Sunday, April 17, 2016

W.O.W. what a week this has been.  We can just never guess what might be happening in any given week.....most of the time we are surprised at what comes about!  

On Monday morning as we were preparing to head from Morehead, KY back over to the Lexington area for another Zone Conference on Tuesday, we decided to meet the Morehead Sister Missionaries and do a little 'hat-supply-shopping' since it was their P-Day.  (We do NOT get a P-Day so it really doesn't matter to us when we go shopping if we ever need anything).  They got the MEMO from Sister Brough, the mission presidents wife to bring a DERBY HAT (if they could borrow one or buy one for a $1 or less!!) for Zone Conference.  We would be wearing them at lunchtime!  They were excited to go on this adventure!  SO....off we went to Goodwill where we bought 'supplies' to put on the hat and then to Walmart to purchase the hats (and a glue gun and glue sticks to adhere the fun things we bought at Goodwill to the hat).  We had a very successful trip!!!

 You can see how cute the hats turned out!!!  Sister Bailey, office senior missionary on the right, and myself joined the sisters for a foto op!!

After Zone Conference on Tuesday, we headed up to Louisville where we would attend Zone Conferences there for the next two days.  We had the time to stop by the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory and pick up some mini bats for gifts.  This has been a MUST STOP for the past 2 years.  A TRADITION!!!  They had a 'super-hero' kind of event going on....hence the super heros out front of the store....with the biggest Super Hero of all standing in the middle....Elder/Dr. Allgaier!!

Yep.....our purchase of mini bats!!!  Hopefully this will make someone's day!

We also had time to drive by the Louisville Temple.  They were not open at that time.....seems like they are never open when we come by.  The smaller temples have fewer hours than the larger temples.

 On the last day of Zone Conference ALL of the sister missionaries, plus a couple of extra sisters from the local ward who had come to help repair clothing for the missionaries, wore their DERBY HATS at lunch time!!!  How fun is this!!!  Love it!!

AND, on the last day of Zone Conference we got to see Elder Irwin again.  He and his family used to be in our ward in Maryland.  We didn't get to know them very well because they moved in while we were on our first mission to Finland.  His dad passed away before we got home.  Shortly after we got home he and his family moved to Washington State (I think).  I also think Elder Irwin was in Jonathan's seminary class.  Small world in the church.  We love our mission!!!

After the 'usual' Zone Conference foto I decided to stay seated for a minute and turn my iPhone camera on.....as son as I did the Elders behind me starting yelling....'Selfie, Selfie'....and there you have the caption for this foto!

Meet Elder and Sister Bailey.  They are senior missionaries in the office.  He is in charge of cars (hence, his attire for the meeting....he was out checking cars) and Sister Bailey.  She is in charge of the apartments.  We have enjoyed getting to know them.

After we finished the last zone conference we started our drive down to Goodlettsville, Tennessee where we would spend the night.  We decided to take the 'back roads' to see what fun things we could find.  And we found some.....like this sign for the church.  This is NOT typical to have a church sign telling where the chapel is located.  But it was in this really teeny, tiny town.  IF we had had more time, we would have gone in search of the church.

The hills and hollars were just gorgeous!  We love Kentucky.

We found a few more barns too.....and some of them down dirt/gravel roads!!  Typical of where we were.

And we made it back to Tennessee after 2 weeks....

Just across the Tennessee state line we also found a canola field on the back roads.  This time we were able to stop and get a foto of it.

Pulling into our hotel for the night and sitting at a stoplight we noticed this 'Hooter' sitting on the drivers lap and looking out the window.  It totally reminded me of Punkin-Hooter-Tooter!!!  I realized that it was April 14th....the next day, the 15th, would be both my mother's birthday and Punkin's birthday.  This was also like a little tender mercy letting me know they were both close by!  Love the tender mercies we feel and see and experience almost on a daily basis in very subtle ways.

 And, we are back in Georgia just like that.  Good to be back 'home'!!

ALL 3 of the cats were waiting for us.....and Lucy was the first one in the door and she found her 'spot' pretty quickly!!!  What on earth are we going to do in 6 weeks when we leave??!!!

On Saturday morning we were able to head up to the Atlanta Temple.  It was good to be back here again.  When we got out of the Temple, we had a missed call from Tyler.....

 We called him back, not sure what to expect.....and LOW AND BEHOLD.....just like that he and Hollie are ENGAGED!!!  SAY WHAT.......

And....she said Y.E.S.!!!!  WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR THEM and so excited to welcome Hollie into our Eternal Family!!!!  

 We have reserved the date of AUGUST 13th at 12:00 noon for a very important ALLGAIER WEDDING!!!  WE ARE SO  E-X-C-I-T-E-D!!!  Way to go Tyler and Hollie!!  Have I said how excited we are.....EXCITED!!!  (B.T.W.....Tyler and Hollie gave us permission to share these fotos with the family!  Thanks guys!!)

The HAPPY COUPLE!!!  CONGRATULATIONS!!!

AND.....we gave our neighbor, Rodney, a hand-signed (by Henry) copy of the Book of Mormon!!!  Like I said in the beginning........W. O. W.....WHAT A GREAT WEEK!!!  We feel so blessed.  Stay tuned for this coming week......we just never know.  Love y'all  Be safe and watch for reindeer!!  :-)