G.R.I.T.S. Good Report In The South newsletter

Here's the latest newsletter from Sister King along with the email she sent encouraging us to make sure our missionary gets a flu shot, has a winter coat, etc.  I'm guessing Trent has NOT had a flu shot (he never has had one, nor have I for that matter...).  We'll see if he'll break his streak.  He DOES, however, have a great overcoat that we got for him just before he left.  Zip out lining and everything.
Very dapper  : )
But I digress!  Here's the aforementioned:

Dear parents and families,

Hope you enjoy this latest issue of the missionary newsletter...and that it finds you well and happy!

Two requests before the holidays arrive:

1-After taking an informal poll at the first two (of four) zone conferences, we found that only about 25% of the missionaries have followed-through in getting a flu shot, as suggested by Missionary Medical.  The shots typically cost $20-$25 and must come from the missionaries' personal funds.  If possible, we'd love you to make that money available to them in their personal accounts...and, if that is a hardship, please speak to your bishop or stake president, as they are equipped to help in certain situations.  We know that these vaccines will help them avoid the worst strains of flu.

2-It's also getting cold here in the mornings and evenings (and, soon, in the daytime, too)!  This morning, it was 32-degrees...and, believe it or not, those temperatures will drop as we get into December and other winter months.  If your missionary did not bring an overcoat, please send one now or help them purchase one here.  I have a few on hand that have been left behind by departing missionaries, but my supply is low.  Please let me know if your missionary needs one of the coats I have here.

Have a wonderful holiday season.  We hope you all received the "red letter" and can meet that timeline for Christmas gifts.  Any concerns, please email me...  

We feel so blessed to be associated with your wonderful missionaries--thank YOU for your sacrifices to have them here!

Sister King

Ten elders in the ward; prayer; service; and translating Sacrament Mtg

Hey!

Wow, so it's been a bit crazy lately! As you know, I'm now officially a Portuguese-speaking elder and am the senior comp of two of the visa waiters. Our ward, Paper Mill, has its own district: Elders Mundt (DL), Bradley, DeMille, Roberts, Saldate (visa waiters) and I. Elder Seiverts, who used to be DL was bumped up to ZL with Elder Collette, and they live in the apartments in Paper Mill with us. Oh, and Elder Blum is still here, and still training. Elder Decker is his companion straight out of the MTC. Yep yep! So we have 10 Elders in our ward. Kind of unheard of. In fact, we're fairly certain that Paper Mill must be the only ward in the world to have so many Elders in a mission that's been around for such a long time. I'll make sure and get a picture of all ten of us and send it to you guys next week, along with a couple other fun pictures.

Gloria, who had fallen off the face of the earth (or so we thought) actually called me yesterday and wants us to continue teaching her--she had been in Florida but had forgotten her phone. Thus we had no way of getting a hold of her. But she's still extremely excited to be baptized.

Jay is doing well--we've been trying really hard to get him to church. He knows everything is true, but for some reason we can't seem to get him to the church building--something always comes up. There's also a member in the Elder's quorum that is doing a great job of fellowshipping him. Oh yeah, his family got wrongfully evicted from their home, so Elder Blum and I pulled all of their stuff back into their apartment and spent the rest of the day re-organizing it for them. Which actually was somewhat of a blessing because it really gave us a good chance to meet his family and show them that we're not crazy =] So we just need to get Jay to church and things will go super well.

Warren is a super special story--thanks for fasting for him. Elder Blum wrote to his family:

We were with a baptist Deacon who we have been teaching for a while now. He said he felt that the book of mormon was true but he needed a witness of it for himself. So feeling pretty bold and moved upon by the spirit i said lets pray right now! He kinda looked at me and said ok. So we kneeled down and i said a prayer then Elder Decker then he did. It was probably the most sincere prayer i have ever heard. The spirit was amazing in the room. After the prayer we sat in silence for a minute and he looked at me as said "i feel like im going to cry. Not because im sad... but because I feel so happy and warm." BINGO!!! GOTCHA! haha it was amazing. He know knows it is true and we are going back to teach his family and hopefully get the font ready. Whats particularly exciting about this baptism will be that he is a deacon in the baptist church. I am hoping and praying that he will bring a part of his congregation with him :D

Amazing, huh?

