Week 5 - 5/23/16 - 5/29/16

We have had such a busy week.  It seems almost every day I have been asked to do things I have never done before.  I just say "okay" and then try to figure out how to do it.  We are so busy getting ready for our first trekkers.  We have only a little more than a week to go.  We have also been having fun visitors and outings to keep us busy.

On Monday night, for FHE, the Walkers put on a "Cowboy Poet Gathering."  It was so much fun.  Sister Walker writes some of her own cowboy poetry and Elder Walker plays this little guitar and sings.  They both performed and then they had a "Tall Tale" contest.  The winner was chosen by our applause and it was very close, with Elder Barton winning.  He won a "dog" all wrapped up in puppy-paw-print paper and in a little basket.  If you remember our dog story the first day we were at our mission  (see the first week of our BLOG), well, our missing dog ended up as a raffle prize a couple of weeks ago, to the Walkers.  Now, here he is again, as a Tall Tale contest prize!  Then, when we played another little game about Cowboy Nursery Rhymes, Elder Peart said a bad word he shouldn't have, so the dog prize got transferred to him!  We may never get our dog back!  But, I mentioned to Elder Peart that the dog has a "breathing problem" (a spring in the battery box is broken and his belly doesn't go up and down any more.)  I think I heard Elder Peart say that he thought he may be able to help him.  He may be in good hands after all!

Our daily assignments are lots of times jobs that keep the missionary couples together.  Since Elder Howard and Elder Brinkerhoff are the mechanics/welders/etc., Elder Cowen sometimes thinks that Sister Brinkerhoff and I have the same abilities that our husbands have.  They were welding on some porta-john trailers so we were putting the toilet paper and garbage cans in them.  When they were all finished, Elder Cowen asked us to grab a truck, hook onto a trailer of porta-johns and haul them down to staging, about three miles down the dirt road.

Neither Sister Brinkerhoff nor I have pulled trailers before.  At least he took the standard shift truck and let us drive the automatics.  When we got them to staging, he did back them up and get them in line for us.  The next day Elder Cowen gave Sister Brinkerhoff some strange looking hose connectors and asked us to fix some holes in a hose.  We took them, and some strange tools, like we knew what to do with them, and went and figured out how to cut and splice, and fixed the hose!  (With a little help from Elder Barton, we got it done!)

Another new experience for me was mounting axels and wheels on the new handcarts we are building.  But, the first time I tried to drill a hole to bolt on the axel, I broke the bit!  I felt pretty bad, but Elder Cowen tried to console me by saying, "It could happen to anyone."  I learned how you pack bearings with grease, then fill the hub with the grease gun, and tighten it just tight enough to spin and not make the bearings hot!  I think our next project should be to teach Elder Howard how to sew a pioneer bonnet/apron!

On Wednesday we got some very special visitors.  Because of them, we had extra guests for our dinner meals that night and also Thursday night.  Sister Cowen asked that I do the menu and assignments for those two meals, counting on almost 40 people for Wednesday and 30 people for Thursday.  We decided on chicken noodles (our mainstay for when our kids come visit) and taco salad.  I wasn't too comfortable doing the menu planning and worried quite a bit over it.  Well, we had a lot of noodles left over (half of the missionaries took home enough for lunch later in the week) and with Sister Cowen adding more hamburger for the taco salad, it all worked out okay!

Our special guests were Doreen Lloyd and JoAnn Baird.  They are sisters of Marjorie Hinkley, the wife of Gordon B. Hinkley who was a prophet and President of our Church.  We just call them "The Pay Sisters."  Pay is their family name.  They have a great pioneer heritage and shared many stories of their grandmother, Mary Goble, coming to Salt Lake from England.  At 12 years old, she traveled with her family in the Hunt Wagon Company that ended up meeting with the Martin Handcart Company in Wyoming in 1856. Along the trail, a sister, a new baby sister, and her mother all died.

A hundred and fifty years later, someone found the burial marker of Mary Goble's baby sister, Edith, and it was returned to the family.  It is a great treasure for all of them.  The Pay Sisters had us laughing one minute and crying the next with all of their wonderful stories.  We had a wonderful dinner and meeting with them.  They stayed the night in our addies, ready for adventures the next day.

