Colin’s Latest:

Quote of the year,

 "Gout,.. it's in the water."

       -Leon, one of our investigators (he's probably 70 years old or so), says his gout is from the water here and not what he's eating. He comes to church every week but hasn't wanted to be baptized, but this week when we taught him about the temple and doing work for the dead in the temple, after asking him some rather inspired questions about his understanding, I came to realize prior to that lesson no one had taught him about THE APOSTASY!! or BEING BAPTIZED BY PROPER PRIESTHOOD AUTHORITY!! No wonder he didn't understand why he needed to be baptized even though he was when he was a little kid in a different church. Actually, I take that back. I'm sure other missionaries before us taught him all of that, but I am just guessing here that he most likely forgot after having a stroke and triple by-pass surgery back in May!!

Either way, he understands so much more now and was so happy that we were able to answer so many questions he had. We are teaching him again tonight at the ward mission leader’s house. I am very excited to teach him. In our last lesson with him he told us about how he now can recognize the Spirit when he prays, which is great. He’s making good progress. Whenever I talk to him I can see him being a temple worker in the years to come.

This week we were going to have 7 investigators come to Sacrament meeting. It was going to be so great. We were so happy with the success we were going to have with getting them to come to church! But when Sacrament meeting came around we only had one investigator come to church..... Sometimes the Lord has to humble us, so this week we are working hard to make sure our investigators keep their commitments so they can feel the love our Heavenly Father has for us all. We have to remember this is not for us. Elder Davis and I already enjoy numerous blessings from the Lord. It is for the people and families that we teach so they can become converted unto the Lord and never fall away. The blessings I receive are a by-product of the blessings I help other people to learn to receive on their own through prayer, scripture study, church attendance, repentance, and baptism.

This week we had zone conference in Virginia Beach (no I did not see the beach! I have yet to see the Atlantic Ocean). Brother Winslow drove us there and told us his really great life story. He was in the Air Force and has been everywhere, from Greenland to Germany, because of that. He bought us breakfast at I-hop, so currently he's my favorite--haha. Elder Mervyn B. Arnold of the Seventy was there and he taught us most of the time as well as his wife, and President and Sister Baker. He had many really great points. Two questions I got out of the meeting were, "Am I spiritually ready?," and, "Am I spiritually here?". T hose two questions are not only very applicable to me as a missionary, but to everyone in almost all of life's situations. It has been a good week, but this coming week will be better, as I strive to be Bold, Courageous, Confident, and Caring, I will become a more effective representative of Jesus Christ and his Church. Until next week, have a blessed day  all ya'all!

    
--Elder White

 

P.S. On exchanges this week I experienced a level of poverty that until now I did not even know existed in The United States. We got to their home and there was no doorknob, only a string tied through the hole in the door where the knob should have been. Inside the house it was so dark! I discovered the reason for that was that one of the children had unscrewed the light bulb from that room so we could move to the "living room" to have the lesson in there instead. In their house with 6 kids, one only 2 years old, the family only had one light bulb.... for the whole house! Some of the house inside lacked drywall on the ceilings and walls. However, when we read from The Book of Mormon we could feel the Spirit as strongly as I have in anyone's house. Love ya'all!!!!