CONFIRMATION RETREAT

I honestly got to say that I had fun most of the time!

FRIDAY:

I go to St. Lorenzo Church and get things settled up. I get onto the bus with Austin, and we sit around Jason, Bryan, Kameron, Alfred, and Mark. Austin and I kept singing love story. We watched Wall.E. It was an okay movie with cute moments. I ate some watermelon sour patch kids, YUM. We were going higher and higher and eventually we started to see snow. We got there, and off the bus, and it wasn't even that cold.

Went into the dining hall tent. We played a game where we have five pieces of candy and you ask people yes or no questions, and if they say yes you get to have one of their candies. Then, we split into our groups. I was group TEN, YELLOW with Andrea, Daniel, Wilson, Lee, Bianca, Nicole, Mark, and Jason. Our group leaders were Susan and Nikki. We each got an index card where we put down our problems and burdens. Then, we went outside to put it into a fire so that we would forget about those stuff while on this retreat.

Then, we had to get out luggage and go to our cabins. The girls cabins were somewhat far because we had to tread through snow to get there, and my cabin was number 28, and that was the farthest cabin! You never know when you're just going to sink. I fell on my butt! Then, we realized that we had to go back up to the tent, exhaustion! We did an activity where each person in the group has to speak three minutes about themselves so we can get to know each other. After some other activities, we went back to our cabins and I don't know what time we slept because we weren't allowed to have watches or phones.

SATURDAY:

Woke up before our cabin leader had to wake us up. Got ready and went into the tent. We actually did activities that included scripture. We got journals to write things in them. Breakfast came, and the food was good! Five Stars. Mark put A1 sauce on his eggs! Then, we went back into the tent and listened to speakers talk. When we had free time, this one group said they were going to play a game so I joined in. They said they were going to play the ninja game, HYEAH, but it was weird because we had to stay on a slow beat, and we weren't allowed to make noise when we raise our sword. So, we played boom chicka boom boom instead. My hair was really tangled, so I borrowed Mark's comb and I broke it, I felt so bad, but he ended up breaking the whole thing so he could brush his eyebrows. Lunch came, and I wasn't hungry cause breakfast filled me up.

After lunch, we got free time, so the longest and best snowball fight ever! Just throwing snowballs to random people. I remember this one guy was getting hit and he was in front of a car and was like "Hey, you're hitting the car you know... well, it needs it anyway" (the car was really dirty) And there would be like big blocks of ice people would try to throw. I remember constantly hitting Bryan and he would be like "How are you doing that so fast?!" Cause he was slow. I was scared to get Austin cause he's aggressive! My hands and feet numbed up.

Later, Our cabin found out that we don't have a leader for our cabin, so we had to take our luggage and move it to cabin 23, and it was the hardest thing I ever had to drag! While waiting for everyone to get back from break, our group played Jiggalo. We did this challenge where we had to stand on one leg and you can't hold the other leg that's hanging for five minutes. I made it through, but My left leg started to ache.

We had free time, and Daniel started dancing so we created a circle and Daniel and Neil battled. Then, we started shouting names for people to dance. We called out Jason but he wouldn't dance. Then we called Bryan and he went crazy. Then, we called out Jason's sister, Crystal and she bucked her way in. Then, Neil would do the YES dance with Danny. There was a battle between the groups Teal and Blue. Blue had an original cheer, and Teal just sang songs, so blue won!

Dinner came, and this dinner was sick. Mark and Jason mixed all the drinks and chugged it. They said it was Nasty! Mark put all the sauces on his ice cream! Jason ate a churro with some nasty stuff on it. People played cup games. After, We went back to the tent to play the game "Cross the Line" There was a huge rectangle and a diagonal in the middle. Neil would say something, and if you have done it, you have to cross the line. It got really deep and emotional.

Then, Aderation came. It was this whole ritual thing with this cross, and the priest had to put incense. We just had to reflect and pray for about three hours until everyone was done with confession. Confession was unnecessary for me. Then, I went back into the tent. Everyone was bawling! I think it was because the speaker was saying stuff we needed to think about and reflect on, stuff that made us feel guilty. I kept writing in my journal, I wrote the gospel and things I need to work on to help with my spiritual life. I showed Austin what I wrote about the gospel. He read it but he didn't say anything cause we weren't suppose to talk. Then, at the end of the day, we moved our cabin to 8, we kept flashing our flashlights at the boys cabin.

SUNDAY:
Did some activities again, and prayed in an African dance form, and a tai chi prayer form and then had brunch. Daniel, this guy in my group, it was his birthday and he had a twin so we all sang. He also wrote each one of us in our group a small letter, it was so sweet! I remember his brother saying on Saturday, "I get lazy to go to chuch, but he brings me (points to his brother)." We played bobby's world, around the world, and snaps. We went back into the tent and had to set up for mass. Had mass, and got ready to go home. Our bus was nasty; it smelled, it only had vhs, and the windows were cracked.

Overall, I am just really glad that I had time with God because I haven't been lately, which was what I got out of this retreat. I'm sure that a lot of people got something out of this retreat and truly love the Lord.