TWO WEEKS NOTICE

This will be a two week blog in that we will not be near a computer for over a week.   Monday found our P-Day with the elders on our couch and feeding them breakfast and helping them get all the legalities handed in on their accident.  They are good elders who just want to help others come unto Christ.  They have 3 baptisms scheduled.  They work hard.  We still don't know the condition of the girl in the hospital.  We can only pray for tender mercies.  It experience has been exhausting.

We had a branch meeting with our little family.  It was them, us, the priesthood leader and the RS Pres.  We trained them on how to follow a budget and time management.  Don't know if it did any good 'cause things don't look much better.  They bring in plenty of money and get so many things for free.  We'll keep helping them.  We only have a short time to get things going so they can feel good about their situation.

District meeting is always good.   The elders without a car is a little difficult.  We visited Sister Murray after meeting. She talked to us for over 2 hours.  She knows she will one day be baptized but not just yet.  I just don't get it.  There is no one for them to socialize with and that is hard for them.

We cleaned the church this week and went out to our family to take the white shirts I had starched and ironed.  The kids are great.  She has carpal tunnel surgery tomorrow.  Tonight Elder Bayles gave a member a blessing because he is having problems after surgery.  They are great members.
We missed Baylie's birthday on our blog so are posting it this blog.

We are so thrilled to have her in our eternal family and pray we will all be together one day.  We love the plan of salvation that reassures us that we can all be together forever.  We just have to follow the doctrine of Christ.  Baylie loves everything.  She is continually coming up with thoughts that blow us away.  She's a smart little girl.  We can't believe she will be entering school in the fall. Her teacher will love her.  We certainly do.

We spent Friday helping a member tend our little family while the mother was having carpal tunnel surgery.  We took them all to Mc Donald's for lunch.  It was a fun time.   We were tending for 5 hours so it got a little long.

Saturday we headed to the church for the Easter egg hunt.  Elder Bayles filled the font while everything was going on.  After the hunt there was a memorial for a member and a family from Caswell was there.  It was fun to see them.  After the service was the baptism.  I went to take a picture of Elder Gosselin and the man baptized when I realized I didn't have my camera. Sometime during the events I lost it at church.  Hum--- I am now using Elder Bayles' camera.  Bummer.

The baptism was wonderful.  There was a great spirit there.  After the service we headed for Caswell.  We left at 2 and got there at 9:15.  We were so tired but it was so fun to be in our little house again.  We can't even begin to tell you how it was when we went to church.  The members were so thrilled to see us.  I didn't think they would ever stop hugging.  It was a real boost for us to see that we had made a difference in their lives. There are two families that we worked very hard with who are now attending church.  YaHoo. The members are wonderful people who have such strong testimonies.  We love them so much.  It was Antonio's farewell so that was good too.  After church we were invited to eat at the Page's.  They treat us like family.  We have missed them so much. We had dinner with dessert at the Pages',Then we went to the Oakley's for another round of dessserts (Elder Bayles ate three different kinds!)  What a glutton. Then a farewell party at the Ouzts including a dinner and more dessert and then to Jesse's for dinner and MORE dessert!  We had to roll home at the end of the day.  Boy do we love those people.

THE VISITORS

Monday we visited the sweet mother and daughter we got so close to in Yanceyville.   She makes the beautiful stars out of basket material.  It was so good to see them.  We have become friends and love them so much.  They were so excited to see us.  We then headed to the Strange home.  We were such good friends and loved going to there home while we were in Caswell.  They are good people.  We just wish they went to the Caswell Ward instead of her church.  We then headed to Burlington to meet up with Kristin and the kids.  We met at the Marriott Courtyard and decided to bum around. When we got to the car I realized a tiny star the daughter had given me had been lost as we unloaded the car. We searched everywhere even under every car in the lot.  We asked in the lobby if anyone had turned it in. I was just sick.  As we were leaving the hotel Elder Bayles noticed the star clear across the parking lot and in a driveway.  Our Father in Heaven shows us such tender mercies. After bumming, the kids wanted to go back to the hotel so we ordered pizza and had a fun evening.  They dropped right off to sleep.

Elder Bayles had a wish come true when he took us to IHOP the next morning.  There is no such thing in Murphy or Yanceyville.  We went to a play yard and waited for Erik's family to arrive.

The boys didn't know we were near and Baylie and Jalen didn't know the boys were near.  It was a blast when they showed up and everyone realized what was happening.  You'll have to go one Erik's blog or face book or whatever to hear their side of the visit.

