I just phoned the Elders....

[TripletDaddy]

I was in South America. We paid a pension lady to cook our dinners. We ate lunch with members. We took care of breakfast on our own.

For you others here that had the old pensiones, what did you do if you happened to get hungry in between meals? Don't tell me you never ever stopped and bought food from a vendor, in a restaurant/fast food equivalent, or something similar. For 2 whole years? No way. Obviously, it is possible, but seems highly unlikely that you never ate anything that wasn't served to you by your pension or members.

My point in posting this thread is not to condemn missionaries stateside from eating with members. I ate with members on my mission. No problem.

What caught me off guard was the sense of helplessness at having to fend for themselves for 5 or 6 dinners a month. To the point that they needed the MP to tell them how to handle the problem.

I paid for my dinners to be cooked. But I knew enough that if I were hungry, I would go and buy something to eat. Or cook it at home.

Incidentally, the easiest, quickest thing to cook at home on our mission: sandwich de huevo, tomate, cebolla, locoto (hot peppers)....sabroso!

[Surfah]

There was quite a number of 17-19 year old girls and their parents would always invite us over. Some of the girls would constantly flirt and I received a few notes (I never responded to them). I threw them away except for one which fell under the rug in our apartment. An elder I knew later got transferred there during the middle of my mission and found the note. The next time he saw me he gave me the business about it and the whole Darmstadt district had seen and read the note.

I borrowed some golf clubs from a member so I could golf on a P-day. When I went to return them the family wasn't home but their 20 year old daughter who had just left her husband and moved home was. The conversation went something like this:

Tell your dad thanks. I'll leave these in the garage.

I never spoke to her again. I don't even recall seeing her again after that.

About 3 months later I get this letter from her. I'd since been transferred to another state. It's 7 pages long. She professes her undying love for me. How the Spirit testified of my goodness to her and how we were supposed to be together. She told me about her husband, how she plans on divorcing him and moving to Alpine, UT with family there so she can be closer to me when I return to school at the Y. It was awesome. Of course I read it aloud to my zone during a zone meeting and testified that this is what happens when you work hard.

[Surfah]

I was in South America. We paid a pension lady to cook our dinners. We ate lunch with members. We took care of breakfast on our own.

For you others here that had the old pensiones, what did you do if you happened to get hungry in between meals? Don't tell me you never ever stopped and bought food from a vendor, in a restaurant/fast food equivalent, or something similar. For 2 whole years? No way. Obviously, it is possible, but seems highly unlikely that you never ate anything that wasn't served to you by your pension or members.

My point in posting this thread is not to condemn missionaries stateside from eating with members. I ate with members on my mission. No problem.

What caught me off guard was the sense of helplessness at having to fend for themselves for 5 or 6 dinners a month. To the point that they needed the MP to tell them how to handle the problem.

I paid for my dinners to be cooked. But I knew enough that if I were hungry, I would go and buy something to eat. Or cook it at home.

Incidentally, the easiest, quickest thing to cook at home on our mission: sandwich de huevo, tomate, cebolla, locoto (hot peppers)....sabroso!

We'd hit up McDonald's $.99 double cheeseburgers often. Also when the Whopper goes on sale for a buck it was on.

And as I stated, walking around parts of Denver and Aurora I'd always get a mango or guayaba paleta. Some fresh chicharones with el tapatio on em. Street tacos and elotes. I ate elotes a lot. I had a companion break his front teeth on one though. Don't know how, but they broke. He had to have them pulled and wore a false set until his gums had healed so they could put some implants in. He couldn't eat with the false teeth in so he'd throw it in his shirt pocket. Pretty funny.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I borrowed some golf clubs from a member so I could golf on a P-day. When I went to return them the family wasn't home but their 20 year old daughter who had just left her husband and moved home was. The conversation went something like this:

Tell your dad thanks. I'll leave these in the garage.

I never spoke to her again. I don't even recall seeing her again after that.

About 3 months later I get this letter from her. I'd since been transferred to another state. It's 7 pages long. She professes her undying love for me. How the Spirit testified of my goodness to her and how we were supposed to be together. She told me about her husband, how she plans on divorcing him and moving to Alpine, UT with family there so she can be closer to me when I return to school at the Y. It was awesome. Of course I read it aloud to my zone during a zone meeting and testified that this is what happens when you work hard.

