Dear Family and Friends,
I just noticed that I haven’t written for
more than a month so I guess it’s time to check in. We are still trying
to visit all of the missions we are responsible for and in the last month we
visited the missions in Knoxville Tennessee, Columbia South Carolina, and
Charlotte North Carolina. We have seen a lot of the South and have met
wonderful Mission Presidents and their wives and many, many valiant
missionaries.
When we were in Knoxville the zone
conferences were on Thursday, Friday and then not again until the following
Tuesday. We decided that rather than travel back and forth between there
and Georgia we would stay the weekend. It was really fun. On
Saturday we went hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains on a rather steep trail to
a place called Rainbow Falls. It was 5 miles round trip and in spite of
the fact that we walk (on flat ground) 3 miles every morning, we had stiff legs
for several days and really had a hard time going down stairs. But it was
good to be back in the mountains and for a while I could actually tell which
way was North, or South etc.
On Sunday of that weekend we visited a
Micronesian branch in Asheville NC at the invitation of the mission president,
Pres. David Pickett from Oakley ID. (Rita Woodworth- do you remember the
Picketts?) There were 6 different Micronesian languages represented in that
little branch and they were having a special branch conference because a
gentleman from the church translation department was visiting to get member
input on a new translation of the Book of Mormon into the Ponpeian
language. I didn’t even know there was such a place and Ponpei but there
is. Anyway after Sacrament Mtg. in the second hour he read with members
from what has been translated so far to make certain it was readable and
understandable. He asked several of them to read aloud and to make certain
it sounded right. After the meeting they had an amazing linger longer
with roast pig and lots of other unusual dishes. When we arrived at the
same time as the mission president and when the branch president learned that I
was the “Area Medical Advisor” he attached much more importance to the title
that it really deserves and we were asked to sit on the stand with Pres. and
Sister Pickett. We were treated as visiting dignitaries with a ceremonial
necklace for me and a flowered lei for Carol to wear on her head. We were
just a bit embarrassed by all the fuss. But it was fun.
The following two weeks we were in South
Carolina. We attended zone conferences four days one week and then drove
home and returned the next week for two more. The mission president in
South Carolina is President Wes Innes who owns a orthopedic supply company in
SLC and knows Dr. Bitner and Dr. Sumko quite well. While in South
Carolina we were able to make a brief visit to Charleston and the
following week visited Savannah. Both are wonderful cities with parts of
the city restored to colonial and pre-civil war times.
This last week we were in Charlotte NC
where the mission president is President Detlef Adler who is from
Germany. He was an area seventy before being called to be a mission
president and was the CEO of a clothing manufacturer which is the worlds 3rd
largest producer of men’s shirts. He didn’t tell us all of this- I had to
do a little research. President and Sister Adler were very warm and
welcoming. They expect a lot of their missionaries but they are much
loved.
We have one more mission to visit
(Raleigh) and then we are going to slow down and just visit one
mission/month. We have become weary of hotels, at least the kind we can
afford at this rate, and of restaurant food and we are looking forward to
staying home and serving locally.
We still have not learned to speak or
understand Southern. We went to a rib joint when we first got here and we
were the only Caucasians in the place. We couldn’t understand the people
behind the counter and we just said yes when they asked us questions. We
ended up with food we didn’t think we had ordered (delicious nevertheless) in a
take out carton when we really intended to dine in the restaurant. A
couple of weeks ago a member of the high council spoke in sacrament
meeting. He is a big, tall, broad shouldered black man. From what
we gathered he played Division 1 football and was a big deal in college but
that was about all we gathered. It might have been a great talk but we
will never know.
Even though it has been a very hot summer
Carol has been freezing in almost every zone conference we visit. The
missionaries come in from the heat and crank up the air conditioning.
Meanwhile Carol is wearing sweaters in the middle of the summer and recently
purchased a small blanket/shawl to put over her legs. Last week in South
Carolina she came out of the church and took her shoes off and stood on the hot
asphalt until her feet warmed up. It was very humid there and when I got
out of the car my glasses fogged up.
When we were walking along the Savannah
River in Augusta, Georgia, Carol looked at the slow moving, smooth river and
said it would be a great place to water ski. A few moments later we
spotted an alligator in the river and she changed her mind.
We have met many wonderful young elders
and sisters. Some of them have been very inspiring. There is a
missionary in the Atlanta North Mission who came on his mission with muscular
dystrophy, an incurable muscle wasting disease. He knew that he was going
to get gradually worse but came anyway. When he arrived in Georgia he
could run and play soccer with the other missionaries but he has developed a
foot drop and has to use a brace. He now has left sided weakness and
falls often but he is still working hard and wants to finish his mission. He
truly is serving with all of his might and strength. In fact, he is
sacrificing his might and strength to the Lord.
Another missionary has had Crohn’s
disease since he was 12 years old. When he was 17 the medication he was
taking for Crohn’s wiped out most of his kidneys and he is operating on about
5% kidney function. He was hospitalized in January, gets tired easily and
needs to rest during the day but is determined to complete his mission.
He is a hard worker and a good teacher.
We attend our District Council meeting each week when we are here in Fayetteville and this week we are holding the meeting here at our apartment and feeding the district lunch. Transfers are on Wednesday and we are losing our district leader, Elder Beau Phipps from Burley ID. He has been here for 12 weeks and we have become quite attached to him. We hate to see him go. The rest of our district, 3 elders and 4 sisters, will remain intact this transfer.
We are loving our mission. We miss
all of you but we are making new friends and meeting amazing people. You
have got to try this!
Love,
Elder and Sister Merrell, Mom and Dad,
Grandpa and Grandma, Rod and Carol
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