Email and the March G.R.I.T.S. newsletter from Sister King

Hi, parents and families of our amazing Georgia Atlanta North missionaries...

We hope all is well at your homes and that you are experiencing the many blessings of having a son or daughter serve a mission.  This is an amazing time to be serving here!

First--all of the foliage is turning from brown to green...it's absolutely beautiful!  And all the rain we've been receiving lately seems to have speeded-up that process.  But Spring also brings massive pollen levels.  The yellow pockets fly off the pine trees, open up, and coat every car and outdoor surface with a thick, yellow flour-like substance!   The rain has helped wash it away, though...so that's a good thing!  Unfortunately, hay fever also accompanies Springtime in Georgia.  So Zyrtec has become our favorite remedy, even though many of your sons and daughters tell us, "But I never had allergies before..."  Only in Georgia!

Now to the best news...  The Atlanta Temple has been renovated, is all new inside and will soon be rededicated.  President King made his way through the entire mission yesterday, training and handing each companionship 300 special door cards he designed (25,000 in all).  They are to be used with the missionaries' investigators and many others that they encounter the next few weeks...to help get people to the public open house tours (April 9-23).  The 4x9" door cards incorporate a beautiful Atlanta Temple picture, all of the public open house tour information with a mormon.org card (so a personal message can be left) as well as three of the new "easy codes"--so people with smart phones can be directly taken to the open house ticket reservation website, mormon.org and to the Church's video on "Why Mormons Build Temples."

We're thrilled that all of our sister missionaries and senior couples have been asked to help daily in the hosting area/tent where they will greet those who've just taken the temple  tour and answer questions.  Our elders will be working on a rotating basis in the parking lot and helping people with their foot covers.  A few will also help at the punch and cookie table inside the adjacent Glenridge Building (but we told them we'll be checking to see who has crumbs on their lips!).  We will also be processing referrals immediately by computer, and the missionaries working in those areas will then go visit those people who are interested within 24-hours.   We're hoping for many new investigators!

Another wonderful opportunity--April is one of the 4 times per year that President King gets to interview each missionary individually.   Because all of the missionaries will be at the temple at one time or another, President King will do those interviews in the Glenridge Building adjacent to the temple grounds as District Meetings are held...and he can also sign their special-use recommends to view the rededication broadcast.   It should be a memorable time.

After that, the Temple Youth Cultural Celebration involving 2,500 youth in our temple district will be held on April 30th.  Your sons and daughters will be able to take their investigators to watch that at their local church buildings, where it will be broadcast live.  The next day, May 1st, President Thomas S. Monson will rededicate the Atlanta Temple in two sessions.  All of the missionaries will be able to see that broadcast in their buildings as well.

We feel like we are about to see great things happen here in Georgia!  The members are excited and energized about inviting their friends and neighbors.  For weeks, the youth have been practicing their many song and dance numbers for the celebration.  And the prophet of God is coming to rededicate the holy temple here.  It doesn't get much better than that.

Thank you for your support!  We do love your children and feel honored to be here working with them.

Love,

President and Sister King & Connor

I love how we receive emails and newsletters from Pres & Sis King.  

And what a great time to be serving in the Atlanta Georgia North Mission!

Southern food, or lack thereof; man shorts; POLLEN like crazy; super busy week; and great investigators

This week in our emails to Elder McGregor we told him about the great choir in our new ward and that his brother-in-law did his first triathlon, coming in 2nd in his age group/3rd overall and averaging 5:35 min/mile in the 5K portion.

We also asked him if he got to confirm Fatima on Sunday; if he gets to be involved in the Temple Open House; why an NFL player is a regular on campus; why he asked for Wheat Thins - if they're not available back there or what; we told him that Bryon will be doing his company's 4th quarter 2010 earnings report (publicly); and we asked him about his dislike for coleslaw and whether or not he's had grits or much Southern food yet.  Bryon also told him that he will miss going with him to the Priesthood session of General Conference this weekend and eating at the Mongolian Barbecue after.

Here's his email to us:

So yesterday Fatima was confirmed, but I wasn't able to be there. Couldn't work out a ride :/ Sad day. But she's doing really well from what I understand, and she'll be going to the temple open house and everything. Woohoo!

