This morning as we readied ourselves to go do apartment inspections, we decided to get the laundry started. Elder Gowans noticed water coming from under the kitchen counter and as he walked around to see where the water was coming from, he saw that the entire kitchen, dining area and laundry was flooded. The drain hose from the washer had some how or another come out of its hole and the entire contents of water was spilled all over the floor. Needless to say, we didn't go inspect apartments, but rather we spent the next 2 1/2 hours sucking up water with our little carpet cleaning machine. We did learn later that two of the Elders were sick at their apartment with the flu or broncitis or other nasty stuff that we didn't need to get exposed to.

This evening, we had a real nice visit with the Amidan family. We have really enjoyed having them here with us at Fort Gordon. They are the family that just blessed their baby two weeks ago. We had a nice visit getting to know each other better and learning about their desires for the future. Their little gal is still so small, she is only a little over 7 pounds at 2 months old.

Tomorrow morning we will get out and inspect apartments.

We have had a most productive day! Beginning this morning with our service at the Post Library, Sister Gowans helped out with the children's reading program and Elder Gowans inventoried DVDs. They have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3600 DVDs; we've probably gone through 3/4 of them. Next will be the CDs.

This afternoon, after lunch, we went to visit Sister Malcom. Her husband was unable to find work in the U.S. so he took a job with the Government over in Afghanistan. He has been working there now for 4 years or so. She is home nearly all the time by herself. He is able to return home only a short time each year. Obviously, she is lonely and wishes her husband could be home with her 100% of the time. They have a big beautiful home, but unfortunately, he is unable to enjoy it.

After our visit with her, we dropped in on Sister Stott. He husband has now been gone around 6 months. She spent the holidays in the DR with her family and returned just last week. She and the girls are doing well. From there we went on Post to visit Brother Green and Brother Bryson. We found them both well also. They are both here for training and will be here around 4 months.

We also had the opportunity to catch up with two new AIT students, Sisters Nielson and Sellers. Both just arrived this past weekend. We dropped them off a memorandum to get them permission to attend Stake Conference, which will be off post at the Stake Center. We enjoyed meeting them and hope that we will be able to serve them well.

This evening we had a very important and productive visit with the Sanders family. They had been given some bad information, propaganda if you will, concerning the church, which they had been struggling with. We also helped her understand better the experience she had while at the temple a while back, before their baby was born. We left them with 3 important commitments, Study the Book of Mormon, Pray and Obey; this was President Hinckely's formula to build faith. We hope they will keep these commitments. We love them so much and pray that they will stay strong, active and committed to keeping their covenants.

Our newly weds had to say goodbye last night, so this morning, Elder Gowans took Brother Priddy to the airport. Sister Priddy has about 6 weeks left in her training before she will join him at Fort Riley, KS.

After returning home, we decided to go see a few things that we hadn't yet visited. Our first stop was the Walton home. George Walton was one of three signers of the Declaration of Independence from the state of Georgia. The home was always in the name of his son in case something should ever happen to him, that way they would never lose the home. Here are some photos of the home, I believe the tour guide said it was the oldest home in Augusta.

 Our photo in front of the house

 I think you would agree it is a nice looking home

 

Our tour guide telling us to duck as we go under the porch to get into the basement

 The back of the house with a bell in the foreground and a model of the home on the back porch

After visiting the Walton home, we drove to see a large Catholic church in the downtown area, but it was closed. So we drove across the street for a little lunch and then we drove down broad street to see the memorial for the Confederate war soldiers. From there we visited the grave site and memorial for two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Nation Guard memorial. 

 The monument stands, I would guess, 50 feet tall; I've taken pictures all around it so you can see all the different carvings. 

 Across the street from the Memorial is the Imperial Theater where we watched the Nutcracker for the last two Christmases. 

 Below is the monument to the three signers of the Declaration of Independence from Georgia. 

 Below is the Nation Guard monument 

From here we went to St. Paul's Episcopal church and cemetery. It is the oldest cemetery in Augusta with graves as old as the 1500s, at least that was what we were told; the oldest we saw was 1793. The site used to be Fort Augusta and Fort Cornwallis.

 You will notice that most of the grave sites, tombstones and so forth are not kept up at all. They are all in a state of decay. You would think that someone would take some action to keep them taken better care of. 

From this point, we drove to the Magnolia Cemetery. What an incredible place! After seeing this cemetery you can tell why cemeteries have a bad reputation for being spooky! I'd hate to be in this place at night. The monuments are incredible; there are Jewish sections, Civil war sections for both Confederate and Yankee dead. There are large family plots and so forth. 

 This series of photos are headstones of civil war dead. It appears that some family members of replaced the small head stones with larger newer ones. 

 A close up example of how simple they are.

 From these couple of photos, you can see how large the cemetery is.

 Below is a group of Civil war Brigader General's gravesites.

 Above is the Yankee dead

 Below is an interesting family plot

 Above, I thought these were interesting grave sites and below this Jewish family all had crowns engraved on their stones. 

 Below is some examples of the direpair many are falling into

 Below is another Jewish sector

 Above is the inside of the mosalium; there were 8 tombs inside

Below is a video of the cemetery and Sister Gowans feeding our little grandchildren.