Merry Christmas from Georgia

On Christmas afternoon we had a chance to Skype Daniel in Georgia. This is pretty new to us, I suppose it's pretty new for the Church also. Once approved missionaries can Skype home and not just talk to their families, but see them too! We had a great visit with Daniel while he and his companion had dinner at a member's home. We got to see where Daniel was, the family that was feeding them, his companion, the family dog, and some of the Christmas presents that their kids got. I was such a great time.

Daniel has found his own little photo niche. Both Alan and David sent home some...colorful photos from their respective missions showing some of the odd sights and things in the Philippines and Mexico. Daniel has decided that his mission photos will highlight the two things he's found a lot of...roadkill and strange yard statutes. I'll apologize in advance for the first...I'll post some of them next time.

The Holidays in Georgia Part 1

Daniel is thoroughly enjoying his time in Georgia. In fact, many of his emails include "ya'll", it's too funny.

The missionary work in Georgia is progressing well, this last month Daniel has participated in two convert baptisms - one was the granddaughter of a member in the ward, the other was the husband of a member. Daniel has really come to love the people of the Shallowford Ward in Woodstock, Georgia. They take very good care of the missionaries, they feed them regularly and the are working very hard to be good member missionaries themselves. Daniel loves Bishop Walton - originally from the Whittier 7th Ward; I guess the world really is a small place. Then to add to the "smallness" the other day Daniel and his companion had dinner with a former member of the Whittier 3rd Ward that Susan and I both know. To go one step further, I danced with her in the 1977 Dance Festival in Rose Bowl!

The pictures you see are of Daniel and his old companion at the ward Halloween Party - their mission president authorized them to dress up for Halloween as long as they went dressed at "civilians".

Welcome to Atlanta-North!

Daniel finally made it to the Georgia Atlanta-North Mission!! He's emailed home twice and each email gives us a hint of what he's doing. Trust is a big deal with the members. Members want to trust the missionaries with their friends before the elders begin teaching. Daniel is also biking his little fanny off as he bikes around Woodstock, Georgia. He loves being a missionary. He loves his companion. And he even loved being "rebuked by an apostle". Here's what he wrote as he met Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve at stake conference:

"...we went up after the meeting and we shook his hand and he kinda rebuked us for not teaching enough haha. He said we need to be teaching 20 lessons a week. I told him we had 1 lesson lined up and he said good, now go call your ward mission leader and tell him you need 19 more. Rebuked by an apostle! how often do you get that??? hahaha. Immediately after that, the stake president asked how many investigators we had... none was our reply. He said. 'talk to your bishop and get 5 names'. We were drilled hardcore in like 5 minutes! Its weird when you shake an apostle's hand. You make eye contact, but he's not looking at you. He's looking into your soul! If that makes sense, they can just see right into you and know everything, and that is exactly what he did. It was totally weird and yet totally cool!"

After one week in the MTC Daniel is loving it! After picking up David at the airport we drove right to the MTC so the boys could see each other. Okay, okay, we admit it - we tried to sneak into the MTC to sneak a photo - it didn't work. They're pretty good at keeping "civilians" out of that place :) But really, that's the way it ought to be. In fact, when Daniel saw all of us coming through the door he said, "I didn't want to see you guys!" Saying goodbye the first time was hard enough, the second time would have been worse!

We got a letter from Daniel this week. He's a District Leader and loves the challenge. He loves his companion, Elder Beebe, and loves learning the gospel. He did have a request though. He's always hungry because they only feed missionaries THREE TIMES A DAY! Can you believe it? He's asked for any snacks, in any quantity and the only requirement is that the snacks aren't healthy!

The attached photo, while very, very blurry, was our sneaky attempt to get into the MTC...;)

Want to Write to Daniel?

The easiest, fastest and cheapest for of writing letters to Daniel is "pouch mail". This is a single page letter that fits a certain criteria and can be done very easily by going to
www.dearelder.com - once you get to the page look at the left column and select "pouch mail (free).

While he's at the MTC: In the pull down menu select MTC Provo. Daniel's mailbox number is 206 and his estimated departure date is 8/16/2011 - that's all you really need after filling in the blanks - then, start writing. Your letter will arrive the next day. If you'd rather send him a regular letter, address it as follows:

Elder Daniel John Grimm
Georgia Atlanta North Mission
Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900E
Mailbox 206
Provo, Utah
84604

Understand that he'll only be at the MTC for 3 weeks and is expected to leave for Georgia on August 16th!

After he arrives in Georgia: In the pull down menu select Georgia Atlanta North for the mission. You'll have to sign up for an account, but it's free. Then all you have to do fill in the blanks and start writing! If you'd rather send him a regular letter or a package, send it to:

Elder Daniel John Grimm
Georgia Atlanta North Mission
1150 Cole Dr. SW
Lilburn, GA 30047

Dropping off at the MTC

Well, today was the day - Daniel was set apart as a full-time missionary by our Stake President, Dale Orton at 7:00am this morning and then...we were off for Provo. We enjoyed the ride up, laughing and reminiscing about stuff, and then stopped for another pair of shoes, some lunch and then...it happened.

Daniel was so excited to get into the Missionary Training Center (MTC). He apologized and said, "I hope you don't think I don't care because I'm not crying. I'm just so excited!"

Waiting to Report

On Wednesday, July 27, 2011 Daniel will report to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah in preparation of serving as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We'll keep track of Daniel's progress over the next two years as we did David - who's comes home a week after Daniel reports.