On Sunday 28 September we attended the Raleigh 1st Ward from 9 am - 12 noon.
The opening hymn is a favorite #35, "For the Strength of the Hills," music by Evan Stephens (1854-1930).
The sacrament hymn was #196, "Jesus, Once of Humble Birth," text by an early Church apostle Parley P. Pratt and music adapted from Giacomo Meyerbeer.
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| Parley P. Pratt (1807-1857) |
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| Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) |
Just as at home in Ellijay due to general conference next weekend, it is Fast Sunday here, too. Beginning with the counselor in the bishopric numerous brothers and sisters in the ward bore their testimonies. One brother (Kevin Barker, the high priests group leader as I found out later) reported that his 25-year-old son was free of his cancer and he thanked the members for their prayers. The cancer had been discovered when he had an emergency appendectomy in January. A sister spoke about the General Women's broadcast last night and the counsel of President Uchtdorf. A teenage young woman spoke of questions from her peers at school about the Church and about early-morning seminary. A brother whose wife is expecting their first child spoke about learning to eat his vegetables to be a good example to the child.
A cute little Oriental girl, probably younger than Liam, was in our row and she had her eye on Eileen's iPad.
The closing hymn was #219, "Because I Have Been Given Much," which is not in the hymnal on our iPhone due to copyright restrictions. I then sing from the printed hymnal with Eileen.
Gospel Doctrine was in the cultural hall. The lesson was #36, “The Glory of Zion Will Be a Defense" using Isaiah 1–6. This is the lesson that we prepared for as it is the same at home in Ellijay.
Purpose of the lesson was to encourage class members to avoid the evils of the world by standing in holy places and to help them draw strength from Isaiah’s willingness to serve.
“Great are the words of Isaiah,” the Savior proclaimed as he commanded the Nephites to search Isaiah’s prophecies (3 Nephi 23:1). Isaiah’s prophecies are quoted more often in the New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants than the words of any other prophet. He prophesied many things about the earthly mission of the Savior, about the destruction that would follow Israel’s wickedness, and about the mission and destiny of latter-day Israel.
1. Isaiah describes the condition of the world in the last days.
Many of Isaiah’s warnings and prophecies apply both to his time, which was a time of great wickedness, and to our time.
2. Isaiah counsels the faithful to stand in holy places.
What places offer safety from the worldly conditions mentioned by Isaiah? What are the three holy places mentioned in Isaiah 4:5–6?
a. Every dwelling place of mount Zion (homes)
b. Assemblies (stakes, wards, and branches; see also D&C 115:5–6)
c. Tabernacle (temples)
3. Isaiah describes the gathering of Israel in the latter days.
In Isaiah 5:26–29, Isaiah describes the latter-day gathering of Israel. The ensign that is being lifted up is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To “hiss” is to whistle or summon, which represents the invitation to the nations of the earth to gather to the Church. This gathering will be swift and powerful.
4. Isaiah responded willingly to his call to be a prophet.
Our opening hymn in priesthood was one of my favorites that I have memorized somewhat #5, "High on the Mountain Top."
The priesthood lesson today was on the talk by President Henry B. Eyring in the April 2014 general conference priesthood session entitled "The Priesthood Man."
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| President Henry B. Eyring |
"You can be a great model, an average one, or a bad model. You may think it doesn’t matter to you, but it does to the Lord."
"I have observed three common characteristics of the priesthood holders who are my heroes. One is a pattern of prayer, the second is a habit of service, and the third is a rock-hard decision to be honest."
"We all pray, but the priesthood holder you want to be prays often and with real intent. In the evening you will get on your knees and thank God for the blessings of the day. You will describe in your prayers specifically who has blessed your life and how, during that day. That will take more than a few minutes and more than a little thought. It will surprise you and change you."
"As you thank God for His kindness, you will think of others, by name, who need your kindness. Again, that experience will surprise you every day, and over time it will change you.
"One way you will be changed by such fervent prayer is, I promise you, that you will feel truly that you are a child of God. When you know that you are a child of God, you will also know that He expects much of you. Because you are His child, He will expect you to follow His teachings and the teachings of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. He will expect you to be generous and kind to others. He will be disappointed if you are proud and self-centered. He will bless you to have the desire to put the interests of others above your own."
Eileen said that Relief Society discussed Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk "The Cost—and Blessings—of Discipleship" which we had for a lesson in Ellijay sometime back.
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Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles |
When we returned to Dowd's, Heather and Tom went to see a friend's new baby in Cary and we played with Liam. We drove in Heather's car to Eastgate Park and Liam fell asleep. He slept about a half hour and Eileen and I read 2 Nephi 33 followed by some of the Religion 121-122 Book of Mormon Institute Student Manual for 2 Nephi 30. When Liam woke up we played in the ages 2-5 section of the park.
