Dixie Mission: Christmas Comes to Dixie

The seasons change and the temperatures fall and I am still amazed that the original settlers lived with extremes in heat, snow, floods, droughts and were happy to do so because they were asked by a prophet of God. Many came because Brigham Young asked them to grow cotton. It worked and we still grow it today to give guests an idea of what it was like. The growing season has ended but here are some photos from October.

These pics are at Jacob Hamblin's home. We picked this and a lot more. Local ladies come and get some to card and spin the way the pioneers did.

It does snow here but last year we had about 2 inches total after three snowfalls. What it does mercilessly is leaf-fall! This is about two inches in two hours and only the first fall of about a dozen so far. You are looking at our front door the morning after the night of the first freeze. Below is a shot of Brigham Young's Winter home during a blustery afternoon. The colors were so vivid and the scene so lovely, I had to share.

We missionaries spent three very early mornings as a group working on decorations at all the sites. A committee was in charge but we all got a taste of Christmas decorating. Elder Clinger is admiring the lights outside the Tabernacle that are put there by the city.

Sister Clinger loves the sound of the organ in the Tabernacle and even her playing sounds acceptable with the wonderful acoustics President Young had built in. He asked the Saints to build the Tabernacle large enough to hold 2000 but Miles Romney, the Supervising architect said it would be too large to keep the acoustics in tact. So it was built 56x106 feet to hold 1200. We just got that many in the building for a concert by the Southern Utah Heritage Choir and it sounded great!

Family came for Thanksgiving and we turned it in to a Thanksmas celebration because we won't be together on Christmas. Here is Jubal carving the turkey, goodies left for Santa, all gathered on Mom and Dad's bed before the entrance in to the living room where Santa had obviously been! It was a joyful few days. Senior missonaries are not under the same policies as the younger Elders and Sisters. We can see family as often as we like!

(Bottom left)Sisters Lau, McNaughton, Sanders, Borba, Hooson, Pilling, Schneider, Parton
(Top left) Crane, Meneses, Mervar.

Here are a few Visitors' Center images including some of the Sisters that come and go on transfer day which happens every six weeks. It is a very emotional day with a lot of activity and anticipation. They learn to love their comps, their areas and their investigators and the VC assignment.
Then they go outbound or home and we all shed tears.