Sunday, September 20, 2015

I was able to finish up a couple of projects that I had going.  That is always a good feeling.  The 4
'matching' scarves are headed to China......request from David.  I LOVE having a purpose with my crocheting.  I just simply can NOT sit still and do nothing.  I need to keep my fingers busy.

And I was able to finish this afghan that I sent to Becky's office....her company 'colors'!  A little something to brighten up her office.  Anybody else have something they want me to make for them.  I have the yarn for Elder Spencer Allgaier's afghan for him but he won't get it until he gets home.  If I try to mail it to him in Mexico I fear he will never see it!!!

 The first couple of days this past week we were able to be home and catch up on things around the apartment and here in Peachtree City.  Felt good.....when it WAS time to start packing for our trip to Savannah, GA for the last of the Zone Conferences, 'Lucy' decided she wanted to go with us so she hopped into dad's suitcase!!  Nice try putty-kat!!

On Thursday, we had a double date with President and Sister Cottle, the Mission President of the Georgia Macon Mission and his wife.  We went to a great seafood restaurant on the River Walk in Savannah, GA.  What a GREAT, FUN place and a GREAT, FUN evening with them.  They have become our dear, dear friends!!

Dad and President Cottle were having a 'High Priest' scripture discussion sitting in front of our Hampton Inn Hotel.

Part of Zone Conference is 'picture taking time'!!  I called Sister Cottle to look back and I got a cute shot of her!!!

President Cottle was checking out the fotos the elders took on his iPhone.  And a couple of 'selfie's' added to the mix.  I think President Cottle liked them.....

Friday was also a significant day for us.....3 years ago was when Jonathan passed away!  Michelle Kitchens sent this foto of the grave she took when she stopped by.  How sweet that was of her.  We kept ourselves busy on that day so as to not have too much time to 'think'!  We surely love Jonathan so much and miss him terribly.  How grateful we are for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Eternal Family that we have.

On Saturday we headed from Savannah to Brunswick, GA.  We had gotten permission from 2 of our 9 mission presidents.  You see, Brunswick, Georgia is about 20 miles outside our mission boundaries!!!  Even though it is still in Georgia.  And because we are from Brunswick, Maryland, we wanted to visit our 'counterpart'!!  We found the BRUNSWICK FIRE HOUSE right away.  And there were even a few firemen around.  We were talking to a few of them.  This guys name is Freddy.  I told him I wanted to give him a Brunswick Maryland lapel pin.  He said, wait a minute, I will exchange a Brunswick GA Fire Patch with you.  How fun was that!!!

After visiting Brunswick, GA for a little bit, we drove over to St. Simon Island, about 15 minutes away.  We got to walk up the Lighthouse there.  Very cool.  And then we drove around the Island a bit.

On Sunday, September 20th we attend church in the Darien Branch located in Darien, GA.  It is a small branch but they have a very nice building where they meet.  After their Branch Conference on this day they had a GREAT potluck lunch!  GREAT food and we enjoyed visiting with the members.

This is President Padgett.  He was been Branch President in the past, Stake President in the past and is a living history book of the area.  SO, guess who had lots of questions for him??  Yup, Elder/Dr. Allgaier needed to know everything about the area.

After church we started our 5 hours drive back to Peachtree City.  And most of it, by choice, was on back roads.  NO, not this kind of backroads.  This is just so typical of the backroads though.  Once you turn off the main paved road, it turns to clay/dirt.  Reminds me of my 'growing-up' years as a child in North Carolina.

OH YEAH......WE 'FOUND' OUR BELOVED COTTON FIELDS!!!  And a couple of the fields were ready to harvest!!!  LOVE these fields.  We will surely miss seeing them when we finish our mission.

These fields give a new meaning to the scripture in Doctrine & Covenants...."The field is white all ready to harvest...."  We surely LOVE them....

We could not believe our eyes as we came upon this truck pulling 2 trailers.  As we got closer we realized they were full of PEANUTS!!!  Glory-be!!!  How fun to see that.  Not only are we in cotton country, but we are also in peanut country!!!

