan and I are going to Grand Forks with some people to watch a Badger Men's hockey game!! I'm so pumped; I loved going to the hockey games in college so this will be fun, even though I really don't know any of the players. No biggie, that doesn't take away the fun that will (hopefully) be had.

I should be on my way home, as I see snow start to dust the Great White outside. Don't want her to get lost with her great camouflage. Thank you for all of the prayers for a successful bisonCatholic week! Next item on the agenda: get February newsletters to the printer asap.

God bless you; I remember "the readers of my blog and their intentions" in my daily prayers!

Love,
Kelsey Marie

Orlando and back... on bus!

Sarah, Katie, me, Nikki, Mary, Lisa and Cari

That's right. We made it from Fargo to Orlando in one piece, both there and back! The 36 hour bus rides flew by and I'm still amazed at the good spirits the students had at the very tail end of the long trip home. The bus I was on had WiFi, outlets (helloooo fully charged phone!), two tables and fairly decent TV's to watch movies. Basically, we were living first world luxuries all the way there and back but I have a feeling that even if we weren't our students still would have enjoyed themselves.

We ended up arriving in Orlando eight hours earlier than we had originally planned, but huge shout-out to the events staff and the hotel workers who got up at the crack of dawn to make sure that our students' rooms were ready for them and to check us in. Cari, Bryan and I were completely amazed at how well-orchestrated our arrival was, and quite honestly, I'm still floored. Those people at the Swan and Dolphin certainly know how to accommodate large groups of people!

There's no better way to do this, so I'll just give you my own play-by-play of my own conference experience, and see if I can throw some others in along the way.

NDSU Students being super hospitable.

Cheering on the Bison from Orlando!

As mentioned, we arrived super early and because the FOCUS events staff worked so hard to get us checked in and to our rooms much earlier than expected, Mario Martinez, the missionary in charge of hospitality for the weekend, asked if we could get 20-30 students to help out with hospitality on one of the days. This mainly consisted of wearing their matching t-shirts and ushering people in and out of talks, to the lunch line, etc. To be quite honest, I think it'd be pretty difficult to mess it up, but apparently some students managed just that. Our day for hospitality wasn't until the second to last day, Saturday, but halfway through the day the events team and hospitality crew were singing NDSU's praises because our students were doing such an amazing job. Man, these North Dakotans know how to work hard! And with a smile; all the students I saw working flashed me a huge smile and I could tell they were genuinely happy to be helping out. Because of this Mario let us in early for the Matt Maher concert on Saturday night, which was pretty sweet. Not only did they go above and beyond in hospitality, the Bison football team also pulled out another National Championship that day! What a good day for NDSU all around!

Look at all them bisonCatholic students!

As you may remember, the day we actually left for FL I was pretty sick, and sadly, I wasn't the only one. Bryan and TJ were also coming down with colds, along with nearly 50 percent of our students. Man, the 2013 plague has struck! Everybody and their sister was sick on the bus down, and you can double that number for the way back. There was no way that you were getting on that bus completely healthy and leaving without some sort of illness. Having a cold did make sleeping on the way down pretty easy. I helped myself to a few servings of Equate's version of Nyquil and conked out for quite a while. Getting into Orlando and just being out in the sunshine the very first day we got there helped a lot, and Cari and I made a point to take one (or more..) naps on the beach throughout the conference. One of my absolute favorite summertime activities is napping in mom's lawn chair in the backyard, but even better to do that by the water and on a white sand beach! Bring it on! We were then fortunate enough to celebrate Mass the first day, and that was just a little foretaste of the Masses to come.

Without contest my favorite part of all conference was celebrating the Eucharist with 6200 college students, at least one or more bishops, 125 priests and 350 FOCUS missionaries. I mean, WHAT! Yesterday was the gospel where Jesus multiplies the loaves and the fishes for only 5,000 people, can you imagine adding another 1500 to that!? Conceptualizing that many people under one roof is difficult, but boy what a blessing it was to celebrate the pinnacle of our faith with so many other beautiful souls. Archbishop Aquila, who used to be in the Fargo diocese and is now in Denver, was there for a few days and merely seeing him was a huge grace in my life. He cares so deeply for young people and his passion for our deeper conversions shone through in his homily.

L'Angelus Band

The music was also rock solid the entire conference. L'Angelus, an awesome homegrown group that visits us annually at NST to entertain us missionaries for an evening, played before every session at Seek and I think every student fell in love with them while they were there. They totally spoiled us and I'm completely okay with it. Not only that, but the worship leaders were also super solid and had the voices of angels. AND on top of that, Matt Maher (pronounced MA-her) himself came and gave us a concert on Saturday night! It was a definite highlight of the conference for me because I was able to just be there with Jenne and really soak in the worship music, pray and not worry about the taking care of the students at that moment....not to sound selfish. But I guess we all are a little selfish sometimes, right?

Another aspect of the conference that was totally great was the technology. Because there were so many people it was too difficult to have the Keynote speakers each night all in one room, so they

Chris Stefanick in his tiger shirt, with NDSU students

had two huge ballrooms filled with people, and then the speaker him/herself would just come out in one of the rooms. There was a sweet technology that they used especially during the men's and women's sessions so that we could see the screens from the other room and they could see ours and the speakers in each of the rooms could communicate. It was totally awesome and there was no delay or technical glitches! I was so amazed. Speaking of speakers, the emcee for the weekend, Chris Stefanick was the perfect transition between speakers who added his own dynamic flare and what I thought was quite hilarious sense of humor. He randomly brought his six kids on stage one night, that was pretty cute and definitely won all the ladies in the room over. He was just really great.

I could give you all the highlights of each of the speakers' main talks, but I'll spare you that. I will say that this conference really lit a fire under me to strive for sainthood. The very last day Curtis Martin gave his sendoff pump-up speech, as he usually does, and he focused a lot on being a saint in the world today. "Becoming a saint isn't just a possibility," Martin stated, "it's likely. Because that is what we were made for. We were made for union with God." Boom. I sometimes get so caught up in the St. Therese of Lisieux's or Blessed JPII's that I forget that I, Kelsey Kaufman, am made to be a saint. It will just take work--making the joyful sacrifice to choose God in every moment, and not just sometimes. It takes more than going to church on Sunday to get into Heaven. It takes a conscious, daily decision to put God first always. So that's exactly what I want to do. Last semester I'll be honest, I went through the motions and did nothing to really reach in true and vivid spiritual growth. This semester I'm ready to start anew, and Jesus waits for me. He waits for me each day to give him my own "good morning" and offer my day to Him. This conference reminded me that that is what I desire, I've just let that get lost in the shuffle of my faith being my job.

(Almost) the entire group at conference! Sportin' those bisonCatholic tees. Nice.

Needless to say, it's great to be back on campus officially. Bryan gave us yesterday and Tuesday to rest and recoup but now we're back in action! BisonCatholic week is coming up right around the corner and it's really exciting to see how well things are coming together for it! Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for such an impacting week for our students, especially the students that went to Seek and are now trying to figure out how to implement what they learned into their everyday lives.