THIS WEEK! Has either been TOTALLY AWESOME or the stinkiest thing you can imagine!

                                      Let us begin.

On Tuesday night we got a call from an unknown number. I picked up, "This is Sister White, one of the missionaries . . . blah blah," and on the other end it’s the Elders in our district! I asked them why they were calling from another phone. They told us that they had just been robbed-- at gun-point. That was all they said! Elder Chase sounded so excited I didn't believe them at first. But they were!

 

Apparently they were walking home around six PM, to go back to their apartment to meet a member for a lesson. A guy in a hoodie came up, flashed his gun, and said, "Hey we are just three friends walking. . . ".  I would like to note that they were on a main road and cars were driving past them this whole time. The robber had them empty their pockets (so their cellphone and Elder Chase’s wallet),  he didn't take Elder Skelton's backpack and they didn't have their bikes. So basically, he robbed the two poorest people in Greenville!! That might sound inaccurate, but the poor people here have government assistance at least.  The Elders had nothing! The phone was a really cheap old missionary cellphone, so really the only problem was that he took their apartment keys.

 

Once the guy took their stuff he told them to walk a hundred feet ahead and not to look back. Once they had gone the hundred feet he fired a shot into the air and the Elders ran back to their apartment and waited for the member to get there so they could call the police.  And then they called us to tell us not to call their phone!

 

We had to go down to Jackson for Specialized training the next day so Sister Fry and I offered to come get them early so they could get out of their apartment. At 5 in the morning the Elders jumped into our car and we drove for two hours to Jackson. We felt bad that they were so traumatized! When they called the night before they were telling us that now neither of them had any money and there was no food in the fridge. So Sister Fry and I took pity on them and took them to Denny’s.

 

I think the funny thing about it all is now everyone thinks that the elders are in this tough area, or they think that now they shouldn't be outside after dark, but this all went down in MY area. If you get robbed at gun-point in a Sister's area then it could have happened ANYWHERE! Don’t go walking around like you are in this "dangerous" or "ghetto" mission! I walk past that spot all the time and I am not even a TINY bit worried! A member of our ward told a story about how he was REALLY robbed at gunpoint in Ecuador and the timing was pretty perfect. The elders are fine, he wouldn’t have actually shot him despite what they think. Greenville is dangerous, that is true, but it does not even come close to the third world countries that other people are serving in! After specialized training we had interviews with President McDonough, and we laughed about "letting them brag" about it for a while and then helping them move on. So that’s what happened to the Elders!

     And then...Dun dun dahhhhh! Sister WHITE got sick! Not Sister Fry level sick...But I was in bed all Thursday with this horrible cold. It was good practice with Sister Fry finding the balance of still doing work and knowing when to go rest! We are really good at it!

 

One of the lessons was with someone Sister Fry had met on Exchanges so I got to meet her for the first time! To illustrate, mostly to my mother, what this girl Roneisha is like, I turned to Sister Fry during the lesson and whispered "This is what my brain sounds like,” So yes, she has REALLY, REALLY bad ADHD. It was perfect though because I knew just what to do! I whipped out some pictures, we visualized together her reading the Book of Mormon and then we stuck sticky notes with reminders in places she would see. It was awesome because she and her boyfriend kept bringing up all these questions, they "Always wonder about, but nobody ever has an answer!" And guess what! We answered every single question with the Book of Mormon! SO COOL!

     

 

So Saturday is the day that I want to talk about! During the morning we went to the funeral of one of the members of the ward, she wasn't active because of health so I only had met her once. But Sister Fry, Sister Turley, Amy Turley, and I were asked to be a "woman's choir" so we sang 4 times...just the four of us. I thought there would be more singing! It was kind of funny...We were just singing hymns, so we didn’t practice, but I wish we had, because we were about 1/2 of all that happened at the funeral. 

 

It was a funny funeral. Half Mormon and half Pentecostal! The sister who passed, her husband, who is not a member, calls himself a “Pentecostal Mormon.” And apparently the first time he went to church with her after the Bishop’s wife sang a song, he clapped and shouted, “Amen!” There is more to the story, but the title she had given the story was "The time a Pentecostal boy clapped and shouted amen in a Mormon sacrament meeting." Everything went well, though, and the family liked our singing. 

   

 

That night Sister Fry and I went to a Baptist church! Surprising I know! One of our investigators, Kyah, had asked us if we would come watch her sing in this guest choir she was in. They were singing at this church and apparently it was a big deal! We thought it would be a perfect thing to do with our Saturday night! So we showed up about ten minutes late, and followed this mom and her kids up the stairs to the balcony of the church. Everyone was standing, clapping to the beat, and shouting “Hallelujah!”  It was awesome! 

 

The choir was really good! They sang some songs about Jesus and then the preacher started talking. He told us to turn to our neighbor and say, "How are you neighbor?," and he said, "Everyone who is thinking about leaving when the choir is done --just take your coat off right now! The Holy Spirit isn't going to let you get out of praising the almighty God tonight!" And then came the best part! He shouted, "IF YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS--LET ME HEAR A HALLELUJAH!!" And Sister Fry and I got to shout (fairly timidly by comparison) "Hallelujah!" and we got to clap and nod our heads to the music! It was so fun! The choir was all black and --whoa dang --could they sing! After we had been there for two hours and it wasn't even halfway over we decided we should leave so we could get home when we were supposed to.

 

It was amazing to experience something I would never have been able to if I wasn't a missionary! To experience a culture that you can’t be a part of if you just go on a cruise or take a tour. But though it was fun, I was glad that the next day I got to go to my church where the music was soft enough that if God wanted to tell me something I would be able to hear the whispering of the still small voice that the scriptures talk about. I think that it was a perfect thing to do on a weekday! And how fun to get to shout and sing to God like in Proverbs! 

       

 

This week really was good though. Lots of things I will always remember happened. But I love this work and I am so grateful that God sent me to Mississippi! I love the people here so much and their faith in Christ is so unwavering that you can’t help but be strengthened by them! This church is truly Christ’s church once again on the earth. I know this, in part, because of the joy I am filled with every time I get to share it. “By their fruits ye shall know them!” There is a lot of good fruit here guys!!!

Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Sister White

Greenville Mississippi