This has been a very interesting week, or week and a half. We have spent several days planning the next zone conference, sending an invitation letter out to the single sisters and couples for a conference we are having here at the house in a couple of weeks, and designing some baptismal invitations for the missionaries to have. It has been really hot and quite humid and we have been grateful to be inside most of the time. Our electricity has gone off twice now and when the air-conditioning goes off for more that two hours, our house gets hot….
Saturday afternoon, we traveled down to Meridian Mississippi, about 2 hours northeast of Jackson. We were invited to come down to dinner with the missionaries at Bro. and Sis. Pete’s home. They invited us to stay overnight and speak at the Meridian Ward on Sunday. It started to rain about an hour out of Jackson and boy did it rain hard!!!! When we left Jackson it was 97 degrees. When we arrived in Meridian after the rain the temperature was 74 degrees. The people here love the rain because they haven’t had any for a while. We get lots of thunder and lightening when it rains.
The drive down was beautiful! Meridian is a timber town, and there are stacks of pine logs piled up at mills along the way. We got lost going to the Pete’s home, and we wandered out in the country for a while. The homes we found were huge, beautiful mostly brick homes on at least 5 or 10 acres each. Many of them had white fences around their green lawns with horse stables and their own ponds. I almost didn’t want to leave.
Bro. Pete is a very interesting person. He is from Louisiana and a true Cajun. He is retired military, fire chief and fisherman. He owned a home on land down on the Louisiana coast that was totally destroyed by Katrina. He owns a fishing boat but was able to get it up the river before the hurricane and was able to save it. He gave us some “red fish” to bring home and cook – He even typed out the recipe so we would know how to cook it correctly. He was a strong Catholic before joining the church, but while in the military a couple shared the Gospel with him. He is very active and helps the Elders a lot….the couple that shared the Gospel with him are totally inactive and so are all of their children but one son.
His wife, Carol, was a Southern Baptist. She was an alcoholic, smoked and said she would never be a Mormon. Now she is a great member, plays the piano every Sunday, teaches R.S. lessons,(which she also said she wouldn’t do) and works in the Temple every other week (2 hour car trip each way).
They are a great couple who taught us to play Skip Bo. What a fun night we had with them.
The next morning we left for Church at 8:00. We had to get there early so Sis. Pete could practice with the missionaries, who were singing during Sacrament Meeting. We met many of the ward members. Sis. Carrie Webster was one of them. She said she was the second black person to join the church in the area. She said none of her family is interested in the Church, but she is a very faithful member. I met two sisters that are the ward quilters, and they invited me to their quilt group – I reminded them I wasn’t here to quilt, but it was thoughtful of them to include me.
The speaker who spoke before us, was a young Muslim man, named Mohammad. He is in the Navy, stationed at the Navy Base there in Meridian. He is from Morocco. He came here to the USA - 7 years ago to work at Disney World. A girl with whom he worked invited him to church and then asked if the elders could come to visit him. He said he expected two seniors to come to his home; instead, there were two young missionaries at his door. He only saw the missionaries once. He wouldn’t meet with them again because he was a Muslim and they were Christian. He went to California and several places after that and then in Chicago, he met a group of LDS youth and joined the church. He went to BYU and married an LDS girl – she is a Kimball.
He said after he joined the church he was scared to tell his parents. He said he prayed and fasted, and when he told them they said, ” We have raised you Muslim but we have also raised you to trust in your choices.” His mother didn’t talk for a long time and then said,” If that is what you want”. After he took his wife and baby back to Morocco for a visit, all of his cousins want to marry “Mormon Girls”.
He talked about the good impressions we can all make on others, and that we need to invite others to church and open our mouths. He hopes someday our churches will be filled with Muslims in Iraq, Iran and all over the Middle East where our brave men and women are fighting, that we will look down in the audiences and see lots of Mohammads and others with Arabic names. He bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the goodness it can bring into our lives.
It was one of the most inspiring testimonies I have heard. I didn’t want him to stop. It wasn’t easy giving my talk after him. I just love to give talks anyway, you know
After the meetings, they had a “Linger Longer” just because we were there, so they could get to know us. It was great!!! They had tables set up in their small cultural hall and the food was wonderful. Everyone stayed to eat. Sis. Pete brought a turkey and there was fried chicken and stir-fry beef and broccoli. I really liked the purple hulled peas (I think that is what they are). Everyone serves sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. They bake them and then cut them in half. Dad was more adventuring with his food selection and the desserts were great – lots of pies ( berry, sweet potato and cream) chocolate cookies and brownies and great cakes. We all sat around and visited and ate – The people there are as the elders say, “AWESOME”.
Today (Monday the 24th), Sister Peggy Reed arrived. She is the first missionary to come out since we inherited the mission. She is a widow from Spokane. She has already served another mission to Australia and is ready to do missionary work again. She is the mother of 10 children and she has over 50 grandchildren. One of her daughters has 12 children. She is very inspiring to talk to and will be a great addition to our other sisters.
We love you all. Your pictures are all over the kitchen and family room area. Everyone tells us how great you all look….cute grandchildren etc. David sent us all the things off the refrigerator, and so we have them up on ours here. Our big family picture fits perfectly over the mantle in the family room…We get to look at you every time we walk through to the bedroom.
We have been taking more pictures and hope to get them up on the computer so you can see them….We are trying to get electronically advanced
Love to you all!
