FINALLY49

 Callisaja River  

How wonderful it was to get your birthday articles on blessings you received by living a commandment this past year.  They were very inspiring and really a joy to read.  Thank you so much.  I hope no one minds but when we get home I am going to have them put in a book.  Clark's family included a picture with each one so I am going to add one to each of the others.  I could never have received a better gift.  I'm still waiting for a couple of you to respond. :)

flowers just for me

Dry Falls on Callisaja River

The day was perfect.  Kristin and kids were here so we decided to take in some water falls.  Kristin had read about them in a book.  It has been too icy to go before she came but it was a warm day so the roads were open.  I'm sure you have noticed her article about the visit.  Go there to see more pictures and a great article on possums.  It follows this blog.  Be sure to open Day 1 and Day 2.

Cute store in Blairsville, Georgia where we go to dist. meetings

Elder Gosslin, Jalen, Baylie, Elder Cook 

Silkers, us, Cook and Goslin

Dad again did a great district meeting.  Kristin followed us that far and then boogied on home.  This was our last meeting before transfers.  We'll know Saturday if Elder Bayles will get transferred.  (Wishful thinking on Sister Bayles's part.

After meeting we went to a store 5 miles out of Blairsville where dad had to return a shirt to get a different size.  Only in the Bible belt can you receive your purchases in a bag that says this.
Friday was a severe storm watch.  The news stated that people should leave their home only if there is an emergency.  We have never been in freezing rain before.

bar-b-q out back covered in a sheet of ice

Lucy coated with ice

front porch (ice)

Saturday the elders called to see if there was a place in Murphy to get their car inspected.  We called our good neighbors and they told us of a good place.  The elders live in Georgia so they couldn't get it done there.  The station was old, old old.  The man had to try several times to hit the right key on his computer.  He was so kind and just a great Southerner.  He has a stuffed bear in his office and probably 20 deer heads, along with three turkeys.  He said any time we want we can bring the grandkids in and they can sit on the bear.  He was great.  Well, while he was doing stuff to the car we took the elders to lunch.

Blairsville Elders  

 We got back to find that he did the inspection but they don't do emissions in Cherokee county.  They have to go the Ashville which is 2 and a half hours away.  They went home.  I guess the mission will have to deal wit that one.  They just don't have enough miles to go to Ashville.
We love the Sabbath day.  We had 5 investigators and 2 less active at church.  We love that.  What a beautiful way of life we have by just living the commandments of our loving Father in Heaven.  How wonderful that we know this life is not the end but that we can live together forever in families.  It just doesn't get better than that.  We love ya'all so much.

Sat. Oct. 8th  This morning we walked a distance of eight miles (in an hour and a half) to visit a family of Saints by the name of Eason's.  We got here before noon & stayed with them the rest of the day.  Having lots of grapes here we went & helped ourselves, & had all we could eat for once since leaving home.  We spent the night with Bro. John S Eason.

Visit From My Favorite Child

For a review of the recent visit from my favorite child, the love of my life, answer to every mother's greatest hopes and desires, read the links below.

Day 1

Day 2

ARK NEEDED

winter Smokeys

This week was our turn to go to the food bank.  We do Tuesday and Friday the third week of every month.  We enjoy helping people when they need it.  They are so sweet and thankful. We met the "lost" son of a Bishop from Florida.  He said he wasn't a member anymore.  Elder Bayles assured him that he was, and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. (His request)
We went to visit some home teaching families this week.  The family that has such a messy house was so excited because the boys took us upstairs to see their rooms.  They were so nice and clean. We'll work on the rest of the house next month.

high water

dry field after  5 days of rain

Hiawasee River after rain

The rain has gotten so bad that the bridge by the high school broke and with it the plumbing of the end of town.  Wal-Mart has no bathrooms or water and neither do the schools or the hotels.  It has rained for 9 days straight with over 9 inches of rain.  We are in a flood warning for a few days.  We are fine because we live on a hill.  Today we found out that we were not supposed to drink the city water for the last week.  They let people know by radio which we do not have so we have been drinking the water.  So far so good, no sickness.

