31 July 2018 - Tuesday

31 July 2018 - Tuesday

This morning we had a little extra time before our shift began at the Visitors' Center at 10:00am.  So after our morning prayers, and scripture reading together, we took our three mile walk out to the highway, and back to the trailer.  The morning air was quite cool and invigorating, with the morning temperatures in the mid 40's.  As the day progressed, the temperatures hit the mid 80's.

Both mom and I had some fun families come to the Visitors' Center.  Many wanted to walk the  four mile Martin's Cove trail, as a family, and we gave them some instructions to be safe, and well hydrated, before we sent them off.  I made some friends with the young people in the family groups and usually directed my comments to them.  A teen aged sister and brother had a little skirmish as I was getting acquainted with them.  It reminded me of the times Bob and Amy would be teasing each other.  

Well, this opened the door for me to tell them about the two antelope who locked horns and ended up dying from the skirmish.  The two sets of horns are on the wall in the Homestead museum!  I could not help but compare these skirmishes to their future relationships as they got to mission age, and dating age, where they would need the advice and counsel from a mature brother or sister.  They do not need to lock horns!  It was fun to interact with these teenagers and to see the welcoming looks and periodic comments from some appreciative parents!

Mom and I got home around 5:30pm and mom was ready to retire for the evening, after our prayers and reading in the Ensign.  I have been reading in Ether, this evening, and fully enjoying Chapter 12.  Remember this is the chapter Hyrum Smith was reading from on the afternoon of June 27, 1844.  He found comfort from reading this chapter, and this was drilled home to me in the Martyrdom Room when I was the  missionary that took Elder Holland's Family through the jail.  

I am positive that his son, Matt Holland, could have easily taken the lead in this tour but he was so gracious to let me fulfill my service as a full time senior missionary.  I remember turning the time over to him, in the Martyrdom Room, and he proceeded to remind his children of the original copy of the Book of Mormon that belonged to Hyrum.  They are descendants of Hyrum Smith and they had access to this book!  They had this copy of the Book of Mormon in their home on this occasion!  I learned so much that day when he said that their great great grandfather found comfort in reading from the Book of Mormon.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that, "we are not here to prove ourselves to God, but rather to prove ourselves to ourselves".   I am also quite aware that there are two ways that the Scriptures can assist each one of us.  First, what was meant by the authors as they were recording the messages in the Book of Mormon?  And second, How do those messages apply to us today?  As we ponder how they apply to us, individually, as Hyrum did, how much closer we are drawn to Heavenly Father and His Son!  

Just thinking about these precious mission experiences, tonight, again helps me to appreciate the privilege it is to be serving as a full time senior missionary.  Of course, there are many sweet experiences that help us grow and strengthen our testimonies, and taking each opportunity to do so will bring added joy and happiness to ourselves, and to our families!  

Lord, how is this possible, and why has thou blessed us so abundantly to have these experiences?  Mom and I are so thankful to be able to serve as senior missionaries and to gather these experiences to bring home to our precious family!!  We love you and we thank you for joining us and commenting on the blog!

30 July 2018 - Monday

30 July 2018 - Monday

Mom and I were back into the full swing of things, here in the mission field, with an assignment, today, on Wilma.  Our first group of trekkers came in at 11:00am so we started the assignment at 6:00am to give us plenty of time to complete the Homestead area.  That took about three hours and then we headed off to Cherry Creek for six additional restrooms to clean there.  

Last night the Homestead had over 4" of rain!

The steam from all the moisture

The sunrise getting up for drying out the fields

Some erosion on a narrow road we take Wilma to the river crossing restrooms

These ruts were over 12" deep!

And, with prayer and faith, we were able to drive back up that road!

We took Wilma to the Base post first and headed down a hill that dropped about 100'.  The rain last night played havoc on this hill!  Right when I saw the washed out roadway, it was too late to back up.  (There was no way to turn Wilma around on this hill).  I was able to maneuver the truck, weighed down with 250 gallons of water, around these deep gulleys, and proceeded to the lower restrooms.  

In my heart, I knew we would be heavily challenged in getting back up that road since the dirt was soft and the ruts were deep.  What added to my concern was that there is no other way out of the trail these trekkers will take later today.  Before we left the restroom area, and headed up the road, mom suggested we pray for help.  And we offered up our most sincere prayer!

I felt that since we were on the Lord's errand, and we needed His help, we would be safe and watched over.  In addition, we know about the prayers from our precious family and friends for these two senior missionaries!  Well, added to our many tender mercies, Wilma went right up the hill, and we were able to straddle those wash-out ruts, and kept traction in that soft dirt.  We both said another prayer of thanksgiving for safely arriving back up on the top of that 100' hill!

