Grossest Story of My Life!

February 28, 2011

Grossest story of my life! I ate a caterpillar this week!

We've had a bunch of dinner appointments this week, but most of them were with the Americans in the Ward, however, not on Saturday. Soeur Thompson and I went with the other four missionaries in our ward to the Boda's home.

The Boda's are awesome! They are from Congo and have five kids. They fed us basic rice, beans, shrimp...nothing crazy. But then Elder Cannonica - whose brother is also in our mission - told them who his brother is. His brother had eaten at their home before and when he was there, they fed them caterpillars. So Sister Boda went and grabbed a bag of them from the kitchen to show us. Curiosity was killing him and Elder Cannonica asked to try one. Since he was going to try one, Elder Garcia, Elder Bjerga and Sister Thompson wanted to too. Elder Dykstra and I were the ones who weren't even slightly interested. But after those first four ate them, they guilted Elder Dykstra into giving it a go as well. Leaving me as the only one who hadn't given in. So...I gave in. How gross is that?!?! I will have you know, sun dried caterpillars are NOT meant to be eaten! (And is doesn't really help to have an elder say "You can feel the hair, huh?" right when you bite into it...thanks Elder Dykstra).

 About a week and a half ago, Sis Thompson and I were out trying to track down the address of a less active. We passed two guys talking on the side of the street, and the home we were looking for was only about 20 feet passed them. No one answered the door, so we left a note and turned back the way we'd come. Shortly after passing those two again, one called out to us and asked if we were Jehovah Witnesses. We told him no, who we were and a bit about what we believe. We pulled out a Book of Mormon and explained a little of what it is. Before we could even offer it to him, he said, "Can I have that book?" ha ha easiest book placement ever. We told him he could have it and Sister Thompson showed him 3 Nephi 11 and told him to read it and call us if he'd like to discuss it further. Holding the book open to that page, he asked in French if we also have it in English. "You speak English?" "Yes" (pointing to the chapter heading) "'Chaper eleven'" (Sister Thompson was not thrilled that he made her do the whole contact in French, knowing English was her native language.)

His name if François and he's from Ghana. -Translation: English is his native language too. He gave us his number and we told him we'd be happy to bring him an English Book of Mormon too. (He can understand French, but can comprehend the book better in English.) I called him two days later. He'd read the chapter and loved it, but still wanted to see it in English. So we set up a time to go see him. When we got there, he was gone, but his 20 year old daughter was home. She let us in and told us she wanted to know more about God. Turns out, they are Muslim, but she says her father is "half Muslim, half believing" (They say believing rather than Christian here.) I'm still really confused how you could be half Christian and half Muslim, but for now it means they are willing to listen to us. So I'm not complaining. We're meeting with her again this week. Yay for new investigators! =D

And we finally were able to see Claudia again. (She's that girl from Transylvania.) She met us after church yesterday. Wow! She's awesome!!! She's 19 years old. Her family is Orthodox Catholic, but in her early teens she became really bothered by the way they pray. She said there's just nothing sincere about recited prayers and prayers are supposed to be a communication between you and God. She even referenced in the bible when Christ offers "The Lord's Prayer" that when he said that they needed to pray like him, he meant the style of prayer not the words alone! How stellar is that?!?! We gave her a Book of Mormon and explained what it is. Before we were done explaining, she asked why we need it. I told her that in the Bible, we can learn a lot from reading Genesis, but when we read Matthiew too... She interrupted me and said, "Oh okay. So you have more of a fullness of the gospel then?" Seriously! Like I said, she's fantastic!! She said the existence of the Book of Mormon makes perfect sense. She loves the set up of the church, and is planning on attending next week. (We didn't even have to ask her to come!) The only sad part of the story: we found out where she lives, and she's way out of our area. However, we'll be passing her to Sister Woodruff. So I'll still be able to find out if anything happens with her.

Side note about Claudia's coolness: she speaks, Hungarian, Romanian, English, French, Dutch, German and she'll be studying Arabic for the next three to four years!

Well there's a couple highlights from the week. 

Until next week, I love you!

Kim