Week 5 5/14-20/17

It was Mother's Day this Sunday.  At the ward that we went to for church, the last hour of the block, the men took care of all of the classes and invited all of the sisters to go into the cultural hall.  There they served us wonderful deserts.  We just sat and ate and visited for the whole hour.

We also got some beautiful cut flowers.  I wish I knew the name of them, because after putting them in some water in a glass on our table in the motorhome, they lasted three weeks before they wilted.  The were beautiful and crisp-looking the whole time.  (I know this because I am three weeks behind on this blog and I just threw them out yesterday!)

For our missionary potluck after church, the Elders made us "breakfast" for dinner.  Elder Howard and Elder Wilson are cooking pancakes and bacon on the grills.

The sisters all got to relax and visit while the men did all of the work.  Here are Sisters Howard, Wilson, McDowell, Barton, Anderson, Moratti, Wilson, Call, Peart, and Ekins.

For some reason, all of the Elders ended up sitting at one table . . .

. . . and all of the Sisters at the other table.  What an enjoyable day it was.  That evening, all of our kids called to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.  That was the best of all!

The book that we get most of pioneer stories out of that we share in prayer meeting each morning is "Tell My Story, Too."  It was written by Jolene Allphin.  She came to do a fireside for us last year and signed my book, and she came again this year.  She has another book, "Follow Me to Zion," that she authored with Andrew Olsen and with art in it by Julie Rogers.  Jolene Allphin signed my new book, and in this picture she is signing Sister McDowell's book.  Andrew Olsen and Julie Rogers are both scheduled to come and visit us later this year.  It is so interesting to hear them tell the handcart and other pioneer stories.  The stories seem to come to life with them.

We always have desert after our firesides and family home evenings.  Elder and Sister McDowell made the most delicious pies.  I can tell that Sister Ekins is looking forward to a piece.  Lemon meringue is my favorite!

One of the jobs I did this week was to help make some more porta-john plugs.  These are put into the holes of the porta-johns and clamped down when they are moved from rest stops and campsites.  They are very important and if they are not put in just right---well, you can imagine!  I, Sister Theler, and Sister Peart are taking our job very seriously.

Parts and pieces of the porta-john plugs are painted and ready to be put together.

Sister Call and I stained some new pole bars for the handcarts.  These are the weakest part of the handcart and are usually the first part to get broken if not treated tenderly.  Elder and Sister Call are over the handcarts so they make sure they are in tip-top shape.

Elder Howard is under a porta-john trailer checking out the tires and axels.  It seems to me that is not exactly the best place to be.  Thank goodness, all of the porta-johns are clean and sweet-smelling right now.

Elder Moretti and Elder Howard have been so busy getting new trailers ready and old ones fixed!  Elder Howard keeps telling Elder Moratti that he is not getting paid "over-time hours," and Elder Moratti tells Elder Howard that he is still waiting for that "first check."  They have a lot of fun working together.

We were busy with two route reviews this week.  The one we did on Friday was for Salt Lake Jordan North Stake.  They will be trekking on June 21-24.  They will be our 3rd trek of the season and Elder & Sister Call will be with us.  This is the fourth time this stake has trekked at DL&L.  I am sure they will be able to teach us a few things!  We get to call a hoe-down for them and also do a mail delivery.  Since we are the lead missionaries, I think that Sister Call will do a really good job calling the hoe-down and Elder Call does a hilarious job of delivering mail!  Actually, we have done both of these, and if Elder & Sister Call do not want to do them, we will.  It should be a really fun group, with only 9-10 handcarts.

The route review we did on Saturday was for the Brighton Stake in Cottonwood Heights, UT.  Elder & Sister McDowell are actually the lead missionaries, but they asked us to do the route review because they had ended up scheduling two route reviews for the same time.  We were glad to do it for them.  This group has also been coming to DL&L every four years for the last 12 years.  They have some good leaders and will have a great trek.  They didn't need any special help from the missionaries, so Elder & Sister McDowell won't be asking us to deliver mail or do a hoe-down.  We are so sad!

I was so excited to get this close-up picture of a badger.  I was really brave getting this close to him!  (Actually, as you can probably tell, this is a stuffed badger.  He is in a restaurant that we missionaries frequent.  He does look really ferocious!)