On the way to dist meeting.  Makes us miss Granny.  

Elder Bayles gave a great dist. training meeting.  I love getting together with other missionaries.  After meeting we ate at a place called The Cookie Jar, then Elder Bayles took me to Alexanders to do some birthday shopping.  I spent a bundle and it was so much fun.

We have had 9 days of rain without stopping.  Today was finally a bright, sunny but cold day.  It was good to have the rain stop.
We spent the morning getting the RS room ready for the wedding.  We went to the food bank again and then finished the shopping for the wedding. We will be glad when it is over but feel so good to be instrumental in getting these two married.  They have lived together for 7 years and have 2 boys, hers from a previous relationship, and a girl together.  It is so important to be a family under the marriage covenant.  I hope they will be happy.  They are moving to a new home Monday in that they have not had water for over a month.  Their landlord is horrible.  They will be on the HUD program.  We just hope they will do better with their finances.
We were to meet the bride and groom at 10:00 Friday morning.  We waited until 11:30 and when they didn't show we left.  They had slept through their alarm and were still in bed because their son had vomited all night.  My patience is really being tried on this mission.
The wedding was today at 3:00.  The bride and groom got there at 2:30 not dressed and without the punch. We found out the best man, Hyrum's broth er was somewhere on his way from the NC beach.  We waited an hour and a half until his family finally got here.  There were only about 20 people there so not many had to wait.  They were very good about it ad it all turned out very well.  The bride was beautiful and everything was beautiful. Elder Bayles escorted the bride down the aisle of the Relief Society room.  They wanted to dance after so we didn't get home until 6:30 because Elder Bayles and I had to clean the church.  We're so proud of their decision to get married and actually do it.  It was wonderful.

Today is JALEN'S third birthday.  What  a wonderful little boy.  I was so afraid we would lose him after he was born.  The courts in Virginia were so slow to get all his records together.  It took 6 months to finalize and I was so afraid he would get sent back to Virginia.  I was afraid to get too involved with him for fear we couldn't keep him.  I'm so gad he is ours for eternity.  He is such a keeper.  We are so blessed.
The 20th is Dianne's birthday.  I am so glad Clark found her or was it she found him?  I remember when Clark described her to us and when I told him to go get her he said, "But she's a  molly Mormon!"  No wonder they have a little one named Molly.  What a blessing she is in our family.  I love the way she loves our son and grandchildren.  She's such a good wife and mother. Clark hit gold when he found her.  She is an incredible person.

We had a wonderful Sabbath day.  We were invited to Robyn's mother's house for dinner because of my birthday tomorrow.  They live up on a mountain top in Tennessee.  It is a beautiful spot.

 We had a lovely dinner and afterwards a beautiful cake and ice cream.  After dessert they brought in the gifts. Robyn and her daughter gave me a beautiful black cape.

  I can't wait to wear it Sunday in our freezing chapel. Grandma made me a beautiful fleece batted and tied quilt with eagles on it.  It looks so warm and cozy.  It has really been cold here at night but we're just too tight to buy a blanket.  We keep the furnace at 65 so it does get chilly.  We will enjoy  the blanket.

daughter, great grand, mother

  Kristin called and she will probably be here when we return tonight.  She wants to spend my birthday with us.  We think she's getting nervous that in a few months we won't be so close.  She arrived safely and we are enjoying the chaos.
We continue to work hard trying very hard not to see the end.  We love this work  teaching others  to come unto Him and reteaching others to return to the fold. Our Father in Heaven wants us back home, in His arms so much.  Our prayer is that one day we can all be worthy to embrace our Father and Savior as an eternal family.

