Snow!

Well, not exactly. At least not here. But there were reports of snow just north of us in Tennessee. And it did get down to freezing as can be seen from the frost on our car.  It is fortunate that the cold and the wet didn't hit at the same time or the area would be buried in snow.

This was transfer week with three departing missionaries and six new arrivals. There is not a lot for us to talk about as we mostly prepared to help coordinate temple trips for the next few weeks and we started working with Bessemer Ward.  We did go to a Mission Leadership Council meeting just south of Birmingham on Friday, the day of the frost, and these are pictures of the church parking lot.  It seems to be an unusually wet winter this year.

There was one exciting episode when Karen thought someone was trying to open our back door at 3:30 AM Saturday morning. It turned out to be a cat that has been hanging around and is big enough to reach the door handle. Apparently this cat thinks she lives here. We are running an experiment to see if the application of a broom to a cat will discourage it from trying to open the door in the middle of the night.

We learned two important lessons from this experience. The first is that thinking someone is trying to break into your home is not a good way to wake up in the middle of the night and will inhibit further sleep. The second is that cats really don't like to have brooms applied to them, in fact, they rather resent it. The only open questions now are the number of broom applications that may be required to train a cat and if that is even possible.

The work here is progressing well. The ABM missionary miracle that we want to share is pretty special and has been edited slightly for the blog:

We have been working with a guy named Johnny.  He has a very rough background. Missionaries in the past have met with him and they gave him Books of Mormon, but Johnny's wife does not like us so she would throw them away. We were not having it :) So with the help of faithful prayers, her heart was softened. We were able to bless them and their home but she was still getting after Johnny which was so sad because I have never met someone who loves the Book of Mormon as much as this man! So on Tuesday we asked Johnny if he'd meet us at McDonalds so we could share a message with him and he accepted. We met him there and he had Michelle with him. We were so excited! We sit down and Johnny explains to us that he wants us to tell her why the Book of Mormon is so amazing. So we teach the restoration and introduce the Book of Mormon and this whole time Johnny is testifying and it is SO powerful. Towards the end she looks at us and says "You girls have really enlightened me about the Book of Mormon". WHAT A MIRACLE! Now they call us their girls. It has been so amazing! I know this happened because the spirit spoke to us what Michelle needed. The spirit has been a vital role is this family's conversion.

Johnny opened up to us last night about why we mean so much to him. The first time we stopped by we were not planning on stopping. We kept walking past his house to get to our next appointment, but we both stopped and both said we needed to knock. Thank goodness we did because right when we knocked Johnny was about to take his life. He had pills in hand when he heard a knock on the door. He now calls us his Angels.

Seeing Red

Football is serious business here.  A local gentleman told us that he doesn't care much for professional football, but college ball is another story.  It's either Alabama or Auburn.  Around here even the birds wear red. 

Alabama Fan?

This past week brought more rain with flooding in some areas and at least two nights where temperatures were close to freezing. Flooding hasn't been an issue where we are, but high humidity and cold nights lead to other problems.

There is often quite a lot of condensation inside our windows in the morning. Nothing that a few minutes with a rag and a blow dryer won't take care of though. As the temperature rises in the day time it usually doesn't become a problem again until the next morning. Usually. Our goal is to keep from starting a mold farm.

There are some wild swings in humidity here. Outside it may go from 40% to 90% relative humidity over the course of a day with an average of around 60%.  The humidity inside is generally 50-60%. When the afternoon temperatures are warm enough to open windows and the humidity outside is less than inside, it will only take about 30 minutes to drop the inside to be equal or less than outside. 
To summarize: It is really humid here.

We met with some of the ward leaders from Bessemer Ward this past week.  Bessemer is about 20 miles southwest of Fultondale and is directly west of Birmingham.  President and Sister Allred and the two sister missionaries assigned to the ward were also there. President Allred presented the mission vision and we discussed how we can help support and strengthen the ward.  We found that their ward mission plan dovetails closely with the mission vision and goals. Coincidence?  We think not.

This is the ward we will be attending for a while. It is where we went to church this morning and found a very warm welcome. We are excited for this additional opportunity.

