Sunday, May 4, 2014

Bringin' it in Brevard!

 Like her brother's blog, Mom is not keeping up very well - but here we go with some stories and pictures from the past few months.

A little background on Brevard, N.C. It is one of the top 10 retirement communities in the country (according to Kristen) so there are very few children and LOTS of retirement homes and assisted living centers, so a lot of her time is spent with older people.

Sadly, the racism of the south is far from gone - she told me briefly about a recent African-American convert who, after his baptism, was receiving phone calls and messages almost daily telling him he was not welcome in the church and that he should leave, along with various names and slurs. She said this good Brother, while hurt was holding up well and still attending church. Kristen, true to form, would like to "flick people in the nose" for being so cruel because this is not what being Christian is about.

S. Steiner and S. Paxton - gettin' their duck face on!
 "J - so she lives in the brain center which is a rehab/alzhiemers place. K, who is a member, lives there and referred us so we went to see J. luckily she is all there mentally and is in there for rehab.
 Funny story. We started teaching restoration, which she loves by the way, and we get to Joseph Smith and she tells us some Jehovah's Witnesses taught her about him 20 years ago. We both looked at each other in panic but then she started talking about how they helped her quit smoking and started describing the program. It was our quit smoking program. ONLY set apart, full time missionaries can teach it! She didnt meet with JW she met with Elders 20 yrs ago and did everything but get baptized, so we committed her for May 25th!  She even talks like a Mormon, it is awesome! She is 70 and so cute. actually the brain center is really fun. We are there all the time, so we walk in and we know all these cute old people in their wheel chairs."

As a side note, this isn't the first time the Sisters have run into the identity crisis of Mormons vs. Jehovah Witnesses - one of their other investigators thought they were JW as well! See the next story - 

"Sis P - she is an old lady that we teach. she had a stroke so she has a walker since one of her legs doesnt really work. She is a tough old woman. She threatens to kill people all the time ha. She is like backwoods mountain woman. Well we were talking with her, we see her 3x a week and read with her out of the bofm, and she informs us that her son is ok with her being a jehovah's witness! WHAT?! Oh man Sis Paxton and I both just sat there and stared at each other. Somehow we got in there that we are LDS and we have decided each lesson we are slipping in our title to make sure she knows we are not JW. 
No wonder her family hates us.....every time her family is around we get the stink eye and they dont talk much to us. We get mistaken for JW all the time, which is pretty funny.  You would think people would know how to read.....we even have a name tag that says LDS but we are in the south, so.......yeah haha so funny.
Sis P - also told us a story of how she shot a black bear! we were talking about hunting cuz she use to do that and was telling us all about the deer she shot and squirrels then she just casually went into shooting a bear! we freaked! that is so awesome! she is literally the ultimate, mountain, back woods southern woman! love her!"

"C - also close! he has been with out cigarettes for 2 weeks and only has dip left to give up. due to his medical issues he has to spend all day every day in the hospital this week for testing so he can have NO tobacco of any kind....coincidence? I THINK NOT!"


I think the other thing Kristen has found with some of these folks in Brevard is the craft aspect. She talks about ladies who do canning and quilting and do beautiful handwork in various mediums and she loves seeing and learning from them.

"S - she is an older lady that goes to brevard community church (like literally everyone else here). She wont let us share scriptures or religion, but loves our visits and lets us leave a prayer. well she is super sweet. she LOVES to quilt and she found this big quilt squares half done that she gave to me.....she says if she finds anymore she will give them to me cuz she cant quilt too much anymore. She spends all her energy on canning. She got a canning order for 50 cases....the woman is insane, but she is super sweet!"


As you can read - lots and lots going on for Kristen! I know she'd love to hear from you, drop her a note or an email!