Tennessippi

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church at the West Memphis branch. . . after loading up the car and cleaning up the hotel room so there was no sign of the cats, of course we were late. So, we got to walk into the chapel (which is pretty small in a branch building) with everybody smirking at us. We found out later they were smirking because President Soto (the Branch President) had informed them all that I was there and should be coming and then Brother Russell (one of the recent converts when I was there) stood up and informed the Branch we were on our way, as he had just gotten off the phone with me. To top it all off, the speakers left about 10 minutes at the end so President Soto had me come up and speak! I should have known it was coming, but it was great to see everyone again.

From West Memphis, we crossed the mighty Mississippi and headed into Memphis, Tennessee. Unfortunately, we were strapped for time (and dragging a big trailer) so I never got to go show Tara Beale Street and some of the other cool places in the city itself, but we did get to see the Memphis Temple and say hi to Bishop Floyd (he was Bishop of the Memphis 1st Ward when I was serving in Frayser). After that we continued down to Collierville, Tennessee which was my first area. I spent six months there, and it is probably my favorite area. Once there we dropped off the trailer at the home of one of my friends there. Once we were free of the trailer, we checked into the hotel and dropped the cats off there. . . then we went and found some real Memphis food!

I wanted to eat at Rendezvous Ribs, but it was closed so I settled for a close second – The Germantown Commissary. It was just as good as I remember, and I was reminded of why I put on 40 pounds on my mission. After lunch, we drove around town and visited a couple families that I knew and then headed down to Mississippi to see the Allen's! The Allen's were one of my favorite families and lived just across the border in a little "town" called Lamar (which was still part of the Collierville area). It was really fun to see them, and Tara seemed to really enjoy them as well. In fact, she's been very social with everyone that we've seen on this trip. . . and she teases me about being a celebrity missionary! I'm just excited these people remember me and are happy to see me after four years.

We ended the evening back in Collierville with a visit to the Bowen's. The Bowen's are not members of the church, but are one of the coolest families I met on my mission. The parents are white, but all five (?) of their kids are adopted, and four of the five are black. They are great people, and all of the kids are grown up now and taller than me (Yes. . . I know that's not hard, but they were like 12 when I was there so they've made a big jump). Sally Ann (the mom) has also started a new ice cream truck business, so she loaded Tara and I up with a bunch of free ice cream. They were a great family to end the mission tour with.

All in all it was fun for both Tara and I to go through my mission. I loved seeing the people again, showing her the places I lived and showing her off. She seemed to equally enjoy meeting the people and seeing the places, and had a lot of fun. I hope it doesn't take us another four years to get back there again!