06-29-2019 - A Week to Catch our Breath

It was good to be back home in Fayetteville. We filled our days with more service projects, medical calls, and Medical Health Councils.  I just love it all!

The highlight of our week was dinner with Brett & Elizabeth Merrell and Anna & Mike Ryberg.  It was heart-warming to see their familiar faces and hear and share stories! Thank you!

Elizabeth, Brett, Elder & Sister Merrell, Anna, and Mike
Dinner at Moxie Burger where you can order
fried green tomatoes and fried dill pickles separate or on your burger.

Our area has lots of Christian service projects happening.  One project is a free lunch program for children/youth who would otherwise go hungry during the summer.  These children/youth are very dependent on school breakfasts and lunches during the year, but when summer comes, they need outside help.

For years a group of local churches have worked together to see that these children/youth have sack lunches brought to their doorsteps every day during the summer break. These churches have included our Fayetteville Ward by asking us to supply the small chip bags.

This week the usual building to assemble these sack lunches was unavailable, so they used our meeting house and asked our ward to supply the volunteers.  It was fun to visit with them, and so, so good to have opportunities to become acquainted.

I've already forgotten the names of these ladies from the other churches.
Everything ran like a well-oiled machine.
These ladies knew the best and fastest way to do everything.
There were 267 sandwiches made this day.

While sandwiches were being made, sacks were set out, opened, and filled with apples, water, etc.
and, last of all, sandwiches.
The white bags were for teenagers who were given 2 sandwiches, the brown, for children.  

Elder Phipps, Elder Hopkins, Elder Rushton, wards members, Sister Stoker the RS Pres on far right.
After the lunches were assemble, the good men from the other churches put the sacks
in the back of a van and drove away to start deliveries.

Rod and I have set a goal to help at the Midwest Food Bank once a week.  We feel like that is a good place to meet people and become friends.  This week they needed help scrubbing down around 20 grimy banquet tables. They needed these tables for a "tender mercies" project this weekend where a large number of volunteers would be placed in assembly lines filling plastic bags with a mixture of rice, beans, flavorings, etc. resembling a home-made dry soup mix.  Each bag is to feed 4 people one meal.  They were planning to make 56,000 bags in a two-day period.

We were a little disappointed that we would not be working with other people as we scrubbed those banquet tables, but that changed when the Midwest coordinator invited us for lunch.  We had a chance to visit with about ten people while we ate take-out pizza. After most had left the room, Maria had a few questions about our church. It was a great start!  

Next week, they want us to do data entry.  Maria warned us that we would have to read some bad handwriting. Hopefully our FamilySearch indexing skills will come in handy!

Downtown Atlanta, another photo taken while driving.

06-22-2019 - Zone Conferences in Kentucky & Indiana

We have had a wonderful week attending zone conferences in Lexington, KY; Elizabethtown, KY; New Albany, IN; and Evansville, IN. I just love being with these young elders and sisters. They are filled with the missionary spirit; full of love for the Savior and enthusiasm for the work! President and Sister Hughes are from Nampa, Idaho and made us feel right at home. It was also good to meet with Sister and Elder Crowe, the mission nurse and vehicle/safety person.

Elder Merrell was asked to teach the missionaries about stress and anxiety and how to deal with it. He used the scripture in Alma 26:27 when the sons of Mosiah were "depressed and about to turn back."  He helped them understand that some of the world's greatest missionaries felt depressed and wanted to go home, but the Lord comforted them and helped them.  

He spent the next 15-20 minutes teaching about different levels of stress and how it can affect our bodies, how to reduce and deal with stress, and all the helps available for our missionaries. I watched the missionaries from the stand and they seemed to respond to everything. For instance, when he taught them about tension headaches (muscle contraction headaches) and how to press on the occipital nerve for relief, they were all pressing on their nerves.

We also spent time visiting with missionaries who wanted one-on-one medical advice. Rod is loving it, and so am I. I think he misses being a doctor much more than he wants to admit. It is very fullfilling for him to share his unique talents and wisdom with these missionaries.  