I'm glad everything's been going so well at home! Sounds like all sorts of fun. I will admit, I do miss singing in the choir. But I'll have plenty of that in the future, so no worries.

My companion is thoroughly impressed by Jordan's triathlon feat, as is anyone else to whom I mention it. He's pretty crazy.

As far as the temple open house goes, I'm not sure what role we'll play. Apparently we'll do something for the cultural celebration, so that's cool. And we might be doing something during the open house itself, but as I'm now in the Athens zone, which is one of the more distant zones in the mission, I probably won't be doing much. However, the UGA sisters, along with all other sisters, will be heading back to Paper Mill (from what I understand) to work full time at the temple open house. So that's pretty sweet. Maybe I'll mention to them to visit some people if they can =]

Let's see, as far as the NFL player goes, he's really the Sisters' investigator; we just were helping them teach him because they didn't have a member present for the lesson and they can't teach him alone. So yeah. I think they'll be teaching him again this week? I'll let you know. And no, he's not a student. He just came back here to UGA to do some training or something. I'm not even sure. We probably aren't even going to mention to him that we found out he's a football player. We'll just pretend like we don't know.

As to the wheat thins, that was mostly a joke. I can totally buy wheat thins here, it's just they're a little outside my budget =] So getting a box in the mail would be nice =] As far as tapes go, I wasn't aware of any more in my room, but you've recently spent a lot more time there than I have, so what do I know? ;)

It's too bad Dad's Q4'10 earnings report has to be so boring. I'm reminded of teachers in elementary school and middle school that required reports to be colorful and pretty (aka the bane of my existence). And so I'm left to wonder what all that time spent (or not spent, in my case) making projects pretty was for. I guess just to gratify my respective teachers, because it doesn't appear to have much use in the practical world (at least, as a CFO) =]

I don't think I've ever liked coleslaw. I've never had a whole lot, but from the times I've had it here, it's been confirmed to me of my dislike. No offense, Georgia. 

More funny Georgia stuff (and more specifically, UGA stuff) to come...

Well, from what I understand, grits is a breakfast food? And we don't really eat breakfast w/ members. So yeah. Then there's also the fact that all of the members assume we eat southern food frequently, so they try to spice it up for us and make things other than southern food. Which means we rarely get southern food. It's kinda like in school where all of your teachers give you tons of homework, assuming that somehow all of the other teachers don't give any. And you end up with tons from EVERY teacher. Boy, my elementary school woes abound.

Daw, I'm excited in the future (whenever the occasion permits) to eat mongo and go to priesthood session with you. Plan on it =]

And now for some cool stuff about UGA / my week.

Man shorts. I don't think I've ever seen so much white, hairy man thigh my whole life (and of course, I'm speaking of those other than my own). Apparently it's all the rage for college aged males to wear khaki shorts. Short khaki shorts. As a result, white, hairy man-thigh abounds (almost as much as my elementary school woes). It's disturbing at times, but I sadly submit that I'm getting used to it (yet seen to oft, familiar with her face, we first endure [check], then pity [check], then embrace [there will never be a check in this box]).

(LOL)

But on to even more interesting subjects. Also known as Georgia pollen. I don't think I've ever sneezed so much in my life. And that's saying something. See, in Georgia, every spring, certain trees release their pollen with the sole purpose of making my sinuses go CRAZY. Image search on Google "Georgia Pollen," I'm sure you'll find it. As I walked out the door one day early this week, I immediately began sneezing, and I wondered why. To my surprise, everything was yellow. You'll see what I mean.

Let's see. We had a SUPER busy week this last week, capped off by 4 investigators at church.

-Abi/Eric-- We've been teaching Abi since before spring break, and yesterday was the first time she was able to come to church. And come to church she did--she even brought her friend Eric. She's mostly curious about the church and in trying to see the differences between it and hers. So I would say that's the largest stumbling block at this point-- turning curiosity into a genuine search. But in the meantime, she does pretty much everything we ask her to, including coming to church and reading from the BoM and praying. Woohoo! And she expressed her excitement in attending general conference this coming week (side note: WHAT THE HECK. It's general conference ALREADY??? Wasn't it just like, two or three months ago? Mission time is scary).

