On January 25th, President Collins called to inform us that we are going to be assigned to the Ft. Smith YSA Ward in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Not what we were expecting but know that it is the right place for us to serve at this time and we know that Jena will love it. Gary is calling it "Jena's mission."
Ft. Smith is a town of about 90,000 people about 1 1/2 hours south of the Bentonville area. It is in the Ozarks and the Arkansas River runs through the city. Our apartment is a duplex on the south end of town surrounded by meadows and trees.
We did a zoom meeting with Elder and Sister Ritter who are currently assigned there and we were able to learn even more about what they do and about the branch. They have been teaching an institute class in Ft. Smith and also in another small town about 30 miles away. They help the local missionaries with transportation to transfers and other meetings. They make a 500 mile loop every 6 weeks to check on the missionary apartments in the south half of the mission. They have been teaching a Bible study class at lunch once a week at an local college campus. The branch has about 30 members or so.
Fun note about Elder and Sister Ritter--they were in the MTC last April with Steve and Dana Bickmore. When we got our call, he directed us to them and we exchanged some messages about the mission with them in September. Fun to be able to reconnect and to share the same service area. They were Church Education missionaries so they expected to teach Institute.
I am sure there will be a lot of posts as we serve in this pretty part of the country.
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