Trunk or Treat!

Another busy week and with just a few days until Halloween, the Jonesboro Ward had its "trunk or treat" on Saturday (October 26th). So this entire week the Elders and Sister's invited investigators and less active to what is pretty much a Ward party. The week started however last Sunday when we had to speak in church. There was a Elder Jackson that had just returned from a mission in Salem Oregon and we told him to take all the time he needed to report his mission. That meant that we had about 5 minutes each, but things went just fine.That night Gramma and I visited Ute and Gerald a older couple in the Ward, both with health problems. We were introduced to them by the Sisters the night before and I offered to give them a Priesthood blessing on Sunday. I couldn't find anyone to go with us so I officiated myself. What a loving couple and we have developed a close relationship with them just after a couple of visits.

On P-day I asked Gramma what she would like to do. I needed to go to with the Elders so we didn't have time to go very far. She had seen a Antique shop when we took the Missionaries from Conyers to the Doctor and said she wanted to go there. It was in Peachtree City. Gramma is usually lost here in Atlanta, but she thought that if I got her to the highway near the mission office she would find it. She did and I was so shocked, I drove past it and had to make a U-turn. Two wonderful hours for her, two hours of pacing for me. This place had two houses fill with antiques, one of them with two floors.

We are not going to complain about the weather, because we can't. It has been about 75 degrees all week with low's in the mid 50's. It is so pretty here. Here is a example of what we have to put up with.

We have started to walk each morning in our compound. the total walk down and back (it is uphill coming back) is about 1 and quarter miles. At the bottom we finally found our lake that is suppose to have fish and snapping turtles.We are hoping no alligators.

It has these weird roots shooting up is the air like a swamp. Gramma wanted a picture.

Tuesday we went to District Council and later checked on a couple of address's. One had 3 pit bulls in the back yard barking and Gramma was not to excited about that. They were not home so we scampered to the car. We have a hard time catching anyone home. Sister Webb who attended our Bible class on Wednesday night, said part of the reason is many people have two jobs to survive and they are not home day or evening. I think that many on the list have moved, but we don't know for sure unless we catch someone home. On Thursday we drove the Sisters to Conyers to attend our zone Conference, The Atlanta East Zone. We enjoyed it, but made the mistake of sitting near the back making it difficult to hear some of the time. They didn't use the mike and we and Elder and Sister Potts (another senior couple) strain to take it all in. It is great to hear from President and Sister Clayton and the other missionaries. Their enthusiasm is contagious.

Here is Gramma setting with Elder and Sister Potts.

On Friday the Elders, both the English and Spanish, had a service project helping families, so singing at the nursing home has all Sisters except for me. They really enjoy our visits and they really have improved since Gramma got involved.

 Friday afternoon I taught a lesson with the Elders and then we went out to eat at Red Lobster for our wedding anniversary (51). We were going to go to the Temple to celebrate that afternoon, but the Spanish Sisters called and their ride had fallen through and they needed a ride to the evening session, so we went to the 8:00 p.m. session with them. It was in Spanish so we had headphones. There was a big group from the Spanish branch and it was a really nice evening. The only problem was it was past 10:30 by the time we got home. Saturday was the Wards trunk or treat activity and so we picked up the Sisters and Gramma and them went to Walmart and Dollar Tree and bought some decorations for the Sisters car. It was raining hard, but luckily the first part of the activity was in the Cultural Hall. They had a great turn out and lots of food.

Notice the cockroach clusters!

Gramma and the Sisters dressed as a witch with her two cats, and the decorated car trunk was a big hit.

Gramma has always loved Halloween. Seeing the neighbors dress up and see them excited to get Treats. It was too dark to take any pictures in the parking lot (for some reason they did it in the most darkened spot there), but let me tell you these Georgians know how to decorate a trunk. Everyone had a great time. We took the Elders to their apartment and headed home, only to get a call from the Sisters. They had left their keys at the church along with their church key and had no way to get in the church. We drove back, let them in,  then home.