Fri. Oct 7th  After bidding all the saints goodbye, we left Kinston on the ten o'clock trains & went to Goldsboro, here we changed trains.  Having to wait about two & a half hours we decided to visit a family of Saints & take dinner with then, but on arriving at their house we found there wasn't anybody at home.  We went back to the depot & waited until the train came, then we went to Princeton, a distance of about fifteen miles & got our mail from here we walked to a family of friends by the name of West, a distance of three miles, & stayed over  night with them.

SOUTHERN COMFORT

winter in the Smokeys

We were privileged to have a visit from the mission president, President Craven and his wife, on Monday.  It was for the zone interviews.  They came right to our home.  The Blairsville elders met them here for their interviews.  It was wonderful to have them in our home.  They are so diligent and work so hard to cover this mission.  We are going to get 100 new sisters in the next few transfers.  Wow!  We will also have more elders.  Forgot to take pictures.  We love our missionaries and President and Sister Craven.
We are trying to improve our study habits.  We study 3 hours a day; one together, one alone and one on the 12 week training program together.  That's a lot for me but I'm doing it.
We visited with Addie, a sweet less active lady, and then went on to FHE.  We hurried after that to buy Robyn a birthday cake and ice cream and then hurried out to her home.  Her daughter was so excited to surprise her mom.  We just love them.  They have come a long way.

We hurried from there to RS.  It was a good lesson on how you never accept "I'll try."  That is immediately saying I'm not going to do it but I'll say that to get me off the hook.  I had never thought of it that way.  We took Tiffany home and got home at 9:00.
Wed. Elder Bayles gave an excellent district meeting.   It was on revelation through church attendance.  After meeting we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch.  We love to take the elders to lunch.  After lunch we headed to the Ottingers to give Bro. Ottinger an article o the Blue Mountain.  He loves anything Elder Bayles has to say about his cowboy days.  He  is from SLC but not a member which we do not understand because he has such a great wife who wants him in the church so badly.  They live in an elegant home high in the mountains.  After that we went to see the Murrays.  They are the ones whose son swims for BYU.  We think they're getting closer to baptism.  We certainly hope so.They loved their Christmas trip to Utah.

We have started our walking in the morning again so we're not quite so fat when we get home.  We visited 3 homes after studying and then went to the Hancocks to give a lesson on testimony.  It was far too confusing to teach anything.  They have a new dog.  I have no idea why they didn't say no to it.  They also have a huge golden retriever.  They don't have space for a rat.  The new dog is not trained and out of control.  Caleb had a game that night so we went and watched him.  We got home late again.

laundry in the mountains

Friday we visited 11 houses of less active and previous investigators.  It was a long but fun day.  We did meet with a man and his new wife  They got married in Oct.  It is the 4th marriage for both.  They were fun to be around.    We traveled new roads to find places.  Some of the things we saw were very interesting.  Elder Bayles went past a true Hillbilly or Mountain man or Red neck, I'm not sure which.  (My vote is hillbilly)gwb

notice the chickens on the roof

 I asked Elder Bayles to turn around so he could see him.  He was so country.  I asked Elder Bayles to turn around again so I could take a picture.  When I had him stop he couldn't believe I was going to snap a shot right in front of the man.  I got out and walked right up to him and said, "May I take a picture of you?  You are a real man of the country?'  He said I could and was so nice.  I explained who we were and where we were from and why we were here.  He was very nice.
 We were on very rocky, muddy,mountain paths.  One of them was really weird.  It said dead end on the sign but Lea said it went through so against Elder Bayles' wishes we tarried forth.  It was one ramshackle hut after another with all kinds of dilapidated cars all over the place.  The path finally got so tiny and dark (It was raining.)  he turned around.  I must say I was getting very nervous.  We thought someone could disappear in that place and no one would ever find them.  The next day we learned that the body of a probation officer had been found in there, Carter Cove, just a short time ago.  I guess it was all over the TV station and news.   I'll listen to Granddad more often. (Right!)  We went home after finding a few more homes and got home at 7:30.  We are tired but happy. (to be alive)  We had Christmas turkey soup for dinner,  I forgot the noodles and milk and had to add them later but it was good.
Today we went out to Robyn's home with 2 members of the branch to see about fixing her porch.  People have fallen through the boards.  The members are going to go next Saturday and fix it.  She is so thankful. Driving to her mountain we passed a true Southern comfort spot; made just for me, I think.

