Christmas Mission Conference

The highlight of the month (other than baptisms) was meeting together as a complete mission to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

The first half of the day was a conference filled with teaching doctrine and training.

Happy Birthday!  These are all those who will celebrate a birthday before next zone conference. 

Back Row:  Elder Murdock, Elder Lucas, Elder Graham, Elder Jackson, Elder Dyerly, Elder Fergus, Elder Zabriskie, Elder Kasper, Elder Tate (looking down), Elder Allen, Elder Brown
Middle Row:  Sister Kellett, Sister Martins, LaJeunesse, Sister Patterson, Elder Rose, Elder Adkins, Elder Collard, Elder Huntsman, Elder Cloward
Kneeling:  Elder Perez, Elder Aiono, Elder Wadsworth, Elder Parker, Elder Rhodes, Elder Bagley, Elder Gillis



Dinner was provided by the Jacksonville West Stake as their Christmas gift to all the missionaries.  It was lovingly given and greatly appreciated by all. 
Thank you JAX West Stake

Elder and Sister Stills, Elder Turner behind, Elder Graham on the right



Elder Durfee, Elder Taylor, Elder Blair, Elder Rasmussen, Elder Bagley, Elder Lyman, Elder Rose, Elder Turner, Elder Doehler




President and Sister Padgett - He is 2nd counselor in the mission presidency.  Elder Harding, Elder Leavitt, Elder Udy, Elder Banner, Elder Adkins, Elder Cox



Sister Martins, Sister Kitchen, Sister Capua, Sister Joslin, Sister Kellett, Sister Prettyman, Sister Cutler, Sister Stills, Elder Stills



Elder Tenney, Elder Mackey, Elder Zabriskie, Elder Pelo, Elder Jacobs, Elder Osborn, Elder Bishop




Elder Allen, Elder Day, Elder Huntsman, Elder Drake, Elder Carney, Elder Camp, Elder Morris, Elder Snow 



Sister Pedersen, Sister Hafslund, Sister Shepherd, Sister LaJeunesse, Elder Murdock, Elder Craig, Elder Johnson, Sister Surtees, Sister Johnson 




Elder Osborn enjoying his letter from home.




Elder Waechtler, Elder Clements, Elder Bezzant, Elder Weaver, Elder Collard, Elder Brown




Elder Hansen, Sister and Doctor Hoffman (Area Medical Doctor), Elder Rivera, Elder Baker, Elder Johnson, a member




Elder Webb, Elder Lewis, Elder Fergus, Elder Drake, Elder Hammond, Elder Wilkey, Elder Tate





Elder Johnson, Elder Marquez, Elder Perez, Elder Blackmer, Elder Jackson, Elder Wily, Elder Aiono, Elder Murray




Elder Gillis, Elder Carty, Elder Barrionuevo, Elder Johnson, Elder Toney, Elder Larrocha, Elder McArthur



Elder Kasper, Elder Failner, Elder Reiche, Elder Olsen, Elder Robbs

Elder Dyerly, Elder Jensen, Elder Parker, Elder Wadsworth, Elder Bass, Elder Neville, Elder Jamison



Elder Scott, Sister Feltwell, Sister, Patterson, Elder Greco, Elder Lucus, Elder Dandridge, Elder Maxfield



Thank you, families, for your letters and support.  You will notice your letters on the tables.  Even though there was food in front of them they ate emotionally and spiritually first by devouring your words and love from home before feed themselves physically.  Thank you

Coming and Going

December is a month for lots of changes in the mission. We have 3 sets ofl missionaries leaving at different times and them some extra additions that we are thrilled to have.

These two great missionaries, Elder Kasper and Elder Adkins left just in time to be home for Christmas.  We will miss you both.  

Elder Kasper and Elder Adkins entered the MTC together 2 years ago and were in the same district then.   

We are thrilled to welcome Sister Hurst to the mission.  She came to us from a Honduras mission and will serve the last 6 month with us. 
Welcome Sister Hurst.

Pres. Barry, Sister Barry and Sister Hurst

We are thrilled to welcome 2 missionary couples to Jacksonville. We welcome these two couples with open arms. The work and success of couple missionaries are profound and we thank you for choosing to serve as mission. We love you both.



Elder and Sister Stills serving in Cross City

 

Elder and Sister Banks serving in Whitehouse



Good bye

When missionaries go home we take a picture of them in the basically same position of their 'entering' picture. Go back on the blog 2 years (1 1/2) and see how they have changed. Of course they are older but there is a maturity and a light. They are burning with testimony and ready to begin a new life as a dedicated disciple of Christ. We love these missionaries.

