October 18, 2015

WOWZER......WHAT A WEEK!!!!  Did we really get this much done this past week?  I think I am pooped!

To end up last Sunday night, October 11th, Elder/Dr. Allgaier has been having problems with his office chair in 'his office' in our apartment.  Elder Norland and Elder Parkin dropped by tonight to see what they could do.  Lookie there.....they got it fixed!!!  Way to g Elders!

Monday morning early, it was off to NORTH CAROLINA RALEIGH MISSION!!!  This will be our first Zone Conferences with the new Mission President and his wife.....President and Sister James.

We LOVE being with our missionaries.  This is Sister Olive!  She is great.  We knew her cousin, Elder Olive, in the Georgia Atlanta Mission.  He recently finished his mission and returned home.  She had me post this foto on Facebook since Elder Olive and I are 'friends'.  He saw it and got the message of 'HELLO' from Sister Olive.  I love our mission!!  Sister Olive had to have emergency surgery almost a year ago.  We drove up to the hospital to visit her and spent 2 nights in Dunn, N.C. where she was.  We wanted to make sure she was doing ok.  She had to go home for recovery when she was able to but she came right back out as soon as she was cleared!  SO good to see her doing well.

The North Carolina Raleigh Mission got 'black boxes' this week....it was quite the process!!!  This makes a total of 4 of our 9 missions so far to get them.

One of the Zone Conferences this week was held at the chapel right next to the Raleigh Temple.  We LOVE when we get to come here.  Unfortunately, the temple was closed this day so we didn't get to do any proxy work.  At least we got to be there.

YES, there are cotton fields in North Carolina as well as Georgia and South Carolina.  We absolutely LOVE the cotton fields in the south.  And this is the perfect harvest time when the soft cotton balls are just ripe and easy to see!!!

When we finished our Zone Conferences on Thursday, we headed to our Hampton Inn hotel in Jonesville, N.C. which is west of Winston Salem.  This little town is in the middle of absolutely NOWHERE!!!  And this Hampton Inn is the GEM of the area!!!  We could not believe how amazing the fall decorations were both inside and outside.  This is just a little sample of what they had.  They really outdid themselves!  They are the #1 in our books!!

On Friday, we drove over to Winston-Salem to visit the Old Salem.  I had grown up with always visiting Winston-Salem because my grandma and grandpa Knight lived there.  I was used to seeing the Wachovia Building....a real landmark for the area.  Today it was standing there looking pretty!!

We also thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Old Salem.....Dad found an old map of Savannah, of all places!  He was thrilled!!!  And especially since they gave it to him for a real bargain price!!  Made him even happier.

They have a bakery in Old Salem!!  AND guess what they had.....yupper!  Sugar Cake!!!  LOVE it.  We were hungry so we sat a minute and munched away at it.  Call it lunch and call it good!!

 On Saturday morning we drove from Jonesville to Boone, N.C. so we could visit with my cousin Gary Willard and his wife Gail.  The fall foliage was at it's PEAK as we pulled into Boone.....

Once we got to their home we hopped in their car and we headed to a festival called the Valle Cruces Festival.  It was a fairly big festival and a gazillion people were there.  And it was a gorgeous day.  And it was C.O.L.D.!!!  Wayne borrowed a coat from Gary and Gail's son that was at their home.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Valle Cruces Festival held.....in the VALLEY!  Thousands of people were there to enjoy the day with us on this Gorgeous Fall Day.

We found some BRUNSWICK STEW being served right there.  It was pretty good.  They even had a semi-recipe for it!!

When we finished at the festival we drove around the area some so we could see more foliage.  We drove up on the Skyline Drive to the Moses Cone Lookout.  WOW was that THE place to go for a great view.  The foto just doesn't do it justice but it will give a good idea.  Again, note the gorgeous day!

This is the Moses Cone House that we visited inside with lots of local artisan goodies.  Gail and I stayed inside to do a little shopping!

Wayne and Gary decided to come back outside and sit and wait for us.  They really didn't like the shopping thing!

Gary and Gail's home sits on a golf course and a beautiful little pond.  With gorgeous trees....such as this one.  Notice Gary's birdhouse in the foreground.

What a GREAT Restaurant this was......and a cute name at that!

 Gail and Gary made dinner reservations at the Over Yonder Restaurant in Valle Cruses, neighboring to Boone.  Oh my goodness was it ever good.  We all four had the meatloaf with butter beans and sweet potato casserole.  I want to go back again and have the same thing.  DELICIOUS!

This restaurant home dates back to 1861.  Somehow it survived through the Civil War.  Cool place with a lot of history!

Back at Gary and Gail's home......we spent the night there.  That was great because we got to spend time visiting.  Wayne, of course, had to work.  The 'connection' was a little spotty.  BUT, he found a 'spot' in the middle of the living room floor.  Hence, he sat his 'office' up there so he could 'connect'!!  You have to do what you have to do....sometimes.

Sunday morning we noticed the gorgeous view as the sun was rising over the mountain.  Notice the frost on the ground and the Canadian geese in the field with the reflection in the pond.

It was COLD but we climbed through a fence to get where we could have a selfie and a gorgeous view of that sunrise!  Worth it.

The leaves were falling like snowflakes!  Fall is definitely here in the mountains!

We attended the Boone Ward.  It was a great meeting.  Very friendly folks.  We hope we can come back here again.

The sister missionaries to my right and Katie to my left....a sweet gal who came to church for the first time here.  The Bishop is foto-bombing in the background!

And now we are back in Charlotte for meetings tomorrow in the N.C. Charlotte Mission Office.  We need to train a new mission nurse with the Mission President's wife being a part of the training.  

We surely love what we do on our mission.  It is very rewarding for us.  We are pooped but we are missionaries and we are supposed to be pooped!  Have a great week everyone....love you all!