Letter from Colin:  

It's getting down to the 40's at night now, so it's finally feeling like autumn. On Saturday we attended the baptism of one of the ward member’s son, and after a long, but extremely good, talk on the Holy Ghost by the Grandpa, he said, “Amen,” and then we heard from a painfully honest primary child in the back of the room, "FINALLY!... Amen!"  In classic eastern North Carolina fashion, for food, afterwards they brought in the entire hog on a giant metal platter into the gym! People round here don't mess around--they cook the whole hog.

         Some memorable quotes were, one from James Jones, who has been a member of this ward since the 1950's, in his testimony at church he said, "If you want to be happy like, James Jones, then you have to live the Gospel!... Having the nicest house or the best car doesn't make you happy, I know! I had the best car--I built it myself!, and that's not what makes you happy!"

Another quote, from Brother Randy, the Gospel Doctrine teacher, who said, "Satan gets his home teaching done  EVERY, SINGLE, MONTH!!! He never fails to contact your families! What are you doing about it!?"

         Earlier this week we were on the way to a dinner appointment and we felt prompted to stop by a less-active sister who we had helped by removing a tree that had fallen on her trailer. When we arrived we didn't even get to the door before she stepped out. When we asked how she was doing, she said, "Elders, I really need a blessing." Apparently five days previously she had multiple teeth extracted and they weren't healing well whatsoever. Despite pain meds, she was in what she described as “excruciating pain.” Well, actually she didn't use that word--she used a combination of southern terms, but either way, it was bad. She had been praying that God would provide her with a way to find relief from her pain, and she felt impressed that she needed a Priesthood blessing, but because she has been less-active for quite some time now, she did not know who to call. Then we showed up and she knew that it was the answer to her prayer. After we gave her a blessing she told us that immediately the pain was almost gone and she could bear it.

         We went to go visit a family who is so nice to us (they are Latino so they won't let us leave without feeding us), but they weren't home, so we went to visit a less-active member family living around the corner who we had never talked to before. They readily welcomed us in and the mom started to tell us the long version of all the bad experiences she has had with church members treating her and her children rudely. While she was telling us all of this, I stopped her, and after bearing testimony as fervently as I could muster, I gave her some advice that my wonderful Mother once gave to me. I told her that maybe the reason we go to church on Sundays is not just to be nourished ourselves, but maybe she needs to be there to be the person who will reach out in kindness to someone in need, or to say the kind words that someone needed to hear that no one else would tell them. Essentially, I said she needs to be the person who is there that makes sure that no one will have the experience that she had to face. The lady stopped and thought, and said, "I have never looked at it that way before. Maybe I really do need to come back to church." Going to church is not really for ourselves--it is for others, but when we serve others and lift others by actively participating in church, we lift ourselves because when we serve others we start to understand how God feels about each and every one of us. There is an old Chinese parable about a man helping his neighbor get his boat across the river that has to do with this, but I can't quote it, so you'll have to ask my mom. My mother explained all of this in much better words to me, but the sister whom we were teaching understood because she felt the Holy Ghost testify of truth. So all-in-all, listen to the advice your mother has for you, it is almost certainly more inspired than you thought at first. Until next time, I hope y'all have a blessed week!

 

--Elder White