Navajo Tacos or Amlicites Mark (Alma 3:4)??

Sunday the 23rd we attended church in the Macul 2nd ward in the Nunoa Stake.  We thought that we were going to present the Capilla Abierta power point to the ward.  The Hermana's in this ward were changed, one going home and the other to another stake.  The two new Hermana's didn't know anything about what was going on so we just went and flowed with whatever.  We ended up showing the power point to the ward council during the Sunday School hour.  The ward has a Capilla scheduled for the 21st of March.  They have never had one before.  We still don't know when or if they will present anything to the ward but now the missionaries assigned to the ward know what to do if we can't attend when they do the power point.  With all of the protests last year many of our missionaries have never participated in a Capilla Abierta so we have to get them trained. We have 4 Capilla Abierta's scheduled for March.  We pray that we will be able to have them.  We have been told that the demonstrations/protests will begin in earnest again on March 2nd.
     Monday morning we made the pouch run.  We noticed that the entrances to a few of the metro stations have been sealed off.

The city is getting ready for more demonstrations

We keep praying for peaceful demonstrations but it doesn't sound like that will happen.  Our missionaries have been given extra money this week to buy a 2 week supply of food to have on hand in case they are confined to their homes again.  If they shut down the metro most of them can't get to the mission office.  Rumors are flying about strikes so grocery stores may be shut down as well.  Time will tell!

One of our missionaries made us an amazing gift.

This is Elder Cazaut.  He has drawn this picture of the Savior for us with pencil and love.

Elder's Carpenter and Cazaut are the Zone Leaders in Javier Carrera

The rest of our week was pretty much like last week, inspections and service.  We did do a lot of computer work as well.  We have lots to document before we leave.

The Potter's invited us to go to dinner with them on Saturday.  They picked out an Indian Restaurant (and my first thought was Navajo Tacos?) called the Rishtedar meaning kinsman in Hindi.  When we entered, each woman is adorned with a traditional red bindi just above and in-between their eyebrows.  The bindi is worn by married women and symbolizes wisdom or a third eye.(And again my thoughts were wrong - Alma 3:4 came to mind) We have never eaten Indian food before but knew that Justin loves it so we asked Mindi what we should order.  

The front of the restaurant with a tuk tuk

Hermana Potter

Hermana Thompson

The front door

We went inside to eat

It was very quaint

kind of hard to tell but that is a big glass elephant on the shelf above the counter

The Potter's learned to love Indian food when they lived in China

We told them what Mindi had suggested that we eat and they were thrilled.  We ended up getting 4 different dishes and everyone had some of each.

We ate:  Veshnu Masala (veggies)

Butter Chicken

Dal Mackani (lentals)

Mata Josh Curry (lamb)

and Basmati rice

and 3 different flavors of Naan (bread)

Our waitress Mariella was a hoot.  She is from Venezuela

Hermana Potter had some hot sauce that I tried, boy was it ever hot!!  The food was really good.  We didn't have any idea what to expect but it turned out to be a very fun and interesting evening.

After we were finished, the plates were removed and a waitress came with a pitcher of water and a vase so that we could each wash our hands.

The Potters explained that in India you are not given forks or spoons but use the naan bread as the scoop to eat so your hands do get dirty.

Fun to learn about other cultures and Indian food isn't as scary as we had thought

Well, another week has come to a close as well as another month.  We were doing great at getting our food eaten before we go home when the demonstrations were announced.  There are rumors of strikes and stores closing so we had to stock up on a few things again.  Oh well, whatever we can't eat, we know of 169 young missionaries who will gladly take whatever is left.  

We pray that you have had a wonderful week.  You are always in our thoughts and prayers.  We are hoping that the old saying is true: "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb" in regards to our demonstrations.  We are prepared and so are our young missionaries.  We send our love to all.  Chao