The beginning of the year...our halfway mark...brought many changes to our mission.  Elder and Sister Long, who have served in our office, completed their mission.  They were here before we came, and kept things running smoothly and efficiently... finances, cars, and flats, to name a few of their many tasks.

We wish them well in all they do in the future.

 The next week, we said goodbye to another dozen of our valiant missionaries.

(Front row, l.to.r.:  Elder Seale (Utah), Elder Piredda (Italy), Elder Larsen (Arizona), Elder Worthington (Utah), Elder Halaufia (Florida).  Back row, l to r.:  Elder Moffett (Idaho), Elder Nylund (Sweden), Elder Nygaard (Washington), Elder Hummer (Utah), Elder Wangsgard (not leaving yet!), Elder Ackerman (California), Elder Zito (Italy).



We also said goodbye to Sister Van Eeden, going home to the Netherlands.

Bright and early the next morning, we received 11 new missionaries from the Preston MTC....

Elder Bradley (England), Elder Weihing---pronounced Wine (Utah), Elder Weichers...pronounced Wickers (California), Elder Setu (Australia), Elder Nasman (Finland), Elder MacGill (Colorado), Elder Fairbourn (Utah), Elder Blatter...pronounced Blotter (California), Elder Boehme...pronounced Bay-me (Arizona),  Elder Schiller (Utah), Sister Toleafoa (Utah).

 We also had Sister Mee come to us from Manchester to work in our office...what an amazing woman!!!

And Elder and Sister Tufts came to run the Center for Young Adults.  They are going to be such a blessing to the Young Adults in the Birmingham area.  This is truly an inspired program if ever there was one!!!

We will miss our missionaries who have gone home...we feel privileged to have worked beside them.  We welcome the wonderful new missionaries who are already hard at work and having great experiences.  What a wonderful experience this is for us.