the end of Minnesota & the first half of Wisc-ann-sin

I began the last post by talking about the Minnesota accents, which were funny, but Wisconsin is so much better! I did expect every single person to walk around saying "Don'tcha know" and "you betchya" but unfortunately that isn't the way it goes. :( But! A lot of people do have funny accents! Wisconsin is Wisc-ann-sin and a lot of them actually say "aboot" instead of "about", just like the Canadians!
So last you heard we were in Minnesota! So Tuesday morning we went and got our oil changed (boring, I know) and then back to the Loewen's. They were going to Como Park to look at plants but conveniently (and awesomely) there was a free zoo there! Tiiiiight!

Marc in the rainforest :)

I don't know how she stands like that all day, I was falling over!

pretty flowers :)

dude. a huge stingray trying to suck his way through the glass! lol

Flamingo Marc!

bison!

there was no snow for the polar bear :(

how awesome! The lion was sleeping in the kiddie pool

the tiger, always my favorite

we like to pretend we are tall :)

Madagascar!

by far the coolest part of the day. The silverback gorilla came and sat up against the glass, which was the only thing separating us. Holy moly, not gonna lie, I was afraid! But wouldn't you be if you were two inches away from a gorilla?!

Marc's great great great grandpa. Psh, I know, it sounds dumb right?

I don't know why people believe that stuff.

And that was about it for Minnesota!
Wednesday morning we headed out to Wisc-ann-sin! We didn't have a whole lot of time before church so we just got some Pizza Hut (the gift that keeps on giving!) and then it was about time so we headed off to Calvary Chapel Madison. Service was pretty good. When we walked in we were immediately greeted by an elder in the church (Brian I believe), so that was nice! When service first started, there was about 10 people in the audience, and TWELVE people on the worship team! So many people! But people eventually came, late as usual lol. We met a really nice woman named Kathleen. She was so nice & welcoming. She made sure to tell us all about the church and upcoming events. She really was so nice. I know I always write about people all the time being welcoming, but I think it's because I've realized how important it is. Its something that people at church always talk about, greeting your neighbor and such, but I never really realized how truly important it is to someone who is new. My whole perspective has changed. I always disliked the "turn and greet your neighbor" part of church, but now I've really discovered the beauty of it.
Anyways, after study Kathleen was talking to us some more so we told her about our trip so she took us up to the pastor (Jeff) to get prayer. So we talked to him a bit about the trip and he invited us to park our van in front of his house. A very nice offer except he lived 45 minutes away in the middle of nowhere. I'm sure to Wisc-ann-sin natives, that's no big deal but to a couple of California kids who have seen too many scary movies, that sounds terrifying! Plus the drive was just a bit too much so we thankfully declined.

at the border

some pretty scenery shots we took while driving:

hahaha...what's shakin. how funny

Thursday morning we started our day at Starbucks, reading & the like. We got to talk to the 2 guys sitting next to us for a quick second. They were really curious about the trip but then had to get back to work. So it goes. About 20 minutes later the lady who was sitting next to us on the other side the whole time asked us, out of the blue, about our trip & what we were doing. She asked us about our religion & what we think heaven is like and just a bunch of questions. She has a background in Catholicism but isn't currently associated with any specific religion. She does identify more with a lot of aspects of Eastern religion and transcendentalism, living on a "higher plane" and all of that kind of new agey stuff. It was really cool to be able to just share the gospel with her and how to get to heaven. Everytime she said she had to get back to work, she would ask us another question. It was cool to see her so interested.
Sometimes its so weird the way that people think-we really have heard so many different bizarre arguments. She was talking about how there is not one ultimate truth, which, of course, I disagreed with. I used the table in front of her as an example, saying that my truth says that there is no table here. Well, that doesn't change the fact that there is a table there, it's just my perception that is changing, to which she replied, "But on a molecular level that table isn't there. It's just a bunch of particles floating around that aren't even really touching." True. This is true, but unfortunately for her, we don't live on a molecular level. This is an example of things that we come into contact with-people want to believe anything and everything that won't require them to be accountable. So it goes. All we can do is tell them about Jesus, the Holy Spirit has to do the rest.
 After leaving the bux, we walked around downtown for a little while. This is the first city that we've been to where the capitol building was so close to anything else. It was literally in the middle of downtown, no lawn or anything. So we went to the capitol building and when we walked in, people were standing in the center underneath the dome singing! Just a big circle of people. We later found out that they were protesting the governor, Scott Walker. Everywhere we looked they had stickers of "Recall Walker". They even held their governor recall election while we were here! But I'm getting off track-these people had been there in the capitol building everyday protesting the governor by singing. Cool?

at night (as if that needed explaining)

an exact replica of the Liberty Bell, minus the crack, which Marc will take care of.

