Walboms Leave for Nashville

Paul and Penny Walbom entered the Provo MTC on April 27 to begin a year of fulltime service in the office of the Tennessee Nashville Mission.  

They say they "were shocked” at the short time they had to prepare – only about 5 weeks from the time their call letter was received until they reported for duty.  They also both admit to being "just a little disappointed at being called to the American South" because he had served there as a young man and had hoped to be called somewhere exotic as a senior missionary.  She had served in Paris, France as a young woman and had an expectation of a second French-speaking mission because they had been told of the need.  

Soon after their call to service as Member and Leader Support Missionaries, the mission president telephoned to ask them to serve instead in the mission office which caused them to ask another big “why?”  His next phone call was to ask them to take on a second assignment.  In addition to office work … they will also be providing member and leader support to a Swahili French-speaking branch in Bowling Green, Kentucky!!!  "No doubt, we will soon find the brethren were 'truly inspired' and we will have an amazing experience in Tennessee," notes Sister Walbom. 

The Walbom’s will be leaving behind two of their three children and five of their eight grandchildren for twelve months, but a happy coincidence for the couple is a recent announcement from their youngest son who, at the same time, will be moving his family to Huntsville, AL – only about 50 miles outside the borders of the Tennessee Nashville Mission.

When missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived in Tennessee in October 1834, they preached at a Campbellite church meeting and baptized seven converts. Another 24 were baptized later. These missionaries were joined by future Church President Wilford Woodruff in 1835, who preached to 500 people at a tavern. During the next three months, Woodruff and his companion baptized 20 converts. By year’s end, Woodruff had traveled 3,248 miles, baptized 43 people (three of whom were Campbellite preachers), and had three mobs rise against him.

The worst massacre of Church members in the South occurred on August 10, 1884, when mobbers shot to death missionaries William S. Berry and John H. Gibbs, and two local members during Church services near Cane Creek, Tennessee. B.H. Roberts, who was in charge of the mission at the time, heroically donned a disguise, traveled to the tense area and retrieved the bodies of the slain missionaries. In 1888, a group of 177 Church members left the unfavorable conditions in Chattanooga and moved to Colorado and Utah. By the 1890s, public opinion became more tolerant. The oldest existing Church building in the Southeast was dedicated in Northcutts Cove in 1909.

Currently there are 48,612 members in 102 congregations in the two Tennessee missions.  Two temples, one in Nashville and one in Memphis were dedicated in 2000.  Elder and Sister Walbom are now numbered among 84,000 missionaries currently serving in 406 missions around the world.