Heat wave hit Alabama!

All is well in the south. They are having a "winter" heat wave. Heat records for Christmas time are being broken.  In fact: this morning at 5 am our air conditioner came on because is was over 75 inside. Our outside low last night was 70 and our high was 82. What a marked difference to Rexburg's overnight low of -20 degrees.  (But really - air conditioning at the end of December?) However, that said: we are NOT complaining!  ;-))

Mom & Sherry Johnston - Evergreen Public Library Genealogy Room

This is Sherry Johnston - one of our new GREAT friends. She is in charge of the Evergreen (AL) Public Library Genealogy Room and is AMAZING. We get to spend every Monday with her. We go to help her - but she spends most of her time teaching us. She has a photographic memory so she can go on and on and on with incredible stories about the area. Evergreen, AL in Conecuh County so she is the "goto" source for information about the history of people and places. Uwanaknow how the city of Burnt Corn got it's name (I did) - just ask her. If you want to know about Mormons in Conecuh County - she will go to the shelf and pull out a book with the information and history. Yep - she IS Amazing!!!

Last week when we got there - she had brought us these beautiful gardenias. Yes, they are real and are are grown outside and aren't frozen and yes, it's December.

We have found out from many sources that Sherry is VERY well respected for her work and knowledge. After the first of the year, she is going to start inviting various groups to the library to meet us and so the three of us will be there to help those coming, take the next step with their Family History. It also sounds like sometime during the year, she wants to have a "meet and greet" with her connections to all the historical societies in southern Alabama and northern Florida (17 counties). What a blessing she is in our lives!  We love you Sherry.

 It's pretty fun in Branch Council.  It's our 3rd Sunday here, so it seems everyone's getting more comfortable with us. Today the YM Pres. said, "Well they didn't take me out back & whup me r nothin'.  There are only 3 active young me.  He explained how dedicated they are by saying, "If you asked 'em to move a mountain with a spoon, they'd ask where ya want them to start!" The 2nd counselor in the Br. Presidency said, "Whatever trips his trigger." I asked him to repeat it, & told him I was going to write it down:)

Fun drive to Grove Hill, AL to find members.

Pres Fralick (Branch President) sent us some names of people to visit that were members of the Grove Hill Branch - about an hour away. That branch only had 15-17 attending and they closed the branch. So here we are looking for the members - only about 10 miles looked like this. The day was worth it - we met Alvin! When he answered the door, his eyes lit up when he saw our missionary name tags and said: "Come in!".  He told us he had just been praying that the Lord would send the missionaries. It was obvious he needed a connection. He joined the church in 1990 and has lived with and cared for his parents. His father passed away a couple of years ago and his mom is bedridden. Had a great visit and he said he could come to church next week! We told him that the Lord and his Branch President loved him - because they sent us to see him!

                                     

We are having a great week!  We spent Monday at the Evergreen/Conecuh County Public Library working with the director of the research room there.  She has received permission from the “board” for us to volunteer there!  Elder Price recovered her Family Search username and password for her & “wowed” her with some of the capabilities of the church site. We met the director of the library & have a “take you & your twin brother out to dinner appointment” with a 70 year old employee there.  He loaned me a book to read, & we have one to share with him:)

Tues we went to Daphne to meet with the Zone.  Elders Dixon & Moss did a terrific job training the zone!  We met many of the Elders, plus the Sr couples, Taggert, & Burgess.  Sis Burgess is anxious to learn more about using the Family Search site with some of their contacts in Pascagoula, MS so we will travel there when she is ready for us. She has spent time with the online training - but doesn’t understand well enough to help others.

Wed we spent at the Monroeville Museum & were even able to help 4 new people begin their Family History.  (3 visiting from out of state, but we will hook them up with help in those areas)  As we were leaving the museum the Sites Director told us how much they appreciate our being there to help them - he said it is very comfortable to have us there.  He invited us to a symphony at the Southern AL Community College in Monroeville.  He’s going with some friends & wants to meet up with us there:)  

Last evening we had a great appt with the Monroe Branch President, Pres. Fralick. He gave us a key to the building so we can invite people to use the family history room there. He also gave us permission to contact his sister, the only branch Family History Consultant. She stays home on Sundays to care for her bedridden brother, so we have not met her.  We want her to feel that we are working with her not taking over her calling, so we will visit her at her home this week. We offered to do whatever Pres Fralick would like us to do to strengthen the branch.

