Out and about

Sister Johnson made new friends with a member family in Columbus MS who love birds of all kinds.  Here she is with some chickens.  In addition to these, there are canarys, turkeys, geese, and quail.

Barbeque is a way of life here in the South, and it's all done on smokers from this size on up.  The BBQ restaurants have smokers out in the parking lots, and fire them up in the mornings so delicious BBQ will be ready for dinner.  Here's some fabulous brisket being slow cooked to perfection.  Sister Johnson doesn't really care for the smoke though.  We were invited to this home for Easter dinner and had a wonderful meal.

Elders Hardman and Savoie with three of their friends.  The goat will either be a pet or dinner someday, the family hasn't decided which yet.

This is our missionary district, just before transfers.  Elders Nelson (front row left) and Hardman (back row right) were transferred to other areas in the mission.  Elders Urry and Hidenshield were sent to replace them.  We love our elders and try to help them out all we can.  We especially like teaching with them, and meeting their investigator families.  We also transport them when they have a long way to an appointment on their bikes, pick them up when they have flat tires, make sure they have enough to eat and are keeping their suits clean, get them to the dentist for emergency filling replacement, transport them to Stake Conference and mission meetings, and the list goes on .  .  .  .

Front row:  Elders Nelson, us, Gervais
Back row:  Elders Hatch, Jones, Savoie, and Hardman

Transfers happen on a regular schedule every 6 weeks, and we will usually have 1 or more elders transferred each time.  It is very unlikely that Sister Johnson and I will be transferred from our area before we leave in July.  Our area includes West Point, Starkville, and Columbus MS.  Each pair of these elders are assigned to one of those areas.  We hold a district meeting and get together once each week. 

Pilgrimmage - A Southern Tradition

Each spring, a number of the traditional Antebellum homes open up for visitors for a week (for a fee of course).  To qualify, each home must have been built antebellum (before the war, meaning the War of Northern Agression, or the War of Northern Invasion - more on this later).  The homes are restored, most quite elegantly.  The women dress up in their Southern Belle costumes and host the guests.  Back in the day, some of these homes sat in plantations of up to 2,000 cultivated acres.  Now the grounds are much smaller, but most of them are still 1 - 5 acres, even in town.  It's a big job and quite costly to keep up these historic homes.

This is a lovely home in Columbus, MS.  It was stuffed with porcelain from around the world and other collectibles.  The grounds are very well kept.  There are a lot of antiques and period furniture - some original to the homes, but most not.  Over the years they have been "modernized", so some parts of the home are quite liveable, and other areas have been kept with the original look.  For example:  None of the homes originally had a kitchen - that was in a separate building close to the main house, to keep the heat away from the genteel owners and their guests, and because the kitchens frequently caught fire and burned down.  Modern plumbing, lighting, and heating have been installed since they were built.

Here's Sister Johnson chatting with some lovely Southern Belles

Sister Johnson and a hydrangea just coming into bloom. 

A magnolia blossom.  These are huge, about 8" diameter, pleasantly fragrant, and just starting to bloom.  Quite impressive when the entire tree is covered with these.  Too bad they won't grow in Utah!



Battle of Shiloh - 150th anniversary reenactment

On March 31, we attended the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh Tennessee 1862.  Civil War re-enactments are a BIG deal for the re-enactors, all those who were born 175 years too late to be in the real thing.  They try to make everything as "real" as possible.  All of the actual period relics are too scarce, valuable, fragile, or dangerous to actually use, so most of the items (cannon, rifles, uniforms,  costumes, etc) are replicas.  The more your stuff appears to be authentic, the cooler you are.

When we got close to the site, there were thousands of other people, close to 12,000, and cars trying to get there as well.  Its was obvious that the Mormons were not on the parking detail, as there was no organization or traffic direction at all.  Along the last road into the site, we were moving at exactly 0.5 mph.  When we got about a mile out, we paid $10 to park on someone's lawn, and walked the rest of the way in, faster than the cars were moving.  It had rained the night before, and cars were getting stuck all over in the fields they had designated for parking.  Big soggy gooey mess.  Sort of made you feel like you were there in 1862.

