It is amazing when I look back at my last e-mail and realize it was at Thanksgiving time. Our lives have been very wild since then.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
A Senior Missionary Conference was held at the mission home. Seven couples and 4 senior sisters gathered for dinner and then a fun evening together singing carols and having a gift exchange. After breakfast Thursday morning the training went until 1 pm and then we had lunch. We are blessed with great, faithful, hardworking senior missionaries who have made a difference in their areas.
Thursday, December 4
Your Dad did a radio talk show interview with Pres. Shan Thompson of the Jackson Stake presidency on the Paul Gallo show on 97.3 FM. It started at 7 am. They spent about 45 minutes answering questions about the Church from him and from callers. He felt quite anxious and unprepared (2 days notice in the middle of zone conferences) beforehand, but it went better than feared. He quickly learned that he needed to be short and concise in his answers before they moved on to another topic. The interviewer was direct and asked a few difficult questions, but fortunately he was fair. A few minutes after the interview, on the air, he expressed satisfaction with the interview and felt that it was better than he expected. Dad was just very glad to have it over with. They both did really well. It was good to have Pres. Thompson there because he has a great Southern accent. In the days following, we heard a number of good comments from members and non-members alike. And it has been circulated through the public affairs committees through the South.
Our Zone Development Meetings (where we visit each zone and your dad interviews each missionary) were centered around the Christmas holidays. We had a very spiritual training and testimony meeting around Christ but we also played Christmas Carols on the chimes and had a fun gift exchange. Some of the missionaries are very clever with the small amount of money that they had to spend on their gifts.
We enjoyed a wonderful shrimp and pasta dinner with Bishop Gwinn from the Purvis Ward over the Christmas Season. They live just outside Hattiesburg MS. He and his wife grew up in the Hattiesburg area and have a nice family of 5 boys. She told of the strong anti-Mormon prejudice and bigotry in the area. Most of the youth that we talked to at church told of their classmates telling them that they were going to hell. Sister Gwinn told of an experience with a non-member neighbor with whom she has walked for some time. She had a preschool, and when she found out one of the mothers was LDS, she kicked her out of her preschool. Sister Gwinn told this non-member that she happened to know the member of the church very well. Sister Gwinn told her that she had been very hurt by that incident, but that she had never mentioned it to others or said anything derogatory about being kicked out. She said further that she felt that the member of the church was the true Christian. The woman (who rarely ever admitted making any mistake) said, “I was wrong.”
Friday, December 21, 2007
The office missionaries came over to the mission home for a couple of hours in the morning to make cookies, candy, etc. to prepare goodie plates to be distributed to members of the Jackson Branch. Your Dad and I have missed going around to the neighbors delivering goodies. Last year we tried it and everyone thought we were nuts!
This time we got the missionaries involved. During the next couple of days when they visited the members of the small branch or their investigators they had a treat to give them. These humble black members were very excited to be remembered.
We received a new car for our use – a white 2008 Toyota Avalon identical to our 2006 Avalon, which had just under 50,000 miles on it. It had 4,000 miles when we arrived. That means we have traveled over 45,000 miles in the last year and a half.
On Saturday the 22nd Catherine and Matt, and David arrived for a few days’ visit for Christmas.
We had the Assistants over for dinner on Christmas, and then they went back to the office to start on transfers. That is one amazing thing I have realized- the mission moves on with it’s 6 week schedule no matter what is happening in the world or what holiday it may be
December 31, 2007
New Years Eve was a quiet evening at home preparing for zone leaders council the next day. This day marks the mid point of our mission. We only know that because the missionaries mentioned it. We haven’t given it a thought- just forging onward. Time is flying by
As the New Year begins, we find ourselves grateful for the past 18 months of experience, for the privilege we have been given to serve with powerful obedient missionaries and the new days and weeks ahead to learn and improve. The spirits of the missionaries seem high and they appear to be ready for the New Year and a new start. It is an overwhelming responsibility to be in charge of the lives of these missionaries, but with the Lord’s help we are finding the confidence we need to continue the work.
On January 2nd we sent home 11of probably our finest group of missionaries. Nearly all of them had been zone leaders and 2 of them had been Assistants. I can’t wait to see what the Lord has in store for them in His Church. I know they will be GREAT leaders. We love them all!
Our friend Connie Taylor (her husband was a Methodist Minister) was baptized on January 12th. She has a beautiful singing voice, and so she sang 3 numbers during her baptism. It was a beautiful baptism and the Lord’s spirit was surely there.
We had the privilege to attend a 2- day Mission President’s Seminar in Orlando a couple of weeks ago. We were instructed by Elder L. Tom Perry and Elder Walter Gonzalez of the Presidents of the Seventy. It was a great experience. We enjoyed meeting the other mission presidents in the American Southeast area. The evening before we returned home to Jackson we had dinner with George and Marge Romney. It was so good to see them - just like old times.
On Saturday the 19th Jackson MS and surrounding areas had snow. It only happens once every 10 years. The missionaries had a great time having snowball fights and playing in the strange white stuff. The mom of one of the small children from the Jackson Branch said their daughter didn’t know what to do with it and didn’t want to touch it.
We have been experiencing tornado warnings and several violent storms. It is amazing the feeling that goes through your body when you know Mother Nature is in charge. About 2:00 am the other morning we had a very bright lightening storm with continual rolling thunder. The trees and bushes were completely still but the tornado warning went off 2 times. In the morning we awakened to hear that the tornadoes went around us and hit northern Mississippi and lower Alabama. We were so spoiled in Oregon.
We received a letter from a new convert. She said:
“Before my baptism and confirmation on August 25th and 26th my husband and I were married civilly on August 18th. We wanted to follow the correct steps, and make sure we were both on the right road of repentance, in order to gain the full blessings of the teachings of the Church, and to be able to work towards our goal of being married in the temple. We truly cannot wait for that special day to come so we can be married for time and all eternity along with sealing our daughter to us.
Growing up as a young girl, the only church I really knew was the Catholic Church. My grandmother took me as much as possible, which led up to my joining the Catholic Church by baptism, confirmation, and first communion when I was 15. When I grew older I went with my friends to many different churches; Baptist, Mennonite, and even non-denominational churches. My great-grandmother took me to a Holiness Church and one time to a Pentecostal Church. As you can tell, each time that I went to a new church I was searching for the “right” church to join. Each time that I went to a new church, I prayed to find the answer as to whether I should join that church. I wanted to belong not only for a sense of being a part of a church, but so I can gain more knowledge of Jesus Christ and His teachings, so I can live as Jesus Christ wants me to live. I never felt that any of those churches were where Jesus Christ wanted me to be. I also was searching to be truly baptized by immersion, just as Jesus Christ was, because being baptized with sprinkled water just wasn’t enough for me. It didn’t make me complete.
Searching for the right church is how I can relate to Joseph Smith. He wanted to find the true church just as I did. He prayed for an answer as I did.
I received a Book of Mormon in 2004 from two missionaries who asked us to read Moroni 10:3-5. I put it on the shelf and left it there. Hurricane Katrina hit Waveland in 2005 and it wasn’t until the first missionaries came to visit us in 2007 that I took the book off the shelf and read again Moroni 10:3-5. This time, alone and with a sincere heart, and desire to know the Truth I truly felt the Holy Spirit and I knew I was making the right choice.”
We don’t find a lot of converts like this but when the missionaries find them it really builds their faith.
The missionaries had mixed emotions when they heard about President Hinckley. He is the only President of the Church that most of them remember. They love his example, his sense of humor and especially his talks and wisdom. They know, however, he is happier now and that the Church will move onward with another servant of the Lord. We loved him and we will miss him. We all sustain President Monson. It was a little over 2 years ago that he called us to this calling. Time goes by fast!!!!
Our “Baptist Preacher” neighbor came over to convey his condolences about President Hinckley’s passing. That was very thoughtful of him.
We went out to lunch with the office staff the other day. We all walked up to the counter of this small little restaurant to order. The lady looked at our badges as people always do. She said, “You belong to Mitt Romney’s Church. Everyone here really likes him and we are all voting for him.” We couldn’t believe what we were hearing because there has been so much Southern Baptist animosity against the church.
We attended Fast Sunday meeting at the Jackson Branch. A year ago I wrote about Craig and Lateshia Wesley being married and then their baptism. Craig bore his testimony this last Sunday about the blessings of the gospel and their excitement about taking the temple prep classes. They will be sealed in the Baton Rouge Temple on February 16. Tears came to my eyes because it is such a miracle to see him now and how far he has come. Lateshia had to have Craig come up to the podium to hold her hand while she bore her testimony. Days like this are paydays for missionaries!!
We love hearing from all of you (we could hear from David a little more frequentlyJ), and Becca and Andrea are great at checking in with us regularly.
We love you all and know the Lord is blessing you while we are here. He is certainly blessing us.
LOVE.
Mom and dad
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Sunday, November 18, 2007
40th Anniversary and Thanksgiving
Hi everyone,
This fall has been a great time for us. The weather has gotten cooler, but we have had sunny days and the leaves are starting to turn. And amazingly, we have a beautiful pink camellia blooming in our back yard.
October started out a great month for us. Conference was wonderful and the missionaries always look forward to hearing the General Authorities. When they announced that President Eyring would be the new counselor they were excited that he had set us apart for our mission.
The week of the 7th of October was very busy with departures and arrivals and transfers. On that Friday evening about 6:00 we were just starting to fix our dinner of leftovers when our doorbell rang. Dad went to the door – and there were Diana, Catherine and Jenn standing on our front porch….talk about SURPRISE!!!!! They came to help us celebrate our anniversary. We had a great few days with them. We also enjoyed a phone call from David who was in Hong Kong on business. It just so happened that that weekend was Fast Sunday here so we didn’t have to speak at any ward, and with transfers over we had a few days break. It was GREAT for us to have them here!!!
On Saturday we drove down to Raymond, Mississippi about 45 minutes southwest of Jackson to tour some of their antebellum homes (before the Civil War) during their fall pilgrimage. They have restored their old courthouse and hotel and some of the buildings in their town-square. The homes are wonderful and they take you back to the lazy-dazy days of the south with the beautiful live oak and magnolia trees and big green lawns and very interesting homes.
We spent part of our trip searching for a white cotton field to take their pictures in.
This fall has been a great time for us. The weather has gotten cooler, but we have had sunny days and the leaves are starting to turn. And amazingly, we have a beautiful pink camellia blooming in our back yard.
October started out a great month for us. Conference was wonderful and the missionaries always look forward to hearing the General Authorities. When they announced that President Eyring would be the new counselor they were excited that he had set us apart for our mission.
The week of the 7th of October was very busy with departures and arrivals and transfers. On that Friday evening about 6:00 we were just starting to fix our dinner of leftovers when our doorbell rang. Dad went to the door – and there were Diana, Catherine and Jenn standing on our front porch….talk about SURPRISE!!!!! They came to help us celebrate our anniversary. We had a great few days with them. We also enjoyed a phone call from David who was in Hong Kong on business. It just so happened that that weekend was Fast Sunday here so we didn’t have to speak at any ward, and with transfers over we had a few days break. It was GREAT for us to have them here!!!
On Saturday we drove down to Raymond, Mississippi about 45 minutes southwest of Jackson to tour some of their antebellum homes (before the Civil War) during their fall pilgrimage. They have restored their old courthouse and hotel and some of the buildings in their town-square. The homes are wonderful and they take you back to the lazy-dazy days of the south with the beautiful live oak and magnolia trees and big green lawns and very interesting homes.
We spent part of our trip searching for a white cotton field to take their pictures in.
We ate at Mama Hamills, a local southern eatery, and we also took them to Gloria’s Kitchen in inner Jackson. She was there sitting on her front step when we came and was very willing to have her picture taken with us. Our meals were the real southern home cooking: collard greens, red beans and rice, fried chicken, coleslaw, creamed corn, and ribs, etc. YUM!
We also enjoyed family home evening with the Al-Halteh family. They are an Arab family originally from Jerusalem who joined the Church here several years ago. He has a small men’s clothing store in Canton with all kinds of interesting “southern” men’s clothing. (The black southern men like colorful suits - light blue, yellow,, burgundy, large pinstripe navy and black etc. He also sells the shoes and hats to match).
After the girls left, we celebrated our anniversary at the Cedar Grove Inn, a bed & breakfast in Vicksburg. It was built along the banks of the Mississippi in 1842. It has some of the old original bedroom furniture (canopy beds) chairs and tables, and a beautiful Centennial piano (built in 1876) and an old phonograph.
The front door is the actual door with a hole where a cannonball came through during the siege of Vicksburg curing the Civil War. (It has been patched). There is a cannonball visible still lodged in the parlor wall. The house was hit approx. 41 times, most holes have been patched.
When we got there the lady recognized our badges and introduced herself as the person that takes care of all the special events there at the house. She is a member in the Vicksburg Ward. While we ate dinner, a couple approached us to say “HI”. They are members of the church and were visiting from Nevada. We spent the evening enjoying a big photo album which our girls made for us with letters from family and friends. The album is a very precious gift which we shall always treasure!
