Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Feb. 1, 2016 in Catawba, South Carolina A week of many funerals.

Hello!

So this was a very interesting week. We were able to see some good blessings this week and found a couple people who seem pretty interested! We decided to go and tract a couple streets that I hadn't been on before and on one of them we had like 0 success, besides a conversation with a elderly fella who talked about how birds are racist because they segregate between the different species. 


Then as we were walking along a big main road knocking a couple doors along there. We knocked on this one house and right after knocking we looked up and there was this wild looking devil head above the door with 666 on its forehead. We looked around the yard and there were a bunch of other demon-angel things, and the house was all black and stuff. It was super creepy! Fortunately no one opened the door.

The very next house was a family who had tons of scriptures and things all over their porch and the father came out of the house, told us his whole experience of being saved, and then tried to save us, despite our assurances that we had already accepted Jesus as our personal lord and savior. So he talked with us for about 20 minutes and then we were late to dinner.

The next day though, just one road down from all those interesting experiences, we found like the best road. Everyone was just homies with us, and 2 different families said we could come back this next week! Even the people who weren't interested were super chill, and would offer us water or refer us to everyone else on the street. So that was a plus.

I guess the other main focus of the week was funerals. The members say that in this area, people always pass away in waves. Well, the next wave just happened, and we have had 3 funerals in the past 4 days (and possibly 2 more coming up).

The first was for the Assistant Chief in the Catawba Tribe, and while he wasn't a member, they did the funeral at the church because he was buried in the graveyard behind it. The current chief offered the prayer and in the prayer he said something like "We come before thee with much sorrow and rejoicing, which we know is a contradiction, but it is because of the sorrow of loosing W. and the rejoicing that we were able to know him." After he spoke, they played a Blake Shelton song called God Gave Me You over a CD player. Then a member in the Rock Hill Ward talked about Jesus and the Plan of Salvation which brought the spirit. A lady sang Amazing Grace for the closing song then everyone headed outside and they had some Indian drumming as well as a 21 gun salute for him.

The second funeral came the next day and was much more spiritual. I think they had her cremated because there was no burial. Brother B. sang Amazing Grace at this one and it was nice.

The third was today, and it was for Brother B. He was the only one of the 3 that I knew, he had been super healthy just a month ago and gave us tons of rides to Charlotte and all over. His service was probably my favorite. There were lots of good stories shared, as well as strong testimonies born of the Plan of Salvation. Once again, a lady sang Amazing Grace. 

At the funerals, we had several people come up and tell us to come by, and lots of other people were in the church feeling the spirit, so we are hopeful some good will come.

We are seeing blessings as we continue to work forward through trials.

Thanks for your prayers, love y'all!

Love, Elder Branch



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