One of the many mission miracles reported by the young missionaries this past week:
"Then we went and saw a member who just moved into the ward. She was baptized back in '87 with her family. I figured she had been to the temple before but I was prompted to ask her if she had. Turns out she hadn't! It makes me sad but we are so excited to help her get there! We are going to start doing family history with her so she can do the temple work for her mom because her mom had never been either! As well as her dad who passed away before they found the restored gospel. I love being a missionary! She was glowing when I told her that we were going to help her have her forever family that she wanted so desperately from the time she met with the missionaries."

Happy Valentines Day!

The Buckle of the Bible Belt

Any questions?

Churches are literally everywhere here and many have signs. This was the best one we saw this week just around the corner from where we live.

We went to a mall to look for some shoes and stopped at a shop selling cinamon rolls.  The clerk saw Karen's name tag and asked if she was a Sister. She said yes, that we were missionaries, and the clerk said that he went to a Catholic school and knew a lot of sisters there.  It was almost like being in the Philippines again.

New shoes

I tried clicking the heels together and nothing happened. Apparently they are not magic shoes. The sales clerk never said they were, but, on the other hand, never said they weren't. I'll probably keep them anyway.

Saturday morning was spent helping a woman the Elders are teaching move from an apartment into a house just a few miles away.  Last week we posted a video of Elder Jaszkowiak and Elder Ballard juggling tennis balls. This week they helped move a piano, among other things. These two can do it all!

Maybe we can hold this back with our face...

 Things were a little more relaxed this week as we are still learning how we can best help the work progress here in Alabama. The temple is closed for two weeks for maintenance but we were able to stay involved in family history by indexing records in Family Search. We were looking at records from the Civil War. As we pulled name, date, location, and unit information from the records we would look on the internet for additional information on the history of the units the men served in. We really felt connected to these men who lived over 150 years ago, one of whom died of pneumonia while a soldier in 1864. They weren't just names and dates anymore, they became real people.

Maybe one day family members will find their own connection to these men as they search for records of their ancestors. It feels good to help make this kind of searching possible.

We also made it safely through our first tornado warning this week.  There was one night with lots of thunder and lightning and the threat of a tornado to the southwest of us. Nothing really came of it. There were multiple flash flood warnings for the area, but flooding shouldn't be an issue for our apartment complex. We did hear of an apartment building south of us that was evacuated due to some flooding in a nearby stream.

We have been blessed so far only seeing rain and some wind.  Apparently this area averages about three tornados a year. We'll keep our eyes peeled.  A tornado is a bit like a grizzley bear. It would be exciting to see one from a safe distance, but we won't go looking for it. Also - if one is spotted, don't make it mad!

#onework

Since transfers on January 8th the entire mission has had the opportunity to attend the Birmingham Temple.  Two mission districts a day came Tuesday through Friday for three weeks with an average of about 20 missionaries each day.

Our main assignment is to help coordinate, support, and keep track of the missionary's involvement with temple work. After 17 days in Alabama we've been to the temple on 9 of those days with missionaries. We are already seeing miracles as missionaries link arms with members, those they are teaching, and those beyond the veil to accomplish the work of gathering scattered Israel.

The above pictures are just a sampling of the missionaries we have the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with. The smiles are enough to tell how they felt about the temple experience.

At our district meeting this week we each had a chance to share a 30 second talent. Elder Ballard and Elder Jaszkowiak stole the show with this amazing demonstration of a companionship working together.

We had an opportunity Saturday afternoon to drive first to Jasper for a meal and then on to Fayette, which is about an hour and a half west of us. It was a beautiful drive through the Alabama countryside. Elder and Sister Price (another senior couple) were there to help the missionaries assigned in that area present a family history workshop. We went to observe their presentation and help where we could with the hands-on work shop. One young man was in tears after finding records connecting him to his grand parents.

President and Sister Allred have a clear vision of where we need to head as a mission. They collect miracles each week as individual missionaries strive to implement this vision. We would like to share just one of those miracles. 

"And then, as we were on our way the rest of the night, we went about trying to fulfill the mission vision. We ended up with what seemed like fruitless efforts. No one seemed to want to talk to us, and wouldn't let us in for a blessing. But we kept making plans, and were trying to bless their homes. Once we got home, we got a referral. A lady named Melissa had referred herself to us. We decided to call her even though it was late. She answered and was super excited to hear from us! She wanted to meet the next day, but then realized she couldn't, so we met with her Friday. It was an amazing Restoration lesson! She is so prepared! She came to church on Sunday and she is already asking questions about the temple. I know that Heavenly Father helped her to find us because of our efforts to fulfill the mission vision!"