6 July 2018 - Friday

6 July 2018 - Friday

Mom and I had a fun day on our work assignment together.  We were asked to repair the flags that the trekkers use on their handcarts, and at the Cherry Creek campground.  Some of the flags had been fixed prior to our assignment, but there were ten flags that we worked on and repaired this morning.

At the bottom of the orange flag we secured a plate to keep it from sliding off

The wood-shop has all the tools I needed to fix the flags!

My best day on the work crew is when mom and I get assigned together.  We went out to Outfitting, and the Cherry creek campground, and got the flags that needed repairs.  Next week we may get the assignment to fix the flags at the Handcart Parking site, as well.  We had so many trekkers today that we could not make it our there to Handcart Parking, to check those flags.  It took us about two and a half hours to do our service projects, and then we headed for our home base at the trailer.  

We started off our day with our daily preparations of Scripture reading and prayers together.  I just had to take a couple of the sunrise pictures this morning on my three mile walk after our morning preparations.  It is so hard to see two sunrises that are just the same!  I am always taking these sunrise pictures and debating on whether to use them...

First picture at about 5:30am

Second picture at about 5:40am

Third picture at about 5:45am

It is amazing how quickly these pictures of the sunrises change.  The morning temperatures were a little warmer, at this early hour, as they hit the mid 50's.  It was still very cool, and mosquito free as I went the distance to the main road.  This time of morning is such a positive addiction for me.  What a great way to begin the day!  It is pretty clear on these morning walks just how warm the day will get based on a cloudless sky.  

Our temperatures hit 96 degrees this afternoon at around 3:00pm before the clouds started rolling in.  Mom and I were home, at a little past noon today, and did some weekly chores while enjoying the swamp cooler in the trailer.  After our weekly personal chores, what do two senior missionaries do on rare occasions?

Two pictures are worth a thousand words!  It was a great day to relax and get caught up on some needed rest.  We listened, on the radio, to the four trek family groups out today, and felt the need to offer a prayer for their safety.  The high temperatures, coupled with minimal wind, made for a day that they really needed some extra prayers!  Then about 3:00pm we heard that a sister missionary had to leave the mission when she found out her brother had passed away.  

I can't help but think we have got to appreciate every moment of every day as family, and friends, and fellow sojourners, back to our Heavenly home.  That is one lesson I have been privileged to learn, and better appreciate, on this mission.  As we study the lives of the pioneers, and as we see accidents and deaths coming to senior missionary families, both mom and I are so grateful for our health and the protection we have individually, and as family members and friends.  Let's never take another loved person's life for granted!  Go ahead and give a hug or two, (or a hundred), out to your families from two senior missionaries who love you very much!

For my final thought tonight, I will share a story that some of you may have read this week.  A father was mowing his lawn when he ran over a hammer.  The hammer dislodged the blade, and it flew off the lawn mower, and hit his ten year old daughter in the face.  She was rushed to the hospital, and had 200 stitches in her face to close the wound.  Her father was with her in the ambulance and told her that her face would not be the same after this terrible accident.  She looked at her father and said to him, in essence;Daddy, it is not how you look on the outside that really matters, it is how you look on the inside...  I am grateful for attitudes like this that put our whole lives in very proper perspective!