On Sunday 1 February we didn't watch "Music and the Spoken Word" on BYU-TV as it wasn't on :(

I got an e-mail from Eric Penrod that I had given Sue's family ordinance request form (FOR) to him back in July.  So he had the family file cards. We will watch and see when the Plantation Ward does the temple work.

We enjoyed attending our Ellijay Branch.

Parked there on other than a Sunday

Opening hymn was #85 "How Firm A Foundation" attributed to Robert Keen, ca. 1787, and was in the first LDS hymnbook in 1835.  This was the favorite hymn of General Robert E. Lee and has been played at the funerals of several U.S. politicians. On Christmas Eve 1898, American units involved in the Spanish-American War joined together to sing the hymn. The units were from the North and the South. Wikipedia

Jay Hanks is the new Young Men President and Bo Kelly was sustained as his first counselor.  Linda Combs, who must be a new member of the branch, was sustained as a branch missionary.

Sacrament hymn was #172 "In Humility, Our Savior" by Mabel Jones Gabbott.  She was an LDS hymnwriter, and the author of the words to "Lord, Accept into Thy Kingdom," "In Humility Our Saviour" and "We Have Partaken of Thy Love," all now part of the 1985 LDS hymnbook.

Sister Gabbott also wrote many hymns published by the Church in its Primary Children's Songbook. These include "Did Jesus Really Live Again", "Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus", and "He Sent His Son". She also wrote several works of poetry.  Wikipedia

Mabel Jones Gabbott (1910-2004)

Today was Fast Sunday and Craig Chester began the testimonies.  Brother Galen Green spoke for quite a while and appears to be an investigator. Jan Pardee shared her testimony. Robin Hanks spoke of Psalm 91 and covenants that were mentioned on TV by a preacher who seemed to be inspired to speak of these things. Olga Knight thanked Brother Green for his comments and mentioned that he was baptized a few weeks ago. Excited to be in Primary and to be learning about the New Testament. She bore her testimony. Tony Stanley wants us to build on a firm foundation  of Jesus Christ and the prophets and apostles. He spoke of studying the Old Testament and thoughts about the House of Israel in those days. We need to apply the principles of the Gospel and follow the Savior's example. The fulness of the Gospel is found here in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Closing hymn was #219 "Because I Have Been Given Much" by Grace Noll Crowell.  She was an American poet, author of 36 books of inspirational verse and 5,000 poems. Her work has appeared in hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Wikipedia

Grace Noll Crowell (1877-1969)

Brother Curtis Bond spoke to me about their family history.

Gospel Doctrine with Darlene Burgess was lesson #5, "Born Again” using John 3–4.

The purpose of the lesson is to help class members understand that to receive everlasting life, we must be “born again” and continue to follow Jesus Christ.

1. Jesus teaches Nicodemus that all must be born of water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught that “Church members are not born again by the mere fact of baptism alone”.

Becoming born again means 

a. believing in Jesus Christ (John 3:16, 18)

b. experiencing “a mighty change in … our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually” (Mosiah 5:2)

c. being “changed from [a] carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness” (Mosiah 27:25)

d. becoming “[God’s] sons and daughters” (Mosiah 5:7; 27:25)

e. becoming “new creatures” (Mosiah 27:26)

f. having “the image of God engraven upon [our] countenances” (Alma 5:19)

g. repenting so our “garments [are] purified until they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of [Christ]” (Alma 5:21).

Elder McConkie also taught that being born again “doesn’t happen in an instant. [It] is a process”.

2. Jesus teaches a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s Well.

The opening hymn in priesthood was #27 "Praise to the Man" by William W. Phelps sung to a Scottish folk song.  According to Wikipedia, he was an early leader of the Latter-day Saint movement. He was a printer, editor, song-writer, scribe to Joseph Smith, Jr., and assistant president of the church in Missouri.

William W. Phelps (1792-1872)

Chuck Young and Galen Green had the Aaronic Priesthood conferred on them and were ordained to the office of a priest.

Brother Bond and I spoke again about their family history before he taught our lesson.

The lesson was #3 from "Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Ezra Taft Benson" entitled "Freedom of Choice, an Eternal Principle" which should not be until 8 February!  Since we had it in Florida last Sunday I won't make entries about it here.  It does make some sense to have the lesson ahead of time as stake conference is 15 February, however the high priests continue to be out of sync with the sisters who had a nice lesson determined by the Relief Society presidency.  The brethren don't seem to remember that they and the Relief Society are supposed to have the same lessons so that husbands and wives can discuss them after church.  Based on last week in Florida this is not a problem unique to our branch.  However in this case our high priests group leader was out of town, so his first Sunday lesson may be next week.

After church Eileen and Sister Joyce Bond also discussed their family history so we will contact them about getting together with them.

