Week 2 - 4/23-29/17

Everyone is pretty much settled in their new or last year's homes.  Except us, of course.  We still say that we are the only ones on our mission who are serving from home.  That is because we have been living in our RV for over 10 years.  Yes, we are spoiled!  It didn't take us long to "pack up and set up."

We all attend the 9:00 Church meetings at the three buildings in Evanston Stake.  They are different wards from the ones we went to last year.  Everyone seemed happy to have us there.  We had our first potluck dinner together after Church.  We usually have one every Sunday.  

Some of us got together in the evening to play games and eat snacks.   

What a great couple of days we had with our Area Authority Seventy over our mission, Elder Mark Durham.  Each missionary couple got to visit with him and his wife.  

We had a a special Family Home Evening with Elder & Sister Durham.  He gave us some very special blessings.  He told us that if we would look for some of our ancestors on TREK this year, we would feel them with us.  With the Durhams in the middle, we are Elders & Sisters McDowell, Wilson, Feler, Barton, Clark, Anderson, Call, Ekins, Howard, Peart, and Moretti.

The Evanston Stake President and Sister Lester and his counselor, President and Sister Platt also attended our Family Home Evening.  They bore their testimonies.  They are such great people.  Also at the meeting, some of the new missionaries told a little about themselves. We have such a great group this year.

Elder Dennis & Sister Jan Peart, our Directors and 3rd year missionaries, from Heber, UT.

Elder Bob & Sister Debra Barton, 2nd year missionaries, from Mesa, AZ.

Elder David & Sister Linda Ekins, 2nd year missionaries, from Hinckley, UT

Elder Spencer & Sister Gaylene Call, 2nd year missionaries, from Spanish Fork, UT.

Elder Terry & Sister Susan Howard, 2nd year missionaries, from Emmett, ID.

(We are not too good at selfies.)

Elder Larry & Sister Margery Clark, 1st year missionaries, from Midway, UT.

Elder Mark & Sister Marcia Wilson, 1st year missionaries, from Bloomington, ID.

Elder Jack & Sister Carolyn Theler, 1st year missionaries, from Draper, UT.

Elder Butch (Oliver) & Sister Barbara Moretti, 1st year missionaries, from Lyman, WY.

Elder John & Sister Jeanene McDowell, 1st year missionaries, from Mesa, AZ.

Elder Chris & Sister Renee Anderson, 1st year missionaries, from Heber, UT.

Elders Howard, McDowell, and Barton talking over some of the assignments given the first day of our work week.

The handcarts are one of the priorities.  Without them we couldn't have treks!  Besides that, some of them are stored in the Trek Center and are in the way of some of the other projects that need to be done.  I really enjoy working on them.  Partly because the Trek Center is heated, and it is pretty cold outside this time of year!

Sisters McDowell, Wilson, and Moretti got their first experience tightening bolts and screws, and checking wheels and boxes on the handcarts.  They are such good workers!

Sisters Ekins and Barton doing some of the repair work on the handcarts.

Sister Anderson . . .

. . . and Sister Theler spent a lot of time organizing all of the tools, nuts & bolts, and everything else piled on the workbench.  It will be so nice to be able to find the things we need.  I am sure it will be a big help to the Elders.  They were given a very nice request that they be sure to put things back where they belong so the next person can find them!

Elder Howard, in his fancy new bibs, as one of the mechanics, got busy right away!

It kind of looks as if Elder Moretti is the worker and Elder Howard is the supervisor!  Smart move, Elder Howard.  I do know better, though, because I can tell he spends plenty of time on the floor under those vehicles because I have to wash his bibs several times a week!

The birds are trying to let us know that spring is coming.  We had our camp chairs under our slide for a week or so.  When Elder Howard pulled one out, it had a bird's nest built on the top of it.  It is a good thing there weren't any eggs in it yet or we would not be able to use it for a while.

Whoops!  Did I say spring was coming?  

We had quite a few carts stored out in front of the Trek Center because the ground is too wet to take them to the staging areas yet.  Now they have to dry out!

Trying to finish up the last of the carts with Sisters Barton, Howard, Clark, McDowell, and Wilson.  It seemed like Christmas!

Saturday was a cold day at the ranch so we left and found warmer weather down in Salt Lake City.  It had been about 25 years since we had been through a session in the Salt Lake Temple (as we were taking Shay to the MCT for his mission.)  We talked a young photographer into taking our picture.  She was probably there to take some wedding pictures, but she was so nice to spend some time taking ours.

After the session we all went down to the cafeteria and ate lunch.  In the Salt Lake Temple there are people who act out the story of the creation, where it is a film in other temples.  The brother who played the part of Satan stopped by our table in the cafeteria and we told him that we had enjoyed the session with him in it.  He just laughed and said, "You would never imagine that I am a Stake Patriarch, would you!"

I love this picture with Moroni up in the clouds.

Elder Howard and I stepped inside the Conference Center--the first time we have been in it.  It is really nice.  That is where all of the Church's General Conference meetings are held, in April and October.  Some day we will have to go there to see conference, instead of watching it on TV.

Week 1 - 4/17-22/17

We have been "inactive" missionaries now for about 8 months and are so excited about going back to Deseret Land & Livestock Trek Mission.  Our mission is located on the Deseret Land & Livestock Ranch near Woodruff, Utah (right on the Wyoming boarder.)  We served there last April-August, leading the youth on pioneer handcart treks. 

