Elder CS White—September 7, 2016 From Deep Run, NC

 

“When You Live in the Country---You Do Country Service!”

 

            Yesterday we did service for a member who's only in his 20's but he and his wife own a farm where they raise/hatch animals. These animals include, but are not limited to: lots of baby goats (and adult goats, all of just about every variety including fainting goats, I think mountain goats were the only ones he didn't have), pigs, ducks (7 different kinds from Peking to wood ducks), geese, donkeys, cows--mostly babies (heifers, cows, bulls, and steers), and chickens! Oh, and sheep... oh, yeah--and 5 dogs and 10 cats/mostly kittens. While we were there he saw a dove sittin’ on a fence and he tells me, "Go grab my 20-gauge, so I can shoot that dove." When I walked in the house I told his wife, "Umm, he wants the 20-gauge...," and she says to me, "Oh great. What does he want to shoot this time?" Then she went and got it from wherever he kept it, and he goes to shoot the dove while we were standing right there in his front yard. All-in-all, it was a pretty crazy day. We dug fencepost-holes, fed the calves, fed the goats, and fed the kittens. One time he had the missionaries for dinner and he made them pick the chickens they wanted for dinner, and then he gave them a cleaver, had them kill, pluck and clean the chickens, before he cooked them for the Elders.

         Earlier in the week we went to the ward mission leader’s house, who has a couple chicken houses, all for laying eggs, and when he opened the door, he was wearing pajamas that had chickens printed all over them laying eggs. I thought they were appropriate, considering his vocation. His dad’s is the first house on the street (which street is named after himself), then it's our ward mission leader, and then next to him is his son and daughter-in-law, so there are three generations of the same family sequentially, living on the same road that was settled by their family.

         I love the ward here and this area. There are even several relatively substantial hills here (that is relative to the 100% flat areas I have served in before, not relative to the mountains and hills of western Washington). It's not totally flat. I am so glad for the members here, they are incredible. I think they're the only reason I can do it right now, because I've been with Elder Garcia for less than 2 weeks and he already knows absolutely everything that you can do to irritate me, push my buttons, grind my gears and all other manor of ways you could say it. He knows that what he does bothers me, but he does it anyway because he thinks it's funny. I'm hanging on, and I'll be fine, it's not his fault, I just need to be more patient and more charitable.

         Being a district leader is going well, besides that I have to talk to the zone leaders a lot, but it's fun to hear more about what the other missionaries in the district are doing. One of the Spanish-speaking sisters told me that she is trying an all ice-cream diet, just to prove to the world that it's possible to survive on just ice-cream and multivitamins. Personally, I wouldn't recommend that one, but ya’ know: Whatever floats your goat. I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope y'all have a blessed week.

---Elder White