Sunday, September 6, 2015

Beautiful Wyoming

Dear Family and Friends,

Sunday evening after a thunderstorm blew through Missionary Village the skies were clear and the air still and Elder Lindsey said lets have a fire and invite everyone over and so we did and they came, marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate in hand and we had a delightful evening, telling stories around the campfire and watching the moon rise over the mountains. A beautiful Wyoming evening.

We will miss our friends!

Monday was another busy preparation day. We left home shortly after 7:00am but this time it was because we and the Smith's decided to go to Casper and have breakfast at Eggington's. It was delicious and I ate such a large breakfast I never got hungry again the rest of the day!

After breakfast it was off to do our shopping for trek training on Friday and for ourselves. We arrived home in the early afternoon and I did laundry and cleaned house while Elder Lindsey mowed the yard. Our district was in charge of  FHE. We showed the movie Legacy and had popcorn and watermelon for treats. It was fun to watch Legacy after our FHE last week at Sixth Crossing when Rusty McNiven shared stories about the making of the film. We all spotted Martin's Cove!

Tuesday we had work crew and we spent the day sanding handcarts...tough work for us old guys but we accomplished a lot. Wednesday morning Elder and Sister Schmidt sang a song to us that they'd put together the night before. We had actually joked about writing this on Tuesday as we sanded. 

I hope you can click on the picture and read the words. It is sung to the tune of "Count Your many blessings."

 Wednesday we also had work crew but Elder and Sister Moser wanted to feed everyone lunch so we worked in the kitchen. I made a potato salad and doctored up some canned pork and beans while Elder Moser and Elder Lindsey shucked 160 ears of corn that the Moser's brought back from their quick trip to take their trailer home last week. Elder Moser grilled hot dogs and we had quite a feast. After lunch I made a large batch of cinnamon rolls for a service project President Bushman is doing in the morning then we finished cleaning up and headed for home.

We love this shadow of the old windmill against the barn door.

Thursday we headed into the Homestead at 6:00am to bake cinnamon rolls for the Wyoming road crew and our mail lady. We made plenty for all the missionaries too. After correlation we started the prep work for our trek training dinner on Friday. This week we are serving sweet and sour chicken over rice, salad, homemade dinner rolls with peach cobbler and ice cream for dessert. Before we headed home in the afternoon we made a triple batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins as a treat for the missionaries in the morning.

Friday was a busy day as we and the Smith's worked in the barn preparing dinner for 129 trekkers and missionaries. Elder Lindsey didn't feel well in the late afternoon and went home to rest but with everyone pitching in things ran like clockwork.

Saturday morning I worked in the kitchen again this time preparing sloppy joe's for our luncheon on Tuesday for the winter missionaries...the ones that stayed at Martin's Cove for the winter who will be going home on September 10th. Yes, we too were winter missionaries but since we served elsewhere we are not included in this early to go home group. We are only two dinners and nine days behind them though!

In the early afternoon we worked on packing and cleaning the motor home and hooking up the cargo trailer. We have much to do in the next two weeks so we are taking the time to prepare to go home when we can find it. After finishing our work we headed to the Morris's to watch the BYU football game and BBQ hamburgers and hotdogs. We were all certainly in the mood to celebrate after the game.

We had a TV set up and playing inside and out but most of us enjoyed watching outside.

Sunday was our last testimony meeting of the season before most of the missionaries go home and it was wonderful to hear the heartfelt testimonies of the Gospel as they were expressed and to also feel of the love that we all feel for one another. Elder and Sister Stimpson gave a great Sunday School lesson on more of Paul's teaching to the Corinthians. My favorite part was when he asked "should a man rule over his wife?" and Sister McRay (a very petite Sister) piped up "he can try...but it'll do him no good!" In Relief Society Sister Brown our Relief Society President gave a presentation on women starting with Eve, then Mary the mother of the Savior and then Sisters Bushman and Tippets talked about their favorite pioneer woman and Sister Stimpson talked about her favorite woman, Marjorie Hinckley (who Sister Stimpson shares her name with) wife of President Hinckley. It was a wonderful hour and ended with the Sixth Crossing Sisters singing a beautiful song about pioneer women in aprons and bonnets which was written by Sister Tippits. 

These guys were just outside our door as we were leaving for church. We will certainly miss living in beautiful Wyoming and having the wildlife so close and so often that it feels odd if we don't see them.

Well it is Sunday afternoon and like all good missionaries who have much to do the other six days we are going to take a nap before our break the fast breakfast at 5:00pm. As always we send our love and prayers.

Elder and Sister Lindsey

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