Interesting fact: apparently, France gave each state the same exact bell
to help raise funds (or something like that).

So every state has a "Liberty Bell".

some of the beautiful interior

the governor's meeting room

the view from the top

When we were done there we walked around downtown and Marc started talking to this guy sitting on a bench. He was from the South but had been up here for work for a couple years. He said he goes to church occasionally and after a few minutes said he wanted to come to church with us on Sunday, but needed a ride so we gave him our card and said we'd pick him up, just to call us. So we were now committed to being there until Sunday, which wasn't the plan, but so it goes in our lives.
Moving on, a homeless guy asked us for money. Silver & gold have we none ;) so Marc shared the Lord with him. He said he was a believer, as do almost all homeless people. He was having some health issues & Marc prayed for healing for him, which was pretty sweet because a little while later when we passed him again, he said it was working! Tiiiight.
Time went by & I got tired of walking (because we walk really far all the time so we don't have to pay for parking) so we started heading back to the car when Marc saw this guy sitting at the bus stop. He was so soft spoken I could not hear a word that he said the entire time, but Marc summarized their conversation to me. His name was Hikan (and I'm sure I spelled that wrong) and he was of Turkish descent. Sweeeeet. He was raised as an orthodox something version of Catholicism but didn't know how to get to heaven. So Marc told him the gospel and invited him to church & he said he might come. Very cool. And that was about it for Thursday!
Friday morning we again started off at Starbucks where, this time, we talked to a guy who was an atheist science teacher (shocker) but he seemed to have different reasons than usual as to why he was an atheist. He had done a lot of research and looking around at other religions and philosophy, which is what led him to the belief that there is no God. He was a really super nice guy, though. Very civil and calm headed to talk to, which is always a nice change of pace. So many times when you present an opposing idea to someone they automatically get offended, but he was very willing to talk.
After our studies, we headed back to the capitol area. When we got there, we had to indulge in some genuine Wisc-ann-sin and have some cheese. :) Everybody rants about cheese curds, which I had never had nor heard of, so we had to get some! We asked around and apparently the best cheese place in Madison is a place right next to the capitol called "Fromagination", a very funny play on words. (In French, cheese is "fromage"-pronounced like omage, but with a fr- on the beginning). Happily for us, they had cheese samples ALL OVER the place! It was so yummy!!! So we had cheese curds which were....interesting. As you bite them, they squeak against your teeth pretty much up until the time you swallow them. You know when you brush your teeth and you can rub your finger on them really fast to make them squeak? It was just like that. Super weird, I know. We met one of the ladies who works there & she was super awesome and helpful in explaining a bunch of different stuff about cheese. So we ended up getting 4 different kinds of cheeses, just little tiny slivers. Mmmmmmmm chhheeeeeese :)

starting with the chuck with stuff in it is Cranberry Chipotle Cheddar (gross)

top was some weird award winning cheese that I also didn't like

on the right had side was the 3 year old parmesan. Decadent.

and on the bottom was my 8 year old cheddar. oh so fabulous.