The next morning we had a visitor in our Missionary Village.  This antelope walked around all of our trailers, ate a little grass, and then meandered out into the meadow just outside our gate.  He did this for several days in a row.  I think that his does shooed him away so they could have their fawns!

On Thursday, the Pay Sisters hung out with us all day.  We went to the Guild Ranch where they also do handcart treks (as a private company) on land that they own that has parts of the original Mormon Trail going through it.  It was amazing to be on some of those trails.  Wendy Peterson, from the Guild family, leads the treks and she gave us the tour.  They are quite sure that the rocks in front of her cover a grave of a pioneer.

There was a fenced area that had rocks in the formation of an arrow.  This is the marker that Brigham Young had made when he came to the Salt Lake Valley in the Vanguard Wagon Company.  It showed the groups following which way they should go.

Wendy told us that they could follow the original Mormon Trail by the rust marks on some of the rocks from the handcart and wagon wheels.

This is the hill, looking down into the valley below to Muddy Camp, where the pioneers traveled and camped.  Wendy takes her trekkers down this hill and clear to the Muddy River.

Elder Howard and I are standing at the Mormon Trail marker at the top of the hill.

We went on down to Muddy Camp where Brigham Young actually camped.  We met up with some of the Guild family and enjoyed lunch with them.

They used to let the trekkers camp at Muddy Camp, but they don't any more.  They are trying to preserve it to be like it was when the pioneers came across.

Next, we traveled a very rough and muddy road to get to Williams Field where Wendy told us some very special stories about how they found this grave site.  She also told us more stories about her trekking experiences.  She told us about a person who had recently lost a family member and how the butterflies followed that group the whole way (which was very unusual) and they felt it was a sign that the deceased family member was with them.

At the end of the tour, we ended up in Piedmont, WY.  There were some charcoal kilns which were built in 1869 and made charcoal that was used in the pioneer smelters in Utah Valley.

This poster shows how the charcoal was made.

Elder Howard and Elder Cowan, standing in the doorway of one of the kilns.

Elder Higginson, Sister Barton (brother and sister), and Elder Barton playing their harmonicas in one of the kilns.  Great accoustics!

A beautiful "Kodak Moment" with one of the old Piedmont buildings centered in a lighted cloud!

Wendy Peterson, our guide, with her Mom, Sister Guild, whose family own this amazing Ranch.

 There are a few people who still live in Piedmont, WY, but most of the homes are like this one.  This is a beautiful valley!

The Pay Sisters ate with us again that night and then did something very special for us.  They told us some personal family stories about them and their brother-in-law, President Gordon B. Hinkley, a past prophet of the LDS Church.  Again, they had us both laughing and crying.  One of the things I enjoyed was hearing them call President Hinkley "Gord," which was what they called him when they were not in formal situations with him.  We got to know him personally, through the sisters.  What a wonderful time we had with the Pay Sisters.  The next morning at Prayer Meeting I told them that if they wanted to stay that I was sure we could get them a missionary badge.  One of them said, "Don't tell us twice."

On Saturday afternoon, Elder Howard and I took a 4-wheeler and road the trail that we will be on for our first Trek.  We saw this badger who was polite enough to let us take his picture.  As we were driving along, an antelope was running close to us.  All of a sudden, we saw, what looked like a small dead animal in the trail about 8 feet in front of us.  We stopped quickly and this baby antelope fawn raised its head, jumped up, and ran towards its mom.  I couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture.  It wasn't wet, but looked like it had been not too long before.  I think it was probably just a few hours old.  We were sure glad we didn't run over it!

 There are herds of antelope all over the ranch.  (I swiped this picture from a fellow missionary--with permission--because I haven't been able to get a good one yet.)  We are hoping to see more babies.

On Sunday afternoon we heard this terrible noise--like cats fighting or something.  It was two badgers fighting behind Missionary Village in front of the corrals.  They were screaming and dust was flying. The bigger one on the left seemed to win the fight as the smaller ran away.  When the big one saw us watching him, he came running towards us, but behind our building and through the fence to his hole.

