07-29-2019 - Tender Mercies and Tennessee Knoxville Zone Conferences

We feel so especially blessed this week.  Anna Drinceanu is a member of our Fayetteville Ward.  I met her a few weeks ago and learned that she was born in Romania as well as her husband.  She and her two sons are the only members of the church in her family. During our visit, she offered to do any translating that I may need.  At the time, I thought it was very kind of her, but I had no need.

When Rod and I prayed to know how to help Anna and her family, we both remembered that Christian's DNA test resulted in matches with some distant cousins in Romania.  The thought occurred to us that we did need a translator to contact those cousins. We enlisted Anna's help.

Anna looked over Christian's information and to our astonishment, told us her sister lives about 10 minutes from Christian's mother's last address. She believes her sister might be able to find someone who remembers or knows Christian's mother.

Oh, our Heavenly Father's divine orchestration of events is so amazing! He has blessed us in a way that we have never even imagined. Christian has wanted to find his mother for years. We now have new hope for Christian.

Zone Conferences have been inspiring. It is so good to be around these good energetic elders and sisters. Their testimonies are strong and they love the Lord. They teach each other, and I learn right along with them. They also love President and Sister Pickett, two wonderful people from Oakley, Idaho.  Rod's presentations on managing stress are well-received. Zone conferences here in Tennessee will continue into next week.

Zone Conference in Severeville, Tennessee

Elder Merrell answering a medical question.

Sister Farner, Sister Merrell, and Sister Pickett

Sister Tupea (Mission Nurse) Elder Merrell and Elder Tupea

Sunday we attended a Micronesian Branch in Asheville, North Carolina. Rod sat by the visiting High Councilman, Bishop VanBrederode, and learned that Elder Merrell, our Christian, spent time in his home while serving his mission in Asheville-Arden. He remembered Christian.  He was quite excited to tell us about him.  He said, "We love Elder Merrell!!"

Bishop VanBrederode, Sister Merrell, and Elder Merrell

The most remarkable event took place during our 5th Sunday Lesson.  Brother Dan McClellan, Church Translation Supervisor, was the guest and conducted a special conference for the translation of the Book of Mormon in the Pohnpeian language. His goal was to begin the process of "acceptability." He first took a count of all languages spoken by those in attendance; Pingalapese, Papuanese, Pohnipeian, Chukkese, Marshallese, (languages I've never heard of) and Spanish.

He brought copies of a few chapters of the translated Book of Mormon to be passed out to the members and also used a projected copy for all to see. Then for 1 1/2 hours, he asked members to read individually or he would ask one to read for the group, etc.  He would then ask, "Is this the word you commonly use when talking about ________?  Does this sound natural?  Is there anything confusing?  Is the spelling right? Are you okay with the terminology?" etc. etc.

I have a new appreciation for the work of translation in our church and the importance of having the Book of Mormon available in all languages. There were members in this branch who do not speak English and only know what is in the Book of Mormon through interpreters.  They cannot read it for themselves.

The Micronesians treated us royally with flower crowns and necklaces.  We were also served roasted pig and tables full of food after the meeting was over.

This is the sweet sister who presented Elder Merrell with a turtle necklace.

Sister Merrell, Sister Pickett (Mission Pres Wife), and Sister Tupea (Mission Nurse)
Sister Tupea gave us the flower crowns and chocolates.

President and Sister Pickett, Sister and Elder Merrell
President of the Tennessee Knoxville Mission

Our new district had their first opportunity to work together this week at the MidWest Food Bank.  These sisters and elders really work hard loading the food into the vans, trucks, and trailers; and they do it with a smile.

Sisters Williams, Toole, Hart, and Nebeker
(Elder Crook and Phipps are in the background)

Amelia, a volunteer, Elder Phipps and Elder Crooke and Rossy, another volunteer
This was Elder Crook's first week in Georgia.  He is from Star Valley, Wyoming.

We took in the beauties of Tennessee and North Carolina. We have missed seeing our beautiful mountains, and how refreshing it was to see mountains in the distance as we drove through Eastern Tennessee. We took a 5-mile hike to see Rainbow Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and took another hike to watch the sun set in the west from the tallest point in Tennessee/North Carolina, Clingmans Dome (6643 ft). It was breathtaking to see rows and rows of mountain ranges in every direction.

Rainbow Falls

The Great Smoky Mountains taken from Clingmans Dome

Sunset at Clingmans Dome

We also watched the Tennessee Smokies play against the Montgomery Biscuits.  The Biscuits won.

07-21-2019 - Another General Epistle of Rod

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello again from the hot and humid south.  We actually aren’t minding the humidity much.  If we get out for our walk early enough it is very pleasant.  Sometime we walk in the evenings and it is quite a bit warmer and muggier but then we get to see the lightning bugs by the nearby creek.  Carol likes what the humidity does for her skin and her dry eyes. 

