Learning to Cook on a Brick

Believe it or not, I served my mission back in 1997-1999. It wasn't too far back. Really it wasn't or isn't for me.

While serving in Guatemala, I had the opportunity to serve in a small town in the mountains/volcanoes, called Pueblo Nuevo Viñas. I tiny pueblo in the middle of the southern mountain region. My fourth companion and still to this day, good friend, Elder Storer from Coral Springs, Florida was excited to have a new companion and show me around what had become his home away from home. We had a nice little hole in the wall, actually it was more like a corner, with a pila (stone sink/bathtub), running water...most of the time...and no telephone. We had to use the tienda's phone which comprised the front part of our little corner in the wall. Next to us was the Pepsi delivery man for the little town who drove a maroon, at least 1970's, Datsun pickup truck which he used to deliver the Pepsi goods.

The streets were dusty, the people friendly, and the night sky full of twinkling stars. It wasn't exactly paradise, but it was a town that moved slowly as if time had decided to pack up and leave this little town hidden on the mountain side and invest his efforts somewhere else. We were surrounded by vast mountains and volcanoes divided by deep green jungle valleys. It didn't get much more campy than this. The nearest stake center or regional center was at least 2 hours on a bus.

While in this area, I learned another valuable lesson. When you don't have a stove, you still need to cook. So if you don't have a fire burning, which we weren't permitted to do. You get a brick.

No... seriously... a brick. It had grooves throughout the top portion of the brick that contained a tightly wound wire that at the one end was connected to a plug-in. We plugged it in and it warmed up the brick. It took at least 15 minutes to boil water! Needless to say, we didn't cook the 3 minute ramen...took about 18 minutes to cook. I am so thankful to have a stove.