Grandma & Grandpa Idaho: Beautiful Beginning of Fall

Hi everybody, it's the Tennessee missionaries again,
We have had a good week but the weeks are flying by so fast now. Time seems to be speeding up. We have been serving for 10 months now. It just doesn't seem possible. We are always busy with something or other. I seem to find myself helping with fixing or assembling furniture for the different apartments in the mission or shuttling mission cars here or there along with my regular job of the medical things I do. Mom seems to help with the housing, cleaning or buying supplies for the missionaries along with her regular travel assignments. We both do a lot of different things.
The young sister missionaries who live in our same apartment complex asked us to take them to Gatlinburg, TN on their P-Day. Their P-Day is on Mondays. Ours is on Saturday. So we had to sacrifice ourselves and have an extra P-Day this past week, at least part of the day. We drove the sisters to Gatlinburg at the foot of the Smokey Mountains to Ober Gatlinburg. It is an aerial ski lift tram that goes up to the top of the mountain. It runs all year long. Anyway, we took them and went with them to the top of the mountain. The view was fantastic. We took a few photos and then went back down and took them, along with the Sevierville sisters, to the Chocolate Monkey for an ice cream treat. How fun was that?! Sister Wagner, the blond-haired sister, is going home this coming week to Salt Lake area. She has been a great missionary. She wants me to make her a German chocolate cake for her wedding reception when that happens. Mom and I think she will get married sooner than later although she doesn't admit to any specific young man that is waiting. Sister Miller, the brown-haired sister, will be going home in December. Sister Jarvis is fairly new in the field.
On Tuesday we helped our Mission President's Wife, Sister Griffin, with the lunch at their MLC (mission leadership conference). We served about 40 missionaries. Our main dish was Hawaiian Hay Stacks. They all loved it. Mom and I do a lot of the food prep and serving and clean-up. We also do lunches for NMO (new missionary orientation). We serve lunches to the missionaries on average of once a month. It's fun because we get to eat with them and visit with them and get to know them a little more. I also talk to them about their medical questions too.
Friday afternoon I, along with Elders Cleghorn and Simes, assisted President Griffin with a disciplinary council. One of the missionaries made a serious mistake. While it's not enjoyable, it is a good experience because we see the missionary wanting to repent and get back on track.
We had volunteered to tend kids for a young family in the Ward while they went to Nashville to attend the Temple--the Darin and Rachel Johnston family. They have 3 little boys ages 6, 4, and 3. Darin is a first year oral surgery resident and is not free very often. It did them a lot of good to be able to get away. The boys are Kaden, Griffin, and Andrew. They are rambunctious but we got along OK and stayed overnight with them on Friday night and then all day Saturday. We took them to the park on Saturday for riding their scooters on the path that runs along the Tennessee River. We also fed the ducks and geese in the park. The wind was blowing and we decided that wind is nice to have sometimes. It rarely blows here in Tennessee and we enjoyed it. It keeps one cooler when it's hot. I didn't realize how much I missed the wind.
The last event I'm reporting on is the start of the Ward Choir today under the direction of Cecile. Our Bishop asked us to get the Ward Choir going again. Mom does the directing and I do the e-mailing and reminding to come. We don't have much to report yet because it was our first practice, but Mom did a great job of teaching. We love our Ward here in Tennessee. It's fun to serve in the Ward along with doing all the missionary things.
Have a great week and, be good don't be bad like I used to say all the time.
Love Dad