On Sunday we went early to the church, Gramma was the organist for the Spanish Branch. They usually just have electronic music and they really appreciated her helping. We went to our Ward meetings and then took an investigator home. Gramma fixed a big Sunday meal and invited the Elders to come over. We filled them up, (Gramma is still a specialist at Sunday dinner) and we then hope to rest the remainder of the Sabbath day, but who knows what kind of emergency we night be needed for by the missionaries. Our lives are busy doing the work of the Lord and we know this is a good place for us to be. We hope your lives are being blessed as ours. We know the Gospel is true and pray daily for all of you. Do what is right, remember that we are thinking of you always. God bless y'all.
Love, Grampa and Gramma Hammond.

"The Lords Wind"

When we spoke at our farewell I mentioned one of my favorite parts of the "Other side of Heaven" movie. It was the brother who rowed President Groberg to an assignment at a distant island because there was no wind, and he stated that he couldn't do a lot of things for the Lord, but that day he could be the Lords "Wind". Linnea commented with all the travel and ferrying around missionaries, your were right we "are the Lord's "wind". With all our traveling in the car we will have a lot of miles on it before 6 months is over, but that is okay, that's why we are here. To do our part. On P-Day we visited the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and I am sure Norman Hammond was disappointed. Carter was not one of his favorite presidents. It was a pretty place in a downtown park, but they were doing a lot of remodeling and fixing. It had a beautiful garden.

They had a Oval Office mock up in the displays.

On the rest of P-Day we went on an adventure to the Busy Bee Cafe. This is a nationally famous cafe that feature soul food and true southern cooking. Our GPS took us into a scary part of Atlanta.We got a nice gift certificate from Samantha's parents after the wedding to this place. The place is very small and very busy. There is a line to be seated or even to place a take home order.They said it would be over an hour so we ordered take home. By the time the lady got our gift card straightened out it was almost an hour. Traffic was closed on I-75 so my phone rerouted us all over the place through a couple of rather tough areas. Gramma was relieved to get home and we ate our food, Oxtail, Haddock, black eyed peas, corn bread stuffing, fried green tomato's, mac and cheese, and of course cornbread. I was good, but Gramma decided that even with her southern Virginia heritage, southern food is a little "heavy" for her. 

On Tuesday we got a call from a Elder Herzog in Conyers that he needed a ride to a doctors appointment. He had tried several members in his area without success, so the mission office told him to try us. All we had planned for the day was picking up the Elders for District Council meeting and then taking the Sisters back to their apartment. They were exchanging the car that day. Elder Herzog said that the appointment would only be 10 to 30 minutes. I told him when you had been to the doctor as much a Gramma and me, we knew that wasn't probably true. (He was in the office almost 2 hours.)
When we finally headed back we hit the heavy traffic perfectly. Gramma asked to be dropped off at our apartment on the way back and I drove the hour and half to and back from Conyers. His companion was Elder Lopez from California. They were a couple of pretty nice Elders.

As I posted on Instagram (5 days early), this photo to wish Joy a happy birthday, I told her Georgia loves her.

Well the nursing home where all the missionaries sing at on Friday's must like her too, because one of the meeting rooms is decorated with old doors and windows on the walls.

Gramma got her Gospel Music book from Amazon and with the key to the church we got on Sunday, she was ready to practice and work out a program for the nursing home.

We had bible study with a few members on Wednesday night and when it was over the facilitator handed out these treats, A giant lollipop looking thing of chocolate and marshmallow. My blood sugar went up just looking at it.

With a well planned music program, all of us waited for the staff to tell us they were ready for some entertainment. We had hymns, solo's, old favorites, and even a piano melody from Gramma.

Friday night is the night Brother Hellesoe takes all the missionaries in the Ward, and the spanish branch to dinner. He gave us a special invitation that we felt we couldn't turn down.

We found out that he is related to the Hellesoe's we know in Samoa and that his wife's best friend is Daisy, Gramma's best Samoan friend. We are going to have them over for dinner so they can have a good Pesega-Daisy discussion. Speaking of Samoa, we loved the sunsets there, but this one this week was pretty special and it made the whole sky turn pink. 

Saturday night we had Haitian food. The Bishop and his wife invited us and the Sisters for dinner. We had a great meal and visit. They have an amazing and accomplished family. Their conversion stories are wonderful, and he is a great missionary Bishop.

