Sunday, October 25, 2015

Another AMAZING week.  How does this happen every single week!!!  We LOVE it!

Monday morning we had a 'training' meeting at the North Carolina Charlotte Mission Office.  We were to train the new mission nurse who had just arrived in the mission field one week prior to our meeting with her.  Sister Garlick will be great and the missionaries will love her.  Elder Garlick will be working with the mission car fleet.

Sister Alexander, the Mission President's wife, joined us for part of the training.  It is truly a team effort in taking care of the medical needs of the missionaries!

After the meeting we headed back to the Atlanta area.  One of our favorite places to stop is in Gaffney, S.C.  Strawberry Hills Farms.  For their delicious hand-dipped ice cream!  We were not disappointed this time.

We stayed the night in a Hampton Inn in Alpharetta, GA, north Atlanta.  We had a Zone Conference there on Tuesday and it was easier to stay there than to drive an extra 3-4 hours to Peachtree City and back the next morning.  We have a nice view out our 5th floor hotel room.

And look what we found as we arrived at Zone Conference.....checking those cars first thing before the meeting even starts.

Sister Bennion, the Mission President's wife, always has a missionary choir sing during the conference.  And they only get to practice for about 45 minutes prior to the conference starting.  They are actually pretty good too!

Lunchtime is perfect time for those Zone Conference fotos.  Before any food is served.

Elder/Dr. Allgaier sees 'patients' during the lunch hour.  Here the elders line up and wait for their turn to see the Doctor and eat their food while they wait!  They don't seem to mind the wait with a plate of food!!

On Friday we had our regular oil change at the Nalley Honda in Jonesboro, GA.  Not too far from our apartment in Peachtree City.  The folks are used to seeing us come in.  Elder/Dr. always sets up his 'portable office' and can get a lot accomplished while we are there....usually takes at least 1 1/2 hours....because they always wash and clean the inside of our car as well as the oil change.  Thank goodness this is a nice service they provide because our car surely needs it!  Notice the beautiful orchard on the table!

Janette is the sweet gal who works in sales at Nalley who put the plant on the table.  She felt that we come there enough that we should have a little decoration!  Why not!!

Saturday morning it was back up to North Carolina.  This time NO Zone Conferences.  We were going to attend the Goins Family Reunion.  We love having so much family in our mission.

This is the 'road' leading down to the pottery studio where we were going to pick up a couple of Pilot Mountain pottery that Sylvia Lawson made for us.  We had NOT expected to find the studio in such a remote mountain place.

 This is Sylvia's log cabin home.  Our directions were to walk across the back patio and over to the studio where we would find her working on the 2nd floor.  We were told to just head that direction!  And so we did......

And there is the studio.....2nd floor.....really a cool place, tucked back in the deep woods!!!!  Reminded us of the 'Swiss Family Robinson' home!!!

This is Sylvia Lawson and her studio.  We love her pottery.  It has a Pilot Mountain scene on it.

As we were traveling around some of the back-country roads, we found these tobacco fields.....ready to harvest!  They were numerous in the ones we saw.....kind of like the cotton fields in the south-south!

Saturday night we got to meet a cousin, Sharon Perdue and her husband, Lester, for dinner at the Sagebrush Steak House.  This gorgeous tree was to the side of the restaurant.  Couldn't resist picking a few leaves!

We always enjoy getting together with cousins whenever we can.  One of the great blessings of serving our mission here in 'my country'!!

After dinner we drove downtown Mt. Airy (also known as Mayberry), parked our car on one end and walked up and down Main Street to get our walk in for the day.  We are almost at the 46 miles for Jonathan goal for the month....celebrating what would have been Jonathan's 46th birthday.  AND this was his actual Birthday....October 24th!!

Sunday, after attending church in the Mt. Airy Ward we headed to Francisco to the Goins Reunion.  Chelsa and her little daughter were there to greet us!!  We haven't seen her in a few years.  It was fun to catch up with her for a minute.

Wayne was in charge of the GOINS FAMILY TREE CHART!!!  Everyone always enjoys this little 'activity' and finding out who belongs to who and how we all fit in.  It is GREAT.

We headed over to the Frederick Goins grave site with a few of the cousins.  This was my great-great grandfather.  And his wife Mary.  Left to right are:  Danny Goins, Me, Mary Wall, Hazel (Mary and Hazel are sisters and Danny is Mary's son) and Richard Goins.

We then went to visit my grandma Knight's gravesite located not too far from the first grave yard.

As we were headed out of Mt. Airy, N.C. we drove down to Jonesville, N.C. where we will spend 2 nights in the Hampton Inn.  These gorgeous fall colors were waiting to greet us.

There you have it.....another week completed!  Mercy, we just keep going like the little Ever-ready Bunnies that we think we are but are getting too old for this fast pace!  Well, we don't have time to think about that because there are just too many things to do.  We LOVE our mission.  We are working hard while we are doing these things that we call the 'blessings' are serving a mission.....Have a great week everyone!