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!