We love Baptisms!

This fun couple comes from Sri Lanka.  They are working here in Georgia.  Thilanka speaks fairly good English and then interprets for her husband Roshan.  They bring a sweet spirit to our Branch!

General Conference

Every 6 months we have General Conference.  It is a great opportunity for us to listen to the Prophet and Apostles speak to us.  Because of the time difference between us and Salt Lake City, we tape the sessions and watch them the next weekend.  On Sunday between sessions we enjoy soup, salad and bread and visiting! Here are some of my favorite people!

E. Offutt, Sis. Leana, Sis Anna (who just adopted a baby girl!) Sis. Sonia

 Godwin - a return missionary from Nigeria, E. Mejia and Dali.

 2 investigators from Rustavi and our newest members !

 Alexandria and all the Rustavi missionaries

Sis. Pratt made the yummy soup and I made my favorite apple, raisin, walnut carrot salad - they were a big hit!  We had Zurra drive us in his marshutka from Rustavi and then he stayed to watch the sessions.   We had 7 investigators come from Rustavi.  It was a great Conference.

Zone Conference

Every couple of months we have Zone Conference when Pres and Sister Carter and the Assistants come and instruct all the missionaries.  On Sept 29 they encouraged us to consecrate ourselves to more fully serving our missions!  It was a great meeting.

Footsteps

We had the missionaries all together in Ortachella.  As we went to leave, we saw all their shoes by the door. Different styles, different missionaries - but all following in the footsteps of the Savior.  They are serving the Lord by walking throughout Georgia and sharing his gospel to all who will listen and come unto Him.

Homes?

As we were walking home from the dam - we saw a mobile home.  We had to laugh and talk about how we could live here after our mission!

 Further on down the road we saw the start of an apartment complex - doesn't it look like a house of cards!?

cows and sheep

The Landlord decided to do some renovations on the doorways of our apartment.  They showed up early one morning and so Elder Reese and I decided to get out of their way.  We walked up to the dam and  saw a herd of cattle going across ...

followed by a flock of sheep!  They were followed by several more groups of cows and sheep.  

It was very interesting to see the weathered old shepherds cracking their whips and moving things along.  They had several BIG and MEAN looking dogs.  They had donkeys with supplies on their backs.

One horse stopped to wait and a small colt came up for a midday snack!  We watched till all were safely across the dam and then headed home.

Pres. Reese's famous cookies

I have been asking the missionaries for their apartment inventory lists for months now.  As a final resort I bribed them with food if they would bring the completed list to district meeting.  They asked for Pres. Reese's chocolate chip cookies.  This was going to be the first time we baked anything in our new apartment.     So E. Reese mixed up the batter and turned on the oven.  There was no way to put the oven on a specific degree, but there was a thermometer on the door.  So he put them in and the oven got hotter - the cookies started to burn - so he opened the door - then got the fan to cool it down faster!  He had to sit there the entire time opening and closing the door, trying to regulate the cooking temperature.  It was truly a labor of love and the cookies turned out great!

Conference in Kiev

All the Humanitarian Couples from East Europe Area met in Kiev for our annual conference.  We stayed in a wonderful hotel, saw lots of sights, had an inspiring conference and ate great food - but - the highlight was going to the temple!!!

We really enjoyed visiting with the other couples - it reminds us that we're not alone and that others are having lots of similar experiences as us.
The city of Kiev is beautiful.  There are lots of water ways and bridges - lots of green.

We found this cute fountain in a park that was designed by Gaudi - we loved his work in Spain

 Beautiful buildings and churches throughout the city.

The food served in the hotel looked amazing - they were all about the presentation.  We had ordered before we came and E. Reese was really looking forward to the chocolate cake.  Here's what came:

 YUCK!!! It tasted terrible - it was not chocolate - he was so disappointed! (but it looked cool!)

 Can't go wrong with ice cream!

Breakfast fruit - didn't even know what some of them were.

This was my favorite shot - loved the building through the flowers!

We really had a great time as we connected with other couples and learned what was needed to be done.

I shower with a Bucket!

As we get use to our new apartment in Rustavi, we realize that some things are different here.  One morning after we had been here a week we found that the water not on!  We went for 2 days with no running water.  Luckily we had several gallons of clean drinking water and we made it work.  The missionaries told us that this was a common occurrence here in Rustavi and that the water was off about once a week.  The biggest problem was the toilet - we didn't want to use our good drinking water to flush and we don't have much space for water bottles - so the solution was a bucket of water in the bathroom.  There is not much floor space there - so - I shower with a bucket of water!!!