We found out that re-enactments are really for the re-enactors, and the public (even though we pay to get in), is really a distraction.  They are organized into regiments from the North and South, and are really into the play acting.  Cannoneers came from as far away as Illinois and New Hampshire just to participate - and they brought their own crews with them, so there is a lot of expense involved.  Good way to party for a week with your friends though.

When it started, it was confusing, and hard to understand - didn't really resemble the real battle:  First the Union cannon on the far side of the field shot for a while - big booms and lots of smoke.  Then the Confederate infantry marched onto the field and shot their muskets for a while.  Next the Union infantry marches on and shoots for a while.  Finally, the Confederate cannon line starts - this was the BIG event, and it was obvious that 95% of the visitors were Confederates or sympathizers.  There were about 30 cannon in a line, all loaded.  They start on one end, and fire down the line in about 3 second intervals.  Really pretty impressive.  Everyone hoots and hollers.  They reload and do it a couple more times.  Then it's over.  We learned more about the actual battle from the brochure we bought on site than from the re-enactment.  It was all good fun though, and a a great experience. 

The line of Confederate cannon

Confederate cannon crew

General Grant and the lovely Mrs Grant

Elder & Sister Smith with Sister Johnson on the tailgate of a pickup that gave us a ride the last way in.  They are our good friends here, they're from Middleton, ID.  They are serving in Bessemer, AL, and decided to make this trip with us, they are a lot of fun and we had a great time together.

Family in period dress.  Look like Yankees, but they're really Rebs

Southern gentry.  You can just put on your costume and walk around without actually being part of the official re-enactment. 

Southern lady spectators being transported by mule wagon to a prime viewing spot. 



Sister Johnson and Leigha Green

Here's Sister Johnson carrying out one of the more recent mission programs - reading the scriptures with new members.  Leigha Green was baptized last month in Columbus MS.  She is so sweet, and everyone loves her.  The members in this ward have really welcomed her in.

Note that they're reading from my iPad, which we have found to be a great tool.  We can access mormon.org and the videos, talks, and materials while we're meeting with people - much more convenient than trying to tote a laptop around and get it booted up up to work properly.

We're encouraging Leigha to put her profile together and post it on the "I'm a Mormon" section of the website. 

Giant cypress tree falls!!

Another "fallen giant".  Everything grows so fast here in the South, that what starts out as cute little trees soon become towering - and potentially dangerous.  With the recent tornados in this area, people are really starting to be concerned about big trees that are close enough to their homes to cause damage if they fall. 

This tree was in the front yard of the Reed's, one of the good members in Starkville.  It was so tall that I had to climb up it (felt like a little boy again, and the cypress limbs are perfect for climbing), tie myself safely with a rope, hoist up a chain saw, and cut about 30 feet of the top off.  It was so tall that a fall in the desired direction would have hit overhead power lines.  With the tree now at a manageable length, a rope tied to a pickup and my felling wedges put it on the ground safely.

Though this tree had to go for safety reasons, cypress is a very desirable wood for making furniture because it is moisture-resistant.  The best lawn or outdoor furniture here is made from cypress for that reason.  After I took this picture, I cut it up into four 9-foot logs, and Br. Reed has a friend who's going to haul it away to a sawmill and have it cut up.

In Farmington, the city has a "once a year" pickup for trees, limbs, and brush that are cut up and stacked by the street in 4-ft lengths.  Here in the South, they do this year round because there's so many trees of all kinds, and everything grows so fast.

So many trees - so little time!!

Sister Johnson at the West Point Food Pantry

Here is Sister Johnson in some of her "working clothes".  Tuesday and Thursday nights - on an as-needed basis, which means about once a week - we help out at the West Point Food Pantry.  This organization is run by a wonderful couple:  Bill and Mary East.  It's an all-volunteer group, and Bill is the founder and driving force. 

