YOO HOOO?? Anybody in here??

seems like this blog is hollow. it's partially my fault but it's okay...

a lot has happened since that last march entry below...

freedom from so much hurt. emotional and spiritual clean-sweep. God is so good.

thank You God. guess i should go to bed before the new day takes off without me...

if you're in here, make yourself at home. get what you want. it's okay if you don't say hi.

may God continue to guide you into the destiny He specially designed just for you.

oh. and btw, the new passion cd, "waiting here for you," is a must-download.

Epic-ness!

Life is going so swell that I guess I neglected this blog. Oopsies...Just so you know, my most recent blog addition is a collaberative effort, http://www.epicchronicles.com/
This blog was created by my friend, Stoney Noell. It consists of many expressions and voices, all inspiring people to one thing; to live the Epic lives we have been born to live, in and through Jesus Christ. Each month we'll be diving into topics using our many points of view.

Another blog I have been more bloggy at is http://www.leslieprieto.tumbr.com/. This is my personal blog about life as a girl learning how to work at a radio station with a missional focus for New England. It's very similar to this blog but it's more regularly updated. So if it's too many blogs for you to read, you can stay reading this blog, but if you get ansy, feel free to check out my blog on Tumblr and at Epic Chronicles.

So today was awesome! Actually, this whole weekend has been awesome!! God is so faithful. The weather was beautiful and it motivated me to do some spring cleaning. I decided it was time to get the spring bags out.
This is the same picture just on a different setting on my app...isn't it groovy?? LOVE it!

















Plus, I thought if I want friends to come over, I need to have a clean place, and maybe that will help motivate me some more and keep me accountable to maintaining a neat living space open for company whenever. This is how messy it was..



I had a long Saturday but it was well worth it. I'll take pictures of my clean place later...


This weekend went so well because I love what God is doing. At church we're learning about net-worth and how we can be better stewards of what God has entrusted us with. I want to be able to give freely the way God does. It's gonna be a process but I know I was made for this. We all were. "To whom much is given, much is required.." and alrighty then! Something else that made this weekend super awesome was that I was carrying some stuff on my heart. Stuff that was sort of like unecessary drama. I was upset about somethings and part of it was me just misunderstanding some things and the other part was me just being a selfish beast. I have a lot to learn. But I'm thankful I get to live it out. I prayed for God to bring resolution and boom! He did it again! I love Him. HE says for us to walk in the light in 1 John 1:7 so that we can have fellowship with Him and others and it totally makes sense. I hate confrontation but I'm beginning to love it. It's for our own good and the good of others that we are to call each other out in love. I'm so glad. Love is so strong and able to carry all the weight. Nothing to heavy for Love to lift off.


So I feel such a freedom from getting things out of my head and heart onto a silver platter for my friend to see and examine. It's done with and all is well.


Something else that made this weekend so enjoyable was that I got to spend time with my pastor's family. Once a month they invite visitors to have breakfast at their house and even though I'm no longer a visitor, I went this time as moral support to others....Ha! Okay, Okay, free food is a great incentive but something else I enjoy just as much is fellowship. It was good conversation, breakfast, coffee, prayer and laughs. I love that I'm here. I keep thinking how blessed I am. I get to have this community to live life with and coming from Florida where I felt so alone, this is a glimpse of heaven. I feel super priveleged, honored to be here. This is one of the delights of my own heart God is fulfilling. It hasn't been an easy road, but God has proven to be Most FAITHFUL. If you choose to know who God is, your life will never be the same. He's real and loves us and wants the best for us, so why not put our trust and hope in Him? Right? :-)


Okay...so one more thing made this weekend extra delightful...
BUT don't worry, I didn't go crazy...only got a few items...

The End. :-)

Fasting..not so Fun..