Cleaning the statues representing the rescuers and the Aaronic Priesthood

Our assignment was completed by 12:30pm and we were on our way home for a quiet afternoon.  The next assignment we had was the Family Home Evening activity that our district had responsibility for.  It was planned around the Church Ranch cowboy, and his wife, and their new born daughter.  They are being transferred, August 1st, to another Church ranch in Kansas.  They have been here three or so years, and the Church likes to move the cowboys around the country.  Here are some pictures from tonight's activities;

The Jenga competition

The water balloon toss - mom and I won that contest!

The Jorgenson's on their last FHE activity as the ranch cowboy

Sister Criddle playing a special song we all sang to the Jorgenson's

The games were fun and the spirit of unity was felt.  The Jenga game was competition between districts, and that was fun.  Then we did the water balloon toss, and mom picked out the perfect water balloon!  We won the contest between about 14 couples.  And then the Criddles led us in the song for the Jorgenson's.  Elder Criddle wrote the song, and he wrote a cowboy poem that he shared.  He loves doing cowboy poetry and is very good at it.  They are such kind people!  They will be staying this winter and will be such an asset to the mission.

I have one pioneer that has caught my attention in the last few days.  Agnes Caldwell was a young girl about 9 years old that I have talked about before.  She and Mary Hurren were the two friends in the Willie Handcart Company who were seen skipping, and seemingly having fun together, until it was discovered they were jumping over rattlesnakes!  Here are some additional stories about her on her way to the valley with the rescue wagons and then later on in her life;

Story #1 - Agnes wrote of one incident that took place shortly before they got to the Salt Lake Valley: “Just before we crossed the mountains, relief wagons reached us, and it certainly was a relief. The infirm and aged were allowed to ride, all able-bodied continuing to walk. When the wagons started out, a number of us children decided to see how long we could keep up with the wagons, in hopes of being asked to ride. At least that is what my great hope was. One by one they all fell out, until I was the last one remaining, so determined was I that I should get a ride.

“After what seemed the longest run I ever made before or since, the driver, who was William Henry ‘Heber’ Kimball, called to me, ‘Say, sissy, would you like a ride?’ I answered in my very best manner, ‘Yes sir.’ At this he reached over, taking my hand, clucking to his horses to make me run, with legs that seemed to me could run no farther. On we went, to what to me seemed miles. What went through my head at that time was that he was the meanest man that ever lived or that I had ever heard of, and other things that would not be a credit nor would it look well coming from one so young. Just at what seemed the breaking point, he stopped. Taking a blanket, he wrapped me up and lay me in the bottom of the wagon, warm and comfortable. Here I had time to change my mind, as I surely did, knowing full well by doing this he saved me from freezing when taken into the wagon.”

Story #2 - The following talk was given by Agnes in her Canadian Ward Relief Society: The source of cheerfulness is hope. The supply of cheerfulness comes through faith. We can do a great deal if we are living as we should. Then we can go to our Heavenly Father in all confidence knowing that he answers prayers. Then we go to Him humble and sincere, believing that we will get that which we desire, if it is for our good, then is the time we will get that which we ask for. We can certainly be cheerful and thankful if we keep his spirit with us at all times. We should be cheerful at all times, knowing that no other spirit will creep in on us if we are on our guard. Faith and hope go together. If we did not have faith and hope, how sad indeed we would be. We must strive continuously to keep that spirit of cheerfulness with us at all times. Where there is cheerfulness there is happiness and love in the home. How nice it is to go into a home where unity and cheerfulness are with each member - the father, the mother and each of the children. You see it in their faces. Each one is trying to please each other. In a home where cheerfulness does not abide, you do not care to go into this home. Do you not feel much better when you leave the cheerful home? Did you ever know how many of us complain unthinkingly? We complain about the weather. We complain about the seasons. It is either too hot or too cold. Did it ever occur to you that our Father in Heaven rules over all and does all things well. This reminds me of a lady who stayed overnight with me. She had to go by team eight miles before she got her train. It was just pouring down rain that morning. As she was going, I said I was sorry it was such a bad morning. Think how I felt, me being a Latter-day Saint and she a non-Mormon, when she said, “The Lord does everything well.” I commenced to think how ungrateful I was of the Lord’s blessings. I started right then trying to be more conscious of the Lord’s blessings by trying to be more grateful, cheerful and uncomplaining.

I love the whole attitude about being cheerful.  Unity and cheerfulness and faith go together and it was so interesting to see the direction where Agnes' life went after this severely challenging experience.  Yes, we can do hard things as long as we include Heavenly Father and His precious Son!  And we can be cheerful as we go through all the experiences Heavenly Father sees we need to go through to be worthy to return to our Heavenly Home! 

29 July 2018 - Sunday

29 July 2018 - Sunday

Yea for the Sabbath Day!  We had some very cool weather, for July, here in the Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission.  It was cloudy, most of the day, and our temperatures were in the high 70's.  It has dropped to the low 70's, and is raining, this afternoon.  Mom and I left for our meetings at 8:45am.  We usually get to the Homestead around 9:00am and we have volunteered to hand out the programs as the attendees come into the Trek Center.  However, today, the programs were not in our mail slot.  The secretary forgot to pass them on to us!

