May 28, 2012

Locro with a little visible pig skin

Another real good week, this one. Lots of laughing. The other day
Elder Ramos and I were cleaning out the pinch and found this ancient
book called "El Chi". A Spanish translation of eastern
philosophy = solid gold. We were reading little parts of the book and
have so far learned that the chi is a river of energy that flows in
all places at all times. But, one must align themselves with this
river to live a more full and energetic life. I found another part
that said that one can move their bed in line with the chi and live
better. So good. Elder Ramos and I have been moving our beds into all
kinds of weird locations in order to find the chi and have a easier
time waking up in the morning. I think it's working.

I tried to send photos today, but the computer is not working out, so
I will try to send them another day. For the 25th of Mayo (Patriots
Day-Argentina), the branch had a party and prepared what is called a
locro. Locro is a super traditional Argentine food. It is a soup with
a corn based broth and about every part of a cow and pig that doesn't
taste good if it isn't in a soup. So the soup ends up being corn broth
with pig skin (not kidding-Argentines eat footballs), cow tail, pig
head, cow stomach, and little bits of bacon. So good (tear). Everyone
was so excited for the locro and acted like it was the best thing in
the world. The tradition is that when you cook locro, you do it for
about 50 people, which requires a pretty big pot. I wish I could send
the pictures, but someone brought a pot that looks like the cauldron
that Voldemort comes out of in the fourth book. HUGE. I could
literally sit inside the pot and still feel good. About 90 people
showed up to the activity and all of them ate well out of this one
pot. That is, everyone ate well except for me. I wanted to like locro
so bad, but when it came down to eating it, it was horrible. The
pieces of pig skin didn't really dissolve, but end of being really slick
and impossible to chew. I swear my plate had more than its fair share
of pig skin. So bad. But, I ate the whole plate and when I was asked
if I wanted seconds, I firmly and fearfully declined. All of the
others ate 3 or four plates. If you have read the rest of my emails,
you know that I have a weak weak stomach, and gets very upset if
anything foreign enters into it. Pig skin is no exception. We had just
gotten onto a bus heading to our 8 o'clock appointment and I felt like someone punched me real hard right in my stomach. Needless to say, we rushed as fast as we could to the pinch to avoid disaster and we barely made it. Luckily the storm in my stomach only lasted a few hours and the next
day we were out working again. Never again locro. Never again.

Apart from that, the week was real good. Antonio has progressed
super fast and is planning for a baptism the coming Saturday. Even
though he has a few screws loose and sometimes talks to dogs, he is so
great and smart. I love him tons.

This week one of the area seventies came to our ward. Elder Abila (I
think). He spoke a lot about the atonement. He referenced the famous
little story that talks about the footsteps on the beach and Jesus. In
the story, there are two sets of footsteps in the sand. One belongs to
Jesus and the other belongs to you. Except, in the hardest parts of
your life, there is only one set of footprints. One would think that
Jesus had deserted us, but he was really carrying us in the most
difficult points. Elder Abila took this story and tore it apart. hahah
He said that there are never two sets of footsteps, but just one. We
cannot do anything without Christ's Atonement. Nothing. Real good.