Then it was back to the capitol, this time to take the tour. I'm glad we did because we got to go into rooms that we previously hadn't, so that was nice. The building is pretty legit, probably as nice, if not nicer than Iowa's capitol building, which I never thought I would say! But it was super pretty.
When the tour was over, we ventured down to the local lakeside to eat our cheese & find people to talk to. We walked for day but there was nobody there! It was weird. I mean, I know it's summer break, but to have nobody chilling there at all except runners was weeeeird. In all fairness, we couldn't really find any "kick it spots", so maybe that's why. So we went back to the car and went back downtown. Now that it was after 6:00 we could park at the meters without having to pay. Oh happy day! No mile long walk for me!
As we walked, we stopped to talk to this lady who we gave a tract to but she didn't speak English. :( Or at least she pretended not to! Haha. So as we walked around, these guys handed us a flyer for a free show that night. Um yes please! We had about an hour to kill before it started so we used our gift card & shared a Subway sandwich. That night we were stopped by 2 different homeless people, one asking for money, the other trying to sell newspapers to support himself & his son. Most times once you tell them you don't have any money to give them & that you live in a van, they have zero interest in trying to talk to you anymore, but Marc's philosophy is that if anybody stops him to talk about anything, they're getting the gospel. A good philosophy to have. :)
So we get to the show 10 minutes after it was supposed to start and they were not even done setting up & there was nobody there. Another artist was going to go up first, but he was downstairs schmoozing. Disappointment. They are so not even close to famous enough to show up late to their own show. Oober lame, so to the van it was!
And this brings us to Saturday. The lady at the cheese store had told us about a huge Farmer's Market that the city has every Saturday. Supposedly it's the biggest in the country (it didn't seem like it), so we went. There were more protesters against the governor. This time it was a skit.

 As we walked around and scoped out fantastic cheese, we came upon a few guys who had a little booth about "Top 15 reasons to question evolution" so we stopped & talked to them for a little while. They gave us a bunch of literature & a book called "The Evolution Handbook" which apparently refutes many of the arguments made by evolutionists. I have yet to read it, but Marc has started it and says it is written with a tone, but is good.
From there we walked around more & Marc spotted a guy sitting alone (his favorite) on a bench so we talked to him. He was from Atlanta but was up here visiting family. He goes to church & believes in God & had all of the right answers, so there was not a whole lot else we could say. So we moved on! As we were standing in line to get some free samples of fried cheese (mmmmm), this lady next to us asked if we were going to vote. We explained to her that we were from California, but then asked her about Jesus. Turns out she was Jewish but then said she was appealing to "the gods" for help for their state. Uuuuummmm, I'm sure that that isn't how it works lady.
The next conversation was an...interesting one. Three college aged guys who looked like frat boys were sitting on the stairs of the capitol & they were Marc's next lucky victims. One was Jewish (not really practicing), one was agnostic, and the other could not care less. None of them cared, but there was a particular stench of "I don't care" about the third one. It is totally mind blowing to me when people say that they don't care to think about where they will spend eternity. I mean, it is one thing to not believe in heaven/hell, but to not even take the time to form an opinion on it is just foolish. You have a job, you plan your future, you at least take care of yourself in the here and now, why wouldn't you at least want to think about eternity? If it's real, you're screwed. So many people have said to us, "well I guess I'll find out when I get there," not realizing that that is not how it works. I just wish we could make people see. Sigh.
And that was about it for the farmer's market so we headed over to the University of Wisconsin, Madison for the free jazz festival they were having on the terrace. Uh-stinkin-mazing. The view here was beyond superb.

the view from where we sat

apparently the school dairy store has the best ice cream around so Marc treated me to some

:) oh happy day!

the water behind us

At the festival we talked to this guy named Greg from Boston. He was another one of those "I don't care about what happens after you die and I don't care to think about it now" kind of people. :( We talked to him for a couple of minutes and he said that in Boston you have to know your sports if you want the time of day from anyone. Good for me, bad for Marc lol. I do wish that I had a Raider's jersey or shirt to wear since we'll be in Patriot's town (EW).
From there Marc talked to these two guys:

fellow longboarders! They talked for a few mintues, but then the guys took off to meet with someone.
Throughout the day there were a few other scattered conversations here & there, none of them of too much note until our last conversation with a girl named Jane. She was sitting there reading so we went up & began a conversation with her that lasted for at least 30 minutes. She just graduated with a degree in bio. Sadly, she said that she wants to believe in something, but with everything she learned she just doesn't see how it is possible. We shared as much as we could with her but she just had so many doubts. She didn't believe in the validity or authenticity of the Bible because of the dark ages and various other reasons. Something she said that saddened my heart was, "We all evolved from apes, I mean, that's just a fact." People pay so much money to believe anything that people tell them. Even in the scientific community that's not fact-it's the leading theory, which means nothing with no evidence.
So the next day (Sunday) we went to church without any of the guys we invited. It was a super good message on the faith of the centurion from an aspect that I had never heard taught before. Afterwards they serve a free potluck lunch so we stayed for that and met a few good people. The lady who sat right across from us was even from Moreno Valley!!! Small world, as always! The guy next to us was really interested in our trip and even helped us out some, so that was nice, and then it was off to Milwaukee!!

