February 28, 2016

AND, once again, it never ceases to amaze me at how much we cram into a week!  While we were here in the south enjoying our mission, back home at the 515.....we had a visitor!!!  SO fun to see Kevin and Henry having fun at the homestead!  Wish we could have been there to 'entertain' them!!!  Loved getting this foto.....

On Monday, Sister Cheng and her companion came by to visit with us.  They actually had a couple of medical questions for Elder/Dr. Allgaier.  I realized that Sister Cheng only has 2 weeks left on her mission.  I gave her a little Atlanta Temple cross stitch hanging.

On Monday evening we had a dinner meeting with the new AMHA for the SouthEast (Area Mental Health Advisor) and his wife.  They will be residing in Florida in their home.  We will surely miss Elder and Sister Hardgrave.  We welcome Elder and Sister VanGass.

Steven arrived in Atlanta really early Wednesday morning and headed straight for his Optometry Conference in downtown.  We picked him up on Wednesday night and headed straight for dinner.....at the Speedi Pig in Fayetteville.   It wasn't quite as good as we were expecting but it was ok.  It was great to have Steven spend the night with us in our apartment.

On Thursday morning, we took Steven back downtown for his conference.  Wayne and I came home and got our suitcases.  We were headed down to Douglas, GA for the last Zone Conference in the GA Macon Mission.  Oh how we love our mission and getting to be with such great missionaries and the Mission President and his wife!!!  We love our mission.  This has become one of our favorite roadside markets.  We stop here everytime we go that way.  This is where we get our T.O.E. JAM!!!  It is so good!!

Zone Conference fotos are always taken.  We are always invited to be a part of them.   We love that.

And look who we got to see again.....my newly found cousin, Elder Hiatt!!!  We always take a foto together!

After the Zone Conference, President Fussell (counselor in the Mission Presidency) took us senior missionaries to see the site of the first Church Building in the Douglas, GA area.  Along with the cemetery.  How fun to see this and get to know more of the church history of this area.  L to R:  Elder/Dr. Allgaier, Elder Landrieu, President Cottle (Mission President), Elder Westbrook, President Fussell and Elder Finlinson.

Not to be outdone by the great Brethren....the Sisters wanted their foto taken as well:  L to R:  Sister Allgaier, Sister Westbrook, Sister Cottle (Mission President's Wife), Sister Landrieu, Sister Finlinson.

A little selfie in front of the church was definitely in order.  I used my apple watch with the iPhone!

On Saturday morning as we headed back up to Peachtree City, we stopped by the other historical site.  This is the 2nd oldest LDS Chapel building in the Douglas, GA area.  Very impressive that both of these buildings were still standing.

Right on the property of this 2nd oldest building is a peanut farm!!  And we found the remains of the last harvest.  How fun is that....

We absolutely LOVE taking the back roads as we do our road trips....at least when we can.  This back road was especially fun to take because we 'found' this painting on the side of the building.  Short story on the painting:  President Fussell's cousin actually painted this!!!  SO cool.  It should be, however, in Mt. Airy, N.C. where Mayberry is!

We found a few more cotton fields.  We stopped so we could get a good foto of it.  Elder/Dr. Allgaier looks quite 'thoughtful' as he looks out over the field being white....ready to harvest!

As we drove back into Peachtree City, we decided to stop at the U-Haul place to see what type of options we have in getting our things home at the end of our mission.  We had looked previously at pulling a 5 x 8 trailer.  We didn't feel completely comfortable with that.  Steven talked to us about other options and this is what we have come up with.....a 10-foot U-Haul!  Elder/Dr. will drive this and I will drive our car.  Totally doable!!!  I think we have our plan in place.  It is a 'cute' little truck don't you think!!

We headed back down to the middle of Atlanta Saturday evening to pick Steven up from his conference.  And look what we got up close and personal with!!!  I hope we get to ride on this ginormous ferris wheel before we leave our mission.  We will have to see!!

Sunday after church we headed to the Starrs Mill to show to Steven.  It is just a cool place.

After dinner and a relaxing afternoon at our apartment it was time to take Steven back to the Atlanta Airport so he could get back to his family and work and everything else he has going on!!!  We have thoroughly enjoyed our little bit of time with him!!

We look forward to Becky and David's family visiting with us in a few weeks!  We LOVE our family and just enjoy being together with any of you whenever we can!!

QUICK COLLEGE UPDATE:  Emsley got her acceptance to BYU-Provo last week (grandpa Allgaier's Alma Mater!)!!  Ele got her acceptance to Utah State University this week (my Alma Mater!)!!  Tim is doing great and loves being at LDS Business College in SLC!!!  Tyler is working SO HARD at UVU in Orem AND the big news is that he looks to graduate spring of 2017!!!  YIKES....this all makes me feel really, really old!  We are so proud of each of our grandchildren and the wonderful accomplishments they are experiencing!!  Thank you for being so wonderful!  We love each of our children and grandchildren!  

