This morning, we attended our Zone Conference up at the Stake Center. It was a combined Zone Conference, our Zone and the North Augusta Zone. President Cottle spoke a great deal in regards to being trustworthy, and being strictly obedient to the rules of the mission, as they are established to protect and bless us. Our Zone Leaders instructed the missionaries on keeping good and accurate records of their work.

At the conclusion of the conference, we had to dash home to prepare for Institute. This evening, we discussed section 133 of the Doctrine and Covenants, which is also known as the appendix. We compared and contrasted it to the preface of the Doctrine and Covenants, which of course is section 1. From these two sections we can ascertain the purpose of this wonderful volume of scripture: To raise the voice of warning and to prepare a people for the second coming of Jesus Christ. We had a good turnout this evening, we love these young men and women who have committed themselves to come out.

Here are some photos from today's conference.

 Relief Society Sisters prepared us a very nice lunch.

 Milling around and visiting after lunch and before our afternoon meetings.

 Elder Judson, front left. 

 Two lovely sisters

 Elder Eklof front right, with Elder Spencer in the back waving goodbye, he has about 3 weeks left on his mission. 

 Elder Spence up close

 Oops, Elder Meacham is just scratching his head.

 Elder Webb and Elder Newman, our Spanish speaking Elders.

 Elder Judson and Elder Hatch, they are our District leaders.

 Sister Price and Sister Wood, our only sisters in our zone, the Augusta Zone. 

The North Augusta Zone.

This morning, we had a nice visit with Adam; we missed him last week as he was on a little vacation. We love you Adam!

We were able to attend the graduation of Brother Kiriyama who was here attending the Basic Officer Leadership Course. He was a nice young man and will miss seeing him at church; he had decided to attend the Augusta ward rather than the Branch; so we only saw him periodically. We wish him the best.

Brother Kiriyama

This afternoon, we were all set to go to the graduation of several of our AIT students. The graduation was to be held yesterday afternoon, but with the snow and ice they postponed it until today; then suddenly we get a text saying it was cancelled and all the students were being released to head to their next assignment. So we missed getting photos of several of our students.

This evening, we attended the baptism of an 8 year old boy. Gavin Campell. We have developed a wonderful friendship with the Campbell family and were happy to be able to attend his baptism. Many other friends and family were there.

 The Dixon Family

 John Estep

 The boys serving donuts after the baptism; the little boy, second from the left, by the boy with the hat is Gavin Campbell who was baptized. His mother has her back to the photo.

Some of the crowd waiting for their donut or rootbeer. 

We were stuck in doors most of the day. A little snow and the whole community shuts down. We think we had a total accumilation of 2 inches. We don't know what they would do if they lived in Utah or some other area where snow comes much deeper than what they had here. Of course they have nothing to remove it with nor do they have any salt or sand trucks.

This morning, we did a lot of administrivia, catching up on things that needed our attention. We worked on Friday's Institute lesson and next week's as well. So, we try to be productive and use our time wisely.

This evening, however, we were able to get out to see Brother and Sister Halford; they've been sick with the flu and are just now feeling better. We had a nice visit with them and hope they continue to feel better in the days ahead.

The weather forcast for the day was a mixture of rain and sleet. As we arose this morning, we had a plan for the day, we checked outside, it was only cloudy. So we proceeded on with our plan. We finished up our apartment inspections with our own district missionaries. Our last visits was to the Zone Leaders. As we visited with them for a few minutes, we counseled them to discuss a matter with the mission leadership to place on their checklists a monthly check of their smoke alarms and CO2 detecters. No where on the checklists does it mention anything about the CO2 detecters. Also, there was no mention to check for a fire extinguisher or to ensure that the pressure indicator was in the green; so that needed to be added also. We told them that as they begin families that this would be something that they do in their own homes. When we inspected the Sister's apartment, we found the CO2 detecter to be dead. We ended up buying them new batteries and a small phillips screw driver to to open up the battery case.

After our inspections were finished, we drove up to Post, still no rain or sleet. We went up to the Friendship chapel to wait for our 1100 appointment with Brother Daley. While we waited, Sister Gowans practised the piano and Elder Gowans studied from the Joseph Fielding Smith Priesthood Manuel. Just before 1100, we drove over to the Academy where Brother Daley is billited. We found him at home and had a nice visit with him.

At the conclusion of our visit, we drove to the PX where we met up with the Esteps and had a nice lunch together of Churches Fried Chicken. We had a nice visit together and from their the ladies went shopping and President Estep and Elder Gowans went to their monthly Chaplains' meeting.