They took pictures of all the missionaries, one couple at a time, for the phone directory, this morning and this afternoon.  Things are winding down, and we are getting ready to begin the closing procedures by the middle of August.  We have just two weeks left with large group treks.  The treks over Rocky Ridge will end the second week in August.  On August 14th, we will trek Rocky Ridge with all the missionaries who desire to make the effort.  Looks like there are a dozen or so couples already signed up.  Mom and I are among the group.  I would not want to miss this opportunity!

We also got some very encouraging news from the Gilliland's.  Their grandson, Brice, came out of the coma!  He is eating on his own, taking some physical therapy, and even attempting to use his phone again!  This has all happened in the last few days.  The doctors told the family he would most likely be in a coma for the rest of his life, and that his life would most likely be very short after the roll over accident six weeks ago that ejected him from the truck he was riding in  without a seat-belt on.  

Elder Gilliland gave this grandson a blessing shortly after the accident.  His family has not embraced the Gospel, and this miracle may well be a precious turning point for their family.  Mom and I have prayed for that miracle, along with every other senior missionary couple, here in the mission.  And I am sure some of you have also included him in your family prayers.  Miracles do occur and prayers are answered!  

We have seen this quite vividly with this news shared with the mission today, and in so many of the experiences we have shared here in the blog.  Isn't the Gospel wonderful?  Now, it is so important to share it with everyone we can, to give them the opportunities to see this precious Gospel in action in their lives as well.

28 July 2018 - Saturday

28 July 2018 - Saturday

It was back to our missionary work, today, as we had the assignment to be in the Visitors' Center from 12:00 noon -7:00pm.  We had a very good nights rest, and were up by 4:30am for our morning prayers and scripture reading.  And we even had time to take our three mile morning walk before reporting to the correlation meeting at the Homestead at 8:30am.

The color in this picture is so bland compared to what we saw!

The bright red sun rays were not captured in this picture!

These are the growing baby antelope in their posse here at Missionary Village

Now the correlation meeting was a different story!  There was a tornado warning on Thursday of this past week.  As I indicated yesterday, the counselor in the mission presidency's wife got excited about the tornado and wanted some safety training this morning.  We were not supposed to be at the correlation meeting at 8:30am if we have a later schedule, but in this case they needed the awesome safety officer and his wife to come in for the 5 minute training and then wait three hours for our shift to begin.  So we did...

Several folks came up to us after the meeting to share tornado stories.  I have two that I thought were interesting enough to share here;

Elder and Sister Criddle;  They were living in Missouri, with their growing family, when they had regular tornado warnings.  It appears that they were so used to the warnings that when the siren's went off alerting the resident's of the impending tornado, Sister Criddle's response was to, "grab the children and the Oreo's and milk, and head to the tornado shelter for a party".  Elder Criddle grabbed the camera and went outside to film the action!

Elder Gilliland;  When he was married to his first wife, they worked the farm together raising grain.  She would drive their small truck, with loads of grain, and he would drive the big truck.  One day he was running the harvester, and focused on loading the trucks, when he saw his wife speed up to the loading area, do a complete 180 and head out of the field at about 90 miles per hour.  He thought that was strange but kept loading the trucks.  

When he finished, he jumped out of the harvester, and, for the first time, saw the tornado about two miles away.  In the harvester, his vision was completely blocked except for the area immediately in front of him!  As he looked at the tornado, it was standing still on the top of the reservoir and a small airplane flew too close to it.  They found the plane and the two occupants in the reservoir.  The occupants did not survive....  

We had a pretty busy day at the Visitors' Center.  The temperatures stayed very mild throughout the day.  We had folks from all over the country.  Mom had one group that she asked if they had a copy of the Book of Mormon.  They graciously stated that they had a copy, and that they had family who were seeing the missionaries, and they were sitting in on some of the discussions!  Mom told me later that she was not prompted to tell the Joseph Smith story to them .  Now we know why!

Here is the picture of the exploding thunderhead as we were leaving the Visitors' Center tonight;

This is the view of Rattlesnake Pass 

Mom and I got home about 7:00pm tonight and were ready for bed.  I am going to be behind mom by about 90 minutes, but will still be in bed before 9:00pm.  We have had a good day!  Thank you for joining us tonight!

27 July 2018 - Friday

27 July 2018 - Friday

Mom and I are settling back into the routines here at Martin's Cove.  The trekking season is hitting the climax this week, and we have two more trek weeks that are getting smaller in size and number.  We attended the correlation meeting this morning, at 8:30am,  before we began our P-day to Casper.  There were about 15 of the 23 senior couples in attendance.  As the safety officer, I was approached by the mission counselor's wife about the tornado threat they had yesterday in this area.  The tornado actually was closer to Casper about 50 miles east of us.  She wanted to know if I had done any training on this issue for the benefit of the senior missionaries.  

