Thanksgiving day wasn't too exciting for us out here. We
started off the morning biking to a pulga that's pretty close and tried
to talk to a few people there. We had a pretty nice conversation with
someone, but she kept on trying to sell me a phone case. She was near
the booth, and I didn't know it was her booth until I'd started talking
to her. Oops. After a while of talking to people there (and this place
was PACKED), we went to our Thanksgiving lunch. They had a super good
ham that they had cooked, and I found out their secret later: they had
cooked it in ginger ale. Apparently this is a common thing in the south.
You either cook your ham in ginger ale or Pepsi. It sounds gross or
weird, but it was super delicious. And super tender. Oh, now I'm hungry
again... We stayed and visited with them for a little while, and one of
their guests was a little interesting... He was from the Cary area, and
he knows Brother Watkins! Mom, I have yet to serve there, but I've at
least now been able to make indirect contact with them! He said he'd
pass on that I'd said hi. And if they ask you if it's from me because
the person can't remember my name, say yes. Of course, we did our
missionary duty and tried to eat everything that they had. Now, this was
only the first big meal of the day. We had a dinner that we'd been
invited to as well. So, we went to them at five. Thankfully, the turkey
took way longer than expected, and so our stomachs had some more time to
prepare for round two. Of course, we ended up stuffing ourselves silly
again and having a good time. Both families have been appropriately
thanked, with much gratitude on our part.
One of the best
days of the week was when we got to sit down with Oscar and talk with
him again. He's really humble and nice, and always invites us right in.
We taught him about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy and
going to church. He's talked to missionaries before, and gone to the
church a few times in the past. He said he wasn't a very religious
person, but the church that he does like is ours. Then his wife spoke up
and told him that if he liked a church, he should go to it! It was
awesome.
Of course, the real highlight of this week was a day
that we spent knocking doors in a town called Burgaw. It was this
neighborhood of maybe 125 houses that was the real interest there. While
there, we got to talk to many people who "weren't interested," one
person who said they'd go to church without knowing who we were or
anything (and then didn't), another person who accused us of being a
cult, and then an old couple with a ton of random stuff. From the top!
Well, the people who weren't interested aren't exciting at all. Let's skip to random church guy.
So
we knocked his door, and he answered pretty quickly. After, of course,
we heard some girl yell to someone, "It's two white guys!" and a voice
respond, "No way, really?" We started talking with him for about 15
seconds before he asked where our church was. We told him and were
writing down the address as he had a conversation in the background with
his mom (?) where he asked her if she'd take him to church the next
day. She seemed rather taken aback by this, but agreed. So he said that
he'd go. He didn't, but it was an interesting contact anyways.
Now
there's cult lady. As she opened the door, the words were already
coming out. "I'm not interested in what you're selling." The door was
already shutting, and my companion quickly interjected that we weren't
selling anything. Innocent enough, we get confused for salespeople
fairly frequently. Clearly we were wrong, and she made sure to tell us.
Yanking open the door again, with fire beginning to rise in her eyes,
she set us straight. Yes, we were trying to sell her our cult. Oh darn,
how do they always see right through us? Desperate to form a rebuttal
after having been thrust into the light so abruptly, we regrouped and
countered with the bold declaration that we were not a cult. But this
kind of impertinence could not stand! Oh, no, not with her!
Straightening up, she announced her status as a good Christian woman,
denounced us as a cult once more, and slammed the door in a righteous
fury! Her eyes had been absolutely blazing! How dare we claim to
Christians? Well and truly stymied by this, we counseled together
briefly and decided on our next course of action, which seemed obvious
at the time: burn down her house. After a few moments of searching, our
efforts were fruitless in procuring sufficiently flammable materials to
accomplish our plan, and so we moved on.
And the disclaimer:
Some of this was slightly exaggerated for comic effect, and we had no
intentions of causing her or her house any harm. I just thought that it
sounded like a great way to end the story, rather than the much more
realistic (and boring) walking down the steps to the next house. But
that's pretty much all of the exciting stuff for the week, see you next
time!
Just wanted to let you know mom, I only knock doors in the safest places
in my areas! When there were sisters in Wallace, they totally weren't
banned from knocking here!
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