Until next week.....stay safe and watch for REINDEER!!

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Quite honestly, as I look back over the week in preparation to doing my blog, I am more than amazed at just how much we do in a weeks' time!!!  I don't know how we keep up with everything.  I think we just may go home from this mission completely exhausted!  And I don't think we will even fill guilty if we take a nap in the afternoon the first day we get home!

It HAS been a great week though.  We started out on Monday with helping move all of Chuck's belongings out of his apartment.  We called in one set of the missionaries to help with that task.  Here dad and Elder Harmon are getting a very, VERY heavy box of books down the steps.  All of his furniture and non-personal belongings were donated to a local place called "Clothes Less Traveled".  The title is deceiving because it is a great place and more like a department store!  Wish I had found this place 1 1/2 years ago.....or maybe it is a good thing I didn't know about it!  :-)

On Monday afternoon our upstairs neighbor, Sujay, moved out!!  He was moving to Michigan where he would start a new job.  We have become friends with he and his wife (who is currently at the family home in India, where they are from, because she just had a baby).  Dad gave Sujay a Book of Mormon in Hindi.  Sujay seemed pleased!

And speaking of a Book of Mormon.  This is a foto that Sister Anderson texted to me.  I gave her one of my little crocheted hearts....she is using it in her scriptures.  I love it.

We actually got a chance to take a walk one day this week.  We saw this sign.....we thought it was describing US.....yes, we are SLOW GRANDPARENTS!!!  

SPRING seemed to have sprung this week.....that was evidenced by the number of golf carts out and about.  This little line-up was taken at the Kroger Grocery store.  Even though they have their protective sides up, it was fun to see so many of them out.

You may recall the crocheted heart I made for Chuck.  His son, Jeff, mailed this back to me at our request......IF they didn't want to keep it for sentimental reasons.  Chuck's sons were not very close to their dad and we figured they would probably not want to keep it.  It definitely means something to us and we were very glad to have it back.  Jeff also sent a very nice little note thanking us for all we had done to help his father.  It was very tender indeed!

On Thursday we were off to Savannah for Zone Conference.  We stopped at a little convenience/gas station on the way.  I just LOVED to see these southern snacks available!!

Savannah just has to be one of our favorite places to visit!  Today was no exception.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Saw this paddle boat coming down the Savannah River as we were walking along River Street.

And a barge came floating by as well....

We stayed in the same hotel as President and Sister Cottle!!  We surely LOVE them.  We want to the like them when we grow up.  We are going to miss them for sure.

At lunchtime on Friday, February 19th, the missionaries same HAPPY BIRTHDAY to dad!!!  What a fun surprise.  Sister Cottle took this foto.

This was taken of President Cottle, Dad and Elder Westbrook after Zone Conference.

On Friday night President and Sister Cottle along with one of his counselors, President Fuzzell and his wife, arranged for a horse drawn carriage ride around the historic parks of Savannah.  It was SO FUN!!!

President Cottle, dad and I were on one side of the carriage....

Sister Cottle with Sister Fuzzell and President Fuzzell were on the other side.

After the carriage ride we decided to go to Leopold's (a famous place in downtown) to have some soup and ice cream.  Outside of the restaurant were these girl scouts selling their Girl Scout cookies.  Interesting that the Founder of the Girl Scouts lived in Savannah and the very first Girl Scouts Meeting was in Savannah!  Really cool!!!  YES, we all bought a box of Thin Mints!!!  Why not!

IF you look real close, you will see some 'rude' people foto-bombing this young couple in the background!  No worries....we went out and apologized to them and dad took a nice foto for them to keep!

We had delicious food....we want to go back again someday!

As we left Savannah on Saturday morning I happened to notice this beautiful Palmetto Palm in front of our hotel.  It was just too pretty not to take a foto of.

We made it back up to the Georgia Atlanta Mission Senior Missionary Conference being held at the Mission Home.  Of these couples, there are about 4 of them leaving within the month.  It 'hurt' to think we will be not too far in the distance with having to leave.  Oh how we will miss being in our mission!!

 The sister missionaries who live close to us dropped by on Sunday afternoon.  They needed to talk to Elder/Dr. Allgaier.  They LOVE it when they see our car in the parking lot because they love to come in a visit.  They needed a 'lift' today so they got a crocheted heart!