After the men left I visited with Robyn and dad went through the beautiful woods to find sticks.  Go figure.  How are we going to get all his sticks home?  Walking through the woods we sunk 2 to 3 inches in the rich soil.  What a place.  Robyn pays $12 a year rent.

These kind of places are everywhere.  It is an old shoe store that is now a flea market.
I love my companion.  We certainly do have some fun times.
We have a flood warning out for today.   How can you flood in the mountains?  It all just goes down the hill and to the river.

Fri. Sept. 30th  This morning we took a walk down to the Sound & had  a boat ride & got some oysters & tried eating them, but they did not go very good  We will leave this afternoon at 3 o'cock for Kingston whence we will meet our companions.
Mon. Oct, 3rd  We went to the circus & spent the night at Bro. Andrew's.

A NEW YEAR 2013

What a great way to bring in the new year-----missionaries and the Jennings all at the same time.  We loved it.  We did absolutely nothing to celebrate.

swinging bridge

 We did go to the Nantahala Gorge, which is absolutely beautiful no matter when you go.  If you go on Tiffy's blog again it will show pictures.  I didn't take many since she has a "big girl camera".  The kids played by the water and Dave taught them how to skip rocks.

big girl camera

gotcha

train tracks

 They had a great time.
We went to Cherokee to see the Indians.  The kids had never sen one before and were very nervous until an Indian dancer started talking to them.

 We also went to the Smoky Mountains National Park to see the elk.  They weren't there so we headed back to Cherokee where we saw a whole herd. We got home late, watched football and drug into bed.

guess which one

New Year's Day we vegged in front of the TV watching football.  We had a training meeting but President Craven said because we had family here we were to skip the meeting.  What a good president.
We went to see a members pot bellied pigs but he wasn't home.  He had 25 of them.  The kids still loved looking at them.  I was kinda glad because they are so dirty.  We then went to a member's home to see how they were doing. While  we were there the city workers came to turn off their utilities.  It is below freezing so Elder Bayles took him to Social Services to get some money to pay the bill.  I don't know what they would have done had we not gone to see them. Their car has already been repossed  and they have no transportation.  They are not depressed and are firm in the Gospel.
 We can do missionary service even while having company.  The kids were able to pet and feed a horse while we were there so the kids were happy.

 We went to a little place "The Best Little Corner in Town" to eat.  It had been a long time since breakfast.  It is a fun antique place.  We then went to Murray's where they could pet more horses, dogs and a cat.  It was fun to have Tiffani and the kids do missionary work with us.
Tiffani dyed my hair and cut Elder Bayles' hair her last day here.  The kids played with the cat, Storm, the entire morning. At the last minute Clara reminded us that we hadn't gone to the pyramid so off we trod.  It's quite unique and walking distance from the house.

  It was a great visit.

We loved having family with us and felt so empty when they left.  The quiet was not a good feeling.  Tiffani said she had to pull over to compose herself a little way down the street.  When she looked back Cameron was sobbing.  Granddad said he was missing the cat, not us.  Probably true.  Having family visit puts a zing in our step and we recommit to working harder.
The next day was Zone meetings in Waynesville. We take the Blairsville elders to save them miles.  We love that.  It was a great meeting.  They did splits so we'll take them back to Waynesville tomorrow.
When we got home we had a phone call and the family has their car back and so positive.  They're trying so hard.  We also learned that Kristin and David made the flight to Rome, business first.  Yeah!
Today we went to Blairsville to get the missionaries for the exchange and took them to Wayneville and got the other one and went back to Blairsville.  6 hours.

Zaugg, Casper, Fullmer, Gosselin, Cook

  Love helping the missionaries.

