I will slip into this blog an entry about our week's activities even as I continue to catch up with entries about previous vacations, currently the one in Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, and  Yorktown.  As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I went to the Raleigh Temple while visiting our daughter Heather, her husband Tom, and our grandson Liam.  What I didn't relate was the surprise phone call from our new branch president Ryan Boland back in Ellijay, Georgia, as I neared the temple.  LDS congregations are called branches if on the smallish size and wards when larger.  Our branch is on the cusp of becoming a ward as we have 100 or more in attendance each Sunday.  Pres. Boland was calling to see if I could speak the upcoming Sunday about the subjects of gratitude and thanksgiving.  In the LDS Church the sermons, which we simply call "talks," are given by the members of the congregation and only rarely by the branch leaders.  When I got back to Heather's from the temple, I informed my wife Eileen and prepared my talk of about 25 minutes.

We drove home from Heather's on Saturday 9 November and once there I read my talk to Eileen to check on its length.  We enjoyed the drive home and this time we drove west on I-40, the Great Smoky

Mountain Expressway, and US 441 to Franklin, US 64 to Hayesville, thence south into Georgia to Young Harris, through Blairsville and Blue Ridge to Ellijay, enjoying the 65 mph speed limit on GA 515.

Our sacrament meeting talks went well on Sunday 10 November.  I was preceded by Sister Debbie Gerbers who spoke about the same topic for about 13 minutes.  In the LDS Church we call each other "brother" and "sister" as we believe that we are literally children of our Heavenly Father.  The LDS Church has one sacrament and that is what is called "communion" or the "Eucharist" in other churches.  It is administered almost every Sunday, the exceptions being when we have our two General Conferences broadcast from Salt Lake City in April and October and when we have our two stake conferences each year at our stake center in Marietta.

In the evening Eileen and I did the same things that we do every night.  We read from the Book of Mormon using the Seminary Teacher Resource Manual; whatever is the upcoming lesson in Sunday School, which is called Gospel Doctrine class for the adults; and whatever is upcoming for Priesthood and Relief Society.  Sunday School is the second hour on Sunday following the sacrament meeting and Priesthood and Relief Society take place during the third hour.  Priesthood is for the men and boys age 12 to 18 and Relief Society is for the women.

As the LDS Church has a lay clergy there is no seminary as found in other churches.  LDS seminary is held each day of the week in most instances for high school students, either before the public school day begins or what is called released time during the school day in areas heavily populated by Latter-day Saints.

The lessons in Gospel Doctrine rotate each year as they also do in seminary.  One year consists of the Old Testament, the second year the New Testament, the third year the Book of Mormon, and the fourth year the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History, which is what we are currently studying,  The Doctrine and Covenants contains revelations given through latter-day prophets, especially the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr.

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

Prophet Joseph Smith Jr.

Once we finish the scriptures and upcoming lessons, we move to rereading the Mitford novels by Jan Karon.  We have been reading them since they came out beginning in 1994 with "At Home in Mitford."  Now that we have read all of them, we decided to reread them!  We are almost finished "A New Song."  It is book #5, although we already reread book #6, "A Common Life: The Wedding Story," which fits in earlier chronologically in the series. 

Book #1

Book #5

On Monday 11 November we excitedly drove to the UPS store in Ellijay!  We had ordered two of the new iPhones but we were gone to Heather's, so we went around and around with UPS and Apple to have them rerouted to the UPS store while we were away.  One of them was rerouted and the other was still at UPS in Gainesville, Georgia.  We picked up the one phone at the UPS store and were ready to drive over an hour to Gainesville for the other.  We called them first and they said that they had gotten the word from Apple to reroute the second one.  So it was delivered on Tuesday!  The other projects on Monday were blowing all the leaves from our front porch and along the garage door in the driveway and making yummy potato salad for the family from our branch who were having a funeral the next day.  You can easily guess who did each project!

On Tuesday 12 November Ben attended the memorial service at our branch meetinghouse in Ellijay.

While Ben was there, the man we call "our contractor," Tom Ballew, came by our home and helped us get the two fireplaces up and running properly.  It is very nice to use the one in our living room.  The other is in the finished basement.

I've been working on this blog adding the photos from Colonial Williamsburg.  I had recently set up a college 529 for Liam and this day set up the 529s for Colleen's three boys Spencer, Ashton, and Tanner.

On Wednesday 13 November we did our usual volunteer work (when we are in town) at the Gilmer Community Food Pantry.

1298 Old Highway 5 N

That afternoon Eileen and I visited Bill and Kimberley Kazy who live south of town toward Talking Rock, Georgia.  With a lay clergy, which means that the branch president also has a full-time job, the home teaching organization is set up among the priesthood holders of the branch.  We endeavor to visit each family of the branch once a month with a gospel message.  In a branch like ours the wives often accompany their husbands.  We report back on our efforts to our priesthood leaders.

Eileen synchronized her new iPhone with the backup of her old one.  Inevitably that meant phone calls and texts to our son William, who lives in Mesa, Arizona, who is a whiz at such things, especially Apple.  We had a fun moment when a deer came up to one of our bird feeders in the backyard.

On Thursday 14 November we visited our family practice doctor William Raisig in Ellijay.  We have been going to him since we moved to Ellijay.  Eileen's potassium is a bit high and she is working at getting it down.  After the appointment we drove to Mineral Bluff, just north of Blue Ridge, to visit friends Ralph and Holly Hughes.  We met them soon after we moved to Ellijay and have been friends ever since.  We rode with them to the Brother's at Willow Ranch Restaurant in Young Harris, Georgia. It is associated with the Brother's Restaurant in Murphy, NC, where we went with Ralph and Holly in June of last year.  Eileen and Ralph had the Willow Ranch Chicken Pecan Salad and I had the Salmon Caesar Wrap with homemade chips and a pickle. Eileen also had a cup of chili.  Delicious!  Holly had Chicken Fried Chicken with fried okra and corn niblets.  Good service and very nice ambiance.

Ralph and Holly, Eileen and Ben

Murphy, NC

Ralph, Holly, and Eileen

Brother's at Willow Ranch Restaurant

Ben synchronized his new iPhone with the backup of his old one.  Again that meant phone calls and texts to our son William.

On Friday 15 November we visited the Toys For Tots location in Ellijay.  One of the members of our branch who is in the Marine Corps Reserve is overseeing it for both Fannin and Gilmer counties.  Several members of our branch were already there wrapping the gifts, so we just dropped off several rolls of wrapping paper and tape.

We went by Peggy Espersen's.  We home teach her and her phone has been disconnected, so we were concerned.  She was not home so we left a note.  We visited AT&T and Ace Hardware, where we got a new Presto sealing ring for Eileen's pressure cooker.

On Saturday 16 November our branch had a service project at the new location of the Gilmer Community Food Pantry located at 5273 East Georgia 52, not far from our home.  About 15 of the branch members came to help clean up the site as extensive renovations have been going on.

We visited Peggy Espersen in the afternoon and then had dinner at our home for the two sister missionaries, Sisters Smith and Childs, from the LDS Church who are assigned to our branch.  Eileen made her delicious Hungarian goulash on egg noodles with artisan bread from Ingles Supermarket, Caesar salad, and mango and vanilla ice cream with lemon bars for dessert.