February 25, 2013 (Week 28)

February 25, 2013

"Don't stop... believing... hold on to that feeling.... street lights... people.... ohhhhhhahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! (guitar solo)" - Journey

Train hopping

This week I learned a lot about how God cares about the little things in life, and how much fun he has with his beloved children. First story. Journey. Remember how I told you I haven't heard Journey in 6 months? Not one hour after I sent that email we went searching for leather to make wallets and that song popped on. You know we "took our time" searching hahah That was great. I couldn't believe Heavenly Father gave me that little blessing to let me know he was paying attention.

Its now time for.....DEEP INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OF THE WEEK!!!

"Coincidences are just Gods way of staying hidden" - Albert Einstein.

I figured it applies. don't faint from the profoundness, please.

But yeah, heard Journey. sweeet.

Second. We visited this cool guy, Noé. He's been inactive for a while, but him and his wife are coming back now. We ate with them Sunday so Friday they asked what we'd like to eat. He mentioned Mondongo. I said, "what in the gael is mondongo?" He said, "pig intestines." I said, "nooooo. I've already had pig feet and I almost died." We all laughed and brushed it off.

The next day, we showed up at Hna. Lastras house. She's this little old lady and her grandson served us lunch. He brings this bowl out of fat and soup. It's hairy and looks like an ocean plant with all these feelers and tubes. I said, "looks great." He said, "guess what it is!?!" No idea. "MONDONGO!!! It's delicious! Try it." I'm thinking,  no freaking way. Elder Westhoff is as pale as a sheet, we can't believe our luck, Karma, whatever it was. Twelve hours later after hearing about it for the first time, I have it. I add onions, squeeze limes, and throw in rice after rice. Didn't help. It was horrible. Remember that fish with the head Elder Smith ate? Doesn't compare. I would have loved that instead. I choked down all of my bowl, which was huge by the way, and then the grandson serves his grandma. She looks at her huge bowl and says, "I don't think I can eat all of this, and you're big and need more. Would you like more meat?" I'm thinking, meat?!? It's pure fat! Not nutritious at all! Your intestines absorb the nutrients then give them away! I said, "si hermana..." and took another huge bowl. Elder Westhoff is slowing getting his down, I learned with the pig feet that you just down it as fast as possible.

If my wife isn't at least twice as attractive for taking the hit on that, I'll be upset. I could just picture God up there laughing. He's gotta have fun with us. You know he does. He receives joy from us, so therefore, he must cause the pain in our life to make us realize the good. Mostly by food. It's funny. If I learn one thing on the mission, it would be that God is our father, and he has fun and plays jokes with us as much as we do with others. Oh well. He was just smiling and now we are too. Good times. The food is horrible, but makes for a good memory, right? Maybe that's why Heavenly Father did it. He knows I love stories. Oh well. I survived, with fingernail marks in my knee from clutching it so tight... haha asi es la mision.

[Dad's comment: As a backdrop to the next paragraph. A few times in the past, I'd come upon Conner doing something and I'd say, why don't you do it <fill in the blank> differently?  He'd say "Oh great. Now you come up with a better idea!  Eight minutes later."  Well, in Sunday School, part of the lesson was talking about enlightenment and the teacher asked if anyone had had times when they felt enlighted.  For some reason, the "eight minutes later" situations came to mind and I smiled.  I shared that with Conner in my email to him last week.]
 

Eight minutes later was great... I was washing a blender for a hermana, and I was scrubbing the bottom trying to get the salsa out. I cut myself, and was getting upset with the piece of plastic. 8 minutes later, the hermana came over and says, "why don't you just unscrew it?" 8 FREAKING MINUTES LATER. haha. I grumbled and thought about how hard you would laugh.

Well, times up. Para la proxima! Nos Vemos mi querida familia! cuidense.

Burning the tie (6 month tradition)

El Buenísimo Elder Mortensen.