I received a phone call the other day from a gentleman named Jamil introducing himself as Johnnie’s grandson. He was looking for the sister missionaries who had visited his grandmother (Johnnie). I had met Johnnie at church (she always wore a beautiful hat and a matching suit) so I knew whom he was talking about. Jamil wanted me to tell them that his grandmother had died. He said they were about the only ones who had visited her towards the end before she went to the hospital in another part of the state. He said, “That says a lot about your church and the way they take care of everyone, even those who do not join your church”. The sister missionaries went to the funeral which was held at the Greater Alpha and Omega Church here in Jackson, and there were only 2 other white people there. The family was greatly appreciative of their attendance. Johnnie had been a preacher in that church for a long time but wanted to be baptized into ours – she just could not make that commitment to leave the social part of her church.
I was in a store in Canton picking up a gift for someone. One of the ladies at the counter looked at my badge and said, “You’re that church who visits each other and takes care of each other, right?” I said “Yes”. She said, “I’m Methodist, what makes your church different from mine?”
We had a short conversation about the Restoration (she had people waiting to be helped), and I gave her a pass-along card and my mission card. (Thanks Norm Rose) . She was a very sophisticated southern woman, and when I left she asked me to come back soon. It’s interesting the responses I get from people seeing my badge and the opportunities to talk about the church.
President Garrett, president of the Gulfport Stake, told us about the experience he and his wife had last year when they went on a cruise to South America. They were on the cruise by themselves and they were just getting out of a dancing class when there were some very well-dressed people coming into the ballroom holding some books, which he identified immediately as Books of Mormon. He is quite a kidder, and so he thought he would have some fun with them. He walked up to the big group and asked them what they were there for. He said they covered-up and hugged their books and said, “A lecture.”
He said, “What kind of lecture”? They said that they were a group from a school studying archaeological sites. He said, “What do you expect to learn”? (He wished they had said, “We are from BYU and we are learning about the Book of Mormon – But they didn’t). He said they stuttered and stammered trying to answer him. Finally he introduced himself and told them he was a stake president from Mississippi and recognized their books immediately. After he introduced himself to them, they told him that they were with a group from BYU studying the ruins, and they welcomed him to their lecture and their books were brought out into the open.
He told about this experience to the missionaries and asked them, “Why didn’t they tell me about the book”? - “They were afraid!” We have to all check ourselves and our desire to share about the Church, the gospel and especially the Book of Mormon wherever we are because we never know whom the Lord will put in our path.
Your dad had a meeting with Elder Anderson of the Seventy the other Fast and Testimony Meeting. He stays with us every 3 months when they have this meeting. During the testimonies a black woman bore her testimony about tithing. She is the only active member of the church in her family and her husband is very ill. She said, “We are living on one income now and doing well because of the things I have learned in this church. It’s what’s in your heart, not the jewels and money that you have. The Lord will bless you when you follow His laws.” It was an amazing testimony because she has been through so much and has had lots of debts.
We remind the missionaries, “The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.”
Recipe for Fall:
SWEET POTATO PONE
1 cup molasses
2-1/2 cups raw, grated sweet potatoes
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups rich milk
1 Tbs. melted butter
1 tsp. Powdered cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 Tbs. brown sugar
Add molasses, well-beaten eggs, milk, melted butter and ginger, in order to the grated sweet potatoes. Mix well. Turn into a well- greased baking pan, and bake about 45 minutes in a 350 degree oven, sprinkling the brown sugar and cinnamon over the top after 25 minutes. (it doesn’t say the size of pan).
Last Thanksgiving David and Catherine and Matt were here to celebrate with us. This Thanksgiving we are saying good-bye to 11 missionaries. What a great day to be going home after a successful mission. Elder Robison one of the assistants will be in that group. We will surely miss them.
We will be welcoming 14 new missionaries the day before Thanksgiving. Two of those missionaries are the first Spanish speaking elders to come to this mission and then transfers are on Thanksgiving Day. We will be fixing dinner on Thursday for all those missionaries transferring around the mission who are not having dinner in members homes - about 30-40
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL OF YOU!!!! WE HAVE MUCH TO BE GRATEFUL FOR, ESPECIALLY YOU!!!!!!
We love you all very much!!!!
Mom and Dad
Friday, September 21, 2007
Elder Callister
Hi Everyone,
We have had a busy last two weeks but I will start the e-mail from the first of August until this week.
The first few days of August Elder and Sister Richardson’s family came to visit. Elder and Sister Richardson have been here since April of 2006 and have not had a break except for their preparation days. They are at the office every morning at 8:00 and are there all day – then when they leave the office at 5:00 (and usually later) they go out with the missionaries or check on referrals.
While their family was here we they took a few days off to show their family the sights and I was the office secretaryJ You all know how much I dislike office work but it was really fun. It confused the missionaries when they called the office and I answered – they thought they had called the mission home by mistake.
The weather was 97-100 degrees and we had some great thunder storms but either we have become accustomed to the hot weather or it hasn’t been as hot this year as last year.
The end of the month was very busy with Shreveport Stake conference and then hurrying back to Jackson for the Zone Leader Overnight here at the mission home – 18 missionaries spent the night with training in the evening and all the next day.
We didn’t have any missionaries leave the mission to go home this transfer because two years ago Katrina hit and the missionaries that were to come here were sent other places. It was great not to have to say goodbye to anyone this time – it seemed really different. The missionaries that were here during Katrina have all gone home and the missionaries we have now know about it only because they have been told about it. Elder Kirk was one of the missionaries going home. He was your Dad’s Assistant and he is at BYU. The two assistants we have now are Elder Joshua Robison and Elder Calvin Taylor. They are both super missionaries in every way!!!!!
We had a great group of 8 missionaries come the next day (29th). They are all so different but this group seems to get along so well together and support each other.
We just had time to get the mission home cleaned up and then on Thursday Sept 6th we traveled back down to Shreveport LA. (4 hours west) to pick up Elder Douglas L. Callister and his wife. They were here to tour the mission and to change the Stake Presidency in Hattiesburg Ms. He is a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and he is really amazing!! He spoke for five days – 7 different talks (some of them 21/2 hours long) and never used notes of any kind. He did read one thing to the missionaries – a short story.
He told the missionaries what a great blessing it is for them to be here following many Apostles who have served as missionaries in the south. He said the world is becoming so wicked and this is the last strongheld of God-fearing people. He told about some of the experiences his grandfather LeGrand Richards had while he was Mission President in the South. He wrote A Marvelous Work and a Wonder while he was serving here.
After meeting with the missionaries on Friday in Shreveport, We drove about 7 hours back through Jackson and down to Hattiesburg. Elder Callister had interviews for the new stake presidency all day on Saturday, had Saturday night session of Stake conference, Sunday Stake Conference and then after lunch met with the missionaries for 4 hours. The wonderful sisters in one of the wards sent us back to Jackson with a boxed lunch and when I opened mine I found this note:
"To whom this lunch belongs; I am sorry you are short a bag of chips, but 4 children were here who had not eaten in 2 days.
I knew you wouldn’t mind if I gave one of the children yours, for we were short one bag!
Thank you for your service to the Lord. I thank Him for you! Sis. Caraway"
You can imagine how I felt….I would have given the children a whole bunch of lunches if I had known.:-)
We arrived at the mission home about 7:30 that evening and the Callisters were tired. The next morning we were up early and on our way to Clinton (about 30 minutes away) for our last zone conference.
After the meetings we took them to the airport. It was a great experience and very uplifting. He was very complimentary of the missionaries,about the only thing he recommended is that some of them tone down their ties. Your Dad didn’t wear his pink or orange ones while he was here:-)
Elder Callister was talking to the missionaries about obedience. He said, “As you look at all the General Authorities seated on the stand this General Conference I want you to remember, the General Authorities are not obedient and on time for their meetings because they are General Authorities. They are General Authorities because they were first obedient and on time. In other words, they are perfect examples of obedience in all their lives.
On Saturday the 15th we traveled back to Monroe, Louisiana for another Stake conference and now we are trying to get organized and caught-up so we can leave for a week to meet with all the missionaries in the mission.
While we were staying at President Garrett’s house they have a saying on their wall:
“SOUTHERNER”
A person born or living in the south, gracious, easy-going, slow-talking, friendly folk devoted to front porches, oak trees, cool breezes, magnolias, peaches, and fried chicken!
I was in a restaurant the other day with the sisters and above the ordering desk was this sign:
“NEVER TRUST A SKINNY COOK”
I am always getting calls from the elders about funny things. Elder Burton called and wanted to know if popcorn is a vegetable or a grain. They had been given a big bag of caramel corn and they were hoping it was a vegetable so they would feel better about eating more of it being the nutritionally minded Elders that they are:-).
On September 1, 2007 sister Janice Stallworth was baptized.
Her husband is an elderly man who is the Elder’s Quorum President of the Jackson Branch. Since we have been here he has been coming faithfully and she has been with him most of the time. I didn’t realize she wasn’t a member for several weeks. Brother Stallworth is a very faithful man. He is a former alcoholic and drug user and he credits the Church with saving him from a horrible life. He went to the temple about a year and a half ago and loves doing his genealogy. He has been a great example to her and she has finally been baptized. He said this was one of the greatest days in his life. Every time Home teachers or the missionaries go to their home, as they leave every one stands in a circle, holding hands, and have a prayer together. They are traveling to conference to stay with the senior couple who baptized him. Their names are Blaine and Betty Hyer from Kaysville Utah.
Terrance James, the 17 year old son of the Jackson Branch President is the only member of the Church in his school. He is a very good football and basketball player. The other night a couple of the members were at his football game. They were sitting with some of the students who went out to get some food and came back to the bleachers. Before eating their food they had a prayer. Brother Lawson told them he thought that was great and asked them why they had the prayer. They said, “Because number 78 told us we should bless our food”. Number 78 is Terrance James. He is not afraid to be a good influence on others. He will make a GREAT missionary when it is time for him to go.
The other day we received a letter from a new convert telling us about her conversion story. She and her daughter and 2 boys had moved to Ruston Louisiana. They didn’t know why they came there – her daughter was going through a divorce and then soon after she found out she had a tumor in her leg bone and a cyst on her ankle. She fell and could not walk, and they told her she might lose her legs. When she found out about all of this, she spent the whole day crying not knowing what would happen to them and especially her two boys 6 and 3. She said she began to pray – telling the Lord she wasn’t sure he was real, and she wanted physical proof. Before she could say Amen, Brother Purdue from the Church was knocking at the door. He refused to tell her who he was or why he came. He said, “I am a servant of God, He loves you and wants to bless you”. He brought food and toys for the boys. She said, “I tried for days to figure out why this man came to us and why. This was my first day in Ruston and didn’t know anyone here”.
“A few days later I was sitting outside. I watched the elders come down the street getting the doors slammed in their faces. They kept a smile though! I got my first lesson that day. God and Jesus brought me the messengers I needed. I had my baptism on 07/07/07. Our baptism was really special (my mom was baptized with me). Strangers became friends and our road to recovery has begun. Our trials have not fretted us since. We still have them but they just don’t seem as big as they once did.
“I was given a blessing from the priesthood before I choose to have surgery. The surgery was a complete success! I can walk now and someday I may even be able to run after my 3 year-old again.
“When I met the Elders I felt life was over. All I could think about was, “How can I raise my two boys on my own in this condition. I moved here hoping for a miracle for my legs and a happy life for my boys. The Elders brought me hope to live a complete life. I am happy. I now know this is why Heavenly Father brought me to a strange place. I knew no one. He gave me my miracle and a new family through the Church.”
We attended a baptism of Noah Wilson a few months ago, and now he is passing the Sacrament and has even baptized a friend of his. The missionaries love seeing someone they have been influential bringing into the Church taking his Priesthood seriously and performing ordinances. That is payday for them they say.
The last few days have been beautiful here. 86 has been the highest temperature, and the humidity has been low…a lot like Oregon:-).
We are still working with Connie Taylor and her husband. We went out to dinner with them last week. She is sure that her ancestors were members of the church because of the areas they lived. She is going to the Family History Library tomorrow to start her quest. She thinks her father was a member. Her mom hated Mormons and they went to church. Her two older step-sisters were members she has found out. She really wants to be baptized but Warren, her husband, is not going along with it. He used to be a Methodist Minister; yet he hardly believes in Jesus Christ. He wants every thing proven to him. He said if the National Geographic or Smithsonian would come out with proof that there were cities like the Book of Mormon talks about and wheat and grains and the metals, then he might believe. He will not believe a LDS Church source. He wants an independent source – non bias – ya, rightJ Dad talked to him about Doubting Thomas and about all the scriptures that talk about those who need a sign, but he still doesn’t budge. Connie is a very interesting person. She used to be an actress – she was in Urban Cowboy (I never saw it – R rated) and some others I’ve never seen. She sent us a picture of her when she was in the movies. She was really beautiful!!!!! She has lots of friends who work with or are related to the Osmonds.
I used Becca’s story of her teacher not being able to be a missionary…every one loved it. This is how I told it:
Our 7 year-old granddaughter, Becca, called us the other day to tell us about her first day of 2nd grade. We were asking her all kinds of questions and then we asked her about her teacher. She said, “I really like her but according to that white missionary handbook we got from grandpa, she couldn’t be a missionary. We asked her “Why” knowing her teacher wasn’t a member of the church. Becca said, “Because she has a stud in her nose and missionaries can’t have pierced noses”. Every Monday evening during Family Home Evening, our daughter and son-in-law discuss segments of the Missionary Handbook with our 5 grandchildren (ages ranging from 4-13) so that there will be no surprises about the expectations when they get on their missions.
