Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Do I smell a RAT?

Sending packages from the US to India is a bad idea in our experience. A few days ago Sister Martin received a Happy Birthday box of See's Candy Chocolates. As she opened up the outer envelope, that looked like it had been tampered with and re-taped closed, she found a mess inside. Yes, they have a lot of rats in India, so definitely a possibility.


One of the younger missionaries looked at it and said, "It could be someone who opened it up, ate some of the chocolates, and then ripped up the box to make it look like a rat". 




Now on the bright side. If you've been following our blog, you know Sister Martin has been getting used to baking in these small little ovens. The one on the top is a toaster type oven and the one on the bottom is a combination microwave and convection oven. She decided to use the convection oven and bake her famous wheat bread.

SUCCESS! This loaf of bread turned out GREAT!


SUCCESS!

Also for her B-day she went dress shopping. We went to a dress shop near us called Pantaloons. It literally had almost a thousand dresses to choose from. It seemed like most were quite modest and in a myriad of colors and styles.


Sister Martin picked out two sleeveless dresses to try on. Yes, sleeveless. 

Before trying some on, she asked a lady about the various dresses and styles and if they stocked her size with sleeves. The attendant said yes, pointing to a sleeveless dress. Sister Martin, thinking that she didn't understand due to a language barrier, which happens many times, asked her again for a particular dress with sleeves. The lady then opened up the dress inside-out and pointed to some material. Sister Martin responded, commenting to her that the dress had pockets. Again, she showed her the material and assured that it was a sleeve that you could have attached after you buy the dress.  


In fact, nearly all of the sleeveless dresses in the store had the option to add the sleeves, attached inside the dress. Wow! 


Sister Martin ended up buying four dresses, two of which we waited about an hour for them to sew on the sleeves.

A few missionaries, including these Sister Missionaries, decorated Sister Martin's desk for her birthday as well.


We enjoyed a spiritual high with Elder Homer of the Quorum of Seventy. He came to do a mission tour to see the missionaries, the mission, the strengths and challenges or reality of the work out here.

Zone conference

Mission Leadership Council - The Mortensens, left, the Homers, right

Mission Leadership Council - Enjoying an excellent curry chicken lunch with extra vegetables

Elder Homer talked about understanding the importance of Primary vs. Secondary Questions. Primary questions would include:

  • Is there a God who is our Father?
  • Is Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Savior of the world?
  • Was Joseph Smith a prophet?
  • Is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints the kingdom of God on the earth?
 There is a talk that gives the details...Answering-primary-questions-about-the-church-closes-gap-between-belief-and-truth?

He also talked about the importance of following the commandments and rules. He said that some people say that certain rules don't apply to them. To emphasize the point, he told a story of a couple who decided to drive over a frozen lake in Canada for some fun. There was a sign that they passed that said the ice was too thin and warned not to drive on the lake. They ignored the sign. After a few minutes their vehicle started to sink into the lake. The girl escaped, just as it sunk into the freezing water. She slowly made it off the frozen lake but died just a few feet before arriving at a nearby house.

I wondered if people really drove that much on frozen lakes and was amazed to find a lot of videos of vehicles sinking on YouTube. Here's one compilation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rewtrZwy-8k

These examples may lead us to ponder the question, "Where do I stand on obedience to God's commandments?"

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