Have you ever lost a piece of your heart? Yeah I'm sure you've probably lost it a different way. But for me I've lost it with my heart for missions. Throughout the years I've been giving the opportunity to go on mission trips to Guatemala and Baja California with every trip I've gone on they've all shown or have told me different things.

I will never truly forget how beautiful Guatemala is. With all going to Mexico for weeks times and being in Guatemala for three weeks really has shown how big of a heart for missions I truly have.

Until the my senior year of high school I never really wanted to go on a mission trip but once senior hit I was all about them. The summer after I graduated was the first time I went on a mission trip and we went to Baja California, Mexico to work in the Door of Faith Orphanage and I instantly fell in love with it.

Going to Guatemala I wasn't really sure what to expect. I kept thinking to myself that it would be different because its in a different country and different culture but the only thing I thought was super different was how long I was there. I was there for 3 weeks. 21 days. I only thought that was the only difference because when I've gone to Mexico it was only for a week at a time, so I was only nervous for the length. (which was the only thing I was really worried about but excited about.) One thing besides the length that I struggled with was having to cover my arms because of my tattoos. I understand why I had to cover them because of the culture being different but also so the kids don't try giving themselves one. So I wore either a jacket, long sleeve shirt or a compression sleeve to cover my arms while I was out and about with the kids.

While we were in Guatemala we worked in the garden and pulled weeds for a couple days and even harvesting green beans. Its funny, if we were told to pull weeds here in the United States we would probably say no thanks or I have better things to do instead of pulling weeds. But when we were there we loved doing it, yeah it wasn't always fun but it was enjoyable because we sang songs, talked about life and just laughed about silly things.

Gardening wasn't the only thing we did in the three weeks, we watered the trees with buckets which was a challenge because that day I felt like someone was throwing bricks at my chest over and over again, but I pushed through the best I could have.

We also worked in the houses onsite at the orphanage while the house parents and the rest of the staff had a time of fellowship and worship. It was fun being able to spend time with the kids in each of the houses. I instantly fell in love with my house and felt honored when I got asked to go back and watch the boys. Through that experience I've decided to sponsors a little boy from my house. Him and I click fast and I loved walking by and him saying my name and having a huge smile on his face whether I was walking through the door or just walking around the orphanage.

The little boy I'm sponsoring is the one standing next to me with a boy from his house behind him. These two have stolen my heart and I love spending time with them. I remember going down to the school while we worked in the houses while the staff was at the retreat a group of us ran around the school while one of us was the person chasing us and trying to hit us with a foam arrow "tagging us" yeah I was sometimes running out of breath but it was fun to just see the smile on the kids faces as they're enjoying running around with us. This is one moment I won't forget.

The team I was apart of was eight college students. Yeah we were a small team but with the three weeks we were there we were able to split the task between all of us to make sure things got done. We hung drywall, did different shifts in the baby house and painted classrooms. When we did shifts in the baby house we did a morning shift where we feed the kids breakfast, play with them, feed them lunch then change then and put them down for a nap. The afternoon shift is getting them up from their naps and get them dressed for bed then feed them and put them to bed. Lastly we end with the night shift, and with that you would wake up every two hours and check on the kids and change diapers if you have to and do that until about 8 a.m. Of course it was a long night but fun at the same time we spilt up into four teams of two so it made it a lot easier to handle.

As you can imagine each kid in the baby house had a different personality all different from the others but I loved spending one on one time with some of them even if we were just laying there doing nothing. It brought a smile to my face to see the kids light up while I was playing with them.

Out of the three weeks two things really touched my heart and I will always keep memories of would be being able help lead worship our last Sunday at the orphanage. If you know me, then you'd know that music is a big deal to me. So being able to sing at church while I was on a mission trip made it so much more meaningful for me. Five of us from our team planned on doing worship but sadly one was sick a few days before and had to miss out. We sang five songs total, half the songs were in Spanish and half of it was in English. I loved doing it, and wish we were able to do it more than what we did.

Besides singing one of my favorite things that I was able to do was being able to paint a mural in one of the classroom. Three of us on our team decided to make the wall a bookcase with each book in the bookcase representing a house onsite of the orphanage. We had two days to finish it, and boy was it a challenge. I enjoyed every minute of it, my friends and I sang random songs, talked about life and just cherished each moment as much as we could. I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's moments like these that will make me love what I do.

Everything that I was able to do while I was in Guatemala I will cherish forever. It was a different experience that I haven't experienced on a mission trip not sure if it was because of having a smaller team or it being we were all close in age, but I won't forget the memories I made and the friendships that I will forever cherish.