They use a lot of corn in recipes here so the recipe for the month is:
CREAM CORN AND CRAWFISH SOUP
3 Tbs. butter
1 (101/2 oz) can cream style corn
2 Tbs. bell pepper – chopped
1 (101/2 oz) can whole kernel corn
2 Tbs. celery – chopped
1 ½ cups water
1 tsp. garlic – chopped
½ tsp. savory
2 Tbs. onion – chopped
2 pinches saffron
1 cup crawfish tails
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 pint half & half
Saute vegetables in butter until tender. Add crawfish tails and sauté for 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients,
Except half and half, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add half and half and heat without letting it come to a boil.
Easy and Tasty
The last few days have been beautiful here. 86 has been the highest temperature, and the humidity has been low…a lot like Oregon:-).
Thank you for all the phone calls and e-mails and pictures. It is wonderful to not be left out of what you are doing and how you are growing.
It is fun to imagine Andrea and Olivia and Becca all dressed up ready for dance class. Just like going to the Bantons.
Parker we loved the e-mail you sent. It is really colorful and creative!!! The pictures of Cameron and Andrea at the gardens were great. Cameron keeps rolling up his top lip just like the pictures we took of him here.
We love you all, and Elder Callister in a prayer asked our Heavenly Father to remember all of you while we are here serving. He also told the missionaries that they were very blessed to have your Dad as their Mission President.
Mom and Dad
We have had a busy last two weeks but I will start the e-mail from the first of August until this week.
The first few days of August Elder and Sister Richardson’s family came to visit. Elder and Sister Richardson have been here since April of 2006 and have not had a break except for their preparation days. They are at the office every morning at 8:00 and are there all day – then when they leave the office at 5:00 (and usually later) they go out with the missionaries or check on referrals.
While their family was here we they took a few days off to show their family the sights and I was the office secretaryJ You all know how much I dislike office work but it was really fun. It confused the missionaries when they called the office and I answered – they thought they had called the mission home by mistake.
The weather was 97-100 degrees and we had some great thunder storms but either we have become accustomed to the hot weather or it hasn’t been as hot this year as last year.
The end of the month was very busy with Shreveport Stake conference and then hurrying back to Jackson for the Zone Leader Overnight here at the mission home – 18 missionaries spent the night with training in the evening and all the next day.
We didn’t have any missionaries leave the mission to go home this transfer because two years ago Katrina hit and the missionaries that were to come here were sent other places. It was great not to have to say goodbye to anyone this time – it seemed really different. The missionaries that were here during Katrina have all gone home and the missionaries we have now know about it only because they have been told about it. Elder Kirk was one of the missionaries going home. He was your Dad’s Assistant and he is at BYU. The two assistants we have now are Elder Joshua Robison and Elder Calvin Taylor. They are both super missionaries in every way!!!!!
We had a great group of 8 missionaries come the next day (29th). They are all so different but this group seems to get along so well together and support each other.
We just had time to get the mission home cleaned up and then on Thursday Sept 6th we traveled back down to Shreveport LA. (4 hours west) to pick up Elder Douglas L. Callister and his wife. They were here to tour the mission and to change the Stake Presidency in Hattiesburg Ms. He is a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and he is really amazing!! He spoke for five days – 7 different talks (some of them 21/2 hours long) and never used notes of any kind. He did read one thing to the missionaries – a short story.
He told the missionaries what a great blessing it is for them to be here following many Apostles who have served as missionaries in the south. He said the world is becoming so wicked and this is the last strongheld of God-fearing people. He told about some of the experiences his grandfather LeGrand Richards had while he was Mission President in the South. He wrote A Marvelous Work and a Wonder while he was serving here.
After meeting with the missionaries on Friday in Shreveport, We drove about 7 hours back through Jackson and down to Hattiesburg. Elder Callister had interviews for the new stake presidency all day on Saturday, had Saturday night session of Stake conference, Sunday Stake Conference and then after lunch met with the missionaries for 4 hours. The wonderful sisters in one of the wards sent us back to Jackson with a boxed lunch and when I opened mine I found this note:
"To whom this lunch belongs; I am sorry you are short a bag of chips, but 4 children were here who had not eaten in 2 days.
I knew you wouldn’t mind if I gave one of the children yours, for we were short one bag!
Thank you for your service to the Lord. I thank Him for you! Sis. Caraway"
You can imagine how I felt….I would have given the children a whole bunch of lunches if I had known.:-)
We arrived at the mission home about 7:30 that evening and the Callisters were tired. The next morning we were up early and on our way to Clinton (about 30 minutes away) for our last zone conference.
After the meetings we took them to the airport. It was a great experience and very uplifting. He was very complimentary of the missionaries,about the only thing he recommended is that some of them tone down their ties. Your Dad didn’t wear his pink or orange ones while he was here:-)
Elder Callister was talking to the missionaries about obedience. He said, “As you look at all the General Authorities seated on the stand this General Conference I want you to remember, the General Authorities are not obedient and on time for their meetings because they are General Authorities. They are General Authorities because they were first obedient and on time. In other words, they are perfect examples of obedience in all their lives.
On Saturday the 15th we traveled back to Monroe, Louisiana for another Stake conference and now we are trying to get organized and caught-up so we can leave for a week to meet with all the missionaries in the mission.
While we were staying at President Garrett’s house they have a saying on their wall:
“SOUTHERNER”
A person born or living in the south, gracious, easy-going, slow-talking, friendly folk devoted to front porches, oak trees, cool breezes, magnolias, peaches, and fried chicken!
I was in a restaurant the other day with the sisters and above the ordering desk was this sign:
“NEVER TRUST A SKINNY COOK”
I am always getting calls from the elders about funny things. Elder Burton called and wanted to know if popcorn is a vegetable or a grain. They had been given a big bag of caramel corn and they were hoping it was a vegetable so they would feel better about eating more of it being the nutritionally minded Elders that they are:-).
On September 1, 2007 sister Janice Stallworth was baptized.
Her husband is an elderly man who is the Elder’s Quorum President of the Jackson Branch. Since we have been here he has been coming faithfully and she has been with him most of the time. I didn’t realize she wasn’t a member for several weeks. Brother Stallworth is a very faithful man. He is a former alcoholic and drug user and he credits the Church with saving him from a horrible life. He went to the temple about a year and a half ago and loves doing his genealogy. He has been a great example to her and she has finally been baptized. He said this was one of the greatest days in his life. Every time Home teachers or the missionaries go to their home, as they leave every one stands in a circle, holding hands, and have a prayer together. They are traveling to conference to stay with the senior couple who baptized him. Their names are Blaine and Betty Hyer from Kaysville Utah.
Terrance James, the 17 year old son of the Jackson Branch President is the only member of the Church in his school. He is a very good football and basketball player. The other night a couple of the members were at his football game. They were sitting with some of the students who went out to get some food and came back to the bleachers. Before eating their food they had a prayer. Brother Lawson told them he thought that was great and asked them why they had the prayer. They said, “Because number 78 told us we should bless our food”. Number 78 is Terrance James. He is not afraid to be a good influence on others. He will make a GREAT missionary when it is time for him to go.
The other day we received a letter from a new convert telling us about her conversion story. She and her daughter and 2 boys had moved to Ruston Louisiana. They didn’t know why they came there – her daughter was going through a divorce and then soon after she found out she had a tumor in her leg bone and a cyst on her ankle. She fell and could not walk, and they told her she might lose her legs. When she found out about all of this, she spent the whole day crying not knowing what would happen to them and especially her two boys 6 and 3. She said she began to pray – telling the Lord she wasn’t sure he was real, and she wanted physical proof. Before she could say Amen, Brother Purdue from the Church was knocking at the door. He refused to tell her who he was or why he came. He said, “I am a servant of God, He loves you and wants to bless you”. He brought food and toys for the boys. She said, “I tried for days to figure out why this man came to us and why. This was my first day in Ruston and didn’t know anyone here”.
“A few days later I was sitting outside. I watched the elders come down the street getting the doors slammed in their faces. They kept a smile though! I got my first lesson that day. God and Jesus brought me the messengers I needed. I had my baptism on 07/07/07. Our baptism was really special (my mom was baptized with me). Strangers became friends and our road to recovery has begun. Our trials have not fretted us since. We still have them but they just don’t seem as big as they once did.
“I was given a blessing from the priesthood before I choose to have surgery. The surgery was a complete success! I can walk now and someday I may even be able to run after my 3 year-old again.
“When I met the Elders I felt life was over. All I could think about was, “How can I raise my two boys on my own in this condition. I moved here hoping for a miracle for my legs and a happy life for my boys. The Elders brought me hope to live a complete life. I am happy. I now know this is why Heavenly Father brought me to a strange place. I knew no one. He gave me my miracle and a new family through the Church.”
We attended a baptism of Noah Wilson a few months ago, and now he is passing the Sacrament and has even baptized a friend of his. The missionaries love seeing someone they have been influential bringing into the Church taking his Priesthood seriously and performing ordinances. That is payday for them they say.
The last few days have been beautiful here. 86 has been the highest temperature, and the humidity has been low…a lot like Oregon:-).
We are still working with Connie Taylor and her husband. We went out to dinner with them last week. She is sure that her ancestors were members of the church because of the areas they lived. She is going to the Family History Library tomorrow to start her quest. She thinks her father was a member. Her mom hated Mormons and they went to church. Her two older step-sisters were members she has found out. She really wants to be baptized but Warren, her husband, is not going along with it. He used to be a Methodist Minister; yet he hardly believes in Jesus Christ. He wants every thing proven to him. He said if the National Geographic or Smithsonian would come out with proof that there were cities like the Book of Mormon talks about and wheat and grains and the metals, then he might believe. He will not believe a LDS Church source. He wants an independent source – non bias – ya, rightJ Dad talked to him about Doubting Thomas and about all the scriptures that talk about those who need a sign, but he still doesn’t budge. Connie is a very interesting person. She used to be an actress – she was in Urban Cowboy (I never saw it – R rated) and some others I’ve never seen. She sent us a picture of her when she was in the movies. She was really beautiful!!!!! She has lots of friends who work with or are related to the Osmonds.
I used Becca’s story of her teacher not being able to be a missionary…every one loved it. This is how I told it:
Our 7 year-old granddaughter, Becca, called us the other day to tell us about her first day of 2nd grade. We were asking her all kinds of questions and then we asked her about her teacher. She said, “I really like her but according to that white missionary handbook we got from grandpa, she couldn’t be a missionary. We asked her “Why” knowing her teacher wasn’t a member of the church. Becca said, “Because she has a stud in her nose and missionaries can’t have pierced noses”. Every Monday evening during Family Home Evening, our daughter and son-in-law discuss segments of the Missionary Handbook with our 5 grandchildren (ages ranging from 4-13) so that there will be no surprises about the expectations when they get on their missions.
They use a lot of corn in recipes here so the recipe for the month is:
CREAM CORN AND CRAWFISH SOUP
3 Tbs. butter
1 (101/2 oz) can cream style corn
2 Tbs. bell pepper – chopped
1 (101/2 oz) can whole kernel corn
2 Tbs. celery – chopped
1 ½ cups water
1 tsp. garlic – chopped
½ tsp. savory
2 Tbs. onion – chopped
2 pinches saffron
1 cup crawfish tails
½ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 pint half & half
Saute vegetables in butter until tender. Add crawfish tails and sauté for 2 minutes. Add remaining ingredients,
Except half and half, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add half and half and heat without letting it come to a boil.
Easy and Tasty
The last few days have been beautiful here. 86 has been the highest temperature, and the humidity has been low…a lot like Oregon:-).
Thank you for all the phone calls and e-mails and pictures. It is wonderful to not be left out of what you are doing and how you are growing.
It is fun to imagine Andrea and Olivia and Becca all dressed up ready for dance class. Just like going to the Bantons.
Parker we loved the e-mail you sent. It is really colorful and creative!!! The pictures of Cameron and Andrea at the gardens were great. Cameron keeps rolling up his top lip just like the pictures we took of him here.
We love you all, and Elder Callister in a prayer asked our Heavenly Father to remember all of you while we are here serving. He also told the missionaries that they were very blessed to have your Dad as their Mission President.
Mom and Dad
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The Year Mark
Hi everyone,
It has been about two months since our last communication. We aren’t home for long stretches of time. We have been here a year!!!! Can you believe it? It is just as warm and humid and beautiful as it was last year.
After Diana, Brett, Andrea and Cameron left we had to get back to the work of the mission, and that was hard to do. We had such a good time with them and made lots of memories. The weekend after they left we went to historic Red Star Ward about 1 ½ hours south of Jackson. The chapel is out in the middle of the countryside; no town is close by. The members all live in the rural area and are mostly descendents of two families baptized over 100 years ago. They have their own little cemetery out at the side of the chapel. The building is on Mormon Trail Road. We took a picture of the street sign because it is spelled wrong: they had the sign stolen so many times that the last time they put it up they spelled it Morman Trail Road. No one has stolen it since. The first missionaries there were rescued from an armed mob by a family who were later baptized. Chapels built there were twice burned down in the early 1900s, and members were threatened and told the church would never survive. The building there now is very similar to the Oak Hills Ward chapel (with comparable attendance), and things are a bit more peaceful.