We ate at Chick Filet

Erik really wanted to go to the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, located in the F.W. Woolworth Co. store where the first sit in for civil rights took place. It was a very moving exhibit and really well done. It is almost simple in the way it is laid out and presented. The simplicity makes the message more powerful. I also like that the museum has elected to focus on the works of those who stood up for civil rights rather than sensationalizing the violence that occurred. It would have been easy to take that approach. The short hall of shame that they do have is more than enough to convey that horror. Kristin sat down with Baylie before we toured the museum and talked to her about what we would be seeing. While we were standing by the actual counter where the sit in took place, Baylie told Kristin that her white cousins would have been able to sit at the counter and that her mommy would have been able to, but that she and Jalen would not. It touched and also hurt Kristin that she realized what we were talking about and that reality had sunk in a little bit. On a lighter note, she also thought Erik wouldn't be able to sit at the counter as he is so dark.

It took much longer than we had planned, so next we headed to the battle of Guilford Courthouse Military Park.

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The museum was closed so we just walked around a bit.  Kristin and her crew went on home so they could catch a plane to Vegas and the rest of us headed to Asheville and a hotel.  We had adjoining rooms so 2 of the boys slept in our room. We were so tired.
We let the boys sleep in. When they woke up we  headed to the Biltmore.

I'm sure Shanelle will tell you about that.  We were so surprised at how much the boys loved it and how attentive they were.  It is the largest home in the USA with 250 rooms.  We decided to go on the Blue Ridge Parkway and got on in Asheville.  The guy at the visitor's desk said it was closed part way but if we took this little road we could make it to Cherokee in one and a half hours.

Two and a half hours later we were wondering where we were.  The road took us back to Waynesville which is just 30 min from Asheville so we had the whole way to go again.  We got to Cherokee and shopped in some shops and then danced with some Indians. The boys loved it.

It was late when we were through but we stopped inn the Nantahala Gorge just long enough to go on the swinging bridge to the other side.  We were sorry we were too late to see the kayaks and rafts go down the river.  We got home and ordered Pizza Hut and went to bed.  We were so tired but had had a fun day.  It just was so much fun to be with family.  (okay no more pictures unless Shanelle sends me some.  I left the chip in the computer not knowing I had to have it in the camera.  Senior moment.  She did.  Thanks)
Thursday we let everyone sleep in.

We drove to Tennessee so the boys could say they had been in Tenn.  It is in our area.  We then went to the HIwassee Dam and drove over the top and saw geese.

The boys shot the sling shots they bought at Cherokee.  They shot at the water not at the ducks.  We went on to the Field of the Woods and had lunch.  It is a place where they have the 10 commandments written in stone on the mountain side.  We bought boiled peanuts which everyone hated.  They're yucky.  We had Granny's haystacks for dinner.

Friday we walked to the pyramid, half a block from our house,

and then we to Highlands to see the water falls.  I took many pictures but later realized I had no memory chip in so Shanelle will have to show you pictures of that.  It was breathtaking. Including some of Erik's iphone shots.

On the way to Highlands we stopped and hiked the Appalachian Trail for a short distance due to the muddy path.

We went to a fun antique cafe for dinner.  Everyone loves it.

When we got home Elder Bayles taught the boys how to make bracelets

and then we played the family version Shanelle had made of  Headbanz.  What a great game.  We loved it.
This last week was such an upper for us in every way.  Seeing our friends in Caswell started if off and being with Erik's family gave us to energy to make it the next three months.  It didn't cure my homesickness but it was such a boost.  How we love family.  The only problem was these boys had grown beyond our imagination.  Parker is so tall and the others are so much bigger.

Saturday morning they left and the house became immediately empty.  It is not a good feeling.  We love that they took the time to come see us.  We have enjoyed all of the visits.  After they left we headed to Waynesville again to pick up the missionaries and take them to Blairsville in that because of the accident they have no car.  It was a 5 hour trip.  We were so tired.

zone leaders and Blairsville elders

We taped conference so we could watch it later.  Granddad missed priesthood meeting because after getting home and then driving to the church in Peach Tree, the TV wouldn't work and they had to send everyone home after trying for an hour.  As soon as everyone left it started to work.  Oh well.  We'll read it in the Ensign.

Sunday's sessions were so wonderful.  We watched it at the chapel with about 10 others.  We had a fun picnic between sessions.  How we love our prophet and the twelve apostles.  After conference we went to the Murrays' to see how they were.  Elder Bayles gave a beautiful lesson on the importance of Sacrament meeting and being baptized.  We'll see how it took.  We're not giving up.  We got home at 10:00.

Fri. Nov. 3rd  We arose in good time and Elder Perry received his letter so we started on our journey again.  We walked two miles to Friendship where we got on the train and rode ten miles to Greensboro, we had to wait here an hour for the next train to Wake Co., while there we bot us a dozen bananas.  At half past one we started on again and after riding until half past four we got off the train at Cary and walked eight miles to Bro. Hilliard's arriving there at seven o'clock and after eating supper we retired at ten o'clock.