The spirit was in our little consultation room, and I found myself loving and feeling close to each missionary we met. There were times when I had a feeling of reverence come over me, because I knew I was sitting in a room with one of the great and noble spirit children of God. These words are inadequate to truly express my feelings.

Sister and President Hughes and Elder and Sister Merrell

Elder and Sister Crowe, Sister and President Hughes, Elder and Sister Merrell
Lunches were provided by sweet Relief Society sisters

June and July birthdays were celebrated at every conference this week

We were able to attend the Louisville Kentucky Temple.  When we arrived it was raining.  We decided to wait in the car until it let up. It didn't. In fact, it got heavier and then began to literally pour. We just had to smile and accept the fact we were going to get wet.  The session was great.  As you can see, it cleared up later.

The first Abraham Lincoln Memorial built on the Sinking Springs Farm, the place of his birth.
There are 56 steps representing the years of his life.  I wish there could have been more steps.
This memorial was built before the one in Washington DC.

This cabin is similar to the one Abraham Lincoln was born in. 
These logs date back to 1840.  There was only one window in the cabin.

The Lincoln 30 acre farm at Knob Creek
where Abraham Lincoln lived from the time he was 2 1/2 to 8 years old. 

Elder Merrell and I went for a walk at Garvin Park in Evansville, IN.
We passed people fishing in this large pond.

We also passed Canada geese and Mallard ducks.

06-15-2019 - Atlanta Zone Conference

What a wonderful week we have had! Our Georgia Atlanta Mission had two days of Zone Conferences where we were blessed to attend the Atlanta Temple with all the missionaries. The temple accommodated us by opening extra early and providing two additional sessions each day just for our groups. We met back in the chapel of a meeting house there on the temple grounds and listened to the testimonies of the out-going missionaries. There were 28 total from both days. They will be missed! We also listened to the good council of President Clayton. Lunch was served and President Clayton treated everyone to all-you-can-eat shaved ice from a local vendor.  The missionaries really like that!

Out-going missionaries on Tuesday.  There were 11 more in Wednesday's group.

Elders & Sisters Read, Kone, Meadows (new missionaries serving from their home), and me

Pres Clayton, Elders Kohler, Garrett, Dunn, Potts, and Sisters Potts & Clayton

Sisters Winder, Merrell, and Hulce (Sister Hulce is from Tremonton 13th Ward.)

This week we hosted our District Council Meeting. I love these meetings. Lots of good ideas and helps are shared. Our Fayetteville District elders and sisters are amazing! 

One of the problems discussed was how it's so hard these days to find people in their homes. So many apartments are gated, and people are leary of others knowing where they live. On the other hand, people are willing to be friends on facebook. They are willing to join chat groups. They are willing for the missionaries to send church videos, etc. Electronics have changed the way missionaries do their work, but these elders and sisters are on top of it and finding solutions. 

 Our Fayette District: (Front) Elders Dunn, Sillito, Sisters Rice and Williams; (Back) Elders Phipps, Kendrick ZL, Yorgeson ZL, Garrett, Kohler, Sister Merrell, Elders Merrell, Hopkins, Smith, & Rushton

Elders Hopkins, Yorgesen ZL, Garrett MO, Kendrick ZL, Dunn AP, Sillito AP, Smith DL, Rushton, Kohler MO

Sisters Williams & Rice, Elder Phipps;
Elders Merrell, Kohler MO, Hopkins, Yorgesen ZL, Ruston, Kendrick ZL, Garrett MO, Sillito AP, Smith DL, Dunn AP

Elder Merrell and I spent the morning enjoying the Atlanta Botanical Garden. These living plant sculptures were absolutely beautiful.  My favorite was the Earth Goddess.

Earth Goddess

Phoenix

Dragon

Mammoth

Mammoth

Pegasus

Camels

Mermaid

Chessboard from Alice in Wonderland

An orchid

06-14-2019 - Rod's Letter "News from the South"

Dear Friends and Family,

All is well in the Atlanta Georgia Mission.  We continue to learn new things to love about being here.  This week we had zone conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Stake Center next to the Atlanta Temple.  The temple opened early both mornings to accommodate special sessions just for the missionaries.  Carol and I were the witness couple for one session each day and it was a wonderful sight to look over our shoulders and see all of the great elders and sisters dressed in white with smiles on their faces and light in their eyes.  It was a great time. 