-Robb-- He was originally taught by the Sisters, but for inspired reasons, they passed him over to us to be taught. And teaching him we are! He's progressing really well, and he also has no difficulty fulfilling commitments. We're working with him to recognize his answer when it comes. In the meantime, he SMOKES me at ping pong.

-Kristine-- So this week we were walking around campus doing contacts when we decide to take a break and sneeze our brains out because of the pollen. As we so do, Kristine walks up to us and introduces herself. She's from Salt Lake City. Her boyfriend is preparing to go on his mission in Italy. She's got her own triple combination and bible with her name engraved on it. She reads from the BoM frequently. She's also not a member of the church. We set up an appointment, taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she came to church and loved it. So needless to say, she's been prepared. We're just working with her to make sure that she gets her answer and that she's sure of it. =]

Well, that's a pretty good sized email! Love you guys a ton! Hope everything's great at home! Love you!

Elder Fenton McGregor

-- 

Elder Trenton McGregor

1150 Cole Drive SW

Lilburn Georgia

30047

I googled Georgia pollen and can see here that current Weed Pollen Counts in Athens are HIGH, and here is a Fox 31 Report that "Pollen count in Georgia hits extreme for first time this year."  It shows the following pictures:

I also found a video of yellow 'pollen clouds' in the air!  Poor Elder McGregor!

Fatima was baptized; Spring break tracting, service and exchanges; Southern food; and Abinadi

So this week we got some "extra" news about Elder McGregor. I emailed my cousin's daughter, who is finishing up her PhD at UGA and told her Trent is a missionary on the campus there and had she ever noticed missionaries on campus before, etc. Last Wednesday I got this message from her:


Guess what? I just ran into Trent tonight. My mom was visiting me, and we were walking on campus and he was walking across the street from us. We talked with him for a while. He looks GREAT.


You'll see that he also writes about it in his letter below. So that was kind of fun and then we also got this message from our friend who is the High Councilman working with the Paper Mill Portuguese Group:


Wanted to let you know that Fatima was baptized today. This was the single mom that Trent found and was really hard to get out to church - he never gave up - and it was worth it. Attached is a photo of her at her baptism.

Elder Emmett and Fatima

Very fun to get those two messages, and I forwarded the news to E McGregor.

Here's his email to us today:

Hey Fam,

Wow, I'm so glad. I knew she had a baptismal date for Sunday, but no one was able to let me know if she actually was successfully baptized or not. So that's really good to know. I know she wanted me to confirm her, so maybe I'll be back in Paper Mill for next Sunday once again =]

Well, sounds like it was a lot of fun for you guys (our 'new' ward had a western-themed social that was very fun.  Bryon was the Emcee). It'll be fun to go to ward activities when I get back and not have to constantly be worrying about investigators and rides and fellowshippers and all that. I think that'll be one of the things I'll enjoy post-mission--much much less stress.

Yeah, not a particularly exciting Saint Patty's Day for us at UGA (I told him we had our elders over for dinner on St Patrick's Day and the Irish / green food we had...). I'll tell you this-- campus was a ghost town during spring break. It was quite an interesting experience. We did some tracting in off-campus housing, we did a TON of service, and we did an exchange with the zone leaders in their area to keep busy. But it'll be back to having too much to do and not enough time to do it this week! Woohoo! (again, I'm not sure I've ever been so excited about being stressed. But then, it was really stressful not having all that much to do. And I definitely prefer the former).

Yeah, our dinner appts are with the students. Sometimes they really are little more than what I ate in college. We had a dinner 2 weeks ago where I don't think I've eaten so little in all my life. Good news is I'm losing some of that weight I've put on. I guess not eating will do that ;) I don't think my stomach's quite shrunk as of yet (from eating all that ton of food as a portuguese-speaking missionary)...

Yeah, we were walking down the street and two ladies on the other side kind of yell to us as we're walking. We look over and they're like, "Do either of you know Elder McGregor?" and I was like, "Yeah, I know him!" So we ran over there and chatted with them. It was great.

Did you get your new ATM card?  I sent it over a week ago, I think.

Yep, I got it =] Activated and everything.

Does the Institute have a great missionary couple like the Rounds?

Um, we have like, a secretary, Sister Johnson. She's pretty awesome.

