We had a great Sunday! Except that at the beginning of Priesthood meeting, the Bishop's Counselor told Elder Howard that he would like to talk to him after the meeting. So, when the meeting was over, he caught up with Elder Howard and asked him if he and his wife would talk next week in Sacrament meeting. It is not going to be a good week, having to worry about a talk all week!
We changed our P-day (preparation day) to Tuesday this week because Tuesday was the 4th of July. When the McDowells were on gate duty, they made time to make everyone these cute patriotic decorations. It was a lot of work.
I do most of our laundry in the Depot laundry room and then I hang them out to dry. It seems to shrink our clothes more when I dry them in a dryer! We really like the smell of air dried clothes.
We went to town on the 4th and saw this really big flag flying at O'Reiley's. Evanston has a lot of patriotism going on. There were flags flying all over town.
The fireworks in Evanston were really good. Several of us missionary couples went together and watched them from the top of a hill by an LDS Stake Center.
This week we trekked with Elder and Sister Theler, from Draper, UT. The group we had was from Perry 1st Ward, Perry UT. It was a fun, small group. There were only 62 people, with 5 handcarts. This will be our smallest group this year.
One of our trail markers. There are some crossings that have 4 & 5 different trails crossing the same place. They usually cross at different times or different days. But, sometimes we get to see other groups.
The trekkers are crossing over Crane Reservoir. It is really pretty as they come off of a big hill to see the red mountains and the water. It is especially "pretty" because we can see the porta-johns and water buffalo, knowing that there will be a stop and lunch!
We picked out all of our new handcarts we made last year for this group, because we only needed 5 and there were that many new ones in the handcarts at our staging. It was fun watching them being used (and getting dirty!)
Because this was a small group, and being a ward, everyone pretty much new everyone else.
They would all gather together under pop-up canopies when they stopped for lunch and in the evenings. They would then separate out into their trek families at night. Because of this, we felt like we were part of their ward family, always sitting under the canopies with them.
I have never seen clouds more fluffy than here at the Ranch. And usually, as you turn and look in different directions, there are different looking clouds each way. But, the fluffy ones are my favorite.
Brother McKay, who was the medical person on this trek, and his son saw our McKay Ridge sign and had to have a picture of it. They were convinced that the road was named after them!
One of the families decided to try to pull the handcart, one at a time, and see how far they could pull it. They did pretty well. Their Pa told them to not get too worn out and then not be able to pull their share when the whole family pulled.
Even some of the girls in the family tried, but most of the kids didn't last too long on their own. Having a family help is much better. It is hard to imagine pioneer moms pulling by themselves, often with small or ill children in the cart.
Elder Howard got to do his impression of a Pony Express rider and deliver the mail (letters from their parents and their leaders.) It is always fun seeing him ride into camp on his trusty horse, Sliver.
In some of the trek groups, the adults do almost everything but push the carts for the kids--all the cooking, cleaning, devotionals--but it is always great to see the kids giving a hand. This group from Perry 1st Ward were great. Every meal there was a different family of kids who did all of the clean-up and washing of the dishes.
The best smelling porta-johns are the ones the kids help keep clean. These kids cleaned them very willingly and did a great job.
In small ward groups, most every knows everyone else. It is fun to see the kids interaction with the adults during some of their free time. They also tend to invite us missionaries into their activities more. By the end of the trek, we felt that we were members of their ward.
As always, the skies here at the Ranch are amazing--always different and beautiful!
This picture does not truly show how beautiful this evening sky was. The moon was beautiful!
Every day on the trail the group encountered this "cow's skull." It always had messages attached to it with messages from current day prophets. They were really good messages and it was fun for us missionaries to zip up the trail in the side-by-side during a break and find a fun spot to place the next message. This little pile of rocks was just perfect.
We had to go over several water crossings. Thank goodness the missionaries put down these little bridges for some of them, even though they were a little narrow. There is only a couple of spare inches on each side, so the wheels on the handcarts had to be watched very carefully or they would slip off. Some of the other missionaries' groups lost handcarts into the water, but none of ours ever did, thank goodness!
Bishop Walker, bishop of Perry First Ward, happens to be the son of Elder Walker who is from Emmett and was a missionary here at DL&L last year. It was so fun to get to know him and his family a little on this trek. They are great people.
Hats off to the Perry 1st Ward! We had such a good time with them and thank them for their friendship. We hope to go down to their Sacrament Meeting when some of the kids and leaders will talk about Trek.
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