March - Spring is coming to Georgia!

The Dogwoods are Blooming

This isn't even the best specimen.  See how many blossoms have already fallen off.  It was just convenient - on our way home from church.

Lots more trees and bushes are about to burst open.  We are getting the coldest night of the year, so I hope that won't spoil anything.  We have already had many flowering bushes, that have finished their peak and have dropped their blossoms.  It seems strange to have Spring so early.


Birthday Time

Gabriel, Daryn and Aileen's little son turns five March 8th.

They live in Calgary, Alberta.  We don't get to see him very often, but we love his bursts of enthusiasm, and his desire to learn new things. We are glad his other Grandparents are near by to spoil him, and do so many things with him..  Happy Birthday dear Gabe!  We love you!


Tracking Down Unseen Members

We have spent much of the week finding ward members that have moved in or have left without leaving a forwarding address.  We are trying to do a thorough job, so others will not have to follow up with the same people.  We go to the address we have on the ward list - most of the time the people have been gone a long time.  We check with their neighbors, check all the local directories, talk to land lords.  It is rather interesting, and sometimes we rediscover someone.

Tonight we talked to a young black fellow who has moved down here from Pennsylvania.  He is a member; his wife is not.  She is in school to be a medical assistant.  She knows our little Josefine who went to the Temple last week with us. (Small world aye?)  He is looking for work remodeling houses or something in that line. It just happens that our ward mission leader is in construction - his Dad owns the company that he works for.  We are hoping to get something connected up.

To find them, we had to track them from an apartment complex to a tiny house on Cypress.  There are several streets named Cypress is different parts of the county.  It took us three tries to get the right one and coordinate a meeting.  It is always a treat to meet new people, and invite them to our meetings.  We hope they will come.  They are such a nice young couple.  If they don't come Sunday, we have good reason to send in our mission leader -  hopefully with job prospects.

We have found ten or so just this week that definitely don't live at their old address or any we can track down.  I think we have fifty or more like that on our list.  People are so transient these days.  We don't want any to get lost.

Doug's Birthday

Thanks for all the happy greetings.  It was one of our busiest days.  We read scriptures with our little Diane; then Doug spent the whole afternoon from 12:30 to 6:30 going home teaching with one of the men in the ward who was anxious to see his people even when his companion was not available.  Any of you have eight people you are responsible for?  They loved the time together.  After, we had an appointment and then planned to go out for dinner for his birthday.  We ended up having soup in our own cozy, warm kitchen, a fitting ending for a special day!

You would be amazed at how well Doug is doing here health-wise.  Of course we know it is a special blessing.  But I tease him that maybe we need to get rid of his big chair at home, where he takes little naps throughout the day.  There is nowhere comfortable to sit here, so we just study at our desks and get back out to work.  The time goes quickly.