This week from Colin:

This transfer is a 7-week transfer instead of six, so it would appear that the groundhog was off a week. We got transfer calls on Saturday, and I was on exchange in Mt. Olive with Elder Brown. We were driving back to switch back so I could go home to Albertson (always remember to read it "All-Bur-Sun" with a southern accent), and as we were driving I said to Elder Brown, "Well, its 11:08 am and you haven't gotten a transf--" and right then, at that very spot in the word, the phone started ringing and it was President Weed calling to tell Elder Brown that he was getting transferred! I didn't even get to finish the sentence and we got the call. The call was, however, not for me, nor Elder Pruitt, and so my prayer was answered and I'll be staying in Albertson for another 7 weeks. That will bring my time here up to almost 8 months, which is crazy!

         This week we had a member who is preparing to serve a mission come up to us and ask if he could come with us to teach some lessons on Tuesday. I didn't think he would be the best person to take to see our investigators we had planned to see, but when we got there, it turned out he was the perfect person to bring. The member we brought is apparently as into video games and Anime as the people we went to see, and I know nothing about either of those two things, so I understood about 0.00003% of what they were talking about. Before the lesson was over, the member (John) who we brought, told our investigator who's 19 about Institute for the young single adults, and even offered to drive them there. So that night our investigator and his less-active brother went to Institute and they loved it and want to go back every week! Not only that, but John drove them and their Mom (who's also a less-active member) to Stake Conference on Sunday. I think they thought Stake Conference was less-than-exciting, but they said they'll be at church next week, too.

         This week we also started teaching another lady who was a referral from the same less-active member family. The lesson went really well, but the funny (not really funny--but you know what I mean,) thing is that people so many times just inherently trust us with everything. So many times people will tell us all the terrible sins, and really, really, personal bad stuff that happens in their life. They tell us all the stuff that I really didn't want to know about people. I mean, five minutes into a lesson with someone whom we just met--and they are telling us about all of the problems they are having with every kind of abuse you can think of, and I'm not over-exaggerating that. People tell us some pretty horrific stuff about their lives. I guess it is a good thing that people trust us so much that they would tell us so much, but sometimes I feel like I know way too much about certain people's lives.

         This week on “Sounds of the South” we will learn about the word "yonder." For example, "This mornin’ we was fishin’ right yonder down at the old farm pond ‘round yonder past our trailer by the big old pecan trees." I have heard people use the word "yonder" so much this week, and it don't matter neither way, whether the object which they're referring to is across the table or the other side of the county. Well, if someone says, "Right yonder," or "Round yonder," that means it's pretty close, but if they say yonder with the prefixes of "way." "down," or  "over," in any combination--it means it's probably too far to walk to. We did actually go fishing "right yonder" at the pond behind our trailer, but fishing was all we did, no catching today. You can go ahead and make any "fishers of men" jokes you'd like, but I'll leave that up to y'all. 

         All in all, another great week in the thriving metropolis of Albertson, North Carolina, but until next week--y'all have a blessed week.

 

--Elder White