Elder Colin White Letter: May 9, 2016 Edenton, NC

 

Well, this was the week of Mother's Day, which for all who have been or had missionaries, you know that is an extra special day, because we missionaries get to call or Skype home and see our families. Clearly that was the definite highlight of my week, even though Noel was asleep on the couch (He woke up shortly after we started so it was all good)!! I was so happy to see all my immediate family's faces and to hear their voices--I did miss Chanel though:(.

     This week we visited a family, and when we walked in, the guy (who's in his 60's) was listening to Scottish war music and playing some rather violent video game. He told us that the music creates a feeling of "blood lust" and that it helps him play better..... you can guess that was an interesting visit. We were there for almost 45 minutes and we only talked for 5 of those minutes--they just argued with themselves the whole time. That same day we visited a less-active Sister who is living in a 200 year-old farm house that has been in her family since her ancestors built it 200 years ago! It's on the farm that is still fully-operating today. Her family has been in America for hundreds of years. She has ancestors who were part of the lost colony on Roanoke Island and also several direct grandparents who helped settle James Town. Most people who were born and raised here have family that has been in the Americas for at least 300 years.

     The worst thing that happened was that we were walking down the street to a referral’s home and this random lady comes out of her house and starts yelling at us. She is a millionaire, and a Messianic Jew, which is a rather interesting belief system. She was mad at us because in the book of Luke, Jesus tells the seventy not to go house-to-house, and as missionaries sometimes we go house-to-house (even though that's not really what that passage is actually referring to). I told her that we are trying to be like Christ, and that Jesus went into people's homes and taught them there on several occasions, but she just cut us off and would yell phrases in Hebrew at us, and say that unless we have read the Bible in the Original tongue we can't really understand the meaning of it. Although she was really mean and rude she did commit to reading the Book of Mormon!  She also showed us some of her ancient Biblical artifacts, her collection included an animal skin scroll from the age of the Patriarchs--older than 3,000 B.C., a hand-written copy of all the Jewish scripture from 1,300 BC, and an original Geneva Bible from the 1500's which is the same version of the Bible that the Pilgrims brought with them to America. She could read Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic so in our conversion the only thing we could successfully do was bear testimony because anything else she would just dispute and quote scripture in Hebrew to us, and tell us we didn't understand or know because we don't know Hebrew. BUT I do know, I know The Book of Mormon is the word of God, I Know that the Bible even speaks of it in Ezekiel chapter 37. I know that in the Temple with Priesthood Authority we can be sealed for all time and eternity to our families (The Bible speaks of that, too, in Matthew 19 and Paul speaks of it too). I know that we have a prophet on the Earth today. For it to be God's true church, it must have a Prophet to guide and direct God's people by revelation and He must hold all of the keys of the Priesthood here on this planet. And finally, I know that Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, That Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and that they love us more than we can fully understand in this life, I know it, and no person, no matter how educated they may be, can take that away from me. If you want to learn more about how people’s knowledge and pride can blind them spiritually, just read 2 Nephi chapter 9 (or just read the whole Book of Mormon)!  We must do as King Benjamin says in Mosiah, we must humble ourselves lower than the dust because even the dust obeys God's commands. Clearly, humility is something I still need a whole lot of work on.

       Besides that, this week we sang to all the mothers we could that were in need of some uplifting this Mother’s Day. We found several new people to teach, and loaded/unloaded 4 truck and trailers full of a huge pecan (said like PEE-CAN) tree for a member, so my arms are still sore from it. Have a blessed week y'all!

Thank you everyone who has been sending me letters and emails!!

-- -Elder White