The girls in that ward were unfortunately not particularly cute. Actually, the stake president who looked and talked (in German) like Josef Stalin had a daughter that was kind of cute. She had a Santa Cruz long sleeve t-shirt which always confused me.

There were some German speaking hottie members but you likely had to find them outside your immediate area. Guido Uchtdorf, Pres. Uchtdorf's son, found his wife in some YSA activity at the Swiss Temple. Guido was in my first area, Darmstadt, and a year later he was in another area where I was, Karlsruhe. In the meantime, he had met, courted and married this fine Swiss lass.

[falafel]

I borrowed some golf clubs from a member so I could golf on a P-day. When I went to return them the family wasn't home but their 20 year old daughter who had just left her husband and moved home was. The conversation went something like this:

Tell your dad thanks. I'll leave these in the garage.

I never spoke to her again. I don't even recall seeing her again after that.

About 3 months later I get this letter from her. I'd since been transferred to another state. It's 7 pages long. She professes her undying love for me. How the Spirit testified of my goodness to her and how we were supposed to be together. She told me about her husband, how she plans on divorcing him and moving to Alpine, UT with family there so she can be closer to me when I return to school at the Y. It was awesome. Of course I read it aloud to my zone during a zone meeting and testified that this is what happens when you work hard.

So she wasn't hot. Because if she was hot, you two would be married right now.

We'd hit up McDonald's $.99 double cheeseburgers often. Also when the Whopper goes on sale for a buck it was on.

And as I stated, walking around parts of Denver and Aurora I'd always get a mango or guayaba paleta. Some fresh chicharones with el tapatio on em. Street tacos and elotes. I ate elotes a lot. I had a companion break his front teeth on one though. Don't know how, but they broke. He had to have them pulled and wore a false set until his gums had healed so they could put some implants in. He couldn't eat with the false teeth in so he'd throw it in his shirt pocket. Pretty funny.

I ate elotes every chance I got. They were $1.25 in Chicago, so I guarded my quarters jealously. Always con poca mayonesa. Sometimes I'd shake it up and get a mango con limon y chile, or even un pepino con limon y chile. Everything had chile. Members would pop popcorn and sprinkle el Tapatio on it.

I met a real tapatio once or twice. Blue eyes. Very striking. I also met a blue eyed black guy. He was homeless, so I don't think they were contacts.

[thesaint258]

Don't tell me you never ever stopped and bought food from a vendor, in a restaurant/fast food equivalent, or something similar.

We ate out quite a lot actually. In every city there were fantastic restaurants where you could eat for incredibly reasonable prices. Doner kebabs, schnitzel, sachertorte, krapfen, knoedel. Mmmmmmm.

[wuapinmon]

I was in South America. We paid a pension lady to cook our dinners. We ate lunch with members. We took care of breakfast on our own.

For you others here that had the old pensiones, what did you do if you happened to get hungry in between meals? Don't tell me you never ever stopped and bought food from a vendor, in a restaurant/fast food equivalent, or something similar. For 2 whole years? No way. Obviously, it is possible, but seems highly unlikely that you never ate anything that wasn't served to you by your pension or members.

My point in posting this thread is not to condemn missionaries stateside from eating with members. I ate with members on my mission. No problem.

What caught me off guard was the sense of helplessness at having to fend for themselves for 5 or 6 dinners a month. To the point that they needed the MP to tell them how to handle the problem.

I paid for my dinners to be cooked. But I knew enough that if I were hungry, I would go and buy something to eat. Or cook it at home.

Incidentally, the easiest, quickest thing to cook at home on our mission: sandwich de huevo, tomate, cebolla, locoto (hot peppers)....sabroso!

Snack food consisted of:

Rice and Beans
Beans and Rice
Mangoes (green with salt)
Mangoes (ripe, with napkin)
Sandía (sin sal)
Fresco de melón
Papaya
Papaya en agua
Papaya en leche
Fresco de cas
Fresco de chan
Granadillas
Horchata
Tronaditas (con limón y sal)
Chorreadas
Chicharrones (con yuca hervida y limón)
Fried Yuca (my favorite food on Earth, after sushi)
Bananas
Agua de pipa (coco verde)

Trits (the best ice cream on Earth, I promise you, no lie....the best). I've gone back several times and it's still the best. In May, I bought them for my students, and all of them said it was the best they'd ever had.

