Starting to look like Fall

Well, the leaves are starting their new wardrobe.  This picture was taken in Kentucky where it is about 10 degree cooler and Fall has a little more of a head start.
The temperature in Nashville is still in the high 70s most days, even though it has been raining.  The other day we actually had a great hail storm.  I am so glad I have a big window in my office (even though it is behind me) to watch the weather.  Elder Dunn watches all the supplies in the storeroom....but he does a great job of that.  Actually, he gets out of the office alot more than I do.  He is still picking up new cars.  He got another this last week, and tomorrow he goes again to pick one up.  He is alot happier about it when it isn't a Toyota Corolla.  When he gets back from driving it to the office we have to unfold him to help him stand.

This is one of the many tents on the side of the road selling flower and pumpkins.  
Last Monday we (the mission) received 14 new missionaries (2 from the Mission Training Center in Mexico, 2 who came from their home, and 10 from the Provo Utah Training Center. The 2 who came from home are called 2 transfer missionaries.  That means they are short-term.  All the new missionaries (well most) look very nervous and some a little scared.  That doesn't last long. On Tuesday there is a big transfer meeting where all the missionaries who are being moved to different areas come into Nashville to meet up with their new companions.  It is really a fun time.  There were also

~12 missionaries who were going home, having finished their time in the mission field.  At this meeting the missionaries who are going home each stand and give advice to the new missionaries......some serious.....some funny.  Then each new missionary stands and reads a paper which identifies where they are going and who will be their trainer.  They don't get very far into the reading (just until the area is named) when their new companion stands and cheers and runs to the front and hugs their new companion.  Well, hug is a loose term for tackles and just about knocks them down. (It is their enthusiasm that is wonderful).  As I said, some of these missionaries are a little shy at this point and really don't know what to expect, but it is really cute and it doesn't take them long to bond.  I would have liked to get a picture of this, but it would be impossible because they move so fast.        Saturday was our negotiated

day of fun and travel.  We dove up to Hopkinsville, Kentucky
 (about 1 1/2 hour drive).  It was rainy and alot cooler.....enough that I did have to put on my white fleese lined jacket (but if you know me, you know that it didn't have to be much cooler for me to do that).  It was 66 degrees.  The locals there call this town Hoptown.  I don't know why.  We went just north of there to find this old Mormon Church and Cemetery.  Here is the description of it from LDS.org.  "James Wells Robins did not want to go on a mission, but his mother intervened and arranged for him to receive a mission call when he returned home from herding cattle.

Once out in the mission field, he disliked asking people for food and a place to sleep and ultimately decided to go home. His small leather suitcase in hand, he walked along the dusty road toward his mission-free future. But first he decided to take his decision to God. He set the suitcase down on the side of the road and knelt in a thatch of trees. After struggling in prayer, he received the answer to stay. He returned and served faithfully from 1911 to 1913, during which time he was a carpenter who helped with the construction of the Haley’s Mill chapel in Christian County, Kentucky. The little white chapel nestled on a green hill in northern Christian County was filled to capacity and beyond on September 15, 2012, just as it was a hundred years earlier when Southern States Mission President Charles A. Callis dedicated the building"

Early missionaries used to go out without "purse or scrip", which means they had no money nor place to stay.  They were completely dependent on the hospitality of local citizens.  I am so happy that is not what they do now.  Missionary work for the young Elders and Sisters (and sometimes seniors) can be hard.  They are rejected constantly, yet they are taught to not argue, but to keep a happy disposition and to be optimistic. They are very good at that.  I have never seen one who did not answer "great" when asked how their mission is going.  But then, they didn't have to use this outhouse!

Well, you knew it was inevitable!  We did find a tractor for Elder Dunn.  This tractor makes his look pretty new.  There were a long line of old farm equipment along the side of a house.  Sometimes Elder Dunn can find the brake in the car very suddenly. He wanted pictures of each one, but as I said before, it was cool and rainy.  I did include this one and one more.

The people in the south love to decorate.......even their farm equipment.  It is so much fun to see all the fall decorated yards......scarecrows, pumpkins, flowers....etc.       There was one other thing I wanted to mention.  I love how many churches there are in the south.  On Sunday when we go to church we pass lots and lots of big churches with TALL steeples.  Sometimes there are 3 or 4 different churches in a row....and they are big.  The people are friendly and very religious.  I love living in a place when God has such a prominent place.  

Well, that is all for now.  Has it quit raining in Tucson?  We watch the weather. Well, we don't have a television so watch isn't really correct.  We keep tract of your weather.  And to think they thought it was going to be a dry summer.  God has surprises for us all!   Love you all!!!!!