Food is donated from several sources, including USDA and Wal-Mart.  WM donates items that are about to go "out of date".  This is a good deal for WM and the other grocery stores that contribute, because they get a tax deduction of full retail value for the items, and they are put to good use instead of discarded. 

The families who are the recipients (and there is a waiting list) get 3 bags.  Each bag contains about 9 - 12 items of selected types, like cereal and canned goods, frozen meat and vegetables, and staple items.  It varies from week to week, depending upon what is available, and what items are closest to expiration.  Items with short shelf life go first of course, then the rest are allocated by expiration date.  USDA, ever the bureaucracy, requires that all their items be distributed within 30 days, so that adds another level of complexity that the East's have mastered.

It's great to be a small part of this community service, and we have met some wonderful people through this effort.

Armadillo roadkill: count now up to 32

Dawn is keeping a log of selected roadkill:  The count is now up to 32 armadillo, 4 turtles, 3 possums.  Lesser species, like raccoons (yes, they have them here too) we don't even count.  Unfortunately, the poor little armadillos have gotten active in the last month as it has warmed up, and they are either not savvy to the dangers of crossing the road, or there's lots of them, because they are splatted everywhere.  The locals call them "possum on the half-shell".  We're hoping to see one alive, and get up to it - when they go into defensive mode, they curl up into a ball - about the size of a soccer ball - and their armor pretty much protects them.

We're hoping not to hit one on the road, not only because they're such odd little critters, but it must be like running over a little brick!!

Sister Johnson and friends

I just had to post this photo of Sister Johnson and 2 of her friends. Pictured with her are Stephanie Bennett of the Columbus ward, and her mother Ernestine. They are both fun ladies!! Stephanie has been a member for about 5 months. Her mother is energetic and lively. At the Mission President's fireside (informal talk on a specific subject, to members and friends), Ernestine's "AMENS" could be heard regularly.

President Holzapfel presented the world of the New Testament in the context of the time, culture, and language of the New Testament as it was happening, and first written about. A wonderful experience for us and all who attended.

Civil War road trip - Andrew Jackson's Hermitage

We had a "down day" on Friday March 30, between the Civil War sites at Franklin and Shiloh. We made this trip with our friends, Elder & Sister Smith (Bill & Ann) of Middleton, ID. We took this day and drove into Nashville. With all the things to see and do there, we chose to visit The Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson. The plantation home has been nicely preserved and restored, along with several outbuildings. For some reason, I didn't take many pictures, but you can see the home through the flowering dogwood trees, and the burial monument for Jackson and his wife.

Jackson was a Southerner, war hero (1815), plantation owner, and slaveholder. The concept of slavery is repulsive to us today, but then, in the South, it was just the way things were. Slaves were a valuable commodity. Curiously, the value of the approximately 40 slaves owned by Jackson as personal property in 1828 when he was elected President exceeded the value of his real property. Of course, the value went to zero after the war, so that was one more of the devastating losses, for the slaveholders anyway.

Here in the South, the Civil War is still "the Cause", and they didn't really lose, they were just overwhelmed by the Yankees and their superior numbers and equipment. The Confederate generalship and the spirit of the fighting rebs was never bested.

Civil War road trip - Franklin TN #2

The pictures above are pretty self-explanatory. This story formed the basis for the previously mentioned historical novel: "Widow of the South"

The McGavock plantation was about 2 miles from the actual battle, and did not see any direct action, but the Confederate army drifted this way the next day, and their home was turned into a makeshift hospital - there are still bloodstains on the floors. 6 Confederate Generals were killed during this battle, or died shortly thereafter from wounds, 4 of them were laid out on the back porch of the house.

