P-DAY WITH THE PRESIDENT

We had a great P-day this week.  We met the Silkers and President and Sister Craven at the Nantahala Gorge at 9:00 to hike for over an hour on the Appalachian Trail.  

a car in the parking lot

It had been pouring rain all morning but we decided we were doing it rain or shine.  (It Rained 8 of the last 10 days and is supposed to rain 8 of the next 10 days.) 

Elder Bayles gave the Cravens walking sticks he had made.

on the trail

Do you believe this rock.  I think it looks like a car going over a ledge.

As soon as we got off the trail it was a deluge.  We just laughed.

 We then headed for Bryson City for lunch at the Fillin’ Station.  They make the best sandwiches, even better than Gandolfos,  We walked to a park to eat them and as soon as we finished and started to walk back to the cars another deluge.  The brethren were heroes and ran for our cars.

We then all loaded into the mission van and headed for Deep Creek Park and Falls.  It is part of the Rocky Mountain National Park.  Of course it was still raining so we put on our $1.00 rain ponchos and headed off.  It was so beautiful. 

The Cravens

We spent the rest of the afternoon there.  It was so nice to chat with the Pres. and enjoy his counsel and interests.  Couldn’t have been better.  He even called Tiffani for some advice.

We got home at 5:30 tired, wet and completely happy.

At 4:00 in the morning I was awakened by Elder Bayles hurriedly jumping out of bed.  This time a cockroach had crawled up his arm.  I have had the experience 2 nights.  We tore the bedding off, lifted the mattress and frame and found nothing.  The mattress and frame are fairly new and covered completely by a fabric sack.  We shook and shook and then put everything back in place.  As we finished making the bed and Elder Bayles picked up my pillow and shook it and the critter landed on the floor.  Another death of an undesirable intruder.  The exterminator will be here in the morning.

Tuesday we worked at the food bank and had FHE with our group.  

We had dinner with the Frady’s.  Boy, do we love them.  After dinner we shared a lesson on Priesthood blessings.  Elder Bayles then taught Jeff how to tie a tie.  What an experience.  I don’t know who was the most confused.

Yeah!  The exterminator came and juiced the whole house.

We love District meetings.  Elder Bayles does such a good job training us. It was on faith and how to get investigators to attend Sacrament meeting.  We’ll try harder.  After meeting we went to eat of course.  We love our elders.

Sillkers Mc Donald, Parkinson, Bayles

 After we got home I took some pictures of our neighbor’s (Kay) flowers.  Her lilies are so beautiful right now.

Thursday we had a meeting with a member in Robbinsville.  It is over an hour away and a beautiful ride.  All of North Carolina is beautiful.  We had an appointment but she was not there so we decided since we had 2 hours before our next apt., we would go to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and hike the 2 mile trail to a tree that is 14 feet in diameter. 

ROAD TO THE FOREST

There are also many other huge and beautiful trees.  That is where Kilmer decided to write his famous poem, “Trees”. This poem has been one of my favorites ever since high school when our choir sang it.  It expresses so many thoughts about trees. 

He enlisted in the New York National Guard and was deployed to France with the 69th Infantry Regiment (the famous "Fighting 69th") in 1917. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer and often recommended for such posts during the course of the war, Kilmer refused, stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment. He was killed by a sniper's bullet at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

                                      TREES

                                by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

                    I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Well, by the time we got to the forest much time had gone by and we realized that if we didn’t hurry we would be late for our next apt.  We practically ran the trail but didn’t want to go back because it was so magnificent. 

hugging trees

Wish I could blame my fall on him.

We were dripping and figured it might be just as close to the end as to the beginning so we forged onward.  When we got to the huge tree and headed back we realized we were definitely going to be late so we hurried even faster.  After I fell to the ground 2 times we slowed a bit.  I think I sprained my ankle and hurt my knee.  Oh well, it was worth it.  A little blood never hurt anyone. (Sister Bayles narrowly missed hitting her head on a huge rock when she fell the second time!  When I turned around and found her on the ground I thought she was badly injured.  Fortunately she missed the rock.)

 When we got to the car and out of the forest we called President Caron to tell him we were on our way.  He and his wife had invited us for lunch.  They live on the top of another mountain in Robbinsville in such a beautiful surrounding.  We love going there and especially love them.  It was an enjoyable time.

Today was our last day to serve at the food bank.  We love doing that.  They had a party for us to say good-by and thank you.  They are very nice people.
We then went to Possum Drop because the lady there said that dad's shirt was in.  Clay had bought a 1928 Model T Ford.  After looking inside I don't know how they drove it or kept it on the road.

We went to visit our member who is in jail.  He's been there 17 weeks and only been allowed outside 2 times for 30 minutes each.  He has seen his attorney once. (oncet in North Carolina language)  It is a sad affair.  He's the one who had all the pigs.
This sweet sister gave me some gourds she had made.  She's very talented.

Sunday was wonderful.  President Craven and Sister Craven cam to church with us so he could give us our exit interview.  When it was my turn of course I bawled. Elder Bayles said that when it was his turn President Craven showed him my tears on the table.  We had them come over after church and served a very yummy bar-b-q chicken and corn on the cob etc. It was delightful.This leaving is so darn hard to do and yet we yearn for home.  This mission has taught us so much about ourselves and each other and we have grown so much in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  We absolutely love the people we have been blessed to serve in all of North Carolina.  It has been such a wonderful experience.
We went to the special broadcast tonight and wanted to put our papers in all over again.  What a great time to be a missionary.  It was so powerful.  We had already learned about all the technology that is coming because of our meeting with Elder Evans.  He told us not to share and we didn't.  The restored gospel is to true.  We love being part of the missionary movement.  I love my companion more every day.  (So do I!)

