Days 140-143: A Roller Coaster According to Monica

After a long four days, we were rewarded with an evening retreat for the Our Lady of the Lake youth group. This meant waking up a little later, and getting to see Lake Superior (gorgeous) for personal prayer and team prayer. After team prayer, we drove over to the school to have lunch. Funny enough, we had it with the middle schoolers that went on retreat with us. They didn’t like seeing us again, except for Hunter, who was in my small group and loved me, he enjoyed our presence. We were having retreat in the lunchroom for the religious ed tonight, which was really exciting. Unfortunately, the retreatants didn’t have any energy, but it was still a good retreat. Plus they had a really cool monstrance that represented the fire of the Holy Sprit. While we were inside, another few inches of snow built up in the city. According to the locals, this year has wayyy more snow than usual, and not enough ice. Fine by me. . . After a few days on Superior, it was finally time to leave for our next destination. Next stop: Bemidji, MN. Apparently there was a blizzard warning, so we had to run to Walmart to get winter clothes, especially for Ellie, who only packed capris and no jeans. Nels, Jakob, and I got really dope ski masks, which are gonna be so useful and so no suspicious. We arrived at St. Phillip’s in Bemidji, where we met Luke, our retreat contact person and a former NET alum. He drove us over to our Host Home for the night, with Chris and his family. Chris was a NET alum the same year as Luke, and both were really great. Chris’ family fed us Feasant, Bear, Pork, Chicken, and Venison, which was super delish. Plus, they took us out to see their Alpacas and Horses!!! ALPACAS ARE SO COOL!! They’re absolutely adorable and i love them to death. Again, another incredible host family, couldn’t ask for much better. . . Today was a school retreat, a Strength in Numbers theme that is really good for a middle school group. I got to give the talk, and it turned out really well! Plus, Chris joined us for the retreat, and he even was part of the skit, and he was hilarious. I love NET alum, said it already, will continue saying it. They are so COOL! After the retreat, we booked straight for Crookston, MN, for the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. Crookston is the name and place of the diocese, and we stayed at the Diego House, a little 5-bedroom house across from the Chancery, the diocese HeadQuarters. It held 11 beds, which is so so nice. There, we met Hope, a 23-year old youth minister whose uncle is Mark Berchem, founder of NET!! She took us out to Subway, where we played tons of riddles that ruined Aimee and Evan but entertained me since I knew all the riddles. We went back and played Catholic Card Game with Hope, and called it a night. . . We woke up uncertain if we would have a retreat. With the amount of snow thats been falling lately, we were worried the retreat would be cancelled. We found out a little over an hour before the retreat began that there would be at least a dozen retreatants attending, so we hurried on over for setup. I gave another talk, and the youth were super fun to be around. It was interesting because we put on the retreat at a Cathedral, but it was smaller than our last two parishes and it was a school. Very interesting how different the size of a diocese can be, since there’s not joy of people in Crookston. Again, it was a very simple day: ended with mass, dinner at the Chancery, and a really chill evening. Got to call some family and just hang out. Ministry the first week has been really great just because its been super chill! The Bemidji retreat was our most youth (51), and we’ve almost had as many hours on retreat as we’ve had retreatants. I’ve loved it, and i cant wait to keep the train rolling! And if you’re wondering, Monica titled this blog since i didn’t know what to actually title it.