Around the first part of June our mission boundaries were realigned. Everything on the Coast was shifted to the west about 30 miles. Because so many people after Hurricane Katrina have not come back here to live, the Slidell, Louisiana Stake was dissolved and its units reassigned. We lost Pascagoula and Lucedale, Mississippi from our mission to the Tallahassee Florida Mission, and we gained Slidell LA, Bogalusa LA and Picayune MS from the Baton Rouge Mission. Don’t you just love those names Picayune and Bogalusa?
On June 5th we had 5 elders go home and 6 great elders and one sister arrive. The missionaries coming from the MTC have so much fire and excitement it revitalizes the other missionaries all over again.
The end of June we had a fun experience. Because of the 1 millionth missionary called and the Church having 13 million members, the newspaper here in Jackson did a feature article on two of our missionaries. The reporter and a photographer went tracting with them one afternoon. Some of the neighbors in the area called the police. The photographer took off, but the elders (accustomed to this) visited with the policeman, and he was fine with it all. The reporter asked them if this happened frequently. The next day the reporter met with us, 6 missionaries, some new converts and a member of the Stake Presidency for several hours. The article was very favorable and the missionaries she interviewed were great. (Of course that is the only kind of missionaries we have hereJ) You can find the article on jmgordon@clarionledger.com – it’s title is Knocking on Doors – June 30th, Religion Section.
This last week we had another similar article written about the elders in Shreveport LA, again very positive. That is very rare around here!! That link is
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070722/LIVING/707210309
We had a wonderful 4th of July. (We did miss Oak Hills and the picnic and parade and fireworks etc). It was our missionaries’ preparation day so a family here in Jackson had all of the missionaries (about 20) from the area over for a barbeque. They have a tennis court and a basketball court and all the things the elders enjoy. We had two sister missionaries there, and we had fun taking pictures and fixing the food. It is great to see the missionaries when they are all doing fun things together. As with last year we had a loud thunderstorm about fireworks time.
We had another Senior Conference on the 11th and 12th of July. With the change in our boundaries, we have two new couples. One of the couples run the employment center in the Slidell bishop’s storehouse. It is a huge operation which was in great use during Katrina. Our seniors had such wonderful wisdom, and they are so willing to share it with the others. We had a fun evening activity Wednesday after dinner. We found out one sister fell into an open grave during a mutual activity at a cemetery on Halloween. A senior elder was on a walk here recently, and two nurses from the nursing home up the street thought he was a runaway from the home and tried to take him back. The next day we had breakfast all together and then workshops and talks and everyone left after lunch. All of the couples and also our single sisters are having success and baptisms. It is wonderful to see their excitement as they succeed.
Thought you might enjoy reading an article one of the couples found from their home newspaper:
IT’S TIME FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO LOOK AFTER MY PARENTS by Robert Kirby
“If you live long enough, you’ll eventually turn the tables on your mom and dad. The day will come when you have to be the parent. It’s a hope that kept me going for years. Way back in l969, I vowed that I would one day put my parents in a home. On Monday I did. They had it coming. Grounding me for most of a summer simply because I backed our station wagon into a lake seemed excessive. I never really got over it. Incensed by that injustice, I spent the summer thinking, “Just wait until they’re old and helpless. I’ll stick them in the worst rest home in the country.”
I felt pretty good about it. The only thing missing were the tearful pleas for forgiveness as I drove away laughing. As it turned out, they actually wanted to go into the home. It was the mission home, or LDS Church’s Mission Training Center in Provo. The MTC may not be a real home, but it amounts to the same thing on my end. Someone else will be taking care of my parents, telling them when to eat, that their shoes are on the wrong feet, and keeping them out of the street.”
David flew in on the morning of the 12th for some business in Clinton MS, and so he was able to meet the seniors while they were here at the home. Jessica, flew in that night and they stayed here for three days with us. Friday, we went to the Cypress Swamp.
On the way we passed a huge patch of water lilies and then at the swamp we took pictures of beautiful colored mushrooms and a live alligator having his afternoon nap.
The next day, we drove to the Mississippi Coast and toured the hurricane area. We had a great, fun time with them. We went to the Jackson Branch on Sunday and they met all the missionaries. Parker had just called a new assistant a couple of weeks ago, and he was there, too. After Sacrament meeting Jessica said that Elder Robison looked familiar, and she asked us if his name was Josh (of course we just call him Elder). It turned out that she knew him from California, and he used to date her roommate. Small world, huh?
After David and Jessica left we had transfers. We had 2 sisters and 7 elders leave. One of the Assistants, Elder Kirk from Texas, went home. The mission will really miss him, and especially we will miss him. I’m sure his parents wouldn’t let us but we would adopt him if we could. He is a great missionary! You would love him as a member of our family!
I got a phone call a couple of weeks ago from a woman who asked me if we were having a baptism on Sunday. She sounded rather hostile, and I had to tell her I didn’t know - it depended upon where in the mission she was interested. She said that she heard her son Doug was being baptized on Sunday. I had heard about Doug because Elder Taylor and Elder Robinson here in Jackson had told us about him. I gave her the missionaries’ number, and then I quickly called them. Doug is 26, and his mother is a Baptist Youth Minister and is very upset about him taking the lessons. He had to put his baptism on hold while he works with his parents. They believe some terrible, false anti-Mormon information.
As all of you know by now, we do a lot of driving through the countryside in Mississippi and Louisiana when we go out into the small branches to speak in Church. There are big beautiful farms with brick homes and white pillars in the front. Everyone has a porch with rocking chairs or porch swings on them. Many of the homes have ponds for raising their own catfish. The Crepe Myrtle trees are blooming again like they were when we got here: pinks, whites and purples.
In a Relief Society Lesson at the Jackson Branch Sister Epps was giving the lesson. She is a black sister who really knows her scriptures and loves the gospel. She has a great way of putting things. These are a few of the great things she said during the lesson:
“We have to do it the Jesus way.”
“If we don’t stand strong we’ll fall for anything.”
In the evenings the cicadas (insects in the trees) are very loud. You really notice them after the stillness of the day. There are a lot of frogs in the ponds too; some of the missionaries have a hard time sleeping because of the noise. Actually it makes the nights magical.
All of the restaurants here serve Hush Puppies in place of rolls or bread so we thought some of you might like to try them:
HUSH PUPPIES
Sift 2 cups cornmeal
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 large finely chopped onion
1 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water
Sift the cornmeal, baking powder and salt into a bowl containing the chopped onion. Add the milk and water. Mold into pones about the size of golf balls and fry in deep fat until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve immediately.
These are perfect served with hot fried fish.
There are lots of variations but the above is the most common and oldest recipe;
Some people add 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped and ½ cup chopped bell pepper. This gives them lots of flavor.
A couple of weeks ago, your Dad walked into the mission office one afternoon to find a lady chatting with Sister Richardson, our mission secretary. She said that in her church she had heard all of her life about the wild and “terrible” beliefs (all untrue of course) of the Mormons, but that everyone ended their comments by saying, “…but they are some of the best people I have ever known.” Her name was Connie Taylor, and she had some LDS friends in Arizona and wanted to know more. They visited for about an hour, and then your Dad and Elder Robinson and Elder Taylor taught her and her husband (a former Methodist minister) the next evening. They were at church today (he reluctantly), and she has a baptism date set for August 11th. They just returned from a long road trip, and she read the Book of Mormon to him the entire time (captive audience). She brought tears to my eyes just meeting her, feeling her excitement, and hearing her story.
We are grateful for the spiritual experiences we are having. We are so impressed with the missionaries and the way they teach with power and with the spirit.
We enjoyed having several phone calls this weekend from some of the elders that have gone home. Their visits are great blessings in our lives.
We have really appreciated having all of you come to see us. It means a lot and we have enjoyed it so much!!!!
We can’t believe it is both Hayley’s and Andrew’s birthdays this week. We love talking with you on the phone and seeing how you are changing and growing up. You used to be so littleJ
Hayley I’ll bet EFY was fun. There were no pictures on your last email.
Andrew, we can’t believe we will have a grandson that will be passing the sacrament. We are proud of youJ.
Parker, are you going to play flag football again this fall? School here starts the 2nd week in August. We are glad to hear that you are working on your Webelos.
Becca we really like the updates on your teeth and when you lose them. We are also very glad that your Lake Powell experience turned out okay.
Second grade will be fun. I remember when I was in second grade. We used to have to lie down and take a rest in the afternoon. We also got snacks like figs and peaches.
Olivia, we love talking to you on the phone. You are really getting big and we can’t believe you will be in pre-school this year. Way to goJ
We can’t believe we missed Brett’s birthday. I keep thinking that it is on the day of your reception in Oregon but it is actually on your anniversary. We’ll remember next year:-).
Andrea, we love hearing your friendly “Hi!” when you call us. Did you help make a birthday cake for your Dad? We are really proud of you memorizing your Articles of Faith.
Love to Y’all,
Mom and Dad
It has been about two months since our last communication. We aren’t home for long stretches of time. We have been here a year!!!! Can you believe it? It is just as warm and humid and beautiful as it was last year.
After Diana, Brett, Andrea and Cameron left we had to get back to the work of the mission, and that was hard to do. We had such a good time with them and made lots of memories. The weekend after they left we went to historic Red Star Ward about 1 ½ hours south of Jackson. The chapel is out in the middle of the countryside; no town is close by. The members all live in the rural area and are mostly descendents of two families baptized over 100 years ago. They have their own little cemetery out at the side of the chapel. The building is on Mormon Trail Road. We took a picture of the street sign because it is spelled wrong: they had the sign stolen so many times that the last time they put it up they spelled it Morman Trail Road. No one has stolen it since. The first missionaries there were rescued from an armed mob by a family who were later baptized. Chapels built there were twice burned down in the early 1900s, and members were threatened and told the church would never survive. The building there now is very similar to the Oak Hills Ward chapel (with comparable attendance), and things are a bit more peaceful.
Around the first part of June our mission boundaries were realigned. Everything on the Coast was shifted to the west about 30 miles. Because so many people after Hurricane Katrina have not come back here to live, the Slidell, Louisiana Stake was dissolved and its units reassigned. We lost Pascagoula and Lucedale, Mississippi from our mission to the Tallahassee Florida Mission, and we gained Slidell LA, Bogalusa LA and Picayune MS from the Baton Rouge Mission. Don’t you just love those names Picayune and Bogalusa?
On June 5th we had 5 elders go home and 6 great elders and one sister arrive. The missionaries coming from the MTC have so much fire and excitement it revitalizes the other missionaries all over again.
The end of June we had a fun experience. Because of the 1 millionth missionary called and the Church having 13 million members, the newspaper here in Jackson did a feature article on two of our missionaries. The reporter and a photographer went tracting with them one afternoon. Some of the neighbors in the area called the police. The photographer took off, but the elders (accustomed to this) visited with the policeman, and he was fine with it all. The reporter asked them if this happened frequently. The next day the reporter met with us, 6 missionaries, some new converts and a member of the Stake Presidency for several hours. The article was very favorable and the missionaries she interviewed were great. (Of course that is the only kind of missionaries we have hereJ) You can find the article on jmgordon@clarionledger.com – it’s title is Knocking on Doors – June 30th, Religion Section.
This last week we had another similar article written about the elders in Shreveport LA, again very positive. That is very rare around here!! That link is
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070722/LIVING/707210309
We had a wonderful 4th of July. (We did miss Oak Hills and the picnic and parade and fireworks etc). It was our missionaries’ preparation day so a family here in Jackson had all of the missionaries (about 20) from the area over for a barbeque. They have a tennis court and a basketball court and all the things the elders enjoy. We had two sister missionaries there, and we had fun taking pictures and fixing the food. It is great to see the missionaries when they are all doing fun things together. As with last year we had a loud thunderstorm about fireworks time.
We had another Senior Conference on the 11th and 12th of July. With the change in our boundaries, we have two new couples. One of the couples run the employment center in the Slidell bishop’s storehouse. It is a huge operation which was in great use during Katrina. Our seniors had such wonderful wisdom, and they are so willing to share it with the others. We had a fun evening activity Wednesday after dinner. We found out one sister fell into an open grave during a mutual activity at a cemetery on Halloween. A senior elder was on a walk here recently, and two nurses from the nursing home up the street thought he was a runaway from the home and tried to take him back. The next day we had breakfast all together and then workshops and talks and everyone left after lunch. All of the couples and also our single sisters are having success and baptisms. It is wonderful to see their excitement as they succeed.
Thought you might enjoy reading an article one of the couples found from their home newspaper:
IT’S TIME FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO LOOK AFTER MY PARENTS by Robert Kirby
“If you live long enough, you’ll eventually turn the tables on your mom and dad. The day will come when you have to be the parent. It’s a hope that kept me going for years. Way back in l969, I vowed that I would one day put my parents in a home. On Monday I did. They had it coming. Grounding me for most of a summer simply because I backed our station wagon into a lake seemed excessive. I never really got over it. Incensed by that injustice, I spent the summer thinking, “Just wait until they’re old and helpless. I’ll stick them in the worst rest home in the country.”
