Sunday, March 27, 2016

Every week seems to be just a bit different.  We just never know quite what we may end up doing some days.....and it keeps us on our toes!

We were invited to attend OUR District Meeting this week, on Tuesday.  We were excited to do that because we are normally not in town for it.  I decided I needed to make some banana, pecan, chocolate chip bread....one per companionship.  That worked well.  The Elders and Sisters were very pleased!

We were supposed to head up to the North Carolina Charlotte Mission this week and next week for Zone Conferences.  About 2 weeks ago we were notified that a member of the Area Presidency changed that schedule for the Mission President.  They can do that and sometimes do....like this time. Because we had already arranged to spend the weekend in Mt. Airy (easier than driving back to PTC and turning around 2 days later and driving back up here), we decided we were going to still come to Mt. Airy for the Easter weekend!  AND, we found out the night before we were to leave that an Elder in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission was having some medical problems that he needed to be hospitalized for.  Elder/Dr. Allgaier felt uncomfortable with what was going on so we decided we needed to detour to Durham to check on things at the hospital.  That is just what we do....when we need to.  The Elder was sent home 2 days later to get further medical help in his home state!  That is usually in the best interest of the missionary when that decision is made....and it is not made lightly!

Couldn't resist this foto (taken by Dad).  This truck was parked next to our car in the Hospital parking lot.  We ARE in the Bible Belt, after all!!!  Got to love it.

We decided we could take call from the top of Pilot Mountain just as easy as being in Mt. Airy.  SO, we decided to walk to the top of the Pinnacle.  We love the view from there....you could even see Winston-Salem....about 37 miles south of Pilot Mountain.  It was the perfect day to be on top.

We decided to also visit the Andy Griffith Museum in Mt. Airy.  Dad tried his 'style' with sitting in the side car.....including helmet!!!

A trip to Mt. Airy is never complete without sporting the Squad Car.  We saw several of them around town...people taking tours in them.  It is fun to do when in town.

OH and what can I say.....YES we ate at Gene's every day we were here.  LOVE, LOVE the ground steak.  AND, dad switched it up a little with having a chili dawg one day.  Both are sooooo good!!!  I have already ordered a BUCKET of ground steak and slaw to bring home with us the end of May as we head to the 515!!!  Freddie said he would have it ready for us.  A BUCKET of deliciousness!!!

Saturday morning was interesting.  Totally without our planning it this way, we ended up going to the gravesites of my Parent, Grand Parents, GREAT-Grandparents and GREAT-GREAT Grandparents on both my mother's side and my father's side.  Very cool to have been able to do that and have it documented.

This is my FATHER's side......

And, my MOTHER's side.

On Saturday afternoon we attended the funeral of my cousin Lucille Goins Crissman who lived in Pilot Mountain.  So nice to have been able to attend.  Almost like a little family reunion.

The funeral was held at the Friendly Chapel Church (Baptist) at Pilot Mountain.  You can see Pilot Mt. in the background.

This is another Great Aunt's grave with 2 cousins:  Hazel on the left and Mary on the right.

 I never go anywhere without my crocheting.  I figure I can always get a few stitches done.....this particular 'cotton boll' patters requires me working with 2 yarns at the same time.  Hence, the 2 yarns........

What a sweet, personal note from our hotel cleaning lady to write this personal note for us wishing us a Happy Easter!  I love the personal touches!!

As we were walking up and down Main Street one afternoon, we ran into one of my cousins AND the lady missionaries came by.  LOVE this little small town.

We got to have Easter dinner with another cousin today after church.....Shannon and her husband Vince.  Shannon (not pictured) is Sharon (Left, cousin, Virgie's youngest daughter) and Lester's (right) daughter.  This is Sharon and Lester's son, Danny and his wife, Cindy.  Danny is being baptized in 2 weeks.  We surely wish we could be back here for the baptism!  How exciting for the all of us that Danny has decided to be baptized.

 We attended the Mt. Airy Ward this morning for church.  They performed the Easter Cantata for Sacrament Meeting.  It was beautiful.  That has been a tradition for the ward to do for as long as I can remember but it is the first time I have actually been here for the performance of it.

