This week has been great and very busy. Monday we went over to Ray's house to have dinner and hang out with him. On Tuesday we went on blitzes (where other missionary come down and you all stay in one area) with the Paragould Elders. They came down and interviewed Ray for baptism. Then we went around and visited a couple other people that Elder Rich (the district leader serving in Paragould) wanted to see because he served here not too long ago. On Wednesday we went down to Memphis to see Gladys Knight. We got there really early, like 3 hours early so we went to eat before we got in line. We went to this place called Genghis Grill. It was really good. Then we went to the church and stood in line with Ray and his mom Sharron for about an hour or so. We got in and we sat there for a few minutes when the the music started playing. The SUV choir walked in and went up on the stage. Then we looked around for Gladys because she didn't come in with the choir. After a minute or so she came walking in and there w/ere lots of excited people. They sang lots of good songs. The first song they sang, in the middle of the song, an old skinny white guy started singing and he sounded like a great young black singer. One of the songs they sang was "I am a Child of God". After they sang "I am a Child of God," a white guy got up and started to introduce Gladys. He said you all probably are wondering why I get to introduce Gladys. He then went on to say that he was related to Gladys and Gladys just sang "I am a Child of God" so we know she is a child of God and I did some research and realized I am a child of God too, so we are brother and sister. Then this rich looking black guy got up and said in a very deep voice, "Hello my name is William McDowell and Gladys Knight is married to me." He told his story of how he and Gladys met and the whole time making little jokes like he said he built a man room off of Gladys' house after they got married. He said "I got the brethren together and we built a man room. The TV was in the right spot, the remote could never be lost. We labored for 6 days and on the 7th day we rested. When we were done we stood back and saw that it was good." He than said that his biggest concern about joining the church was why did God restore the church though a "little white boy". He said he prayed about it and realized that Joseph Smith was his brother. Then Gladys got up and gave her conversion story and she was also really funny. At one part she was talking about how she liked ice cream and she said "I see lot of y'all are vanilla and a couple of y'all are strawberry but most of y'all are chocolate out there". At one part she had all the missionaries stand up and the audience cheered for us. Then she pointed out her grandson Elder Jackson. Overall it was a really great performance. On Friday we were supposed to have a father sons campout and fishing and stuff. It rained and the place we were going to go flooded. We still went fishing with Ray because he still wanted to go. We caught 7 fish. I caught 2 big catfish, Elder Staib caught 1 perch, and Ray caught 4 catfish. It was lots of fun. Saturday we went down to Memphis to hear Elder Soares a member of the Presidency of the Seventy. It was really good. He talked about how we need to go into the deep end and just go out and get the work done, Don't hold anything back. On Sunday the speakers were Brother Coons (high council member) Elder Staib and myself. I went first and after I was done with my talk I realized that my 10 minute talk turned into a 20 minute talk. I need to figure out how to cut down on the time I speak. The talks were all very good. We spoke on D&C 88:118. Then half way though church the power went out and stayed out till about 6ish.
Thats all I have to say. Its great to hear all of you have had a great week and are ready for summer. Tell Kelsey congrats on the mission call. Have a great week.
Elder Talbert
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