Well..It’s not something I’d describe as “Fun.” It’s something like sobering up after a hangover. And you realize what you did the night before..you can’t remember how you ended up where you are…You only drank so you could loosen up a bit and relax, hopefully forget about the stuff that’s been bothering you…so that cosmo was super appealing, and so was the one after that, and the one after that…and boom, “what was bothering me?? …i like pandas! let’s go look for a panda!”

okay, well, i feel like life without God is one big hangover waiting to happen…we try to push God away because we all know He opens up a can of worms. issues. God exposes beyond the surface…

fasting to me has been like waking up with a bad hangover. sobering up. you’d think i was a drunkard from all this talk about hangovers but reality is i’ve never really had a hangover. i’ve just been really observant of others with hangovers. that, and i’ve watched lots of television.

so for the past 13 days i’ve been fasting something. i don’t wanna say because i guess according to the Bible i’m not supposed to let people know i’m fasting…like “oh woe is me…poor me…” but that’s not why i’m blogging. not my motive, so i guess it’s okay to say what i’ve been fasting. i’m a -aholic to a lot of things in life. coffee. shopping. facebook. sweets. television. gossipping. makeup.

but to fast all those would require me to just die. literally. laugh. it’s okay. i just did. um, so what i felt like i’ve been giving sooo much of my life to was facebook and television. so this is what i’ve come to realize thus far. life without facebook and my favorite television shows is lonely. i was using facebook and television as outlets. to vent. to blow some steam. yeah, i knew God was somewhere but just not in my apartment. i found myself crying this week. life is lonely. who do i talk to? who do i ask for prayer? who do i talk to about the stuff that got on my nerves today? God? really? REALLY?

so I did. I gossipped to God. btw, am I spelling that correctly? gosssssippppping.. yep, except when you gossip to God it’s totally sin-free. i love sin-free like i love fat-free pringles. mmmm…gimme more. so I’ve been gossipping to God. it’s been neat. He actually does something about it. or lets me cool off and softens my heart and then delivers me instruction on what to do about it. i love a God i can gossip to. He’s safe. He’s right. always available.

oh and btw, i fell off the wagon a couple of times (fb) but i didn’t quit. i’m not a quitter. i’m an overcomerrrr! muahahaha!

Stuffed and ready for more!

(this blog's gonna be kinda random but i promise it won't be depressing)it's now been a week since i arrived home to texas for the holidays and i'm already dreading the saying goodbye part. i've had such a great time with my family and i wish my days were always full of family time.

been stuffing my face like crazy and i feel like there've been lots of God-moments since the week i left. by "God-moments" i mean i've had some rich conversations with strangers and with family.

just finished eating some of my dad's famous fajitas and my mom's amazing beans with rice, then my sister's amazing cake and coffee...it's safe to say i am stuffed! i didn't even want to move earlier because i was so full...pushed myself off the bed to do something other than nap. Sunday naps are the best but can be dangerous right after such stuffage of the face. i've had like no self-discipline in my eating during this vacay...i eat and eat and eat...it's soooo good..the food..

alright, lets get down to business...taking a look back at this year, i think God's always so merciful to me. i could very well be His favorite.. don't hate...i'm sure HE somehow loves you the same...haa

i want to apologize for the plethora of depressing blog entries i've produced since the beginning...things are changing and i've learned...i'm ready for more to learn but with a new perspective..there's a slight fear attached to me saying all that...like "oh man, what if some bad stuff has to happen for more learning? who likes having bad stuff to deal with?? not me.."

next year i want to get to the root of the things that hinder me from walking closer to God. i want to ask those hard questions without fear of what the answers are. i want my mission in life to be, making Jesus famous with all i got.

it's His will, right?

k...nap time!

Music, Coffee Shop, The Holidays

i love all the christmas decor. i love the music. sitting in a coffee shop is cozy. it makes for a bloggy mood.

i'm single and i think now i have a healthy dose of alone time.

before, i think i had too much time alone that it sort of made me resent married couples. bad. i know.

most people thought it weird that an outgoing girl like myself was having trouble connecting. there were single people i knew but no real connections.

it's easy to automatically point the finger at me. i even did. i would ask God what was wrong with me. i missed my nashville friends so much.

the only explanation i have is that it was a season God wanted me to grow through. this was the season of me being a student.

i don't think i made all the right choices to fully grow in that season but i'm still thankful for the stuff i did grow in.

spiritually, i don't think i've grown too much. i take full responsibility for that. i know i could make more of an effort but havent. well, not until now.

the people i'm surrounded by are all about their faith. they live it, so it makes me wanna live it. it's been like a week that i've not been so livin' it. by that i mean, like, i haven't watered the plants. no bible, yes some prayer but slackin'. i don't want to wake up earlier than i already have to. guess my flesh is king these days. i get home and i want to be lulled by the television. i don't even have the good cable.

excuses excuses. that bothers me. something else that bothers me is something that happened last night. i went to a cell-group and as an ice breaker we bounced a ball of questions around. my question was "what/who would you give your life for?" the christian answer would be "Jesus." I said it. honestly i've not thought about that. i don't wanna just say something because it's proper or because it's the christian response. i wanna say i would die for JEsus because i know in my heart without a doubt. would i sacrifice all for Him? if someone were to put a gun to my head and ask me to deny Jesus exists, i'd argue back with the truth that He does but do i have all the ammunition to defend myself? oh man, i'm waaaay over analyzing here...remember colombine? "do you believe in God?" basically, if i said "yes," i wanna die for saying "yes" from the bottom of my heart. that's all my drama these days..

