On Sunday 13 September Eileen enjoyed "Music & the Spoken Word" and the Book of Mormon discussion on the book of Mosiah on BYU-TV.  Today was my 73rd birthday and Eileen gave me a very touching card.  We enjoyed attending our Ellijay Branch. 

This blog entry is without pictures which I will add later.

Opening hymn was #75 "In Hymns of Praise" text by Ada Blenkhorn and music by Alfred Beirly.

We sustained Barbara King as 1st counselor in YW and Kitty Parker as 2nd counselor in YW.

Sacrament hymn was #181 "Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King" text and music by Hugh W. Dougall (1872-1963).

The first speaker was Janie Alley.  She spoke on courage and quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes.  She thinks of the pioneers.  She thinks of us having courage to live the Gospel every day. She thinks of the courage of parents as they raise their children.  She quoted President Monson on courage.  "Decisions determine destiny."  The journal of a soldier as he recorded the courage of Confederate general J. E. B. Stewart.  She spoke of Joseph, the 2000 stripling warriors, and Daniel.  Have the courage to refrain from judging others.  Stand up for the principles we have been taught.  

The second speaker was Sister Joan Rumsey.  Making and keeping sacred covenants.  Covenant from Bible Dictionary.  Quoted Elder Holland.  Covenant between us and our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ.  Commitment to become more like the Savior.  1.  Strengthens and empowers us.  We are the covenant people of the Lord.  Share one another's burdens.  Quoted Lucy Mack Smith and President Henry B. Eyring.  Prepare children to make and keep baptismal covenants.  2.  Essential for our true happiness.  Spiritual milestones.  Making promises to God and vice-versa.  3. Demonstrates our love for the Savior. He loved His Father and us.  John 3:16.  How much do we love the Savior?  More able to bear trials and temptations as we remember the covenants we make in the temple, said President Monson.  

Intermediate hymn #260 "Who's on the Lord's Side?" text by Hannah Last Cornaby (1822-1905) and music by Henry H. Russell (1818-1900).

The concluding speaker was Elder James Rumsey.  In 1985 Church held a worldwide fast to help drought-stricken Ethiopia.  Raised $6 million.  Refugees today wandering spiritually.  Keeping sacred covenants as we go about doing good works.  Mosiah 2:17.  Sacred covenants are like mile markers.  Will we make and keep those covenants?  We have the great responsibility to share.  We should be valiant in keeping our covenants.  Quoted President Nelson on these sacred promises.  D&C 82:10. Baptismal covenants in Mosiah 18:8-10.  Have His Spirit poured out abundantly upon us.  Comfort us, testify to us of truth, and teach us.  Quoted Sheri L. Dew.  Bring things to our remembrance.  Baptism and the sacrament.  Binding power is back on the earth.  We can repent and get back on course.  The Savior loves each one of us.  Quoted Elder Oaks on the Final Judgment.  We can't just go through the motions.  We can be like He is.

Closing hymn was #240 "Know This, That Every Soul Is Free" text by Anonymous ca. 1805 and music by Roger L. Miller (b. 1937).  Included in the first LDS hymnbook in 1835.

Gospel Doctrine with Harry Spooner was lesson #34, "Keep the Ordinances, As I Delivered Them” using 1 Corinthians 11–16.

The purpose of the lesson is to help class members recognize the importance of living according to the doctrines of the gospel and receiving priesthood ordinances. 

1. Husbands’ and wives’ relationships with each other and with the Lord.

President Marion G. Romney taught: “[A husband and wife] should be one in harmony, respect, and mutual consideration. Neither should plan or follow an independent course of action. They should consult, pray, and decide together. … Remember that neither the wife nor the husband is the slave of the other. Husbands and wives are equal partners” (“In the Image of God,” Ensign, Mar. 1978).

2. The purpose of the sacrament.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught: “With so very much at stake, [the sacrament] should be taken more seriously than it sometimes is. It should be a powerful, reverent, reflective moment. It should encourage spiritual feelings and impressions. As such it should not be rushed. It is not something to ‘get over’ so that the real purpose of a sacrament meeting can be pursued. This is the real purpose of the meeting” (in General Conference, Oct. 1995).

3. The importance of all spiritual gifts.

4. The Resurrection and the degrees of glory.

Testify of the importance of following the doctrines that will lead us back to our Father in Heaven.

