Heavenly Father Loves All of His Children

I had one of those "tender mercy" experiences today when I was asked to look over a gentleman's resume as he had an interview later in the afternoon. It was a highly technical resume and he mentioned that someone in this office awhile back had recommended a book to him called, Ace the IT Resume which he used. Guess who that someone was?! How he organized and presented the material made perfect sense for his situation, but not the way we ordinarily construct a resume. We made one minor change and he was off, but not before he looked at my name tag and remembered I was the one who recommended the book. After he left I went back to check the notes on his account, and sure enough, there was a note I had entered June 23 with the title of the book. Now those of my family members who are reading this will readily agree that I have trouble remembering things....especially after I sleep on them. I do remember however, recommending that book, as I had JUST learned about it that day. Had I learned about it say two weeks earlier there was a good chance I would not have remembered it. Heavenly Father was watching out for Brother Murphy and today he was giving me a sweet experience that reassures me that really all He needs is a warm body and He will do the rest. He loves His children!

A Humbling and Sad Last Few Days

Thursday when my immediate supervisor, Karen Findlay arrived home from work, she found her husband had passed away. She is broken-hearted and so are we. Although he has been ill for a long time, and has been in unrelenting pain for just as long, it was still truly unexpected for her. Saturday morning she and her son (newly called Branch President) and her daughter (newly hired as a Counselor at a private facility in Boston) went to the temple together. She emailed this morning and said she is just beginning to feel a measure of peace, barely. She said something that several other people have mentioned to Sister Peterson and myself, that I had not thought of, and that was that perhaps one reason we were called to this mission was that Heavenly Father knew one of our colleagues would need us for having gone through this experience ourselves. This must make Karen feel very loved by her Heavenly Father, and that is the way He loves and cares for us all. I am so grateful.

The Plantation at Stone Mountain

Saturday morning after attending the 9:00 session of the temple, since it was cool, and since it was our P-Day, and since we have season passes to Stone Mountain, we went to see the Plantation on site. There was a great deal more to see than just the Plantation House - very enjoyable!
This is the Plantation House, the Dickey house, which was moved to this site along with all of the other buildings. They removed all of the porches and stairs, divided the house into four pieces and then moved it. Quite a feat. It is a beautiful home and has over 6200 square feet.

Instructions for greeting the animals. Another sign says that if you have been out of the country in the last five days, you have to take extra precautions so as to not give the animals hoof and mouth disease.

This is the upstairs dining room of the Dickey House. Notice anything unusual about the mirror on the wall? It is convex so as to reflect more of the candlelight around the room.

This child's toy horse is actually covered in horse hide and comes off of its base to roll around on wheels.

These are marbles in a slave's cabin which was not much larger than the doctor's, although a great deal more sparse.


This is the log cabin belonging to Dr. Powell whose daughter, Amanda was the basis for Margaret Mitchell's Scarlet O'Hara in 'Gone With The Wind". Sister Peterson and I are eager to go to the Mitchell Museum and see if we can learn more.

A Marvelous Hour Together

Bonnie, McKay, Carter, Chloe and Quinn flew through Atlanta on Saturday, July 9th, so Sister Peterson and I were able to get a gate pass and spend some time with them before they flew on to Washington. It was wonderful watching THEM walk through the gate....it seems like six months have passed since I have seen them...oh, it was great! I saw a fun slide show of their time at the OBX with their good friends, the Blakes. They even brought me birthday fudge! Chad and Caitlin flew out separate from the family so I missed seeing them. I have a question? AM I SHRINKING???

Treasure #25

I can hardly believe this little one is going to be over a year old the first time I get to cuddle him...if he will even let me by the time he is walking/running around the house! He bested his daddy in the weight department: 9 lbs. 13 oz. to his dad's 9 lbs. 9 ozs. Way to go Reese! Way to go Dani! Way to go dear family!

The Fourth of July

Sister Peterson and I volunteered to help in the Bishop's Storehouse this morning. This is the sight that greeted us when we pulled into the parking lot. This is one long building that houses, starting at the far end in the picture, CES, Family Services, then us, the Employment Resource Center, then the Bishop's Storehouse. It seems that sometime over the weekend an 18 wheeler turned into our parking lot and hit a water hydrant somehow. I suppose there were tracks or some kind of evidence that led the director to that conclusion. The CES and Family Services portions of the building are flooded, but the rest of us are alright, gratefully. With all of this sand coming up from underground the concern is for sinkholes, so we will see what happens from here. It was a pleasure working with pleasant people this morning and there will be some happy people in Alabama when their month's supply of food rolls into town tomorrow.
Dr. Basra invited Sister Peterson and myself to go see the Hindu mandir which was built in 2007 not far from our apartment. We had to take a rain check as Karen Findlay, our immediate supervisor invited us over for dinner today. It was very nice to meet her husband, Jay and their son and daughter-in-law, Josh, Natalie and baby Joshua. Jay was a rancher for 30 years, a stunt man, a bull rider, and now has 66 surgeries under his belt. He is in constant pain and we feel so badly for him. He is a gentleman and a doting grandpa. He was the Director of Temporal Affairs for the church for many years before he had to take a medical retirement at age 56. Karen is simply an amazing woman who takes good care of him, works, and keeps everything humming while being a loving grandmother and supportive of her son and daughter-in-law. It was a delicious meal and so nice to be in a family home again. It is thundering and lightening outside, so I don't know how many fireworks are going to be going off tonight. I love my country and am grateful to be living in a land of liberty.

