From Sis King: "No worries-- all Georgia Atlanta North missionaries are safe!" + news about the temple dedication

Just wanted to give you an update on the weather situation here, as we know you are likely worried if you've been following the situation in the news.  We were very aware of the impending storm last night and stayed in contact with all of the missionaries.  There are many tornadoes that touched down in our mission area but we can report that, as of this morning, all missionaries are accounted for and safe.  In the areas where there was some damage, we are seeking opportunities to be of service.  You'll be happy to know that the next several days are forecast to be sunny and rain/tornado-free!

We love your missionaries and be assured they are all doing well!   Thanks again for your constant support of them and us.

President & Sister King


PS:  We are also excited about this weekend because it is the culmination of months of planning and hard work for the rededication of the Atlanta Temple.  The big youth Temple Cultural Celebration takes place Saturday night in Atlanta--and all of your missionaries will be able to see it broadcast live at their local church buildings.  (President King's 1st counselor, President Rene Alba, and his wife, Kathie, are in charge of this--and have done an amazing job!).  President Monson and Elder Ballard will be here for that.  Then, on Sunday, President Monson will rededicate the temple in two sessions.  Again, those services will be broadcast live to all of the church buildings in the temple district.  What a wonderful weekend this will be!  It's estimated that some 57,000 people toured the temple during the public open houses.  More details and pictures to come in our upcoming missionary newsletter!


Sis King also attached this:Atlanta News 9:23 a.m. Thursday, April 28, 2011

Georgia storms / Atlanta ‘dodged a bullet'

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It was as if Moses parted the skies, diverting last night's lethal storms around the metro area.

Tornadoes were reported to the east, west, south and north of the city, killing 11 people across the state, but the core of metro Atlanta escaped largely unscathed.

"There's really no explanation," said National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Gibbs. "They could've just as easily hit Atlanta as they did Birmingham, Huntsville and Tuscaloosa. It's just the way the storms set up."

Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton agreed there was no empirically based explanation for Atlanta's stroke of fortune.
"I don't know that there is an answer," she said.

Three weeks ago, the metro area was hit hard by a path of storms that left more than 400,000 Georgia Power customers without electricity. But a utility spokeswoman said Thursday morning only about 1,500 residents, mostly south of the city, were without power.

The northwest corner of the state was hit hardest by the storms, with seven reported dead after a tornado ripped through Catoosa County. Deaths were also reported in Spalding County, south of Atlanta. Reports of severe damage were also coming in from counties west of Atlanta, and to the east in Madison, Ga.

Jason Getz,

Clear skies are shown as traffic travels on I-75/85 north toward downtown Atlanta from Fulton Street on April 28, 2011. Destructive storms rampaged to the north and south but the city appeared to sustain minimal storm damage.


STORMS TURN DEADLY IN GEORGIA

STORMS TURN DEADLY IN GEORGIA

• Storm death toll jumps to 178 in the South
• At least 13 dead, widespread destruction
• Girl sucked from bed, survives
• Atlanta ‘dodged a bullet'
• Photos: Ringgold and N. Georgia
• Photos: Storms hit Georgia
• Photos: Spalding County
• Photos: Tuscaloosa devastation
• Photos: Across Southeast
• Video: Alabama twister
• Video: Storm hits Rome

More Atlanta/Fulton news »

• Parents of Alabama students describe helpless feeling as tornado barreled through
• At least 13 dead, widespread destruction
• March for Babies to hold multiple walks in metro Atlanta
• Red Cross seeks donations
• Atlanta/South Fulton

A booth at the Student Center; Jesus' website; getting ambushed; and the branch talent show

Okay, so this week in our letters we asked Trent if he'd received his package and NOT opened the portion for Easter until it was actually Easter.  We told him we'd ordered some (larger) slacks and had them sent straight there; that we took a road trip to Utah for Spring Break, listening to books on CD while driving.

Hey family!