We're having a bit of a rough go with Heather --because she's not able to go to church, she's losing excitement. We're trying to get her out to church activities as much as possible, but it's tough because she works so much. So yeah, please keep praying for her.

Marcus has to move apartments, and today (November 1) is the last day he has to find a new apartment, so he wasn't able to go to church yesterday. He really wanted to though. I'm confident Elder Blum will be able to continue to do really great work with Marcus. I'll take a picture with Marcus next time he comes to church--you guys will love it =]

So we started our Portuguese work this week--Elder Bradley and Elder DeMille are my companions. We've got a couple new investigators we've found, but nothing terribly exciting yet. So please hold for next week--I'm sure I'll have some very exciting things to talk about next week.

Oh, but this is really fun--yesterday I translated the English Sacrament Meeting into portuguese for the other Elders' Portuguese investigators. Our ward has the translation headphones and microphone, and I translated all the talks into Portuguese! It was such a cool experience. I really don't know how to fit it all into one email, so I'll probably send you guys a letter over the next couple days or something, and I'll tell you all about it.

Christmas package? Let's see-- a sweatshirt, slippers, an electric shaver (self cleaning would be great), some thick black Sunday socks, short-sleeved white shirts (2ish), and that's about all off the top of my head.

Love you guys so much! I'll be on for another 30 minutes or so, so email me back if you have any questions.

Elder McGregor

unfortunately I didn't see his email until the 30 minutes had already passed  : (

So let's see if I can get this straight.  Paper Mill Ward missionaries 
(the whole district of them!):
Elder Mundt - DL, Portuguese-speaking
Elder Bradley - Brazil visa waiter (probably a companion to Elder Mundt?)
Elder DeMille - Brazil visa waiter (probably a companion to Elder Mundt?)
Elder Roberts - Brazil visa waiter / E McGregor's companion, Portuguese-speaking
Elder Saldate - Brazil visa waiter / E McGregor's companion, Portuguese-speaking
Elder McGregor - Portuguese-speaking
Elder Seiverts - was DL; now ZL, Portuguese-speaking
Elder Collette - ZL
Elder Blum - Elder McGregor's former companion, English-speaking, (maybe the other DL now?)
Elder Decker - Elder Blum's new greenie
*
DL = District Leader; 
ZL = Zone Leader; 
greenie = new missionary; 
visa waiter = greenie missionaries headed to Brazil who haven't received their Visas yet

"Officially going Portuguese", teaching a Baptist deacon and two Mandarin-speaking brothers, and... finally getting a bike

Hello!

Things are going well here in ze Paper Mill Ward. Exciting news-- I'm not sure if I told you last week, but we got four new brazilian visa waiters. They're here with us in Paper Mill. Transfers are this week on Wednesday, and we recieved transfer calls last night to find out what we're doing, where we're going, etc. After being "re-"trained, I'm now going to officially go portuguese, and Elder Blum will train a new greeny, amongst other changes. Super exciting. But obviously I won't be changing areas--I'll still be here in Paper Mill. Which means I'll still get to see my english investigators that I love every once in a while.

Marcus went to church yesterday--he's back from Detroit--and although it was a little tough to get him to want to go at first, he absolutely LOVED it. And wants to go next week. So chances are that we'll teach him about baptism this week and commit him for that.

Heather still hasn't been able to go to work--she still can't get Sundays off. Please keep praying for her; she wants very badly to be able to go to church and wants very badly to be baptized.

We're also working with a man named Warren Brown, who's a deacon in one of the local Baptist churches. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it--he knows it's true. He's read from the beginning probably up through Alma at this point. He's totally fantastic, and the only difficulty is that he has his own church on Sunday, so it's difficult for him to make time. But he would love to come to church if he had time. So that's one of our goals for him--to get him to church in some way, shape or form, even if it is only an activity.

