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!