April 22, 2013

Did I tell you that I missed the first session of General Conference? We were having a lesson and we watched part of it with them but we ended up missing the whole thing by the time we got back to the church. The priesthood session was killer!
Gertrude, our Haitian investigator moved still within the branch boundaries but out of my area. She now has a different set of Elders that are awesome but I am going to miss her(and her cooking). On Saturday we had Congolie food. It was interesting. I kind of liked it. Do you recall how I always have a stupid habit of heating really hot stuff despite the warnings I get from people? Well I have yet to break that habit. They had some really hot peppers and so I ate a spoonful. It didn't burn at all for almost a minute. The spice pretty much hit me all at once. The best part is that when Jo Jo(the 15 year old boy from Congo) ate some he was crying. It was pretty entertaining.
This month, our zone's focus is to rid our selves of pride. We read a talk by Ezra Taft Benson called Beware of Pride(I think that's the title) and it basically punched me in the face. It tells us how people often think pride is a sin committed only by the wealthy but it consists of a lot more. Pride is what keeps people from opening their mouth about the gospel because they are afraid of what others will think. He said that a proud man cares more about what man thinks than what God thinks. It is some pretty heavy stuff.
I have been having a lot of fun. I have realized that hard work can be synonymous with fun. I have always had fun no matter what but this last week has been a blast and every day was productive. It was pretty cool.
 Yours Truly,
Elder Joseph Richard Engelman