 

 And as we pulled into Peachtree City, the sun was just setting!!!  How nice to be 'home' for a few days.

 We thought we would just relax a minute and unpack.  But wait.....there was a knock on our door.  It was our wonderful elders.....Elder Facey, Elder Barton and Elder Norlund.  We love our elders.  They take such good care of our mail, etc. when we are out of town.  We gave them a miniature baseball bat with Atlanta Braves logo on it but they were made in the Slugger Bat Factory in Louisville, Kentucky.  We got them when we were up there last time.  They were so excited to get them.  YES, that is dad pitching a ball to them down the hallway.  Elder Barton actually hit this ball.  Elder Norlund was playing catcher.  Never a dull minute around our place.

Just when we think our weeks can not get any busier, some how we manage to do just that.  We are getting pretty good at PACKING A BUNCH in our weeks.....and even days!!  We love our mission and don't even want to think about being finished and having to go home!!!  :-(  Until next week.....

Sunday, September 13, 2015

It has been a really really full week again!  I have said it before and I will say it again.....I don't know how that happens!  But we are grateful we can keep up with everything and all of the travels.

This is Elder Thompson and his family.  After Elder Thompson was released from his mission back in June, he decided he wanted to return to Georgia and introduce a lot of folks to his family.  How sweet they are.  Elder Thompson is ONE of the two missionaries who helped us move in our apartment the very first day we arrived.  We will never forget their wonderful help.

On Monday, we invited the missionaries who live in the next apartment building to come for dinner.  They wanted GERMAN PANCAKES and HOMEMADE FRESH PEACH SONKER!!!  Yea, go figure.....who would have come up with THAT combination!  But, that is what I fixed.  They seemed to enjoy it.  L to R:  Elder Facey, Elder Norland and Elder Barton.

 I found a cute little SNOWFLAKE CROCHET PATTERN I wanted to try.  Here is what they look like.  I think I will be making a bunch more as little gifts!  :-)

Tuesday was Georgia Macon Mission Zone Conference in Columbus.  We LOVE being with President and Sister Cottle and their wonderful missionaries!  Meet Elder Goodsell!  Name sound familiar??  It should.  It was his great-grandfather, Wylie Goodsell, that was Esther and Earl Allgaier home teacher and the one who invited them to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints back in the 1960's!!!!  We filled Elder Goodsell in on the great Moroni Hill Story.  He had not heard much about it.  Oh my......are we loosing that important story through the generations!?  I hope not.

And our dear, dear friends......President and Sister Cottle of the wonderful Georgia Macon Mission!  What GREAT leaders they are.

On Wednesday we took a little ROAD TRIP with Elder and Sister Hardgrave.  They are the Area Mental Health Advisors.  We try to do things with them from time to time and when we are both in town.  We drove down to WARM SPRINGS, GA. to see President Teddy Roosevelt's Little White House.  It was very cool.  Never even knew it was there.

President Roosevelt actually passed away in this bed.  He suffered from the affects of Polio which he had.  He was sitting in the room next to his bedroom having his portrait painted when he slumped over.  The woman painting his portrait thought he had just passed out, because he did that a lot apparently.  Obviously, that was not the case. She moved the painting aside and never touched it again.

This is the portrait.  It hangs in the gallery next to the Little White House.  Just as it was when he passed away.

As we were traveling back from Warm Springs, we saw this PIGGLY WIGGLY and we just had to stop.  Love my Piggly Wiggly's from when I was a kid and that is where we used to buy groceries.  AAHHH the good ole days!!  Notice Elder Hardgrave and Sister Hardgrave with Elder/Dr. Allgaier coming out of the store.

On Thursday we headed down to the Georgia Macon Mission for Zone Conference in Augusta.

However, we were way overdue for an oil change.  SO, we stopped at Nalley Honda and got that taken care of as we drove out of town.  We never sit still for long.....always have 'work' with us!