Thursday we had 10 elders and 2 sisters here at our apartment for district council meeting.  It was a marvel to sit and observe them counseling with each other and teaching each other.  Knocking on doors is a challenge here because the neighborhoods are so far apart but also because people are not responsive.  The missionaries seem to be having modest success contacting on the street and making connections there.  Then they offer to share a video about Jesus Christ.  If the person is interested they ask for their Facebook information so they can send the video and often they are also able to set up a time to have a video chat on Facebook messenger. 

Two weeks ago we attended zone conferences in the Tennessee Nashville Mission.  On the Monday night between conferences I convinced Sister Merrell to go with me for family home evening and have dinner at BB Kings Blues Club in Nashville.  The food was good and the live music was terrific.  Sister Merrell felt uncomfortable in that setting while wearing her missionary badge, but I, being the more carnal, sensual, and devilish half of our partnership, thought that it was great.  She refused to dance with me but even if she had accepted I wouldn’t have done it. The band that was playing that night had a blues guitarist who was amazing.  I promised her that next time we are in Nashville for zone conference we will go to the temple, but reminded her that it was not open on that Monday evening. 

Last week we spent Thursday morning serving at the Midwest Food Bank here in Peachtree, City.  The food bank is a large warehouse that is the distribution center for many charities throughout southern Georgia and into South Carolina and Alabama.  During the month they receive donations that come in on trucks and they stock their shelves.  Eight days a month they have what they call Load out days where agency partners (various churches, ministries, homeless shelters, etc.) come at scheduled times to pick up their share of food and additional products.  We participated on one of those load out days.  Our job that day was to be part of a team that assisted the agency representatives in filling their order.  On our team we had a very nice lady (who it turns out likes family history) who led the team, an older gentleman who pushed the big cart and Carol and me.  Carol and I were the pickers.  We loaded whatever was needed by the agency onto the cart as we moved up and down the aisles of the center.  We were happy to note that the spaghetti and spaghetti sauce we loaded that day come from our church and had the Deseret label.  We usually filled 3-4 carts for each agency and then the carts were wheeled to a loading area where the young elders moved the food into trucks, cars, vans—whatever the agency brought.  The thing that surprised us and actually delighted us was that after we had completed filling the order for each agency our team stood in a circle with the folks from that agency, held hands, and had prayer.  We repeated the process 6 or 7 times over the course of the morning.  We met some very fine people who are doing God’s work all over the South.

We have signed up as volunteers for Meals on Wheels.  Several of the sisters in our ward share a route that they take every Friday.  A couple of them have busy summers planned and will not be around so every other Friday Sister Merrell and I will take meals to 8-12 persons here in Fayetteville.  When we went to pick up the food today we were met by a very kind man who is the program supervisor.  When he saw our name badges he said, “You will be able to bring a new element to things”.  When we asked what he meant he said, “you will be able to pray with our clients”.  Well, we are embarrassed to say that we hadn’t thought of that.  But we did have prayer with a couple of persons today at their door.  Not all of the situations led to prayer but those we prayed with seemed grateful for it.  One man is on hospice and must not have air conditioning in his small apartment because he comes to the door in boxer shorts.  We knew this ahead of time so Carol didn’t go to the door with me.  But I asked him if he would like to have a prayer and he seemed touched that I would ask.  As I left he told me, “God bless you and Happy Father’s Day”.

Two Saturdays ago we joined another senior couple who work in the office and went to the site of the Battle of Pickett’s Mill.  It was a civil war battle that was fought as Sherman marched toward Atlanta and then on  to Savannah.  I had never heard of the Battle of Pickett’s Mill but maybe that is because the Confederates won the battle.  Anyway, they staged a re-enactment of the battle and there were several hundred men dressed in Union and Confederate uniforms battling there in the same ravine where the original battle was fought.  We also saw President Lincoln and General Robert E. Lee sitting together quite congenially.  I will attach a couple of pictures. 