We are both well and very much enjoying our mission.  Since my last letter we have been up to Kentucky to attend zone conferences.  The first conference was at a stake center in Lexington, just across the street from the Univ. of Kentucky campus.  I found myself wishing it was college basketball season but I am sure I wouldn’t be able to find any tickets.  I may have to check into it if we find ourselves back up there in January or February.  While in Kentucky, between conferences, we were able to visit the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  There is a monument there and a small visitors center.  We also visited the farm that the Lincolns moved to and where Abraham spent his boyhood years which was located a few miles away. 

The last zone conference in the Louisville Mission was held in Evansville Indiana.  When we were called to serve in the Southeast Area I didn’t imagine finding myself in Indiana but there we were.  Curiously, we found a great Mexican restaurant there.  Sister Merrell will remember Evansville for escaping with her life.  Since we spend so many nights in motels I was trying to save money and booked us into a motel there with “decent” reviews for a great price.  It turned out to be kind of a scary place.  We had pre-paid for the stay but probably should have not stayed there anyway.  But we did.  Carol wouldn’t take off her socks.  She didn’t want her feet to touch the carpet.  She wouldn’t kneel on the floor for prayer but knelt on the bed instead.  The air conditioning unit was pretty bad and I am still not sure we didn’t get Legionnaire’s Disease from it.  But neither of us is coughing yet so we are probably OK.  Carol has directed me to spend more of our children’s inheritance to stay in nicer places. 

We really enjoy attending zone conferences and meeting so many wonderful young elders and sisters, hearing their testimonies and feeling their energy.  They are amazing. 

A couple of weeks ago we accompanied our Mission President and several of the office couples to Macon and Columbus Georgia to meet with the missionaries who had been transferred into the Georgia Atlanta Mission when the Georgia Macon Mission was closed.  Once again, we met some wonderful young men and women.  We met a delightful sister who I already knew of because of a medical report I had received regarding her.  It seems that Sister Stephens went with 3 other sister missionaries from her area to a local safari park.  She was sitting on the bus and it stopped for people to take pictures.  A giraffe came to the bus, stuck his head in the window next to Sis. Stephens and went for the lunch she had on her lap.  In the process the giraffe bit her on the thumb.  It wasn’t a very deep wound but it bled a bit and Sis. Stephens passed out.  She was taken out of the park in a wheelchair.  Everything turned out just fine but it was an exciting day for the sisters in Pine Mountain.   I would not have predicted that a giraffe bite would be one of the hazards of serving in Georgia.

We are blessed to have the Atlanta Georgia Temple in our mission boundaries and have been able to attend the temple almost every week.  We also attended the Louisville Kentucky Temple on our trip there.  We hope to visit the temples in Nashville, Columbia SC, and Raleigh NC during our time here. 

We are serving at the local food bank for several hours each week and we also volunteer at Meals on Wheels every other Friday.  We have met some very fine people and have been able to teach them a little bit about our church.  One of the ladies we met at the food bank works in the movie industry as a script supervisor.  She explained that she works with the second unit, the stunt men etc., and takes notes from the director to use when editing the movie.  It was quite interesting.  Pinewood Studios is only a few miles away from us and the TV show “Walking Dead” (which I have never seen) is filmed in Senoia, about 10 miles south of us. 

We had transfers this week and because President Clayton was trying to integrate the two new zones into the rest of the mission almost every companionship was affected.  We lost more than half of our district.  We had them all here for district council and fed them lunch and birthday cake on Tuesday.  Six of them left the next day- two of them to return home.  We miss them but we are excited to get to know the new additions.

Well, that’s about it.  Hope this finds you all healthy and happy.

Love,

Rod and Carol, Mom and Dad, GrPa and GrMa, Elder and Sister Merrell

07-20-2019 - My Birthday Week

What an enjoyable week this has been, filled with fun and great surprises! The best part was hearing from and talking to my family. I love them all and miss them. (I'm so thankful for electronic devices!)  The best surprise was a call from my grandson, Colter, announcing my very first great-grandchild who will be coming January/February! I am so happy for Jaycee and Colter! I can't believe I'm old enough to have a great-grandchild!!!  Wow!

The week started with an unexpected flight for Rod to Idaho Falls accompanying a sick missionary.  While the church was making last-minute flight arrangements, Rod learned that his return flight from Idaho Falls to Atlanta was going to cost $1,700.  He offered to drive a rental car to Tremonton, sleep in his own bed, and drive to SLC the next morning to fly to Atlanta. They liked the idea, so it was done.  It was wonderful for me, because Rod was able to pick up a few items I had left behind. He also gave me a live feed on how the yard was doing.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  Rod had breakfast with Christian and Shelbie and made a surprise visit to my Mom and Dad. What fun!