We're teaching two brothers from China named Xu Longteng and Hu Peng (last name first, just like Japanese), and Longteng was able to come to church yesterday. We have a couple in our ward who speak Mandarin (Sister Vanbredrode is FROM China), so we're trying to set up appointments where we can get them to come with us.

So I'm going to have to cut my email time in half today--I'll probably be back around 4:30pm my time to finish off emailing time. If you have any other questions, please ask them! Love you guys!

Elder McGregor


And here's the email we'd gotten just a few minutes earlier this morning:

So we went bike shopping this last week. I went to the nearest bike shop and the cheapest bike they had that would be most appropriate for missionary work was $450ish. Holy cow. So I tried it out and it was an excellent bike--much nicer than I was used to (as it should be, for that much). So I put a down payment on it to reserve it so I could ask you guys about it. In the end, after tax and a helmet and a bike lock and all that other stuff, everything will probably come out to something like $525. What do you think? Too much? The thing is, it's a super nice bike, and I'd probably be able to resell it for a good amount-- $300/$350. Maybe more. Or I could just keep it because it's really nice.

the other option is that there's a used bike a missionary who went home is reselling. Apparently it's a really rare brand, and was $1500 when he got it originally. But I have no idea how nice it is, what type of bike it is (I think it's a mountain bike), how good the shifters are, etc. I do know it's a 23. I should use roughly a 19/20. But the catch is he's selling it for $250. Here's the used info:

Elder Harrol.  Black Motobecane Bike 600ht.  $250.  Size 23.  Disc brake both front and back.  24 gears, all work well.  Back brakes ok.  Front brake needs and will be adjusted.  Great condition.  Hardly any scratches. It is about two years old but has not been ridden much of the time.  It has a wrap around coil lock.  It has a padded seat comforter and comes with a helmet.  No lights.  No kickstand.

From reading the description, I don't feel too good about buying it. And the more I think about it, the more I feel like I should get the new bike.

Please write me back ASAP (like, now ;) ) and let me know what your impressions are.

I'll get Dad on the phone, but I'm thinking 23" with no lights or kickstand - I don't know; I didn't get a good vibe either. 

Dad says you have better things to do than be messing around with this bike stuff, so go ahead  : )
with the NEW bike in the bike shop -

ok. Thanks a ton for the input, and I'll let you guys know how awesome this bike is =]

Okay!  

And now you're going to write us a real email, right?  ; )

- - - - - - - - - - - -

I just love how you can practically IM with your missionary during their email time.  Why, back when I was a missionary I had to WRITE a letter on PAPER with a PEN, then put a STAMP on it and MAIL it.  Two weeks later my parents would finally receive it and write back, then two weeks after THAT I'd get their response. Well, if there wasn't a POSTAL STRIKE. Or a military COUP.   Or El Niño FLOODING.  Or ...

Haha  : )   You have to read that with the "back when I was your age I walked two miles to school.  Uphill.  With no shoes.  In the snow" attitude.  : D  
Except I really did wait at least four weeks to hear back after writing a letter.  And there were strikes and coups and flooding ...

The Primary Program, Visa Waiters, and Teaching Portuguese to Greenies

In our email to Trent we told him 

1.  we'd just gotten back from a four day trip to the Redwoods and that we'd been able to see Primary programs two weeks in a row since ours was last week and the ward we attended yesterday had theirs.

2.  Bryon spoke at the Bishop Youth Fireside last night.  

Hello hello! How're you guys all doing?

So wow, the Redwoods. Fun! I remember doing that when the family was younger.

I also remember one time we had a BYF (Bishop's Youth Fireside) at our first GB (Granite Bay) house one time and dad talked and we had some people sit up in the balcony. And dad was sweating the whole time, either because he was hot or nervous. He claimed it was the former. I wasn't so sure ;)

So the Paper Mill primary program is next week. And we'll be singing Called to Serve with the Primary kids. Exciting =] I haven't been in the Primary program for almost 9 years!