Civil War road trip - Franklin TN #1

Before we left, Sister Johnson read the historical novel: "Widow of the South" about a family who buried about 1500 soldiers, mostly Confederate who died in the Battle of Franklin. This is not one of the well-known battles of the Civil War, but is is among the bloodiest. In Nov 1864, a Union army was headed north to reinforce Nashville, which had been in Union hands for some time. About 15 miles south of Nashville, the Federals were stopped by a bridge which was impassable. While their engineers repaired it, they dug in on a defensive line about 2 miles wide.

A Confederate army was following them, not intending to fight there, but wanting to get to Nashville. They approached across an open field about 4pm, and an impromptu battle started. It was dark within an hour, and the fighting continued til 9pm, hand-to-hand. There were about 7500 Confederate casualties, and about 2500 Union.

The next day, the Union army crossed the bridge, then blew it up. The remaining Confederates had to rebuild the bridge and continue to Nashville. The battle caught everyone by surprise, including the local residents of Franklin, who had an intense battle going on all around them. The story is told in the context of a few families whose homes and property were involved and/or destroyed.

Week of Mar 25 #3, More of Sister Johnson's friends

Sister Johnson is the special friend of the young missionaries. She provides treats for our weekly district meetings - sometimes yummy and sometimes nutritious - that the elders really appreciate.
She adds a woman's perspective to our district meetings, and is really great with their investigators, who we are sometimes invitited to teach. She is also the closest thing to their "Mom" in the mission field, so they are especially nice to her.
Here she is with Elders James and Jones, just before Elder James got transferred to another area.

Week of Mar 25 #2, Sister Johnson's friends

Sister Johnson makes friends so easily!

Here she is with her friend Gabriella and Gabby's pet goat. Note the fresh eggs in the basket.

Gabby and her family live out in Monroe county, near the town of Okolona, MS. This is in the NW quadrant of our approximately 60 mile square branch.

In addition to the goat, there are dogs, a pair of small pot-bellied pigs, and a small flock of chickens. We are offered fresh eggs every time we visit.

Week of Mar 25 #1, We visit our friend's brother

Our dear friend Carol Vogel's half-brother Tommy Wakeman and his lovely wife Jeanne live in Starkville!

Carol hasn't seen him for many years, but provided his address, and let him know that we were in town. We called with that reference and they invited us to come over - and we had a lovely and enjoyable visit.

Tommy just turned 89, and other than a few hitches associated with that age, he is in great shape, Jeanne as well. He was an architect, and Jeanne had her own interior design firm. They are both retired now.

Tommy designed their home in the 1950's, and with a few updates and additions, it is in marvelous condition and very stylish, even by today's standards. We look forward to seeing them again before we leave.

It's curious who you can find or run into in different parts of the country. Our good friend Jack Cox in Farmington has a brother who lives in Russelville, AL, and we hope to see him while we are here.

Week of Mar 18, #2 Multizone Conference

The mission headquarters and mission home are located in Birmingham, AL, about 150 miles east of where we are serving. We travel there about once per month for conference or meetings. This month, we had a multizone conference - about half the mission was in attendance. With an 8:30am start, we have to leave at 5:45am - yawn.

To save the young missionaries miles and expense, we take a pair of them with us. They use the drive time to get some additional sleep. In fact, everyone in the Jeep gets to sleep except me. This is where "5 hour energy" is really useful. One shot of that, and I am wired for the day. Needless to say, I don't drift off during the meetings - avoiding a jab in the ribs from Sister Johnson.

The conferences are always very informative and uplifting, and the senior missionaries get special recognition and attention, which we appreciate. This meeting had a special emphasis on the Book of Mormon, and we will be reading passages from that with our investigators, friends, and members whenever we meet with them.

The conference runs nonstop, except for a lunch break, from 8:30am to 3:30pm, then we load up the elders and make the 150mi return trip. This evening, we had a dinner invitation from a lovely member family in our branch, and I had to delay it 30 minutes since the conference went long, but it was a very enjoyable end to a long day.

