On Sunday 9 March we attended our Ellijay Branch.  I was asked to give the benediction.  Our speakers were Carol and Phil Messina.

Carol quoted from Elder Bruce R. McConkie of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on the subject of compassion.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie
(1915-1985)

She spoke of the Savior's compassion when He visited the Nephite saints in America.  She quoted from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles about compassion for the mentally disabled.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

The Messina's had a mentally disabled son who took his own life as an adult.  Never lose faith in Heavenly Father.  When she was in nursing school, she was in a terrible accident and was delayed a year in graduating.  Her ankle was crushed and the worse part of the accident.  Her compatriots told her that she would learn compassion later as a nurse.  She related the story of Joseph sold into bondage in Egypt.  He had compassion on his brothers and family.  He saw God's hand in preserving his family.  She told of the sick young man who was at a restaurant in Salt Lake City traveling from Boston to California and the help he received from an LDS couple.  He wrote to the Church about the help he got from that couple.

Phil spoke on tolerance.  He quoted from the dictionary on toleration, tolerate, tolerant, etc., and their many synonyms.  He said that he has had problems with tolerance but is a very forgiving person.  He quoted from Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles about religious freedom and tolerance.

Elder Russell M. Nelson

He quoted the 11th Article of Faith by the Prophet Joseph Smith.   "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."  

Prophet Joseph Smith

He quoted from Matthew 22:36-38 about which is the great commandment.  36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  38 This is the first and great commandment.  39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."  Followed by Mosiah 2:17 in the Book of Mormon.  "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your  fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."  We need to build our capacity for tolerance.  Malice toward our brethren does not sit well with Heavenly Father.  Love comes from the heart.  Have love one for another.  It's a commandment.  Be one that builds, not tears down.  We have miles to go before we sleep (poet Robert Frost).

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

I read the Book of John chapter 21.  Now I will move on to read of Jesus in 3rd Nephi.

I watched the Bible video "The Parable of the Talents."  You may watch it at the following link:  

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-01-001-the-parable-of-the-talents?category=bible-videos-the-life-of-jesus-christ&lang=eng

During our priesthood meeting I told about my two questions that I ask people referring to the Book of Mormon and that I would be sending one to the cashier at Tractor Supply.  Brother Bond asked if her name was Becca as he knows her.  I said that it was.  In our class we discussed priesthood ordinances and blessings as found in the LDS Church's Family Guidebook.  We discussed the requirements involved, naming and blessing children, consecrating the oil, administering to the sick, and giving a father's blessings of comfort and counsel to his wife and children.

After our church meetings Eileen and I individually met with our branch president Ryan Boland to begin the renewal of our temple recommends.   When we joined the LDS Church temple recommends  were good for one year, but effective November 2002 President Gordon B. Hinckley made them good for two years.

President Gordon B. Hinckley
(1910-2008)

We then visited Peggy Espersen for a short visit and then drove to Blue Ridge to visit Darlene Burgess.

We called our daughter Colleen in Arizona and sang "happy birthday" for her 40th birthday.

We enjoyed three episodes that we had recorded of "Rick Steves' Europe."  One was in Normandy and one was in Edinburgh, both of which we visited last August.  The third was an hour of music in Seattle where Rick hails from, featuring seven different European composers and noted music associated with the countries.

Rick Steves

I worked on my blog from the previous week and published it.

On Monday 10 March we enjoyed having Jan Pardee visit us as I helped her work on her family history from 1-7:30 pm.  I had Ancestry.com on my laptop and she had Familysearch.org on hers.

Familysearch.org

On Tuesday 11 March I finished reading "Tom Swift and His Air Scout, or, Uncle Sam's Mastery of the Sky" by Victor Appleton.

We met Ralph and Holly Hughes for lunch at the new Oki Japanese Steak & Sushi restaurant in Ellijay.  It still had all of the interior decorating of the previous Italian restaurant!  It was very good!

Oki Japanese Steak & Sushi in Ellijay

Then we visited North Georgia Diamond to pick up my new bracelet that Eileen had gotten me to replace the previous one that was damaged. While there I got her some diamond earrings for her birthday which is next week and put a diamond necklace on layaway for our anniversary in September.

North Georgia Diamond

We drove to Blue Ridge to play putt-putt at Cohutta Cove Mini Golf as the weather was gorgeous.  Eileen and I were both over par and she won by one stroke on the 18th hole.  It was a fun date!

Late in the afternoon Brian Shedd, son of Susan Shedd whom we know from the food pantry, came by to give us an estimate on cleaning up some of the fallen trees in the wooded areas of our property.  We discovered his line of work at the pantry open house last Friday.

The temperatures dropped below freezing two nights in a row, so we cut our pretty daffodils and brought them in the house.

I finished reading "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" by Lew Wallace which I had begun on 27 March 2013.

