Monday, August 12, 2013

The One With the Habanero


August 12, 2013

So I ate a habanero. It was the most painful experience I have yet to pass though in this mortal sojourn on earth. You know those pictures with steam coming out people’s ears? That actually happens. Well, steam didn't come out my ears, but OW my ears hurt so bad--that was the worst part. I wouldn't suggest eating a straight habanero pepper; most natives don't even do that. It is painful. Not worth it. Why can I not pass up dares when it comes to eating things? First the orange peel incident at the MTC, now this. At least that family really likes me now....or maybe that is just me wishfully thinking that me almost dying in their house somehow bonded us.

Speaking of food, I ate the most delicious thing that has ever graced my mouth before: Hna Escobar's tortillas. I am not exaggerating one jot nor tittle when I say that they are the greatest thing I have ever eaten and quite possibly will ever eat. I want her to cater my wedding with JUST tortillas. You might be thinking "Umm, Alivia, people would get so tired on eating tortillas."  But, I am here to tell you that my wedding would be the hit of the century and we would not be able to get people to leave. We would probably have a news crew show up. THEY ARE SO GOOD YOU GUYS. I might serve them as my wedding cake because there is no cake that could be better than just eating one of these tortillas. I am nominating her for some kind of famous cooking award as soon as I get home. Shoot.

On a more Spiritual note, this week was a good one. It was one of those weeks where nothing like "WOAHHHH" happened, but nothing bad happened, just a lot of good. For example, this week we sang at the pulga. :) Pulga is Spanish for flea . . . or flea market. It is 99.9% Hispanic and EVERYONE spends Sat and Sun there.  It is the place to be.  It is the biggest flea market I have ever seen. So some of our district decided to go and sing. We found an empty booth, stood and sang hymns. People passed, watched, were given tarjetas, and we got a ton of referrals. It was awesome. We even found a long lost member of the Church who was in the booth across from where we were singing. She was baptized in Mexico, but had never found the Church here. She has lived here for 20 years. We think we are going to start singing every week -- try to draw a crowd.  Elder Knudsen (an Elder who came into our district this transfer) is basically a Broadway star, so it is very possible that we could draw a crowd.

Also, we had something awesome happen yesterday! So, we were about to leave for church and we thought, "We just really need to go to Alex's house and MAKE him come to church, tell him to follow us there, get him to wake up, just get him to church!" So, we drove to his house at 10:00 am (church starts at 11) and knock on his door. His brother, Omar, and Omar's friend (whose name I cannot recall, and for the sake of this email will be called Billy) answer the door. They told us Alex was asleep, but said that they wanted to come to church! Omar said, "It's weird that you guys are here, because I was actually thinking that I really wanted to go to church." So, they promised they would come to church and then we left. We got to church. Church started. Opening Hymn. Sacrament. First talk. Where the heck are Omar and Billy? We were getting a little down when all of the sudden, in walk Omar and Billy! Whoohoo! Billy speaks zero Spanish and Omar hasn't spoken Spanish in so long that he basically doesn't either.  Needless to say, they didn't understand anything that happened in Sacrament meeting! But, we happened to be teaching the youth 2nd hour and even though Omar and Billy are 20, they decided to come to our class. Well, awkward, because the subject we had felt inspired to talk to the class about was Chastity. But, the lesson went really well! Omar ate it up. He thought it was great and after he read a verse from the Book of Mormon, from the class, he goes, "Well....if it is in here it must be true!" That is an attitude I invite you all to adopt. "If it is in here, it must be true!"

The work of the Lord moves ever onward. No unhallowed hand can stop this work from progressing. Man is it good or what?

Love you all!

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