Exotic

On Saturday we were going to pick up some food from the lady that was assigned to give food that day, and we were walking along the ocean because her house is right on the beach, and we picked up some cool shells and threw them in our backpack without thinking too much about it. We got the food and then went on with our normal day and forgot about the shells until the next morning. I was getting my backpack ready for church when I found the shell in my backpack. I took it out and put it on my desk and then started doing something else. I heard a little scuffling noise so I turned around back to my desk. I about jumped out of my shoes because there was this giant spider lookin thing crawling all over the place. After a couple seconds of confusion and terror I realized it was a crab and it wasn't some weird spider thing tryna get me. It was probably just confused at where the ocean went and after an entire day in the dark depths of my backpack it was probably eager to stretch its legs. I yelled at my companion in the bathroom to get out here and take a look at this crab I had accidently kidnapped, so he runs out and sees it, then runs to his backpack and pulls out his shell, which was about 5 times as big as mine, and sets it on his desk. Sure enough his shell had a crab about 5 times as big. We now had 2 crabs that just wanted to crawl all over the place, and I didn't want to let loose a couple of sea creatures in the apartment, so I went and got a big container and filled it with water, put a little branch in there, and then put our new crab friends in the container. We finished getting ready and then we opened the door to leave, but I remembered a critical detail. Crabs are from the sea, which is salt water. I rushed to grab our salt and rushed over to the container and dumped in a couple tablespoons of salt and then we rushed out the door.

We got back from church and I went over to the container and there was only one crab in there. I distinctly remembered having two so I was super nervous that we had a crab on the loose and it was gonna come pinch me in the middle of the night. I started looking for a minute, and then asked myself, "If I was this crab, where would I go?" Well I would go in the nice saltwater habitat that was prepared for me, so I went and looked again, and sure enough, they were both in there, the smaller one was just hidden under the bigger one. After closer inspection, they had stopped moving, and we concluded that they had passed away. I'm not sure if I put in the wrong ratio of salt to water or what, but they had died of something. It could have been the fact that they hadn't eaten all day, or maybe they needed air and they were just in water I'm not sure. We decided our next move would be to salvage the cool shells that we had collected, so we pulled out the crabs from the shells. Without hesitation, my companion pulled out a pot, filled it with water, turned on our hotplate, and plopped the crabs in. I couldn't believe my eyes, but after a nice little simmer, he pulled out the now cooked crabs and set them on a plate. I didn't really know what to say, but with my companions limited english and incredible timing he said "Wow, Exotic!"

This week I worked harder than I have ever worked in my life, and It was probably one of the most difficult weeks I've ever experienced, but this week I also felt the presence of the spirit more strongly than ever before. I know that this is the Lord's work, and he is very actively involved in it because I can feel it.

I Love you all!!

Elder Pendleton