We had to talk in church on Sunday. A returning missionary spoke and we told him to take all the time he needed. He did so luckily we only had to take about 5 minutes each. Just time to share our testimony and tell a little about ourselves. We have a busy night. I have to take the Elders at 5:00 and then Gramma and I have a 7:00 meeting with a couple the Sisters are teaching. They want us to take over teaching them. Gramma met a visitor to the ward that isn't a member and after a good discussion she gave the lady her own "Preach My Gospel" book. She is hoping she will be back next week. We miss all of you, but we are enjoying serving here in Georgia. The Gospel is true, we are continuing to pray for the Lord to bless you. God be with Y-all till we meet again.
Grampa and Gramma Hammond.

"Fiddle Dee Dee", getting to know Jonesboro.

We are getting quite busy, We are trying to get to know more members of the ward and have split with the Elders several times. We decided to take P-Day and get to know our community a little bit better. Sister Clayton recommended this tour when we met with President Clayton and her last week.

That's right, we are in the childhood town Margret Mitchell of "Gone with the Wind" fame. She drew upon her experiences here, the people she knew, and the stories she heard from family and friends, to write her prize winner book.

This is the main street going through town. There was a small museum and a bus tour. We were the only two on the bus tour so we got special treatment. If you are not sure, Gramma is the one below on the right.

The real important history of Jonesboro is it being the site of one of the most decisive battles in the Civil War, not one of the biggest, but one of the most decisive. During the Battle of Atlanta, Sherman's army could not dislodge the confederate troops defending the city, so he sent two thirds of his army sweeping southeast to Jonesboro and attacked the rail roads here that were supplying Confederate troops in Atlanta.The Confederate army tried to stop the Union army in a decisive battle here at the strain station in Jonesboro. With supply lines cut off, the Confederate army had to abandon Atlanta, therefore allowing Sherman continue his march to Savannah. Atlanta falling into Union control is given as one of the reasons Lincoln was reelected two months later and the war ended months after that. There are one thousand unmarked graves in the cemetery of Confederate soldiers, plus many others they could identify. The Union dead were buried in a Federal cemetery in Marietta.

There are a lot of historic building in this town including the historic courthouse and a plantation home.

There was also the wall of Muriel's that honor some of the other historical people. The third one from the left is to remember the Gypsies that use come come to the area in the winter so their kids could go to school. One year they quit coming and no one knows why.

  

Monday night the went with Elder Augir and visited with a lady that was a member of the church, but had not been for a long time. Most of the problems she discussed with us would be eliminated if she would live the Gospel again. We are hoping she and her children will come to church. Tuesday we took Sister Strickland and Cockrell to the Atlanta Temple. They were going to meet two newly baptized member's that were going to do baptisms for the dead. President Clayton told the Sisters that since they were there to be with members, it would be okay to go a little earlier and go through an endowment session. They also invited a member Sister Rwanda, a convert from Trinidad, to ride in the back of our car with them so she could attend the Atlanta Temple. It took one and one half hours to drive the 45 miles to the Temple because of traffic and construction. It took over two hours in bumper to bumper traffic to get back.

It is a beautiful Temple and Gramma and I went through a session with about 20 elders and Sisters from the Atlanta North Mission. We then went to the baptistery and I baptized Sister Siva and Williams, the new members, and Sister Strickland and Cockrell. Gramma sat next to the baptismal font and was a witness. She was one of the first Sister witness's in the Temple because it had just opened up after being closed for maintenance, and the newly announced policy in regards to witness to ordinances. Sister Siva and Williams are the third and fourth from the left to Gramma.

The Jonesboro member that brought these two sisters to the Temple was Sister Jackson. She is a niece of Colleen Winder. (it is a small world)

After the long traffic battle going home, we stopped at Chick-fil-A in Jonesboro and I bought them a very late lunch. Chick-fil-A was started in Jonesboro and the man who started it lived here in a modest home, not far from the railroad station. He passed away just few years ago and his family still own it.