I felt pretty good about it. The only thing missing were the tearful pleas for forgiveness as I drove away laughing. As it turned out, they actually wanted to go into the home. It was the mission home, or LDS Church’s Mission Training Center in Provo. The MTC may not be a real home, but it amounts to the same thing on my end. Someone else will be taking care of my parents, telling them when to eat, that their shoes are on the wrong feet, and keeping them out of the street.”
David flew in on the morning of the 12th for some business in Clinton MS, and so he was able to meet the seniors while they were here at the home. Jessica, flew in that night and they stayed here for three days with us. Friday, we went to the Cypress Swamp.
On the way we passed a huge patch of water lilies and then at the swamp we took pictures of beautiful colored mushrooms and a live alligator having his afternoon nap.
The next day, we drove to the Mississippi Coast and toured the hurricane area. We had a great, fun time with them. We went to the Jackson Branch on Sunday and they met all the missionaries. Parker had just called a new assistant a couple of weeks ago, and he was there, too. After Sacrament meeting Jessica said that Elder Robison looked familiar, and she asked us if his name was Josh (of course we just call him Elder). It turned out that she knew him from California, and he used to date her roommate. Small world, huh?
After David and Jessica left we had transfers. We had 2 sisters and 7 elders leave. One of the Assistants, Elder Kirk from Texas, went home. The mission will really miss him, and especially we will miss him. I’m sure his parents wouldn’t let us but we would adopt him if we could. He is a great missionary! You would love him as a member of our family!
I got a phone call a couple of weeks ago from a woman who asked me if we were having a baptism on Sunday. She sounded rather hostile, and I had to tell her I didn’t know - it depended upon where in the mission she was interested. She said that she heard her son Doug was being baptized on Sunday. I had heard about Doug because Elder Taylor and Elder Robinson here in Jackson had told us about him. I gave her the missionaries’ number, and then I quickly called them. Doug is 26, and his mother is a Baptist Youth Minister and is very upset about him taking the lessons. He had to put his baptism on hold while he works with his parents. They believe some terrible, false anti-Mormon information.
As all of you know by now, we do a lot of driving through the countryside in Mississippi and Louisiana when we go out into the small branches to speak in Church. There are big beautiful farms with brick homes and white pillars in the front. Everyone has a porch with rocking chairs or porch swings on them. Many of the homes have ponds for raising their own catfish. The Crepe Myrtle trees are blooming again like they were when we got here: pinks, whites and purples.
In a Relief Society Lesson at the Jackson Branch Sister Epps was giving the lesson. She is a black sister who really knows her scriptures and loves the gospel. She has a great way of putting things. These are a few of the great things she said during the lesson:
“We have to do it the Jesus way.”
“If we don’t stand strong we’ll fall for anything.”
In the evenings the cicadas (insects in the trees) are very loud. You really notice them after the stillness of the day. There are a lot of frogs in the ponds too; some of the missionaries have a hard time sleeping because of the noise. Actually it makes the nights magical.
All of the restaurants here serve Hush Puppies in place of rolls or bread so we thought some of you might like to try them:
HUSH PUPPIES
Sift 2 cups cornmeal
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 large finely chopped onion
1 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water
Sift the cornmeal, baking powder and salt into a bowl containing the chopped onion. Add the milk and water. Mold into pones about the size of golf balls and fry in deep fat until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve immediately.
These are perfect served with hot fried fish.
There are lots of variations but the above is the most common and oldest recipe;
Some people add 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped and ½ cup chopped bell pepper. This gives them lots of flavor.
A couple of weeks ago, your Dad walked into the mission office one afternoon to find a lady chatting with Sister Richardson, our mission secretary. She said that in her church she had heard all of her life about the wild and “terrible” beliefs (all untrue of course) of the Mormons, but that everyone ended their comments by saying, “…but they are some of the best people I have ever known.” Her name was Connie Taylor, and she had some LDS friends in Arizona and wanted to know more. They visited for about an hour, and then your Dad and Elder Robinson and Elder Taylor taught her and her husband (a former Methodist minister) the next evening. They were at church today (he reluctantly), and she has a baptism date set for August 11th. They just returned from a long road trip, and she read the Book of Mormon to him the entire time (captive audience). She brought tears to my eyes just meeting her, feeling her excitement, and hearing her story.
We are grateful for the spiritual experiences we are having. We are so impressed with the missionaries and the way they teach with power and with the spirit.
We enjoyed having several phone calls this weekend from some of the elders that have gone home. Their visits are great blessings in our lives.
We have really appreciated having all of you come to see us. It means a lot and we have enjoyed it so much!!!!
We can’t believe it is both Hayley’s and Andrew’s birthdays this week. We love talking with you on the phone and seeing how you are changing and growing up. You used to be so littleJ
Hayley I’ll bet EFY was fun. There were no pictures on your last email.
Andrew, we can’t believe we will have a grandson that will be passing the sacrament. We are proud of youJ.
Parker, are you going to play flag football again this fall? School here starts the 2nd week in August. We are glad to hear that you are working on your Webelos.
Becca we really like the updates on your teeth and when you lose them. We are also very glad that your Lake Powell experience turned out okay.
Second grade will be fun. I remember when I was in second grade. We used to have to lie down and take a rest in the afternoon. We also got snacks like figs and peaches.
Olivia, we love talking to you on the phone. You are really getting big and we can’t believe you will be in pre-school this year. Way to goJ
We can’t believe we missed Brett’s birthday. I keep thinking that it is on the day of your reception in Oregon but it is actually on your anniversary. We’ll remember next year:-).
Andrea, we love hearing your friendly “Hi!” when you call us. Did you help make a birthday cake for your Dad? We are really proud of you memorizing your Articles of Faith.
Love to Y’all,
Mom and Dad
Saturday, May 19, 2007
The Grandchildren Visit
Hi Y’all,
Thanks for all the visits and phone calls from all of you. It really lifts our spirits. We love seeing the children and how they are growing. It is amazing all the things we have accomplished in the last couple of months. Thanks for all your help and the fun times!!!!!
March was beautiful here. Our Azalea hedges in our backyard were out in all their glorious pink.
We have a week out of every 6 or so that we are home and can catch-up with our lives. It is the only week we can spend some time with family here at the house. Jennifer and her children (Hayley, Andrew, Parker, Becca and Olivia) drove here from Denver at the end of March and we were able to go some places and see some great things. There is a park down the street from us that the children loved!! Every morning while Dad and I did our office work they spent playing on the equipment. They even did some missionary work!
The Natural Science Museum here is really interesting. They have an area with alligators and it was fun to see them in their tank and watch them when they are fed. They have a tank with a huge albino cat fish and then a section with a two-headed snake. We even saw some paddle fish – which I have never seen before.
They also had an exhibit of Walter Inglis Anderson’s work. He is Mississippi’s most outstanding artist. His sea-life watercolors are wonderful. He had a gallery on the coast when Katrina hit and most of it was destroyed.
We enjoyed some time at the town of Canton, made frozen fruit cups for the missionaries, visited the Mississippi Coast, had lunch at Hamils and played games. We spent a day at Vicksburg touring the Civil War Park and had a picnic dinner with Bishop Wallace and family of the Vicksburg Ward who was a missionary companion of our son-in-law John Walton.
Parker Walton bore his testimony in the Jackson Branch on Sunday morning and the new converts were so impressed. Jen’s children doubled the primary that day.
We enjoyed watching conference with them on the next Saturday and then they had to drive home on Sunday. It was wonderful having them here and showing them where we live and what we are doing. The children were GREAT!
Andrea called us on Conference Sunday to recite to us the 3rd Article of Faith. That’s pretty impressive for a 3 year old!!!
We were at the Jackson Branch for Fast and Testimony meeting. A young man named Eddie Hill, who came to church for the first time with the missionaries, got up to bear his testimony. He said that he had investigated other churches and when the missionaries stopped him on the street and talked to him he was impressed that this church practices what they preach - when people are members of the church they live and do the things they are taught. He said “Here these young men didn’t know me from a can of paint, yet they shared the truths with me.” He and his wife Jenny were baptized on the 14th of April.
Easter was a beautiful day. It was sunny and 65 degrees. We went to church at the Madison Ward. They had a men’s chorus sing and the speaker was a reactivated member who talked about forgiveness and how it has been an important part of his reactivation and life as a member.
March and April bring great color to Mississippi. Iris, Azaleas, Daffodils, beautiful pink and white Dogwood trees, and lots of colorful flowering fruit trees are all in bloom. With this beauty around us comes allergies for the missionaries.
The last zone conference I told the missionaries a story about some of the first missionaries in Mississippi. I thought I would pass it along to you.
It was told by George Albert Smith:
“When I was in the mission field first, I went into a section of country where the hymn, Do What Is Right” was apparently known to the community. Two humble missionaries, after walking until late in the afternoon in the sun, in the heat of the summer, came to a small house that was at the bottom of a hill. When the missionaries arrived, they found friends who invited them in to partake of their meager refreshment. And then they were asked to go outside in the cool of the afternoon shade, on one of those comfortable, open southern porches between two rooms and sing some hymns. The people were not members of the Church but they enjoyed Latter-day Saint hymns.
The missionaries had been threatened in that section. One of the men who had threatened them had kept watch of the road and in that way learned when they arrived. He sent word to his associates who saddled their horses and took their guns, and rode to the top of the hill overlooking the little house. The missionaries knew nothing about it; they did not know that right over their heads, not very far away, were a considerable number of armed horsemen. But they had the Spirit of the Lord, and as they sat there in the cool of the afternoon and sang hymns, the one hymn that seemed to be prepared for the occasion was, “Do What Is Right”. Their voices went out into the quiet air. They had sung one verse when the leader of the mob took off his hat. They sang another verse, and he got off his horse, and the others got off their horses. By the time the last verse had been sung, those men were repentant. Upon advice of their leader, they rode away without making their presence known. The leader was so impressed with what he heard the missionaries sing that he said to his associates: “We made a mistake. These are not the kind of men we thought they were. Wicked men can’t sing like angels and these men sing like angels. They must be servants of the Lord.”
The result was that this man became converted to the Church and later baptized.” President George Albert Smith said, “And I never hear that hymn sung but I think of that very unusual experience when two missionaries, under the influence of the Spirit of God, turned the arms of the adversary away from them and brought repentance into the minds of those who had come to destroy them.”
We know some of our missionaries have been protected because they were doing the right things.
Our branch in Collins Mississippi has a membership of about 150 with an attendance of about 45. We have 2 single senior sisters who are assigned to that branch and they are doing a great job of increasing activity and membership. They are living in an old home which is the childhood home of Gerald McRaney. He is an actor – was in Simon and Simon and he is married to Delta Burke. They live on Gerald McRaney Street and everyone knows where it is because there is a big historical plaque outside the home. They get lots of visitors and many chances to talk about the church
April 14th Catherine and Matt came to see us for a few days. They had a break between trials and so they traveled with us to Columbia Mississippi where we spoke on Sunday. They helped us with some computer problems and organization. We love having them whenever we can get them.
April 18-19th we had our Senior Conference here at the mission home. We had lots of food, fun games and 8 hours of training. We have 8 GREAT senior couples and 4 single senior sisters. All of them have had at least one baptism while they have been here
Sister Crystal Perry from our stake at home, has been here about 9 weeks. She is a great missionary!!! She came out ready to work, and she and her companion are doing well
The third weekend in April we had the unusual opportunity to travel outside of our mission (with permission) for a joint coordinating council meeting with the stake presidents in both Mississippi and all of Louisiana. We met in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the meeting and had the special chance to attend the temple there with our spouses. We had a good visit with Ole and Joyce Christensen, former members of the Oak Hills and Rock Creek Wards in the 80’s. He currently serves as a stake president near Baton Rouge. On the way to the meeting we took a few extra hours to walk through the French Quarter in New Orleans, and we drove through the still-abandoned, vast areas of flooding from Katrina nearly two years ago. We also visited some beautiful old antebellum plantations and mansions along the Mississippi River.
On April 24th we had 9 elders leave for home, but their flights were delayed. They were to leave at about 9:00 in the morning, but their flights didn’t leave until that evening. We were trying to keep them occupied as well as get the mission home ready for 9 new elders that came in the day. One of the elders leaving for home was Elder McFarland from the Medford area, and Mike Duncan is his bishop.
We traveled to Pascagoula MS on the 29th and then spoke in Church the next day. They have a beautiful chapel there which had been flooded with 5 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina. The people there are wonderful and friendly, and it was fun to get to know them at the Linger Longer they had for us. Bishop Taylor has had a lot of responsibility keeping his ward together since the Hurricane, he is great!
On May 7th Diana and Brett and Andrea and Cameron came for a week. We did all the visitor things. We had a great time at the coast where Andrea and Cameron loved the soft warm sand. It isn’t like the sand at the Oregon Coast that is usually wet. The sand here is like Hawaii. The beaches have been cleaned up and there are more and more people playing there. Some of the homes are being rebuilt and they are going to be beautiful! They spent Parker’s birthday and Mother’s Day with us.
Thanks for your help with the computer Brett and the cooking Diana and Andrea.
