Colin Letter February 8, 2016

 "A testimony is about enduring to the end."

                                       -From Testimony Meeting Sunday

“The Holy Ghost is kinda like our best friend."

                          -Also from Testimony Meeting on Sunday

"We look young, but spiritually we're like 80 years old!"

         -Brandon Cahoon (a youth who comes out with us all the time)

 

    This week was superb to say the least! On Thursday Brother Almond, the ward mission leader (who is pretty much one of my favorite people, he reminds me of my Dad), took us down to Gates County, North Carolina. If you wonder where Gates County is, it's somewhere between Virginia and North Carolina . . . at least that's what the locals would tell you. Being in North Carolina for the day—obviously--the only thing we could have for lunch was "real" barbecue from Tar heel Barbecue in Eure, NC.  In North Carolina, “real barbecue” means chopped pork, not pulled, then coleslaw on top, covered in vinegar base BBQ sauce, and then maybe some Texas Pete hot sauce if you wanted. Personally, I thought it was great, but you can't judge whether you like it or not until you've been to North Carolina and had some for yourself.

 

After lunch at one point we were driving down Highway 13 and just in case you were unaware, (99% of the whole world is), Highway 13 is the road that will take you to Disney World. So for a short time we were driving down the road to Disney World! we were at least 800 miles away, but still, we were on the road that will take you there--so it counts! We visited a few members down in Gates including the Winslows, who have ancestors from the White family way, way back from England and Scotland (probably not related to me but who knows). After we shared a message with them Brother Almond and Brother Winslow, who were both in the Air Force, had a friendly argument about ranks and pay grades for 20 minutes and about how, “In 1957 they were real men,” but in 1962, when Brother Almond was in the Air Force, it was way easier! Either way it was pretty funny, so we just sat there and watched.

 

That night, The Ehrenzellers, who have family going back to some famous units in the Civil War, had us for dinner and we had venison. It was great. It was the tenderloins from the deer, so it was the best part and he gave us all the left overs so we have been having deer quesadillas all week!

     

We also went and helped a brother in the Ward pull nails out of every 2x4 in the entire house. There's nothing but framing inside the house because he is completely renovating it top-to-bottom. . . by himself. . .so I hope we were of some help. Brother Almond is also a member of the Freemasons and he took us to the Masons’ Lodge and gave us a tour and told us all about the Masons and what they do, the ceremonies for initiation are based on Solomon's temple from the Old Testament and are surprisingly extremely similar to the Temple today. Everything is symbolic and lots of things occur in groups of threes.

     

Yesterday we taught a lot of people and setup lots of lessons. One investigator that we went to teach had literally just walked outside to take a smoke (we haven't gotten to that lesson yet!), so we asked if we could teach him right there about family history and temples, which by the way, we are now teaching right after we teach the Plan of Salvation, and He said, "Yeah! Just one moment," and then immediately takes three of the biggest puffs anyone's ever taken off a cigarette and then coughs really loud and then stomps out the cigarette, saying, "Okay. Let's do this. What do you have for me to learn?" People know that they shouldn't smoke or drink. They all know it's bad, but every one out here does it, so it's hard for people to stop.

   

All in all, just like every week--There is far too much to write in the short time I have to email, so y'all just have to wait to hear the stories from me in person. 

 

Have a blessed week all y'all!--

-Elder White