Have I mentioned how much we love fast Sundays?  This fast Sunday was to help the mission in finding people to teach the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We want all to have the blessings we do and the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We also fasted for Kristin and David in Italy and Tiffani with the kids in South Caroina.  We continue to fast for Lily to have her eye strengthened.  We always have all of our children and grandchildren in every prayer we offer.  They are a sacred gift to us from our Father and so very special.  In our meeting today we were surprised when our little one left my side and just went up to the microphone without me or her parents knowing and bore the sweetest testimony.  Her family has been active for just two months and she led the way.  It was beautiful.  "And a little child shall lead them."  The Spirit is always strong when it involves little ones.
We continue to love one another even in small quarters.

Sept. 26th 1904 I was appointed to labor in the NC Conference.  I got my outfit ready & Sept. 27th got about 3 o'clock P.M.  I started for Atlanta, Ga. arriving there about 8:00 P.M.  I continued from there to Wilmington N.C. arriving there Sept. 28th about noon.  Head Quarters broken up I could not find any Elders there.  We kept inquiring around until we run across a family of Saints by the name of Johnson, who were very kind to us, and insisted on us staying over the night with them.  From there we learned that the Pres. of the Conference was at Hampstead so we decided the next day (Sept. 29th) to go there and on our way to the train we met the Pres. who told us what to do.  We went to Hampstead & met Elder DePriest.  We stayed there the rest of the day with a family of Saints by the name of Sanders.

CHRISTMAS 2012

What a special time of year to look back and see what has happened to bless our lives.  How grateful we are for our Savior, Jesus Christ and His atonement.  How blessed we are to have the knowledge of the restored gospel and the blessing of making covenants with our Savior and our Father in Heaven.  The most important covenants we make are in the holy temple.  We know that to get there we have already made the covenants necessary to enter there.  We love and cherish the fact that we are an eternal family bound together for all eternity.  The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is so true and fills us with peace and comfort.  We have an earthly father to lead this family in a righteous way, who is so worthy and honors his priesthood. He never wavers.  We are so blessed.
Christmas was so wonderful because we didn't do gifts. (don't have room to take anything home) {Mom's excuse for not buying me a present!} We were a bit homesick but the blessings of being missionaries overcame the emptiness.  The day was especially good because we heard from every family.  That's one of the purposes of the season, to strengthen families in the gospel.  We felt like we were right there because we could see everyone.  It was great.  WE LOVE OUR FAMILY.  I'm not sure I have said that before.  Hum!
We decided to put a 1000 piece puzzle together during the holidays.  It's under the bed still not finished.  They say doing puzzles helps delay alzheimers.  We should be pretty sharp.  We might even remember to close the trunk.
We thought we would just go to the grocery store and buy an already cooked chicken for Christmas dinner. That didn't last long.  We had a turkey feast.  It was just the two of us but it was fun.  I even did homemade rolls.

a shop in Blairsville

The 26th was district meeting so we headed to Blairsville, Georgia and dad gave a great training.
We were excited when Dave and Tiffy knocked on our door.  Tiff and I just bawled.  Shocker!
Saturday Tiffani went with us to a baptism.  It was for Donna, a special lady the elders taught.  The Spirit was so very strong.  I love baptisms.
To know what we did the next few days just go on the Jennings blog and Tiffani has posted the days.
Elder Bayles and I spoke in church on Sunday.  It was on the doctrine of Christ and keeping the Christmas spirit all year long.  I think it went well.  Everyone loved the Jennings family.

private bedroom

The kids have made friends with all the cats in the neighborhood and feed them well.  They need a pet.
I love Elder Bayles and his patience with me.

Sept 21st 1904  I went through the Temple & got ready & left Salt Lake at 5:45 PM  for Chattanooga, Tenn in company with Elders Law & Johnson.  We got to St. Louis on the morning of the 24th and stayed & visited the fair that day & at night we continued our journey arriving at Chattanooga on the 25th at about 3 o'clock P.M.  Not being anybody at the depot to meet us we had some little trouble in finding the office of the Mission.