"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.