Burmingham Alabama Mission

     The Senior Missionaries put on the 3 hour orientation for new missionaries after they have had a nice dinner at the Sainsbury's, photos and a night in a hotel.  The seniors explain Safety, cars, money cards, nursing processes for medical/mental health needs and apartment cleaning.  Elder Barfuss discusses safety with C02 monitors, weather radios, cockroaches and bedbugs, 72 hour kits and apartment cleaning.  Sister Ensign discusses proper baptism forms and Sister Barker goes over social media, linen bags and referrals.  Elder Ensign discusses the money cards, how to care for them and budget their funds.  The nurses discuss Missionary Medical protocols, when to call the nurses, self care and to handle small problems before they turn into big ones.  Elder Barker shows a film about the TIWI car monitors, car safety, gas and maintenance and accident protocols.  The nurses and President Sainsbury interview each new missionary.   ...

  The winds were blustery, so instead of serving again with the Ensigns helping tornado recovery, we took a field trip to a couple of Birmingham, AL popular sites!! Birmingham possessed iron ore, coal and mineral reserves in veins right next to one another and produced 40% of the US Iron.  We visited the Vulcan Statue and Iron Museum and the Flight Museum for most of the day.  The Steel manufacturing took advantage of the cheep  labor force, and the historical stories of sacrifice broke our hearts.  The Flight Museum was next to the airport and I thought how the grand kids would enjoy it.  Afterwards Ensigns bought a pizza to share and we added salads and pumpkin pie for a fun dinner together. The Museum staff told us one of  the original Rosie the Riviters lives in Birmingham and is 97 years old!!

     Two Sister Missionaries told us about a Free Bible referral that they followed up.  When they took the Bible to this women and began teaching her, she expressed how God had been talking to her for a long time.  God was telling her that there were other scriptures from when He appeared to some of the ancient people.  This women and her husband had fostered 29 children throughout her life trying to help others in  her tiny little house.  Everything the missionaries are teaching her, she has felt earlier through prayer that these things are all true!!  The Sister are so excited to be working with her!      President Sainsbury told about visiting an elderly lady in a nursing home who was close to 100 years old, when he was in law school at BYU.  He and his buddy visited for about two years before they made the following connection.  The missionary in California who had converted this elderly women's family was Presi...

Instead of 5 Zone Conferences, we had two(Inverness and Gardendale) with Elder Klebingat.  President Sainsbury picked him up at the airport Wednesday night, took him to dinner and to his hotel.  I enjoyed sitting at his table and finding out he and his wife have three children and he served his mission in Colorado, but grew up in Germany.  He was a Mission President and a Stake President in the past.  He instructed President and Sister Sainsbury on the car rides to and from Tupelo's Stake Conference and had a very open and matter of fact style.      President Ballard assigns President Klebingat and delegates to him the Apolstolic keys to function.  He said, "The Lord does not waste time, He has high expectations and is focused. The Lord loves you and when we don't talk about things or address issues it is a selfish thing to protect ourselves.  We lack courage and say, "I was afraid to hurt feelings!" This is self preservation and not livi...

     Barkers and Barfuss's drove over an hour to help out in Jacksonville. Our missionaries were all protected, some eating dinner in the dark in basements/shelters. The worst area of destruction went right through the college campus and up and over a hill, 35 miles long and 300 yards wide.  The residents we talked to said it only lasted about 5 minutes and many people waited it out in their basements.  One family said they only heard a small noise and noticed the smell of dirt.  When they opened the door at the top of their stairs, they were looking at the sky!!  The tornado had taken their roof off without a sound!!  The miracle is that not one person died and there were only four injuries reported!!      The area had to be policed, secured with a 7:00 pm curfew to prevent looting. After we checked in at the community center, we took two different buses before arriving at the assigned work site.  How did the beautiful...