Dear Friends and Family,
It has been another month since I last
sent a letter. It sure went by fast. I send a report to the
missionary committee every Sunday night and it seems like I just sent my last
report yesterday and yet I need to send another one today.
I am not going to attach any pictures to
this letter but Carol has a bunch at her blog: merrellmission.blogspot.com.
We have had a very enjoyable month.
We didn’t travel as much this month. We attended zone conferences in the
Georgia Atlanta Mission (our home mission) and the Georgia Atlanta North
Mission so we were at home each night. Last weekend we had the
opportunity to travel to Raleigh North Carolina to attend the open house for
the re-dedication of the Raleigh Temple. Chelsie and Trent and their
families came down from Virginia so we were able to spend time with them.
It was great. We spent Friday visiting some interesting museums in
Raleigh and then the entire group went to a miniature golf course and then to
dinner. The following morning we attended the temple open house and then
we drove about 30 minutes to Hillsborough, North Carolina. In June 1771
my 8th great-grandfather, Captain Benjamin Merrell was hung there by
the British. He was one of the leaders of a group called The Regulators
who protested the oppressive taxes a year and a half before the Boston Tea
Party. There was a battle between the British and the Regulators and even
though Capt. Merrell was not present at the battle he was held responsible for
the uprising and was hung with six other men on a hilltop in Hillsborough in
front of his wife and children. There is a plaque at the site and it was
fun to take a picture of my grandson Benjamin Merrell in front of the plaque
remembering another Benjamin Merrell. After we visited the site we played
in a park for a while and then found a barbecue joint for a delicious lunch
before parting ways and returning home.
We have continued our service at the food
bank. One of the regular volunteers there is a man named Billy
Hargrove. Billy was born the same year as my father. He is 93 years
old but I have to work hard to keep up with him. He is a veteran of World
War II and is full of stories and really fun to talk to. One day two
weeks ago, while we had a little bit of down time, he leaned over toward me and
said, “You know, I’ve got one of your Book of Mormons. I have even read a
little bit. Still don’t believe it though.” I laughed at him and
told him, “ Just keep reading, Billy. Keep Reading.”. Billy
remembers sitting on his aunts porch when he was a boy and listening to her
tell stories about Sherman’s army burning their hometown of Milledgeville at
the end of the civil war. She told of how the Union soldiers took all of their
bedding and food and then tromped down their garden with their horses.
Billy was playing football with his friends on December 7, 1941 and remembers
one of his buddies running up to them and telling them that Pearl was getting
beat really good. They asked, “who is Pearl?”. The boy said he
didn’t know who she was but that his dad was really upset about it.
Yesterday we went with several of the
elders and sisters to a slave cemetery near the Antioch Baptist Church about 10
miles south of here. The cemetery has been neglected for many years and
most of the graves are not marked. The church there has a record of who
is buried in the cemetery and whose slaves they were but no record of which
person is in which grave. The graves are quite easily identified because
the dirt is sunken so there is a depression at the site of each grave.
Our job was to identify the graves and then clean off the weeds and bushes down
to bare dirt. Later they will come in and place crosses at each
grave. We completed about 1/3 of the cemetery but plan on returning again
next month.
We are looking forward to general
conference. We just got Direct TV this week so we now have BYU TV and
will be able to watch conference here in our apartment. We have invited
the elders and sisters in our district to watch with us if they don’t get
invited to watch in members homes. We plan on feeding them a late lunch
between sessions. Sessions here are at noon and 2 PM.
We are happy and healthy. If you
get a chance sometime we would love to hear from you.
Love,
Elder and Sister, Mom and Dad, Grandpa
and Grandma, Rod and Carol Merrell
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