The mission has installed a "TIWI" device in each of the mission cars. This is a 2-way, GPS based, G-force device that detects speeding, fast turns, hard bumps and most everything else that young drivers are notorious for. It is the ultimate "big brother". If a car is speeding, accelerates or decelerates too quickly, etc, a live voice will come on the speaker and ask what's going on. The device is activated by a coded card, so the guilty party is immediately busted. More than a couple violations, and driving privileges are revoked. Having had responsibility for the mission fleet during my prior mission to Canada in the 1970's, I can say that this is a great advance, and is designed to save lives and abuse to the vehicles. Luckily now, since we have our own vehicle, we are not subject to the TIWI restrictions - or else I would be busted for sure - on the speeding at least. Some of the country roads we negotiate would set off the bump detector as well.

Week of Mar 18, #1 Elders and their bikes

More teaching with the elders this week. This is really one of our favorite things to do, and we are always grateful to help out. Sometimes they just need help with transportation - they have big areas to cover on their bikes. Other times their investigators have questions or circumstances where a couple with more experience and maturity can help them better understand the lessons the elders are teaching.

The elders really put a lot of use (and sometimes abuse) on their bikes. Each elder owns his own bike - most are purchased from elders leaving the mission. There are some purpose-built missionary bikes that I have seen, and they seem to hold up very well. Others are not as well built, and don't have the same durability. Of course there is always a balance between price and quality, and missionary bikes are no exception.

I bought a really good Yakima bike rack that mounts on the spare tire of the Liberty. I got it to transport my own bike to an area where I can safely ride it for exercise, but those areas are hard to find, and some of the roads that I would like to ride are really not safe - due to small or nonexistent shoulders outside of the painted line, and steep dropoffs. Since much of the area around here is swampy, or at least the water table is high during the rains, the roadbeds are built up high - sometimes as much as 8 - 10ft higher than the land around. This keeps the roads protected during the wet season, but it is actually fairly dangerous - if you drive off the pavement, there's a good chance you'll be into a rollover, and there have been some nasty, and fatal accidents due to this.

There is supposed to be a "3-foot rule", meaning that motorists by law are supposed to make a minimum of 3ft clearance between their vehicles and any bikers or pedestrians they pass. But after having a few cars pass with much less distance than that to me, I have decided that it's better to be safe than sorry on a bike.

So far, a few of the elders in our district have had problems with their bikes that require more than a simple turn of the wrench, or putting the chain back on. So far, the bike rack has been really handy for transporting the elders's bikes - when we find them pedaling along, if they have an appointment a long ways out, or if there has been an "incident". Luckily, incidents mean that they have smacked a curb, hit an obstacle or other event that disables the bike. Nothing involving another vehicle or bloody tumbles yet. We continue to pray for their safety. I have found a good bike shop in town that understands the missionaries are on very limited budgets, and they give me a good deal on repairs. So far, bent wheels, broken spokes, broken pedals, snapped cables, and flat tires seem to top the list. We always try to help them out in any way that we can.

Week of Mar 11, #2 Antiquing in the south

The South is an antique hunter's paradise, and Sister Johnson is determined to find all of the treasures here! She did locate a set of very nice dressers in Birmingham, which were subsequently purchased.

Now the trick is to get them from Birmingham to our Starkville apartment, and then finally home to Utah. Luckily I am adept at U-haul, so with a 1-way rental, some thrift-store blankets for padding, and a roll of stretch wrap, they are now in Starkville, and in use for missionary materials storage and additional clothing storage, until they get wrapped up again in a few months for the final trip home.

No doubt every cubic inch of the trailer will be filled, with all the stuff we are finding here.
With 3 months to go, I am hoping that all the new acquisitions will still fit in the same size trailer that we towed down.

Week of Mar 11, #1 Paul Bunyan strikes again

The South is the land of many big trees! In only 6 months, I won't be able to cut them all down!!