 We LOVE OUR MISSION!!!  We are so grateful we can be here.  It looks to be another busy week.  We look forward to having Steven here in Atlanta this week.  AND we will actually be able to spend a little time with him.  We are surely looking forward to that.  AND we have the last 2 Zone Conferences in the GA Macon Mission this week.  Thank you all for your love and support.  We could NOT serve this mission without the support of each of you!!!  We truly feel blessed!  Love y'all....

Sunday, February 14, 2016 - HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.....but, we'll get to that in a minute!

Let's back up to the beginning of the week first before we jump right into Valentine's Day!

We started our week out by attending a Zone Conference on MONDAY in Columbus, GA for the Georgia Macon Mission.  How fun it was to be with those wonderful missionaries again!  Here is Sister Finlinson, the mission nurse, helping with the car inspections (her husband, Elder Finlinson, is the car 'czar') and President Fuzzel of the Mission Presidency.  President Cottle is in the background talking to dad (hidden behind President Fuzzel).

Fortunately, it was only a short 1 hr and 15 minute drive south for us because we had to get back to our apartment.  We had Zone Conferences in the Georgia Atlanta Mission on TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY.  These meetings were held in the chapel by the Atlanta Temple.  We had a little snow flurry activity going on here in Georgia......

......while back up north at home we had yet another SNOW STORM coming in.  We ended up with about another 8 inches on top of the 32 inches from the week before!!!  Pretty winter wonderland!!

Sister Foote, the GAM President's wife arranged to have the lunches catered this time around.  Pulled pork sandwiches and great baked beans!!!  WOW was it a great lunch!!

On Thursday after Zone Conference we had to leave north Atlanta and drive down to Augusta, GA for yet one more Zone Conference on Friday.  It was a 3 hour drive down there.  Once out of the city we were able to have some pretty scenery......dad took this foto of this cool tree off in the middle of this pasture.  LOVE IT!!!

 Friday morning as we arrived at the Zone Conference we found the diligent missionaries out checking their cars and taking care of the maintenance!  They are so good!!

 And even the Sister Missionaries were checking cars.....lots of fun 'things' to learn!

We got to see Elder Goodsell again!  As you may recall, it was his great-grandfather who baptized Dad's parents, Earl and Esther Allgaier.

It was a 3 hours drive home after Zone Conference on Friday afternoon.  We decided to drive the 'back roads' because we like the scenery better.  This truck loaded with the long, skinny trees is like Georgia 'gold'!!!  We see so many of these trucks down here.

And we also see so many of these old, run-down homes.  Just abandoned.  This home still has the overstuffed chairs sitting on the front porch!  Got to love the south!!

As we were driving through this little town of Eatonton, GA, we saw a sign advertising 'Uncle Remus Museum'!!  We just had to stop and check it out.  We were taking a foto of the cute statue of Brer Rabbit out front and we heard a voice calling at us...."Come on in y'all...."  We looked up and saw this sweet lady waving for us to come in even though the sign said CLOSED!!!  Georgia is her name and she was our tour guide.

What an absolutely cool little museum.....right in the middl of absolutely nowhere!!  She was just the sweetest thing and 'bout talked our ears off with story after story after story!!!

We got a text this Friday morning as we were headed to Zone Conference that CHUCK, our neighbor who was in Hospice that we had been visiting just about every day since he had been admitted, that he passed away on Thursday night.  We were very sad about that.....that we could not have been with him.  He was all by himself.  BUT, we were happy because he was pain free.  AND, as we were traveling home we got a phone call from our missionaries (that live by us) that a new convert in our Whitewater Ward had quadruple by-pass surgery that morning!!!  When it rains it pours.

SO....on Saturday we headed to the Hospital in downtown Atlanta to visit with Jack.  Jack was given the heart pillow (as a heart patient!) and the Elders made the 'heart' card to give to him.

 As we were driving home from the hospital, the sun was just beginning to set and making the Atlanta skyline really pretty....obviously, this is only part of that skyline.

Now, we are finally on today, Valentine's Day.  We got a text during church that one of our AP's was very sick and the nurse was sending him to the hospital.  SO.....we left church and headed to the hospital.  Sure enough, he was looking pretty rough.  After spending most of the day at the hospital with this Elder and his companion, we finally got a diagnosis....horrible migraine  headaches.  Poor guy....he was really having a bad one.  

Back in the waiting room with his companion.....waiting for the discharge papers to be filled out!

After we got home we had 'visitors'.  Our missionaries that live in the next apartment building.  I made each of them a crocheted heart.....of which they were wearing on their sleeves....and looking all macho!

Dad decided he wanted to share a little story with them before they headed to their apartment!

And....that has been our week!!!!!  Another super busy one....and I have a feeling the upcoming week will be just as busy!  We love y'all.....have a great week!!  And be safe and watch for reindeer!!  :-)