Our first time in the Old Courthouse in the Monroe Museum. (Our new home.)

This is the Monroe County Heritage Museum where we are welcome to meet & greet people and help them with their family history as many days a week as we'd like!  Because Jim & Minion Smith and Leon & Sharon Christensen preceded us as Sr. Missionaries here, the staff has welcomed us with open arms! This is the courthouse used in the movie, To Kill A Mocking Bird. The author is 92 but still lives here. Her father practiced law in this courthouse, & she watched him from this balcony! Volunteer townspeople have performed the To Kill a Mocking Bird play here in the courthouse each summer for the last 25 years!

Met SOOOO many people this week! Great fun!! Great people!!!

We arrived on a great week--the week of the play, Voices at the Crossroads, held at the Museum.  We volunteered to help, so they let us pass out the programs & usher!  So, here we are--welcoming people to their Courthouse/Museum.  Everyone was introducing themselves and then asking about us.  It gave us a chance to say that we are here for 18 mos. to serve a Family History mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the research room at the museum  & invite them to come let us help them research their family history! We probably met 200 townspeople + the church members this week.  Gave us such an opportunity to spread goodwill! We have 4 wonderful young Elders serving in our branch,

One moment in Monroeville history worth catching on video was when 10,000 people came to town for the Hog Festival!

Beautiful Singing Voices!

Mission Leadership Conference - our first one! GREAT group of leaders.

On Tues., our mission pres. invited us to a Mission Leadership Conference with all of the Zone Leaders & Sister Missionary Trainers in the mission.  Pres. Bradley Smith from Salt Lake & his wife were so gracious & excited that we are here!  When we asked him how he would like us to spend our time, he said that he trusted our inspiration on how much time we should spend supporting the young missionaries, the branches, & generally spread goodwill for the church throughout the mission!

First week-day in the field!

Monday, November 30, 2015
Wow - our first week-day of work in the mission field. How exciting. We had plans to visit at least 3 people today- but hit a snag (got to love this kind of snag). We went to Evergreen Public Library where we knew they had a Genealogy Department and met with Sherry Johnson who is in charge of that department. What a GREAT lady. Boy does she know a lot about research in the South!  By the end of our visit, which lasted until after 3 pm, she started talking about all the historical organizations in 17 Southern Alabama counties. She is going to hook us up with them, so we can learn from and also show them what familysearch.org can do to help them - as a FREE resource. I think that alone could keep us VERY busy. She is so involved, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and seems to be excited that we will work with her 1-2 days a week. What a treat it was for us to meet her and become friends. I told her we hoped we hadn't oversold ourselve but would work hard to assist her in anyway we can. Potentially this will give us opportunities over the next year to work with many people and not only give presentations to groups but have time to work one-on-one to teach others FamilySearch. Great way to start out!!!

We are HERE! Yes - we arrived in Monroeville Friday - Nov 27.

Now the challenge of where to stay... Of course we were very comfortable Friday night in Monroeville, because we stayed - yep, you got it! at the Monroeville Walmart.  We spend the day looking for a place and when we were headed out Saturday morning to make a decision, we received a call back for this campsite. It couldn't be better located. They will have some hunters here in the next couple of weeks, but it looks like we could be the only people here for most of the 18 months! Super quiet! We are 1.5 miles from church and 15 miles from Monroeville. It looks as though our second best option would have been 35 miles from Monroeville and 26 miles from church. (Ok, I'll admit it - it does appear as though it could be cheating, because it looks more as though we are vacationing!)  Here are pictures of our "Mission Home RV" in its new home. :-)

Saturday Morning (Nov 21) we headed East - (but south first to get out of the cold).

Sure we are going east - but it's COLD - so we started out heading south first. We went south to Page, Arizona then headed east on I-40. Felt a lot different than it was in Rexburg and Provo today!

Arizona

Alabama

Since our travel would have put is in Monroeville, Alabama on Thanksgiving Eve - we went to Chet's home in Atlanta and had Thanksgiving dinner with them. Of course, the picture gives it away - on Thanksgiving eve, we went to Casa Grande for a GREAT dinner. (The perfect precursor to Thanksgiving dinner!)

The MTC Tuesday evening devotional with Elder Kim Clark!

A special treat was the Tuesday evening devotional with Elder Kim Clark. Then how fun - we saw Ammon, our nephew, (Rahn & Sue's son) singing in the choir, so after the devotional we ran him down and had a great visit. He's on his way to his mission in Argentina. What a good guy!

