Elder Zach Greene: Foo-foo and Surprises

La Familia Verdecito,

How are you all doing? It sounds like everyone is doing good except for Taggert smashing his face. Hope you're alright Tagman! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I think you all being married for 23 years makes me feel old too. I'm so grateful that I've had such awesome parents and a great family. Serving a mission really awakens you to the fact that Heavenly Father has blessed us a ton!

So we did team-ups this week with the Ellicott City Sisters. Since we can't do exchanges with sisters we do team ups, all 5 of us, hahah. Our first appointment we went to an African woman's home. Besides Spanish people, Africans are probably my favorite people. We talked about temples with her because she just got activated. Afterwards she said, would you like to eat? I made food for you all! (this is pretty common in both Spanish and African culture) So we sat and ate one of the wildest meals I've had on my mission. We ate something called Foo-foo, it's like a yam based paste (kinda like less flavorful mashed potatoes) and Abona. Abona is a soup with goat and dry Catfish, and quite frankly it's not very good. But here's the best part, to eat it, you take the Foo-foo on your fingers and then dip your fingers into the soup and scoop it into your mouth! No spoon. We just had to laugh and all eat it! Hahah

We had a cool miracle this week! So we went to a somewhat active family's house to share a message and possibly help them do missionary work, we didn't really know them yet. When we got there we met "D" and his parents (or so we thought?). He's 18 and he's pretty cool. I put Elder Dutson on the spot (trainer responsibility) and said he was going to share a scripture. He shared one about receiving revelation at church. We left and the next day we went to PEC. We talked about "D", because we thought he was less active. But it turns out he's not a member and he lives there with his mom who is a member (not the parents we talked to, oh the complications of Spanish living). They then said missionaries have tried for 6 years to get him baptized but he has only come to church one time in those 6 years. As we sat down in sacrament meeting, in walks "D" in a tie, white shirt and slacks. I looked at the Bishopric with a big grin on my face and President Flores' jaw dropped a little, hahah. We will be meeting with "D" on Thursday! Best part of it was that we didn't even know he wasn't a member when we first taught them!

This week we had a Zone Conference focused on asking for referrals, from everyone. It was awesome and our Zone did great at applying it. We had an awesome experience where we were walking and we saw a black family moving there stuff out of their house. We asked them if they needed help and they said know. So we asked them if any of their neighbors were hispanic. He pointed to his next door neighbor's house! We had some extra time before our next appointment so we knocked it. A small boy, maybe like 4 years old, answered the door and we asked him if his dad was home (in english). He said,"He speaks Spanish." "Could we talk to him?" Haha he didn't seem to understand, so he reiterated,"But he speaks Spanish." I said,"Hablamos Espanol", he just turned around and brought his dad, "T". "T" invited us right in without us even saying anything more than "Buenas!" We had an awesome lesson and we're teaching his whole family on Tuesday! Miracles!

Well I can't believe how fast the weeks go, have another great one! I love you all and I'm so grateful for your prayers.

Love,

Elder Greene

P.S. So I got a call from Sister Pascoe, she's funny but she's old, so she basically told me,"Don't open the first package but open the second." I was super confused but I just laughed and said alright thanks so much Sister Pascoe. So your email clears it up. I'm pumped about new pods!!! I haven't gotten them yet though. So what do I do with the old ones? and the old meter? Let me know in your next email. I did get the insulin and it was cold so were good.

P.P.S So my slacks are getting a little worn, I've sewn two of them. I may buy some today? I'm still the same size of pants I was when I left so if I don't find anything I'll let you know.

P.P.P.S I'm going to the Orioles game this week on Friday! Ahh yeah! Crazy it's been a year since then yeah?