It felt like my birthday lasted the entire week. I had a birthday lunch with Sister Clayton and Sisters Rice and Williams, both from our District.  They were so sweet. Sister Rice was transferred out of our District this week.  I will miss her.  

We had District Council in our apartment with lunch and birthday cake. I am so sad that all but four were either transferred out of our district or going home.  I have grown to love these elders and sisters.  They have good hearts and strong testimonies and love the Lord and love missionary work and they work hard. It makes my heart ache to see their faces in this photo.

Fayetteville District Council
Front Row: Sister Williams (staying), Elder Dunn (transferred), Elder Bailey (staying),
Elder Rushton (transferred), Sister Rice (transferred)
Back Row: Elder Garrett (going home), Elder Hopkins (transferred), Elder Smith (transferred),
Elder Merrell, Elder Sillito (staying), Elder Phipps (our new DL), Elder Kohler (going home)

Transfer Day with Sister Hulce from Tremonton 13th Ward
and her companion,Sister Winder (a cousin of our Wynn cousins)
There were only 5 companionships not affected by the transfers. 
Sisters Hulce and Winder were one of them.
President Clayton invited the entire mission to come to transfers this time. 
What a gathering! There were over 180 missionaries present.

Transfer Day
Pre-ordered bikes for the new missionaries coming in

Laurie Stoker, our ward Relief Society President took me to lunch and shopping. It was so nice to just chat and shop with her.  She is so friendly and kind. We went to a material store, so I could pick up some thread to mend a few items for the missionaries. She told me when her son was on a mission, he wrote home about a nice lady in his ward that mended his pants. Laurie smiled because she had mended a pair of pants for an Atlanta missionary that same week. "Cast your bread upon the waters.. ."

We also shopped for blouses. I found several cute ones and wondered if I should buy them all. Laurie had a profound thought, "You don't need to buy everything today. You can always come back."  Having lived in Tremonton most all my life with the only shopping 35-45 minutes away, my thoughts have been, buy it now because it may be a long time before I come shopping again.  How nice to have stores 5 minutes away!  

Our weeks are busy and my heart is full. We are so blessed. I love it here. I love being a missionary! 

I went to a pool party for our Relief Society Activity and enjoyed getting to know some fun and "crazy" sisters in our ward. 

We had dinner with the Campbell's. I found a soul sister, Ruth Campbell, who loves Family History as much as I do! 

Rod and I worked in the Food Bank, served Meals on Wheels, attended the temple, had an enjoyable dinner with Thomas Dorsey and invited him to church. We were disappointed that he didn't come.  Maybe another week.

Rod has medical calls about poison ivy, bike crashes, bug bites, etc. etc. One of the most unusual medical situations Rod has encountered so far, happened to Sister Stephens.

Sister Stephens was bitten by a giraffe while on a wild animal safari park drive-through. When the bus she was on stopped to observe the giraffe, the giraffe decided to find a free lunch or two.  It stuck his head inside the bus and wanted Sister Stephens lunch sitting on her lap.  The giraffe bit her thumb in the attempt to eat her lunch.  She quickly moved away from the giraffe and watched not thinking about her thumb until she looked down a little later and saw all the blood. Her reaction was to throw-up and then faint!  

We've gotten to know Sister Stephens.  At the time of the giraffe bite, she was in the Georgia Macon Mission.  That mission is now closed and Sister Stephens has been transferred to our mission.  She shared her pictures with us and gave us permission to tell the story.  She is lots of fun!

Sister Stephens and Giraffe at the Wild Animal Safari Park in Georgia

Sister Stephens after fainting

07-14-2019 - New Contacts

This was a great week! The ward members are so kind and welcoming here.  We had two dinner invitations; one with the Jennings family and the people they minister to; and one with the Hind family (Chelsie's sister-in-law) again. It is so enjoyable to get to know the people in our ward and stake.  There are so many good and faithful people! We love it here!

Dinner at Tracy and Emily Hinds
Elder Hopkins finishing off the desert with a rubber spatula so he could get every last bite.

This week was load-out at the Midwest Food Bank. Tuesday there were so many volunteers that we were assigned data entry. While Elder Merrell and I were busily typing away, Elders Rushton & Phipps found a young man that was very interested in learning about our church. It was decided that the missionaries needed to go back to the Food Bank on Thursday and postpone District Council Meeting for a few hours to keep in contact with this young man.

Thursday came and so did the young man, so our elders had another opportunity to share some gospel truths again. (They had also been in contact with him thru messenger.) 

Our Pick Team
Dea, Karen, reps from a charity, me, and Elder Merrell

Elder Merrell and I were assigned a pick team.  This time Karen was our lead (who works in the same little office that we do data entry in) and Dea was our cart pusher.  

