Words from Sister Elese Hauser in Chicago Illinois

"Happy Labor Day!
I hope you all get a day to rest from your labors! Take a break for me
too because if anything today is extra busy!! This week was FULL of
miracles! I don't know if I've ever had a week so full of so many
wonderful things. I also had some scary things and had to eat one of
the most exotic things I'll ever eat!
We have a ton of Filipinos in our Ward and so we went over to one
families, the Payos, and every time a new missionary comes they feed
them balut. For those that don't know what that is, let me fill you
in. So balut is similar to a hard boiled egg. Except the chicken or
duck inside the egg is already forming into an embryo. So you boil the
egg, crack it open, drink some slimy egg juice, and then peel away the
yoke away to find a little baby chicken about the size of my pinky.
Then, you eat it. Sounds disturbing right? We'll let me tell you, it
is!!!! So Sister Bird did me the favor of telling Brother Payo that I
was super pumped and so excited to eat balut. And we went over to
their house this Friday for dinner. So we sit down to eat dinner and
Brother Payo walks in with 3 chicken eggs. He puts them in boiling
water and gives me the look like you have no idea what you're in for!
So the whole time the eggs are cooking and we're eating dinner I tried
everything to get out of it. I told him I was sick, he didn't believe
me. I told him I'm allergic to chicken, but we were already eating
chicken for dinner so that didn't work too well. I even went to the
bathroom and tried to stall, but when it came down to it, I knew I had
to eat it. I couldn't be the first sister missionary to not eat it. I
like to think of myself strong like bull, not weak like chicken. So I
cracked the egg and luckily there was no yucky juice to drink but when
I found the chicken it was huge! Like I could see it's eye balls
forming, it's wings, and even it's toes. It was probably the size of
my pinky all stretched out! So I put some salt on it and I just popped
it into my mouth! It was too big to just swallow so I had to chew
it.... Luckily it wasn't crunchy. And no, it did not taste like
chicken even though it was a chicken! So I pretty much swallowed it
and tried not to gag it back up and then drank a bunch of water. They
videoed the whole thing and said they'd email to Moms email so you'll
have to watch it when they email it! So if anyone ever tries to get
you to eat balut, don't do it!!!! Unless you want to be as cool as
Sister Hauser:)

Well I on to more important topics... Transfers are tomorrow! Sister
Bird is being transferred to St. Charles and will be training a brand
new missionary! I'm so excited for her but I'm so sad. These 6 weeks
went by way to fast! And so my new companion is Sister Jennings. I'm
excited to be her companion and we are going to see so many miracles
together! So the surprises of my mission are over. It's kinda lame now
that I know my last companion and area but I'm still denial. So
tonight we'll give a training to the new missionaries and tomorrow
morning also before transfer meeting. And probably my favorite bonus
about being a Sister Training Leader is President always feeds the new
missionaries deep dish pizza and we get to go there for dinner!
Woohoo! I love deep dish pizza almost as much as I love sweet corn!
Which is a lot!

The Lord has been so merciful to us this week! First of all, we are
teaching a Filipino lady named Kathy. She's the one who fed us tons of
Filipino food at her house a few weeks ago. We finally met with her
again this week and had a church tour with her. Besides the fact that
she was 45 minutes late to her lesson, it went really well! Church
tours are the best! As we sat in the chapel, the spirit was
overwhelming and she agreed to be baptized on October 11!!! She
already feels it's true because of the change she's seen in her son
and she wants it for herself. So we have someone on date! And I will
do everything I can to make sure it happens. And then the next day we
taught Brother Laine. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited
him to be baptized and his answer was "Maybe". He said he doesn't know
if Joseph smith is a prophet or not so this week we are watching
Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with him and they're making
popcorn. It's been so long since I've had a movie night! Haha, if you
call this a movie night! But it'll be great. And last of all, Roy. So
Roy has been investigating for awhile and we've only taught him twice
since I've been here. But he's coming back and he's so strong! Like
I've said before, he is the most intelligent person I've very taught.
Yesterday he said that he took off work just so he could be at church.
And last week he accidentally slept in past stake conference so he
went to his old church and while he was there he just felt that he'd
grown so much past their knowledge. And he just knew that our church
was true because of how much he's grown. So we asked him about baptism
and he knows he needs to be baptized but it's just out of his comfort
zone. So I told him one of my favorites quotes "There's no growth in
the comfort zone and there's no comfort in the growth zone." And so he
is going to pray about a date this week and when we meet next Sunday
he said he'll have a date in mind! How awesome is that?! I pray it's
sooner rather than later because he is so ready to be baptized. So
Elgin is pretty much the land of miracles and so much is happening
here! I'm so grateful The Lord is blessing this area so much. It's not
me at all because I am not this strong but I recognize that with The
Lord we truly can do all things.

So life is wonderful! I feel so blessed to be a missionary at this
time and so involved in the lords work at this influential time. Good
luck with all of your endeavors this week. May The Lord bless you in
all of your travels and journeys. I love all so much and am so blessed
to know all of you! I love you!!!!!"