Feb. 11, 2012
It’s Saturday and
Elder Curtis is at the office. I’m home
doing laundry and catching up on things around the apt. that we have a hard
time finding time for. Next Monday,
which is P-day, we will be up in Huntsville.
As I’ve said, it’s hard to follow the schedules the Mission sets for all
missionaries. This evening we will pick
up the Sisters and go together for a ward “Chili Cook-off”.
This has been a
week of waking early, traveling, and carrying out our assignments at Zone
Conferences. We spent Monday getting
things ready and then were up at 3:30 Tuesday in order to make it to Tupelo, MS
by 8:00. It’s a pretty straight shot
once you get on the right freeway. In
fact, it’s the same freeway we took when coming to Georgia on our first mission
and then again coming here to Alabama.
You’d think we couldn’t miss, but we did and ended up out in the country
somewhere at 4:30 in the morning. Groan. We did finally get on a road leading
us the right way, only through a lot of small towns and slow traffic. Eventually
we connected with the main freeway and were actually able to arrive on
time.
We had never been
to this part of the mission or met with one Zone at a time. The other two
conferences we’ve attended were made up of Multi-Zones so they only evolved two
days. With two of the Zones being
combined after the last transfer, we have or will be attending five different
conferences in five locations. The one in Tupelo was the farthest away….about a
three hour drive. One nice thing about
attending individual conferences is being able to have more one on one with the
missionaries. Also, with only that
Zone’s cars to inspect it is much easier and takes less time leaving us the
chance to sit in on more of the meeting.
Even though the same topics were covered each time, there are some new
thoughts added here and there and we always leave having been spiritually fed.
We left the
meeting in Tupelo early and on our way back drove through downtown to see where
“Elvis” was born and lived until he was about13. We walked around the museum
area that featured the house he grew up in and the church where he first
started singing. We didn’t go in but got pictures outside.
Wednesday the meeting was at the Birmingham Stake Center which
is only about 20 min. from the office so we didn’t have to get such an early
start. At each of the conferences they invite the Stake Pres. in that area to
take some time for a message. Pres. Harmon told of some of the events that took
place during the most recent tornadoes.
His stake was the hardest hit and many members as well as some of the
missionaries were called to help with the clean-up. He shared ways that the
church has prepared to step right in with not only service but materials. He spoke about the tornadoes that were so
large and destructive in Alabama last spring. He said the stake had been asked
before hand to have a clothing drive. I don’t remember the numbers, but enough
clothing to fill all the rooms of one of the branches had been donated and
sorted into sizes. It was only a week later that the destruction took
place. Members were called on to
distribute the items, but weren’t sure where to begin until they learned of a
relief effort by another church right where the greatest needs were. They were ready, but lacked the clothing.
When the church contacted them with the offer of clothes from their efforts,
prayers of thankfulness were given. When
the church is able to step in with help, the people they serve as well as the
other churches “know we are Christians and followers of Christ”.
We left early again and went back to the office to take care
of some other assignments that had been put off because of these meetings. Elder C needed to get the Jan. miles and gas
report into Salt Lake. He has still been dealing with arranging the accident
repairs as well and we ended up not leaving for home until after 9:00. This “felt” like the longest day yet. Sigh!
Thursday morning we were headed south to Montgomery. Again, we needed to be there by 8:00. For
each meeting I would have the missionaries call in orders for any media
materials they needed and then would gather the items to take with us. This is
helpful to them, especially the areas far from the office who aren’t able to
come by there. I have given out many, many cases of Books of Mormon, both in
English and Spanish, as well as the other items used in teaching. This is just
one of my responsibilities and I also take care of ordering and keeping all
supplies available. Thank goodness we have the mission van to transport the
orders on these occasions.
Hello again….it’s Sunday evening and we are getting ready for
an early start to Huntsville tomorrow, but I wanted to finish this up. After
church today we had lunch with Rick and Mary Ellen Harmon from the ward. They
are around our age and we were looking forward to getting to know them better,
however, we had the Sisters with us and they had an appointment set for all of
us. We did enjoy lunch and a short visit then were on our way the other
direction for a final teaching appointment with Zachery. We were glad to be
there as he is getting baptized THIS Wed.
I told you our Sisters are good. This is the first baptism for
Columbiana since last March. This is a hard area. We also went to two other
places with the Sisters and didn’t get home until after five. It was a good
day.
Back to Zone Conferences, as I said, Thursday was
Montgomery’s. These conferences have
been special for us as we had the head of Church Fleet Coordinators here from
Salt Lake to explain the purpose and use of the “Twi”, the black boxes that
were installed in the cars at the last Zone meetings. He presented a power point at the first two
conferences and now this time in Montgomery it was Elder Curtis responsibility
take over and finish up with the final Zones. It is quite a program and when
explained there were definitely questions from everyone. It is late and I’m
tired so I will write more about it in my next letter. It’s really quite
interesting what technology can do these days. This was a big event for the
mission and missionaries.
This was another good meeting, nice lunch and more flowers – Pres Holzaphel has called up
the couples that are in attendance in each Zone to sing praises to us and
present the Sisters with flowers. Since
we need to be at all the conferences, we are now surrounded with beautiful flowers.
It is a little embarrassing, but we remind ourselves that we are with a
different group each time so they don’t know we went through this three times
last week and will two more times this week. The Pres. does like to show
gratitude to those who serve and encourages us to do the same. He is a great example.
My mind is slowing down on me….it’s been a long week. We did take the opportunity to see a few
sights in Montgomery before heading home. We discovered there is a lot to see
there, more so than Birmingham as far as history goes. This time we only took
time to go through the first Confederate White House where Jefferson Davis
lived at the beginning of the Civil War.
We also took pictures of the Capital Building which was built when
Montgomery was the first State Capital of Alabama. It was a beautiful building.
We picked up a map with other places of interest from early life in the South,
the Civil War, on to the Civil Rights’ movement in the 60’s. There is also the
Water Front on the Alabama River with a lovely walkway. We could probably find enough to keep us busy
for several days if we can ever take the time.
I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to see at least some of it.
My mind has stopped on me….guess it’s time to say good night
and get some rest before tomorrow. We
have a busy, but fun day planned with the Senior Missionaries. I’ll tell you about it next week. We send our love and prayers to each of
you. Blessings to all…..
Love, Mom
and Dad Elder and Sister Curtis
PS I’m sending this without proof reading it so
please overlook my mistakes.
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