I read your dad's email first and thought he did a great job describing our week. Maybe we should just sent one email. But we never have been good at dividing up responsibility, so I will probably try to write the trivial stuff.
I am adjusting to stuff here. That is, I can feed people a little more easily, and I can live with the flexibility in numbers. Dad and I can eat just so much. But this week we invited a gentleman to dinner. I prepared a sumptuous feast, and then he called and said he was feeling ill, and couldn't come. So Dad and I had to eat the sumptuous feast all by ourselves. It was actually lentil soup, which I love, so it wasn't hard. But I'd made a big portion.
The man said he'd come on Friday instead. So I refrigerated the left-overs for Friday. He'd never know that they were left-overs, because soup always looks the same. But on Friday he called and said he still couldn't come. So we had lentil soup again, and again, and again, and I finally froze the remaining portion.
I had no idea lentil soup was so simple to make.... and so delicious. I've bought it lots of times in restaurants, but now that I can make it myself, I rarely buy it. I'll make you all some when we return. I don't know if the US has the right kind of lentil beans though. So I might have to chuck some of my stylish clothes and pack some lentils.
Today for our Easter dinner, I was wondering how you can possibly eat on Easter without ham. Even if I could find a ham, I'd be afraid to serve it here because of sensitivities. Luckily IKEA had a frozen turkey "something" and I cooked that and sliced it. I made a good hummus, some cheese melted on some kind of bread, a bean salad (no, not 3-bean!) and a potato salad. Over-all I thought it was rather tasty. No one complained and they ate most of it. For dessert we had our usual rice krispy squares made with cocoa puffs, strawberries, and peanut M&M's (still from our Christmas package)
I asked our guests to tell us about their Easter traditions. We had two Elders with us. One of the Elder's traditions sounded a lot like ours. Family members trampled other family members to find eggs. His family had some eggs with money in them. If the egg only had candy, they threw the egg back on the ground. Sound familiar? The other elder said he didn't remember any Easter traditions in his family. (He is Navajo, and his parents grew up in the reservation) the other guests were Turks, so of course, they had no Easter traditions.
There continues to be security concerns in our country, and in the world. Many people are scared and are altering their activities. One of the biggest scare areas here is the metro. We have a lot of security precautions we are to follow. Church meetings were cancelled in two of our branches today, but we were still able to meet. It was too bad for these Branches to not have Easter meetings. But there have been several State Department warnings, and the Area Presidency asked them to cancel their meetings. Christians were warned to beware. We were given an option, and carried on. We are a very small group, and a very low profile. On my way to church I looked around to see if anyone was following me or aware that I was going to a church, but I only saw one cat that eyed me suspiciously.
Dad visited two homes yesterdays of members. One was about as large as my office downstairs. It is like he lives in a small storage container. The other home was a little larger for a family, but they have very meager resources. They have about $60.00 to live on after they pay rent. I can't even imagine being that limited in resources. We are very WEALTHY. All of you are. For some reason we were placed in part of the earth with great abundance and opportunity. I don't know why some peoples of the world were placed in such challenging circumstances. So, NOTE TO SELF: Be grateful and see how many starfish you can pick up. You can make a difference!
Love,
Mother
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