This one had been dead for some time, and was in danger of falling down across the road of one of our members. He didn't have to ask me twice to fall it!

This one came down perfectly. With the notch properly cut, and the felling wedges driven in the back cut, it came down exactly where I wanted it.

Only one small glitch. The videographer was pressed into service without any rehearsal. As the big tree started to topple, she took her eye off the viewfinder - did get some great audio of the tree crashing and splintering - and video of nice green grass.

Week of Mar 4, #2 The high-tech mission!!

How things have changed in the 40 years since I was a young missionary in Canada!

Cell phones, the internet, and texting hadn't even been though of back then. How did we ever manage? I remember that my apartments in some of my areas didn't even have telephones - so we had to find and use a local phone booth. Try waiting by a phone booth for inbound calls from your elders in the middle of a Canadian winter!!

Now, every set of missionaries has a mission cell phone (the Church has a contract with Sprint for this mission). No land lines. The Church can also monitor the calls to make sure there aren't any going to girlfriends back home. Texting is used very frequently for reporting. The President uses texting to blast messages to all the missionaries, and we usually get several per week. The young missionaries don't have internet access, except in the public libraries, where they can go once on Preparation Day (Monday) to email home. No surfing, just a weekly email.

The cell phones are also used for Mission or Zone conference calls. There is a toll-free number that everyone calls, then a 4-digit call for each conference. These are always fun, and are very effective in getting information to all the missionaries quickly. We have also had devotionals andteaching/training meetings via conference call.

The young missionaries have credit and debit cards that they use for gas for the cars, and food. Each month, each missionary gets a specific amount (about $150) debited to their cards for food for the month. They must use those funds wisely, because when the money is spent, there is no more until the 1st of the next month. They can also monitor expenditures - another Elder Johnson used his card at Pizza Hut, and I got a call asking for an explanation.

Since the senior missionaries pay all of our own expenses, we don't get any of these cards - we use our own funds. I have a couple of personal cards designated for these expenses. We had the chance to use a mission phone, but I didn't want to pack around another phone and have another number, so I turned it in and am using my personal phone (801/557-1178 for anyone who would like to call me). ATT service is pretty poor here, especially in our apartment, so I got a Vonage phone that is VOIP on our internet (801/447-5060 for those of you who would like to call us).  Diesel for the Jeep Liberty is our biggest single expense - we put on 4200 - 5100 miles per month.


We have internet (but no TV, we could if we wanted, but decided against it) - Sis Johnson and I each have our own laptops, and I have an iPad. Not only can we stay in touch with the world, but we have access to the Church's websites (lds.org and mormon.org), and can get teaching materials and videos, and download profiles and other materials. 40 years ago, I could not even imagine carrying a device no bigger than a notebook that I could show videos on, and get real-time resources downline - all I had then was a flannel board and a filmstrip projector!

There are really very few "rules" for senior missionaries. The thinking is that if we haven't learned diligence and obedience by this time, there isn't must hope for us anyway. We have very little supervision, so we make our own plans and set our own schedule. This does provide the flexibility we need to help out in 3 congregations, as well as the community service we are doing. It's nice to know that the Church takes advantage of the latest technology to assist in this great work.

Week of Mar 4, #1 Temple Preparation classes

We have been asked (well actually we volunteered) to teach Temple Preparation classes to a wonderful couple in the West Point Branch. They have been members for a number of years, but they have not as yet received this blessing.

The classes are a series of 6 lessons that cover the purpose of Temples, the Covenants that are made there, and the Blessings that come from those eternal ordinances. Since it is a small class, we are able to "customize" the lessons just for them. It has really been a great experience to meet with them weekly and see them progressing. We look forward to it each week.

We have also found that we can teach fairly well together. We do have time each day devoted to individual and companion study, so with this lesson coming up each week, we can focus on it. We have also offered to teach this series in the Starkville Branch and Columbus Ward.