Laree's Little [B]Log about Life

Hola familia,

This week was really good. We had exchanges on Tuesday, which actually went really well. It was fun. We went to teach a new investigator of ours-this70something year old man and his caretaker came and sat in on our lesson. Her husband is a pastor at her church. Needless to say, it was an interesting discussion on the Restoration. We'll see what happens this week :)

On Saturday, our recent convert wanted to take us to a fresas y crema cart (strawberries and cream) so met him at his house. When we got there, he and his nephews were eating raw oysters. It's kind of gross- they just open up the shell and put some lemon/ lime juice on it, salt and chili and then you just eat it out of the shell. Anyways, long story short, I tried some and it was definitely kind of weird, but not as bad as I had expected. I ate two and I my stomach is still doing ok, so I think we're good. He was telling us that their is a kind of shellfish they eat in Mexico that when you open it, it's red with black juice and it's still alive/ moving around. You just put chili on it and then eat it...squirming and everything. Maybe next time. I wanted to take a picture of it, but I didn't bring my camera so hopefully I can take a picture next time.

Some of the elders in our ward had a baptism yesterday and our investigator Juan came with us!! He is the one that took forever to pray a couple weeks ago. Actually, it was really interesting because last week, alot of things changed with him. We met with him that Sunday after church and he told us that he had read the entire chapter we left with him and he'd watched the Restoration 3 or 4 times before we came! He really really likes coming to church and has begun to make some really good friendships with some of the men in the ward. Anyways, he'd told us in the past that he could only meet with us on the weekends, but then that Sunday, he said that he actually has a couple hours in between his jobs where he is home during the week. He told us to come whatever day we want to. He's trying to overcome drug and alcohol addictions right now to prepare for his baptism, and he's doing really well. There's several men in the ward that are also helping him and strengthening him through that. It's amazing to see how different he is from when we first met him. We're so excited for April 21st!

We had a mission conference on Thursday that was really great. They talked a lot about asking questions (quoted Clayton Christensen's book several times), faith, sacrificing our heart, might, mind and strength to the work and the Lord, and then the character of Christ. It was in alot of ways what I needed to hear right now and helped answer some of the things I've been thinking about lately. It was kind of funny. President took some time to teach us how to talk to people. Kind of funny/ pathetic that our generation has to be taught how to socialize with people, but asi es. I've been surprised on my mission to realize how much of missionary work really does have to do with your ability to communicate and build relationships with people. Especially since most people don't communicate outside of anything technological/ texting/ video games/ etc...

Love and miss you all,

Hna. LaPierre