Yep, got my package. And I DIDN'T open the Easter portion until yesterday! No giving in to the natural man here, thank you very much! ;)

I'm excited about the slacks. I'll let you know how they fit and all that.

Sounds like y'all had a party in Utah. And I'm glad to hear everyone's doing well.

Boy, The Mouse and the Motorcycle! That brings back some old memories... I remember listening to that all the time on car trips.

Let's see. So maybe y'all know this (or maybe I haven't told you), but we do a booth on Thursday mornings at the Student Center. We recently remade our booth prop to say:

Did you know

that Jesus has

a website?

mormon.org

And there are commonly preachers that get up and condemn everyone at the stage in the plaza outside of the student center. One of the preachers sees our poster, comes up to us and says, "Y'all need to repent! Under whose authority can you say that THAT is Jesus's website?" And Elder Williams, without skipping a beat, responds, "His." Awesome.

Later that week we were headed to an appointment and got ambushed outside the student center by a coalition of students belonging to an unnamed denomination of Christianity. I don't think I've ever had to defend my beliefs quite so boldly in my life. Again, awesome.

But things are going well here. Not too much to report... everyone's progressing. Slowly. But surely.

Oh, but we did perform at the Branch Talent show. Elder Williams and I did a funny missionary story skit, (Mom, I told your story about telling the taxi driver in Ecuador that y'all were Jehovah's Witnesses. Dad, I used your cow fattener story). And everyone loved it. And then we got one of our investigators (Robb, the one that's really good at ping-pong) to do a remix of Book of Mormon Stories with us. And everyone loved that too. So that was a success. And Robb also went to the temple. This was his comment to us, via text:  "The temple was intricately designed and furnished. The chandeliers were lit up like christmas trees."  So funny. Robb's such a fun character; he's really a guy you just have to meet to understand what he's like.

But, again, I hope everything's well at home! Love y'all!

Elder McGregor

His stories in the talent show:   


My (Sandra's) first week in Ecuador we were taking some long-ish trips by taxi and my comp and I decided to give a Book of Mormon to every taxi driver.  So I'm sitting in the front seat and explaining the book to a driver and he asks, "¿Son Testigos de Jehovah?," which means, "Are you Testifiers of Christ?"  or at least that's the way I translated it in my mind.  So I said, "¡Si!"  And from the back seat my companion said, "¡No!"  I couldn't believe she was saying we weren't, so I said again that yes, we were, and she again said we weren't, which was pretty annoying, don't you think?  Well, really what he'd asked is if we were Jehovah's Witnesses, which of course, we weren't.  So my trainer really did know what she was talking about...  ; )

And Bryon's story, oh boy.  Okay, so Japan was a very expensive mission and Bryon and I served in the days before every missionary paid the same each month.  (ie -Ecuador was relatively cheap; Japan was expensive and  each missionary paid the cost of their particular mission).  So in Japan they ate cracked wheat every morning, because it was nutritious and inexpensive.  Bryon has told us that if he never eats another bowl of cracked wheat again it would be too soon. Anyway, the missionaries would actually get huge bags of it from the mission home.  One pair of missionaries picked up a new bag and within a week had gained a ton of weight.  Within two weeks they could barely fit in their slacks... It was weird, because they said they were gaining so quickly that they were now only eating breakfast (you know, since it's the most important meal of the day...).  They had called the office to tell them what was going on and a member who happened to be there looked at the bags of cracked wheat and started laughing.  The bags were really cattle food, which they knew, but the bags they'd most recently picked up... had cattle fattener in them!!!   Man, that would be so maddening, wouldn't it!?  To get fat eating cracked wheat.   Those poor elders!