Mother’s Day was great. I love talking to all of you. Mom received many “Happy Mother’s Day” greetings from the missionaries and 4 of them even wrote her a poem.
At church that day in the branch, one of only 3 teenaged boys spoke. He had a great talk and then at the end he read a poem that he had written for his mom. We were so impressed because there aren’t many 16 year olds that would do that.
We are still eating different foods. We had alligator the other night, and Crawfish Etouffee is really good. People have Crawfish Boils here all the time, and it reminds us of the times we caught crawdads (or crawfish) at Honeyman and boiled them and ate them.
Red Beans and Rice are a big thing here so I thought I would send you a recipe:
RED BEANS AND RICE
1 pound red beans (Camellia)
½ stick butter
1 large onion
1 pound smoked sausage
3 stalks celery, chopped
½ pound ham chunks
6 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
2 cups rice
1 piece salt pork
Rinse beans; cover with water in large saucepan and soak for 30 minutes or longer. Add onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves, and salt meat. Bring to a medium simmer and cook for 2 hours, stirring often. When beans are getting soft, take out about one cup of beans (just beans, not water) and mash them. Add mashed beans back to the pot. Add butter and stir until melted. Cook another 2 hours. Add water, if necessary, during cooking time. Cut sausage and ham to desired size and add the beans; season to taste. Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Serve over rice.
It’s very good! The missionaries love it!!
The Magnolias are blooming….The big white blossoms pop out all over the tall old trees. It’s a beautiful time here…but we know the hot weather is just around the corner.
We found a cut cross stitch saying in a restaurant here that says it all:
"IT’S HARD TO BE HUMBLE
WHEN YOU’RE FROM
MISSISSIPPI"
That’s about all for now…Thanks again to all of you for your support.
Love to y’all,
Mom and Dad
Thanks for all the visits and phone calls from all of you. It really lifts our spirits. We love seeing the children and how they are growing. It is amazing all the things we have accomplished in the last couple of months. Thanks for all your help and the fun times!!!!!
March was beautiful here. Our Azalea hedges in our backyard were out in all their glorious pink.
We have a week out of every 6 or so that we are home and can catch-up with our lives. It is the only week we can spend some time with family here at the house. Jennifer and her children (Hayley, Andrew, Parker, Becca and Olivia) drove here from Denver at the end of March and we were able to go some places and see some great things. There is a park down the street from us that the children loved!! Every morning while Dad and I did our office work they spent playing on the equipment. They even did some missionary work!
The Natural Science Museum here is really interesting. They have an area with alligators and it was fun to see them in their tank and watch them when they are fed. They have a tank with a huge albino cat fish and then a section with a two-headed snake. We even saw some paddle fish – which I have never seen before.
They also had an exhibit of Walter Inglis Anderson’s work. He is Mississippi’s most outstanding artist. His sea-life watercolors are wonderful. He had a gallery on the coast when Katrina hit and most of it was destroyed.
We enjoyed some time at the town of Canton, made frozen fruit cups for the missionaries, visited the Mississippi Coast, had lunch at Hamils and played games. We spent a day at Vicksburg touring the Civil War Park and had a picnic dinner with Bishop Wallace and family of the Vicksburg Ward who was a missionary companion of our son-in-law John Walton.
Parker Walton bore his testimony in the Jackson Branch on Sunday morning and the new converts were so impressed. Jen’s children doubled the primary that day.
We enjoyed watching conference with them on the next Saturday and then they had to drive home on Sunday. It was wonderful having them here and showing them where we live and what we are doing. The children were GREAT!
Andrea called us on Conference Sunday to recite to us the 3rd Article of Faith. That’s pretty impressive for a 3 year old!!!
We were at the Jackson Branch for Fast and Testimony meeting. A young man named Eddie Hill, who came to church for the first time with the missionaries, got up to bear his testimony. He said that he had investigated other churches and when the missionaries stopped him on the street and talked to him he was impressed that this church practices what they preach - when people are members of the church they live and do the things they are taught. He said “Here these young men didn’t know me from a can of paint, yet they shared the truths with me.” He and his wife Jenny were baptized on the 14th of April.
Easter was a beautiful day. It was sunny and 65 degrees. We went to church at the Madison Ward. They had a men’s chorus sing and the speaker was a reactivated member who talked about forgiveness and how it has been an important part of his reactivation and life as a member.
March and April bring great color to Mississippi. Iris, Azaleas, Daffodils, beautiful pink and white Dogwood trees, and lots of colorful flowering fruit trees are all in bloom. With this beauty around us comes allergies for the missionaries.
The last zone conference I told the missionaries a story about some of the first missionaries in Mississippi. I thought I would pass it along to you.
It was told by George Albert Smith:
“When I was in the mission field first, I went into a section of country where the hymn, Do What Is Right” was apparently known to the community. Two humble missionaries, after walking until late in the afternoon in the sun, in the heat of the summer, came to a small house that was at the bottom of a hill. When the missionaries arrived, they found friends who invited them in to partake of their meager refreshment. And then they were asked to go outside in the cool of the afternoon shade, on one of those comfortable, open southern porches between two rooms and sing some hymns. The people were not members of the Church but they enjoyed Latter-day Saint hymns.
The missionaries had been threatened in that section. One of the men who had threatened them had kept watch of the road and in that way learned when they arrived. He sent word to his associates who saddled their horses and took their guns, and rode to the top of the hill overlooking the little house. The missionaries knew nothing about it; they did not know that right over their heads, not very far away, were a considerable number of armed horsemen. But they had the Spirit of the Lord, and as they sat there in the cool of the afternoon and sang hymns, the one hymn that seemed to be prepared for the occasion was, “Do What Is Right”. Their voices went out into the quiet air. They had sung one verse when the leader of the mob took off his hat. They sang another verse, and he got off his horse, and the others got off their horses. By the time the last verse had been sung, those men were repentant. Upon advice of their leader, they rode away without making their presence known. The leader was so impressed with what he heard the missionaries sing that he said to his associates: “We made a mistake. These are not the kind of men we thought they were. Wicked men can’t sing like angels and these men sing like angels. They must be servants of the Lord.”
The result was that this man became converted to the Church and later baptized.” President George Albert Smith said, “And I never hear that hymn sung but I think of that very unusual experience when two missionaries, under the influence of the Spirit of God, turned the arms of the adversary away from them and brought repentance into the minds of those who had come to destroy them.”
We know some of our missionaries have been protected because they were doing the right things.
Our branch in Collins Mississippi has a membership of about 150 with an attendance of about 45. We have 2 single senior sisters who are assigned to that branch and they are doing a great job of increasing activity and membership. They are living in an old home which is the childhood home of Gerald McRaney. He is an actor – was in Simon and Simon and he is married to Delta Burke. They live on Gerald McRaney Street and everyone knows where it is because there is a big historical plaque outside the home. They get lots of visitors and many chances to talk about the church
April 14th Catherine and Matt came to see us for a few days. They had a break between trials and so they traveled with us to Columbia Mississippi where we spoke on Sunday. They helped us with some computer problems and organization. We love having them whenever we can get them.
April 18-19th we had our Senior Conference here at the mission home. We had lots of food, fun games and 8 hours of training. We have 8 GREAT senior couples and 4 single senior sisters. All of them have had at least one baptism while they have been here
Sister Crystal Perry from our stake at home, has been here about 9 weeks. She is a great missionary!!! She came out ready to work, and she and her companion are doing well
The third weekend in April we had the unusual opportunity to travel outside of our mission (with permission) for a joint coordinating council meeting with the stake presidents in both Mississippi and all of Louisiana. We met in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the meeting and had the special chance to attend the temple there with our spouses. We had a good visit with Ole and Joyce Christensen, former members of the Oak Hills and Rock Creek Wards in the 80’s. He currently serves as a stake president near Baton Rouge. On the way to the meeting we took a few extra hours to walk through the French Quarter in New Orleans, and we drove through the still-abandoned, vast areas of flooding from Katrina nearly two years ago. We also visited some beautiful old antebellum plantations and mansions along the Mississippi River.
On April 24th we had 9 elders leave for home, but their flights were delayed. They were to leave at about 9:00 in the morning, but their flights didn’t leave until that evening. We were trying to keep them occupied as well as get the mission home ready for 9 new elders that came in the day. One of the elders leaving for home was Elder McFarland from the Medford area, and Mike Duncan is his bishop.
We traveled to Pascagoula MS on the 29th and then spoke in Church the next day. They have a beautiful chapel there which had been flooded with 5 feet of water during Hurricane Katrina. The people there are wonderful and friendly, and it was fun to get to know them at the Linger Longer they had for us. Bishop Taylor has had a lot of responsibility keeping his ward together since the Hurricane, he is great!
On May 7th Diana and Brett and Andrea and Cameron came for a week. We did all the visitor things. We had a great time at the coast where Andrea and Cameron loved the soft warm sand. It isn’t like the sand at the Oregon Coast that is usually wet. The sand here is like Hawaii. The beaches have been cleaned up and there are more and more people playing there. Some of the homes are being rebuilt and they are going to be beautiful! They spent Parker’s birthday and Mother’s Day with us.
Thanks for your help with the computer Brett and the cooking Diana and Andrea.
Mother’s Day was great. I love talking to all of you. Mom received many “Happy Mother’s Day” greetings from the missionaries and 4 of them even wrote her a poem.
At church that day in the branch, one of only 3 teenaged boys spoke. He had a great talk and then at the end he read a poem that he had written for his mom. We were so impressed because there aren’t many 16 year olds that would do that.
We are still eating different foods. We had alligator the other night, and Crawfish Etouffee is really good. People have Crawfish Boils here all the time, and it reminds us of the times we caught crawdads (or crawfish) at Honeyman and boiled them and ate them.
Red Beans and Rice are a big thing here so I thought I would send you a recipe:
RED BEANS AND RICE
1 pound red beans (Camellia)
½ stick butter
1 large onion
1 pound smoked sausage
3 stalks celery, chopped
½ pound ham chunks
6 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
2 cups rice
1 piece salt pork
Rinse beans; cover with water in large saucepan and soak for 30 minutes or longer. Add onion, celery, garlic, bay leaves, and salt meat. Bring to a medium simmer and cook for 2 hours, stirring often. When beans are getting soft, take out about one cup of beans (just beans, not water) and mash them. Add mashed beans back to the pot. Add butter and stir until melted. Cook another 2 hours. Add water, if necessary, during cooking time. Cut sausage and ham to desired size and add the beans; season to taste. Simmer for 30-40 minutes. Serve over rice.
It’s very good! The missionaries love it!!
The Magnolias are blooming….The big white blossoms pop out all over the tall old trees. It’s a beautiful time here…but we know the hot weather is just around the corner.
We found a cut cross stitch saying in a restaurant here that says it all:
"IT’S HARD TO BE HUMBLE
WHEN YOU’RE FROM
MISSISSIPPI"
That’s about all for now…Thanks again to all of you for your support.
Love to y’all,
Mom and Dad
Monday, March 12, 2007
Belzoni and the Newsoms Visit
Hi everyone,
January started out rather cool but I’m not complaining...I would rather have it cold than hot! We still have beautiful light and dark pink Camellias blooming in our backyard. The Tulip trees and all of our neighbor’s daffodils are in bloom. The big storms that hit Louisiana and other parts of Mississippi and Alabama were heading for Jackson and then split and went around us. We got only one big storm and a short time of wind. What a blessing!
Our year is starting out about as it ended. We speak at a different ward every Sunday except Fast Sunday and it is fun to meet all the interesting members in all parts of the mission.
At the end of January we had 7 elders depart the mission and 13 new elders and 2 new sisters arrive. We are so excited about the great strength and enthusiasm these new missionaries bring into the mission.
One of these new elders and his companion are up in Greenville Mississippi, North almost to the Arkansas border. We were up there at their branch to speak this last weekend. The new missionary had been in Greenville only a few days when he met Chrisa Dunbar in a Walmart parking lot. She was baptized three weeks later on the first Saturday in March. We met her while we were there speaking this last weekend. She is great, and elder Jones got his first baptism in his first month. The members in that branch are really trying to make their branch grow. It used to be a ward until they divided it and then people moved out and lots of inactives and now it is just a branch. There is a senior couple there but this is the first time in a long time they have had elders in the area.
The missionaries are teaching an old couple there in Greenville (she is 80 and he is 73). They will be baptized in three weeks, but they have to get married first. They have lived together for over 20 years. He doesn’t read. He is a very “dapper” little man who reminds me of my Dad because he always wears a hat and doesn’t want his picture taken without it.
We drove through the town of Belzoni Mississippi. It is known as the Catfish Capital of the world. There are ponds of catfish everywhere you look along the side of the road. The land is so flat, I’m sure they extend for miles. They have a catfish museum and on every sidewalk in front of every store is a large catfish statue dressed up like the establishment it is in front of. For example, there is an Elvis catfish statue with a guitar in front of the music store. There is a fireman catfish in front of the fire house, an Uncle Sam catfish in front of the post office etc.
Latishia,(the new convert we had the wedding for) gave her first talk in the Jackson Branch a couple of weeks ago. She has never been up in front of people to give a talk. She was to talk on the Gospel in her life. She got up and started to talk, she was so nervous that she walked out to go get a drink right after starting and left us all waiting for her. Sister Richardson, the senior missionary, went to get her and then stood by her while she finished he talk. Her husband, Craig bore his testimony last Sunday and he had it all written out to read to the congregation. We have no concept how hard and how new giving talks and being in front of others is for some people.