Eileen took our new elder's picture.  He is Breen Lowman of Ogden, Utah. I will send it to the Pickens County newspaper.

Elder Breen Lowman

Brother Charles Bowen and I gave Peggy Espersen a blessing with him anointing and me pronouncing the blessing.

I contacted in person or via e-mail all of those individuals whom we have been helping with their family history. I volunteered to cover our little Family History Center two Wednesdays this month.

I rounded up a "Teachings of the Presidents of the Church Ezra Taft Benson" manual and a New Testament student manual for the Kazy's when we see them next.

I e-mailed most of those who are part of my team to clean the church building.  We will do it Friday afternoon.

I had recorded "Best. Burger. Ever." on the Food Network and fast forwarded through it adding the locations to my "Eateries to Visit" note on my iPhone. 

Burger at Casper and Runyon's Shamrock Irish Nook

in Minnesota

I posted the Thought For The Week from our Sunday bulletin on Facebook:

"The gospel teaches us that relief from torment and guilt can be earned through repentance. Save for those few - those very few - who defect to perdition after having known a fullness, there is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression, no offense small or large which is exempt from the promise of complete forgiveness. No matter what has happened in your life, the Lord has prepared a way for you to come back if you will heed the promptings of the Holy Spirit." Boyd K. Packer

President Boyd K. Packer

On Monday 2 February we went to my ENT appointment with Dr. Van Tuyl in Ellijay. We had a few snow flurries. We had to reschedule my appointment for tomorrow in Jasper.

Medical center across from the post office

We visited Walmart as Eileen wanted to make Christopher Kimball's recipe for Farmhouse Vegetable and Barley Soup in the AARP magazine.  I found the recipe online on my iPhone, so we were able to get the ingredients at Walmart!

Christopher Kimball

We mailed the two Book of Mormons to Florida and dropped off our trash and recyclables at the dump.  The receptacles for the recyclables were pretty full but the sign stating that they were full wasn't posted, so I found room.

At home I worked on the 28 December entry for my blog and published it!

Eileen enjoyed Giada de Laurentiis, Ina Garten, and Ree Drummond on the Food Network.  It was hard to find a picture of Giada that I wouldn't mind putting in my blog!  Many of you will know what I mean.

Giada de Laurentiis

Ina Garten

Ree Drummond

In the evening we enjoyed "Great Continental Railway Journeys" from Berlin to the Rhine that I had recorded on PBS.  It is is a British documentary travel television series. It follows Michael Portillo around continental Europe, using George Bradshaw 's 1913 Continental Railway Guide. Wikipedia 

Michael Portillo

George Bradshaw (1801-1853)

Then we watched "Georgia Traveler" which we had just recorded on PBS while we watched "Great Continental Railway Journeys".  It began in Adairsville, only 60 miles southwest of Ellijay.  Barnsley Gardens Resort is there.  Then visited LottaFrutta Gourmet Fruit House in Atlanta. On to Athens and the Four Coursemen.  And into Savannah with Segway of Savannah and Savannah Slow Ride.  It wound up at Moseley's Wiregrass Junction, an exotic animal farm at Exit 98 of I-16 between Macon and Savannah.

On Tuesday 3 February we drove to Jasper for my ENT appointment with Dr. Van Tuyl in the early afternoon.  Our odometer was at 95259 just after leaving home.

We actually saw Dr. Samantha Williams who tested my hearing and checked out my hearing aids.  It turned out that my hearing loss is about the same in both ears and that my discrimination of how well I hear what people are saying is 60-some percent in both ears.  That cannot be improved unfortunately.  But we decided that I would use the hearing aids, which she said were top-of-the-line, most of the time.  We will use the transmitter and receiver at home and the receiver at church when the microphone at the pulpit is being used.  We will get the hearing aids checked every six months and my hearing checked annually.

It was bizarre on the way north that the gas prices at Raceway and QT had gone up 15 cents since we drove south. Fortunately Ingles and Kroger had not so I filled up at the latter for $1.919.

Back in Ellijay we drove to the city park and walked for 25 minutes before heading home.

We enjoyed Christopher Kimball's recipe for Farmhouse Vegetable and Barley Soup.  We shopped at Kroger on the way home, so we had some barley for the soup.  And the Moroccan olive loaf was very good with it.

We enjoyed watching "Genealogy Roadshow" at 8 pm. It was in New Orleans this week. 

I did a lot of research on Eileen's cousin Sara Jane Culton's deceased husband Paul Ruckle who passed away in 2009 and his family.

On Wednesday 4 February we were up and on to Ingles to pick up the sister missionaries and go to the food pantry, probably the first time since November!  We hit 95359 on the way.

They were happy to see us at the pantry and it was good to be back.  It wasn't busy for a first Wednesday as we barely reached 100 families.