Do you have an English name tag now?

Ha. Um, no, and I haven't really ordered one. I guess I should. But sometimes it's actually a really good point of conversation with the UGA students, so we'll see.

How was your week?

Great week. We did a lot of service for a less active member in one of the family wards, and one of the less active branch members that lives with that family. And he actually seems to be turning around pretty well. We found some new investigators while tracting, and I got a flat tire =] Lots of fun =]

What was one of your most interesting experiences?

We taught a guy named Rusahl (Russel). Definitely one of the most unique experiences on my mission, and it's sad I don't have time to recount the experience. But tell you what--I'll record a tape and send it to you guys and I'm sure you'll enjoy that =]

Have you had a chance to have a real southern vittles – grits, collard greens, etc.?

Yep. No grits yet, but collared greens are gross. Coleslaw is also nasty. But I usually eat a little bit anyway just to prove I can handle variety and to avoid any imminent heckling =]  

(I love that he put "collared" greens - aren't you just picturing little greens with collars on them? Kind of like Veggie Tales : )

Anything we can get/do for you?

Actually, now that I think about it, I need some more tapes. The little handheld recorder ones. They sell them at Fry's (and probably Best Buy). And maybe a box of Wheat Thins. That'd be nice ;)

(This makes me wonder if they don't have Wheat Thins back there or if they're too expensive for their budget or what...)

How goes the work with the NFL pro? BTW, there’s a “I’m a Mormon” video of Rob Morris - former NFL pro who played for the Colts – your “mystery” investigator might enjoy it.

He was gone over spring break, so hopefully we'll be able to get in contact with him this week. I'll let you know!

Well, thought I'd add this: As you guys may or may not know, we're doing a mission-wide reading of the Book of Mormon, to be finished before the Temple Dedication. We're marking 6 things (and the color's I'm personally using):

1. Christ's Name (red)

2. His attributes (light blue)

3. His words (orange)

4. Doctrines (dark blue)

5. Principles (green)

6. Applications (yellow)

Just finished Abinadi today, and I'm just as impressed as ever with him. Interesting thought: Who ever said Abinadi was an old man? I know Arnold Friberg painted him that way, but he may not have been much older than me =] Especially considering the pattern of the Lord's prophets being so young...

Well, love you all! Have a great week! I'll be on for a bit longer, so you can shoot me something quick if you like!

Elder McGregor

Q&A, talking with everyone from Baptists to Muslims, teaching a Bengal, and a Spring Break ghost town

So this week Bryon and I both asked a lot of questions and I thought I'd just include those sections of our emails (Mom in pink & Dad in blue) with Trent's responses:

Hey Son!
So fun to get the news last week!  And quite different from the work in Paper Mill.  So of course I have a million questions  : )
Hey family! What's new!
Well, I'll get right to answering questions =]

So, I'm guessing you don't get fed by members any more?  Does that mean you have to shop for and prepare your own food most of the time?
We get fed by members occasionally. But not often. But that's fine; it'll give me a chance to get rid of some extra weight ;) And yes, I do a lot of preparing my own food. Don't ask what... ;)

Who are the Portuguese-speaking missionaries in Paper Mill now?  So do they have the apartment to themselves?

The Portuguese speaking missionaries are the following:
-Elder Mundt (This is his last transfer) and Elder Goodman (he was called english speaking originally, but President King changed his assignment. He's pretty new, but not straight out of the MTC, so that's good)
-Elder Emmett (previous comp, Brazilian Visa Waiter from Guatemala) and Elder Leatham (Brazilian visa waiter from Las Vegas).
And that's it. Interesting, huh? And yes, they have an apartment all to themselves, because the Paper Mill English Elders were replaced by Sisters who are doing a great job, from what I hear.

Where does the campus branch meet?
The Athens University Branch meets on campus at the Institute building.

Do you have to have permission from the university to proselyte on campus?
Yep, we have permission. We literally walk around campus, stopping people to talk to them. We always try to set up return appointments at the institute building (1450 S Lumpkin Street, Athens GA, just in case you were wondering), but often the students are busy/reluctant, etc.

Are you using your bike now?