I absolutely love the look of Milwaukee. It's old, but not falling apart-just the right amount of vintage & culture. It really is a beautiful city. When we got into town, we were tired from the past few days so we took the day off and went to the beach (aka Lake Michigan!) where we just read and relaxed for the rest of the day!

the bridge we're on is one of the ones that goes up so ferrys can cross. sweet.

the beach at Lake Michigan!

excuse the frizzy hairs :)

Alright, that's it for now. Milwaukee update to come when I have more time.

Minnasowda

The funny thing about Minnesota is the accents. They're not quite so prevalent as on TV when people make fun of them, but maybe they will be when we get to Wisconsin. :) Minnesota is Minnasowda and other very funny consonants added here and there.

"The Land of 10,000 Lakes"

there is water everywhere!!!

Our first experience in Minnesota was fantastic! We drove into the state headed for Minneapolis but first stopped in Lakeville, which is a suburb about 30 minutes south because Marc's old neighbors (the Loewen's) had moved there about 6 years ago. So we stopped and went to Starbucks to work on blogs & such while we waited for her to call us back. While we were there, we met a woman named Becky who was helping to run a scavenger hunt for FCA students (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). After sitting at the table next to us for about half an hour, she asked us where we go to church so we told her our story. She gave us her number and invited us over if we needed to shower, do laundry, etc. Starbucks closed so we were sitting outside finishing up and the two ladies who worked there came out & said we looked cold so they gave us hot chocolate! How sweet!
So this lady parks & gets out of her car about to go into Starbucks when we break the bad news: they're closed. :( I know, sad day right? I told her I would look up another one for her so as I did, we all started talking. We told her about our trip and why we're doing it and we got to talk a lot about Jesus. It's terrible how many people we meet who have been burned by religion and religious people and just have a horrible taste for everything Christian because of it. This lady, Dawn, believes in God but doesn't go to church or anything like that. Of course, you don't have to go to church to be saved, but it DEFINITELY helps, not only with salvation, but ensuring that you stay on the right path. All in all it really was a truly blessed conversation. She was such a sweet woman, so willing to talk and be honest. You don't find that too much. As she was leaving, she came back and gave Marc & I a gift. To me she gave a pair of earrings & to him a pendant. She has her own jewelry company called Glass Harbor (www.glassharbor.com) and she makes all of her own glass pendants & things and wraps them, makes them jewelry. It is super awesome, she does amazing stuff.
So Becky called & invited us over that night but right after we got off the phone with her, Jan (Marc's old neighbor) got back to us, so we decided to go to Jan's, but what a blessing Becky was. Even though we didn't end up going to her house, she truly blessed us with her willingness to help us & to serve. Pray for her & her family-they just came back from a 6 month (I think) missions trip. Awesome!!
Ok, so we made it to the Loewen's! Sweet! It was really cool to see this lady that Marc grew up knowing and the stories they relived. Shortly after, her son, Kevin, and her daughter, Amanda, came home so I got to meet them as well. Tuesday morning I met Jon, her husband. This family has been so awesome. They are seriously treating us like we are family. I didn't even know them before we got here and I feel so welcome, it's a bigger blessing then I think they realize.
Monday was tree day! There was a huge birch tree in the front yard that had been damaged in the last snow storm so it now had to be removed. Jon's parents came over and the men got to work at chopping, sawing, and pulling down the tree. Once all of the branches and trunks were down, Marc clipped them into small pieces and Jan, her Mother-in-law, & I all picked them up and bundled them for the trash man to pick up. Man. That was no fun! Haha but something I'm trying to learn is to serve without complaining. I mean, obviously, it is in the Bible! Not to mention, when we were in Iowa, I was put to shame! We were basically doing the same thing-Marc was cutting branches off of this HUGE tree and I was cutting them into smaller, manageable pieces. Well, when we got there, the man who had been using a saw on a pole (whatever you call those) to cut down the branches was SEVENTY YEARS OLD! No joke! And the woman who was cutting them on the ground and picking them up was probably 60, 65. I got tired pretty quickly but how can I take a break when these people who are 2 and almost 3 times older than me are working so hard?! Apparently we Californians have a reputation in Iowa for being sissies and I couldn't live up to that! But anyways, back to Minnesota! So the tree took all day! Eventually they had to get this thing called a stump grinder (basically a huge saw type thing on the end of a big lawnmower looking thing that literally grinds trees into sawdust) to grind down the tree & roots so they could pull it out. Mission accomplished after a really, really long day! For them...I mostly just picked up sticks.