Wednesday was just as crazy. It was transfer day. It wasn't like the good old days when I was a missionary. Then you would get a letter and told what bus ticket to buy and off you went. All the missionaries that are getting transferred, or new companions, or a new leadership assignment, meet in one place, the Whitewater Ward building. Some of the missionaries travel 4 hours to get there. A lot of the missionaries are brought by members or senior couples. So it was for us. The Sisters ask Gramma and I to give them a ride to transfers. Sister Strickland got a new companion, so we had to take Sister Cockrell's luggage there and her new companions luggage back. The new Sister is Sister Schmit, she only has 6 weeks left. They have a short meeting and President Clayton gives out the many changes and introduces the new missionaries to their training companions. It takes about 45 minutes from the Sisters apartment to Whitewater and 45 minutes back. so I planned on a couple of hours to get it all done. With many of the missionaries seeing old companions and old zone and district members there are a lot of sweet hellos and goodbyes. Instead of two hours it took four. The missionaries going home sit in the front of the chapel, they will all be flying home tomorrow. One Elder going home was Elder Briscoe (Claudia and Scott's ward member) and his mom, dad, and brother were there to take him home. That was pretty sweet.

These few picture do not capture the excitement of the all these young missionaries.It is amazing to feel their energy and spirit.

Sister Schmit had a bicycle, but there was no way to get it is the trunk with her 4 large pieces of luggage. One of the Senior couples (Elder and Sister Read) will bring it to the next zone meeting.
By the time we got the Sisters to their apartment and back to ours the day was about gone. Elder Stock was made a zone leader and so we only have two Elders in our Ward now. The bad news about that was they had to take their car and now they have to bike and car-share with the Sisters. This is not a good place to ride a bike on the road. ( people drive like idiots)..  That means we will be doing more taking the Elders  and Sisters to where they need to be. Thursday we tracked down some Ward members  One of them was Lemuel Eubanks, he was not home, but we will try again. Gramma wants to know if he is related to her Eubanks line. We tried to find some old southern gospel song books and having no luck, ordered one on Amazon. It is for our weekly singing at the care center. Thursday night I split with the Elders. During our search in the afternoon we saw a sign that said 6"6 blocks to downtown Res Mill. of course Gramma thought there might be some quaint little shops there. This is what we saw:

Not much of a historic down town. Friday we sang at the care center (much better with Gramma organizing some of the music). That afternoon we picked up the Sisters and one of the ladies they are teaching and drove to Conyers to view a baptism. Because of traffic we had to take a old state road and it took over an hour to get their. We were able to come back on the interstate but it was still busy traffic. The trip was a lot of trouble but it was worth it. This dear sister had seen the Sister missionaries in Khols and she said for some strange reason she waved and they came over to meet her.  She had never seen them before and testified the Lord had inspired her to do it.  She was taught by the sisters and acccepted baptism.

There was about 40 people at the baptism including a dozen that were not members. Saturday Gramma went to a 4 hour relief society "Souper Saturday" and made this pumpkin for the upcoming holiday. There were about 20 ladies there, three of them were not members of the Church.

Saturday night I spent a lot of time texting information to and from the Elders. I called lady that we were asked to contact by another Senior couple because she was moving into or Ward. When I called here she said she had left the new place (a care center) and had been dropped off at a store somewhere. She ask me to call her former Bishop: I did, and he was working on a solution. These poor Bishops have a lot on their plate. Sunday was a busy one. We went to Ward council at 8:15 in the morning and was there through all the other meetings and then had missionary correlation meeting.
We finished at 2:30 took the Elders to their apartment. Gramma found out they didn't have a dinner appointment, (they have forgot to send around their dinner appointment clipboard the past few weeks). Gramma invited them to Sunday dinner and hurried to fix a nice meal while the Elders were teaching in their area. I picked them up a couple of hours later and we had a nice Sunday dinner with Elders Malone and Augir.

We will be having another busy week, we have already been asked to take an Elder from Conyers to a Doctor appointment in Peach-tree City. It will be about 2 hours each way, but he could not find anyone else that could take him. He is also in a bicycle area. So Tuesday afternoon will be busy. It is hard to believe that on Wednesday we will have been out one month. We are busy and enjoying the experience of serving in a ward and with all these young Elders and Sisters. We miss all you and think of you often. You are always in our prayers. The Gospel is true and we are glad that we are healthy enough to be part of this great work.  As they say here in Georgia,"May God bless y'all.".
Grampa and Gramma Hammond