Karen and Terry Newson were here to visit us on February 10th. They brought us a “King Cake”. It is a multi-colored cake that is part of the Mardi Gras celebration out of New Orleans. The cakes come in a number of styles. The most simple, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche, topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green and gold (the traditional Carnival colors) with food coloring. Some varieties have filling inside. Ours had cream cheese, which is the most common.
The “King Cake” takes its name from the three kings. Catholic tradition states that the King’s journey to Bethlehem took twelve days (the Twelve Days of Christmas) and that they arrived to honor the Christ Child on Epiphany. The season for the king cake extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas through to Mardi Gras Day. Some organizations or groups of friends may have “King Cake Parties” every week through the Carnival season.
Since 1950’s the most common trinket in the cake has been a small plastic baby. Many people say this represents the baby Jesus. The person who gets the trinket is declared king or queen of the party. That person is decorated with jewelry and is usually obligated to supply the next king cake or host the next party or both. We didn’t have a baby trinket in our cake...or someone ate it and didn’t know it! Thanks Karen and Terry for the adventure, it was fun and the cake was pretty good! The office elders loved it!
On the way back from Hattiesburg to Jackson we passed “The Biker Church” in Saucier MS. It meets in a large warehouse-type building every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. On the billboard outside it says it is “For Bikers and Those Who Love Them”. I’m a little curious about their services. It must be on Tuesday so they can ride on Sunday.
We were talking to the missionaries and one of them asked me if I knew what a farsee was. He said when he got here he asked a man directions to a certain address. The man told them to go a farsee to the big tree and then turn left and go farsee to the post box. The Elder didn’t know what a farsee was until a member explained that it was – go as far as you can see.
The southern recipe for the month is:
BRUNSWICK STEW
Brown in bacon fat in a heavy kettle:
2 diced onions and serving portions of 1 fryer, 1 squirrel, and 1 rabbit
Add 3 cups water, 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce, and 1 can tomatoes
Simmer 2 hours.
Add 1 pound lima beans, 1 can corn, and ½ cup okra
Cook 1 hour. Add 2 Tbs. butter, ½ cup bread crumbs, and more water if needed.
Simmer 2 hours more YUM!
We had a very spiritual experience this last Saturday – March 10th. The Williams Family were baptized. Mom and Dad and Erica who is 9 years old. There are three other darling children 7, 4 and 3. The father is a big tall black man who had tears in his eyes when we sang “Families Can Be Together Forever” and the talk about the Holy Ghost and the influence of the Spirit is their lives. We are so excited about their progress already and their desire to learn and grow.
Just a few spiritual thoughts from the reader boards in front of a couple of churches in the area:
"Obedience is our job, the rest is up to God."
"Need a Faith Lift? Come and join us."
It is hard to find time to sit down for long periods and write this email. As you can see I started it in early January
We love y’all,
Mom and Dad
January started out rather cool but I’m not complaining...I would rather have it cold than hot! We still have beautiful light and dark pink Camellias blooming in our backyard. The Tulip trees and all of our neighbor’s daffodils are in bloom. The big storms that hit Louisiana and other parts of Mississippi and Alabama were heading for Jackson and then split and went around us. We got only one big storm and a short time of wind. What a blessing!
Our year is starting out about as it ended. We speak at a different ward every Sunday except Fast Sunday and it is fun to meet all the interesting members in all parts of the mission.
At the end of January we had 7 elders depart the mission and 13 new elders and 2 new sisters arrive. We are so excited about the great strength and enthusiasm these new missionaries bring into the mission.
One of these new elders and his companion are up in Greenville Mississippi, North almost to the Arkansas border. We were up there at their branch to speak this last weekend. The new missionary had been in Greenville only a few days when he met Chrisa Dunbar in a Walmart parking lot. She was baptized three weeks later on the first Saturday in March. We met her while we were there speaking this last weekend. She is great, and elder Jones got his first baptism in his first month. The members in that branch are really trying to make their branch grow. It used to be a ward until they divided it and then people moved out and lots of inactives and now it is just a branch. There is a senior couple there but this is the first time in a long time they have had elders in the area.
The missionaries are teaching an old couple there in Greenville (she is 80 and he is 73). They will be baptized in three weeks, but they have to get married first. They have lived together for over 20 years. He doesn’t read. He is a very “dapper” little man who reminds me of my Dad because he always wears a hat and doesn’t want his picture taken without it.
We drove through the town of Belzoni Mississippi. It is known as the Catfish Capital of the world. There are ponds of catfish everywhere you look along the side of the road. The land is so flat, I’m sure they extend for miles. They have a catfish museum and on every sidewalk in front of every store is a large catfish statue dressed up like the establishment it is in front of. For example, there is an Elvis catfish statue with a guitar in front of the music store. There is a fireman catfish in front of the fire house, an Uncle Sam catfish in front of the post office etc.
Latishia,(the new convert we had the wedding for) gave her first talk in the Jackson Branch a couple of weeks ago. She has never been up in front of people to give a talk. She was to talk on the Gospel in her life. She got up and started to talk, she was so nervous that she walked out to go get a drink right after starting and left us all waiting for her. Sister Richardson, the senior missionary, went to get her and then stood by her while she finished he talk. Her husband, Craig bore his testimony last Sunday and he had it all written out to read to the congregation. We have no concept how hard and how new giving talks and being in front of others is for some people.
Karen and Terry Newson were here to visit us on February 10th. They brought us a “King Cake”. It is a multi-colored cake that is part of the Mardi Gras celebration out of New Orleans. The cakes come in a number of styles. The most simple, said to be the most traditional, is a ring of twisted bread similar to that used in brioche, topped with icing or sugar, usually colored purple, green and gold (the traditional Carnival colors) with food coloring. Some varieties have filling inside. Ours had cream cheese, which is the most common.
The “King Cake” takes its name from the three kings. Catholic tradition states that the King’s journey to Bethlehem took twelve days (the Twelve Days of Christmas) and that they arrived to honor the Christ Child on Epiphany. The season for the king cake extends from the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas through to Mardi Gras Day. Some organizations or groups of friends may have “King Cake Parties” every week through the Carnival season.
Since 1950’s the most common trinket in the cake has been a small plastic baby. Many people say this represents the baby Jesus. The person who gets the trinket is declared king or queen of the party. That person is decorated with jewelry and is usually obligated to supply the next king cake or host the next party or both. We didn’t have a baby trinket in our cake...or someone ate it and didn’t know it! Thanks Karen and Terry for the adventure, it was fun and the cake was pretty good! The office elders loved it!
On the way back from Hattiesburg to Jackson we passed “The Biker Church” in Saucier MS. It meets in a large warehouse-type building every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. On the billboard outside it says it is “For Bikers and Those Who Love Them”. I’m a little curious about their services. It must be on Tuesday so they can ride on Sunday.
We were talking to the missionaries and one of them asked me if I knew what a farsee was. He said when he got here he asked a man directions to a certain address. The man told them to go a farsee to the big tree and then turn left and go farsee to the post box. The Elder didn’t know what a farsee was until a member explained that it was – go as far as you can see.
The southern recipe for the month is:
BRUNSWICK STEW
Brown in bacon fat in a heavy kettle:
2 diced onions and serving portions of 1 fryer, 1 squirrel, and 1 rabbit
Add 3 cups water, 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce, and 1 can tomatoes
Simmer 2 hours.
Add 1 pound lima beans, 1 can corn, and ½ cup okra
Cook 1 hour. Add 2 Tbs. butter, ½ cup bread crumbs, and more water if needed.
Simmer 2 hours more YUM!
We had a very spiritual experience this last Saturday – March 10th. The Williams Family were baptized. Mom and Dad and Erica who is 9 years old. There are three other darling children 7, 4 and 3. The father is a big tall black man who had tears in his eyes when we sang “Families Can Be Together Forever” and the talk about the Holy Ghost and the influence of the Spirit is their lives. We are so excited about their progress already and their desire to learn and grow.
Just a few spiritual thoughts from the reader boards in front of a couple of churches in the area:
"Obedience is our job, the rest is up to God."
"Need a Faith Lift? Come and join us."
It is hard to find time to sit down for long periods and write this email. As you can see I started it in early January
We love y’all,
Mom and Dad
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Christmas and the Mississippi Delta
Hi Y'all
What a wild month we have had. We have talked with all of you but I thought I would list some of the things so I wouldn’t forget anything:-)
Many of the members of the Church here in Mississippi and Louisiana did special things for the missionaries this Christmas. Some of the members of the Madison Ward invited 10 of the local missionaries to a surprise Christmas party the Saturday before Christmas. They had contacted the missionaries’ parents for baby pictures for an identification game and got the recipe for their favorite dessert which they made and presented to them after a ham and turkey dinner. There were gifts under the tree for each elder and home-made stockings filled with goodies.
After church on Sunday the 24th, we visited four of our neighbors and took them our usual homemade granola and wished them a Merry Christmas. They looked at us very strangely as if the neighbors had never done that before. The Smiths (the Baptist minister) invited us in and even said that they should have come to see us first. It wasn’t like the fun time we have doing it in Oregon. After our visits, we drove to Hattiesburg to stay the night in a motel on Christmas Eve. The next day we drove down to Gulfport for a ZDM meeting with the missionaries. At this meeting, a new District Leader Training session was held an hour before ZDM Meeting for the District Leaders and their companions taught by the Zone Leaders. This will be a planned meeting each ZDM Meeting to help train the district leaders and their companions in the responsibilities of their assignment.
At the beginning of the meeting in Gulfport and Hattiesburg the missionaries played carols on our chimes and had a gift exchange. After the usual training by the Zone Leaders, Mom served lunch and Sister Paskins had made crochet stockings for each of the missionaries filled with candy. She and her husband made all the desserts that were served.
It was an unforgettable Christmas and it was actually great! Being with the missionaries made it easier to be away from all of you.
Sunday December 31st 2006. New Year’s Eve in Mississippi. Mom and Dad spoke in Madison Ward on Making Choices and Keeping Commitments. Thus brings us to the end of the Fuhrimans’ first six months in the Mississippi Jackson Mission. The missionaries love and trust Dad, and they know he loves, respects and cares about them personally.
We have found the missionaries to be dedicated to the Lord and very easy to love, and we feel they are getting stronger and doing better. This is a great time to focus and rededicate our efforts in furthering the Lord’s work here in the South. Plans to motivate the missionaries and strengthen the wards and branches are in the process of being implemented. The missionaries here in Mississippi are truly the ELECT and we love them!!!!
New Years Day found Dad and I pretty tired and ready for some down time. We took down the tree and put away Christmas. I’m afraid I filled up most of the storage space upstairs because I did purchase some decorations.
The year started out great with the baptism of Latishia and Craig. She sent in for a Book of Mormon from off the T.V. The elders took the book to them and then started to teach them. Eventually the office couple (the Richardsons) took over the teaching in the evening. Latishia and Craig don’t have a car and the Richardsons could help them get to church.
Your dad and I went to teach them one evening. They live in a tiny motel room with a hot plate to cook on and a small apartment refrigerator. She works all night at the desk of the motel to pay for their room, and he is looking for a job. We were so impressed with their desire to learn the Gospel and become better. She “loves her book” (the Book of Mormon) and she has used it so much it is tattered. They have a child that is being taken-care of by her mother while they try to save money to get on their feet.
This is the couple that the Richardsons taught about fasting and committed them to fast on Fast Sunday. They started their fast after the Saturday lunch meal and then when the Richardsons went the next night to teach them they found out that they were still fasting. They said they were waiting to know when it was okay to eat because it was important to them to do it right so the Lord could bless them. Isn’t that great? What FAITH they showed. They fasted over 30 hours!
We had a little wedding for them on Jan 5th at the Branch Building, with a flower girl, some food and pictures by Sister Fuhriman. The next evening they were baptized. They are loveable and teachable and the Lord is surely smiling.
I have to send in a record of the mission history for the last 6 months we have been here to the Church Archives. A poem I saw on a bench at the Atlanta Aquarium comes to mind:
History is written by those who make the wake,
Not by those who ride on it,
Not by those who watch from the shore.
It is surely true as I write about the things that have happened here in the mission the last 6 months. We are surely not sitting watching things go by...Sometimes I wish we were.
The senior sisters were telling us about a 13 year-old boy they were teaching. One of his non-member parents didn’t want him to join the Church. He told them that he was the same age as Joseph Smith and that he had prayed like Joseph Smith had prayed, and he knew he was supposed to join the church. His parents are thinking about it.
Every time we go to the Madison Ward here in Jackson I love to see what Sister Aker is wearing. She reminds me of my mom, Grandmother Day. She has a beautiful hat to match every suit she wears. She wears all colors, purple, yellow, green and even red with touches of black. Her husband has a tie the same color and it often matches exactly. Your dad was complimenting them on the fact that they match, and she said that “they always plan it that way”.
