Dear Family and Friends,
Well we have completed our first week in
Georgia and we really like it here. We left SLC on Friday May 17 in a
rainstorm which turned into a snowstorm when we got to Parley’s Canyon.
We drove through another snow storm and several rainstorms that day before
stopping for the night in Limon, Colorado. The next day we left the
mountains in our rear view mirror and drove for hours across billiard table
flat plains. It was beautiful nevertheless. Those amber waves
of grain that we sing about start out as green fields and they seemed to go on
forever. We had torrential rain in Missouri and found out that night that
there had been tornadoes in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri that day.
Missed us by “ “ that much.
We arrived in Fayetteville on Monday and
were met by 5 strapping elders who unloaded our car in nothing flat. I
was a little concerned about unloading because we had packed our belongings in
six large totes and several were quite heavy and our apartment is on the 3rd
floor. It was no problem for the Elders of Israel and in a short time we
were moved in. We have had to shop for groceries and a few things to try
and make this apartment home. We brought some family pictures from home
and have hung them on the walls so we are ready to nestle in for the next 18
months.
It has been hot here this week with
temperatures in the mid-90’s but is not yet very humid. After a long cold
spring, Carol is loving the warmth.
We have thought several times that we
ought to get in the car and go for a ride and see the surrounding
country. Then we realize that we aren’t going to see much except for lots
of trees. All of the roads are cut through thick hardwood forests and
driving down the road is like driving in a green tunnel. There are also some
very tall pine trees but unless they are in someone’s yard they are green all
the way up because their trunks are covered with vines. On wider roads
you can see the sky but there are still thick stands of trees on both
sides of the road. There are signs on the side of the road to tell you
which stores are hidden behind the trees. Yesterday we went to the
Atlanta Temple with one of the office couples and two of the office
elders. The temple is about an hour north of us and lots of trees along
the way. Autumn should be incredible.
Without the mountains I have totally lost
my sense of direction. When I look at the compass in the car and it tells
me we are going west I could swear we are headed north. At no time have I
felt like the compass was correct. Maybe it will get better but in the
meantime we are grateful for GPS and Google maps. Without them you would
never hear from us again.
The folks here in Fayetteville still seem
to be hanging on to their confederate roots. We walked through an
historic cemetery on one of our morning walks and there are little confederate
flags next to the headstones for the confederate veterans buried there.
One morning we found ourselves standing on the corner of Jeff Davis Blvd. and
Stonewall Ave. Other streets here, Beauregard and Forrest for example,
seem to be named after other confederate generals. However, we have not
yet heard anyone shout, “The South will Rise Again!!”
We
have found that southern hospitality is a real thing. We have been warmly
greeted by everyone we meet in stores, on the street and at church. We
attended our ward today for the first time and it is a large, friendly
ward. We had the idea that we would be attending a small struggling ward
and that we would need to jump in and support them but they seem to be doing
just fine. I found myself having difficulty remembering the names of the
people who introduced themselves to us so I started trying to associate them
with people I already am familiar with. One of the ward clerks walks and
looks like Todd Newman back home. One sister looks just like my medical
assistant Alyssa Richardson. One man looks like Jon Stewart on the Daily
Show only about 20 years older, and the elders quorum president is husky
with a shaved head like my son Trent. The list goes on but hopefully we
will get to know people soon and after they have introduced themselves to us 3-4 times we will remember them.
We thought that because we were coming to
the Deep South that the ward choir would be rockin’ but one sister today says
it is struggling. We are going to attend stake choir practice this
evening however. They are rehearsing for a Freedom Fireside on June
30. We will see how that goes. I’m sure it won’t be up to Carl
Ashby’s standards but we will try and do our part.
I have had fun beginning my assignment as
the Area Medical Advisor. We had two Mission Medical Councils this
week. That council consists of the mission president and his wife, Carol
and me, the Area Mental Health advisor and representatives from local LDS
Family Services who provide local counseling to the missionaries who need
it. The meeting takes place on line as a video conference and we have
enjoyed getting to know our counterparts from afar. We are going to begin
attending zone conferences next week with a trip to Nashville. We will
not attend every zone conference because each mission has a zone
conference with every transfer and we cannot possibly get to all of them.
But it will be fun to go to Nashville. The conferences are on two
separate days and on the evening between the conferences we are going to eat
dinner in Nashville at B.B. King’s Blues Club. It should be great.
We are having a lot of fun and if the
rest of our mission just keeps getting better, like people promise it will, it
is going to be epic!
Love and miss you all,
Elder Rod and Sister Carol Merrell
PS. We just got home from choir
practice and it is going to be great. Mr. Ashby would be proud of
us.