We head back to PTC in the morning.  We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and enjoyed being with family and fiends.  We love all of y'all!!  Thank you for your love and support and we continue in the service of our mission.  We love our mission and are very grateful we can do this....THANK EACH ONE OF YOU!!

Sunday, March 20, 2016

This started out as a great 'upcoming week' with Becky and David and their children coming to visit us.  We are excited when any of our family comes to visit!  In order for all 7 of us to be able to travel around together, we rented a mini-van.  That would make it so much nicer!  These were our wheels or the week.  We picked it up on Monday.

As soon as we met the kids at the airport I knew immediately that the kids had sure grown since we saw them last.....Porter is as tall as I am, already!!!  They arrived on Tuesday evening.....just as the sun was setting.

We headed to a really good Bar-B-Que place in the PTC.....Dickey's.  It was surely GOOD!!

At our apartment it became apparent pretty quick that 'Lucy' was anxious to make friends with Becky...not sure Becky was up for that.

On Wednesday we headed to the Georgia Macon Mission.  We had been invited by President and Sister Cottle to visit them in the Mission Home!  We surely love the Cottle's.  As we drove down to Macon we saw the gorgeous flowering pear trees.  We just had to stop and take a few fotos!!

And here are the 'girls'.....L to R:  Sister Cottle, Mission President's Wife, Sister Westbrook, Office Missionary, Becky, Mom, Sister Finlinson, Mission Nurse.

When we left the mission home we headed for the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds there in Macon.  They were so cool.  This foto was taken on top of the windy mound.

When we got home from Macon, Nancy Allen (left) and Ashleigh Haycock (Bishop's wife) in our ward asked if they could come over to meet Becky.  Becky was gracious enough to have them come. 

Thursday, we headed up to the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta.  We really enjoyed being there.  This was our 3rd time going while we have been on our mission.

Centennial Park is located just outside of the Aquarium.  Adjacent to the Park is the SkyView Ferris Wheel.  I have wanted to ride that for a while now.  Today seemed like the perfect time to do that.  I am not sure why I keep wanting to do things like this, especially since I don't really like heights!!  This compares to the London Eye, which we have also ridden.

Claire was helping me feel not too nervous because we were stopped on the TOP!!!  Of course, where else would we be stopped!!!!  The views were great though.

When we got off the ferris wheel we had a one of these ladies come up and ask us if we could take a foto of them together with their phone.  We, of course, were happy to help out.  As it turned out, one of the ladies knew Becky's products and uses them.  The other 3 got an 'on-site', first-hand demonstration of how the Project Life App works!!  Fun little lesson.

We 'rounded' out our great day with a rounded foot shot.

On Friday we headed over to STONE MOUNTAIN.  No matter where we are and what we are doing, Dad is still on call.  And he got plenty of calls on this day.  Right in the middle of the cafeteria where we were getting our lunch.

Among other things, we took the gondola ride to the TOP of the mountain.  GREAT views from up there.  And a little family foto was in order.  Can you tell the wind was blowing up there!

We ended our day at Stone Mountain with the train ride that goes around the base of the mountain.  We always enjoy doing that.

 Back home in the evening, it was story time with Grandpa reading the Uncle Remus story book.  I think the kids seemed to enjoy it.

On Saturday David took the kids and headed over to 6 Flags Over Georgia (or whatever it is called!). Becky and I headed over to Michael's to do a little signing and visit with this cute store manager.  We enjoyed the little visit.  I then took Becky up to meet with David and the kids.  They had a very LONG day there!!!

In the meantime, Dad and I were catching up at the apartment.  We went to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  We ran into Rodney (some of you may recognize him!) and his Aunt in Kroger's.  It is always fun to run into him!!

I even got a minute for 'down time' to add a few more rows into a cotton boll afghan I am making for a gift.  I really enjoy working on this particular pattern!

We enjoyed being in our Whitewater Ward on Sunday.  After church we swung by the Starrs Mil for a little foto op.  We love this little place.  

Sunday afternoon walk with grandpa while grandma and Becky made lunch.  Porter and Claire surely enjoyed that little walk! 