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| Eileen with Liam on the swing |
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| Eileen with Liam on the swing |
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| Eileen with Liam - he loved the duck |
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| Eileen with Liam - he loved the duck |
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| Liam at the sand box |
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| Liam in the mirror |
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| Eileen with Liam on the swing |
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| Liam in the sand box |
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| Liam in the sand box |
We returned to Dowd's and enjoyed Liam until Heather and Tom returned.
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| Liam on the phone |
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| Liam |
Heather made a delicious pasta dish and brought back some pulled pork from the gathering they had attended. Tom had recorded the New York Jets - Detroit Lions football game. We knew the Jets lost, 24-17, and Tom was not happy with their performance as he watched it.
Tom and Liam enjoy reading. Liam gets a book a month that we have arranged for from Kids Ferst.
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| Liam and Tom |
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| Liam and Tom |
I hung most of our clothes on the bar in the back seat of the car. We didn't do our exercises but hit the hay after reading.
On Monday 29 September we were up and began packing. We enjoyed Liam some more and Tom made Eggs Benedict for us for breakfast. Tom helped me tote the suitcases out to the car and I finished packing everything.
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| Eggs Benedict |
We stopped at New York Bagels & Deli for bagel sandwiches and some pastry goodies.
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| Ben at the bagel shop |
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| Inside New York Bagels & Deli |
We got off at the Elon exit of I-40 to go to Dress Barn and Eileen made some purchases. She took a nap for almost an hour and we stopped at the Catawba County rest area east of Hickory to enjoy our food. Soon after our odometer registered 83338. Later we stopped at the McDowell County Rest Area for me to fluff my buns. It was quite a pretty rest area.
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| Eileen entering the McDowell County Rest Area |
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| Scenic McDowell County Rest Area |
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| Scenic McDowell County Rest Area |
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| Scenic McDowell County Rest Area |
When we got on the Great Smoky Mountain Expressway the odometer registered 83438. We stopped in Dillsboro to visit the Dillsboro Chocolate Factory just before it closed at 5 pm.
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| Dillsboro Chocolate Factory |
We reached Franklin and checked into the Comfort Inn. We were pleased to see that they have installed automatic sliding doors and have upgraded the rooms with more electrical outlets!
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| Franklin Comfort Inn |
Since we had Eggs Benedict for breakfast and bagel sandwiches along the way, we went to Shoney's just for their salad bar for supper.
Afterwards I got five gallons of gas for $3.349. The prices are always high in western North Carolina. We saw some for $3.499.
On Tuesday 30 September we enjoyed the breakfast and packed the car, leaving about 9:30. The ride through the mountains was delightful with lots of sunshine and lots of low white clouds filling in the gaps between the peaks.
We drove home via Blairsville and stopped at Pat's Hallmark for birthday cards, two of which we mailed at the Blairsville post office to Tom Dowd and Ralph Hughes. Then we went to the Blairsville Walmart for Eileen to get some Velcro.
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| Pat's Hallmark |
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| Blairsville post office |
We got home safe and sound and began unpacking the car, going through all of our mail, most of which goes into the recyclables, and harvesting our garden produce. We brought in all of the tomatoes from the shelf on our back porch and I chucked three. Then I brought in 10 from the garden plus a whole bunch of grape tomatoes and eight nice banana peppers.
Eileen did the wash and discovered where her watch had gone. She said it was missing while we were at Heather's. It was in the dirty clothes! It was nice and clean and still working!
In the evening I visited Ron and Deb Fisher to help them with their family history. I was there for an hour and 45 minutes. Then I got gas on South Main for $3.099 and shopped at Ingles.
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| Ron Fisher's license plate |
At home Eileen was working on some family history research for our son-in-law Tom and she also had watched "Finding Your Roots" on PBS. When I got home I watched it, too. One of the celebrities featured was Yankee star Derek Jeter.
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| Derek Jeter |
We did our exercises and hit the hay.
On Wednesday 1 October we were up early and Eileen went to her hair appointment at Barbara's. I then picked up last week's Times-Courier, Eileen's prescription at Rite-Aid, and tried to drop off my trunkful at the dump. I dropped off the bag of trash but will have to try again later as all three recyclable dumpsters were full.
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| Inside Barbara's Hair Designers |
I was excited to read that the Kansas City Royals scored two runs in the bottom of the 12th inning to defeat the Oakland Athletics, 9-8. When I went to sleep, Oakland had gone ahead in the top of the inning, 8-7.
It was nice to see and chat with Kay at Rite-Aid who has been promoted from the pharmacy to up front in the store.
I picked up Eileen and Barbara had more cans of food for the food pantry. We stopped at North Georgia Diamond and Alison fixed a kink in Eileen's watchband, telling her how it had been washed. She showed me a couple of watches she might like some day. Besides the one she usually wears, she has a black one and a white one she got through our granddaughter Megan in Florida, but they are heavier than she likes.
