11 October 2018 - Thursday

11 October 2018 - Thursday

Although this morning began with below freezing temperatures, there was hope for some sun today!  And by 3:00pm we were not disappointed!  As mom and I got into the car, and headed for the Homestead and our correlation meeting, we saw this beautiful sunrise and cloud formation that left some opportunity for the coming sunshine this afternoon;

We were rooting for the sun to break through and warm us up!

The last few days have been snowy and cold.  All we have seen the last few days is dark and dreary clouds, snow and rain.  The Wyoming winds keep the snow from accumulating on the plains, but the north side of the surrounding mountains become the collecting point.  These mountains are just on the south side of highway 220 at the entrance to the Missionary Village;

What a frozen view from our Missionary Village!

As the senior missionaries gathered for correlation this morning, the last two senior couples were informed that they will be going home on the 23rd of October.  That is a month earlier than they expected.  They are both planning on coming back next year, and one couple offered, in May, to stay for the winter.  They were not the ones selected to stay, and it confirmed to mom and me that the Lord knew who He wanted here this winter.  

Mom and I were separated in our assignments today.  She stayed at the Homestead to work with some sisters in putting the last few handcarts away, while I was assigned to work with two Elders in winterizing the Missionary Village trailers.  These trailers all needed the water turned off, the water lines blown out, the P-traps filled with antifreeze, and the mouse traps set.  As a precious tender mercy side note, mom and I were blessed to be one of the very few residences, if not the only one, free from mice!

Our first order of business to winterize these trailers was finding where to turn off the water going into these trailers!  We found one shut-off valve inside one of the trailers, but the other four had the shut-off valves under the trailers!  That is the last thing I wanted to do was crawl under any of these trailers!  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find 3 of the 4 shut-off valves within reach from the crawl space doors.  That meant I did not have to crawl under the trailer.  I just had to get down on all fours and reach under the trailer to the shut-off valve.  I am finding that it is almost as hard to knee down as it is to get back up!

Then we got to the fourth trailer.  This trailer was no fun.  The valve was six feet away from the crawl space door.... And the 4" drain pipes were just 18 inches off the ground and a little too tight for  Grandpa to crawl under.  So, Elder Call came to the rescue.  He is a lot smaller than Grandpa!  We laid out some plastic ground cover so he would not come in contact with the dirt and in he went!

We are draining the hot water heater and crawling under the trailer!

Elder call got stuck here and I was able to give him a strong armed hand back up!

Now we can say we have done just about everything as senior missionaries!  Elder Call and Elder Klucken and I had a rough and tumble time together, but we got the job done.  At about 3:00pm we were somewhat rewarded for our efforts when the sun came out in all its glory!  That warmth felt so good even if it only lasted an hour!

My final assignment was to work with the propane company and get some of the six propane tanks refilled here in the Missionary Village.  The one tank that was most used this summer was down to 15%.  The driver had just filled all seven of the tanks at the homestead so he had just enough to top this tank off.  The others out here are all above 25% so he will be back with a full tank in the near future to finish off the job.

We use propane for the heaters and the clothes dryers and some of the stoves.

As I was listening to one of President Nelson's early talks, as then Elder Nelson, I was impressed with this thought; sometimes we give each other the "silent treatment" when we disagree with each other, or we get mad at someones point of view.  I have been so guilty of this over my lifetime and I hope to repent and forsake this practice!  He likened the action of giving someone the silent treatment with not saying our prayers.  Giving the Lord the "silent" treatment, by not regularly saying our prayers, is not conductive to moving ahead and drawing closer to Him.  

The same can be said about our eternal relationships that are so important to us today.  It is so important, and beneficial, to our eternal progress, to always talk kindly with each other and explore the feelings and the ideas that we each uniquely have.  If we can communicate with all of our family members with love and kindness, with the goal of better understanding another's unique point of view, we will be that much better off in understanding those promptings from a kind and loving Father.  This message was made for me and I wanted to share it tonight!  Anybody with me on this?

"Some people see things as they are and ask, why?  Others see things as they should be and ask, why not?"  (Charles DuBois)  Elder Uchtdorf offered some wonderful counsel in his General Conference talk last week that goes right along with this idea of helping each other.  How grateful I am to have these messages readily available for our review anytime we want!