I told her, along with mom, that we approached the president about this training in April, and May, and were told that tornado's were not a problem in Wyoming.  Well, now it appears that there is a problem, and I will be giving the tornado safety training tomorrow!  It is wonderful to have such a competent safety officer, and his devoted wife, as two of the senior missionaries assigned to this  extremely hazardest mission! 

Our trip to Casper was so fun.  We got to talk to most of our family, and enjoyed the Friday date night, (afternoon), activities.  We shopped at Sam's and had lunch at Red Lobster.  It was a celebration of hitting our hump week in the mission field!  I did get some great morning pictures before we left for our meeting, and one stormy picture on the way home.  Wyoming weather this summer has been brilliant and very fickle!

This picture caught my eye from the dining room table!

I got this after coming outside this morning to check out this shot!

Coming home from Casper.  This storm looks mad!

A a few minutes later the rain descends over Muddy Gap

Mom and I had a very relaxing day.  Our time at Rock Creek was exhilarating and exhausting!  Since we were able to get settled yesterday, and I was able to catch up on the blog, after four hours last night, we were so ready to relax this afternoon!  This next picture explains just how exhausted we are after our seven day assignment at Rock Creek Hollow;

This picture was taken less than an hour before going to bed at 6:30pm

Mom and I love giving our all to serving here.  There was so much to do at Rock Creek Hollow with the managing of so many people.  You don't realize just how tired your body gets!  Tonight will be a "catch-up" night as we go into Saturday, and a seven hour shift at the Visitors' Center.  We love serving together and we are very grateful for our family and friends who love us and follow us on the blog.  We appreciate and look forward to your comments and your prayers on our behalf!

19 July 2018 - 26 July 2018 - Rock Creek Hollow

26 July 2018 - Thursday - We are back!

Mom and I were up early this morning as we reloaded our car and got ready for our relief missionaries to arrive.  We started work early this morning.  Mom took on the assignment to prepare our trailer for the next missionaries.  Elder and Sister Hansen are the senior missionaries taking the next seven days, with the Rock Creek assignment, from the Martin's Cove missionaries.  

My assignment was to help the other senior missionaries prepare to take the lead here.  I was out at 5:30am and talking to the two trek group leaders who came in last night with their trekkers.  We had just over 300 in camp last night.  We also had another 400 trekkers on their way home that were making Rock Creek Hollow their last stop.  In addition, we are expected another 600 campers staying tonight.  Over the last seven days, we saw over 4200 trekkers and Pioneer Day celebrators from the Riverton Stake  here at Rock Creek, just this past week.  It was a fun matrix for us to work out!

Here is the typical routine here; we either have overnight camp groups or day fireside groups come in to share this sacred experience.  The day groups are ending their treks here with firesides and experiencing the wonderful Spirit of the pioneers, some who gave their lives and others who recorded their sacred experiences.  We could feel the presence of the pioneers here, and I would often share with the trek groups that they were grateful for the remembrances of the latter-day youth pioneers!  

During the day and evenings, we would work the camp property.  The Church owns 120 acres here and our goal is to keep these grounds clean and fresh for the different groups.  We trim the grasses and pick up trash missed by the youth.  We maintain the restrooms and keep the vault toilets as fresh as we can.  We power washed the handcarts, (used to trek Rocky Ridge), and we helped reduce the population of groundhogs, and we frequently shared key stories, and offered suggestions for the best possible experiences for each group.  We were busy most of the time!  As was our privilege, we had the most visitors of the season, to date.  And the last two weeks of the busy season look like up to 500 or so fewer trekkers here.  So we got the busiest seven days of the trek season!  We were grateful for the privilege to be here, and we were grateful to return back to the Missionary Village to finish up our last six or seven weeks here in the mission field.

And, as a final note, before detailing the last seven days, Rock Creek is such a sacred place.  This is where the Willie Handcart Company met the first of the relief wagons that came at such a critical time.  After they ascended Rocky Ridge, over a 27 hour period with no rest or food, they arrived at or near this site where 15 of their company died from exposure.  It is humbling to see, and feel, the extreme efforts they made to emigrate to Zion.  Many gave their all to become "acquainted with God", as Francis Webster stated.   Others wrote and testified of their experiences to "become better acquainted with God".  I can't help but think about a group of people who might ask or demonstrate what they are willing to do to NOT become acquainted with God!