These treks can cause mighty changes in the lives of those involved, including us missionaries.  Because of that, I am sure Satan works hard to prevent them.  We had several things happen that made it a little more difficult to get to our mission this year. 

We had heavy snowfall in our hometown of Emmett, Idaho, this winter.  Because of this, we had the roof come down on our storage shed while we were wintering in Arizona.  Thank goodness we had built a loft inside that held the roof from coming down on some of our "treasured possessions."

Besides our little pontoon fishing boat that our whole family enjoys every summer, and an old Mustang car that my mom gave Elder Howard years ago (that he insists he is going to restore one day,) we have two special little mini-trucks that we brought home from our mission last year.  We would have been so sad to have lost them. 

So, we ended coming home early and had a new shed built, with lots of help from friends and family as we took on the job of tearing the old one down.  

It was a blessing in the end because we ended up with a very nice building, behind our house, with doors we could secure while we are gone.  This wouldn't have been so important, but my sister, Lorrie, who has been living in our home and taking care off things for the past ten years, had to move out four months earlier that we had planned.  The doors were finally finished the afternoon before we left to come back to DL&L

Also, during this time, our son had some serious medical issues come up and we spent some time with him and his family.  Nothing got resolved on that and we wondered if we should not go back to our mission.   But, we finally left Emmett on April 18.

As we pulled through the gates of the ranch, it seemed that all of our worldly concerns left us.  We know our family will be blessed and our home will be watched over.  We know this because we have been given an apostolic blessing by our Area Authority 70, Elder Mark Durham, that it will happen, and we are so happy to be back!

Emmett wasn't the only place with a lot of snow during the winter.  As we came onto the ranch, there were little "lakes" everywhere where the snow had melted.  We never saw any of this last year.

As we got close to Missionary Village, we could see that there were already some of the missionaries there.  We were the last to arrive of the five couples who were here last year, including our new Directors, Elder & Sister Peart.  It was so good to see them!  We had a day with all of them before the new missionaries began arriving.

As the new missionaries began to arrive the next day, the Brinkerhoffs (who had been missionaries last year) had sold their 5th wheel to a new missionary couple (the Thelers) and pulled it from Emmett for them.  The ground around the Village was a little more soft than they expected and the 5th wheel got buried to it's axels!  

Everyone came out to watch as it took three 4-wheel drive pickups chained together to finally pull it out!

We welcomed Elder & Sister Theler as we said goodbye to the Brinkerhoffs.

One of the first of my assignments for the starting of the season was to get the two "Addies" ready for company.  One has a queen bed and a set of bunk beds.

The other one has a set of bunkbeds and a single bed.  They both have a bathroom, a small fridge, and a microwave.  They are here for any of our family, friends, or special guests to spend the night in.  They were used the day after we got them ready!

On Saturday we followed Elder Peart to see if the roads were passable.  There were several that were not.  These are support roads that we need to get porta-johns and water buffalos up, and also all of the trek groups' cooking and other supplies.  We really need them accessible by the first part of May when we start taking the group leaders out on them so show them their camp sites.   We better start praying! 

We did get to chase a herd of antelope (they are really pronghorns, who are part of the goat family) down the road.  The females should start having their babies in the next few weeks.

By Saturday, all of the missionaries were here and pretty much settled in.  We all got in mission trucks and took a little tour.  Elder Peart is explaining a little about the staging areas where the trekkers come and go from, with their assigned garbage bins.

This is a picture of all of us:  Elders & Sisters Howard, Clark, Peart, Clark, Call, Barton, Ekins, Theler, Anderson, McDowell, and Sister Moretti.  Elder Moretti takes a lot of our pictures, so he is left out in some of them.

Sister Moretti is taking this picture, so Elder Moretti is posing with us in front of the "beautiful" dairy barn.  Evanston Stake leaders put this nice siding on at the end of the season last year.

Elder Call would look mighty handsome with this left-over animal fur.  He declined to make it permanent!

After our excursion on the roads, we came back and had a flag ceremony to post the new flag that Elder Howard and I got down in Mesa AZ during the winter to replace the old one that kept fraying.

Elders Howard, Theler, and Call, our armed forces men, raised the colors for us and each spoke a few words.  We are all thankful for them and the time they gave serving our country.

Being the "gung-ho" missionaries we are, we spent Saturday afternoon cleaning the exit where we come off of the freeway to get to the ranch.  It had probably not been cleaned for the eight months we have been gone!  Elder Howard, Elder Barton, and Elder & Sister Ekins are hard at work.

The Elders are showing off all of the trash we found--four truck loads!  Elders Howard, Ekins, Clark, Call, Anderson, Barton, Peart, Theler, and Moretti.

I am sure the Sisters did just as much work, but we were pretty glad to have the Elders' help, since this is usually just the Sisters job!  Sister Howard, Ekins, Call, Clark, Anderson, Theler, Barton, Peart, McDowell, Moretti, and Wilson.

It was so nice to see the flag flying as we pulled back into Missionary Village after quite a long, busy day!  We are so happy to be back for the second half of our Handcart Trek Mission here at Deseret Land and Livestock ranch.