The Bird Whisperer

Now he's the Bird Whisperer

After a few weeks of a pretty meager selection of photos to typically accompany the weekly letters from TMFKATB, he dumped nearly three times his usual number of pictures. The pictures that came with today's letter were all over the map, but each made me smile. His letter was smile-inducing as well.

His mission president's three year service comes to an end at the end of July and transition plans to the new mission president are already under way. As TMFKATB put it today, "Lots of big (well, he said 'bug' but I'm taking that as a typo) things happening in the mission!" He's pretty excited to be a part of it too. He'll also be attending the Church's General Conference this weekend too and that's got him pumped as well. That's one of the benefits of serving in the smack dab in the heart of the Zion Curtain.

I don't think he'll be taking the bird in the picture with him though to Conference. Last week, as you may recall, he shared a picture of himself with some one's pet (allegedly) rat. This week, suddenly he's the Bird Whisperer. I laughed when I saw this because if he were serving the Philippines that bird would have never made it to the cuddly hand-holding stage. That bird would have been served up in the shell as balut. If you clicked on the link (calm down, it will only take you to Wikipedia, the truth sayers of the interwebs) and you think balut is not a thing, I can assure you it's a thing. When my parents served in the Philippines for three years, they told their American missionaries they couldn't try it. I'm pretty certain that mission rule was widely broken. I've tried balut and it is not delightful (think a really brine juice, with a hint of feathers, and the slightest crunch of beak that, like everything else, kind of tastes like chicken). It's not horrible either (Logan, you have been warned), seriously. I suspect had TMFKATB just sampled balut, his smile would not be quite so big.

I'm glad to see that smile. I'm glad to hear from him each week. Seeing how he's growing and working through challenges and experience has been more rewarding than I can explain. I'm going to miss this when it wraps up later this year. It's going to be here before we know it.