So here is our story, and our testimony, that we lived on this sacred ground for seven days.  We were able to share testimony and give encouragement to hundreds of trekkers that came within our stewardship.  We were further privileged to help manicure these sacred grounds, with the limited talents that we have, to help these youth have a spiritual experience.  See what you think about our stories of these wonderful days filled with sacred experiences;

July 19th - Thursday - we got started early in the morning to prepare, pack and load the car up for the next seven days.  We were up at 4:00am to get our day started!  We had a scheduled correlation meeting with the Sixth Crossing Missionaries at 8:30am this morning, and we did not want to be late.  The drive is about one hour from the Missionary Village, so we left at 7:00am giving us plenty of time to make the meeting.  We drove into the Sixth Crossing site at a little after 8:00am, and to our surprise, the correlation meeting had been canceled due to a heavy trekking schedule.  Go figure!  We were left with the thought that canceling a meeting was on a need to know basis!

So we continued on to Lander where we gassed up the car and continued on to Rock Creek Hollow.  The final eleven ,miles was on dusty dirt, and rocky roads.  I drove slowly to avoid cutting our car tires.  We were blessed with a safe arrival, and were met by the two senior couples!  The scheduled arrival time for us was 1:00pm and we arrived at 11:30am.  We replaced the Gilliland's, and got them on the road back to Missionary Village an hour earlier.  They were packed and ready to go!

Home Sweet Home - for the next 7 days - Lasher trailer on the right

Look at the mileage we got on the drive from Lander!

A look from the "kitchen" into the "living-room"

A look from the "living-room" into the "bedroom"

Once we arrived, we hit the ground running.  Mom and I unloaded the car and settled into our new trailer.  It was small, but sufficient, and we fit everything nicely away.  It was interesting to note that the trailers were large and small in comparison.  The bigger trailer was for the Sixth Crossing missionaries, and the smaller trailer was for the Martin's Cove missionaries.  But before you draw any conclusions to this arrangement, the bigger trailer was infested with mice and the toilet leaked.  Not knowing the condition of the bigger trailer at the time of our arrival, mom and I had a prayer of dedication on our temporary living quarters, and we had no problems with any mice or insects or leaking of any kind.  Bigger is not always better!

After quickly getting settled, we came out for orientation from the Sixth Crossing missionaries.  We went over the generator operation, the filling of the water stations, for the trekkers, and the general duties we would have.  Then at about 3:30pm we had over 900 camp trekkers arrive with very dirty handcarts.  They were given instructions on where to unload in one of the four camping areas and then we power washed their handcarts.  I was impressed to bring with me, and with mom, each a pair of painting overalls to cover our work clothes.  I now knew why!  Those painting overalls protected my work clothes the entire week.  The other set of missionaries had to wear dirty work clothes while mom and I just took off the painting overalls and exposed our protected clean clothing!

Then we worked with the camp leaders with cleaning assignments and schedules for the two amphitheaters.  We also worked out the scheduling of the one amplifier we had to share amonst the groups.  Individually, we also got to talk to the trekkers and hear their stories and experiences.  It was also apparent that there were some who took unnecessary chances.  A young man decided to play in the creek, without shoes, and suffered a cut on his foot that required five stitches.  Another youth leader broke her leg walking the camp grounds.  She had such a good attitude and elected to stay on the bus the next day instead of taking a car spot home.  All groups must have their own medical personnel, so we are not involved with trek group injuries, thank goodness!

July 20th - Friday - Mom and I slept very comfortably and soundly in the new bed.  The temperatures dropped to the mid 40's, and the altitude of Rock Creek Hollow is around 8100 feet.  We were up early to get the groups checked out and loaded on their buses.  One group leaving today had six buses arrive at about 8:00am.  They were all anxious to get going when they found out that one of the buses had a low tire on one of the back wheels.  That meant a delay, for about 50 youth, of at least four hours before the repairs could be made.  We had some very anxious trek leaders until I suggested that they squeeze them into the five remaining buses.  She said there was no way 50 could be fit into the five buses.  I encouraged her to get everyone seated and count the open seats.  And how many open seats were there you ask?  Exactly 50 open seats.  Who is in charge here anyway?  He is!

One happy trek leader who witnessed a miracle today!

And the final bus of the five leaving with very happy trakkers

This was fun to be involved with the "feeding of the five thousand".  One of the young girls, Kaitlin, shared with me this story as she handed me a "barf" bucket she used last night.  She became violently ill and was in one of the vault toilets trying to rid her body of a terrible affliction.  She must have been in there over 45 minutes.  She told me, with a big smile on her face, of what exactly happened.  

She was walking with for her 4th great grandmother, Sophia Petersen.  Sophia survived the ordeal, but Kaitlin prayed to feel somewhat of the feelings her grandmother had experienced.  One experience her grandmother had was becoming deathly ill.  As Kaitlin was going through this ordeal in that vault toilet, the Spirit whispered to her that she say a prayer.  When she did, she immediately felt better.  She prayed to have that feeling, and then prayed to have relief.  She had experienced what her grandmother had felt.  I do not think that Kaitlin will ever be the same, or will take for granted, any blessings she will receive in her lifetime!

