Bowling and Burger King

Well before I forget, this weekend Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday is Carnaval (the time of year that everyone goes crazy and starts throwing water balloons of paint at each other) so we will be closed up for those 3 days in house and I wont be able to write you until the following Monday which is the 23 I think.

That is quite funny about the toliets in France. I wished they had some here. The toilets are just the opposite. It is more like tin shed, with used toliet paper trashed in the corner and the toliet doesnt have a tank so when you go you have to fill up a bucket of water to flush it down. What a blessing to have a toilet that flushes by itself.

As Stephanie observed in the recent photo, I have lost weight. You might reasonably attribute it to parasites or some sickness, but the real cause is that there is nothing here fattening. I have had milk with rice, rice water,  cheese with rice, bread made from rice,  rice soup, and even rice at every meal. Would you like some rice with that? Oh please... I have been craving the flavor of rice ever since I eat my eggs with rice for breakfast this morning. NOT. But nevertheless the rice continues to be a family favorite.

But you will be pleased to know that last week for P-day we went bowling at the only bowling place in the center of the city of 2 million inhabitants. Lets just say bowling isn't really a Latino sport and that you can beat them pretty easily because most of them have never even played it in there life. And afterwards we found Burger King and for one small moment I felt like I was in the United States. I also had a chocolate ice cream bar which was really good except that my body is so accustomed to not eating much chocolate that I break out in a horrible acne spell when i eat chocolate.

Fun Fact: People here say,  "ahh come over tomorrow afternoon to drink tea." This usaully means come ever for a drink (usaully a home-brewed something or another but it is not tea) and a piece of bread.

Spiritual Thought. since you guys are sharing spiritual thoughts, I will give you one to think about too:

 22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
 23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
 24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Here we have the Savior of the world turn away a woman because she is not of the house of Israel. We continue reading:

25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
 26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
 27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.

Again the Lord rejects the woman's plea for help saying that we don't take the bread for the house of Israel and feed it to the dogs (gentiles). And then she says that even the dogs need to eat crumbs that fall from the table. And then the miracle occurs. Why do you think the Lord (who is loving and compasionate and suffered all the sins of the world) rejected this woman? Perhaps because she did not have the humility sufficient to have a miracle. The same is with us, the lord sends us trials to humble us so that a miracle can occur. So the question is, are you humble enough to receive miracles in your life?

Elder Gilbert