Ally in the Big Apple: Four Shrimp in Spaghetti

¡Hola hola hola!

Life is splendid, Christmas songs have hit New York in a tsunami, the leaves are all but down, it has snowed twice in the past week, we have had Thanksgiving dinner, and I hit my four month mark on my mission two days ago!

Zone Conference with all the missionaries I love!

First off, four months! Time flies when one is having fun serving God in Brooklyn and Mineola. A fun fact about my new area Mineola is that I have the area in which Gatsby lives in The Great Gatsby (not my favourite book, but literature preferences can be laid aside - I really did enjoy the movie). We have East Egg and West Egg in the picturesque Port Washington and Glen Cove areas. I hear there is a castle at the end of one of the two that I've yet to visit, but I'm sure I will get to it quite soon because it sounds exciting. Camp Half-blood is also on Long Island, but I'm thinking perhaps out of my area. (Side note: I haven't found Narnia yet, either). Long Beach was crazy awesome to visit last week. I don't enjoy beaches too much, but I do like looking and admiring them. In that way being a missionary is a relief because I know no one will force me to go swimming. Long Beach was a bit chilly, but walking around and seeing the sand and playing frisbee was a bit of a nice break from the normal routine.

Today I am actually in Rego Park, Queens. My companion has a six-month anniversary temple trip, so she is enjoying the temple in Manhattan right now! We ate Strawberry Shortcake at the Cheesecake Factory and pizza at a little New York pizza place, and are back in Sister Petersen's house with candy and cookies to spare. Recently, everyone has been telling me I'm slim (side note: I never heard this in Brooklyn) but I am very concerned how hard my metabolism must be working given all the food I am eating. In a car area I can see how one could gain weight (without all the walking and running and public transportation), but I'm convinced I will be able to stay roughly the same.

Earlier this week we had Zone Training Meeting and Hermana McDowell and I sang 'Nearer my God, to Thee' with one of our assistants, Elder Ko, while another assistant (Elder Sirrine) played the piano. I was a bit apprehensive (voice isn't my instrument) but I enjoyed performing. Performing is a thrill no matter the medium which is used to perform!

Calmarones y caridad:

What is charity? In what ways was Christ so supremely charitable? How can I come to have this Christ-like charity?

Well, I have a story which I believe demonstrates more charity than I ever could have imagined. We went over to the home of a Hispanic member of our branch (well they're all Hispanic, but you know...) and she was feeding us for dinner. We sat down after talking a bit and she brought out our plates. If the audience has read any of my posts, they would probably note that I seem to be a fairly picky eater. Well, there was breaded chicken, salad, and spaghetti. Excellent! Then my companion declared, "calmarones!" My heart stopped as I really looked at my food. There were probably like 15 baby shrimp in my spaghetti. A thousand thoughts flew through my mind: 'Oh no. I've never eaten seafood. I'm going to offend her by my reaction if I eat it and don't like it! She is going to stop going to church and not associate herself with Mormons if I don't like her food! What do I do? Can I hide it? Oh dear, this is concerning.' So as she said the prayer on the food I prayed and prayed and prayed that my Heavenly Father would help me eat this food. I opened my eyes and decided I needed to work my strength up to eating the spaghetti with shrimp. So I started with the chicken, then the salad, and my host asked, "¿no le gusta las calmarones?" I was found out! I denied fervently and said I was saving the best for last. As I ate, I noticed that I only had four baby shrimp in my spaghetti. I was confused, the spaghetti was simply infused with them before! They were on everything. How did this happen? Did God literally take the shrimp off? Nevermind that, I needed to eat so I ate a shrimp every time we laughed so I could choke on it and pretend it was just because I was laughing (I've done this more than once).

As we left the appointment Hermana McDowell smiled and looked over at me and said, "how was the shrimp?" I shuddered. Then she laughed and replied, "did you know during the prayer I discreetly went through your spaghetti and took every shrimp I saw off your spaghetti, only leaving one so she could see you had some and wouldn't give you more? She kept almost opening her eyes. My excuse was going to be that I really like shrimp." I was speechless. In the very prayer in which I prayed to be able to eat this food, my Heavenly Father sent me an angel (my companion) to eat it for me. This act of charity by my companion will, I'm sure, affect me my entire life. I started thinking and realized the savior is the exact same way. We all have figurative shrimp in our spaghetti of life. When we look at it, it seems overwhelming and we reach out to Him through His atonement. When we make that effort he takes the shrimp off our plate and onto his, he makes our burdens light and gives us only those trials which we can handle. What a blessing to have a companion that knew about charity and Christ's love for me and showed me such through her actions!

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for a wonderful companion, Hermana McDowell. I am thankful for a darling family (Dad, Mom, McKinney, Nicholas, Audrey, and Will). I am thankful for a mission president (President Reynolds) who does more than I ever could. I am thankful for ice cream. I am thankful for Hispanics and their food - no matter the type! I am thankful for my mission in the New York New York South mission. I am thankful for thick coats and tights. I am thankful for pumpkins and strawberries and Christmas music. I am thankful for my cello sitting at home in my closet (shoutout to my cello, which I miss more dearly each day). I am thankful for an investigator who read 2 Nefi 31 and said, "so I see baptism is a commandment of God. We need to talk more about that." (Roughly translated from Spanish to English). I'm grateful for the snow last night and thick coats and elders who stick four-day old carrots in our windshield wipers.