What a Week!

Well, we made it! Week 1 in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission was absolutely incredible. We feel so inspired and strengthened by these amazing missionaries who have left their homes and families and put their lives on hold for 18 or 24 months to serve others and help them come unto Christ. They really are extraordinary.

Our flight to Atlanta was cancelled due to storms so it ended up taking all day to get to Knoxville. We expected to arrive at 3pm and didn’t get in until 11:30pm, so we were very excited when we finally landed.

That meant a really compressed amount of time with President and Sister Graham, which was disappointing. We feel like we are standing on the shoulders of giants! They have done an incredible job over the last three years and we are so grateful for the time they’ve spent with us over the last few months as we’ve been preparing. We were really looking forward to spending time with them and their family, but we ended up with only a little more than an hour to tour the mission office and the mission home, and hand off the keys with a folder of info.

Our first meeting was a zoom call with all of the missionaries. It’s hard to explain the feelings we had as we were able to be with them virtually for the first time. They were all so welcoming and energetic and we can’t wait for all of the amazing things we are about to experience with them.

On Tuesday we spent all day with the senior missionaries working in the office, the assistants, and the lead sister training leaders. The assistants and sister training leaders are incredible and we don’t know what we would do without our office missionaries, the Sawyers and the Jentzschs. That night I went out teaching with the assistants and Kimberly went with the sister training leaders. These missionaries love the Lord and love the people here in Tennessee.

Wednesday was focused on the Missionary Leadership Council. These are missionaries who play a key leadership role throughout the mission. They welcomed us with so much love. Their faith and dedication to serve was evident throughout they day as they taught us all about the mission and the wonderful culture they’ve worked so hard to establish in the TKM.

That night, Kimberly and Rachel worked to get moved into the mission home while I went out with two of our zone leaders, Elder Smith and Elder Hillstead. When we got home, we found the missionaries had “Heart Attacked” our door to welcome us to Knoxville.

Thursday and Friday were dedicated to touring the mission to see all of our missionaries face-to-face, which was the biggest highlight of the week. If we were emotional seeing them all on Zoom, you can imagine how we felt when we could finally hug them, greet them, and express our love for them in person. It’s amazing how we are just meeting these men and women yet we already feel such a deep love for them.

Thursday morning, we went to Oakridge, TN to meet with the Cumberland and Knoxville Zones, and then to Sparta, TN that afternoon with the Cleveland, Chattanooga, and Cookeville Zones.

Friday morning we attended a four stake Youth Conference at Maryville College where we met with ~400 young men and young women to discuss how they can prepare to serve missions. That afternoon we drove to Greeneville, TN to meet with the Asheville and Kingsport Zones. In these meetings, Kimberly introduced our family, the missionaries taught us more about the culture of the mission, and we discussed our vision for the mission which is focused on living and teaching the Doctrine of Christ.

On the way home, Elder Cobos, Elder Spiers, Sister Strong, and Sister Chan said we had to stop at Buc-ee’s in Sevierville. I didn’t understand what Buc-ee’s was all about until we walked in. I’ve never seen anything like it! If you’re not familiar with Buc-ee’s, Google it!

Saturday was 100% focused on getting things unpacked in the mission home. On Sunday, we attended three different congregations and had great experiences at each, and then closed Sunday night with our first “Knit Together Sunday” as a mission with the missionaries and their families.

Even with so many remarkable experiences this first week, the “Knit Together Sunday” was the highlight for us, especially where we had four missionaries who are close to the end of their mission share their feelings about Jesus Christ and the impact their mission has had on them. It was straight fire! I was so proud of these young men and women and feel bad that we won’t have more time with them to get to know them better.

It was an incredible first week! We went full tilt all week long, and frankly, we are exhausted. But we couldn’t be more excited to work with these faith-filled missionaries who have so much love for the Lord, the people of Tennessee, each other, and now us. This shared experience will connect us for the rest of our lives.

Special thanks to Elder Cobos, Elder Spiers, Sister Strong, and Sister Chan for hanging in there with us all week long. They’re essentially our trainers, and we couldn’t be more grateful for their willingness to help us over these first weeks in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission.

Lastly, we couldn’t have done this week without our daughter Rachel. We were so lucky to have her here with us during our Week 1. She did a lot of heavy lifting in helping us move into the mission home and preparing for each of these meetings. I hope all of our missionaries will remember her invitation to talk to the first person you see when you walk out the door of your apartment each morning. She’s the best. Thanks Rachie! We wish we could have had Lincoln and Connor here to share in this first week.

We took pics with every missionary this week. I’ll put those pics here in case parents want to grab them.