Discrimination

Today's theme was "eat, sleep, pray". I excelled at this theme. The day started out with a trip to church. There are very few members here, and the nearest ward met about thirty minutes away in a different town. The journey to the town was incredibly beautiful. The coastline is something that I could stare at for days on end. Church itself was also a beautiful expereince.
I was truly humbled, sitting in this little apartment they use for a chapel, watching these faithful saints. I had no idea how skewed my preception of other countries was. Although, when I compare my spiritual experience with theirs, I almost envy theirs. Maybe that's kind of weird to say. However, I don't mean it in a covetous way. I think I just really enjoyed seeing the church and its member's outside the Utah bubble. People are so different in culture, but so similar in their faith. It was very neat to meet those who were frum England on vacation. It just proved to me that the past and where you come from does not matter in terms of testimony. It was also a nice testimony moment that God doesn't care where or when you meet as a congregation, He only cares that you're trying to.

The rest of my day was spent mostly on the beach. Unfortunately, when I returned from church, I was left behind while everyone ate lunch. By the time I found everyone, they had already eaten. However, when I asked a waitress at a beach restaurant for a menu, I was told the kitchen was closed. I had a hard time believing that, as several people came in after me and were allowed to order. I just decided to leave and hung out on the beach instead. I have never been subjected to racism before. Maybe it sounds snobby, but it was never something I ever expected to happen to me. Later that day, I went back with a bigger group of girls and the bar tender said that the kitchen was open and handed us menus. We sat outside at a table and were ready to order within five minutes. However, the waitress that was rude to me earlier completely ignored any attempt of ours to get her to take our order. She did come over and take the pizza menu and said we couldn't order that. I don't understand why she gave us the menu in the first place! After we tried to flag the waitress for about twenty five more minutes, she came over and told us that the kitchen closed twenty minutes ago, and that we could not order. I was kind of upset. She was glaring at us as we walked away. I wanted to glare back actually. I don't get mad very often, but her rude attitude really bothered me. I am certainly going to be nicer to foreigners as a consequence of this "learning experience".