2nd TKM Family Olympics

During this last transfer, we said goodbye to an amazing group of missionaries. After 18 or 24 months of serving the people here in Tennessee, 17 missionaries returned home to begin the next phase of their life. We are so grateful for each them and the incredible contributions they’ve made in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission:

• Sister Kessly Strong
• Sister Ashley Asay
• Elder Caleb Cobos
• Elder Caleb Dougal
• Elder Trevin Hubbard
• Elder Jamison Stagg
• Elder and Sister Larson
• Elder Jakob Bowler
• Sister Brinly Stapley
• Elder Jarek Burnett
• Elder Christian Clark
• Sister Lexi Colson
• Sister McKenzie Emmett
• Elder Randy Hughes
• Elder Ethan Lewis
• Sister Emily Reyes
• Sister Rachel Saul

Half of these missionaries left during the transfer to return home in time to begin the Fall semester at different universities, leaving eight to participate in the 2nd TKM Family Olympics.

For their last day as missionaries, we celebrate these missionaries and their accomplishments. We hold their final interviews and discuss their goals and important ways they can continue to be life-long disciples of Jesus Christ. President Barlow had the opportunity to give each of them a priesthood blessing, which is a very special experience for him. We then bring them all to the mission home for an afternoon of fun that we call the TKM Family Olympics. With 8 missionaries here on the final day, we divided them into four teams and had them compete in four events:

Corn Hole
Bocce
Kub
Chalk Art

The competition was intense as each team battled it out for the gold medal.

In the end Elder Lewis and Elder Clark won silver medal, solely driven by their 1st place finish in the Chalk Art competition. All of the chalk art was impressive, but Elders Lewis and Clark locked in the win for that category. By the way, lots of symbolism in that art.

But the big winners, going undefeated in Corn Hole, Kub, and Bocce, while securing a solid finish in Chalk Art, were Sister Colson and Sister Reyes. Congratulations to our gold medalists for the 2nd TKM Family Olympics!

After the TKM Family Olympics, we gathered for dinner and these 8 missionaries recorded their final “Tender Mercy Video”.

Everyone changed clothes and we had a very special testimony meeting where each of these missionaries shared their feelings about the Savior, their experiences in Tennessee, and the many lessons learned through this service.

We finished the evening at Bruster’s Ice Cream.

We love each of these missionaries and wonder how the TKM will continue on without them. They will definitely be missed and we know Heavenly Father has great things planned for each of them.

During this transfer we had two missionaries transfer to service missions, and we are very proud of Sister Blundell and Elder Morris and feel so grateful for their service in the TKM. We also had Sister Wood return home for health reasons and she will be greatly missed.

Lastly, we had two missionaries, Elder Thurman and Elder Moore, who served one transfer in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission while waiting for their visas to be able to go to the Peru Lima North Mission. We hoped to have them longer, but feel so grateful for our time serving with them.

Our hope is to be connected to each of these missionaries for the rest of their lives. They have sacrificed so much to come and serve the Lord and the people of Tennessee, and in return they have been blessed with amazing experiences and taught so many critical lessons that will be very valuable in the days to come. We will be cheering them on, always willing to help them in any way we can, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for each of them.

#WhatsUpInTKM