We had some time to get to know these two ladies. We learned that Dea worked for the movie industry here in Georgia. She explained the she works for the second unit, the stunt people and explosive scenes.  She records the scene notes used in editing the films. She was from Los Angeles, then Reno, now Georgia.  Karen was a nurse specializing in diabetes. 

Once we got to know each other and laugh together, they started asking questions about our missionaries and how long we had been married.  They were quite surprised to hear 44 years. We then had the chance to tell them about our temple marriage. They wanted to know if you would be excommunicated if you weren't married in the temple. There really are a lot of misconceptions out there in the world. Before we left that day, we had friended Dea on facebook and had permission to send her a video clip. We sent two videos, the Rome Temple Tour video with Elder Bednar and Elder Rasband and "This is Church."  We're hoping for more questions.  When we go back next week. 

Midwest Food Bank loading trucks
Sister Williams (blue shirt) Sister Rice, Elder Sillito, Elder Bailey

Elder Rushton in white shirt, Elder Dunn in the trailer

Elder Dunn and Elder Rushton

Elder Phipps and Elder Smith

On the "Just Serve" app there was a need to take photos of gravestones in the cemetery a few blocks from our apartment.  Elder Merrell and I decided that it would be a good thing to do Saturday morning.  While there, several people stopped to visit with us, curious about what we were doing. I had to smile. I never expected that this was a way to meet new people.  

One of the people we met was Thomas Dorsey. His family has been in Fayetteville since 1840 when his 3G Grandfather, Thomas Dorsey, was a slave. Thomas was involved in the restoration of the cemetery we were standing in and many of his family members were buried there.  He invited us to a special event honoring his family at the Fayetteville Holliday-Dorsey-Fife Museum.  We couldn't pass up a chance to see family history in the making.

The Descendants of Thomas Dorsey.
The picture of Isaac, his son, is displayed on the wall behind the family

Thomas Dorsey, Sister and Elder Merrell
Thomas was so warm and friendly. We plan to have lunch with him.

The Holliday-Dorsey-Fife Museum (Photo taken from back of building)

Scarlett O-Hara's dress from the movie "Gone with the Wind"
In the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife Museum

The original civil war flag of  the Fayette Rifle Grays.
This Confederate flag was made in this house for the Fayette Rifle Grays,
the first company in the county to be raised for the Confederacy

The cause of the South,
We go to maintain,
We'll come back, with honor,
Or, come not again.

Sister Clayton invited Sister Kone and I to go to the temple and lunch on Friday. I love being in the temple and I especially loved chatting with these good sisters.  I hope we can do it again!

07-06-2019 - July 4th Celebrations

We had the privilege of singing in a stake choir celebrating the freedom of our country.  There were beautiful choral arrangements, narrations, solos, a snare drum, trumpet, and slides depicting the history of our country's fight for freedom from the pilgrims to the civil war.  It was very moving. The chapel was filled into the gym and people from the community came as well as members of our church.

The alto section: Carol Merrell, Emily Hind (Chelsie's sister-in-law), Carla Haskins, Joy Coles,
Laurie Stoker, Denise Purdy, and Eve Olsen.  We did not plan the red-blue combination!

 

This week the Macon GA Mission was closed and the missionaries were moved into the Atlanta GA, Charlotte SC, and Ft Lauderdale FL Missions. As a result, our mission boundaries have increased. We made a trip down to Columbus and Macon GA to meet the new Macon missionaries.

After our meetings, we visited Andersonville, a Confederate POW Camp. We learned there were over 45,000 prisoners who passed through this prison from 1864-65 and more than 12,000 prisoners died there.  The conditions were terrible.

Replica of the walls, guard towers, no man's land, and make-shift tents of prisoners

Over 12,000 union soldiers were buried in trench-like graves.
That is why the headstones are so close together.

Andersonville Cemetery, GA

Dinner with Elder Merrell, Elder & Sister Kone (mission nurse)
Sister and President Clayton, Elder and Sister Read
Columbus, GA

We also celebrated the 4th by watching the Peachtree City Parade. Peachtree City is famous for its golf carts and golf cart trails throughout the city. Most floats were simply decorated golf carts. Most spectators watched from their golf carts. The most unusual part of the parade was that there were no horses and tractors to let us know it was over :)

The Fayetteville and Peachtree City Missionaries

Elder Kohler, unknown, Sister Williams, Elder Dunn

Elder Hopkins and the missionary golf cart float.

Elder Read (vehicles), Sister Kone (nurse), me, Elder Jacobson (Finances),
Sister Jacobson (mission secretary), Sister and President Clayton

Sister Kone, me, Sister & Elder Jacobson

Breakfast at Waffle House after the parade.
Jermaine the WH Manager, me, Elder & Sister Jacobson.
We are all wearing hats because it was our first visit ever to a Waffle House.
It had been recommended that we go for a true Southern experience.
We are not certain that we will return.