Plains Georgia

It has been a very eventful week. Last blog we showed the pictures of our  Zone conference and the visit from Elder Montoya of the Seventy on Monday. A great way to start the week. Because of the conference being on P-Day we took our P-Day on Friday ( discussed later).   Wednesday we had District Council in the Stockbridge building.  Elder Jackman from Springville, Utah gave us a lesson focusing on goals.  He showed us his method of writing goals on Pokemon cards and posting them on his board to see them every day.  We were each given a pack of "new" Pokemon cards and to pick out one to write our goals upon.  I think the group was entertained as well as encouraged to really focus on important goals in the mission.  Elders and Sisters are still "kids" and do love to get together sharing unique personalities in the process.  That evening we had Bible study at the church and Elder Hammond and I and Sister Palmer were the only ones who attended.  Towards the end of the discussion a homeless man showed up and had been directed to find a Brother Kershaw (Bishop's counselor) to help him.  He had been living in a home with broken windows and no heat and he needed someone to take him to his sister's home.  He was also very hungry.  Luckily Brother Kershaw was there to help him and we left him the entire plate of cookies we had brought for the gospel study.  When we walked out the door the plate was almost empty.  I was sorry we had not brought a roast and potatoes. 

Tuesday and Thursday we did some ward contacting, but not many were home. We did finally catch Uta and Gerald at home. They have been out of of the area and have had more than their share of health problems. He has surgery on the 31st of this month and we will be going over to give him a blessing between now and then. Friday we left at 8:00 and two hours later we were in Americus where we met Ben. It rained very hard most of the way, but after we met up with Ben things improved. He had been in Tallahassee and driven two hours from there. He was a little disappointed in the results of the rejection of his presentation, but it may be a blessing because he already has so much work to do, and the subject desired did not coincide with his artistic depiction.  Americus is one of the most southern parts of our mission and they have many more people that speak with a southern drawl. One of our first stops in Plains, Georgia was the Baptist Church where  President Jimmy Carter still teaches Sunday school.

It wasn't a very big church, I was impressed with how humble a building it was. We then went to their house. It is behind a fence and there is security. In this picture if you look into the trees you can see a little of the house.

The town of Plains is very small and humble. I took some pictures of main street and the train station where Jimmy Carter announced and begin his campaign for president in 1976.

We were in one of the main street shops and we were told that if we wanted to see the Carters they were eating in the only Cafe there. We saw the daughter Amy Carter as she came out of the back room to get a soda out of the machine, but the President and his wife were in the back room. The security people had taken them in the back room through another door. The cafe security cameras showed the back room so I took a picture of it. The picture has a glare where the President is sitting and Rosalyn is at the opposite end of the table in the red and blue sweater.  Later while Ben and Gramma were in the shops I met Amy on the street and said, "Hello, how are you doing". She responded, "Thank you, I am fine". Sorry didn't get a picture.

We left Plains and went to show Ben Andersonville Prison National Park. It is still hard to imagine the terrible conditions of all prisoners of war.  Ben took some pictures of the sculptures on Many of the monuments. The Christmas reefs were still on the graves from Christmas.

That afternoon we went back to Americus and Gramma and Ben went to some of the downtown stores. We stopped at a historic hotel that was on the Nation's Historic Registry. It is a functioning Best Western-Plus hotel. We had dinner at the downtown Farmhouse Barbecue. Highly recommended. It was recommended by a returned missionary who had served in Australia in 1976.  He had a companion in the MTC who was from Blackfoot, but couldn't remember his name.  When one sees your name tag and they are a member, then a conversation is initiated. 

We spent the night at the Hampton Inn, continued to have a good visit with Ben, had a late breakfast and headed our separate ways. We headed back to Atlanta and Ben to the Tallahassee airport. We got back with time to get organized before picking up the Sisters to take them to dinner with Brother Hellesoe. It was Sonny's Barbecue and sorry Ben, it was much better.

 Brother Hellesoe is so generous. He always takes the Elders and Sisters along with many of his ministering families. John, on the end is deaf and is Brother Hellesoe's ministering companion.   We had the best Sacrament meeting on music and Brother Hellesoe was one of the speakers. I had to take Gramma a little early to teach her Sunday piano student because I had to drive to Riverdale to pick up a recently baptized young man who had moved from Virginia and needed a ride to church.
Later that afternoon we took the Sisters to a farewell of one of the Ward's oldest members. She was in the Ward in the 60's and now in her eighties is moving to Florida to be near one of her sons. Her husband passed away a few years ago and had served as Stake President at one time. Brother Hellesoe was there playing his hymn arrangements on his keyboard (he is Samoan) and the sisters had a mission violin and played some hymns as well.There are a lot of stalwart members that have an extensive history with the Church here in the Jonesboro Ward. We have another busy week coming up and are looking forward to new experiences. We miss and love all of you and ask the Lord to continue to bless you. Love y'all, Grandpa and Gramma Hammond