Elder Call has been wanting to shoot a badger really bad, and Elder Howard wants a badger skin.  So, Elder Call gets his rifle out and shoots at him.  He knows he hit him because there was blood at the top of his hole.  We never saw any more of him.  We are allowed to shoot badgers if they are within the boundaries of Missionary Village, which this one was. 

We had good companions with us when we climbed the hill to check the well on Sunday--me, Sister Ekins, Elder Ekins, Elder Howard, and Elder Call (Sister Call took the picture and she shared it with me.)  The weather is going to be beautiful all next week--just when we need it so we can get out on the trails so we will be ready for those trekkers!

Week 4 - 5/16/16 - 5/22/16

Mondays are our P-Day (preparation day).  We can pretty much use this day for whatever we want. We usually do laundry, clean the house and car, work on the BLOG, go to town (which we don't like to do very well because we have to wear a dress and white shirt & tie), do our cleaning assignments if we have one.  Three couples are assigned to clean the Trek Center and the Depot once a week--usually done by the Sisters.  We haven't had that assignment yet, but it is coming up our turn. 

We didn't have FHE last Monday because we had it on Sunday evening with Brother Clark Kelly Price.  So, Elder and Sister Peart decided we should have an impromptu hotdog roast in the new, three-sided building (built last year) where we could be out of the rain and the Wyoming wind.   

 It worked so well, and the wind was blowing the right way to keep it away from us.  Most all of the missionaries came.  We just brought food that we had in our RVs and had a great meal--they all gave me a bad time about my black hotdog.  Afterwards we played Chicken Taco Boom that Elder Peart had taught us on one of our trail rides.  Then Sister Cowen taught us Big Booty.  We all laughed until our sides hurt.  Elder Peart was the champ of Chicken Taco Boom, but he couldn't get out of last place in Big Booty!

Sister Walker treated us with one of her cowboy poems she wrote about a cowgirl getting old.  It was hilarious.  She is so talented and willing to share her talents with us.

 It was rainy so we decided to take a day on Tuesday and go to the Payson Temple.  Elder and Sister Caverhill are missionaries on the Ranch and are building houses for some of the Church employees who live and work on the Ranch.  They are the only missionaries there so we have been inviting them to some of our activities.  Standing in front of the Payson Temple are Brothers and Sisters Peart, Ekins, Walker, Barton, Higginson, Brinkerhoff, Call, Hutchings, Cowen, Howard, and Caverhill.  The Payson Temple is so beautiful inside.  The decorating theme is apple blossoms.  Afterwards, we all went to a little restaurant where they gave us a huge (at least 6/12 inches) scone and honey butter with almost every order.  We were all full by the time our meals came!  A wonderful day!

We worked all day Tuesday finishing our spiffying up for our special visitors who came on Wednesday.  DL&S Trek Mission is under an Area Authority of the 5th Quorum of 70's of the LDS Church.  For the last five years, Elder Lynn Summerhays has been that person.  He was released in April and Elder Mark Durham has been given that assignment.  We will miss Elder Summerhays, but are looking forward to working with Elder Durham.  President Platt, a councelor in the Evanston Stake Presidency also came.  Elder Summerhays is on the left, with Elder Durham in the middle and President Platt on the right.

It was a really special meeting.  Our Missionary Choir (yes, both Elder Howard and I are part of the choir) sang a beautiful song (even with us singing) called "To Those Who Came Before Me."  We have been practicing for a couple of weeks.  Elder Durham gave us several special blessings.  He blessed our families while we are away from them.  He blessed us that we could ask and receive renewed strength if we need it as we are trekking.  He blessed us with the ability to call down miracles and to speak through inspiration.  Those blessings have calmed my fears and have given me confidence.

Elder Call is showing Elder Durham and President Platt how we use a template to make the new handcarts we are all doing.  The Cowans took them on by some of the Trek routes, which they really enjoyed.  I think they enjoyed being here as much as we enjoyed having them.

