Tuesday, February 3, 2015

¡Me enchilĂ©! (AKA I got burned by a super hot pepper)

Family!

The saga continues.

We went to a less-active's house to eat one night this week.  They are Mexican, so they eat very hot food.  The local Kroger had a clearance on habanero chiles this last week.  This family bought the habaneros and put them on the table while we were eating.  The dad (like a true Mexican)  starting eating the habaneros like candy.  We decided that we have been out here so long that we are basically Mexicans as well.  We both did what the dad did.  We grabbed a habanero, braced ourselves, and ate it in one bite.  Instant pain.  After a few seconds my poor mouth couldn't take it anymore.  I had two options: spit the partially chewed chile onto my plate or swallow it.  I chose poorly.  It burned all the way down.  Within seconds my stomach was burning as the chile mixed with my stomach acids.  After a few minutes of trying various remedies to take away the burning in my mouth, it slowly began to subside.  There are few things in my life that I have regretted eating.  That habanero was one of them.  My quest to become Mexican continues.

I hope you enjoyed my epic story of the habanero chile.  

In other news, we had a very powerful lesson with one of the families we're teaching this week.  They have been meeting with missionaries for a long time, have come to church, read a bit of the Book of Mormon, and have had many powerful spiritual experiences confirming that this is the truth.  But they still aren't baptized.  We have been trying to help them get back into the habit of reading the Book of Mormon, but it seems as though whatever we say just doesn't stick with them.  Well, we brought a member with us to the lesson this week, and he was able to connect with them in a way we couldn't.  He told them the exact same things that we had been telling them, but this time it all seemed to make sense to them.  They expressed many concerns that they had never brought up before, and in the end they told us that the believed both the Book of Mormon and the church were true.  They just were afraid to take the leap of faith and leave their church.  We testified of the Book of Mormon and how God will answer us if we read it and then pray to know if it is true.  The Spirit was there strong.

This week Elder Elbaba had a meeting to go to as District Leader, so I got another day of English work!  It is really tough trying to not speak in Spanish all day long.  It's also weird doing English work in your same area.  We were in the same area I'm always in, but we were visiting different people.  It was pretty weird.

This week was stake conference.  It was a really great meeting.  One of my favorite things about it was the fact that I got to do part of the translation!  I got to wear the fancy headset and have my voice broadcast into the ear of all of the Spanish speakers in the congregation.  It was really hard because everyone spoke super fast and didn't quote the scriptures they used, but it was also really fun!

Recently I have begun to notice the Lord guiding me in preparing lessons for people that will help them with their specific challenges.  We visited a member family this week and had planned on sharing a short message about missionary work and the power of simple invitations.  I felt impressed to prepare a certain scripture for them, so I did.  As we talked with this family, one of the members told us of some of the difficult experiences she had had over the course of her life.  When the time came to share our message with them,  I opened up to the scripture I had prepared to share.  I found that the verse before it applied perfectly to this Sister, and we shared that scripture and applied it to her.  I know that the Lord truly guides His work and is conscious of each of us and our specific needs.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Foote



Elders Elbaba, Gunnoe and Foote