Tortillas: The Utensil You Can Eat

Hey world!

Well, i'm not really writing these emails to the world, more just to friends, family, church members back home and extended family who are forced into reading these because we share several strands DNA. So, Hey small portion of the world! :D If you do happen to be reading this then I consider you a part of the best, small portion of the world. :)

Another week has gone by with all of it's ups and downs, left and rights, round and rounds and all of the rest. The highlight was, of course, General Conference. We were able to watch all sessios at the nearby church building. We were the only ones there too! Haha, it's so funny watching what the Elders get out of conference. The main thing being discussed was who we thought would 'throw down' the hardest. 'Throw down' as in which Apostle would slam their metaphoric hand down the hardest on some issue. Elder Holland usually wins that one. This year Elder Bednar, Holland, and surprisingly Elder L. Tom Perry won for rebuking with authority. In the end I loved all of the talks! It's so refreshing to listen to the words of our Prophet, Apostles and other church leaders. :D

With regaurds to the work we have been knocking on more doors and eating more hispanic food. The food that the members feed us is always so good! It pretty much always consists of some combination of rice, beans and meat and depending on what country the family is from some spicy slasa too! I also have found it very enojyable to join in on the culture of using tortillas pretty much like a spoon. Fork in one hand, rolled up tortilla in the other, and a plate full of scrumptiousness! I leave feeling stuffed every time! I was fairly confident that I wouldn't gain much weight on my mission but now I am really not so sure. :P Those hispanic members sure do love us gringos-that-sorta-know-Spanish! :D

I have always enjoyed listening to entertaining stories from other people's missions, so now that I can I think I will give some of my own. To start, we were able to visit a family in our branch who has an incredible backyard. They live in a trailer on a sloped peice of land that is rihgt next to a little creek. They kept telling us that 'no, it's not big, but it's home'. And they sure made it there own. The mother of the family has taken her time at home to decorate not only the inside of the home but the surrounding yard as well. With the constructive help of her husband she has created the most unique and creative garden/back yard I've personally seen. Old antiques placed around, bathtubs as plant pots, bushes in the shape of hearts, hand crafted leaf-like stones as a walk way. I wasn't able to get pictures yet but I definately will! They also use the creek behind their home to baptize people! their daughter is going to be baptized there in the upcoming months. :) They also had 6 little, 3-week year old puppies. Love it!

On the more humerous side of things I've had some interesting expereinces. While tracting in a trailer park this week we knocked on a door and a white middle-aged man opened up. He was holding a dog (or was it a cat) in his arms and wasn't interested in hearing us. We asked him if he knew anyone else that would be interested, to hwich he replied, 'No, I'm wicked.' I thoght he was just being sarcasting about us thinking he was a bad person so I replied, 'No you're not.' He quickly replied 'Yes I am!' and shut the door. My companion, Elder Clark, was giving me a confused look and asked why I had said that. Well, I was just trying to let him know that we didn't think that he was a bad guy! That's all! Wellllllll, it turned out that he didn't say 'i'm WICKED' he said 'i'm WICKEN'. He was stating his beliefs and I was pretty much calling him a liar as I said, 'No you're not!' I felt dumb. :p Just gotta laugh at it. XD 

One last story that is again about me doing something without thinking. (sorry for writing so much!) We were at a members house for dinner. Tasty chicken, rice and noodles with a bowl of jalepenos in sauce to the side. I wanted to try the salsa so I dipped my pinky-finger in to taste it. Ya, it was pretty spicy so I declined pouring it all over my food. A few moments later, after forgetting which finger I had just dipped in Jalepenos, my eye was itchy. i'm sure you can connect the dots by now. 'That's odd, my eye feels really cold. Wait no, that'sa burning feeling! but why would.....OH SNAP! I just rubbed Jalapenos into my eyeball!!!' hahahah, we all had a good laugh aobut that as I ran to flush it out at the sink. Water didn't really help so I just had to wait it out. It wasn't too bad by the end. I think I've learned a very valuable lesson, though. Pay more attention while eating hispanic food.

Anyway, don't mean to take up too much of your time. Just trying to brighten your day with my expereicnes here in Georgia. I always love hearing of friends or family who enjoy keeping up with my letters. I try to make them somewhat entertaining.

Have fun with you life. Church is true. Study Conference talks! Be happy :)

-Elder Vance