A local minister campus preaching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fweQ8k4abic&feature=player_embedded

P-day frisbee, nice members, work is moving forward slowly, and bulldawgs

So today we're planning on playing some ultimate frisbee. We'll have some missionaries there, but we'll probably just pick-up into a game some of the students are probably already playing. It'll be sweet. We'll see if playing intramural at BYU and with my high school friends this last summer has put me on the GA-Collegiate level =]

Well, to be honest, I don't really mind about the Kings anyway. They're really not that great. Now, if Blake Griffin played for the Kings, I might actually take notice... That guy's a beast. So where will they most likely be headed? Rumor amongst the basketball savvy UGA-goers is to San Diego, perhaps? Elder Williams will be.... pleased...?

So, Dah, that's pretty exciting about the (Sacramento) CFO of the year. That'll be cool if it happens. Just make sure they mention you're Mormon-- good PR for ze church. =]

Bete Wright is probably the nicest old woman I've ever met. She's literally willing to do ANYTHING for the missionaries. She asked for our number to call, and I discovered I've forgotten the home phone number. So I busted out your business card, Dah. Oh, and if she calls you again, it's probably because she wants to talk to Mom for a bit.

It's good to hear the Portuguese group is moving right along! I definitely plan on returning at some point after my mission (in addition to any opportunity I have while I'm here) to visit the members there. They're so great, and I miss their spirit. Tell Bro. Baker to tell them I said "oi," and that I have "saudades."  (he misses them)

Well, not a whole lot to report. The work is moving forward slowly. We've got 4 progressing investigators, who consistently come to church when they're able. My only fear is that the semester will end and a bunch of them will go home for the summer and we'll never see them again. But God's a smart guy. He'll make sure that what needs to happen happens.

Well, I love you all! Hope everything's awesome back in ze homeland! Tell the Rounds I say hi and that I love them! And Teddy. Although he has some serious competition for attention here on UGA... something about a bulldawg... I guess it's their mascot or something? (I'm going for sarcasm here. It's pretty close to idol worship here with the bulldawg.)

Talk to y'all later!
Elder fenton mcgregor

Staying put with Elder Williams; pday b-ball; too-small slacks; and as the temperature goes up the amount of co-ed clothing goes down

Hey all!

Yep, temple open house started on Saturday, and apparently it's totally awesome. Not that I was expecting anything different. So we'll be going on wednesday to have interviews and to do stuff at the temple. I'll let you know how it goes.

So we had transfer calls this morning and Elder Williams and I are both staying here for another transfer. Which is awesome, because the work has really come along in this area. We've got 3 investigators progressing right along--Robb, Kristine and Jesse (we dropped Abi but picked up Jesse last monday evening). Robb's still struggling to know if it's true and if he should be baptized, Kristine is super busy, but still making time to meet with us about once a week (she's really close to baptism as well, but doesn't want to rush), and Jesse is a recovering drug...ee? (He wasn't an addict, from what we can tell, but his life certainly took a nose dive from doing drugs) And he's trying to turn his life around. So woohoo! And if we can help him enough to get him obeying the Word of Wisdom, he'll be set for baptism.

Let's see, we played some basketball this p-day, and yours truly scored about 12 points in three games. But we ended up losing in two out of three games. But I still consistently beat Elder Williams at ping-pong, so all is well.

I'm glad Grandma and Grandpa are doing better. And Jesse too? Maybe?

Breaking News: Elder McGregor's summer slacks are TOO SMALL. It's started to get a little more toasty here in GA, and I tried on my non-suit slacks this morning. Unlike Elder McGregor, they haven't gotten any bigger in the last six months. So... I dunno. I guess I've got some slacks in my closet from my Brazil days, but I remember wearing those and them making me look like a pear? Because they're pleated? I dunno. Maybe as a result of my... expansion... they'll fit me better? So maybe you could send those and I'll let you know.