The hymn in priesthood was #239 "Choose the Right" text by Joseph L. Townsend (1849-1842) and music by Henry A. Tuckett (1852-1918).

The priesthood lesson was #16 from "Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson" entitled "The Elderly in the Church."    It was "taught" by Brother Bond.  Eileen said that Nell Huston did an excellent job teaching the same lesson in Relief Society.

“May these golden years be your very best years as you fully live and love and serve. And God bless those who minister to your needs--your family, your friends, and your fellow Church members and leaders.”

I visited Richard Callahan to get Bonnie Helton's membership number and got with President Boland about putting up the banner for the stake food drive.

We had an early dinner at home and we drove to Jasper to help Terry and Judy Dorsey with their family history from 4:15 - 7:45 pm.  Eileen helped Judy and I helped Terry.  We got three gallons of gas at Walmart on the way there for $2.099.

I received texts and many emails wishing me "happy birthday".  On the way home from Dorsey's my sister Lib called to wish me a happy birthday.  At home we chatted with our daughter Heather as she called.  Then we FaceTimed with William, Erin, and Weston followed by Colleen and the boys.  Colleen and the boys sang to me.

Heather gave me four Star Trek: Next Generation books to read in the Amazon Kindle App on my iPhone.  Eileen got me four "real" books to read.  Colleen's books and William's books are en route.

On Monday 14 September I downloaded the Kindle App and the four books from Heather.  We exchanged anniversary cards wishing each other "happy anniversary."  It is #52!

We went to Bryant Physical Therapy and I asked Cathy Burke if she would like to know more about the Book of Mormon that we sent her.  She said that she would think about it.

We met Ralph and Holly Hughes at the Longhorn Restaurant for lunch and gave them all the research we did on their family history.  They were both excited about it.

I called the store manager at Kroger in Jasper about contributing to the stake food drive.  He said that all he would have available was perishable items so we declined.  I thanked him for all that he does give to the Jasper food pantry.

We shopped at Ingles and stopped at Rite-aid for our pneumonia #1 shots and flu shots.  We will put pneumonia #2 in our calendar for a year from now.

I called the pantries in Blue Ridge and Jasper to arrange for them to pick up their food on Saturday.

I received 91 Facebook birthday greetings!  That is higher than previous years.  I put a general thank-you on Facebook for everyone.

I received two Star Trek books and three birthday cards from Colleen, Sean, and the boys today.  And one Star Trek book from William.  I texted them to thank them.

Eileen watched "Cook's Country" and "America's Test Kitchen" that I had recorded on Saturday.

After supper we went to church for our empty-nester Family Home Evening with Harry Spooner.  Unfortunately Harry didn't show up, so we all left about 7:15.  We used the rest of my Walmart gift card and got 11 gallons at $2.089.

At home I tried to import bbailey.paf into Ancestral Quest and it was still running when we went to bed.  We watched the fourth quarter of the Falcons - Eagles football game and the Falcons hung on to win, 26-24.  I "watched" the Yankees - Rays game on my phone and the Yankees, who got their first hit in the 8th inning, scored four runs in the top of the 9th to win, 4-1.

On Tuesday 15 September we drove to the North Georgia Premium Outlets in Dawsonville to visit the Oshkosh B'gosh children's clothing store for the baby shower Friday evening for Sister Ray (and also stuff for Liam and Weston).  On the way to the car Eileen went into the Stride Rite store and got two pair of "Cars" footwear for Liam.

We drove to the North Georgia Eye Clinic in Gainesville for her 12:20 appointment with Dr. Thomas.  We had the young lady change our billing to Medicare and second Tricare, not Blue Cross Blue Shield, as this visit is medical, not vision. 

The appointment took 2 1/2 hours as Eileen had to wait about an hour after her eyes were dilated before she saw Dr. Thomas.  The cataract in her right eye is worse and a bit annoying when she reads, so she made an appointment for 19 November for outpatient cataract surgery.

We missed our next palindrome of 115511 by five miles on the way back to Ellijay :(

I thought our home teaching appointment was at 4 pm with Kelly Johnson and we got there at 3:45, only to find out that it was for 5 pm.  So we just waited until she got home about 4:30 and had a nice visit.