Lew Wallace (1827-1905)

On Wednesday 12 March we did not have to pick up the sister missionaries as they attended their missionary zone conference.  We went straight to the food pantry.  There were nearly as many families (about 112) helped this week as last week.  I met volunteers Don and Linda.  He helped me with the plastic bags and she was a shopper.  I was able to tell him a lot about serving LDS missions.

Afterwards we mailed some materials to Colleen and a Book of Mormon to the cashier at Tractor Supply.

We stopped at R&A Orchards as we always do on Wednesdays to get the Times-Courier and some pickled items, i.e., dilly beans, green tomatoes, and baby beets.

Later in the afternoon we went to our appointments in Blue Ridge with the periodontist Dr. Gregg Codelli.  Eileen was fine but the dental hygienist Martha found that I had a draining abscess and with the x-ray a broken tooth.  After consulting with Dr. Codelli I made an appointment to have the tooth removed (it had had a root canal sometime in the past) and get my third implant!  I paid 1/3 down.  Dr. Codelli also mentioned about having seen the "Book of Mormon" play and he was impressed by the Church's advertisements in the playbill for the  Book of Mormon itself. 

Dr. Gregg Codelli

Darlene Burgess had called as soon as I had gotten into the dentist's chair.  We called her back and discussed a car she might possibly buy from her daughter in Tennessee.  After researching it online when we got home and calling her back, we all agreed it wasn't a good idea. 

After supper (mussels and hot Italian sausage) we enjoyed an episode of Father Brown.

Cast of Father Brown

On Thursday 13 March we went to the Lions Club building in Ellijay for me to give blood.  We called the toll-free number to check into why Eileen could not donate.  She should be hearing back from them.  We met Eileen Below, Emil Harvey, and Nancy who also volunteer at the food pantry.  Eileen and Emil also volunteer for Kids Ferst.

Then we headed south, getting gas at Kroger for $3.219.  We shopped at the Dress Barn at the Outlet Shoppes At Atlanta which is actually in Woodstock.

Outlet Shoppes At Atlanta 

We each enjoyed an Auntie Anne's pepperoni pretzel, though it was more like fried bread than a nice soft pretzel.

Auntie Anne's pepperoni pretzel

On the way back home we got a long-sleeved shirt and a short-sleeved shirt for me at Kohl's.  At Amy's Hallmark we got birthday cards that we needed up through May.  Back in Ellijay we visited Ingle's which we always enjoy.

A box came from our son-in-law David Opatosky with fish salad and a package of kale that had been frozen.  The kale was good for supper as Eileen added bacon and onion, and she again made egg drop soup.

On Friday 14 March I finished reading “Doctor Syn: A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh" by Russell Thorndyke (1885-1972).

A few weeks ago the large mirror on Eileen's dresser had come crashing down, just missing her toes!  Today she suggested that I put it back up with the screws just an inch to the right and that worked fine.

We went to the post office, mailing a box to Eileen's sister Jane in New Jersey, and did some shopping.  When we returned to our car at Food Lion, the sun was shining just right so that I saw something shiny under Eileen's seat.  I reached down and extracted it.  It was Eileen's oyster shell charm that she thought she had lost in Florida in January!  How marvelous!

We got texts from our granddaughter Megan in Florida that our daughter Sue had an elevated temperature and was being admitted to Westside Medical Center in Plantation.

In the evening we watched an episode from season 3 of "Larkrise to Candleford."

On Saturday 15 March we drove to the stake center in Marietta after picking up the sister missionaries, Sisters Wilcox and Burgess.  The event the women were attending was the Relief Society Birthday activity with dinner and a program with a cast presenting "The Parable of the Ten Virgins."  Along the way we stopped at Amy's Hallmark in Canton to get the four packages of Asher's Sugar-Free Chocolates that they were holding for us.

Marietta East Stake Center

Here are some pictures that Eileen took at the Relief Society Birthday activity:

Birthday cake made by Olga Knight

Table decoration

Stage setup for "The Parable of the Ten Virgins"

Painting of "The Parable of the Ten Virgins"
seen in many of the LDS meetinghouses

After dropping off Eileen and the sister missionaries, I went to the Clock Repair Service also in Marietta to get the two clocks that we had left there for repair some weeks ago.  His repair estimates were much too high, so I just picked them back up from him.  

I watched the Bible video "Ye Have Done It Unto Me."  You may watch it at the following link:  

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-10-068-ye-have-done-it-unto-me?category=bible-videos-the-life-of-jesus-christ&lang=eng

I read the Book of 3rd Nephi chapter 9 where Jesus Christ spoke from Heaven to the righteous Nephites.

While waiting for the Relief Society Birthday activity to finish, I finished reading "The Corsair King" by Hungarian author Mor Jokai (outside Hungary known as Mauras Jokai).

Mor Jokai (1825-1904)

When we got home we enjoyed episodes of "America's Test Kitchen" and "Cook's Country" that I had recorded earlier in the day.

Christopher Kimball and Bridget Lancaster