Letter from Colin:      
This week the most memorable thing anyone said was this, "Christ can comfort us because He's been there, done that, and got the T-shirt to prove it!" When the guy said that, I really wasn't sure how to respond, wasn't sure if I was supposed to laugh, rebuke him, or to just agree, so I kind of just moved on in the conversation. 

         We went out to teach some people with Ben Jones, whose dad just got called to the mission presidency, and after our lesson we asked him if he had any advice for us (he served a mission like us about 2 years ago) and he gave us some very good advice on meeting much more regularly with our people, and this week not only did we have a member at lessons with us 5 days out of the week, but we taught twice as many lessons! Two of the investigators we teach were supposed to come to church this Sunday... they didn't come, which is sad, but we got a family who are all less-active members of the church to come, which is great! One of the family members used to be in the bishopric, and if you have served in the bishopric you shouldn't be less-active, although no one should be less-active.

         On Friday after District meeting we went on exchange with the zone leaders, and Elder Cooper came with me to Albertson which was actually pretty good. I don't usually look forward to going on exchange with zone leaders, but it just so happens that Elder Cooper was my missionary companion in the MTC. When we exchanged back we met up in 7 Springs which got completely flooded out in the hurricane. Back in the day, 7 Springs was called “Whitehall,” because there was a huge white plantation house (mansion) there, and the town was the site of a civil war battle, the Battle of Whitehall (the war down here is called "The War Between the States" the real old boys will tell you "there ain't nothin’ “civil” bout it, y'all, we just wanted to live the way we want!") In the battle of Whitehall,  the North was trying to come and destroy the South's ironclad, the C.S.S. Nuese, that was being built on the Nuese River at 7 Springs, and the Union artillery ended up firing on their own men. All in a neat row by the water are the graves of over a dozen Confederate soldiers who died in the battle. 

      Last Thursday we had planned to do service for 2 hours on the coming Tuesday, and when Tuesday came we still didn't have the service work lined up to do, and then Sister Williams knocked on the door, and asked if we could come help them split wood for 2 hours. Our decision to plan for service that day must have been inspired. We went out and helped Sister Williams' grandpa who is 92 years-old split wood on their wood splitter. Good old Milo sat in a chair and operated the lever, and we moved these massive pecan rounds up to the machine to split them. Milo (the 92 year old) said to us, "My son, Jerry, said it wouldn't be possible to split rounds this big, but we're gonna’ do it," --and we did, after a lot of work. When we finally finished splitting and stacking it all, Milo says to us, "Call Jerry and tell him we did it!" --in other words, ‘I told you so.. !’

         Multiple times this week we have passed through a stinky smell, and Elder Pruitt has said, "Man, that stinks. Is that a hog house?" and I will respond with, "No, no, that's a chicken house you're smelling. Hog houses have a different scent," and then he'll ask about a different smell, and I'll tell him whatever the source of the smell is. You know you’re getting used to the country when you can identify the scent of all the different kinds of livestock in the area, and what kind of plants are growing in all the fields. Right now there's not a lot growing, but it's still 70^o and sunny today. Today a telemarketer called while we were driving and tried to sell Elder Pruitt car insurance, so Elder Pruitt said, "Well, I'm not all that concerned with car insurance, but we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints..." and then tried to teach the telemarketer about the Gospel, but the man on the phone could only say, "Um umm um, ah--thank you for your time," and hung up the phone. Well, until next time my friends, (yes and family too, but your family can be your friends), I hope that y'all will have a blessed week, now!

     

--Elder White