Hard to believe the week has flown by so quickly.  And they were OFF and back to sunny, warm Arizona.  We sure loved having them here this week.  We surely LOVE when any of our family has been able to visit us in the mission field.  We surely love ALL our family!

We are grateful for the love and support from our family as we continue to serve our mission.  We only have 2 months left and that is not a very long time.  We are NOT getting trunky......but realizing that we have to work hard to get everything accomplished in this short time.  We hit our mission running and we will finish our mission running!  We are grateful for our blessings and the opportunity to serve on this mission!  We feel blessed!

Sunday, March 13, 2016

On Monday we had a nice lunch at O'Charley's with Elder and Sister Hardgrave.  They have been serving these past 2 years as the Area Mental Health Advisors (AMHA) for our 9 missions plus 9 more....the entire NorthAmerica SouthEast Area.  We will surely miss them but look forward to going to their home in Colorado in the fall to see them again.  What great people they are.

Wayne had developed a really bad toothache over the past couple of weeks.  Bad enough that we had to make an emergency visit to Bishop/Dr. Haycock (our Whitewater Ward Bishop) for Monday afternoon.  A root canal was performed!  I was able to finish this afghan while sitting for 2 hours in the waiting room.  I love being productive!

On Tuesday morning we headed over to the South Carolina Columbia Mission.  We love our mission and the great traveling that we get to do.

Sister Romano is one of the mission nurses.  She had just gotten off work at the local hospital and came right over to Zone Conference.  She brought her 'black nurses bag' with her.  Almost matching bags!!!  How fun.

I made a 'cotton ball' afghan for her....after all, she DOES live in the cotton ball state!!!

And she, in turn, gave me a personally signed by Sam Butcher Precious Moments Nurse figurine.  How special is this!!!  I love her and love that she gave me this!!  She is personal friends with Sam Butcher. 

On Thursday as we traveled from Florence, S.C. to Greenville, S.C. for Zone Conference on Friday, we stopped by a couple of little museums right in Florence.  This was the War Between The States Museum.  Great little 'find'!

We also stopped by the Florence County Museum.  I found a display about Francis Marion, one of my ancestors.  Some day I will find the exact 'how we are related' information.  I have been taught my whole life that we are related to him on my mother's side.

We also got to drive by the Columbia S.C. Temple.  We were not able to do any ordinances because they were in-between the morning shift and the evening shift.  At least we got to feel the spirit as we were walking around the grounds.

Zone Conference on Friday was fun.  We got to help with the car inspections!!  That is always fun!

As we were checking into our hotel tonight in Greenville, this nice man noticed our name tags and introduced himself as a member of the church as well!!!  He was in Greenville on business.  He sells lollipops (of all things) to schools and businesses who are doing fundraisers.  He gave us a bag of these homemade lollipops.  We could share them with the missionaries!  How fun was that.  And a fun story to share with the missionaries as well.

I typically complain about the chairs that I sit in because most chairs, sofas, etc. are NOT made for us short people.  Well, much to my surprise, this chair was in our hotel room.  I sat in it and WOW was it comfortable for ME!!!  My feet were flat on the floor and it was just comfortable.  I sat in that chair when we were in the hotel room and did my crochet work.  I am on the HUNT for a chair like this!!!

On the way home from South Carolina we were able to stop by the Atlanta Temple and participate on a Sealing team for about 45 minutes.  It was good to be there again!

As we approach the temple we always pass by the 'King' and 'Queen' building.  They are so cool.  We have grown to love that sight because we know we are close to the temple when we see them!!

This sweet little gal is Naomi Allen.  She is 7 years old.  She has had a rough few weeks.  She smashed her finger in a door and that was really bad.  We made a 'house call' to check her out.  Then last week the nail started to come off.  She was so proud when it finally came off.  I told her I was going to make a little something special just for her.  She was excited to get it and came right up to me before church started today to show me her finger and the nail that had come off.  I made her a little red heart and gave it to her.  She was excited to have it!

 We love our mission and all that we get to do and see and the places we get to visit.  And the people that we get to know and love.  This will be hard to leave and go home to.  We just try and cherish the time we have while we are here!!!  Y'all have a great week and be safe!  Watch for REINDEER!!  Love y'all!!!