After our Area Authorities left, we all got in trucks and followed one of the escape routes we have off of the ranch in case of a range fire or some other calamity (hasn't happened in 30 years, so we are not counting on it happening this year.)  What a ride we had.  I think it was only about 30 miles long, but with the bumpy roads, it took us about an hour and a half to drive it.  Some said they were glad to not have to do that again, but I would do it in a minute.  It was beautiful country.  We ended up at a a restaurant on the way home, off of the freeway, called Taggarts.  (It seems like we eat out a lot, but that is fine with us--one of our favorite things to do!)  Our group of missionaries always make a statement when we all go somewhere together!

We were about the last couple to go into the restaurant and we met some people coming out.  They asked who all of us missionaries were.  After we told them we were DL&L Trek missionaries, we found out that they were from LaGrande Oregon and were on their way to visit a daughter and son-in-law who were missionaries at a girls camp in Utah. Our son, Ryan, and his family live in LaGrande.  Come to find out, they not only knew our son's family, but she had been a cub scout leader for our grandson, Chaz.  What a fun visit we had with them.  The world is so small, especially in the Church family.

We had our last two route reviews this week.  It rained all night on Thursday, so we were a little afraid we would have trouble getting out on the roads.  Brother Horsely and Bishop Larsen, the Trail Boss, from Cedar Hollow 2nd Ward , Lehi, UT, said they were ready to go.  They had a 4-wheel drive truck and knew how to drive on muddy roads!  We drove on the support roads and we were able to show them the top of their women's pull and the direction of their campgrounds.  We had some good discussions and we will continue to work with them on more ideas for their trek, which is one of the last ones of the season--the first week of August.

We showed Brother Horsely and Bishop Larsen the new handcarts we were building.  Bishop Larsen demonstrates how much energy it takes to pull a handcart!

Out on the route review, we spooked a couple of antelope and one of them got caught up in a fence.  He really struggled before we were able to back up and decide how to help him.  Brother Horsely had hunted antelope before, so he was smart enough to know to get on the other side of the fence to help him and keep from getting kicked by his sharp hooves.  I took a video of the "rescue" and it was amazing.  (I posted the rescue on FB)  I was afraid that the antelope would thrash around too much and break his neck before he was loose, which is usually what happens, but he got away, with Elder Howard and Brother Horsley's help.  They will have a good rescue story to tell their youth on the Trek.

The same group of trekkers will pass this scene right after they go by the "rescue" place.  This poor elk caught his leg in the fence as he jumped over it.  There were no rescuers around to save him.  Someone even cut off his antlers after he died.

It didn't rain much Friday night so when we took our last route review out, we were able to make it to all three of their campsites, but they didn't get to see their women's pull.  But, we told them that they would have an awesome one!  This is Brother & Sister Riley, Assistant Trail Bosses, and Sister and Brother King, the Trail Bosses, from Canyon Crest Ward, Alpine UT.  They will be trekking July 13-16.  It will be fun to be with them and their youth.

Many of us missionaries had route reviews on Saturday, but we all got back in time to practice our hoe down dances.  We learned "Oh, Johnny, Oh."  It was so fun.  I think Elder Howard is actually starting to enjoy these dance lessons!  Elder Walker needed a little more one-on-one practice with Sister Walker and Sister Cowen--but he finally got it.

We know that we are supposed to be here on this DL&L Trek Mission.  But, this week has been  really hard.  Down in Gilbert, AZ, we have a grandson who graduated from high school last Thursday, went through the Temple for the first time on Saturday, had his mission farewell and spoke in Church on Sunday, and is leaving on his mission to the Philippines on May 30.  Their family is experiencing some major medical issues and it is hard to not be there for them.  We have been there in spirit for all of this, but it is still hard.  They have assured us that they are okay and want us here on our mission.  After Elder Durham, our Area Authority 70, gave us a special blessing that our families would be okay while we are here on our mission, it really helped us feel better.  Thank you, Elder Durham.  We will do all we can and Heavenly Father will take care of the rest.

Week 3 - 5/9/16 - 5/15/16

I can't believe we have been here on our mission for only three weeks.  The experiences we are having are amazing.  There are four Ward buildings in Evanston, so we missionaries rotate around on Sundays and go to all of the meetings that start at 9:00 in each building.  It has been fun getting to know people in each ward.  Then, when we go to town for anything, we run into the members at restaurants, Walmart, and other places and they recognize us.  If I don't recognize them, I just fake it. That has become my motto--fake it till you make it!  There are so many things we have to do, from fixing spray nozzles, putting together port-a-john plugs, leading scriptural discussions in prayer meeting, knowing the difference from Route 6, 7, 14, 23, 28, 29, and knowing how to square dance, that we just act like we know what we are doing and rely on Heavenly Father to help us learn all of these things.  Amazingly, it is working!

