If it Doesn't Challenge You, It Won't Change You.

Well, my post title explains it all. It's been another amazing day that put me outside of my normal comfort zone, but.... I LOVED IT. Also, things are kind of winding down here at Rising Star as all the staff and other are leaving because of summer vacation for the kids. It's all been a little emotional for us today. We had our last service rotations, play time and story time. I really have fallen in love with the people here, especially the children. My biggest passions in life are to be a mother and an elementary school teacher, so this week just confirmed those and my love for kids grew even more. Once again, I'm so grateful. I am grateful too that we don't have to leave until Saturday night. We've got 2 more full days, maybe not of Rising Star service, but I'm glad to stay and explore and to meet more wonderful people.

Today we went to another colony to do medical service with the leprosy-affected people. Last time I did blood pressure, but today I washed the wounds and ulcers of the people. It was awesome and soo humbling. I've never really had experience with anything medical and sometime I don't really love stuff like that. So, it was kind of out of my comfort zone, but it was great, and because of that it was one of the greatest life-changing experiences to help these sweet people today. One of our directors today shared that if it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. I definitely saw that today. It's so true. Many of the people we helped today are missing parts of their hands and feet... again, very humbling to see. It makes me very grateful for my good health. From seeing their circumstances, however, I've learned just to love them, understanding that we all have trials and hard times. The cure to that is just to love them. I've learned to love people more, knowing that we all have something we're struggling with. However, we all have something in common... we're all children of God and no matter what we're going through He still loves us. We therefore, should love each other too despite our differences and circumstances. These are the greatest things I learned today and I'll definitely take these lessons learned home with me. Oh, and afterwards we quickly visited a Hindu temple. It was pretty sweet. Check it out....

Washing station :) 

Area where we served today. 

He's got some pretty rad horns. 

Rising Star vans. 

Eye drops station. 

BP. 

This lady was SOO feisty and fun to be around. She's soo lively. Such a good example of being happy and making the most out of life despite certain circumstances. 

Rising Star group... I LOVE them all. 

Before play time Ella, Lydia and I went to the Junction to buy some last minute souvenirs and some Indian food. It was SOOO fun to explore the streets of India and to try new things. Those are my favorites parts of traveling. 

Appifizz is my new fave... tastes like Martinellis. 

Such a fun ride. 

Love these girls. 

Cool transportation in India. It felt like we were on a cop chase the whole time... we went so fast and almost got hit like 5 times. It's fine. We survived. 

Jackpot. Our goods from the Junction. 

Last play time... ahh, soo happy, yet bitter sweet. Again, I love these kids sooo much!!!!! 

Praveen. I'm so excited to sponsor him. 

Anandi... beautiful inside and out. 

Yep... can't get enough of Praveen. 

Goona is SOOO sweet.

Kavia... darn cute. 

I died. This was them waiting to eat dinner. I had to dive in for a picture. 

Cute little boys :) 

My heart melted. 

Medical Day... New perspective.

Wow, what another amazing day. I'm happy when we can go go go with the service and not have breaks, but since I forgot my journal, it's been nice to have some time to record our India happenings on my blog each day. Today was medical day and man was it humbling. We went to a leprosy colony, to a little church where we set up the stations to do the medical exams of the leprosy affected people. Some of the stations were: finger nail and toe nail cutting, blood pressure, blood testing, cleansing wounds, etc. I took their blood pressure and it was a blast. It was fun to meet them all and it was humbling to see their gratitude for being able to be examined every 2 weeks. My dad and I were talking and we said it was so neat (especially just having celebrated Easter) to watch their wounds be cleaned. We imagined that's what our Savior did in his ministry here on earth. We always hear the stories about the lepers from the Bible, so sitting there watching these people made what we've read in the scriptures even more special. We also walked around the colony. We met some small children and their families. The ones without leprosy were especially grateful to us for helping their family members out. The GREATEST thing for me is that many of these parents have children at the Rising Star school, where we're staying. Some of them told us who their kids were, many of them ones we had met. Their faces just lit up with excitement as they asked how they were, wanting us also to tell them hi. Many of them looked like they wanted to cry. All of the kids are going home for summer vacation this Sunday, so I can only image their excitement. However, at the same time, I know they feel soo blessed to have their children in a safe and healthy environment where they are being well taken care of. All of this experience is so rewarding, as I've said so many times. I can't stop saying that because besides my mission, I don't feel as fulfilled as I do when I'm serving the people here. It's amazing. Here's what I captured from medical day.... :)

This sweet girl was a tender mercy of the day. Her sister goes to the Rising Star School and she and her family met were soo excited that we know her sister. You can tell that they love each other soo much. It made me even more grateful for my family and the importance of family. 

Jeremy was in charge of giving eye drops to the leprosy affected people. 

This woman is a saint. 

Abraham and us were laughing soo hard together today. We told him to smile for the pictures and this is what he gave us every time. Love it :) 

Children upon children upon children. 

Had to take a picture at the boomba. It reminds me of my mission in the Philippines. 

Leprosy colony. 

Took peoples' blood pressure today. 

Ella and I at the blood pressure and blood testing station. So fun. 

More of the colony. It was so fun not only to do medical work, but to walk around, get a feel for where they live, and talk with them and their families. 

Afterwards, we went to the zoo! It was HUGE. We actually didn't see too many animals, but the fun part is that we rode around the zoo on bikes. It was soo fun and we had some good family bonding time. I've loved this trip because I've been able to spend so much time with my awesome family. I'm grateful for them. I really do miss them when I'm down in Provo all the time. 

Sorry, we just had to.

Last of all we had 2 awesome hours of play time with the kids. It was the BEST one yet. Usually not all the volunteers come but today EVERYONE came. It was a cool site to see all of us with around 200 kids just running around everywhere. I had been kinda nervous all week about remembering names of the children. I'm already soo bad at names, but on top of that add all the tricky Indian pronunciations. Today was awesome, though, because all the little kids would come running up to me and I remembered mostly all of them. At the end of play time, it was time to go and it seriously took 30 mins to leave because all of the cute kids wouldn't let us leave. They'd come running up to me saying, "Erica, Erica, Erica"! Or I would see a kid that I've met or a new kid and play with them soo more. I've been able to feel this awesome love the children and people here in India and it's been such an amazing experience. I've truly learned how to love people more. This morning I woke up in kind of a funk. I was worrying about some things, like having finals in just a week and some other things. I realized that I just needed to focus everything that I have in me to this trip. It's been one of the greatest blessings in my life, but I was a little consumed with school and other things. Today I 110% participated in everything and just lost myself in loving the kids and leprosy-affected people we helped. It felt great. I think it was a test that Heavenly Father gave me, to see how grateful I would be for this opportunity to learn to love others and just serve them with everything I have. I think the past few days, I could have done better, but man, today I felt on top of the world. Today was AWESOME. I'm soo excited for another 3 days of this trip. I'm learning a lot and I've felt true happiness in serving others more each day. 

This was probably the coolest experience of the whole day. We met this little girl's baby sister earlier in the day. I showed her the picture of her sister and I. She grabbed my phone held it to her check, kissed the phone and almost started crying. It almost made me cry. These moments make this trip so rewarding

Teeter totter. 

So cool to see a Book of Mormon at Rising Star. 

Meet my new friend Goona. He's soo sweet. His laugh made my day!!! 

The day ended with awesome community dinner and a lip syncing contest... pretty awesome. WHAT A GREAT DAY.