Last Sunday we travelled about an hour and a half to the town of Union and spoke there. President and Sister Stowell from Wenatchee are serving there and they wanted us to come up and give talks and have lunch. As you might well imagine, we both gave talks on missionary work. It was a great day and we were able to visit with some of the people of the branch and see new territory. The church building is very small and sits on land outside of town. The branch has 125 members, but most don't come on a regular basis.
On Tuesday, Doyle and I headed for Charleston to pick up 90 chairs from the stake center there. They got new ones and wanted to get rid of the old ones. Together we loaded all of the chairs and were full to capacity! We told facilities maintenance that we needed all of them for missionary apartments. Some of the missionaries saw them when we got back to Columbia and wanted to know how they could get some. We do have a current need, but we will need lots of chairs for new apartments when all of our new missionaries start flooding in. We also had 50 new twin beds delivered on Monday, so needless to say, our storage sheds are very full. Doyle and I will start deliveries this Thursday of the needed furniture items to apartments in Augusta and surrounding areas.
We drove a Chevy Silverado pick up pulling a trailer. The trailer was completely filled top to bottom thanks to Doyle's excellent organizing skills and the bed of the truck was stacked full also. I took a short break to supervise once we arrived back at our storage sheds.
Thursday was our anniversary, so we worked until 2pm and then left for Charleston for a little get-away. Doyle had booked a room right on Folly Beach about 10 minutes from Charleston. What a delightful place. And what an incredible view! We were not disappointed. We took pictures off the balcony as soon as we got there.
This is a view of the hotel from the beach.
For dinner we found a little hole in the wall sushi place. It was more a bar and grill, but she did sushi also. It was a fun place, only a couple of blocks from the hotel and the people were very friendly. She gave us a couple of stickers and I took a picture of them.
Sunrise was most spectacular! I loved watching the dawn of a new day! The next two mornings were not nearly as clear and colorful, so I'm glad I got up and took pictures! For those of you who know me well...early mornings are not my best hours!
First thing Friday morning we went to see an old lighthouse a couple of miles from the hotel, wandered the beach and picked up a few sea shells. We were amazed at the lack of waves here on the Atlantic. Whenever we go to the beach on the west coast, the waves are pretty high, but here it is a gentle rolling in of the sea.
Our next stop of the morning was the Angel Oak Tree. It's on Johns Island a little off the beaten path, but well worth the drive. What an unbelievable tree. One of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. It's between 300-400 years old, 85 feet high, 25.5 feet in circumference and has 17,000 square feet of shade.
While in Charleston we went on a tour of the city, enjoyed the beauty of some of
the very old homes and did a tour of one of them. We went to Battery Park, went to the City Market, ate lunch at Bubba Gumps, seafood of course!
These are some exterior pictures of the house we toured. It is the Edmondston-Alston house and it sits right across from Battery Park with a view of the water and Fort Sumter not too far in the distance. It's not a porch, it's a piazza! They loved them then and they still do here in the south! This house was built in 1825, with the kitchen in a building to the rear of the main house and quarters for the slaves behind that.
Below are pictures of Bubba Gump's where we had lunch. Heavy on the seafood and the hundreds of sauces that can be used. The décor was all about the movie and the memorable lines by Forrest along with the clothes and different props used.
"Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what your gonna get."
On Saturday we went to Fort Sumter where the opening shots of the Civil War were fired in April 1861. This place has fascinating history. It is operated and maintained by the National Park Service and requires a half hour boat ride out to the man-made island where it sits. It was originally 3 stories high, but the shelling during the Civil War reduced it to the one level that can be seen today.
Another work week is right around the corner and we are grateful for the things we have been able to see and do this weekend. We look forward to many more explorations of the old south while we are here. We only scratched the surface in Charleston. We didn't make it to the museum, aquarium, the battleship in the harbor, and so much more. We will be more careful where we park next time. Signs are deceiving and we returned from Ft. Sumter with a ticket on the windshield of the car. I thought...well we already have a ticket so why move? Wrong!!! They issued another ticket every two hours!! We ended up with three of them neatly stacked under the windshield wiper. A valuable lesson...park at the Visitors Center for $10 or less and then take the free trolley! Learned that one to late!
Looks like we are members of a different ward as of today. Boundary adjustments on the wards at home have moved us from Rocky Reach to Eastmont. Not surprising at all. Doyle had mentioned many times that he was just waiting for the lines to be drawn along 15th. Now they are!
Have a wonderful week everyone! We love our mission and we love all of you!
Well they did it. The moved the boundary of the Eastmont Ward to 15th Street. Pres Hunsaker announced it is Sacrement today. The testimonials were tear jerkers. If you check out the directory at lds.org, we are already moved.
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