Elder and Sister Kennedy have served two missions on DL&L--one year earlier and also the last two years.  They are both great people.  We got to know them a little last August when we came for training.  We were sad that they were not going to be here this year.  Elder Kennedy if an avid outdoorsman and hunter.  They came last Monday for our FHE (Family Home Evening) and brought a lot of horns, antlers, skins, and other things he has collected, mostly all from around this area.  

Elder Kennedy had some really interesting things to show and tell us about the animals on the DL&L Ranch.  It was a fun evening.

Since we finished up with all of the old handcarts (we are now building new ones) the Pearts and Higginsons painted a pickle ball court on the cement floor.  They have had some pretty rousing games of pickle ball.  We haven't joined in yet, but hope to soon.  There are not too many times the floor is empty enough to play, but it will happen once in a while.

Yes, this is the Virginia Reel (we are the very end cople.)  I can't believe that Elder Howard is learning to square dance!  He has even begun to enjoy it!  He and Elder Brinkerhoff have tried to get out of practicing, but only Elder Brinkerhoff has managed to do so once.  Besides the Virginia Reel, we learned the Heel/Toe Polka.  As missionaries, we are available to the Trekking groups to help with their hoe downs by teaching and calling the square dances.  We just happened to get a request to do so for our first Trek group on June 8-11.  We better not miss any practices! 

We are still learning our Trekking routes.  We have gone on four of the five we have to learn.  They are all criss-crossed in our minds.  Thank goodness Elder Howard has a better memory (most of the time) for them than I do.  It rains here about every other day, but by the next day, the trails and roads are dusty again.  This one was not quite as bad as the first one we went on, thank goodness!

Sister Cowen and Elder Howard are checking out just how many gopher holes are in this camp site!

Elder Cowen found a nice shed on this trail.  Even though we, as missionaries, are not supposed to gather them (a disappointing new rule this year), he ended up taking this one because he was sure it would cause problems with the trekkers on this trail in a few weeks.  They would all want to take it.

There are some really beautiful places on the Ranch.  There are some small reservoirs.  This one is along a Trekking route, and the largest one that the trekkers get to see.  There are several much larger ones closer to the ranch headquarters.

To keep the kids out of the water on the hot treks, we tell them there may be leeches in the water.  I think there may be leeches in some of the watering holes, but I am not sure there would be any in this pretty water.  Some of the missionaries say there are fish in the reservoirs, but there is a catch-and-release policy, with no live bait and barbless hooks.  I wonder how the missionaries know?!?

The trail rides are lots of fun and we are slowly learning them.  It sure is nice if there is not much dust!

We are still putting up trail markers.  Elder Howard helps with a lot of these.  They just had to take a picture of him getting his glove mixed up in the nut he was tightening.  Everyone thinks he can do about anything (which he pretty much can--except square dancing--which he is learning.)  I am glad he didn't catch his finger in the nut, along with the glove!

Our first Trek Review!!!  We were so nervous.  Usually, one of the 2nd year missionaries come out with us on the first one, but they were not available.  So--fake it till you make it, again!  This is Bishop Wilcox, Trail Boss Stewart, and "PA" Hansen, from the Lakeside Stake in Kaysville UT.  On Trek Reviews, we take them out on the support roads where the port-a-john, water buffaloes, kitchen crew, and other support people pull trailers to port-a-john stops and campsites.  They see where the trails intersect the road (and sometimes travel the roads) but they don't get to go on the cross country trails.  As we travel, we visit about their trek plans, give suggestions, answer questions, and get to know each other.  Heavenly Father must have been with us, because we seemed able to answer any questions they had and had a great time.  They are very excited and we can't wait to trek with them and their youth.