Nope, not using my bike yet. Although it HAS been used, as one of the Elders from the Athen's First Ward who was in need of a bike (as his had a flat) asked me if he could borrow it for the day. So the bike is being used in the work of the Lord! Good for it!

What is it like proselyting mostly to people your own age?

It's pretty interesting proselyting to people mostly my age. You have to imagine, these are people coming into college with drive, thinking they're going to change the world (which is great). We end up getting in a lot of interesting discussions as a result. I've had talks with the following types of denominations/beliefs/etc:

• baptists (by grace we're saved)
• catholics (authority passed down through Peter)
• non-denominational (no authority needed, just do what Jesus says)
• atheist (no god)
• agnostic (can't say if there is or isn't a god)
• pentecostal (crazy gift of tonges, etc.)
• calvinist (pre-destination/God created people to be destroyed if they don't serve him)
• methodist (the bible is literally God's word and perfect and can't be added to or taken away from)
• jewish (read the old testament, you'll get the idea ;] )
• hindu (reincarnation, etc)
• muslim (Jesus a prophet, but not the Savior)

and really just about anything else you can think of. But it's a huge testimony builder. Everything else is SO confusing! I think one of the most interesting things I've heard was from a catholic trying to explain the trinity. He ended his description with this: "In the end, God is mysterious, and we're really not supposed to understand. That's what faith is for." SAD.

Dad's questions:

Good morning Elder. We hope you had good week. Like Mom, I also have lots of questions, having polled fan base and compiled a list of questions to assist you in providing a more complete perspective on your service at UGA:

1.       How is the university different (in feel and look) from BYU? How are they the same besides being universities with lots of students?   From a Google Maps perspective, the UGA campus seems much bigger than BYU’s. Is that correct?
It's pretty dang different. It's bigger than BYU for sure. Not by a ton, but not by a little bit either. There are roads all throughout the University, and there's a free school bus system provided (which is why we have no car and no bikes =]). The buses are all driven by the students, which is pretty cool.

This piqued my curiosity, so I checked both schools websites:

BYU 

311 buildings on  560-acres

Enrollment Fall 2010, ± 33,000 undergrad/grad students 

UGA 

388 buildings on 615 acres 

Enrollment Fall 2009 34,885 undergrad/grad students

Also, I looked up the UGA transport he mentions and wow!, it looks great (see below)

2.       What is your week like? Please describe a normal day.

Well, we wake up/prepare 6:30, personal study 8, comp study 9, leave 10ish. We'll eat lunch around 12 or 1, eat dinner around 5 or 6 and be back home about 9. Fill the day with random teaching appointments at the institute building we've set up earlier in the week (usually 1 or 2), short lessons with members of the branch where we work for referrals, etc. (usually 1 or 2), and fill the rest of the day with walking around different parts of campus doing contacts with students. They're pretty long days, pretty much filled with 100% work all the time (which is awesome, because that doesn't always happen in normal areas).


3.       How many students are there in the UGA branch?
There are usually 50 branch members who attend church every Sunday, but there's quite a few more total in the branch (in-/less-active).

4.       Tell us more about Elder Williams (e.g. number in his family, interests, likes, etc.). Beyond being from San Diego, CA, we know nothing about him.
Elder Williams grew up playing baseball, but blew out his knee at the beginning of High School, and went through pretty extensive physical therapy. He plays racquetball instead now. He has a hard time falling asleep at night. He's got 2 sisters and a brother.  He wants to work for the San Diego Padres (that's his dream, at least). Tell me anything else specific you want to know about him =]

OK, so I’m going to limit the number of questions so that you have time to respond to them in depth and aren’t limiting your responses to mono-syllabics. 

Well, sounds like things are going great at home, and BYU's doing pretty well considering the crazy stuff with Davis (I hear all about how BYU's doing--the branch members talk about it all the time).

Just thought I'd let you know, we taught a lesson to someone who plays for the Cincinnati Bengals in the NFL. We didn't know it at the time, but he was HUGE, so we assumed he played for Georgia's team. I won't include his name for his own privacy reasons, but I guess we'll find out next week if he's interested or not. =]

So this week is probably going to be pretty rough, considering Campus is a ghost town (spring break). So we're looking to get in lots of service for the branch members and a couple less active members in hopes it sparks something in them (referral, the spirit, etc.) But it's great to be here! 