Here is our MTC District with our youth RM trainers. Amazing!

Elder & Sister Brady - going to Barbados in the Carribean.

Us - Tallahassee Florida (Monroeville, AL).

Elder & Sister Christensen - West Las Vegas (church welfare ranch).

Sister Moore & Sister Ricks (MTC trainers)

Elder Mostert & Elder Nelson (MTC traners)

Elder Taylor (Branch President) wouldn't join us in the picture - must have felt guilty, so he included a selfie. (He should have joined us in the picture). He was THE GREATEST--lotsa fun & very kind!!!

Who else was in the MTC with us?

Here are the pictures of all the Senior Couples (19 x 2 = 38 senior missionaries in the MTC this week.) What a great and diverse group!

Our week in the MTC (Mission Training Center) - Provo, UT

November 16, 2016
Today we start our new adventure. Of course, we had to take a picture at the FAMOUS MTC World Map. Our experience in the MTC was beautiful--inspiring, empowering, & confidence building! They told us that Sr. Missionaries in the MTC have no rules--if you're tired, skip class & take a nap, etc. They trust us to work hard but not run faster than we are able. No one put any pressure on us; they love and appreciate the Sr couples & need 30,000 more!!
We opted to stay "at home" instead of in the MTC. We found a great campground at Utah Lake in Provo. It was about 6 miles from the MTC. We were able to visit with Ginger & Brady & Allison in the evenings and Sat. morning before we left for AL.

First Night on our Mission

November 15, 2015
First night on our mission! We were set apart as Full-time Missionaries this afternoon at 2:30 by President Erickson.  What an occasion - all of our children (except Chet) with their spouses were able to be with us. Now - we are on our way.  Pulled out of Rexburg at 4:15 pm. We got as far as Lindon, UT and spent our first night on our mission.  The place - so appropriate.  Yes, it seems Walmart parking lots have been our second home or our home away from home.

Getting ready -

October 22, 2015
We have done the impossible already! My office at Shaka's is FINALLY cleaned out. Getting serious. It seems nobody wanted my office until they saw how BIG it really was. I am so glad to know that Kelly and crew DO want the office, but of course they will get new carpet - etc.  Enjoy!

And the house is getting there. Our bedspread is even packed!  Just slept there for the last night.  ;~/

We Are So Excited: It's Mission Prep Time

We have received our mission call to the Florida Tallahassee Mission and enter the Provo MTC on November 16, 2015. Our assignment will be to live in the Monroeville, AL area and help everybody we can with Family History. We will also be MLS (Member Leader Support) missionaries. It will be exciting to see what they have for us to do.
Our intent is to use this blog to journal our missionary experiences.  Anyone is welcome to make comments/posts on this blog. 

(We will publish all of your comments just as soon as we get a minute!)

Promises to the families of those who serve missions:

Elder Holland: “What greater gift could grandparents give their posterity than to say by deed as well as word, ‘In this family we serve missions!’ He says, “Those little darlings will be just fine, & I promise you will do things for them in the service of the Lord that, worlds without end, you could never do if you stayed home to hover over them.”

Elder Holland: “I declare Christ to be the Savior of the world. I bear witness that He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, because upon Him were laid the transgressions of us all.  I promise that because of your faithful response to the call to spread the gospel as missionaries, He will bind up your broken hearts, dry your tears, and set you and your families free. That is my missionary promise to you.”

Elder Hales: “If we are willing to leave our loved ones for service in the mission field, we will bless them with a heritage that will teach and inspire them for generations to come. As we serve in the mission field, our children & grandchildren will be blessed in ways that would not have been possible had we stayed at home. The Lord will send special blessings to your family as you serve. The fulfillment that comes from this service will bless you, your marriage, & your family for eternity.” 

Our "non-farewell" talks in Sacrament Meeting

Irene's Sacrament Talk (text version)

Here is a link to the audio of our talks in Sacrament Meeting on November 15, 2015.

Click on the link. Click download. Then double-click file to listen.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dv595lj8g8noit7/NonFarewell_Talks.m4a?dl=0


Our Mailing address:
Tom & Irene Price
P.O.Box 1284
Monroeville, AL  36461

Shipping address (Fedex/UPS):
Tom & Irene Price
C/O Monroe County Museum
P.O.Box 1284
31 N Alabama Ave  
Monroeville, AL  36460