Lets see, things happening this week. We got four new visa waiters! Elder Graff and Elder Rawlings booked it outta here to Brazil, and we got the new replacements. Elder Roberts, Elder Demille, Elder Saldate, and Elder Bradley. They're pretty awesome. And pretty green =] President King has informed me that I will be teaching them portuguese during language study hour. Pretty awesome =]

So not a whole lot has changed as far as investigators. Heather's still progressing well, and we're still looking hard for more. Yeah, sorry to not write very much, but really not much new since last week. A lot of the same. We'll probably get Elder Blum's bike fixed this week, and that's when I'll go get a bike. Used or otherwise. So that's kind of exciting I guess.

Alrighty, well, have a wonderful day! Love you guys a whole lot!

Elder McGregor

  Today's inspirational quote:

"Hockey is the greatest sport ever."

-Elder Blum

"GRITS": Good Report In The South newsletter

We received this newsletter today via email from Sister King. 

 click newsletter image to view larger:

 She also sent this message:

Hello families...

Hope this finds you all healthy and happy!  Enjoy the attached missionary newsletter...plus we have one other request.  We'd love you to help us encourage your missionaries to get the seasonal flu vaccination--which also includes H1N1 protection this year.  True, there are still 24-48 hour flu bugs out there, but this vaccine is to protect them from the more severe illness.  However, missionary medical funds don't cover the cost of this, so--if missionaries choose to get vaccinated--they will each need up to an additional $25 deposited in their personal funds.  It is their decision to make...but, again, we highly encourage it.  When one companion gets the flu and is down for a week--missionary work comes to a standstill--and the companion has to stay in as well (providing he/she doesn't get the flu, too!).  It can be very discouraging to them.  Also, if you could support us in reminding your missionary about good, frequent hand washing (because they shake so many hands)--we hope to keep everyone healthy this season!

Best wishes to you all...and thank you for your support!

President and Sister King

Of bikes and vans, investigators, the temple, etc

helloooooooooo. 
so actually, yeah, I got that first letter from you guys. it turns out we've moved out of the 6 man apartment into another one in the same complex. so we're close, but we now have much more room =] and that's where they'd sent the letter. so the first time I went and checked the mail it was there waiting =]


So, let's see; did you get a bike?

No bike yet. The need really hasn't come up, and if I do it, we'll have to figure out exactly how that'll work. So I'll call Elder Anderson today to figure that out. Because I'm going to need a bike--that much is clear.


How are your contacts (investigators) doing?
They're doing very well. We have three investigators with baptismal dates. Two of them (Jay and Gloria) are excited whenever we talk to them, but we just have difficulty getting a hold of them. The third is SUPER excited. Her name is Heather, and we've been meeting with her for about two weeks. Her only problem (and I really mean ONLY) is that she works Sundays. But she's already committed to work with her schedule in order to come to church and keep the sabbath day holy. We're super excited about Heather! Everyone else is progressing slowly, a little bit at a time. I'll keep you posted on those who we see real potential in. You remember Marcus, who I talked about a little while back--he'll be home this week, and we're almost definitely have opportunities to do some service for him. So I see a possible baptismal date for him in the near future.


How often do you / will you have zone conferences?
From what I've heard, they used to be every transfer. Now they're ever quarter. So that's how that goes, I guess. We've got interviews this week. Which is exciting =]


Do you get to attend the temple there?
Once the Atlanta Temple is finished being restored/updated/made more awesome than ever, then we'll get opportunities to visit the temple occasionally, yes.


Since we've had Oct Conference, are you wearing your suit coat all the time now, or with weather in the 80's do you just wear your shirts?
We wear whatever we feel like based on the weather. There's no strict rule as far as what we MUST WEAR or anything like that.


Have you received any letters from us now?
Yes. Just one though--that first one. I'll keep you posted.


And here are Dad's questions so you can answer them all from the same email:

-   So do you attend the Papermill Ward? How close do you live to the church building?