With another group, I was chatting with the support people.  When you think about taking groups of youth, from 70 to over 400 individuals, on a trek, it takes a tremendous amount of support people.  The bus drivers, the cooks, the leaders, the babysitters at home, and encouraging parents and of course the trekkers themselves, along with hundreds of hours of preparation prior to stepping on the buses!  Well, I had some opportunities to thank some of these  support people.  After I had done so with one group tonight, one of the leaders had a stamped metal replica of a handcart that he had made for all his support people, and he gave me one of these treasures!

We assisted another 600 trekkers get ready for their departure and welcomed another 400 this afternoon.  In between assignments we cleaned restrooms, trimmed weeds, and lawn areas, and poisoned thistle and groundhogs.  Never a dull moment! 

Handmade with love and appreciation

July 21st - Saturday - We had correlation meeting together, each day, that we try to fit in and plan our work day.  Out of the book, written by Paul Lyman about the Willie Company, that Sixth Crossing uses in their correlation meetings each morning, came this quote; 

"The handcart Saints were willing to give up anything in this world for the Gospel and their families, while most people are willing to give up the Gospel and their families for anything in this world".  

That was an impressive thought, and one that these trekkers are learning about first hand.  We helped get about 600 trekkers ready for their trip home this morning and said our final good-byes around 10:00am.  We then got the camp ready for the annual Riverton Stake Pioneer Day celebration.  They were expecting 500 to 600 participants before the rains came.  But the rains finally stopped, and they still had about 400 people in attendance.  And this is a large stake in boundaries!  

We met one sweet sister who came from DuBois, Wyoming, for the celebration.  She drove about two hours to be here.  This stake has been blessed by the work of the Second Rescue, but many that I spoke to, who have been in on the very beginnings of this effort, felt they needed to do more.  They were a very happy group and seemed to have a great time.  They had lots of Pioneer games and some great food!  

I also met Tia who is 17 and going off to college at BYU-Idaho.  She was shy and a little intimidated by the crowds.  She came with her grandfather who was the organizer of the celebration.  She was there to help him.  As we talked, I found out she works at a Chinese restaurant in Lander.  I asked her if she would be working next Thursday when we were heading back to Missionary Village. She said she would be, so we plan on seeing her again!  She would be a good prospect for the deli, Jared!

As I walked the campgrounds after they left, about 8:30pm, I picked up some trash, and found an arrow they had used for one of the games.  I put it in the shop area not know what else to do with it. So far, in the last three days, we have seen over 2500 guests here at Rock Creek Hollow!  Kind of reminds me of the crowds at Carthage!  

I also met three bikers from California out on an excursion.  They were interested in what was here so I took them on a little tour of the monument and shared some stories.  One said he knew a little bit about his great grandmother.  He seemed very interested in learning more so I suggested he look up "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Family History Library", when he got home!  I hope he does.  It will change his life.

July 22nd - Sunday - There was lots of rain today!  Mom and I took the 1:00pm Sacrament Meeting time slot in Lander while the other couple took the 9:00am time slot.  It takes about an hour to drive to Lander from Rock Creek Hollow.  It was a muddy drive coming back in from Lander!  We spent  some time in correlation meeting this evening as we have an equally heavy schedule next week.  There are no trek groups scheduled on Sunday's.  The Bodily's head back to Sixth Crossing, tomorrow, and mom and I become the "senior" senior missionaries here!

July 23rd - Monday - the transition was very smooth as we said good-bye to the Bodily's and welcomed the Spencer's.  We went right to work with some weeding, and some trimming, and some ground hog feeding, and mom got a chance to do what she loves doing!

Mom on her John Deer!

The Bodily's

Some sage hens providing "clean-up" opportunities for some senior missionaries!

We stayed busy today, and got to help orient the Spencer's on what we were doing here.  They were second year missionaries so they were quite comfortable with our routine.  They were just a little shy about managing crowds.  He had his own plumbing business back in Utah, so he was anxious to fix that toilet in his trailer!  

There was a family that drove up here this afternoon.  It was a grandma and grandpa couple with a young man about eight years old.  I was talking to grandpa, while grandma used the restrooms, and the young man sat in the back seat of the car.  He was telling me that they took their grandson on these kinds of excursions because he loved to hike.  He loved wearing his back-pack and collecting rocks, (until he collected too many rocks and had grandpa carry the pack for him).  He told me the boys name was "Colt".

