I couldn't really decide on what to write about, so my roommate just told me to write about an unforgettable experience. So that's exactly what I'm going to do because I can’t think of anything better.

My most unforgettable experience was my first trip to Guatemala. Guatemala is the home of my whole family on my father's side. So because I had never been there, the purpose of this trip was to meet my family. Now one of my uncles is a pastor and he founded a missionary group called Medical Mission Ministries. The purpose of this group is to go to different villages and spread the word of God and give medicine. The group also has its own medical doctors, a dentist, and an optometrist. The mission group’s base of operations is his own home and believe me, it’s freakin huge. It probably fits more people than the one that live in your entire floor. Now he has made many contacts with Christian churches in the US, mainly in Georgia, and throughout the year they send groups of about 30 people, parents and teenagers, to my uncle’s house. The groups stay for about a week and every day they go to a different village with my uncle and his staff. While my uncle and the doctors see the patients and hand out medicine, the “gringos” form gospel stations and preach the word of God. However, because they don’t speak Spanish, they need interpreters. The interpreters form the final part of the mission group. The interpreters are a group of about 10 Christians ranging from ages of 13 to 23.

This is where I come in. While I was staying with my uncle, one day he invited me to go along with the group to the village. And because I’m fluent in Spanish and English he had me work as an interpreter. That day changed my life. With my own two eyes I saw a miracle happen. A girl walked in escorted by her mother. The mother told us her daughter was 23 and had been born deaf. We all gathered around the girl, placed our hands on her shoulders, and began to pray. We prayed for about 10 minutes, when all of a sudden the girl starts yelping and moaning in joy, signaling to us that she could hear us! If that’s not the power of God, I don’t know what is. I spent the rest of my summer at my uncle’s house working as a missionary.

However, being an interpreter was not my only job. I also go to work at the kid’s station, where we played soccer and just had fun with the kids while their parents were seeing the doctors. I got to work as the dentist’s assistant too. This involved handing her the tools and holding the flashlight for her while she pulled rotten teeth out. Finally I got to work at our pharmacy table, which just meant I prepared necessary doses of all the medicine to give to the people.

Besides the feeling of being able to help people less fortunate than you, the best part of the trip was just getting to meet so many people. Because all of the interpreters are around the same age we all became really close friends, as well as with the “gringo” teenagers from the church groups. I know I formed lifelong friendships with all of them.