Days 166-169: Happy Birthday Nels!!

Today, two days before his actual birthday, is the day we get to celebrate the gift of our brother Nels! It started a little earlier than anyone wanted to start, 8am, but for good reason: Daily Mass. It was very small, and we stood out being the youngest there, but the homily was beautiful that day, and people came up to us after mass knowing we were the NET team. From there, we went bowling! It was more of a team activity than for Nels, but it was so much fun playing together. Afterwards, we went back to St. Mary’s parish center, and begun the afternoon celebrations: poppers, cake, and the video we made for him. After a little lunch and team prayer, we did exactly what he wanted to do on his day: stay inside and play games. I led a game of encore, which is a tug of war using specific music lyrics between two teams. Then we played board games: sequence and clue mainly. A very simple day for a simple man. Nels, is you ever read this, I love you so much broski, and I’m so grateful that you are my brother, let alone team leader. You are so incredible and so gentle, and i couldn’t ask for anything more. Love you always! . . Today is supposed to be a service day, funny enough at St. Patrick’s in Elkhorn, WI, a church we’ve already been to for our last confirmation retreat weekend. We didn’t know what we were doing, but we had a retreat there tomorrow for their youth group, and the retreat contact person asked us to come and help with something. We arrived there right before noon, and learned he didnt need us until after school at 4pm. So we chilled out, ate lunch, and watched Netflix as a team. Then, we cleaned out their school storage room until the dumpsters were full, which only took an hour. So in other words, it was a pretty free day. We ended the evening with Pizza Ranch, a famous pizza buffet place in the area, and lived up to the hype. Well, also with some late night activities at the school: cards, ultimate frisbee with a dodgeball, and conversing with the janitor. So crazy having free days like we have been, but ill take it, especially when schedule begins to get tough. . . So because our retreat was in the evening, our first obligation was at 11am, the latest we’ve ever gone without an obligation. So i took advantage: went out to breakfast with Nels (on his ACTUAL BIRTHDAY!!) (2/12), and immediately got a haircut. I hadn’t had it cut since i got back home in December, making it the longest I’ve ever gone without one (7-8 weeks?). Never felt so relieved in my life after the cut. After team prayer and making another video, we went to St. Patrick’s School for the youth group. It was our first retreat with 5th graders i believe, which blew my mind realizing i was ministering to people my youngest brother’s age. But it was a solid retreat, enjoyed what we had for them, and i gave another power of friendship talk, so of course i loved it. . . Today was a special day, as we get to do something we haven’t done yet: college recruitment day! We get to visit University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and talk to the college students about NET. And again, since it was happening in the evening, we had another chill morning. Catered breakfast, very good team prayer, and time to go out and watch a movie in the theaters! As a team we watched 1917, which is incredible for those who haven’t watched it yet. It a great war movie, but for the cinematography alone it is worth watching. After the movie, we packed up and left Elkhorn for the university. We arrived at the campus ministry center, where we met a couple students and Brew City missionaries. Brew City are essentially FOCUS missionaries (Catholic college campus ministers) focused on the archdiocese of Milwaukee, and they were so great! Everyone was, really. And yea, i dipped my toes into college life a little, which was cool but personally still not appealing. But with the students, Sarah and Nels gave a spiel on NET, celebrated adoration with some praise and worship, and watched some intramural sports. It was also -2 degrees outside, which was not fun but definitely a thing. That night, the guys slept in the main building, while the girls went to dorms or a Brew City missionaries’ house. Although its not the main mission, getting to do something new and different is always exciting, especially with this team. And the more I’m doing it, the more i realize there’s no other place I’d rather be in my life, and praise God for that!