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
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| Elders Elbaba, Gunnoe and Foote |