Jon working the stump grinder

I cannot tell you how refreshing and awesome it is to have not only a house to stay in, but a room to sleep in & a tv to watch & (my favorite part) a fridge to raid. The Lord is good! :)
Tuesday we had a family outing :) Jan & Jon took Marc & I to the capitol, St. Paul!

again, the typical capitol building. At least this time it had gold horses on top!

And yes, that is my finger in the top right of the frame. oops!

like my griffin?

the beauty of being places with other people is that we

can take pictures like this :)

some tiiiight pillars

the view from the top

St. Paul's Cathedral

the statue of the golden horses

(Jon, Jan, me, & Marc)

After the capitol building we drove over to St. Paul's, which was really cool!!! I have never been inside a Cathedral so this was a very cool experience. They had the confessional booths just like on TV and people in the pews praying. It was totally different. Marc put it perfectly when he told me that just from looking around you would think that they don't believe in the resurrection. Jesus is constantly depicted in this weak, frail state rather than as the victor that he is! The Loewen's were telling us (as have others) that Catholicism & Lutheranism are the big religions in Minnesota, that most people are one of 2, or so they say.

the confessionals! funny, they don't look like Jesus

(get it? cause He is our mediator.)  :)

they spelled it wrong, so Marc fixed it :)

grand! 

the "tabernacle", as they called it, up front

And then it was off to the place I have been wanting to go: the Mall of America!!! Unfamiliar? Let me give you some facts!

.57 miles is the walking distance around one level of Mall of America

4.3 miles of total store front footage

7 Yankee Stadiums can fit inside the Mall

25 rides and attractions in Nickelodeon Universe

32 Boeing 747s could fit inside the Mall

86 hours is the length of time it would take to complete your visit to the Mall if you were to spend just 10 minutes in each store

100+ pounds of food are fed daily to animals at SEA LIFE™ Minnesota Aquarium - plus 90 extra pounds on the days the sharks are fed

258 Statues of Liberty could lie inside the Mall

520+ stores are located in Mall of America

5,000+ weddings have been performed at Mall of America

11,000 year-round employees at Mall of America (13,000 during peak periods)

12,550 on-site parking spaces at Mall of America in two ramps

1.2 million-gallon aquarium at SEA LIFE™ Minnesota Aquarium

4.2 million square feet of gross building area

40 million visitors annually which is more than the combined populations of North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa...and Canada

So we walked around the first two levels, which was super fantastic! We didn't go in all of the stores, but we definitely went in the good ones. That place is insane, just the things they have inside of it. An aquarium, an amusement park! A bajillion stores! Holy moly! Their Lego store was phenomenal! Above it were tons of these statues/figures that were all built from Legos!!!

even these murals are little lego pieces!!!

then we went to the Disney store where I got to 

be a pretty, pretty princess lol

If you look on the right you'll see the Microsoft store, 

directly across from the Apple store on the left.