Closish. Close enough it's not a hassle. But we really don't go to the church building very often--mostly Sundays and that's about it.

-   Do you remember the Tams from NJ? They live in the Atlanta area now; Don Tam is/was bishop of the Suwanee Ward. You used to play with Michelle and Mandy when we would go home teaching. They laid out mattresses in the basement and you guys used to love to go jump around down there.

Yeah, I totally remember the Tams! I'll ask the other Elders about the Suwanee Ward. Yeah, I remember the mattresses =]
 

-   Did you buy a bike? How are 6 elders getting along with only 2 bikes? 

Between the 6 of us we use the Van. A Dodge Caravan (albeit much newer than the McGregors' old one =] ) (we had a Dodge Grand Caravan when we lived in New Jersey).  And we all work in areas that are pretty close to one another. So it works.
 

-   In a letter from Pres. & Sis. King, they mentioned that outside of special occasions, you shouldn’t be using any  funds other than those you receive from the mission every month. Is it enough?

It's enough. I just haven't gotten all of mine yet because I only just got my JP Morgan Card. So I've got to talk to the Elder in charge of that. Which I will--worry not  ;)
 

-   What do you eat for breakfast each morning? Do you eat two or three meals a day?

Usually just a bowl of cereal. We get three meals. We usually eat dinner with the members.
 

-   How goes the work – how many lessons do you get to teach weekly?

We'll usually do somewhere around 20 lessons a week.
 

-    Have you taken any pictures? 

Yep. I'll send 'em to you guys eventually =]

And in response to a comment about Elder Oaks' Conference talk:

Yeah, Elder Oaks' talk was really great. Especially because we had just finished speaking with two different guys who argued that only the one side of each should exist (they didn't know each other). One argued the Bible is total junk and that the only way to find God is with your personal relationship. The other said that ALL TRUTH is found inside the Bible and that a personal relationship with God is only found THROUGH the Bible. So his talk was wonderful in that it cleared up many many of the things I wish I'd been able to explain better in the first place.

Thanks for your prayers! Love you guys, hope everything is going swimmingly! Have a good day!
Love, Elder McGregor


And here is a Google map of:
Blue - the apartment where E McGregor and the 5 other elders live
Pink - the Paper Mill Ward building
Red - The Georgia Atlanta North Mission Office
(double click for larger view)

Conference was excellent, baptismal commitments, and just 2 bikes for 6 missionaries

How has your week been?  Did you get to see much of Conference?

How are things on your end? Things are great here in Paper Mill. We attended all of the sessions of conference, and had a couple investigators commit to watch the conference sessions as well. One investigator was going to go to the priesthood session with us, but when the member went to pick him up, he didn't come to the door. We had even called him about thirty minutes before the member left and he was still solid to go, so we're left wondering why he wasn't able. And we still haven't heard from him. But such is missionary work. But, we don't give up THAT easily ;)
  We're excited to have two baptismal dates. One of them, Gloria, we committed right at the first lesson, and she accepted excitedly. We hadn't heard from her for about a week afterwards, and we had assumed the worst--that the adversary had somehow scared her away, but we recieved a call from her yesterday. She was just as excited as ever to be baptized, and had been very busy. We're so excited to work with her. I feel really really good about her baptism--a feeling not uncommon to me after meeting an Elect.
  Conference was fantastic. Slightly difficult on investigators (but only because it's slightly more difficult to get them to go, not for lack of the spirit). But extremely edifying! I loved Elder Patrick Kearon's talk (Priesthood Session, so I haven't seen it but Bryon liked it as well and had already told me a bit about it), mostly because I've never heard an entire talk dedicated to the problem which is justification. I feel that I particularly suffer from this--his comments provided a wonderful perspective and spirit, and I feel I'm more able to better follow the commandments as a result. I love conference.
  In short, things are going VERY well. I love being in the mission field! It's such a joy.

 Did you get our snail mail?  Which day did it arrive? (we sent it on Tuesday).

