Dear Family and Friends:
When you go to a side shop here, just on the street, and buy a soft drink they don't give it to you in a cup or a bottle. No, they take a plastic bag, fill it with the drink, and slip a straw in the top. So you just have to hold it all together around the straw until you're finished. But we aren't allowed to eat things off the street here so I've never had a bag o' soda. But they are all over.
So, I tried balut. You know the thing where the take an egg with a partially developed bird inside, let it rot, and then eat it? Yeah. There's this juice that comes out when you open it and you just gotta slurp it out. And then just...bite into the bird. And I have been really good about eating things here. But after the second bite, I couldn't handle it anymore. My companion took a video, so I have that memory forever now...
By the way, don't be concerned about the title of this letter. There are no new typhoons or anything scary. It all has to do with revelation. As missionaries, we have an hour of personal study every day. So I say a prayer and open up my scriptures and notebook and just go at it. And usually about five minutes in, I feel like someone has pinned me to the ground and opened a fire hose on full blast into my mouth.
Heavenly Father wants so badly to give us revelation. SO badly. So when we open ourselves up to Him, all kinds of things can happen. My scriptures look like a rainbow now and by the end of the hour my hand is cramping from writing so much. It's painful, but the best kind of pain! I asked my companion if this gets easier to handle and she said it does. So that's just gonna take a little time. How cool is that, though?!
So our favorite investigators right now are the Pua family. It's an older couple, Brother Tony and Sister Cleofe. It's funny because our first visit with them was quite discouraging. Sister Cleofe is pretty much mute. She got a disease in her throat a long time ago and it rendered her nigh speechless. She just kind of mutters and gestures because that's all she can do. And Brother Tony was just so weird. He just wouldn't grasp the concept that Christ and God had bodies. We kept going back and forth and when it seemed that he understood it, he then went on about how They are spirits...again. Sister Cleofe was frustrated with him too. And then to top it all off, we asked him to pray in our way at the end of that first lesson. . .but he wanted to do it his way. So he preceded to say a bunch of numbers and then he said his prayer. And then he ended with a bunch of numbers.
As we left their house the first time my companion and I were pretty discouraged. But as we were walking away, I had this voice come into my head saying, "Some people are just going to take a little more work. Keep going back."
I am happy to say that after a few more visits, Sister Cleofe believes Joseph Smith is a prophet. And if you believe that, everything else is true! :)
This church is true and the same throughout the world. No matter where you go there will always be those same sweeties who bear their testimony every month on Fast Sunday. There will always be that person that sings too loudly in sacrament meeting. And there will always be those few deacons who simply just grow way too fast for their pants and we all get to see those bony ankles.
I love this church! :)
~Sister Lefebvre
When you go to a side shop here, just on the street, and buy a soft drink they don't give it to you in a cup or a bottle. No, they take a plastic bag, fill it with the drink, and slip a straw in the top. So you just have to hold it all together around the straw until you're finished. But we aren't allowed to eat things off the street here so I've never had a bag o' soda. But they are all over.
So, I tried balut. You know the thing where the take an egg with a partially developed bird inside, let it rot, and then eat it? Yeah. There's this juice that comes out when you open it and you just gotta slurp it out. And then just...bite into the bird. And I have been really good about eating things here. But after the second bite, I couldn't handle it anymore. My companion took a video, so I have that memory forever now...
By the way, don't be concerned about the title of this letter. There are no new typhoons or anything scary. It all has to do with revelation. As missionaries, we have an hour of personal study every day. So I say a prayer and open up my scriptures and notebook and just go at it. And usually about five minutes in, I feel like someone has pinned me to the ground and opened a fire hose on full blast into my mouth.
Heavenly Father wants so badly to give us revelation. SO badly. So when we open ourselves up to Him, all kinds of things can happen. My scriptures look like a rainbow now and by the end of the hour my hand is cramping from writing so much. It's painful, but the best kind of pain! I asked my companion if this gets easier to handle and she said it does. So that's just gonna take a little time. How cool is that, though?!
So our favorite investigators right now are the Pua family. It's an older couple, Brother Tony and Sister Cleofe. It's funny because our first visit with them was quite discouraging. Sister Cleofe is pretty much mute. She got a disease in her throat a long time ago and it rendered her nigh speechless. She just kind of mutters and gestures because that's all she can do. And Brother Tony was just so weird. He just wouldn't grasp the concept that Christ and God had bodies. We kept going back and forth and when it seemed that he understood it, he then went on about how They are spirits...again. Sister Cleofe was frustrated with him too. And then to top it all off, we asked him to pray in our way at the end of that first lesson. . .but he wanted to do it his way. So he preceded to say a bunch of numbers and then he said his prayer. And then he ended with a bunch of numbers.
As we left their house the first time my companion and I were pretty discouraged. But as we were walking away, I had this voice come into my head saying, "Some people are just going to take a little more work. Keep going back."
I am happy to say that after a few more visits, Sister Cleofe believes Joseph Smith is a prophet. And if you believe that, everything else is true! :)
This church is true and the same throughout the world. No matter where you go there will always be those same sweeties who bear their testimony every month on Fast Sunday. There will always be that person that sings too loudly in sacrament meeting. And there will always be those few deacons who simply just grow way too fast for their pants and we all get to see those bony ankles.
I love this church! :)
~Sister Lefebvre