Hmm... Not much else to note. Except this, I guess: that in the short amount of time I've been here at the University of Georgia, I've noticed a direct correlation. Observe with me the following: As the temperature here on UGA Campus goes up, the amount of clothing the girls wear goes down. Odd. But then again, the same correlation to heat and clothing applies to the men wear as well. So... maybe not so odd? Perhaps I've been on my mission too long. ;)

Anywhom, hope things are going well at home. Kelsey, good luck with that switzerland thing. I'm not sure EXACTLY what you'll be doing, but I'm sure it'll be FANTASTIC. Or, at the very least, it'll look that way on your resume ;)

Love to everyone!

Elder Fenton McGregor

Thrift stores; rain; sneezing; General Conference; and earning manhood? !

How're ya'll? Things are great here in Georgia! We had a pretty awesome p-day today; one of the members of the local wards took us out to a couple thrift stores and I bought some cool ties for cheap. And I bought some basketball shorts on my debit card, so Mom, you can expect that. I figure that while I'm here at UGA I should get some memorabilia, right? (they're UGA shorts)

So a testimony to the goodness of God: It rained pretty much all of last week. So it totally kept down the pollen, which was awesome. Of course, it's not over yet, and the following weeks should be rather entertaining. One fun story: I was doing a contact on the bus with a gentleman. I sneezed, and he pretty much jumped out of his seat in fear. I apologized for possibly having allowed a portion of my sneeze to land upon his person, and he remarked, "No, it's ok, you didn't actually get any on me... I'm just paranoid about that stuff." Sneezing. Dangerous stuff. Needless to say I didn't shake his hand when we got off the bus ;)

But as far as allergies go, I've got a bottle of that costco loratadine, so I'm in pretty good shape. It seems to be working pretty well, but as pollen is such a worthy foe, I still find myself sneezing at times. To the dismay of paranoid bus passengers everywhere.

General Conference was awesome! We had Robb drive us to the stake center for one session, and he seemed to enjoy it, although his attention span was much like mine when I was in high school... But he really enjoyed President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar's talks during the Sunday morning session. Kristine watched one of the sessions at the house of one of the branch members, and from what I understand, she quite enjoyed it as well. Woohoo!

Let's see... other news... Oh, we had a fun experience yesterday. After dinner with a member, we went out to visit a few people we knew, and there was a group of people having a barbecue in their backyard--maybe 5 people. As we walked by, we noticed them, they noticed us, etc. As soon as we passed out of sight, we heard of one them say, "Were those Jehovah's Witnesses?" And another say, "No... those're those fellas who go out to earn their manhood or something... what're they called? Elders?" And another, "Yeah, Elders!" So needless to say, we wished to correct this assumption, and eventually made our way to the other street to which their driveway connected (no fence to the backyard). As we walked towards them, they moved inside VERY quickly. I guess they went to check on the food, as I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to talk to us... ;)

In response to your email, Mom, Elder Robbin's talk reminds me of whenever we, as a family, would point out something that "I didn't say YOU were stupid, just that THAT was a stupid thing to do..." Heh. We're so clever. But obviously, it reminded me of other wonderful things about our family as well, heaven forbid someone should read that alone and draw conclusions as to our family's nature ;)   (I told him I enjoyed the talk and included this quote from it:  "To become as He is, we must also do the things He did," he said. "To-be and to-do are inseparable. As interdependent doctrines they reinforce and promote each other. ...

"Conversely to-be without to-do is void, as in 'faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.' Be without do, really isn't being — it is self-deception, believing oneself to be good, merely because one's intentions are good." )

So because we're on a college campus, we just hand out the 4x9s as flyers. And we'll usually just go up to someone to chat and ask them if they've ever heard of Mormon Temples before. And then we make conversation, and try to set up return appointments with them. It's a very complicated process (not really).

We also do lots of lessons with members and talk to them about missionary work. Many of them are quite willing, as a good number are return missionaries themselves. We've also got quite a few marriages in the branch coming up. We don't go, of course. But it's exciting nonetheless. Lots of gossip. I didn't expect THAT on my mission, haha =]

Well, hope everything's well! Love you guys!

Elder McGregor