Sunday, December 13, 2015

As we were leaving Peachtree City today and heading to the South Carolina Columbia Mission, we got a text from Elinn.....just letting us have a little 'update' of the homefront!!!  We really appreciated that.....makes us realize just how much we DO miss home.  And we can't believe how Madi is still 'hanging in there'!  Bless her little heart......and love those Christmas Cactus blooms!  WOW.....

And here we are......SOUTH CAROLINA, again.....

Poor South Carolina is STILL drying out from the 26+ inches of rain in November.  But the swamps were very pretty.....

And, YES, we even went to Swan Lake again.....only this time I would NOT let Elder/Dr. Allgaier get near any of the Swans.......it took him 2 months to recover from the last visit here in December 2014 and when a Swan attacked him.

We were invited over to Sister Romano's home.  She is one of the mission nurses.  We love working with her.  And just look at that collection of Precious Moments!  She is a die-hard collector.  She has thousands.  She and Sam Butcher, owner of P.M., are personal friends.

 We had a beautiful sunset as we headed over to the Sumter, S.C. Festival of Lights.  

 We loved attending this last year.  And this year was NO disappointment either.

These are part of the 200 gift bags that were made for the missionaries by Sister Romano and a couple of other sisters in the stake!  ALL handprinted design on each bag.  Filled with goodies.

You know you are TRUE companions when you dress alike!  And look at those 'foto bombers' in the background.  Elders are good for that.

We were met by this friendly, festive guy when we checked into our hotel in Simpsonville, S.C.

As we left Simpsonville and headed toward Savannah, GA (actually in Statesboro, GA), we were taking an exit ramp in Augusta, GA and happened to be the first person on the scene when this accident happened.  Elder/Dr. Allgaier was able to assist in calming 3 women and 3 children down until the police were able to arrive.  I called 9-1-1.  Everyone was fine....just shaken up, as would be expected.  We were on our way from the S.C. Columbia Mission to the GA. Macon Mission.  President and Sister Cottle had invited us to attend a 1/2 mission Christmas Zone Conference on Friday.

One thing President Cottle likes to do at his Christmas Zone Conferences is share different types of Christmas stories.  He is such a GREAT story-teller.  He has a real gift!!

The Mission Office missionaries and Sister Cottle (Mission President's wife) served the food.  They had me join them in the foto-op!

We LOVE President and Sister Cottle.  We will be forever friends with them.

President Fuzzle is a counselor in the Mission Presidency.  He wore his apron while helping so he wouldn't get his suit messed up.  He is such a GREAT guy!!

We drove home on Friday night.....got home late (at least late for us!).  On Saturday morning we were up at 5 a.m., left our apartment at 6:45 a.m. and headed over to Tucker, GA to attend a 2-mission conference with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.  It was a wonderful 2 1/2 hour meeting.  About 450 missionaries in attendance.  And he shook hands with every single one of us missionaries before he started the meeting.  That was amazing to see that many missionaries!  What a great spirit.

Elder Lamb is one of our 'grandsons'.  We arrived shortly after we did and we just kind of adopted each other.  He is such a GREAT missionary.

After the meeting, Elder/Dr. Allgaier was able to 'see' a couple of missionaries and check up on a few medical concerns going on.  Here he is drawing a diagram for this Elder to show how his hand injury looked on paper!!!

We stopped at our local Kroger Grocery Store on the way home to pick up a few things.  Saw this cute little PEANUT parked outside.  We have no idea why it was parked there or what it was doing.  It was just cute!

I got another afghan finished......headed to the west!!

The Elders were teaching the 15 - 16 year olds in Sunday School class today.  We were invited to help them.  It was fun.  The weather was so nice we decided to move class outside by the fire pit!  Sure....why not.  We are in the south where the weather is nice in the winter-time!

AND, last but not least for this week, Elder/Dr. Allgaier learned how to do this from one of the young men at church today.  He wanted to come home and try it out for himself!  Good job Elder/Dr. Allgaier!!

Y'all have a GREAT week.....be safe and have fun.  We will report next week.....Love all of you!