Fresh Salad and a BB Gun

 As I am sure you are well aware, there has been a lot of flu going around. This means we had some of the meetings we scheduled cancel outright (probably an excuse) while others moved to a future time. Ahh…such is missionary work. We did meet with two of the members with whom we have been working and committed the one who hasn’t yet come to church to attend. He replied, “you never know now that football season is about over”.

 It turned out that our major contribution this past week was assisting in holding a funeral for a 27-year-old member who decided to end his life. We had never met this individual although his mother and sister did attend church a couple of times after the branch moved them to a new apartment. It was reported to us by one of the long time members that this man, as a boy, was always getting his friends to come to church and testifying to them that he knew his church was the true one. Sad. The services were held in a local mortuary. Sister Johnson played two hymns while the chorister sang solos in front of the 100+ funeral attendees. Yes, they all had the words, it was just that nobody sang and we mean nobody. What an odd experience. It was the kind of crowd that probably doesn’t attend church. The Relief Society, with help from the family and members, prepared food for 150 people for an after the funeral lunch. We had around 80 come. Would you like some fresh salad…we have plenty.

 This afternoon we had an unusual request from the Mission President. It seems that previously one or two (since that is how they do it) of our local missionaries acquired a BB gun...no, I don't know if it was a Red Ryder and no, no one's eye was shot out (although Elder Young has lost his sight in one eye, he said it was from a hunting accident...hmmmm). The current missionaries found the gun hidden in the apartment and turned it in at their last interview. Subsequently they discovered a few dents in the ceiling tiles and on the white board missionaries use to keep track of their weekly activities. President Jones wanted us to visually inspect the "damage" and report back to him with suggestions. It is the church's policy to leave things better than they were when they were rented or leased. We found the damage to be easily repaired or in a couple of instances replaced with new tiles. We thought it unnecessary to inform the landlord of the mishap. A course of action will be decided upon and the situation rectified. If President and Sister Jones can just hang on five and one half more months they won't have "this kind" of silliness to deal with any more.

The white board being held as evidence. Notice the BB dents along the frame.

Inspector Trainee Elder and Inspector General Sister Johnson