The weekend of the 12 and 13th we were at Stake Conference in Hattiesburg and then for Zone Conference that week. Both your dad and I had to speak Saturday night session of Conference and then the Stake President took us out to dinner at Letha’s. It is a restaurant started by a black woman named Letha. She was there – she is over 90. All of the waitresses take your orders by memorization. They learned to remember orders because originally they didn’t know how to read and write. That is not the case now but they have just carried on that tradition. There are very few choices but the assortments are wonderful. Barbeque ribs, chicken and pulled pork are the main menu as well as catfish, hush puppies and they even have a very good green salad.
There are lots of pictures on the wall of famous people that have eaten there and they have a signed Brett Farve jersey. .(Around here he is idolized because he went to Old Miss (I think).
When we were speaking at the Stake Conference in Hattiesburg, the person that spoke before us told the following story. She said that when John Wesley went to Oxford, He was having a hard time being part of the world there. He couldn’t handle all of the drinking and partying. He wrote a letter home to his mother telling her he was not sure what was right or wrong and she wrote him back saying,
“When you judge the lawfulness of pleasure, take this rule:
Whatever weakens your reason,
Whatever increases the authority of your body over mind.
Whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience
Whatever takes away your relish for things spiritual
Whatever obscures your sense of God
That is sin to you….No matter how innocent it may be!”
This is great counsel to follow – especially to teach the children.
We are having two investigators and the missionaries that are teaching them over for dinner and a lesson tonight. It is always a special treat to have those investigating the Church come to the mission home. We enjoy learning about their lives.
Saturday the 27th, we are hosting the Jackson Branch Presidency here for dinner. They are great men but it is hard being in charge of a small struggling branch with so many inactives.
We will be speaking in the Hazlehurst Branch on Sunday. It is located an hour south of here. Dad was there when they dedicated their building but I wasn’t able to go so this is the first time for me to visit there.
Tuesday starts Zone Leader’s Council and Departures and Arrivals. We have 15 new missionaries coming and two of them are sisters. With this transfer, 60% of our missionaries will have been in the mission for less that a year….that makes us a very young mission.
We were up in Greenwood speaking last weekend. It is about 2 hours north of Jackson. We drove up early Saturday afternoon and went to the cotton museum they have there called Cottonlandia. They have an exhibit that shows the time-line of the county and the military History and the impact of all the wars on the area beginning with the Civil War. Greenwood is located on the Yazoo River and an area of the town is totally surrounded by rivers. They have used dikes to keep the Mississippi River from flooding the area.
This area of Mississippi is called the Delta. It is mostly agriculture but lately they have started to raise catfish on large “farms” and then processors ship the fish all over the world. They have displays of huge cotton bales and lots of old machines – They have the oldest sewing machine I have ever seen.
The name of the town comes from Greenwood Laflore. Leflore was a political leader of the Choctaw Indians in the mid- 1800s and he was also a Mississippi State Senator. We got some “Dixie Dishes” recipes and we purchased a “boll of cotton” and some seed so we can grow our own cotton.
DELTA DISH RECIPE FOR THE MONTH:
FRIED CATFISH
The fish are cleaned, salted, and rolled in cornmeal. Fry them in deep fat in an iron skillet until golden brown. As one piece browns, remove and put another in. This maintains an even temperature of the fat.
Serve with “Hush Puppies”. This fare tastes best when cooked and eaten beside the stream where the catfish were caught.
Did you know cotton is the only plant that produces both food and fiber?
There are really interesting names down here, such as: Ctula (pronounced Tula), Toom Sooba, Itta Bena and Boobaluna, Mississippi and Smackover, Arkansas. They even have a 300 page book dedicated to the origins of the names of the towns in Mississippi.
There are a lot of different churches here – AME Church stands for African Methodist Episcopal – there a lot of them in small towns or out in the country.
We have a new sister coming into the mission. Her name is Crystal Perry. Her father grew up in Oak Hills Ward. Remember going and visiting the Perrys at Christmas? It is their oldest son’s daughter. She doesn’t remember us because they moved right after her dad died and then her mom remarried Chuck Hanchett. What a small world!
On a billboard in the town of Clinton (where the Stake center is) there was the following saying:
Be THANKFUL for the past,
Have COURAGE for the present,
And FAITH for the future
We love all of you and hope you are all happy. We remember you all the time in our prayers. We know you all have challenges in your lives and we can remember when we were in you places…..We all need to remember the above adage.
Love, Y”All,
Mom and Dad
What a wild month we have had. We have talked with all of you but I thought I would list some of the things so I wouldn’t forget anything:-)
Many of the members of the Church here in Mississippi and Louisiana did special things for the missionaries this Christmas. Some of the members of the Madison Ward invited 10 of the local missionaries to a surprise Christmas party the Saturday before Christmas. They had contacted the missionaries’ parents for baby pictures for an identification game and got the recipe for their favorite dessert which they made and presented to them after a ham and turkey dinner. There were gifts under the tree for each elder and home-made stockings filled with goodies.
After church on Sunday the 24th, we visited four of our neighbors and took them our usual homemade granola and wished them a Merry Christmas. They looked at us very strangely as if the neighbors had never done that before. The Smiths (the Baptist minister) invited us in and even said that they should have come to see us first. It wasn’t like the fun time we have doing it in Oregon. After our visits, we drove to Hattiesburg to stay the night in a motel on Christmas Eve. The next day we drove down to Gulfport for a ZDM meeting with the missionaries. At this meeting, a new District Leader Training session was held an hour before ZDM Meeting for the District Leaders and their companions taught by the Zone Leaders. This will be a planned meeting each ZDM Meeting to help train the district leaders and their companions in the responsibilities of their assignment.
At the beginning of the meeting in Gulfport and Hattiesburg the missionaries played carols on our chimes and had a gift exchange. After the usual training by the Zone Leaders, Mom served lunch and Sister Paskins had made crochet stockings for each of the missionaries filled with candy. She and her husband made all the desserts that were served.
It was an unforgettable Christmas and it was actually great! Being with the missionaries made it easier to be away from all of you.
Sunday December 31st 2006. New Year’s Eve in Mississippi. Mom and Dad spoke in Madison Ward on Making Choices and Keeping Commitments. Thus brings us to the end of the Fuhrimans’ first six months in the Mississippi Jackson Mission. The missionaries love and trust Dad, and they know he loves, respects and cares about them personally.
We have found the missionaries to be dedicated to the Lord and very easy to love, and we feel they are getting stronger and doing better. This is a great time to focus and rededicate our efforts in furthering the Lord’s work here in the South. Plans to motivate the missionaries and strengthen the wards and branches are in the process of being implemented. The missionaries here in Mississippi are truly the ELECT and we love them!!!!
New Years Day found Dad and I pretty tired and ready for some down time. We took down the tree and put away Christmas. I’m afraid I filled up most of the storage space upstairs because I did purchase some decorations.
The year started out great with the baptism of Latishia and Craig. She sent in for a Book of Mormon from off the T.V. The elders took the book to them and then started to teach them. Eventually the office couple (the Richardsons) took over the teaching in the evening. Latishia and Craig don’t have a car and the Richardsons could help them get to church.
Your dad and I went to teach them one evening. They live in a tiny motel room with a hot plate to cook on and a small apartment refrigerator. She works all night at the desk of the motel to pay for their room, and he is looking for a job. We were so impressed with their desire to learn the Gospel and become better. She “loves her book” (the Book of Mormon) and she has used it so much it is tattered. They have a child that is being taken-care of by her mother while they try to save money to get on their feet.
This is the couple that the Richardsons taught about fasting and committed them to fast on Fast Sunday. They started their fast after the Saturday lunch meal and then when the Richardsons went the next night to teach them they found out that they were still fasting. They said they were waiting to know when it was okay to eat because it was important to them to do it right so the Lord could bless them. Isn’t that great? What FAITH they showed. They fasted over 30 hours!
We had a little wedding for them on Jan 5th at the Branch Building, with a flower girl, some food and pictures by Sister Fuhriman. The next evening they were baptized. They are loveable and teachable and the Lord is surely smiling.
I have to send in a record of the mission history for the last 6 months we have been here to the Church Archives. A poem I saw on a bench at the Atlanta Aquarium comes to mind:
History is written by those who make the wake,
Not by those who ride on it,
Not by those who watch from the shore.
It is surely true as I write about the things that have happened here in the mission the last 6 months. We are surely not sitting watching things go by...Sometimes I wish we were.
The senior sisters were telling us about a 13 year-old boy they were teaching. One of his non-member parents didn’t want him to join the Church. He told them that he was the same age as Joseph Smith and that he had prayed like Joseph Smith had prayed, and he knew he was supposed to join the church. His parents are thinking about it.
Every time we go to the Madison Ward here in Jackson I love to see what Sister Aker is wearing. She reminds me of my mom, Grandmother Day. She has a beautiful hat to match every suit she wears. She wears all colors, purple, yellow, green and even red with touches of black. Her husband has a tie the same color and it often matches exactly. Your dad was complimenting them on the fact that they match, and she said that “they always plan it that way”.
The weekend of the 12 and 13th we were at Stake Conference in Hattiesburg and then for Zone Conference that week. Both your dad and I had to speak Saturday night session of Conference and then the Stake President took us out to dinner at Letha’s. It is a restaurant started by a black woman named Letha. She was there – she is over 90. All of the waitresses take your orders by memorization. They learned to remember orders because originally they didn’t know how to read and write. That is not the case now but they have just carried on that tradition. There are very few choices but the assortments are wonderful. Barbeque ribs, chicken and pulled pork are the main menu as well as catfish, hush puppies and they even have a very good green salad.
There are lots of pictures on the wall of famous people that have eaten there and they have a signed Brett Farve jersey. .(Around here he is idolized because he went to Old Miss (I think).
When we were speaking at the Stake Conference in Hattiesburg, the person that spoke before us told the following story. She said that when John Wesley went to Oxford, He was having a hard time being part of the world there. He couldn’t handle all of the drinking and partying. He wrote a letter home to his mother telling her he was not sure what was right or wrong and she wrote him back saying,
“When you judge the lawfulness of pleasure, take this rule:
Whatever weakens your reason,
Whatever increases the authority of your body over mind.
Whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience
Whatever takes away your relish for things spiritual
Whatever obscures your sense of God
That is sin to you….No matter how innocent it may be!”
This is great counsel to follow – especially to teach the children.
We are having two investigators and the missionaries that are teaching them over for dinner and a lesson tonight. It is always a special treat to have those investigating the Church come to the mission home. We enjoy learning about their lives.
Saturday the 27th, we are hosting the Jackson Branch Presidency here for dinner. They are great men but it is hard being in charge of a small struggling branch with so many inactives.
We will be speaking in the Hazlehurst Branch on Sunday. It is located an hour south of here. Dad was there when they dedicated their building but I wasn’t able to go so this is the first time for me to visit there.
Tuesday starts Zone Leader’s Council and Departures and Arrivals. We have 15 new missionaries coming and two of them are sisters. With this transfer, 60% of our missionaries will have been in the mission for less that a year….that makes us a very young mission.
We were up in Greenwood speaking last weekend. It is about 2 hours north of Jackson. We drove up early Saturday afternoon and went to the cotton museum they have there called Cottonlandia. They have an exhibit that shows the time-line of the county and the military History and the impact of all the wars on the area beginning with the Civil War. Greenwood is located on the Yazoo River and an area of the town is totally surrounded by rivers. They have used dikes to keep the Mississippi River from flooding the area.
This area of Mississippi is called the Delta. It is mostly agriculture but lately they have started to raise catfish on large “farms” and then processors ship the fish all over the world. They have displays of huge cotton bales and lots of old machines – They have the oldest sewing machine I have ever seen.
The name of the town comes from Greenwood Laflore. Leflore was a political leader of the Choctaw Indians in the mid- 1800s and he was also a Mississippi State Senator. We got some “Dixie Dishes” recipes and we purchased a “boll of cotton” and some seed so we can grow our own cotton.
DELTA DISH RECIPE FOR THE MONTH:
FRIED CATFISH
The fish are cleaned, salted, and rolled in cornmeal. Fry them in deep fat in an iron skillet until golden brown. As one piece browns, remove and put another in. This maintains an even temperature of the fat.
Serve with “Hush Puppies”. This fare tastes best when cooked and eaten beside the stream where the catfish were caught.
Did you know cotton is the only plant that produces both food and fiber?
There are really interesting names down here, such as: Ctula (pronounced Tula), Toom Sooba, Itta Bena and Boobaluna, Mississippi and Smackover, Arkansas. They even have a 300 page book dedicated to the origins of the names of the towns in Mississippi.
There are a lot of different churches here – AME Church stands for African Methodist Episcopal – there a lot of them in small towns or out in the country.
We have a new sister coming into the mission. Her name is Crystal Perry. Her father grew up in Oak Hills Ward. Remember going and visiting the Perrys at Christmas? It is their oldest son’s daughter. She doesn’t remember us because they moved right after her dad died and then her mom remarried Chuck Hanchett. What a small world!
On a billboard in the town of Clinton (where the Stake center is) there was the following saying:
Be THANKFUL for the past,
Have COURAGE for the present,
And FAITH for the future
We love all of you and hope you are all happy. We remember you all the time in our prayers. We know you all have challenges in your lives and we can remember when we were in you places…..We all need to remember the above adage.
Love, Y”All,
Mom and Dad
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