THE MIRACLE

We love our travels and the beautiful mountains

Tuesday was a very good day.  We started out at 7:30 A.M. to clean the church.  We love doing that.  Brother Miller and Sister Mickey Tuell help us.  We then headed to Hiwassee to visit with Donna.  She is doing so well.  She wants so much to know more.  Her daughter came while we were there.  We visit her at her work.  Her daughter is very steeped in her baptist church and will graduate from high school Saturday. While we were visiting, her daughter drove up.  Donna decided that was the Lord telling her to let her daughter know how things were.  What faith.
We left there to go to the food bank to give out food to those in need.  We love doing that too.  We love to see the happy faces when they get food.  On the way we stopped at a market to get tomatoes and the man said his land lady was a Mormon.  She is not on the branch list or anything.  She is married to a Mormon.  The things you learn by wearing the badge and asking questions.  We will find her.
We had a good family home evening with our friends.
District meeting was good as usual.  It was Elder Gosselin's last one.  The senior couples took the elders to a lunch at Rib Country.  We gave him a bag of treats and a North Carolnia T-shirt.We will really miss Elder Gosselin.  He is a great man.

Elders Bayles, Gosselin, Parkinson, Silker
Sister Bayles, Sister Silker

Scott's birthday was today and I couldn't help but remember how I had to leave him in the hospital and go home without him.  I cried all the way to Blanding. He was yellow with jaundice.  He had to have casts on his legs because his feet were turned wrong.  I worked so hard to keep the casts clean.  Can't remember if it was one or both legs.  The doctor couldn't believe it when I took him to get them off because they were so clean.  I guess Scott was destined to be a cleaner-upper.  I am so glad he wasn't Heidi (I was sure he was a girl)  He was a fun boy and is a great man.  We are so blessed to have him and his family ours for eternity.  We're thrilled they are in their new home and hope we recognize ours when we return.  We sure have loved having them in our home while we were away.

the outside wall---who does that?

Ashley has graduated from South Summit.  Congratulations!  We are so proud of her.  We didn't even know she was Valedictorian until we wormed it out of her.  She got a 30 on her ACT.  Hum????? Is that from her dad?  We love the young lady she is and how she stands as a witness of Christ in all things.  We love you Ash.

We went to the dam to visit our investigator there.  She is already in Mosiah and loves every bit of it.  She is amazing.  Her husband even defended her when talking to their daughter about her lessons. We invited her to live the Word of Wisdom.  She accepted.
We helped a sister deliver pop cans to a school because she just can't do things anymore yet is always helping others.  She is in such pain but goes to church every Sunday.  She says she hurts no matter where she is so why not go anyway.  Love her. (six large black bags of cans)
We had a viewing in Robbinsville for a member's, husband's grandfather.
We hurried back to Murphy (Robbinsville is an hour away but still in our branch) to go to the Frady's,  Dinner there is always a treat.  He serves something Southern every time.  This time it was Poke Salet.

Don't Eat Poke Salad  In the mountains it's salet.
Most people boil the shoots and leaves for 20-30 minutes, first in salt water and again in clean water, then eat the plant much like spinach.

"The boiling process removes some of the toxins but certainly not all of them," says Weese. I suggest that people avoid this plant no matter how many times your mother or grandmother may have prepared it in the past and no matter how good it tasted. Why would you want to eat something that we know is toxic when there are so many other non-toxic plants out there we can eat?"
It was so good.  You had to eat it while it was still hot or it wasn't as good.  After we finished it he informed us it was nature's body cleanser.  I can testify that this is true.  We also had corn bread with hot peppers in it, ham and yummy macaroni and cheese made by Cori.
After dinner we walked down to their garden to take a peek.  It is huge and right by the river,  Beautiful.

The best part of the evening was that after our walk we went inside for a lesson.  Elder Bayles told him the questions he would have to answer for baptism and he said he could do that.  He is a heavy coffee and sweet tea drinker and he said he would quit.  What a great blessing he will receive by following the example of our Savior.  The Spirit was so strong in their home.  The MIRACLE is that he said he would be baptized June 8th,

Happy Birthday Camden!  Camden John Bayles finally turned 8 and got his Disney trip.  You'll have to go to their sites to see what they did.  We love Camden.  He tries so hard to make everyone happy.  He is very creative at making things out of just about anything and loves helping out.  We loved having him here and seeing how much he has grown.  We hope he got his CTR ring.  He is a boy who always tries to choose the right.
While serving at the food bank, Kristin came an helped out.
We took Baylie to Tennessee because she hadn't been there.

We went to the Frady's.

That night Baylie put on a dance show for us.  It was very good.  We loved it.  She's a great little dancer.

The next day we visited the Billtmore.  As everyone else, they loved it.  Baylie was a very good little girl.  It was a full day.  We stopped at a flea market on the way.  Kristin loved the sign. We got home at 8:30.

We love to take our family to church.  There were 8 children in primary and 6 of them were visitors.  It is good for the branch to see that we have families of our own.  They add so much.
After church Brother Crubaugh invited us to a cook out where some investigators and less active members would be.  We felt this would be a great missionary experience.  Baylie loved it in that Brother Crubaugh has a pond.  She fished until dark.  We hesitated because of the Sabbath but we got so much visiting about the church in and the people fell in love with Baylie and her knowledge.

Baylie and her fishing buddies

                                                          Granddad and Skylar

                                                 no idea what happened to the sound
Monday Kristin headed home.  We went to Hiwassee dam first to feed the ducks but there were none.  We introduced our friend to Kristin and Baylie.
We are having a hard time getting things ready for the next couple.  We have grown to love these people and each other so much.

June 8th 2005  We stayed in Goldsboro all day.  We went in the ice factory.  We also tried to get to go thru the cotton factory but they wouldn't let us .  We stayed at Bro. Mooring's most of the day reading etc.  At night we went to a Negro meeting.  
June 9th  We stayed at Bro. Mooring's again today.  In the afternoon we went to the "Little River" and had a swim.
Mon. June 25th We stayed at Smith's all day helping them chop corn and cane.
Thurs. June 28th We left Sister Smith's in good time this morning & started for Osgood to get our mail.  After traveling all day we got to Bro. Sherm Rosser's at seven P.M. feeling quite tired having walked about twenty-two miles.