Cow Tongue

June 1, 2015

Howdy family, 

This week was still hard, what with knowing what in the world we are supposed to do here to help people. I shook hands with a man who had been digging through a dumpster when we walked up. We aren't really supposed to teach homeless people, per something that President said at some point. (In other words, I was just told not to). I was lathering the germ x after that encounter. It is sometimes hard to find the people who are humble and willing to accept the gospel, that's for sure. We have plenty of less active people in our ward, but we just need an updated ward list. I think this place is a lot like Winslow, in that people come for school and then leave, just like teachers come for a while and then they're out. But we did find a less active named Ken, who was a referral from the elders (Don't ask how that happened. We aren't sure either!). We have met with him a couple of times, and Brother Millett came with us one time too. He didn't make it to church yesterday for some reason, but we have a lesson with him tomorrow that will hopefully go well. Lots of work to be done, just figuring out how to do it!

Our iPad training went very well. It was neat to have Elder Schwitzer (of the seventy) and Brother Gonzales (missionary dept) here to train us. It was good even without the devices part. We do not have them yet. We have to do some online trainings before we can get them. I think it will be towards the end of June and maybe even July before we get them. 

THIS WEEK I TRIED COW TONGUE. Like that huge thing that they pick their noses with. I think it would have been okay, except that I walked out of the bathroom and looked at it sitting there on the counter. EEEEWWW! But I tried it and it was alright. Definitely not something I would want to eat regularly though.... So I have been doing good at not being picky about foods, as you may have noticed with the picture of me eating shrimp from last week. I'm pretty proud of myself. 

This week we were contacting, and a kid came up and asked us if we were the missionaries. He had met the Spanish missionaries, and they hadn't sent the referral to us yet. He is pretty cool. Since he is 14, we had to have his mom sign a paper giving us permission to teach him, which thankfully went well. Hopefully we can get him baptized! Cole is his name, and he seems to be genuinely interested. 

ALSO!!!! I emailed my Hawaii friends last Monday, and found out today that Cara is waiting for her mission call, and Amy got hers!!!! SHE IS GOING TO TONGA AND I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER I CAN'T EVEN HANDLE IT. It also makes me super excited to find out where Cara is going to go! I sure do love and miss my friends. We are taking over the world with badges and all :) 

I think that's all for this week. Hopefully everything goes well with the guys at the Grand Canyon. That will be fun. We'll have to explore AZ together someday, because there is a lot we haven't done and we live there! But that's for another time :)

I love you and hope you all are enjoying your first week of summer!!!!!

Sister Lauren Hatch :)