As I told him about the Mormon history here at Rock Creek, he indicated to me he had a cousin that taught at the college in Rexburg.  When Elder Spencer asked him if he was LDS, he said, what is that?  Elder Spencer said, that's a Mormon, and grandpa said No!  He was Catholic.  About this time the boy got out of the car, and I was impressed to turn my attention to him.  He had red hair and I said,  how are you, Colt?  And he said, how did you know my name?  And then I asked,so you like to go hiking?  And he said, how did you know that?  Then I said, I bet you like to collect rocks in your back-pack, and he said how did you know?  I had his full interest by then, and he wanted to show me some of his treasures in the back seat.  One was a bow and arrow that he had made from the Willow branches.  

I watched him shoot his homemade arrow, and was impressed to go get the arrow I had "found" Saturday night.  As I walked out of the shed with the arrow, I told him it was a "Mormon" arrow and that this Mormon arrow was just for him.  It had red feathers just like his hair.  He was so excited, and I told him to make sure he told his uncle in Rexburg that he got a Mormon arrow at Rock Creek Hollow!  Isn't it amazing to put these precious pieces together by Him who knows all things?

We had no trek groups in on Monday but we are expecting about 500 tomorrow.  I took the opportunity to  invite Cort and his grandparents to come back Thursday on his way home to Louisiana.

Beautiful clouds covering Rock Creek Hollow!

What wonderful sunsets here at Rock Creek Hollow!

July 24th - Tuesday -  We had several groups come in today.  One group from Caldwell, Idaho, planned to stay only for dinner before heading to Sixth Crossing.  It seemed like this support group was a little tired as they came in to prepare the evening meal.  It was apparent that we needed to give them a little extra TLC when they found out they couldn't wash dishes here, near the well, and that we were asking them to police the area they were using for trash.  

I explained that when they arrived, we tried to have a spotless and clean area for them to enjoy, and that we hoped they would be willing to help the next group coming tomorrow to have that same experience.  Sometimes it seems like rocket science to some people to pick up after themselves!  They even asked the senior missionaries to help unload their trailer and set up some tables!  I told them we would be happy to help them after we greeted the 300 trekkers coming into camp in the next few minutes, and after we power washed those handcarts they were using..

Unfortunately this did not work out well for them for us to come back and set up their cooking area, because it was their group we were going out to serve!  That left the six support people to fend for themselves!  Later on this sister came to us and thanked us for our service.  I think she had a moment to think about her requests and her attitude!

I did get a picture of this group of trekker barrels.  Notice the crutches?

What is the rest of the story behind those crutches?

This young man was riding the bus, yesterday, and when they arrived at Martin's Cove, the "prospective member" bus driver asked if he was going to ride in a handcart.  He said, no.  He was going to walk, "as far as he possible could with his crutches".  This young man broke his foot three weeks ago.  His dad is a physician and came along on the trek as medical support.  He told his son, with all his determination, to go as far as he wanted to.  I did not ever hear that he accepted a ride in a handcart.  What a great young man!

I took a ride over the ridge, this evening, and was shown this view of Rock Creek Hollow;

Some of the original trail from Rocky Ridge into Rock Creek Hollow

A view into Rock Creek Hollow from the old pioneer trail

Either a grave marker or an old mining claim marker

Looking back towards Rocky Ridge from the original trail marks

The feeling here at Rock Creek Hollow is so special.  I have come to love walking these trails just within the Memorial Area.  The peacefulness, and the feeling of being safe, is overwhelming to those coming here to honor these precious pioneers.

The granite rock commemorating the Second Rescue

The creek flowing through Rock Creek Hollow

The original  trail above amphitheater two

Two senior missionaries in Amphitheater one.

July 25th - Wednesday - I have really enjoyed trying to include the bus drivers in this experience.  They don't always try to be involved so it is fun talking to them and sharing some of the experiences here.  I met two bus drivers and discovered one was a member.  His stake comes next week.  As we were talking I asked where they were staying in Lander.  I told him about the Chinese restaurant that our new friend worked at and suggested they try the place.  He looked it up and found it was a five star rated restaurant so I think they will go there.

Today we had three groups stopping here for devotionals, two as the final leg of their experiences between Martin's Cove, Sixth Crossing and here, and the third would start their experience here.  We had two other groups camping here tonight, but the schedules, at this point, did not conflict.  Ultimately we would be serving over 900 people today and tonight.  It was a pretty easy schedule, until the first group, just starting the experience, had a bus breakdown that set them back almost 3 hours.  And that would put them right against the other two groups in scheduling the areas.

The trek leader called our missionary phone and told us that they should probably pass on coming in and go directly to the next stop at Sixth Crossing.  The Spirit was very plain to me as I was telling her NOT to by-pass Rock Creek Hollow.  I told her we would make it happen.  Then, after hanging up the phone, I told myself how crazy that would be!  Working around 450 drop-ins with another 450 overnighters was insane.  However, it was an absolute miracle that everything worked out!  I was so happy to see the Lord's Hand intervening in an impossible situation.  Truly a tender mercy for two senior missionaries and 900 trekkers!

