Watermelon Mango Pico de Gallo

     

A year ago this week,  Ian arrived in Tulsa from the Mexico MTC

For any middle aged women who may read this only because you found it on while searching Blogspot after not finding anything decent on Pinterest here is something that might interest you. Yesterday, a member who is the single father of three daughters made us dinner much to the disappointment of his oldest daughter. However the joke was on her. He found what I assumed must have been a secret recipe that has been hidden from Mexican restaurant zealots since its conception. It was just as the title states and is much more than your mortal mind can imagine. To avoid disrespecting the culinary art, I will suggest a Google Search of the title of this email and a trip to the local super market in search of the supplies.

     This week while I was vacuuming the Relief Society room, I was drafted into EFY. The tri-stake area had an EFY on Saturday and lacked 4 counselors and there happened to be four of us missionaries cleaning the Church. After finding out our lesson at two had cancelled we joined the squad to find two other zone leaders there from a far away land helping out as well. The stressed adults organized us in groups and then the flood of teenagers began. Many other counselors were going absolutely ballistic and there was a lot of yelling to excite the kids. Lots of members from the YSA branch were counselors and they were saying, "YOU READY TO HAVE SOME FUN!?!?! WOOOOHOOO!" I felt like I was at the Zoo in that Gymnasium. But I looked at our meager group and decided they needed some motivation. Moments after harshly judging the Young Single Adults for their childishly-like behavior, I was doing the exact same thing. It was effective and the shy kids soon became equally as nuts. 

     The activities ended that day with one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. All the kids wrote their testimony on the back of a pass along card and were escorted to the parking lot. On the way there, they were all handed a balloon and told to tie the pass along card to the balloon. Then, just like a cheesy movie you'd see on the Disney channel, we all let go of the balloons. None of us will probably ever know what will become of all those testimonies but due to the flight pattern of the balloons seen that blustery afternoon, the missionaries in the Omaha Nebraska Mission are going to have a lot of people to talk with in 2 to 3 weeks.

     Our mission-wide goal this week was to have 10 exchanges from members. We prayed a lot for the help and knowledge to know what we could do to achieve that goal. As we prayed, things just started happening. We had a member of YSA and a member of another ward help us almost immediately. And the exchanges just came as we tried our best. During a lesson we had with an American family and their 12 year old Hispanic friend, the mother responsed to his question, "So if I pray for a GTR I can get a GTR?", with this interesting thought; "Sometimes we have to meet God half way." The Lord is always willing to help us if we are willing to do our best. People are coming out of no where and asking us to teach them and their families. In the words of the great film, Nacho Libre, "It's fantastic".

Thanks for all you do

adios

Elder Thomas    

P.S. from Ian's mom....check out this link. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2013/06/watermelon-pico-de-gallo/