So we headed back to the Loewen's house where we met Kevin's (Jan's son) girlfriend, who brought us a gift! It was a package of bacon. I know, funny store! So we picked up the family, and headed out for some ribs! Well, I had a cheese omelette, but the guys all had ribs. A funny side note, I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Peanut butter sandwiches, not so much. You've gotta have jelly but unfortunately because we live in a van without a refrigerator, we can't keep jelly. For this reason, whenever anyone takes us to eat where they have the little individual packs of jelly, we stock up. Does this make me a horrible person that I just like jelly so much? Well, we ended up stuffing a bunch of these in a take out box so now I have a plethora of jelly. :)

this is the 3rd state where my love of jelly has become a joke by the way

On Wednesday we planned to go to church that night but because the church was so far away (about 30 minutes away in Minneapolis), we planned on going into the city maybe around 2 or 3 to evangelize then go to church but that didn't end up happening. Remember the tree the boys pulled out? Well Jon & Marc spent a really long time digging the hole bigger & getting out some roots so they could plant a new tree. We still ended up going to church, we just left later than planned, which is ok because Kevin came with us. Church was really good, we met a few people. Oddly enough, the guy sitting in front of us started talking to us & we found out that his sister goes to our church back home!! I think he said her name was Alicia Broderick, but I can't quite recall. Anyways, small world, as usual!
I have no idea what we did on Thursday. My steel trap has started becoming a leaky barrel & I can't quite recall. I do know that we went to a thrift store and then in the evening we went camera shopping (again) because our camera is on it's way out. The battery hatch doesn't stay shut, the lens shakes like crazy anytime the camera is not upright, and it takes a good 20 seconds to turn on. So we looked around and found the perfect, affordable camera. We were super blessed by the Loewen's, who pitched in $100 to help us out, which took off more than half of the cost of a camera. Thank you Jesus & Jan & John!
So on Friday we finally got out and hit the streets! It was an awesome day!

this awesome bridge that we crossed about 19 times

The Mississippi River!

So the first people we came across were on the bridge. These 3 guys are physicists and were here for a conference. We walked & talked for about 10 minutes and they kinda were doing their own thing so we parted ways. The next people we talked to was a homeless couple. We walked by the girl and they guy was sitting there against the pole with a sign at his feet. As Marc was talking to him for a couple of minutes, his girlfriend came up and got a lighter. As she walked away he said to us, "Ok, I gotta get back to work." How odd right? Only because back to work consists of sitting on his sign, looking depressed (when really he wasn't). Further down the road we came this guy who calls us over & tries to get us to sponsor a child. We explained to him our situation and he was cool with just talking about whatever but then this girl walked by that he was interested in so he called her over and she came over and started talking with us as well. All in all, it was kiiinda awkward at first. But as we hung out and talked some more, Marc asked if either of them went to church. Tony doesn't believe in God and Jovi hates organized religion, which is a very common response. She thinks that many stories in the Bible are ripped off and plagiarized and that there are too many contradictions in the Bible, but when we asked her which ones, she couldn't really say. All that she said was, "It's a long conversation and I'm on my way to do something." It's funny because a lot of time people really want to tell you their opinion, but it's a very one sided conversation. As soon as they say it, they're done. That's how this conversation went. Tony had to get back to work & Jovi took off to run her errands. So it goes.
Continuing through downtown, we saw these 2 guys waiting for the bus. Turns out they were believers, at least one of them was. The other guy was telling us how his sister was a minister. We've had a lot of people tell us that they have a female relative who is a minister or deacon or something which always worries me. As much as I would love to be a teacher of the word, the Bible prohibits women from teaching men so how do you have a woman who is a minister? Does she just skip that section I suppose?
After talking with them, we headed down another street sort of in the direction of where we were parked. Along the way we walked by this guy who was just standing there. I don't remember his name but I think he's agnostic. He did say that sometimes the thought of where he is going to spend eternity keeps him awake at night. Marc was able to share the gospel a little bit, but very shortly after, his wife pulled up to pick him up and he took off. Darn. Pray for him!
As we made our way back to the car, we were heading over the awesome bridge again and this guy was coming across it by himself. We were just about past him when Marc stopped him and started talking. I stood back praying and eventually went over to where they were and joined the conversation. And it was a great one! He goes to church and believes in God, but isn't really sure if the Bible is accurate or how you can know which religion is the truth or why is it fair that Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven. He had so many questions! So we all walked and talked and all in all we were with him for about 30-40 minutes. His name is Brian, if you can please pray for him. He lives in Florida but is here visiting his brother and when he goes back, he'll be joining the Navy!
After we got back to the van, we headed to a suburb called Eden Prairie to have dinner with a family that we met at the church, the Culbertsons and their friend Sam. After dinner we had dessert (yummy!) and then Marc & the family did worship! It was a super huge blessing and really inspired me to have my kids take music lessons and be able to play different kinds of instruments. (I'm sure that would have happened anyways, considering Marc's passion for music.) How amazing to see this family together, glorifying God and lifting up his name. We really had such a good time with them. The conversation was great and they set such an excellent example of a Godly family, something we could tell from the short time we were there.