I got two calls while at Kelly's that left voice mails.  One from Jan Pardee and one from Sabrina Bayless whom we had called earlier.  Jan and Diana Stephens were going to cover the church tonight in case anyone dropped off food donations, but Diana could not make it and she had the key.  We said we'd let Jan in but then we told her we didn't want her there by herself.  So we would stay with her and, in that case, there was really no need for her to drive up from Jasper.

When we got to church we were surprised to see the stake food drive banner in place and then that President Boland was there with the Reichert's and Cribb's.  So there was some confusion on Diana's and Jan's parts about who would be covering the church in case people brought food donations.

So Eileen and I went to Walmart and Ingles to get all the food donated so far in the boxes at each store.  We brought it back to church where all the expiration dates were checked.  Connie Reichert, Julie Cribb, and Eileen made three separate groups of the food for the three pantries.

At home I learned how to bring the data from bbailey.paf into Ancestral Quest but AQ Basic did not do anywhere want I wanted, so I bought the full-fledged AQ with user's manual for $38.95.  I began playing with AQ.

On Wednesday 16 September my blood sugar was 73 and my weight was a new low of 183.3!  My lowest blood sugar was 72 on 7 June.  We enjoyed volunteering at the food pantry.  It was the third Wednesday of the month and we assisted 98 families.  I called Melissa Maxie  and Dianne Ballew about the food drive.

We picked up my suit at Legacy dry cleaners.  Then we visited Barbara and North Georgia Eye Clinic followed by One Source Business and North Georgia Diamond.  We completely struck out :(  We called Jordan at Walmart to see if they had more food than what we had gotten from the two food drive boxes.  She would check on it.

We enjoyed a visit to Moo Bears Ice Cream and Treatery in downtown Ellijay for some no-sugar-added ice cream.  Eileen had cherry vanilla and I had moose tracks.

After supper we went to church to cover the Family History Center and be ready for any food donations.  The youth with the Boland's did really well at Walmart tonight, better than last week.  I learned that the food on our front porch was from our neighbors Roy and Debbie Libengood and "DJ" Johnson.  Judy Pearce said that she would get some to us.  Melissa McVey said that they could not.

On Thursday 17 September we drove south to Canton Toyota for our 115,000 mile service, stopping at the dump en route.

We left about 11 am and stopped at the Hallmark store for some cards.  Then we drove to Walmart in Jasper where the store manager Rob Sever gave us a $50 gift card to go around the store and get what we wanted for the food drive.  Our total there was $43.36.

We got three gallons of gas at Race Trac at $2.199.  Then we returned to Ellijay and visited Sabrina and Michelle Bayless at 12:45.  We went to Walmart and spent $6.84, wiping out the gift card. We picked up more food donations in one of the boxes.  We went to North Georgia Diamond where Bill Craig had several bags of food for us and Eileen got a nice piece of jewelry for one of her necklaces.  We drove a couple of doors down to Melissa Maxie's real estate office and got lots of bags of food!

At home we enjoyed some Carb Smart vanilla and chocolate ice cream with sugar-free raspberry and peach toppings.

I called Keith at Ingles in Jasper and Craig at Kroger in Jasper.  Then Walmart in Blue Ridge.  Lastly I called Express-Scripts to cancel the renewal of my Breeze 2 test strips prescription.

I posted to Facebook my feelings about the elections next year.  I quoted from Handbook 2: Administering the Church.  "In accordance with the laws of their respective governments, members are encouraged to register to vote, to study issues and candidates carefully, and to vote for individuals whom they believe will act with integrity and sound judgment. Latter-day Saints have a special obligation to seek out, vote for, and uphold leaders who are honest, good, and wise."  

I made reservations at the Comfort Inn in Rocky Mount on 25 Sep and at the Sleep Inn in Asheville on 30 Sep.

I finished reading the 5 July issue of the LDS Church News.  I enjoyed 'First stake in Vanuatu'; five articles from the Mission Presidents Seminar 'Love for missionary work', '"My Mission Is to Bless"', 'Become like Peter and "fear not, for God is with you"', '"Epistles of the Lord"', and 'The Spirit will teach'; and 'Choir and orchestra thrill audiences in Maryland and New York'.

After supper we went to church with our trunkful of food and there were several members there to help unload the trunk.  Diana Stephens had three boxes of food that she brought from her food storage.  I called Jan Pardee and asked her to pick up the $5 gift card that Kroger offered me.

I called our lawn service guy, Clay Collins, and gave him the information for the food pantry.  Judy Farmer announced yesterday that they wanted to hire someone to take care of the lawn at the pantry.

