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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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." |
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| 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.
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| 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!!
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