"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