Thanks and Giving...

just realized this holiday is made up of 2 verbs back to back. interesting.

people usually say "thanks" after you give them something.

some people give things as a way of saying "thank you."

anyway, it's now a little over a month that i've been working at the q99.7, a new radio station in feeding hills, mass. october was a bit extra stressful due to the annual pledge drive to raise money so we can stay on the air. i'm still learning where everything's at.

there are days i stay late just catching up. i'm on the morning show and on mid-days. i'm supposed to do office work in between and i guess after. this tires me. but i'm not here to complain. i'm thankful i have this job. this is what i've always dreamed of doing. if i don't get rest, too bad. i'm gonna stick it through. i'm gonna fight.

first time in my life i only have to worry about cleaning my toilet and no one else's.

first time in my life i get to sleep in on the weekends.

first time in my life i have a set schedule 5 days out of the week.

first time i get to talk and encourage on 2 shows in one day every day!

first time i get to be a part of those "work meetings" every week.

first time i get to live on my own in a city that experiences all 4 seasons.

first time i get to make coffee because i want to, not because i have to.

i get to give encouragement to people who've grown up without it.

i get to know those people that are usually portrayed on movies like home alone and all those east-coast-ish based movies. i'm living in the midst of it.

so anyway, i'm thankful and i don't wanna forget all this when things get stressful...i love that my work place allows me to stop, ask for prayer/encouragement to go on and do the best that i can do. that's my goal. i want to do my best. best part about this job is that it's FUN!!

p.s. if you like the picture i posted, you can find more at http://www.epiclifecreative.com/

it's been 2 weeks since you looked at me....

living in massachussetts. it’s a long name to spell. aside spelling it out, i love it.

the new job is still new but it’s never boring. i get to be surrounded by a team who loves Jesus and He’s the center of this whole radio ministry. it’s that missional focus that lured me in. sure it can get a bit stressful but it’s only when others get stressed…sometimes it could me, sometimes it could be others. there’s some that are always steadfast and i’m glad i get to be sharpened by them. i need to learn how to be steadfast. to hold on to the truth over whatever my circumstance.

it’s so crazyto think that i’m seeing faces of new england i have never seen before and God had it all planned. these faces i would see some day. here we are. every face has a story. i wonder. the lady in her black and white coat, what’s her story? that couple sitting in the booth across from me, what’s their story? the lady that asked me to move out of my seat yesterday, what’s her story? if i keep this in mind, i hope compassion keeps stirring into flame…

i’m still praying about what church i’m supposed to be a part of but then again, i kinda feel like i already belong in one. the question is, do i feel this way because i work with a lot of those people at my job, or is this another comfort zone i need to avoid? like, are the connections i’ve made with these specific people part of God’s plan to lead me in the right direction? i’m gonna pray about it some more.

i wanna pray more. i need more of that in my life. whatever happened to praying and believing God would do what He said He would do if we did? feels like i just faded out of believing in santa clause or somethin’..

all this to say, i love it here in massachussetts. it’s dark. it’s unchurched. it’s where i belong. not because there are people like me. it’s because there aren’t. i’m not sayin’ oh look at me, i’m perfect. no. what i am sayin’ is i have hope. hope is here. i’m just another candle to add to the mantle here in new england. hoping to expand the radius of hope in a dark cold place. not everybody is cold during the cold. but there’s a huge chunk of glaciers that need thawing. i’m here to be of use. i’m thankful. this excites me. my drama can be used to thaw. how cool. so if you think of me, pray for courage. it’s not always easy to be open and transparent but i think that’s why it’s so powerful…

if i stick with Jesus, i guess fear will be demolished. pray for me to keep coming to God for everything, every day. i can’t do this alone.