Brrrrrr!!! October 27, 2013

The weather has turned quite cold here--only 25F yesterday morning!  I had to call home and have our daughter box up more warm clothes for me.  I've been freezing!  My kids won't believe it, because they always say I keep the house too cold.  The added humidity here makes the cold go right through me!

We enjoyed a  train ride on the Great Smoky Mountain Railways with our friend, Tom Flinn.  He and his wife, Emma, are our leaders at the Food Pantry.  Unfortunately, Emma was ill and couldn't join us.  Usually the mountains are ablaze with colors at this time of year, thus the planned train ride.  However, the extremely wet summer here has put a real damper on the them.  However, the ride was pleasant and still beautiful.

Some less-active members and a few investigators joined us for the Primary Halloween activity one night.  We planted autumn flowers and seeds around the Church for a service project, followed by apple bobbing, games, pizzas and treats.  We were few in number, but everyone had a good time.

One of our investigators spent an evening with us exploring the Church building and learning more.  We love her and pray for her growth in the gospel.  Of course, that is how we feel about everyone.  There are several very interesting people investigating right now.

Lynn taught a lesson on virtue in District Meeting.  It has made all us missionaries think more clearly on that attribute.  Vir is the root word coming from Latin.  It means power or manliness.  Well, I don't especially care to be more manly, but I love that power comes in virtue.  That is such a great principle!  It adds strength to one's determination to live better--more virtuously.

Saturday Lynn spent much of the day helping Michael Rattler, Baptist pastor husband of one of our members, work on his church building.  He is part Cherokee.  His church is on tribal land, and his congregation is Cherokee.   I helped his wife, Shelley, with chores she had at home and ironing for her ill mother-in-law.  Gooood day!

Our days keep busy with our several FHE groups, visiting and finding less-active people, running the Elders to appointments, helping several needy families and individuals, participating in service projects, visiting our two-dozen home teaching families, cooking and feeding people, and occasionally fitting in a date.

Yes, we older missionaries can have dates!  We try not to make the Elders jealous, but we enjoy our time for us once in awhile.  

Happy Halloween and love to all!!

Tom Flinn and us on our train ride

Amazing model train museum

Old-fashioned model train

Whizzz!  There goes the
Great Smoky Mountain Railway train!

Train station in Bryson City, N.C.

Gotta love this!  Grampa's Mountain Music
with a ukelele sign out front

Elder Bacon in his elderly bacon costume
and scary banana Skyler Crubaugh

Primary pizza and treats

"Farmer" Crubaugh & the Mrs.

Shelley Rattler and kids at Pastor Rattler's church

Cherokee blanket signs

Street sign written in English and Cherokee

Color Month - October 21, 2013

Our FHE groups are doing quite well.  It is inspiring to see our less-active members not only attend, but take part giving lessons as well.  Some who have little interaction outside of Church are having a good time in these groups.  We met with three of the groups this last week.

I ducked out of the cleaning detail for the Church on Tuesday.  My unwelcome visitor, Mr. Migraine, put me down and out.  Fortunately, the Elders took my place and the job got done.
He doesn't come very often, but when he does he stays for at least three days.  Wish he could take a hint that he's not wanted!

We hosted the Elders and an investigator for dinner and a lesson one evening.  She is an artist and a very generous person.  We ate at her home another night, as we have several times before when the Elders have gone to teach her.  She loves to cook for the Elders, and we get the benefit.  

We home teach/visit teach so many people that it really keeps us hopping.  We also try to find "lost" people.  Some of those who are marked "DO NOT CONTACT" have actually been quite friendly.  They just need TLC and patience. We have been having quite a bit of interaction with some very troubled families.  It is heavy to see so many who are sadly afflicted.  It is difficult to keep hoping people will see the truth when they don't seem to progress.  This is all too common, but we keep loving them just the same.

One of our home teaching families is quite unique.  The mom is very active in the Church, the dad is a Baptist minister, and the children split their time between the two churches.  We had dinner and a nice visit with them.  We are going to help work on repairs for his church building this week.

We studied humility and preparing to teach in our District Meeting this week.  All of our study sessions are so helpful and instructive.  We really enjoy them and love all the Elders in our District.

