Familia!
Happy New Year!
I realized that since I'll be on my mission all of this year, 2014 is going to
be the year where I can say that I dedicated every minute to the Lord and His
work. I'm super excited for what this year has in store!!
Well, I'll start with
the crazy weather. Before Christmas it snowed, then it rained and got rid
of all the snow just before Christmas day. Then right after New Years it
started snowing again, and we got a few inches. Then yesterday, the
temperature shot up from the low mid teen's to the high 30's, and it rained all
day and nearly got rid of all of the snow. Then just before we went in
last night, it started snowing again, and this morning when we left the
apartment it was -3 degrees! The weather just can't make up it's mind...
New Years wasn't
really anything too special. We had to be in the apartment by 7, and we
went to bed at 10:30 like usual. Party! We did get to
visit some people earlier in the day though and see them preparing for their
parties. You'll enjoy the included pictures of a particularly delicious
looking New Years Eve feast...
One of the highlights
of this week was the exchange that I went on down to Dayton. They don't
have a car, and the snowstorm made bike-riding near impossible, so we were on
foot and on bus for the whole day! It was an awesome adventure! I
taught this guy some English, and actually learned just how crazy it can
be... I learned that "wisdom teeth" in Spanish (according to an
investigator) are "molas de juicio", which literally translates to
"molars of judgment"... I did some contacting with people on
the bus, and we got some amazing referrals for the English missionaries.
There are some interesting people that ride the bus... We were waiting in
the bus station, and this guy walked up to me and asked me for some
"literature". I searched my bag, and the only thing I had in
English was a pamphlet about the Word of Wisdom. So I gave it to
him. He went and sat down and read the whole thing. It turned out
that he rode our same bus home, so we had a pretty good discussion about
"the little book that told him he should stop chewing
tobacco..." A lot of my area covers the countryside and little
towns, so it was really cool to be down in the city for a day where
street-contacting is not only possible, but effective.
Other than that, we
had some very good lessons this week. One of our investigators finally
opened up to us and told us about her journey from Guatemala to the US, and how
difficult it is to live here without much family or really any
support. A lot of people who immigrate here live very difficult
lives. But whenever I talk to people who have moved here from another
country (which is practically every person I talk to), I remember something
that was said to us Spanish missionaries in a training meeting a while
ago. People might think that they are moving here to have better lives or
to make money or things like that, and those are definitely factors, but the
real reason that people are here is to receive the Gospel. They are here
because it was the design of the Lord to place them here to hear this message
and to receive their birthright. I'm very grateful for the opportunity
that I have to bring that message to them and help them to receive that which
is rightfully theirs as members of the house of Israel.
I hope you all have a
great week! Have fun at school! =)
Love,
Elder Foote
Oh, I forgot to talk
about transfers. Transfers are on Thursday, and I won't know
until Wednesday whether or not I'm staying or going. I'll let
you know as soon as I can!
Love,
Elder Foote
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| A Branch Member Family |
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| A Day In Dayton |
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| New Years Eve Cow Head Soup! |
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| Yes, Those Are Teeth! |
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| Yum Yum! |