July 26, Bellevue

 Hey brothers and sisters. I hope you had a good week. Thank you for the emails that I received this week. I really appreciate them and I'll try to write back! 

This week was long and hot. We got fed three times and did a lot of knocking. Some highlights were:

Someone knocked on our door late Saturday night. I opened it and it was the elders shooting a high-powered confetti cannon directly into my face. It was hilarious, I screamed, there was a huge mess, and my face stung for a couple of hours.

Also, tea time:

Sister Tea, who we talked about last time, the one who may or may not have been married to the secret service/police turned politician?

Well, I have some updates.

See, she texted us on Tuesday and sent us a photo of his book that she had just received, inadvertently giving us a name to track. Well, we looked him up on the Church family history computers and it's completely true! He is a secret service/cop turned politician! 

The only problem is that Wikipedia (and the back of the book that we read when we visited in person) said that he was married to a DIFFERENT woman (and had lots of pictures). Which brings us back to square one. 

Sister Pace thinks she's hallucinating this marriage and I think this politician is living a double life.

Well, ANYWAYS, she comes to church and has a ton of fun and we reteach her the restoration and then she calls us Friday morning at about 6:30 as we're driving to the track that we usually go running at. And our conversation goes a little bit like this:

My companion (groggily and very confused): "Hey Sister Tea. How are you doing?"

Sister Tea: "Hey, I just had a couple of things on my mind which have been bugging me and I just need to get them off my chest."

Sister Pace glances at me before replying: "oh?"

Sister Tea: "Yeah, mhh hmm. You saw that guy at church, the black one?"

Me: "Brother Latter (name changed for privacy protection)?"

Sister Tea: "Yeah, that's the one. So, I have a problem with him. Is he a prophet? Because the whole blacks in charge thing makes me uncomfortable. I'm not here to follow no Muhammad."

Car: swerves (may or may not have been because I was so shocked)

Us: stunned silence. 

Sister Tea, continuing: "And I'm concerned about why you let him into your church. This whole covid thing is going around and we can't risk him spreading it."

Us: still stunned silence. Sister Pace mutes the phone and we turn to each other.

I ask Sister Pace incredously: "She's being racist?" 

Sister Pace looks horrified: "She's BLACK!"

Me: "I KNOW. Turn the sound back on." 

Sister Tea is still talking, but I interrupt her: "Well, Brother Latter isn't a prophet. (An mhhmmm is heard through the phone.) We just have one of those. But he is in the bishopric. And he's a worthy melchizadek holder just like any other man in the ward. And everyone who doesn't have their mask on at church is vaccinated so Brother Latter is vaccinated."

Sister Tea: "Well, I saw him talking to a white woman. And I don't do those mixed families."

Me, aside to Sister Pace: "Isn't her husband white?"

Sister Pace: nods

Me to Sister Tea: "Well, our church is very inclusive. We don't judge a person by the color of their skin. And the Latter's are a wonderful family."

Sister Tea (silent is several seconds): "Well, with the covid going around I don't feel comfortable going to church. You ladies are welcome to come over but I don't think I'll make it to church for awhile."

I didn't know how to respond and I still don't know how to respond. But, to be clear, this woman is black and her supposed husband is definitely white. 

This week I have been focusing on the idea that we don't need promptings in order to act or to serve. We already know what we need to do. God doesn't need to tell us everything that we should be doing. We should be agents.

There's nothing you can do that would make Jesus Christ love you any less.

Love you all,

Sister Brice