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| North Georgia Diamond |
We shopped a bit at Walmart and then went to Lowe's for some pansies, mums, and kale. At home I put the wheelbarrow in the shed after placing all the packing material that was loose in it into a large cardboard box. The wheelbarrow needs a new tire. Eileen planted most of the flowers in the containers on the front porch and the kale in the raised bed gardens where the cucumbers and zucchini had been.
I vacuumed the basement and Eileen cleaned the basement bathroom. I filed a lot of stuff in our office and called Amicalola and Cuna Mutual about their increased bills/premiums.
We called Ralph and Holly Hughes to wish Ralph a happy birthday. He was napping, so we asked Holly to convey our birthday wishes and we also wished her a happy anniversary.
We headed for the airport about 6 pm. We stopped in Canton and I picked up the Asher sugar-free chocolates at Hallmark that they were holding for me. There was very heavy traffic in Atlanta due to road work and we were very thankful for the HOV lane which enabled us to pretty much zip right along! We reached the airport at little after 8. Allen and Lynda landed about 8:20 and we finally met them about 8:45.
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| Eileen waiting |
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| The White's arrive! |
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| The White's arrive! |
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| Allen sees me! |
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| Eileen and Lynda while we get their bags |
It was only supper time for them, so on the way north we stopped at Smashburger in Kennesaw for a burger, chicken sandwiches, and a salad. Delish! I gave Smashburger the highest rating among all the burger places in the Salt Lake City area when we were on our mission.
We ate in the car as they were getting ready to close at 10 pm. We got home about 11:30ish. Our odometer registered the palindrome 83838.
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| Smashburger |
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| Lynda and Eileen in Smashburger |
We checked the baseball score and the San Francisco Giants whupped the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-0. The White's are from the San Francisco area.
We visited a little while with the White's. We did our exercises and hit the hay.
On Thursday 2 October we enjoyed breakfast about 10:45 am, which probably felt like 7:45 to the White's. We drove into Ellijay and checked out the scarecrows around town, got gas now at $3.069, and then parked on the roundabout so that Eileen and Lynda could visit some antique stores. Allen and I visited one of the stores where he could get a cold drink and we walked through the store to the Back Street Bistro. It looked a bit different though the menu items still had what we like, e.g., German Brotzeit Platter.
We found the ladies in the Mountain Treasures store and went for a pit stop at JJ's on River Street. Then they went to Misty Hollow Antiques and Gem Mining & Antiques. They didn't particularly like the latter. Allen and I watched the men working on the wall across the street.
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| Inside Mountain Treasures |
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| Allen in Mountain Treasures |
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| Mountain Treasures |
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| 28 Main antiques |
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| Misty Hollow Antiques |
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| Gem Mining & Antiques |
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| Before |
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| And After with Allen |
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| Eileen, Lynda, and Allen in Ellijay |
We went by Walmart and Eileen and Allen ran in for a few things. We went by Radio Shack, too. We stopped at R&A Orchards and bought some fried pies, two sugar-free apple for us and Allen bought five for himself and Lynda.
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| Side entrance to R&A Orchards |
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| Inside R&A Orchards |
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| Inside R&A Orchards |
Late in the afternoon we went to Charlie's Italian Restaurant in Ellijay for supper. We enjoyed it very much as always.
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| Eileen and Lynda outside Charlie's |
Then we drove around downtown Ellijay to see and take pictures of the scarecrows.
Back home we called our son-in-law Tom Dowd in Raleigh and sang "happy birthday" to him as a message on his answering machine. He called back later.
We enjoyed a dominoes game of Mexican Train. Eileen beat Allen by three points and I wound up last as Lynda won three of the last four hands.
We checked the baseball score and the Baltimore Orioles whupped the Detroit Tigers, 12-3.
During the day I had entered the ancestors of Sabrina Bayless, whom we home and visit teach, into the PAF database on my desktop computer in our office. After our game I printed the pedigree chart and family group sheets for Sabrina's ancestors to include in the three-ring binder of her family history.
I finished the 11 May issue of the Church News. It was pretty special as it featured the dedication of the Fort Lauderdale Temple, the LDS Church's 143rd temple and second in Florida. We had been to the open house prior to the dedication with our many Florida relatives and then visited the temple after its dedication.
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| Fort Lauderdale Temple |
It was also exciting to read of the formation of a new stake on Long Island, New York. The Lynbrook New York stake was organized from the Lynbrook District, Plainview Stake, and Queens Stake.
On Friday 3 October we enjoyed Eileen's six-week muffins for breakfast and headed north. We stopped at the Radio Shack in Blue Ridge for Allen and then on to Murphy, N. C. We visited "Bless My Stitches" quilt store at its expanded location. They've been there about a year. Our odometer registered the palindrome 83938 on the way there.