Lynn has built a turtle race game to use in the FHEs with some of our home teaching families.  Who knows?  Maybe the older folks would enjoy it, too!  :)

We really enjoyed watching the BYU/Houston football game on Saturday, although I noticed Lynn's fingernails were shorter later.  ;)  I checked in and out of it while mending.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Love our crocheted decorations!

Cuties from the Farmer's Market

Investigators Amy & A.J.
playing the turtle race

FHE treat - banana pudding
Southern favorite

Half October!

I can't believe it!  Today is October 13!  The month is flying by!  

We spent an awesome afternoon with the Boyd family for dinner after Fast and Testimony Sunday meetings.  They are so exhilarating and generous!  It's now nearly 11:00 p.m., and I'm still full to the gills!  Every time we go their home (or anyone else's) I feel like we are at a mountain cabin.  Oh, wait!  We are!  It's a trip!

This week we made the quarterly apartment inspections of the Elders in our district.  They do rather well, probably because they know we are coming.  ;)  I only had to teach them how to clean their shower and kitchen sink.  Not bad.

Some of our activities this week include 3 special FHEs, making caramel apples to share, baking 60+ loaves of banana bread, baking 9 pies, visiting 10 or so families/individuals, attending an investigator lesson, assisting at the Farmer's Market, District Meeting, enjoying a date.  A good week!

One night we helped with the Holy Smoke annual fundraiser dinner (for which I baked the pies).  This is for the local House Raising Committee, sort of like Habitat for Humanity.  The difference is they build a house or addition for a qualified applicant, make them a low-interest loan, and the recipient repays the loan gradually thus enabling them to build again for someone else.  The dinner is sponsored by whatever churches choose to participate.  They all bring some dish to serve, and people can sample whatever and however much they choose.  It's quite the deal!  We have made friends with several people from other churches this way.

After more than a month we finally squeezed in a date!  Pres. Irion told us to have two a week, but we don't seem to make that happen.  We just stay too busy!  We enjoyed a movie, a milkshake at our favorite ice cream parlor (No Name Ice Cream), and watching the BYU football game on TV.  It was really enjoyable!

We love the area, the people, and what we are doing!  There are only a few drawbacks--the gnats, the abundant snakes, and no family closeby.  The Lord is so good to us, so we cannot
complain.  We LOVE you!!  Thank you for your prayers; we also pray for all of you.

Typical old mountain home
(This one is abandoned, but many just in
this condition are still inhabited.)

Someone show this to Stu Smith!

Pie display at Holy Smoke dinner
(Murphy Branch did all the pies.)

Lone Mountain Band
(Famous Bluegrass group from Tennessee)

Variety of morning glory here

Another morning glory - even weeds are beautiful sometimes!

Conference Sunday Oct. 6, 2013

Sad news.  Sis. Peters had to sever contact with us due to her husband's objections to the Church.  We feel so badly for her.  She is trying to be patient in waiting for baptism.  We keep praying for her.

Our unofficial FHE in Robbinsville with the Barmes' is going great!  We think it will gradually include more people as Bro. Barmes softens.   We all enjoyed great taco casserole for lunch, and HE gave a good lesson afterwards.  Our Branch President and his wife joined us, too, as well as one of their friends who is a less-active member.   We introduced the group to Chickenfoot, a Southern variation on Dominoes.  We laughed and enjoyed ourselves.

Zone Meeting was uplifting and informative.  Our Zone Leaders are very conscientious  and live close to the Spirit.  We were blessed to have Pres. & Sis. Irion join us.  They are wonderful, and we love them.

We are meeting regularly with less-active people we home teach, as well as with some investigators.  It is always a thrill when one of them comes to Church.  One lady even came to two sessions of Conference!  

The John Campbell Folk School nearby offers classes year round to anyone.  They teach all kinds of arts and crafts like woodworking, whittling, blacksmithing, weaving, spinning, stained glass making, pottery, jewelry-making, glass-making, and on and on.  People come from all over the country to learn these skills.  Their Fall Festival had about 300 vendors spread out throughout the woods selling their hand-made wares.  It was wonderful!  I collected cards from many, planning for what I want to purchase before we go home.  However, I couldn't do it right now.  The day was great, though.