Enjoying Our Fellow Residents at the Bar-b-que

After attending the temple at 9 a.m. Sister Peterson and I ran a few errands and then went to the Apartment's First Annual Resident Bar-b-Que. We volunteered as servers and were able to meet everybody who stopped by for a hamburger or a hot dog. These are our two handymen, Walter and Fred. We were able to clear up some misconceptions with one lady who thought we were similar to the Amish. She wants to go to Salt Lake and see how the Mormons live and meet some of them. We told her she already knows two! After three hours we started to wilt a bit so we called it an afternoon and headed for our cool apartment. Dr. Basra dropped a DVD off at our office about three brothers who were raised separately by a Hindu, a Christian and a ???????? We watched it with English subtitles and enjoyed the storyline, recognizing it was the strong family theme that made Dr. Basra feel we would like it. After dinner we went to the church for a baptism but realized the message that came to me through a Relief Society email was for a baptism in my home ward!!! Oh, dear, it seems we got all dressed up just to pick up our mail! There was the very nice birthday package from Marissa and family! Rory called today and Hudson "talked" to me a little bit. Marissa had sent me an email about Celestial Education for our children as opposed to the public school system. Since it is P-day, I watched half of the video and found it most enlightening. Also in the birthday package Marissa sent was a ticket for me for $70. I remember the situation with my being from out of state and not knowing the area, I pulled out of a turn lane only, into a straight through lane so I wouldn't be forced to enter the freeway. Caught on camera! Don't they realize people from out of state do silly things like that? There wasn't any traffic coming! I got an email from President Satterfield letting all the missionaries know Elder Ballard is coming to our mission in August!

A Day of Surprises

For being on the other side of the country far from my family on my birthday it was a wonderful day which actually began the day before with a card and call from Natalie . She called me again first thing birthday morning....a very nice way to start the day. I found a card from my ERC friends under my laptop before I left work yesterday and this morning I found a card and gift card from Sister Peterson to Applebee's. Such fun! It was a normal busy day at the ERC but I did find three people who had gotten jobs, so, Happy Birthday to me...one of the best gifts. I was working with one of my favorite candidates, Geizi, when I saw Brother Hainey walk in with a watermelon which I thought was strange since Friday he and his wife are off! A few minutes later my companion told me the office was waiting for me for a surprise birthday party! I had to explain to Geize why I had to cut short our time. This picture includes Paul Hainey, Karen Findlay, the birthday girl, Sister Peterson, Barry Carson, Fran Hainey (foreground), Jacqueline Lovel-Lantz, Melaney, and in the photo, my supervisor, Daryl Blount. I had no picture of his daughter, Kelley who is a volunteer and just an A+ girl. Karen made a delicious pound cake and Jacqueline furnished the cut up fresh fruit, and of course...Elder Hainey brought the watermelon! There was a phone call for me during the festivities.....when I picked up the phone it was Daryl and Kelley singing Happy Birthday to me! Sister Peterson and I worked until 5 and then went to Applebee's for dinner. Near the end of my meal the waitress said someone wanted to pay for my meal! It was one of those twilight zone type feelings as I looked around the restaurant. Who here could possibly 1. Know it was my birthday and 2. Want to pay for my dinner?! It turns out that Geize was there for dinner and saw me come in. Hence the picture below of sweet Geizi.

This is Geizi Almazan-Sanabria, and she doesn't know it yet, but she is going to be a Primary President, a Young Women's President, and a Relief Society President. She lives very close to Heavenly Father through prayer, scriptures and obedience. Today she accepted a Book of Mormon. It is so clearly evident how Heavenly Father is orchestrating her life and bestowing many blessings on her including a good man for her husband. She knows how to determine what is truth and what she should let go of, so I am expecting the spirit will witness to her of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as she reads it. Geizi has her MBA and is working towards her CPA so she can have her own business, have children and be home with them most of everyday. It is such a privilege to know her.

My surprises continued as we arrived home and I found a package from Rory and Cambria. It is official....I am truly a missionary as I got a care package!!! It had some chocolate!, a box of granola, a beautiful candle in blue blown glass to remind me of the ocean, some blue dishtowels, and a glorious photo frame with three pictures of Hudson, one of which is with Cambria! Adorable! I also received letters and notes from the Robertsons and from the Creers, along with a gift card to Target. The Creers also called and left me a message singing Happy Birthday. Derek called that evening and Dani texted. Today from Marissa and family I got a beautiful framed picture of the children taken at Howard Amon along with snowflake pictures. Chad texted saying Bonnie and children would be in the ATlanta airport next SAturday with a layover. We will be there! Sister Satterfield, the mission president's wife called and left me the nicest message...makes time for the individual missionary. I have felt very blessed by family and friends.