[The_Tick]

Our ward rolled out a doozie yesterday.

Our ward has a ward misison plan. Every family in the ward was to recieve a copy of it yesterday. The Bishop wanted to make sure that everyone in the ward knows what the Ward Correlation group has committed too.

Everyone was also given a 2nd copy but this copy was blank. Each family was to take this home and create their Family Mission Plan. We are to make it the focus of our FHE this week.

We are then to bring it back to church with us next week and turn it into the Bishopric so that they know what type of effort/plan each family has.

I turned both copies down. And I am sure that it will end up with another discussion with the Bishop again. (Like the one I got when I turned down doing any help on Prop. 8)

Church yesterday was no fun again...

[Surfah]

So she wasn't hot. Because if she was hot, you two would be married right now.

Not hot. And weighed more than me. Which is a healthy sum.

I ate elotes every chance I got. They were $1.25 in Chicago, so I guarded my quarters jealously. Always con poca mayonesa. Sometimes I'd shake it up and get a mango con limon y chile, or even un pepino con limon y chile. Everything had chile. Members would pop popcorn and sprinkle el Tapatio on it.

Mango con limon y chile is the bomb. Sandia also. Not a cucumber fan.

I'd often buy Mexican candy to give to kids. I forget what they're called but they're little candy fresas with tamarindo. I loved those. I need to visit el supermercado.

[SteelBlue]

I'd rather be boiled in oil than tract 10 hours a day for 2 years again.

Amen. When I hear people say that they'd go back on a mission in a heartbeat, I just roll my eyes. We'd tract out entire towns in a week without any interest at all. Yeah, let's go back to that.

I'm with you two. Tracting was all we did and that was because there wasn't anything better to do. The poor members had been commitment patterned to death and there just weren't many of them anyway. Tracting all day and getting in once or twice was the norm. If the person who let you in was a normal human being it was a good day.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Our ward rolled out a doozie yesterday.

Our ward has a ward misison plan. Every family in the ward was to recieve a copy of it yesterday. The Bishop wanted to make sure that everyone in the ward knows what the Ward Correlation group has committed too.

Everyone was also given a 2nd copy but this copy was blank. Each family was to take this home and create their Family Mission Plan. We are to make it the focus of our FHE this week.

We are then to bring it back to church with us next week and turn it into the Bishopric so that they know what type of effort/plan each family has.

I turned both copies down. And I am sure that it will end up with another discussion with the Bishop again. (Like the one I got when I turned down doing any help on Prop. 8)

Church yesterday was no fun again...

This is the kind of crap that my brother has to go through up in Vancouver, WA. That's why I said that particular area has the highest ratio of mullahs I've ever seen. It looks like your immediate area has more than its fair share.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, there were a helluva lot of mullahs where I grew up in California and it was actually worse than anything I've personally seen in Utah.

[The_Tick]

My Stake just sucks.

There are 3 stakes in Bako and the one I grew up in is really laid back and cool.

The one I live in now is terrible.

This Stake and Ward are literally killing my testimony. I have never pondered just quitting before in my life. But there isn't a Sunday that goes by now that I just don't think of a billion things that I would rather be doing than being at Church.

Thank heavens for my kids or I would be inactive.

And I was the most faithful, active, gung ho member of the Ward just 2 years ago.

Such is life I guess. We have contemplated selling our house and moving after my daughter finishes her senior year this year. And the only reason we would do so is to move out of our ward/stake. That is how we would decide where to live...Stake boundries. Pretty crazy eh?

[Donuthole]

Mangoes (green with salt)

Try them green with salt and chile powder. Mmmmmmmm.

EDIT:

Sometimes I'd shake it up and get a mango con limon y chile.

Yeah, that.

[Surfah]

Such is life I guess. We have contemplated selling our house and moving after my daughter finishes her senior year this year. And the only reason we would do so is to move out of our ward/stake. That is how we would decide where to live...Stake boundries. Pretty crazy eh?

Not so crazy. My family lived in a Residence Inn and ward hopped for weeks in different neighborhoods the considered when the moved from California before deciding on a home. This was after a two week house hunting trip.

[wuapinmon]

Try them green with salt and chile powder. Mmmmmmmm.

Sounds, in DDD's word(s), delish.