As we got into Augusta we had about one hour before the Museum closed.  We popped in there quickly so we could see a few things.  It was very nice.

They even had a little 'medicine' section in the museum.  And guess where I found Elder/Dr. Allgaier??  Yes sire!!!

On Friday while we were sitting in Zone Conference we got notification that a sister companionship were in a car accident.  They didn't see a car coming and pulled out in front of them.  The car was hit on the driver's side at the back door.  The Sisters were very shaken up, as one would expect.  Sister Finlinson (mission nurse) and Elder/Dr. Allgaier were sorting things out for them and trying to make sure they got the care they needed!

I 'found' another Hiatt cousin at Zone Conference here in Augusta.  He is one of the Zone Leaders.  When I saw the Hiatt name I was hoping I would get to talk to Elder Hiatt and find out.  Sure enough, he told me was comes from Mesa, Arizona.  Before that his family was from Utah.  Before that his family came from Mt. Airy, N.C.!!!!  BINGO....there we have another cousin.  I was telling him all about 'our' ancestors from Mt. Airy.  He had been told stories about the Hiatt Family Cemetery.  I told him that we both have a lot of relatives buried there.  He really wants to visit there someday!  Love the tender mercies of our mission!!!

On Saturday afternoon we attended the OPEN HOUSE of the newly constructed Fayetteville GA Stake Center.  It is beautiful.  This is a new building in the stake that we reside in.

We are finally back in PTC (Peachtree City) for a few days.  It feels so good to be back 'home'!  We even got to go on a walk this afternoon.  Pretty with the sun shining through the trees.

We were walking on our favorite part of the golf cart path.  Lots of golf carts out and about......as usual.

I was able to finish up 4 crocheted scarves that David will be delivering to a family he knows in China.  I am excited that I got to make these for them.  They wanted matching scarves for their 4 children.  It makes me happy to be able to help others!!!

On Sunday we attended church in the Flat Creek Ward in the Peachtree City Building.  Elder/Dr. Allgaier had been asked by the mission nurse to make a 'house call' on a sister missionary.  She was having 'ear problems'!  We were happy to do that.  SO, we took our black bag with us today.  Problem solved, medicine phoned in and they are good to go!  It was a gorgeous day here in Georgia with LOW humidity, if you can believe that!

And thus we have another week!!!  Stay tuned.....there is never a dull minute around here......We LOVE our mission.  We know we won't be able to do this forever so we will enjoy it while we can!!  :-)

Sunday, September 6, 2015

 Yea, I am a day late.....I guess I will have to deal with it.  But, I am going to pretend I am posting this on Sunday night.  So be it......

Another FULL week.  How does that happen.  I do not know.  On Monday morning we had a BREAKFAST appointment with President and Sister Foote.  They were suppose to make CREPES for breakfast.  After all, President Foote served his young mission in France so he was an expert on making them.  However, bless their hearts, they forgot they had invited us.  Not to worry.  They put things into high gear and we had delicious crepes in no time flat.  Fun to visit with them....and share delicious crepes!!

Later in the afternoon, we headed down to the Georgia Macon Mission where we would spend the night.  We had been invited by President and Sister Cottle.  We surely LOVE them.  They have become such great friends.  The meal was delicious and the company even better.

Sister Cottle and I have decided we have so many of the same likes!  Kind of scary....in a good way.

After dinner, President and Sister Cottle wanted to give us a little 'tour' of Macon.  We had never really seen much of it.  And what a great tour it was.  Sister Cottle and I are watching some kids go down this newly made concrete slid....made right there on the side of that hill.  How fun.

We drove by the historic train station in downtown.  Believe it or not, the words are still engraved over this particular doorway....."Colored Waiting Room".  Wonder if they will ever have to take them down.

What fun to watch both Sister Cottle AND Elder/Dr. Allgaier holding their cell phones out the car window to get just that 'perfect' foto as we drove by lots of cool things.