We got three gallons of gas at BP at $2.129.

I finished reading "Gunga Din and Other Favorite Poems" by Rudyard Kipling which I began on 9 July.

On Friday 18 September we attended the Kids Ferst meeting at Head Start at 10 am.   We went to Melissa's office to pick up more food.  We got the two boxes and signs that Jordan had made and placed on tripods at Walmart.  We took the food, boxes, and signs to church.  I went to Ingles to get their two boxes, one of which had a lot of food in it.  I also picked up five empty boxes of theirs to put the food in at church and returned to church.  Eileen took care of the food and we began cleaning the building.  We were joined by Ron Fisher, Roger Widmann, and Elder and Sister Rumsey.  The fellow who checked the fire extinguishers came by.

We returned to Ingles to do some shopping and then headed home.  We hadn't heard back from Walmart in Blue Ridge or Ingles in Jasper.  After supper Eileen called Barbara and she didn't have anything for us, unlike the big help she was last year.

I drove Eileen to Jasper for the baby shower for Samantha Ray at Fatz Restaurant.  I relaxed and read at the Ingles Cafe and in the car.  

Jan Pardee had picked up the $5 gift card from Kroger and given it to Eileen at the shower, so we went to Kroger and spent the card on three cans of soup.  We got four gallons of gas at Walmart for $2.049 and got home about 9:30 pm.

I posted the following to Facebook from the editors of the New York Times:

"Eleven presidential candidates had three prime-time hours on the national stage on Wednesday to tell the American people why they should lead the country.

Nobody forced them to be there. They were there freely, armed with the best arguments they and their policy advisers had come up with, to make their cases as seasoned politicians, business leaders and medical professionals — the Republican Party’s “A-Team,” as one of them, Mike Huckabee, said at the outset.

And that, America, is frightening. Peel back the boasting and insults, the lies and exaggerations common to any presidential campaign. What remains is a collection of assertions so untrue, so bizarre, that they form a vision as surreal as the Ronald Reagan jet looming behind the candidates’ lecterns.

It felt at times as if the speakers were no longer living in a fact-based world where actions have consequences, programs take money and money has to come from somewhere. Where basic laws — like physics and the Constitution — constrain wishes. Where Congress and the public, allies and enemies, markets and militaries don’t just do what you want them to, just because you say they will."

On Saturday 19 September I posted the following on Facebook:

"Here is an excellent article by emeritus General Authority Elder Bruce C. Hafen on just why society has been going down the tubes in recent years:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/08/the-proclamation-on-the-family-transcending-the-cultural-confusion?lang=eng

Eileen and I went to church to await the pantry representatives.  Sherry Morris and Denise Caldwell and Denise's son Michael arrived about 11:40 from Fannin County to pick up their food.  We had all the plastic bags that the stake provided put in boxes from Ingles, making it much easier to pick up and carry out to their pickup truck.  We gave them a tour of the building, starting with the chapel.  Sherry gave me the paperwork for the women's shelter to turn in to the stake for the $1000 of food from the bishops' storehouse.  I've already turned in the paperwork for their pantry to get their $1000 of food.  A few days later I scanned and emailed it to President Stallings of our stake presidency.

About 12:45 the fellows arrived from Jasper.  They were Larry Starr, Jack Phillips, and Don Wilson.  They got a tour of the building and I answered some doctrinal questions that Larry asked.  I took some pictures of them. As they started the tour, Bob Morrow pulled up from our pantry.  He and Eileen loaded their food and she took pictures with Bob.

We relaxed at home and after some House Hunters on HGTV, we watched the Yankees - Mets ballgame.  I was appalled when manager Joe Girardi took out the starting pitcher Michael Pineda and brought in reliever Justin Wilson!  I shut off the TV!  However I had to apologize to Girardi later as it all went well.  After Wilson walked a Met to load the bases, he struck out the next four batters he faced!  The Yankees won, 5-0.

We began the Maine Town Clerk project with Ben doing the town of Durham in Androscoggin County and Eileen doing the town of Arrowsic in Sagahadoc County.  We emailed Sandra Pond that we have gotten started with a question about the non-appearance of the email address on the completed page.

She responded and we learned what we were doing wrong.

Eileen watched "Cook's Country" and "America's Test Kitchen" that I had recorded earlier today.