13 October 2018 - Saturday

13 October 2018 - Saturday

Today marked our last assignment day here in the Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission.  My morning assignment was working the foundation of the Fort Seminoe project, and mom made some medallions for next year.  And our afternoon assignment was a four hour shift at the Visitors' Center.  We looked forward to a very exciting final day!  So we celebrated by having our favorite breakfast this morning.  And I must add that our food supply is depleting right on schedule!  We will probably have a very very small box of food to bring home with us on Tuesday.

We've got the griddle going with the hash browns, and the pancakes are next!

 

The perfect presentation of golden brown potatoes, pancakes and eggs. 

Those are the last of our fresh eggs, and we are on our last half gallon of Almond Milk.  As long as we don't get snowed in tomorrow or Monday, we should be Okay!  Can you tell that we enjoyed this awesome meal??  This must be a reunion cabin addition!!  Grandpa will supply the whipped cream!

At 7:45am we were loading up for our day of senior missionary service.  The temperature got down to only 35 degrees, last night, and the sun was trying to peek through the clouds this morning.  Mom and I are really pulling for some sunny days, but that ideal setting will be very elusive for us today!

It seems like the clouds are a lot tougher than the sun is!

The correlation meeting, this morning, gave mom and I our last opportunity for the prayer and the thought.  Our assignments took us in different directions this morning.  Mom and Sister Roberts had the important assignment to make some more medallions for next season.  Elder Roberts and I went out to the Fort Seminoe project and covered the last area with dirt we had uncovered yesterday.  

We still had a lot of mud on this project, but I was able to use some rubber boots.

The brothers of thunder - check out Elder Lasher's boots!

Our Church History department wanted this "stump" cut off with a chain saw

Leveling the playing field takes on a whole new meaning!

Notice that "stump" in the picture?  It was not a tree that grew up in the foundation over the years.  It  is what appears to be a post set to the original fort foundation back in 1852.  It lifted right out of the foundation with a lot of missionary exertion!  The History Department sure missed this one in their evaluation so we saved it for their next visit.  

I also got the nod to burn the senior missionary trash one more time.  The refuse was littered with lots of tin cans and aerosol cans that we "discovered" when the fire got really hot!  However, we were told just two weeks ago that all the trash would be hauled off in the monthly trash pick-up.  At least that was the plan until the trash filled the dumpster before the 30 days had passed!  So we unloaded the dumpster and built a fire.  Two senior missionaries "dumpster diving" on their last day of work assignments!  What a way to go out!

Setting the trash heap on fire and keeping it burning!

That fire burned for over six hours!

Mom and I got to the Visitors' Center for our 12 noon shift.  I was given the sweet opportunity to assist in giving Elder Criddle a blessing with President Pace.  He hurt his back and has been struggling with different health issues.  He and his wife are here for the winter, so his health concerns are deep and worrisome for them.  They are such good people!

And for my last day in the Visitors' Center I had a wonderful experience with a prospective member.  He was actually scouting out a place to hunt antelope.  When he drove into the Martin's Cove Homestead, I am sure he was not looking for religious dialog.  But he was so receptive to the messages of the pioneer emigrants that motivated them to leave their native countries and gather to Zion.  

I was able to discuss several stories that touched him and allowed me the opportunity to offer him a Book of Mormon.  I introduced this book as the motivation for these precious pioneers to come to America and gather to Zion, even at the peril of losing family and friends and even facing death in the process.   He readily agreed to read the book.  As he took it, I asked him to commit to the promise that he would read about in the tenth chapter of Moroni.  He said he would!

Before our shift ended at 4:00pm, the temperatures had dropped below freezing and the snow began falling.  I was too cold and in too much of a hurry to take a picture... I forgot my heavy coat and could only focus on getting to the car quickly.  Again, another experience that reminded us of the extreme tests these pioneers endured in their quest to get to Zion in 1856,

Mom and I were home in our jammies by 5:00pm.  I had the heater on high and was just starting to feel my hands and feet once more.  That is when there was a knock at the door and President Pace and his wife came for an exit interview.  That was fun!  We sat with them for a few minutes and then they were off to see the Roberts, who will leave on Tuesday as well.  This has been a wonderful mission and now it is time to come home!