Mon. Aug 13th  We left Bro. Kearn's this morning at 8 A.M.  & started back to Charlotte.  After walking about 7 miles we came to Ford's Mill but there was nobody to take us across the creek so we got in the boat and paddled ourselves over.  We then went on & at 1 P.M. we got to the Rocky River & got two men take us across in a row boat.  After going about three miles farther we got Bro. Geo. H. Garmon's at 5 P.M. but he was not at home.  We retired at 8 P.M.

PEACE BY THE RIVER

The river across the road after a rain.

Just looked at the weather and in the next 10 days 8 of them will be thunderstorms. 

Today is Lily’s 8^th birthday.  Where did the time go?  We loved having her here for a few days and getting to know her sweet spirit and fun ways.  She has such a fun wit and is always ready for whatever.  She is loved by her family and we love her so much.  She gives you the idea she is shy and quiet but she is by no means that way.  She is full of mischief and is a joy to be around.  She loves her Father in Heaven and her Savior.  She will always try to choose the right.

Elder Bayles spent time P-Day cleaning our laundry room on his hands and knees.  Gotta love that guy.  Can’t figure out why I didn’t do it when we moved in.  It was very yucky.

We took a member to the pharmacy, doctor’s office, bank, Dollar General, and Ingles.  Their car is still not repaired.  We had home evening with our group but one of them was taken by ambulance to emergency.   That evening we went to RS to hear about a Jewish member’s conversion and then made tree of life pins.  It was a busy but great day.

While waiting for the Dr's. appointments to get over,  we drove around Andrews.  The magnolia trees were so beautiful.  The blossoms are huge, the size of a dinner plate.

notice the bug

We went to visit a member in Georgia and she said she would sell us their motor home so we could get all our stuff home.  It’s a fair price and the toilet is included.  They even added some chairs.  Lucy’s feeling badly so we’ll just go with her.

On our morning walk we see some fun things.

church on Main St

view toward our house

Tiffani calls this a Red Neck House boat

We were invited to a sweet member’s home who had been in Georgia for the past 2½  years.  She is an amazing woman.  She is 83 years old and going strong.  She can do any kind of art.  She paints on gourds and that is what we went to buy.  It was so hard to make a decision.  They were all so beautiful.  She carves animals, quilts, makes baskets; you name it, she does it, including remodeling her home.  We didn’t expect it but she fed us a yummy lunch of taco salad.  She is so good to everyone.  It is way up a mountain on a dirt road.  We were always sorry the weather was bad or that we didn’t have time to take you to where we teach some of our people.  The tiny dirt roads up a mountain are our favorites, although that is what Clint said was causing our window to crack even more.  

what is at the bottom of the mountain

They are coming from Silva to fix the window in that we don’t have the repair place here.  It was over $700 at the Buick place and our insurance will cover all but &$100 at  the place they gave us. 

We had dinner at Mickey Tuell’s.   It was such a wonderful evening.  I have never, not even in Taiwan seen such rain.  It was a tornado watch and later, on the way home we saw many trees down.  The wind was really blowing.  70mph.

We made 11 doctor apts for the third week in July.  Should be a busy week.  We haven’t seen a doctor for 18 months so all the parts need checking.
We were invited to dinner at a part-member home.  He has attended church for years and is from SLC but said he was going to be baptized.  He's so much closer. They live in an extremely beautiful home up in the mountains.  They are great and we had a lovely time.
  At 9:00 we headed to one of our investigator's home.  Their son is a member at BYU but they are not but they have testimonies  They say they will be baptized but will not give a date.  They are a great family.  It''s so frustrating to have people who know it but won't do it.  We love them so much and just want them to have what we do.   We got home at 11:00.  Our time is winding down and we still have so much to do.
We had a phone call to say that Pres. Craven's daughter just had a stillborn so Sis. Craven flew out to be with her.  We love the Cravens.  We also got a call that after 2 days Kristin and the kids finally caught a flight home.  Yea!
Saturday we had dinner by the river with Jeff and Cori.  He cooked the entire meal (all but dessert) in one pan.  It was huge.

Part of the back garden; there's one in the front too.

 We love being with them. They are going to be very hard to leave.  We taught about service to others and helping but not enabling.  He is just so good.
Sunday was a great day as usual. The horrible part was that I was awakened by a clicking sound only to find that a cockroach was crawling up my arm.  I think it was 6 feet long.  It was horrible.  This is the second time a roach has crawled on me in our bed.  It's disgusting.
The best part of the day was being in the room when Elder Bayles conferred the Aaronic  Priesthood and the office of priest on our new member.  The Spirit was tangible.  Many tears were shed. What a beautiful day.
After church Marlene had us for dinner at the church.  She really put on a spread.  She had  other couples there and a sister.  We had such an enjoyable time.  I love Elder Bayles.
Only in the mountains can you see this. (Fortunately,Sister Bayles was not using this particular facility).

Fri. Aug 3rd   We stayed at Br. Garmon's all forenoon.  We also done our washing.  In the afternoon we went to Mr. Furr's to get our mail but the mail carrier had forgot it, so we went back to Bro. Garmons & he let us take two of his horses & we rode to Carriker & got our mail.  I received three letters, one from Annie, Evan and Aunt Ann.  We got back to Bro. Garmon's about 7 P.M.
Tues. Aug 7th  We started out again this morning in good time.  On acct of the bridge being washed out we walked the creek and after going a little farther we came to a watermelon patch & after asking  the lady for one we had a big feast of watermelon.  After walking all day we got to Bro. J.F. Kearn's at five P.M.  We walked out of our way about ten miles.