Elder Stewart shared with us an experience he had on a previous trek at DL&L.  They mixed all of the kids up in the stake and put them in "families" they didn't know.  There was a young man in one family that had a pretty bad reputation as a "bad boy" in his own ward.  But, when he was in his new family with no one he really knew, he became one of the leaders in that family, gave devotionals, and was able to get away from the reputation he had in his own ward.  Now, three years later, he is waiting for a mission call, but is coming back on trek, unless his departure date is sooner than that.  We are asking all of our trek leaders to share these little miracles from their trek with us so we can keep them in our journal.

Every morning in our prayer meeting, a couple are asked to share a pioneer story and then lead a scripture study on any scripture they want.  We all have this great book Tell My Story, Too.  It is written by Jolene Alolphin.  In 1999 she was called by her Stake leaders to find a biography for each trekker to take on his or her re-enactment trek for the summer of 2000.  So, she took all of those stories, and many more, of the Martin and Willie Handcart Companies and the Hodgett and Hunt Wagon Companies of 1856, and their rescues, and put them together in her book.  This is where we get all of our pioneer stories from.

Sister Allphin spent the evening with us and was very kind to spend time signing all of our books.  We are very grateful for her.

This is our whole missionary group, except for the Johnsons, whom we are anxiously awaiting to join us:  Elders and Sisters Hutchins, Cowans, Higgisons, Bartons, Howards, Brinkerhoffs, Jolene Allphin, Calls, Ekins, Walkers, and Pearts.

Another "fun" job completed!  If anyone needs a plug for their port-a-john, let me know.  I am almost an expert at putting them together.  Another sister missionary is the designer.  They go into the port-a-johns whenever they are moved--a very important procedure when you really think about it.  We get to train the port-a-john support person on each trek how to use them.  Who knew what valuable things we would be learning on our mission!

After our first trek review, we were looking forward to our next one.  This is Elder Cook from the Sandy UT Stake Presidency, and Elder & Sister LeCheminant, the Trail Bosses.  They were a great and well-prepared group.  They actually taught us some things.  They were excited to see all of their campsites and they have some wonderful things planned.

We talked about some of the weather there may be on their trek and shared with them that we were told by our Director, Elder Cowan, that each Trek group would have the kind of weather that their group needed.  Elder Cowen had told us that there was lightning and rain with one group, while another group just over the hill didn't even know there had been any rain.  Elder LeCheminant shared a trekking experience he had with a group of kids that were disgruntled all the first day because they hadn't been put in "families" with their friends.  When they got to their first camp, the rain began pouring down before they even got their tents all the way up.  They all got into their family tents and spent about three hours in them before the rain stopped.  Some of them wanted to stay in the tents longer because they were having so much fun.  All of the families bonded and they had a great Trek, with nothing but sunny weather the rest of the time.  Another miracle!

We had a special FHE/Fireside on Sunday.  Painter, Clark Kelly Price, came and showed us some paintings and told us amazing stories about them.  He is mostly a western painter, but he also paints religious pictures, many that the LDS Church has purchased from him.  He told us that at one point, he lost his talent to paint, then realized that he had forgotten a promise he had made to do a special painting for the Church.  When he remembered and started to do it, his talent "flowed" back into his body--he felt it from the top of his head to his toes.  He told the story much better than I can.  He has a website with all of his paintings shown on it.

We bought these small 5x7 prints of three of his paintings of the handcart pioneers.  The top left is called "Rescue at the Sweetwater."  The bottom one, "Martin Handcart Company - Bitter Cottonwood Creek, Wyoming, November, 1856," depicts the burial of his great-great grandfather, with his great-great grandmother standing there holding their 1-year-old baby.  The upper left one, "Trail of Sacrifice - Valley of Promise," depicts his great-great grandmother reaching the Salt Lake Valley.  Brother Price signed all of them for us.  Elder Peart is going to help us make frames for them out of some old barn wood from a barn out by the cattle corrals behind Missionary Village.

Elder Peart tells the story that when he is on a Trek and it looks like it is going to storm, he just has to put on his rain gear and the storm goes around them.  He says this has actually happened!  So, we  found some good (and inexpensive at $12 each because we hit the store on a 25% off day) raincoats that we can send all of the storms around us when we are trekking!  I believe in miracles!