Back row:  Elder Call, Elder Price, Elder Spencer
Front Row:  Elder Brandon, Elder Kohler, Elder Schroeder, Elder Hill, Elder Cundick, Sister Christison

Good-bye dinner in the kitchen nook.

Dinner in the dining room

After taking the first picture I asked them to react the way they are feeling right now....Funny reactions! 

They have gone through security and just walking around the corner.  This is our last view of these amazing missionaries.  This mission is going to miss all y'all. 

Transfer Day

Transfer day is a busy day. The new missionaries come the day before, Monday, and spend time at the mission home, eating and being trained and interviewed. We meet Tuesday morning at a church with the new missionaries and the new trainers. They meet separately to be trained. We then bring them together for training and to get to know each other. After all the training we hold a transfer meeting. Everyone in the mission is invited even if they aren't being transfered. President Barry teaches doctrine and goes over rules. The new missionaries are introduced by their trainers and transfers are announced. We then have the departing missionaries bear their testimonies. It is a powerful end of a powerful day.


Sister Christison (left, we miss you!) trained Sister Haflund (right) for the past 6 weeks.  Sister Christison went home after Transfer Meeting.




Transfer Meeting. A scan of half the room.  If you look closely you will notice Elder Olsen.  He's the one posing for the picture.  




Transfer Meeting. 




Elder Waechtler, Elder Preator, Elder Price.  We miss you, Elder Price!




Elder Maxfield is training Elder Dandridge




Elder Osborn (AP), Elder Jacobs, Elder Carty, Elder Call.  We miss you Elder Call!




Sister Capua and Sister Joslin




Elder Allen, Elder Morris, Elder Johnson, Elder Neville.  These elders are no longer greenies!  They came together 6 weeks ago.




Elder Bass, Elder Jamison, Elder Reiche, Elder Dyerly,  Elder Weaver in the back





Elder Schroeder (we miss you), Elder Graham, Elder Preator, Elder Fetty,
Funny Sister Cutler - behind 

 



Elder Barrionuevo, Sister Johnson, Sister Surtees, Elder Baker, Elder Rivera, Elder Johnson




Elder Jacobs, Elder Preator, Elder Scott, Elder Murray, Elder Aiono, Elder McClellan





Elder Engele, Elder Collard, Elder Brown, Elder Spencer (miss you)




Elder Murray, Elder Zabriskie, Elder Oteo





Elder Jacobs, Elder Craig, Elder Weaver, Elder Bezzant, Elder Tenney





The wonderful sisters of the mission.  We are growing in number.  We have 20 in all. We are even missing a few from the picture. 




Elder McArthur, Elder Taylor, Elder Mourra



Elder Barrionuevo, Elder Johnson, Elder Porter, Elder Olsen



Elder Rowley, Elder Wilcox, Elder McClellan, Elder Bishop, Elder Johnson



Christmas Mission Conference

Dear Families of FJM missionaries. It has been a very busy time...it must be Christmas. I'm sorry that the activity on the blog has been very little. There is so much I want to share. It will be coming. I wanted to show you the mission picture that was taken at our mission conference. Every single missionary is in the picture.

We want to thank all of you for writing to your son or daughter or parent. We were thrilled that every missionary was given a letter from his/her family at the conference. I wish you could have been there and felt the peace and joy that came over the room. Every one rushed to sit down and open their package. A hush came over the room and you could hear sniffles as we all felt an over whelming love from home. Thank you with all our hearts. We love our families.

Our newest disciples of Christ

 On Dec 6 we welcomed this new group of missionaries fresh from the MTC.

Back Row:  Elder Rowley, Elder Oteo, Elder Marquez, Elder Grant
Middle Row:  Elder Smith, Elder Holcombe, Elder Lyman, Elder Barnes, Elder Woodard, Elder Dandridge
Sitting:  Sister Fitu, Sister Patterson



We pick them up at the airport and pack them into the mission van for the 40 minute ride to the mission home.  The sisters ride with Pres and Sister Barry



They come hungry!  It's fun to see how much they can eat.  We cooked 3 huge roasts and not a sliver was left. 



We invited Elder and Sister Shirley, one of our wonderful office couples, to join us for this meal. 



They look satisfied and ready to sleep.  It was a long day.

These 4 are not new.  Pres. Barry with the assistants, Elder Osborn, Elder Pelo and Elder Perez on the end.  Elder Oteo in the middle.

We love the sisters!  Meet Sister Patterson and Sister Fitu.  They join an incredible force of sister missionaries.  We have 20 sisters in the mission right now!