We are going to zone conferences in Louisville, KY this week.  We are going to teach the missionaries about stress and anxiety.  And, according to the wishes of the lovely Sister Merrell we are going to the Louisville Temple on Tuesday evening.  One of the conferences is near the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  We plan to visit there also. 

My work as a medical advisor remains quite interesting.  There seems to be no end to the interesting situations these young folks can get in to. 

Hope you are all healthy and happy,

As they say here in Georgia, “Have a blessed day”.

Love,

Elder and Sister, Mom and Dad, Grandpa and Grandma Merrell

06-08-2019 - Lots of Service Opportunities

This week we traveled to Nashville, Tennessee for two days of Zone Conferences and had a wonderful spiritual time with the missionaries and President Stone who will be ending his service the end of this month. He will be missed. The missionaries love him so much.

During the conferences Elder Merrell and the mission nurse spent time with missionaries who wanted a consultation.  They used one of the empty classrooms in the church house. I waited outside the classroom door visiting with their companions and had a delightful time meeting missionaries from all over the country.  Again, I am so impressed by their goodness. We even found a few sisters close to home, Sister Kunzler from Park Valley and a sister from Malad.

We also had the opportunity to work at the Midwest Food Bank along with the elders in our district.  The people at the food bank just love the young elders to come and help because they have strong backs and work so hard with big smiles.  Their assignment was to load the trucks and vans of the different service groups with food and supplies.

Getting ready to start work
Elder Rushton, Elder Smith our DL, Elder Phipps, Elder Wheeler, Elder Hopkins, and Elder Merrell

Elder Merrell and I had a different assignment from our young counterparts. We were called the "pickers." This is how it worked. Elder Merrell and I were assigned to work with a Midwest Food Bank order filler, Ann Ferree, and cart pusher, Jim. As the "pickers" we moved products from the storage shelves to the cart. (I believe this is similar to what Christian used to do at WalMart Distribution.) Each service group sent one or two representatives who determined what their group needed and Anne set the product limit so all service groups would get their fair share.  It was well organized.

Jim our cart pusher, David service group rep, Anne Ferree our order filler, me, and Elder Merrell

After all the food had been gathered for each group, we stood in a circle, held hands, and offered a prayer of thanksgiving. The Lord's spirit was there.  It was so wonderful for so many faiths to come together and help the needy.

The church had sent a semi truck load of supplies to the Food Bank earlier in the week.  We noticed the spaghetti sauce and spaghetti displayed the label of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  It made us so proud.  We told Jim and Anne how the church cannery in Ogden also runs with a volunteer workforce. They had no idea. It was wonderful to see where some of the churches' food and supplies go and how grateful the people are to receive it.

We learned the service group reps were mostly from different church organizations, and they were giving the food to the homeless, shut-ins, and people without food in their communities. These service groups came from all over the region, Tennessee, Alabama, etc. Our little foursome helped nine different service group reps this day. There were many more little foursomes like ours helping other reps. We left the building feeling like we had made a difference in the world today! 

  

Anne and I on our way to a free lunch.

Anne shared how to say Fayetteville, Georgia in Southern.  It's spoken "Fet vul, Jaw Ja" 😉
She also shared a Southern saying when speaking about a volunteer in her 80's who just keeps volunteering.  She said, "You can't get rid of her, like a hair in a biscuit."

More supplies

Elder Merrell and I are also helping our ward out with Meals on Wheels. Our ward has had a route on Fridays for the last ten years and asked for some extra help. Lisa Coburn showed us the ropes.  This is a great way to get to know some people in our neighborhood.  The bag I'm holding is a cooler where the food is kept while we are making deliveries.  There are twelve people on our route and it takes about an hour or so to make the deliveries.

Sister Merrell and Lisa Coburn

Our apartment is in order enough to start inviting people over for dinner, so Elders Rushton, Phipps, and Wheeler came to eat oyakodon with us on Thursday. We think they are wonderful! They shared a lesson with us which was so helpful in being prepared to teach the restoration.

Because the oyakodon was a big hit, Saturday evening we invited Elder and Sister Kone and Elder and Sister Read and had a repeat menu.  We had a wonderful time visiting and playing Five Crowns.  Is so nice to have such good people to serve with.

When it rains in Georgia, it pours!!