After we dropped off the sisters back at Ingles we went to Lowe's and Ellijay Tool Rental to look into pressure washers.  I have to gird up my loins, so to speak, to rent one and pressure wash our front porch.

We stopped at R&A Orchards and then relaxed at home with some baked apple for lunch.

The rest of the day was quiet and relaxing.  Watching some TV and working on the computer.  I replied to several couples who had replied to our Christmas e-mail.  I made some phone calls about my team cleaning the church building on Friday and about doing our home/visiting teaching.  I called the Atlanta Temple to put two names on the prayer roll.

On Thursday 5 February we slept in a bit and enjoyed lunch with Ralph and Holly at The Last Catch in Jasper.

Eileen and Holly out front

Ralph, Holly, and Eileen

Afterwards we went to North Georgia Diamond as Eileen shared with me what she'd like for her birthday.

I mailed the Book of Mormon to the audiologist in Smyrna at the post office. We got some sales items at Piggly Wiggly and Food Lion.

I indexed some Virginia marriage records from 1967.

Eileen and Ben did all of Yorkshire K-R in a couple of hours on the FamilySearch Wiki.

We got wonderful news from William. He has a good job offer from L-3 Communications! It is in Greenville, Texas, east of Dallas.  The latest he’d start would be the 9th of March and he could work as early as the 2nd. He had until the 19th to accept/decline.

On Friday 6 February we slept in and then went to our Kids Ferst Public Relations Committee meeting at the Country Corner Kitchen in Ellijay at noon.  We enjoyed lunch there.

Ordering our food 

our committee meeting

our committee meeting

our committee meeting

Eileen volunteered me to take over the Kids Ferst newsletter and she will bake cookies for Valentine's Day.

From there we went to the church building to clean.  Cheryl Dawson and Roger Widmann joined us.  We were there about an hour.

I made an appointment to meet Roger at his home on Monday to help him with his family history.  Our odometer reached 95459.

In the early evening we went to the Tabor House in Ellijay for a reception for Jane Hayden to say goodbye and wish her well.  She was the cook at the Tabor House and the Back Porch Bistro, also in Ellijay, and she volunteered at the food pantry.  She is going to New Jersey to work for Feeding America.

Judy Farmer, Eileen, Debra McCoy, and Emil Harvey

Janie Hayden and Emil

Janie and Debra

Janie, Judy, and Emil

Eileen and Emil

Judy Harvey and Susan Shedd

Emil and Judy Harvey and Susan Shedd

Emil, Judy, and Susan

Janie and Eileen

Janie and Eileen

As we enjoyed supper we watched "The Queen's Garden" that we had recorded on PBS.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip

After some Valentine's Day star gazing about Venus, Betelgeuse, and Jupiter on PBS, we watched "The Great British Baking Show." 

Hosts and judges

On Saturday 7 February due to a text message received at 5:14 am I could not get back to sleep.  So I read and read and read.  I finished chapter 10, "Spiritual Gifts," in Gospel Doctrine by President Joseph F. Smith. I finally fell back to sleep for 2 1/2 hours.

I finished the 24 August edition of the Church News. I enjoyed the articles "Disciples of Jesus Christ" about Elder Russell M. Nelson's talk during BYU's commencement exercises, "Flood the earth" about Elder David A. Bednar's talk at the BYU Campus Education Week, "Meet the Mormons" about the feature length film, "Temple rises in Philadelphia", and "A Legacy of Music" about Tabernacle organist Alexander Schreiner.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Coach Ken Niumatalolo at the Naval Academy

Barbara and Ken Niumatalolo of the Broadneck Ward, Annapolis Maryland Stake

LDS temple rises in Philadelphia

Alexander Schreiner: A Legacy of Music

Alexander Schreiner: A Legacy of Music

I worked on the pile of stuff in our bedroom on my side of the bed in front of my bookcase.  I found an awful lot to put in the recyclables and a lot of stuff that I was hunting for as well as stuff I would have been hunting for in the future!

We watched Rick Steves in Northern Ireland at locations we visited in 2013 and in Wales.

Antrim coast

Dunluce Castle

Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

Conwy Castle in Wales

Ruthin, Wles

Beddgelert, Wales

Then we enjoyed Sara Moulton, Martha Stewart, "America's Test Kitchen," and "Cook's Country." 

Sara Moulton

Martha Stewart

America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country cast

I checked on the family file cards of our daughter Sue's that I found this morning and found what temple work needs to be done yet.

After supper we enjoyed some "Antiques Roadshow" in England with Fiona Bruce

and shows about Carol Burnett and Shirley Temple on PBS.

Carol Burnett

Shirley Temple (1928-2014)

Most of the day I was also reading. I began and finished "Murder on the Links" by Agatha Christie, a Hercule Poirot mystery.  It was delightful!