 On Tuesday, it was time for Zone Conference!!!  Elder/Dr. Allgaier gave a presentation.  He is always so good with his instructions to the missionaries.

After we finished our 'work' at Zone Conference, the Cottle's told us to leave so we could go by the Harriet Tubman Museum in downtown Macon.  It was a very nice place to visit.  We enjoyed it very much.  And we drove right past it to get back on the highway to head back up to Peachtree City.

As we got close to PTC in the evening, we stopped at Michael's to pick up some more yarn. Time for another afghan!!!

 Because I finished this afghan for Heidi Swapp, a friend of Becky's.  Off it goes to Utah where she lives.

We were able to attend 2 Zone Conferences in the Georgia Atlanta Mission on Wednesday and Thursday.  It was good to be there again.

We got to see our wonderful 'son' Elder Lamb.  'Son' because he was in our area when he arrived in the mission field in August of 2014!!!  He has turned into a wonderful missionary and a great trainer and a great District Leader!!

Oh yes, and we got to see our other 'son' Elder Robison (L) and his companion!!!  We surely love being with these wonderful missionaries.

When we finished Zone Conference on Thursday, we drove back up to the Tennessee Nashville Mission.  We had been asked to train a new mission nurse there, Sister Rust.

We were invited to stay in the mission home on Thursday night which we were grateful for.  It feels like home there.  On Friday morning Elder/Dr. Allgaier did training with Sister Rust (center), mission nurse and Sister Anderson, Mission President's wife (R).

A little bit more 'formal'.....me (L), Sister Rust (center, who is from Steven City, VA!!) and Wayne (R).

After the training we headed to downtown Nashville so we could 'hide n seek' a core kit for Becky!!! How fun was that.  And so interesting on how everything developed and turned out.  You can see the core kit leaning against a tree with the Parthenon in the background.  Sister Andersen and Sister Rust both recommended that this would be a GOOD public place to hide it.  It took about 1 1/2 hours for the winners to get there because they were in heavy, heavy traffic and were coming from Goodlettsville, TN.  We had been in Goodlettsville just 2 weeks prior to this, so we know how far they had to drive.  Bless their hearts.  They were so super excited to find it.  They are both fairly new (3 months to be exact) to Project Life and they are loving it.  They were so excited to see us there waiting for them.

AND, not to be forgotten, Michael showed up just 2 minutes after they did.  He was trying to get it for his wife who was on speaker phone listening to the whole thing go down!!!  What a fun PAR-TY!!  And then to top it off, Becky called on the phone and she was on speaker.  We were ALL having such a GREAT time with this event.  It could not have been more perfect that the way it turned out.  Sometimes PATIENCE is a true virtue.

After we finished in Nashville, we head down to Chattanooga where we would spend the night.  Oh for Heaven sakes....the traffic was awful!!!  Labor Day traffic.  Who would have thought.  But there it was.  And nothing we could do but be PATIENT!!!

On Saturday morning as we headed back toward our apartment, we stopped at the MOON PIE GENERAL STORE in downtown Chattanooga.  I grew up on Moon Pies and never even knew they were made right there in Chattanooga!!  I'll be.......

Because of our travel schedule these past 3 - 4 weeks, we have not been able to get to the Atlanta Temple.  On the way home today we stopped an spent about an hour.  It was good to be there again.

Among the mail packages we had waiting when we got home, I had a package from Mari Alakoski, our dear friend in Finland!!!  We handmade these Lappi dolls!  I LOVE them!!!  She is so talented.

Sunday was a great day because, among other reasons, we got to see Elder Thompson again.  He completed his mission several months ago.  We didn't get to say goodbye to him because he had to leave a few days earlier than planned.  His younger brother was leaving on his mission and he needed to be home to see him before he left!!!  SO GOOD TO SEE HIM AGAIN!  He has a super nice family, of course!!  

It has been a busy week.  This weeks looks to be the same....we love our mission.  The time is flying by way too fast.  We will just enjoy every day and make the most of it.