Love you guys!

Elder Fenton McGregor




Just for fun, some UGA stats (from Wikipedia):

The University of Georgia (UGA) is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States. UGA offers seventy-nine degree programs in a wide range of disciplines and enrolls about 26,000 undergraduate and about 9,000 graduate students from the United States and around the world every year.
UGA student athletes compete intercollegiately as the Bulldogs. As a member of the Southeastern Conference, the Bulldogs have won thirty-seven national championships and 130 conference championships.

Besides academics, research, and athletics, UGA is also well known for its campus in the acclaimed college town of Athens,^[5] with dominant architectural themes of Federal—the older buildings—and Classical and Antebellum style. Situated on a 615-acre main campus, UGA has a workforce of more than 9,800, an annual budget of about $1 billion, and a physical plant valued at some $500 million, making it one of the largest employers in Georgia and a major contributor to the state's economic and cultural vitality.^[6]

An Animated Explanation of Mormon Missionaries

I saw this recently and thought it was great:
Mormon Missionaries Made Simple

(this picture is not a link)

Transfer to Athens University Branch at UGA; a great companion, Karen's confirmation, and "it's almost as if there were someone directing it all..."

We didn't hear from Elder McGregor this morning and so assumed that he may not be emailing (in Brazil he missed every time he was transferred).  Then we received this email at 2:30 (5:30pm Eastern), so apparently he squeezed us in right before his P-Day ended:


Hello Family!!!

How are you guys? Sounds like everyone's doing great from your email.

So are you guys ready?

I was transferred to the University of Georgia Campus in Athens, Georgia! CRAZY. Yep, I'm literally walking around a college campus doing missionary work. There's a branch here in the UGA campus called the Athens University Branch. But it's awesome here! We do contacts all day, every day. Yeah, we walk around campus and talk to college students about the gospel. On Thursdays we have a booth that we set up and talk some more about the gospel. We try and set up return appointments with all the people we talk to, and we'll usually teach them at the Institute building. As of right now, we have no investigators because they've all been dropped, but we're working furiously to find those who are ready to hear our message =] But I'll tell you what, there sure are some benefits to going on a stateside mission. I never expected to have any sort of experience like this on my mission.

My new comp is Elder Williams, from San Diego, CA. He's been on his mission for about 4 months, and he's a rock star. He loves doing missionary work, and he's great to be around.

So yeah, perhaps no more Portuguese. I haven't given up--apparently there are a few (and I mean a few) Brazilians who go to UGA, so we'll see if we can find them.

Well, the apartment's great. Nice and clean. We share it with Elders working in the Athens 1st ward, Elder Jackson (Elder Samuel Jackson, I'll have you know), and Elder Anderson.

To answer Mom: No, Elder Emmett did not get his visa. Although I received news today that Elder Gneiting did. So good for him, huh? =]

Let's see, on Sunday we made an exchange and I went back to Paper Mill for Sacrament Meeting to do Karen's confirmation. She was baptized on Saturday, and she asked me to do the confirmation, and Pres. King approved. So off I went, back to Paper Mill for a visit. The confirmation went great. Oh, btw, the english Elders both got transferred out of Paper Mill and Sisters were "white-washed (they went in without any prior knowledge of the area)" in. So that's exciting, and Karen, although apprehensive about the Elders' leaving, turns out to love the Sisters. So it all worked out perfectly. Almost as if there were someone directing it all... ;)

Well, I love you all! I know the church is true! ;)

Elder McGregor


We also got this note from our friend, the high councilman working with the Paper Mill Portuguese-speaking group:
Trent was transferred on Wednesday - he is now working at the University of Georgia in a student branch. I had the opportunity to see him today (Sunday) since he was allowed to come back to confirm a woman he taught who was baptized yesterday.

I know that he is sad to not be serving in the Portuguese group, but he also sounded excited to be working in completely different circumstances with young adults that are pondering significant questions about their being and future. He looked good.

I'm sorry he won't be around our area any more, but will keep him in our prayers.

                                Red - Georgia Atlanta North Mission Office
                                Pink - Paper Mill Ward Building
                                Blue - Paper Mill Ward elders' apartment
                                Green - University of Georgia Athens