Nov 2, 2015 From Elder Colin White 

 white.colin@myldsmail.net

This week I've already met so many great and--ummmm--interesting people here in Franklin,Virginia. The ward mission leader, Brother Almond, is great! He has the funniest southern accent. In the Franklin Ward there's a guy, Brother Casper, and he sounds like a Civil War general when he speaks--haha.

 

The houses here in town are so cool; they're mostly old antebellum style houses--or older. There's tons of cotton fields, too. Here in Franklin you're out in the sticks and there's a paper mill so it smells like farts a lot. There's like three parts of town: the really poor black neighborhood on south street (the best neighborhood), the rich white people area, and the white trash (and unfortunate old folk) trailer parks. We live somewhere in between all of that. Our apartment is 1/4th of a mile from the church building. The ward boundaries are huge for the Franklin Ward! It would take you two hours to cross from the north end to the south end. The ward boundaries and our area go into North Carolina.

 

My trainer is Elder Davis--no surprise: he's from Utah.....but that’s okay, he's only a little bit socially awkward—haha, but Elder Davis is nice,  so its all good. 

 

We are teaching an investigator who is going to be baptized in December, but he's having a hard time understanding everything because he is illiterate. He is 48 years old (probably) and he can not read. He never learned how.  I guess I never realized that people were still illiterate. I just assumed everyone could read these days, but the good thing is that he has the desire to know--more than anyone I've probably met, so that's good. He has his niece and his nurse (he has diabetes and has a hole in his foot from it and she helps him dress it and take care of it) read the Book of Mormon to him and the pamphlets. Now they want to know more too!! He has come to church for the last like 4 weeks, so it’s going well.

 

On Saturday we went and helped the Baptist ministers and their wives make and hand-out sack lunches to the poor and needy in South Franklin. We were the only white people there, so that was totally different--but super good, because a ton of people that we have since knocked on their doors saw us helping out. One lady was like, "Hey ya'alls go to dat there one church by Forest Pine, right? I see ya'all walkin’ round all da’ time. Ya'all is great," or something along those lines. I’m not 100% sure. Some people here are hard to understand. Today we went to Bojangles Fried Chicken and Biscuits, and I asked the lady what she had just said like three times because I didn't understand.

 

Anyway, the Baptist preachers were super nice to us and friendly because we gave service to them first. Pastor Rose said we could come by any time to share a message with him. So that means we will be teaching a Baptist Preacher the Restoration.......... Elder Davis says that he is going to ask Pastor Rose to be baptized the first time we teach him.......... I told him that might not be the best idea.... but I mean, we will see how that goes! We are going to have Brother Almond come with us because they used to work together when Brother Almond was a Sheriff's Deputy. Brother Almond seriously knows almost everyone in Franklin.

 

There are lots of trees here, and its raining right now, so I feel right at home, but I sure do miss the Bothell Ward. There's nothing quite like it. The ward here is pretty strong, but there are some people back at home that are just so incredible--and I really miss the strength that the Bothell Ward and Stake has, especially how many youth there are, and how committed almost all of them, are. That is something I didn't realize until now--so don't take that for granted. ‘Anywho’-- I really love the people out here they're all for the most part really kind.

 

I have so much more to write, but my fingers only type so quickly. . . so until next week, “Have a Blessed Day” (everyone says that here).

-Elder White