Before I begin the bulk of my letter I will share some advice that has use for EVERYONE, unless you're crazy and have had it before and like it. Anyway here is my advice. NEVER EVER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (If you can't tell that is in red and says never ever ever in all caps.) EVER EVER EVER eat Pani Puri. It is an Indian snack. IT IS DISGUSTING! I can't describe the nastiness that was in my mouth twice yesterday. If you are ever with a person from India and they offer you pani puri (pan-ee, puur-ee) don't accept, tell them it makes you sick or something, anything so you don't have to eat it. It was the nastiest thing I've ever tasted. It's like a little breadish shell and they fill it with this nasty looking brown liquid. It's nasty. I could go into more detail but I wont. Let it just suffice to say that it was the nastiest thing I've ever tasted and you would do well to avoid it like the plague.
Well I guess now I'll tell you what I did in the week. But first before I forget. Are they still going to build a in-n-out in centerville?
Back to my letter. This was a slow week but a very unusual one. Wednesday was a beast. It was raining and Elder Johnson and I ended up walking about 10 miles all before 2 o'clock. Basically long story short we started walking to a place that we thought was pretty close but it turned up not being close at all and there weren't any busses close to where we were. After we walked about 15 blocks to get there the guy wasn't there then we walked about a mile to another street to find we turned the wrong way so we tracted for 45 minutes. We then walked all the way from 75ish streed to 54th street because we had an appointment and we were just going until we found a bus stop that would take us there but the first bus stop was at 59th street so we just walked the rest of the way. I think God had us walk all that way so we wouldn't have too much energy to fight the baptist guy and his preacher that we had an appointment with. We met this baptist guy a week earlier tracting and we had a debate type thing, well my companion mainly did because he talkes a lot and he talked most of the time and he was just wacko and didn't know a thing. He kept bringing up all these random scriptures to try and prove us wrong. It was like me trying to tell you that BYU is a college and you saying it can't be because cheetahs like to run. It was the most nonsensical thing ever. So long story short we went back a week later to meet with his pastor at their baptist church. We were there for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. It actually went a lot better than either E. Johnson or I expected. We testified a lot. They mainly said that in order for the Book of Mormon to be true than there had to be some physical evidence to prove it. There had to be something like old records from the Mayans with the same writing on them or the plates had to still be here. It was rediculous. We kept telling them that the only way they'd be able to find out if it was true was if they read it and prayed about it. We told them that the chruch stands or falls with the Book of Mormon. But they wouldn't read it. The pastor was actually very respectful but his minion (the other guy we met the week previously) wasn't. He was just trying to twist our words but he wasn't able to. There were a couple times that we could tell from the pastors body language that he was just like "I don't know what he is saying. I'm on your side for now." But the pastor at the end said "If you ever find that the Book of Mormon isn't true we would hope that you wont turn away from the bible." They were basically saying in a nice way. "When you find out you're decieved don't turn away from the Bible and Christ." It was kind of ridiculous. But I think we planted seeds for the future. There is a lot more to this story but I only have 10 minutes left and still have to write president. But this encounter definitely strengthened my testimony of the chruch a lot and it did the same for E. Johnson.
Suzanne is coming along well. she is still stuggling with smoking but she came to chruch yesterday.
The Mentor family, we haven't seen them since last time I wrote. They called 10 minutes after the appointment was to start to cancel.
The Singh family, the new indian family, is doing well. E. Johnson had a great lesson with them when we were on exchange.
The Singari family, the indian family that we found first, they fed us Pani Puri, ICKY!!!!!!!! they are doing well. They are reading the Book of Mormon and have a bapt. date for 4/17/11.
Sorry for the short letter. I spent too much time on the baptist guy and the pani puri, ick.
I'm getting along well with my comp. I like him a lot. He's probably the easiest to get along with of all my comps.
Mom- You're painting the house? Did it get super nasty while I've been gone?
Dad- Have fun working 2 jobs for the next 9 months.
Austin-Letters? Dates? PUhleez?
Natasha- I want to hear breannas joke.
Jordan- Glad you did good in school.
Shaylee- How is school. Are you excited for spring break.
I'm mad BYU lost. My comp was talking to his family on the phone because his brother got his mission call and they gave us updates. DArn.
Love ya
Elder Schouten
Well I guess now I'll tell you what I did in the week. But first before I forget. Are they still going to build a in-n-out in centerville?
Back to my letter. This was a slow week but a very unusual one. Wednesday was a beast. It was raining and Elder Johnson and I ended up walking about 10 miles all before 2 o'clock. Basically long story short we started walking to a place that we thought was pretty close but it turned up not being close at all and there weren't any busses close to where we were. After we walked about 15 blocks to get there the guy wasn't there then we walked about a mile to another street to find we turned the wrong way so we tracted for 45 minutes. We then walked all the way from 75ish streed to 54th street because we had an appointment and we were just going until we found a bus stop that would take us there but the first bus stop was at 59th street so we just walked the rest of the way. I think God had us walk all that way so we wouldn't have too much energy to fight the baptist guy and his preacher that we had an appointment with. We met this baptist guy a week earlier tracting and we had a debate type thing, well my companion mainly did because he talkes a lot and he talked most of the time and he was just wacko and didn't know a thing. He kept bringing up all these random scriptures to try and prove us wrong. It was like me trying to tell you that BYU is a college and you saying it can't be because cheetahs like to run. It was the most nonsensical thing ever. So long story short we went back a week later to meet with his pastor at their baptist church. We were there for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. It actually went a lot better than either E. Johnson or I expected. We testified a lot. They mainly said that in order for the Book of Mormon to be true than there had to be some physical evidence to prove it. There had to be something like old records from the Mayans with the same writing on them or the plates had to still be here. It was rediculous. We kept telling them that the only way they'd be able to find out if it was true was if they read it and prayed about it. We told them that the chruch stands or falls with the Book of Mormon. But they wouldn't read it. The pastor was actually very respectful but his minion (the other guy we met the week previously) wasn't. He was just trying to twist our words but he wasn't able to. There were a couple times that we could tell from the pastors body language that he was just like "I don't know what he is saying. I'm on your side for now." But the pastor at the end said "If you ever find that the Book of Mormon isn't true we would hope that you wont turn away from the bible." They were basically saying in a nice way. "When you find out you're decieved don't turn away from the Bible and Christ." It was kind of ridiculous. But I think we planted seeds for the future. There is a lot more to this story but I only have 10 minutes left and still have to write president. But this encounter definitely strengthened my testimony of the chruch a lot and it did the same for E. Johnson.
Suzanne is coming along well. she is still stuggling with smoking but she came to chruch yesterday.
The Mentor family, we haven't seen them since last time I wrote. They called 10 minutes after the appointment was to start to cancel.
The Singh family, the new indian family, is doing well. E. Johnson had a great lesson with them when we were on exchange.
The Singari family, the indian family that we found first, they fed us Pani Puri, ICKY!!!!!!!! they are doing well. They are reading the Book of Mormon and have a bapt. date for 4/17/11.
Sorry for the short letter. I spent too much time on the baptist guy and the pani puri, ick.
I'm getting along well with my comp. I like him a lot. He's probably the easiest to get along with of all my comps.
Mom- You're painting the house? Did it get super nasty while I've been gone?
Dad- Have fun working 2 jobs for the next 9 months.
Austin-Letters? Dates? PUhleez?
Natasha- I want to hear breannas joke.
Jordan- Glad you did good in school.
Shaylee- How is school. Are you excited for spring break.
I'm mad BYU lost. My comp was talking to his family on the phone because his brother got his mission call and they gave us updates. DArn.
Love ya
Elder Schouten
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