Syd played the piano

Jack played guitar whileTina sang & pulled up the music

Even Michael is learning to play the guitar!

Jack (left) and Sam (right)

All in all we were there for about 5 and a half hours! How awesome that we have family all over the country. It is a little bit sad sometimes because we meet so many awesome people and then say bye and will most likely not see most of them again. :( oh sad day. If you are reading this & we met you on the trip, keep in touch with us! Everyone tells us to keep in touch with them but we meet so many people that it's hard, so text us sometime! We would love to keep in touch with everyone. :)
Moving on! Saturday morning we snoozed! Well I suppose most days we snoozed :) but that's beside the point! In the afternoon we got dressed and headed back to the Mall of America for round 2! Compared to the first time we went, it was CRAZY!!! In the parking lot, I felt like I was at Disneyland without the parking attendants. Once we got inside, I felt like I was in one of those movies where it's Christmas eve and everyone in the city is at the mall. It was nuts!!!

the packed out parking lot. I parked in Timbuktoo 7.

see what I mean?! It's packed out!

On the third floor we found mini-golf, the food court, and a ton of restaurants from BWW to Famous Dave's  to Ruby Tuesday's to Rainforest Cafe to Tony Roma's and a ton more. It's crazy!!! This is really the most amazing part: there is an amusement park INSIDE the mall. It's called Nickelodeon Universe and is so large! Well, it's big for being inside of a mall.

the mini-golf course!

the ninja turtle ride!

Nickelodeon Universe!

it even has a log ride!!!

See what I'm talking about!? Crazy isn't it! The inevitable happened and Marc got bored of being at the mall (shocker) so we took off.
Sunday morning we went to church with Jan & Kevin at a church called River Valley Church. It was cool, nothing unbiblical, the worship was awesome. It was my first time at a church other than Calvary (or affiliate)  in a super long time. It's funny because in the past I was always really super defensive when people seemed to talk down on topical churches because I came from one. It bothered me a lot and it seemed to always be the first thing that people talked about when assessing a church. Either "well they're topical" or "they teach through the Bible" and it always seemed petty to me, I mean, either way, they're teaching the Bible. While I still think that topical churches have their place and can serve a purpose, it made me value so much more my church back home and their style of teaching.
After church, next on the agenda was Culver's Butterburgers & Frozen Custard. I know, sounds weird, but
Marc said his burger was good and the place came highly recommended. Then we (Marc, Jan, Kevin, & I) went to the local Christian bookstore to get Kevin a new Bible. Eventually when we got back to the Loewen's, Kevin & Marc did a few songs of worship and the family & us hung out and read some verses, had a little study, and talked for a couple of hours. It was really nice.
Memorial Day! (which is today lol) We had a bbq, I made mac n cheese (be jealous people back home, because I'm about to go eat the leftovers!), and ate the yummiest cookies ever. Then the Loewen's treated us to a movie! We all went to see MIB3. It was so good! I loved it!
Our time here in Minnesota is coming to a close. Tomorrow we will be getting our oil changed and on Wednesday we are heading out. The Loewen family has blessed us so much, all glory to God. They have told us a few times that us being here has been a blessing to them which is totally crazy because we're just hanging out with them! But as they say, the Lord works in mysterious ways and maybe this is one of those.
I know it seems like we didn't really evangelize the city too much (and we didn't as much as we usually do) but I really feel like we were where God wanted us while we were here and ministry was fantastic because of that.
<3 from Minnasowda