The awesome finale to our week, like many of you, was General Conference.  We feel so enriched and blessed to receive the words of the Lord through our prophets and apostles and other leaders.  It feels like a shot in the spirit!  Love it!

I'm posting lots of pictures this week, since I'm behind in doing it.  Look if you want to, ignore them if you don't.  Have a fantabulous week!  We LOVE ALL OF YOU!!

FHE Jenga with Sharon Crubaugh, Amandalyn, Skyler, Matthew

27 stories high!

Store Brand in N.C. - can we claim ownership?

Elder McDonald (our District Leader) & Pres. Irion

Zone Activity - frisbee football

Trying for a basket

Mexican dinner after a bluegrass concert
Buzz Blazek, Karen & Mike Crubaugh, us

Ooooold wagon 

Mountain toy maker

Mountain men love bushy beards

Gourds of all shapes & sizes - and uses!  (read sign)

Hat made from turned wood - beautiful!

Enjoying Folk School festival

Ken & Virginia Miller - master mandolin & guitar makers
and old-time country & bluegrass performers

Outdoor ovens

Outdoor ovens (kilns?

Hand-made tiles that decorate the outdoor ovens

Smells good!!

Lynn used similar equipment on the farm

For our Olive <3

Late but Great!! September 30, 2013

Brother & Sister Barmes
Hosts of unofficial FHE

The Ottingers & Ogdens
FHE hosts at Hayesville

Our week was busy and went extremely fast.  Before I knew it, it was time to write again and NO TIME to do it!  Therefore, I am already into the new week with this post.

On P-day we took the Elders with us to visit a marvelous investigator who lives quite a ways away.  Donna Peters is anxious to be baptized, but her family is resisting.  We can only visit her at her work.  Afterwards, we went to visit Fields of the Woods, a religious park owned and operated by the Church of God.  It was interesting to see, and the day was beautiful.
They have a mock-up of Golgotha, of the Garden Tomb, and an entire hillside of the Ten Commandments.

We have successfully started three more FHE groups, one unofficially.  We have had non-members, investigators, less-actives, and active members participate.  Hopefully, they will help everyone learn more about the gospel and regenerate their testimonies.  It is a fun social time as well.   After our unofficial FHE, Lynn and I had a special treat.  Brother Barmes took each of us for a ride on his Bulldog--ATV.  We bumped up the mountain on an old, barely navigable wagon road, crossed three streams, surmounted large rocks and even fallen trees.   It was great!  Oh!  I told about this before!  Oops!

The Murphy SW FHE group met on Friday and surprised me with singing, great food, and a fabulous home evening.  Sister Pew's birthday was two days before mine, so we had a double celebration.  She is so cute!  She won't wear a dress for anything, but what a heart of gold!  Love her!

We spent Sunday night at the Mission Home in Knoxville and participated in a small memorial for dear Sister Casper.  Elder Casper joined us via Skype.  All the senior missionary couples gathered for the event then stayed overnight.  Monday morning we had a terrific breakfast prepared by Sister Irion before we set off for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  We visited Cades Cove, a historical site from the early days of white settlers in the area.  Cove here means valley.  

We are getting more and more busy, which keeps us tired but makes the time fly.  That helps us not to feel the longing for our family so terribly.  We are where we should be doing what we should and want to do.  The gospel is true!  We love it!  We love all of you!

Us with Donna Peters

Fields of the Woods - Golgotha (on its side)  :{

World's largest 10 Commandments
Fields of the Woods

Pyper & Riley Pendergrass
Children of family we home teach

Laurel & Sis. Sue Pew - birthday babes

beautiful deer in Anderson's yard

Think they are twins?

Ogden,  Roners, Hunt at Primitive Baptist Church
Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Working grist mill at Cades Cove

Millrace for the grist mill

The Whittler

Old Smokehouse

Yikes!!

Innovative Step

Mission Office

GTK - Great Tennessee Knoxville Mission

We are honored to be counted with them.

Aunt Becky of Cades Cove