At the conclusion of the meeting, we all headed home. We stopped by Sam's to pick up a few items and by now there was a little drizzle, not much, but we could tell the storm was getting closer. After returning home and after our supper, we checked outside again and found that it was beginning to rain, so we decided to post pone tonight's visit with the Halfords until tomorrow, just in case the rain turned to sleet and then to snow. Not that we don't trust our driving in such conditions, it is the Georgians we do  not trust.

We were back at the hospital this morning for our Red Cross service. Nothing much exciting there! It is good go be able to serve those who need the help; they are always very appreciative of the service rendered.

This afternoon, we worked on Friday's institute lesson; this one is a little more involved than others, it has taken a lot of preparation, but we think we have it the way the Lord would want it. It will cover sections 116 and 133. We will be focusing on the second coming of Christ.

This evening, we had an enjoyable FHE. Sister Lonsberry was the only soldier who came out today; something must have come up to keep the others away, otherwise they would have come out. Sister Estep cooked up a big pot of chilli, we brought the leftover oatmeal bars; we all ate very well. In her lessons, Sister Estep has been covering Christ-like attributes. We have studied Faith, Hope and Charity.

Today was Stake Conference Sunday. We attended the conference with the Augusta ward in the Augusta bulding. It was a regional conference, which combined 48 Stakes throughout Florida, Georgia and parts of South Carolina. It was broadcast from Orlando, Florida. Elder Russel M. Nelson presided at the conference and two other General Authorities and area authorities were present as well. We also enjoyed having Sister McConkie of the General Young Women's Presidency. After the conference ended we drove up to post where President Estep had prepared the conference for us to view during our normal church hours.

Sister Gowans and I had already made two appointments with two families in Grovetown during the afternoon hour since we thought we would all be going to the Stake Center to view the conference as normal, but things happened, which allowed us to tape the conference and then show it at our normal time. We also understand that there has been some change of rules about the AIT students going off post; they may now need to be in teams of three. If that is the case, then very few of our soldiers would  have been able to go.

After our appointments we headed back to the Friendship Chapel and joined a few of our soldiers still lingering around. Once they all left, we drove over to see the Johnson's for our weekly visit with them. We discussed with them the importance of making sacrifices.

Tomorrow is Elder Spencer's 21st birthday, so we all met up at the Meachams' apartment to sing happy birthday to him and enjoy donuts and ice cream; since we are still dieting, we didn't induldge.

It was so cold this morning that we decided not to go up to Post and visit our AIT students. We would have had to invite them to stand out in 19 degree weather with a wind over 10 miles an hour. So who knows what the wind chill was! Fortunately, we have been able to visit with each one during the month on previous Saturdays or Sundays.

It is Stake Conference weekend! This afternoon President Estep and I attended priesthood leadership meeting. Then this evening we met up with our wives to watch the Saturday evening session of conference at the Friendship chapel with our AIT students and others; unfortunately, the portal over which it was streamed was blocked by the post firewall so we couldn't watch it. We ended up haveing a nice two hour visits with everyone.

This morning, we arose and left early so that we could inspect a few of our missionary's apartments. We first drove out to Grovetown and from there to Harlem and finally finishing up with Thomson. Thomson is about a 30 minute drive for us. We decided while there to visit two historical sites. Both sites have to do with Thomas E. Watson a former candidate for President and Vice President of the United States and former US Senator of the Populist Party. We visited three of his homes; his birth place home was moved to his Hickory Hill property some time ago. Here are some photos of the place:

His home when born

This was his home in 1881 to 1890

 After selling the above property, Mr. Watson moved here to Hickory Hill. It is a beautiful home. 

 The entry way

 Beautiful handcrafted flooring

 The room through the arch was at one time an aviary. 

 When sinks were first placed in doors with running water, the faucets were right down on the sink top used simply to fill the basin. Then the user would wash up as he had done when he only had a bowl and a jug of water. It wasn't until much later when someone had the idea to wash under the running water. 

From Hickory Hill, we went back to Harlem to visit the Laurel and Hardy museum. Here are a few of the paintings, sketches, toys and other fun things that were produced from this wonderful comedy team. 

From there we went to see a man's own personal car museum; the incredible thing is all the cars were made by him and nearly every detail on the car is made from wood. He is a true genius.

 Outside the car museum. 

 Remember, everything is made of wood.

 Even the hubcap

 Even the engine!

 Even the tires

 This is a radiator, yes, all made from wood! Can you believe the detail and accuracy? 

 His daughter's dollhouse. All hand crafted, can't really see the details here. 

This evening, we had another great institute lesson covering the first 24 verses of section 132. We continued our discussion on law and the conditions of the law that must be obeyed if we desire our exaltation! We have had a very enjoyable day.