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| Lynda, Eileen, and Allen at "Bless My Stitches" |
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| Eileen and Lynda |
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| Eileen, Allen, and Lynda by sewing machines |
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| Eileen, Lynda, and Allen |
Then we were on to Franklin and the scenery was beautiful as the leaves at the higher altitudes (3600') are changing color. In Franklin we found "A Stitch In Time" quilt store Eileen had seen when we came through here last Monday. The ladies decided to come back later.
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| Allen, Lynda, and Laurene Mathis |
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| Eileen, Laurene, Lynda, and Allen |
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Allen at the entrance of
Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Inside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Inside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Inside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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Lynda, Eileen, and Laurene
inside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Picture on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Picture on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Picture on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Allen, Lynda, and Laurene |
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| Eileen, Allen, and Lynda |
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| Laurene Mathis |
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| Picture on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Picture on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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Picture of Fess Parker from
"The Great Locomotive Chase" |
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| Picture on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Inside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Eileen, Allen, Lynda, and Laurene |
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| Inside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Pictures on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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Pictures from
"The Great Locomotive Chase" |
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Pictures from
"The Great Locomotive Chase" |
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| Inside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Picture on the wall of Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Outside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Outside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Outside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
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| Outside Boiler Room Steakhouse |
Then we returned to "A Stitch In Time" quilt store. From there we headed home via Hayesville, NC, and Blairsville, GA. We missed the next palindrome but did see 84084.
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| Eileen and Lynda |
We saw lots more scenery on the way back to Ellijay with wisps of clouds here and there.
Back home we enjoyed a game of Mexican Train. Lynda won the last four hands to eke out a win over myself with Eileen well behind and Allen last by far.
We watched the programs that I had recorded and saved to show Allen and Lynda, that is, "Georgia Traveler" and "Georgia Outdoors" on PBS.
We were amazed earlier to learn of the Baltimore Orioles comeback against the Detroit Tigers, winning 7-6. And then later to find that the St. Louis Cardinals - Los Angeles Dodgers matchup with two 20-game winners starting the game ended with the Cardinals winning, 10-9! While the Kansas City Royals won their third straight extra-inning game, 4-1!
On Saturday 4 October Eileen, Lynda, and Allen enjoyed leftover fried pies from R&A Orchards and I had a nice warm six-week muffin along with some tomatoes from our garden that had to be eaten.
We headed into Ellijay and stopped at the garlic guy along GA 52 where we got jumbo garlic, Chinese okra, and cabbage.
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| Eileen and Lynda |
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| Jumbo garlics |
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| Eileen and Lynda |
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| Eileen and Lynda |
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| Chinese okra |
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| Fresh Mountain garlic with Lynda, Allen, and Eileen |
We dropped off the binder with her dad's family history at Sabrina's and filled up our gas tank for $3.069.
We drove south on Rte 5 until it joined Rte 515. We stopped briefly at the Marble Festival in Jasper and decided to continue down to Canton first so the gals could do some shopping at Dress Barn and Hallmark. Allen went into Michael's to look for fridge magnets.
Eileen got online and we got four quarry tour tickets for two o'clock costing $15 apiece which included entry to the Marble Festival. Our tour guide was Dan Pool, who runs the local Pickens County newspaper. He and the Nelson town mayor didn't know why the gas prices in the county were so high. Our bus driver was Sharon Foster.
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| Allen at entrance tent |
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| Pick up our tickets |
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| Lynda, Allen, and Eileen |
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| Eileen and the school bus |
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| Tour school bus |
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| Tour guide Dan Pool |
Our first stop was in Nelson at the City Hall to see the marble museum and part of the Georgia Marble Company operation behind the City Hall. This is where the finishing process takes place.
We returned to the Marble Festival grounds and got two funnel cakes, one original and one red velvet, which we ate when we got to the car.
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| Eileen getting the funnel cakes |
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| Funnel cake |
We then returned to Ellijay and went to Shane's Rib Shack for supper. Excellent as always.
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| Shane's wall menu |
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| Allen and Eileen |
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| Eileen, Lynda, and Allen |
We did some quick shopping at Ingles and went to church to be set apart as Church Service missionaries. We were ready to leave after we all enjoyed some sugar-free chocolate ice cream provided by the elders quorum presidency. Then President Boland arrived after officiating at a wedding in Blue Ridge. We were dressed casually as we had not had time to go home and change clothes, but he didn't mind and set us both apart as Church Service missionaries.
We came home and played a game of Mexican Train. Allen won with Eileen well behind in second place and Lynda last by far with me third. We could stay awake playing the game, but Allen and I wouldn't have stayed awake through the priesthood session of general conference. We'll watch both sessions of conference tomorrow and then catch up on what we missed today.
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