Merrell Mission: 09-01-2019 - Good Experience at Midwest Food Bank and Transfers

Rod's Food Bank Report:

Sister Merrell and I had a great experience at the Midwest Food Bank this week. As I have mentioned before, the Midwest Food Bank is a large warehouse/distribution center that supplies food to scores of agencies, ministries, and homeless shelters throughout southern Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina. The woman who is the director of volunteers at the food bank discovered that I am a doctor and asked if I would do the training for their employees and regular volunteers on the use of AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillator). I said of course, but decided that since I would have a captive audience of about a dozen people I would also teach them about the missionary program.

The personnel at the food bank are all familiar with the elders and sisters who serve at the food bank and they love them because they are always radiant and happy.

I told my audience about how young missionaries receive their mission calls. I told them about the requirements to serve a mission, the interviews, and the letter. I told them that missionaries do not choose where they will serve and they could be called to any of more than 400 missions. (Rod told them that the lucky ones were called to the Atlanta, Georgia Mission, which brought smiles!)

I told them that these wonderful elders and sisters are paying for the privilege to serve and that there are more than 70,000 of them around the world. I explained transfers and companionships. Then, when I was finished and ready to begin the AED training, they stopped me and said, “Wait, we have questions.” We spent about 10 minutes answering their missionary and church related questions.

Finally, the director of the food bank said that he had been talking to his counterpart at the Phoenix AZ branch of the food bank and was told that the Phoenix facility has a great relationship with our church. In fact, there was a missionary couple there who were serving full time at the Phoenix food bank.

He said he would love to have members of the church on his board and would really love to have full time missionaries serving here. I told him that perhaps that was a possibility and that I would find out how to make it happen.

We left that training feeling great and we feel that we have opened up a dialogue so people there now know that we are happy and willing to answer questions. We will be here for 14 more months and hope to expand on what we have started.

There are many misconceptions about our church here in the south and perhaps in a small way we are helping to correct those misconceptions- at least with the good people at the Midwest Food Bank.

District Council was in our apartment this week with lunch after. Elder Phipps is the only person in our district being transferred. We will miss him so much!

Our Wonderful District Council
(L-R) Elder Bailey, Sister Nebeker, Elder Phipps, Sister Williams, Elder Merrell,
Elder Crook, Sister Hart, Sister Toole, & Elder Sillito

Transfer Day

The Sisters and Elders keep track of time by transfers. They happen every 6 weeks. When you ask them how long they have served in an area, they will respond with three transfers or one transfer, etc. Elder Phipps served in our Fayetteville District two transfers. We love him!

Elder Phipps, our district leader, was transferred to a
zone leader training assignment.

Elder Dunn served in our district as the Assistant to the President
and spent his last transfer in Southern Georgia at Fort Benning
where he taught the gospel to many, many soldiers.
Elder Dunn has served faithfully and is going home.
He is such a good, kind, fun, caring person.
He will succeed in whatever he chooses to do in life.

Elder Crook has served one transfer in our district.
He came to us straight from the MTC.
He is from Star Valley, Wyoming.
We are watching him grow with confidence right before our eyes!