Elder Colin White, From Edenton, NC – May 31, 2016

Well, this was a very productive week. We taught 19 total lessons and found 15 new investigators! I am very thankful the Lord has answered my prayers, because I am going to need a lot of help these coming weeks, Elder Pendlebury is getting transferred to FRANKLIN, VIRGINIA! Not only will he be in my last area, but he will be with my last companion, Elder Rice! They are going to be so great. They will get a lot done in Franklin, and Elder Pendlebury gets to have Brother Allmond as his ward mission leader so I am very excited for him. Elder Pitts will be my new companion. He is from Provo, Utah and is a cowboy. He used to break horses for a living before he came on his mission.

This week we drove all the way to Jamesville, which is about 50 miles away to teach two of our investigators and......... they weren't home, but at least on the way there, in Windsor, we got to go to Bunns BBQ again where two old ladies were super nice and bought us lunch! While we were there Elder Pendlebury asked the people there if they sold their BBQ sauce and the lady told us, "We sure do," and then pulled out a bottle of it from behind the counter and held it up to show us. The BBQ sauce was bottled in a used plastic water bottle... like one of the disposable kind of plastic water bottles! Now that's how you can tell if it's good North Carolina BBQ--if they sell their secret BBQ sauce in used plastic water bottles.

One of the new investigators we taught this week is the father of a family of five. In teaching him we asked him what he knows about prophets and he told us he didn't remember since it has been 20 years since he went to church. We asked him what church it was that he attended and he said, "The one just down Highway 32, right before you turn right to go to Roper." The church at that location is our church! It turns out he is best friends with a less-active member who we know in our branch. He used to go to church with him every week for a year or so until the less-active member had a falling out with his family and stopped going to church. We told him that it was our church he was going to and he told us, "I know. I enjoyed going to your church," so we have high hopes that he will start coming to church. If his less-active friend would come back, too, that would be even better!

The weather here has been rather odd: it has either been super hot and humid, or pouring rain and cold, depending on the time of dayt. The humidity here feels like the air in a sauna, but outside--and all the time. The water vapor is actually visible in the air outside. One thing to know about people from North Carolina is that they are very proud of the heat here. Everyone here brags about how hot it gets! My last companion is from Arizona, and one time some good-old North Carolinians were telling him that he doesn't know what hot is until he has experienced the summers here because it's a dry heat in Arizona. He told them, "I live in a desert! When it's 120 degrees in the shade, I don't care what anyone says--That's hot!" But the locals told him, "No, it's not the same. That's not nearly as bad." I'm not sure why, but they defend the heat down here to the death. I don't know why they are so proud of it, but they are. Well, I guess it's like people from Seattle and the rain.

         This week Elder Pendlebury and I spoke in church and afterwards we had lunch at a member’s home with some of the family’s visiting friends from Utah. The visitors from Utah went on to explain to us the problems they have in their area, namely that, "There are too many members for the amount of temples available." We all just sat there thinking, "Wow, what a ‘terrible’ problem to have! We wish we had that problem here!" We just wish we had enough members in this mission to have even one temple, but I suppose that's the reason we are here serving a mission in this area, so that's just another reason to work harder.

         All in all, it was another great week. I am writing this on Tuesday because the Library wasn't open yesterday on P-day, and I don't have enough time to write more about my week so I will leave you with this. Have a blessed week y'all.

---Elder White