This last week I had TONS of good food, baked, roasted, deep-fried, and every kind of turkey. We had turkey soup, turkey and rice--turkey everything. That all isn't too surprising, seeing that it was Thanksgiving, and that the turkeys usually only travel less that 10 miles from the turkey houses to where we at them. There are stinkin’ turkey houses all over the place here.
At one of the dinners we attended for Thanksgiving we had some really good country ham. Elder Grow wanted to be polite and so he complimented it by saying, "Man, it's been a long time since I've had ham like that!," and then the member said, "It's just store-bought ham, that's all..." Quick to recover, Elder Grow only came up with this, he said, "Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm saying, it's been a long time since I've had store-bought ham!" The person's faced looked so confused, but we all laughed.
After Thanksgiving lunch, it's a tradition for the Harper Family to go shoot clay pigeons, so we went with them to watch (which was painful actually). I really wanted to shoot with them. While they were shooting, this one girl, who was blonde and in her 20's (yes, that is important to the story), was trying to shoot, but the shotgun she was using wasn't shooting. Because it was her husband-to-be's gun, she, all frustrated yells, "Dan! Your STUPID SHOTGUN WON"T SHOOT!!!!,” and she roughly placed the gun in the dirt. Dan quickly ran up to her and picked the gun up out of the dirt, inspected it, and told her, "Well, Honey, it won't shoot because there's no ammo in the gun...." This all happened in front of everyone. She was so mad, but it was just so funny.
After living here in the country I have realized so many people here have the same values most people did in years past: family and God are still very much the center of a lot of people's lives out here. Although granted, many are the same as the rest of the current world, there are people here, members of the church or not, that are still trying to follow the example of Jesus Christ in the way they treat others and themselves.
On Friday I went on exchange to Mt.Olive and got to teach with a guy my age who got baptized earlier this year, he is incredible despite the fact that he has zero support from his family. He is actively coming to church and will be serving a mission in the coming year.
A week after he was baptized, 5 months ago, he was helping the Elders and Sisters switch houses. The Sister missionaries, not thinking, had him stay at one house while they went to go grab some things. They forgot to tell anyone else, however, so he was there alone at the house. He realized that the sisters had dropped a thing of yogurt outside, so he walked out to bring it in and put it in the fridge. At the time the neighbor, who is a member of the church, saw him walk back in the missionaries’ house, and assumed someone was robbing the missionaries! The guy didn't know he was a recently baptized member, he just saw a young black man walk into the missionaries' house while they weren't home, so he grabbed his gun and headed over there. When the new member heard the knock on the door, he answered, and there was the neighbor holding him at gunpoint! He freaked out, sure that he was about to get shot, so he slammed the door closed and made a break for the backdoor, but the lock on the backdoor was put in backwards so he couldn't get it open! Just then the neighbor opened the front door, walked in and ordered him to put his hands up and get on the floor.
While this was all happening, the new member, trying to explain to the member holding the gun that he had just gotten baptized and was friends with the missionaries, the police got there and arrested him. The missionaries got home at the same time and saw the police cuffing him and putting him in the squad car, so they explained to the police that he had permission to be in the house and that he was okay. Then the cops realized that was the neighbor who should be arrested because he was trespassing, entering the house, holding the guy at gunpoint, so they let the first guy go, and cuffed the neighbor and arrested him! Needless to say, the first few weeks as a member of the Church were very trying for him, and it must have been hard for the missionaries, too. It's not too often your recent convert gets held at gunpoint by another member of the church. Gladly, it has all been worked out and the trust of the ward members has been restored. Both people are still active in the church, and to this day, the yogurt he went outside to grab is still in the freezer at the Mt. Olive Elder's house.
All in all, it has been another great week, but until next time, I hope y'all have a blessed week!
---Elder White
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