July 26th - Thursday - Well, by now, you all know this was an amazing week.  We could not have asked for anything more in our experiences here.  As we started the day, mom began preparing the trailer for our replacements, and I had to go out and help the 450 campers get ready for their exit.  We also had another group coming in at 10:00am and 10:30am for devotionals.  This would be their last stop on their way home and I could not help but jump in with Elder Spencer and help organize the groups.  I had the thought to place one of the day groups in a parking area reserved for the North Salt Lake group of over 400.  They had 16 support vehicles.

I was thinking they would be out before the support people came in.  Then mom came to me and said the North Salt Lake group could be in sooner, and suggested another plan.  Following the spirit that came to mom, we moved the group, and this is what we saw not ten minutes later;

Those cars, and vans, and trucks and trailers, flowing into Rock Creek

The two groups staying for the devotional came at almost the same time as the North Salt Lake group.  The picture shows a stream of vehicles coming in.  Over 30+ vehicles came in together from the three groups, and the two buses!  Even when you make the wrong plan, the Spirit is their to correct that plan, and the Hand of the Lord becomes ever more apparent in our lives.  It was humbling for me to see how quickly the wrong decision could cause chaos!  Thank you to my eternal companion!

A full load of handcarts being taken back to base - notice the missing tire?

The organized chaos of five buses, several support trailers and the handcart wranglers!

One group prepares to leave

Needless to say it has been a great week and we headed for home at 11:30am.  We had lunch at Tia's Chinese restaurant and found out the bus drivers did stop in.  We got to talk to some of our family while we had very limited phone reception.  We got home around 2:30pm and found everything in great condition!  We got the car unloaded and settled back in to the final few weeks of our mission.  I hope this hasn't been too hard to follow, but just know that we are back, and we are so grateful to have been given the privilege to serve at Rock Creek Hollow, and at Martin's Cove!  

We even had some welcome back notes!  Very nice!

Thank you for joining back with us!  I promise I will not miss another day of blogging!  There is too much for this mind to remember if I don't write it down!  We love you!

18 July 2018 - Wednesday

18 July 2018 - Wednesday

Today we had a combination P-day, and a Wilma day, that started very early this morning.  The Wilma day began as we left our trailer at 4:30am, this morning, and arrived at the first restroom site at 5:00am.  We asked in our prayers, this morning, that we would have enough light to get our work started.  Our schedule was very tight this morning since we had to be done no later that 7:45am with the handcart trails.  Here is what we saw this morning;

The steam coming off the Sweetwater River at 5:15am

The view from our first stop this morning overlooking Martin's Cove

The morning light was sufficient to let us quickly do our work.  We were done here at the first of the restrooms by 5:40am, and then drove Wilma to the River-crossing Bridge, and then to the statues.  These statues seemed to attract all the birds in Wyoming, and we are careful to make sure they are kept as clean as possible.  They represent the rescue efforts of the Aaronic Priesthood of the Church, and I can't help but think of Zac and Isaac as they magnify their Priesthood offices.  It also becomes more apparent, each day we serve, of the upcoming ordinations of Bobby, Cody and Jack.  I took this picture this morning from the back of one of the statues representing the rescue efforts;

These statues each are helping and ministering to those who can't help themselves!

As we were cleaning up these statues I had the distinct impression to go back and take this picture.  These young men were not only helping, and ministering to the weak and afflicted pioneers, they were also kind and loving, and very concerned for their welfare.  It wasn't an act for recognition or praise.  They were there to assist where the Lord needed them at that moment of time.  Each of us will be called upon, many times, to minister and help someone along the way to our Heavenly Home, and what a privilege it is to be that person who responds, at the right place, and at the right time.

Our work assignment here on the trails was completed at 7:30am, just as the first busload of trekkers were arriving at the outfitting post!  It was perfect timing for mom and me!  We then proceeded to the Cherry Creek campground, and arrived there precisely as the last group of campers were leaving for their trekking experience.  Little did they know that the restrooms, that were waiting for them on the trails, were the cleanest restrooms in the entire area!

Once we got back to the trailer, our "P-day" began.  This time was used to prepare for our week at Rock Creek.  We did the laundry, and started packing our supplies, for the seven days we will be gone. I also had the chance to call my sister for her upcoming birthday on Saturday July 21st.  Since we will not have phone service at Rock Creek, it was a great opportunity to have a relaxed conversation with her.  

Jackie and I have shared so many wonderful experiences together and she had been such a blessing to me and to my entire family.  It is always good to talk to her, and mom and I will look forward to seeing her, and her family, in the coming months, as we travel there to St. George.

And just a reminder, the internet is non-existent at Rock Creek.  Of course we will confirm that tomorrow night!  But for now, I think the next opportunity to post on the blog will be next Thursday night.  Thank you for joining us tonight, and we look forward to giving a full report on our adventures at Rock Creek Hollow!