 |
| Children at the Primary Program! |
1. We have elected he-who-must-not-be-named to the presidential seat of power.
2. I suffered a near-death experience with jabeñero, jalapeño, and red hot chili peppers.
3. I visited Jamaica.
4. I tried funnel cake in the form of fries.
5. I took part in the first ever meeting in a grandiose church in Flushing, New York.
6. We set up our Christmas tree.
Personally, I enjoy a good story. So I'll start with an event that took place on Saturday the 12th of November, 2016. It was a cold, blustery day. Leaves blew all around us as we walked up to a brilliant red door surrounded by pumpkins and scarecrows. As the door opened, a seemingly harmless member of the Mormon church greeted us with a kiss and a hug. She babbled in Spanish as we walked around a daycare in her home. The visit continued in a relatively benign manner, as we fixed drapery and shared a thought filled with spiritual ingenuity and gospel of every kind. Then I saw a paper bag out of the corner of my eye. It appeared to be filled with edibles... We hadn't eaten lunch yet so we agreed to partake of her food after a short blessing. She pulled out very innocent and pure sandwiches. Or so they appeared. She placed five of the specimen on a large, white porcelain plate, and gave us each a small, round matching plate on which to eat. I grabbed a sandwich made of the heel and noticed it appeared to have cheese, lettuce, tomato, and Italian meat of some sort.
 |
| A crazy amount of peppers in a plate made from our insane sandwiches! |
I succumbed to my natural man, vigorously digging in to my first bite. I promptly stopped short. My eyes widened and teared up a bit. I swallowed and waited for a glass of water. "Tan rica, hermana!" I muffledly exclaimed as my nose began to run. What she perhaps didn't know was that I had just swallowed the contents of a bonfire. I continued to bite and chew and I looked over at my compañera whose eyes were as round as glass plates. She, too, was eating the sandwich and smiling through the water pooling in her eyes. The burning in my throat only escalated as I proceeded to eat. Our host, who had just begun her own, began to cough. I gulped down a full glass of water, and my Hermana McDowell began to laugh as she looked over at my expression. She picked up a glass of soda to drink, but in her laughing she inhaled several jabeñero pepper seeds, and spewed soda all over the floor. We all began laughing (including our host) as we commiserated over how insanely hot the seemingly innocent sandwiches were. She blamed her husband but it turned out each sandwich had about five or six assorted jabeñero, jalapeño, and red hot chili peppers. I'm fairly sure I will never find anything spicy in the rest of my life. My lips were burning about three hours after the fact, and my sinus system had cleared in its entirety. Many of you probably think we were just being gringo, but it is a fact that a woman who lived in Mexico for years found the victuals to be just as offensively fiery. I am proud to say that though we were a bit shocked, we survived the encounter with only a few burns.
Breaking news: two investigators came to church! One of them is the darling Fanny, who feeds us ice cream and galletitas when we come over. She is the frail wife of a new convert, and this was the perfect week for her to come, given it was the presentación de la primaria! She loved it, and kept saying, "¡Ay! ¡Que linda!" (This is also what she says whenever we sing during lessons with her). Also, Allen Poe (name changed) came to church! Allen Poe is doing super well with breaking his smoking addiction, and is learning so much every week about the gospel.
Weather Report: rather too sunny and warm for my liking. In blatant disregard to the weather, though, we have begun to sing Christmas songs and even set up a Christmas tree. Granted, at night it's in low 40°s and high 30°s. This makes knocking doors quite fun. Our teeth kind of chatter as we introduce ourselves and hear remarks like, "I have to go... my oven is burning," and "WHAT? WHAT? YOU TALK I CAN'T HEAR HER! COME BACK TOMORROW IT'S TOO LATE."
Traveling information: Well, Long Beach is still fairly gorgeous. And Port Washington's majesty hasn't decreased either. I visited Jamaica (in New York - the city, not the island sadly) for interviews and Flushing for Zone Conference which has a new church that looks basically like a cathedral. Also, the Catholic Church owns the land on either side... We'll be lovely neighbours I'm sure.
Zone Conference: Besides us being the first meeting in a four-level gorgeous church, I learned quite a bit from our mission leaders. 1) Plan for one's investigators thoroughly, the devil is planning for them each and every day. 2) #LightTheWorld (CHRISTMAS!) 3) Faith to find! More faith! The faith one has is never sufficient until it becomes knowledge.
Food recommendations: P.S. Burgers in Mineola. They sell funnel cake fries. Which are very excellent, if a bit pricey. Also, chocolate and caramel covered brownies. And I hear they sell Dulce De Leche Churros, but I'll have to wait till next time to try those. Pupusas, it should be noted, are always a good idea with native El Salvadoreños. Also, we had interviews with our mission changed to do them every month which is crazy busy for President Reynolds, but we love it! How this relates to food is that Sister Reynolds asked what we were doing for Thanksgiving and we admitted that no one had invited us over. This look of intense concentration came over her face as she apparently was trying to think of any possible person that could have us over for Thanksgiving. This lasted maybe three minutes until President began to talk to us and interrupted her thinking. We plan on having our own dinner still, but the look that came over her face was so sweet.
Random experiences: In a five minute interval we saw 29 police, SWAT, and undercover police cars go past us on the other side of the freeway.
Autumn colors are brilliant and leaves are falling at the speed of light. Especially in Little Neck and Glen Cove. Both are darling areas. Visiting is highly recommended.
I bought stamps for the first time... (email me if you want a letter. Sending letters is my favorite.)
That is all from this week! (Honestly, tell me if you want a letter. We can be pen pals.)
My amor,
Hermanita Ally Voss
Breaking news: two investigators came to church! One of them is the darling Fanny, who feeds us ice cream and galletitas when we come over. She is the frail wife of a new convert, and this was the perfect week for her to come, given it was the presentación de la primaria! She loved it, and kept saying, "¡Ay! ¡Que linda!" (This is also what she says whenever we sing during lessons with her). Also, Allen Poe (name changed) came to church! Allen Poe is doing super well with breaking his smoking addiction, and is learning so much every week about the gospel.
 |
| Us in our car at zone conference |
Traveling information: Well, Long Beach is still fairly gorgeous. And Port Washington's majesty hasn't decreased either. I visited Jamaica (in New York - the city, not the island sadly) for interviews and Flushing for Zone Conference which has a new church that looks basically like a cathedral. Also, the Catholic Church owns the land on either side... We'll be lovely neighbours I'm sure.
Zone Conference: Besides us being the first meeting in a four-level gorgeous church, I learned quite a bit from our mission leaders. 1) Plan for one's investigators thoroughly, the devil is planning for them each and every day. 2) #LightTheWorld (CHRISTMAS!) 3) Faith to find! More faith! The faith one has is never sufficient until it becomes knowledge.
 |
| Us in P.S. Burgers |
 |
| Fun at Long Beach! |
 |
| Long Beach at night - the moon was huge! |
 |
| And...we got strawberry ice cream! |
Random experiences: In a five minute interval we saw 29 police, SWAT, and undercover police cars go past us on the other side of the freeway.
Autumn colors are brilliant and leaves are falling at the speed of light. Especially in Little Neck and Glen Cove. Both are darling areas. Visiting is highly recommended.
I bought stamps for the first time... (email me if you want a letter. Sending letters is my favorite.)
That is all from this week! (Honestly, tell me if you want a letter. We can be pen pals.)
My amor,
Hermanita Ally Voss
No comments:
Post a Comment