7 August 2018 - Tuesday

7 August 2018 - Tuesday

Our assignment, today, was to serve at the Visitors' Center from 12 noon to 7:00pm.  That gave us the entire morning to prepare for our day!  The extra time did not stop us from getting up at 4:30am and  getting started on preparing for the day.  It actually gave us plenty of time for a morning three mile walk together, and the opportunity to see the morning sunrise.  

Good morning sun!

The air was crisp, this morning, with the temperatures in the high 40's.  It feels like Fall is in the air, the last few days, and I had to wear my flannel shirt under my hooded sweatshirt!  I love the early mornings!  Mom and I had our favorite morning breakfast, this morning, since we had to pass on it last Sunday.  We then enjoyed a morning of reading and, I must admit, napping!  We arrived at the Visitors' Center at 11:45am, and went directly to the office to print off our Sunday School lesson, that we are giving on August 26th, since we had a few extra minutes before our shift began.  

As you can imagine, the visitors are fewer in number.  It was a rather quiet day except for a bull snake that was hanging around the center.  Bull snakes are our friends, and they love to eliminate rattle snakes.  So this bad boy ended up being transferred from the Homestead to Missionary Village.  (I had caught him earlier in the shift and he came back for some more attention about an hour later).  It is good to know that our missionary neighborhood is being patrolled by a friendly snake!

Roscoe the bull snake on transfer day

During a quiet time at the Visitors' Center this afternoon, one senior missionary was describing her experience as a Trek Host yesterday.  She was leading the small Tully Park Ward from Idaho to the Cherry Creek campground, yesterday afternoon, and then served today as their Trek Host.  There was a young boy in that ward who was handicapped with Spina Bifida. That is a birth defect where there is incomplete closing of the backbone and membranes surrounding the spinal cord.  And, in this instance, an inability to control his comments or his loud voice.

On the trek to the campground, this young man could not control his outbursts.  He was the youngest of eight children in his family, and one of four, of those children, on this trek.  Both his mom and his dad were with him and the ward family.  His outbursts were about Boise State winning, (which I think Zac can appreciate!), and some other irreverent, loud, and uncontrolled yelling.  This Trek Host was thinkingt that he was going to ruin the trek experience for the rest of the ward in their trek time today.  

But, as a side note, this ward was very close to each other.  They seemed to be very willing to minister to him as he was carried in a special rickshaw to be a part of this experience.  Never-the-less, this senior missionary was concerned for the rest of the ward group.

Well, today, as the ward did the River Crossing and the Martin's Cove walk, this young man had tears in his eyes, the entire time, and was setting the standard for reverence for his ward.  The senior missionary was so upset with herself for having doubted that he could be reverent at the special times along the trails.  The pioneers were ministering to him as well as were his ward members!

It just reinforces Who is in charge of these experiences!  Our precious opportunity is to minister, as the Lord directs His work, and then step back and watch His miracles unfold!  Does the phrase, "Be still and know that I am the Lord" sound useful here in this example?  I am convinced that this is, and will be, more and more prevalent, in our lives, as we see His miracles unfold, "in the coming days", in our own lives, if we can just be on the lookout for them!

Now, here is another special event that Bob Jr. might find interesting.  We met a family that came to the Visitors' Center about ten minutes after Elder and Sister Taylor left for the day.  Apparently they were neighbors to this family, in Rigby, and had come to be with them for a trek tomorrow.  What a sweet family, and I immediately got on the radio to see where the Taylor's were.  They had already driven back to Missionary Village so we made arrangements for the family to backtrack and meet up with them.

About an hour later they returned to the Visitors' Center with the Taylor's, and I got to chat with them some more.  They live right off County Line Road and Yellowstone Highway.  After further discussion, they knew about Gandolfo's  and had only good things to say about the deli.  But then we found out some additional information!  He is a parole officer, and he knows about the Spencer/Lasher reputation combination out in the police field.  I took my sunglasses off and he said; oh my.... you are Bob Lasher's dad!  You look just like him!  He was partially correct since my son looks like me since I was first!  

Does the name Mike Alboucq sound familiar, Bob?  He had nothing but good things to say about you!  I found out from Elder Taylor that he left the Church a few years ago and only attends Sacrament once in awhile.  I hope to see him tomorrow and encourage him to return to full activity.  We will see what happens if I see him tomorrow.  

Mike Alboucq Family - great looking family!

Bob, hopefully you have some influence with him.  He speaks very highly of your police skills and the way you deal with people.  Mom and I are very proud of you for the example you set in a very challenging environment!  And he just may need some encouragement from a man he admires to make the challenging effort to come back.

And that is our day's happenings!  Mom was, again, such a great missionary as she took several groups through the Visitors' Center.  She handed out a copy of the Book of Mormon to one lady and she is always so good about sharing her testimony!  Way to go Granny!  It has been a great day!