Today started out earlier then usual. We had a meeting in Pasadena at 9:00 am and we were told to expect heavy traffic (its LA). We planned to be in the car at 7:28 am and not to expect everyone to be in good moods. Surprisingly we did not snap at each other and survived the drive to Pasadena as we slowly woke up to embrace the day!

Our meeting was with a member of the Mosaic church, Nathan. He is a strengths finder coach for gallup. We all took the strength finder test before we arrived to find out our top five strengths (talents). Nathan talked about how often we focus on our weaknesses rather then our strengths and try to improve at what we are not good at rather then excel at what we are good at. We work hardest and succeed more often when we use our strengths. He referred to our top five strengths as talents because a strength is knowledge plus skills plus talents. There are 34 talent themes and Nathan discussed them all with us. He showed us how important each individuals talents are to the team because we can't all be talented in the same areas. Each person's different talents bring something different to the group which helps it to be effective. In our group it was interesting to see each others talent themes and how they played out in our daily lives. It also helps you understand how each person in the group operates and how the other members can help them use their strengths better. I think it is awesome that God gave us certain unique strengths for his purpose. I enjoy to learn about people and they way they are so this was very interesting to me. We eat lunch with Nathan and Jonathan Stockstill at a place called Zankou's Chicken which had Lebanese food (which made Luke very happy).

After a great morning we decided we needed some chill out time so we came back to the church and had a little nap time or relax time! Its funny how you do not appreciate naps when you are a kid and everyone always tells you, "You just wait one day you are going to wish you could take a nap." True Story. After nap time, Bruce, Josh, and I went to a Dodgers game!!! Thomas, Luke, and Storm stayed at the church had some relax time and an amazing Lupita dinner. I think they even had a slurpy adventure down to 7-11 but the machine was broke (as Storm would say "sad day"). Overall a pretty great day!

So about the Dodgers game... it was awesome! This was Josh's first MLB game and it had been quite a few years since Bruce and I had been to a game... so we were excited. Pastor Jeff and Kendall had scored some sweet free tickets for themselves so we rode with them to the game but couldn't sit with them. Pastor Jeff is probably the most southern person we have met here in LA so far, we blared country music on the way which reminded me of home. Inside the stadium, Bruce, Josh, and I found our seats then went to get Dodger dogs and something to drink... interesting! Anyways we got back to the game... Dodgers vs. Marlins!!! We got to see Manny Ramirez, cheered a lot, participated in the longest wave we had ever seen and really enjoyed the game. Sadly, the Dodgers lost 3 to 6. After the game, we got to watch the fireworks!! The coolest part was we got to go down and stand on the field to watch the fireworks. We walked over to left field and stood where Manny plays and took looks of pictures!!! It was a really fun night and great experience!!

Please be praying for the last week we are in LA. I know that most of us are home sick or at least missing someone so pray that we enjoy the last week here. Pray for the connections we have already made that we will be able to have some amazing final conversations with them in person and be able to get their contact information and continue those relationships when we are back home! Pray for the information and contacts we are handing off to people here in LA that those will be passed on to the right people for the specific person. Pray that this week flows well and as we are faced with some hard goodbyes to people we have become very close to this summer that we will have strength. Pray for the group as we begin to debrief or reflect on this summer. I also want to thank you for all of your pray and support for this summer. Praise God for the opportunity for us to be able to come to LA this summer and learn what we learned and met who we met.

With love,

Kelsey