 I haven't gotten a letter from you guys yet. I got one from Katie. So... did you get the address right? It's:

Elder Trenton McGregor

1150 Cole Drive SW

Lilburn, Georgia  30047

It goes to the office and then they forward it to our apartments. So it shouldn't take that long. I would say 3-4 days to get here from Sac, and then 1 day to be forwarded. Oh well.

Did you get a bike?  Tell us about it, and if not, how are you getting around, since it sounds like you must be in a biking area?  

It's a biking area, but we only have 2 bikes between 6 missionaries.

Yeah, we only have 2 bikes between 6 missionaries. I still need to know what you guys think--should I buy a used bike? From what I hear, the used bikes aren't the greatest, and the two bikes we have are pretty awful, I'm not going to lie. I'd prefer to have a new bike if you guys think it a good idea.

Have you had the opportunity to speak/teach in Portuguese yet?  Have you done much teaching?

  Ok, so I'm one of the English Elders. I don't speak Portuguese. We run into Brazilians every once in a while and I'll pass their info to the Portuguese elders. So no, I don't teach in Portuguese. Yet. But it's fairly certain that I will be eventually, because President King pretty consistently asks the Portuguese Elders how good my Portuguese is. So yeah.

How is it that the two visa waiters speak Portuguese?  They are going to Brazil?  (Sis King said Bolivia.)  And if they are waiting to go down, how do they already speak Portuguese?  They aren’t going to the Sao Paulo CTM? 

  We have Bolivian visa waiters, but we also have Brazilian visa waiters. Elder Graff and Elder Rawlings are both Brazilian Visa waiters. So they speak the Portuguese they learned in the MTC. In Provo. So no, they already did their time in the MTC and will not go to the CTM.

Sieverts and Mundt - they are serving their whole mission in the Portuguese-speaking area?  Does it seem like you would do the same when one of them heads home?  

  Elder Sieverts was originally an English speaking Elder, but President King put him in this area with the charge to learn portuguese. And he did. He speaks very well. Elder Mundt was a Spanish speaking Elder, and President King did the same thing with him. So they're permenantly here. Very exciting.

And w/E Mundt you did a lot of knocking, but not so much with E Blum -- how do you and E Blum get your contacts?  

  Elder Blum and I try to avoid tracting if at all possible. We do a lot of appointments and street contacts to stay busy. But sometimes we're not so lucky...

How is Marcus doing, the one you found tracting that was excited to read the BoM?

  Marcus is going to be in Detroit for about a month, so we're going to keep in contact with him over the phone. We're super excited about Marcus. He's really great.

Well, that'll just about do it! I love you all and hope things are going well at home! Have a fantastic week, and I'll hear from you next Monday!

Much love!

Elder McGregor

ps

 What do you think about the bikes?

Dad says "if you get it used, it's better since you won't be bringing the bike home.  But if there's nothing that fits that's reasonable, just get a new one.  Be sure to get a good lock."  and here's what I'd put in my letter;  " If you get a new bike it may be more likely to be stolen and will also lose value more quickly than a used.  That’s weird that you can’t see the bikes in the mission office before you buy.  When we were talking to Bro Anderson it seemed he expected you’d be IN the mission office the day you arrived.  It was probably closed by the time you got there, though.  Anyway, we expect you won’t spend more that $500 if you buy a new one-- keep us posted."

  Alrighty. thanks for the advice. Love you guys!

ps

Did you relly get to fly First Class, and how was your flight?

yep, it was really nice.  almost like the carol burnett sketch ;)

(He got his flight plans on Thursday and his flight left Monday @ 6:20AM.  It wasn't until we were checking him in online and picking his seats that we noticed he was assigned to First Class.  The only thing we could figure was that by the time his tickets were purchased just a few days earlier that was all that was left.  Goodness!

The Carol Burnett sketch is just too funny - Harvey Korman is in First class and just a seat behind him sits Tim Conway in Coach.  Carol is the flight attendant.  lol.  Watch it here