Serving

Dear Family and Friends,

Our weeks are getting busier. We've pretty much finished winterizing the motorhome and are getting more involved in the Branch and with the people. And we are loving it! On Tuesday the Sisters had a breakfast luncheon at the church. We had waffles, with homemade butter syrup, sausage, bagels and cream cheese and fresh fruit and juice. We cooked together and visited and the kids ran circles around us and had just as much fun as we did!

Sister Laura Barker and I. She is our Relief Society President and with five little kids she still does an amazing job of  loving and ministering to the Sisters under her care.

Wednesday is Scouts and Young Womens and Elder Lindsey and I have taken to helping with the youth. It gives us a chance to get to know them (several non members) and establish relationships with them. We love these faithful youth who are so valiant despite the sometimes difficult circumstances they live in. 

Thursday afternoon a couple of the young women came over and I helped them get ready for Saturdays Halloween Party by getting tables set up and starting the decorating. They then had dinner with Elder Lindsey and I before we took them home.

Each morning in our prayers we ask to be led to the people who need our help then we go out and visit. We have also spent some time this week learning our way around the little communities that surround us and where members of our Branch live. I love this area of the country, it is so beautiful. Sometimes as we drive through the rolling hills I long for my trike...it would love these roads!

Saturday our annual trunk or treat party was held from 10:00am to 1:00pm. It was great fun. We had games and pumpkin painting, plus the trunk or treat then at noon we served, soups, breads, salad, chips and other snacks and desserts. 

Elder Lindsey the cowboy waiting for lunch.

We also had a few non members come and bring their kids so we were able to spend time visiting, getting to know them and making them feel welcome. Of course we invite them back for Sunday meetings. 

A good looking group of goblins!

We decorated for the holiday and the the kids love it!

Sunday was our Primary program and it was wonderful. Eleven children sang their hearts out and did a beautiful job on their parts...each one of them spoke three times! After church Elder Lindsey and I did splits with President and Sister Allen. Elder Lindsey and President Allen went to Parmelee and visited with several less active families introducing Elder Lindsey and setting the stage for future visits from he and I. Sister Allen and I did the same thing in Rosebud, St Francis and Mission and Elder Lindsey and I will be going back to visit two families tomorrow, one in which we will do a short family home evening presentation. 

In addition to the Addiction Recovery Program our main focus here will be with the less active members and many of them are less active because of addiction issues. There is much work to do and we feel so blessed to be able to do some of it. 

As always our love and prayers go with you,

Elder and Sister Lindsey

All is Well...All is Well

Dear Family and Friends,

I'll start first with the end of the week. On Friday we headed out early for Rapid City and our much anticipated appointment with the Rheumatologist. The final diagnosis is Polymyositis Rheumatica. It is not an autoimmune disease but it is a disease where the immune system over reacts and causes a great amount of joint pain. The treatment is steriods and since that is what Elder Lindsey has been on we will now start the very slow (over the next six months) process of weaning him off the steroids and thus avoid the problems that flare up with long term steroid use. The doctor feels that if we wean him off the steroids slowly we have less of a chance of the disease flaring up again. We will see the doctor again in three months just to follow up but Elder Lindsey is feeling better every day and is getting his strength back. Thank you for your prayers and your calls and messages. We have felt your love and feel very blessed.

After our appointment we found the mission office and stopped in and visited with two of the couples serving in the office.

Elder and Sister Sampson from Lehi, Utah work the front office.

Elder and Sister Uluave from Provo Utah. She is the mission nurse and he handles referrals, gas charges and other missionary expenses.

Next we went to Walgreens and got our flu shots then on to McDonalds for a quick lunch. After lunch we headed to a tire place where we got new tires on the Tahoe. Then since we were in the big city we took advantage and did our grocery shopping at Walmart stocking up on canned goods and refilling the freezer with meat. We spent Friday night at the mission home and were very excited to have the chance to see the movie "Meet the Mormons." The movie itself isn't showing anywhere close to us and because young missionaries aren't allowed to go see it in the theatre the Mission Presidents all got copies. We can't wait to be able to get a DVD to show here in Rosebud. We loved the movie, the stories were wonderful and it was so well done.

This picture is looking up the driveway to the mission home.

Elder Lindsey at the front door of the mission home.

Us with President and Sister Andersen. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to get to spend some one on one time with these good people. 

The mission home is huge. They can easily sleep over 20 people without pulling out air mattresses and during transfer weeks they do just that! Sister Andersen does all the cooking and laundry for the large groups that spend time there. Serving as Mission President isn't for sissies!

Saturday morning we were up early and after stopping at Lowe's and and Walmart (again) we headed for home. This time when we arrived at Wall we decided to take the 35 mile loop that goes through the Badlands National Park. It was so beautiful, we stopped at a couple of overlooks and put others on our list for the next time we take this drive.

The pictures are beautiful but they don't begin to do it justice. You'll just have to come visit so you can see for yourselves. The real highlight of the day was seeing these bighorn rams walking down the side of the road. We've seen a lot of wildlife in our travels but this was a first for us.

We arrived home about 3:00pm on Saturday. It took awhile to unpack the car and when we were done we both agreed there is jut no place like home!

Our early part of the week was spent getting the motorhome ready for winter, cleaning the church and visiting a couple people who will benefit from attending our ARP classes. On Tuesday I attended the Relief Society cooking class where I was able to meet a couple more of the sisters and today at church it was great to be able to greet them as new friends.

Elder Lindsey built new stairs...watch for the finished product in next weeks blog!

This is part of what we've done to winterize the motorhome, 10ml visqueen on wood frames attached to the motorhome with non residue duck tape. It was a lot of work but hopefully will pay off when the temperatures drop.

On Sunday the phrase "We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto" goes through my head because things are very different in this little branch than what we have at home. Yet each Sunday has been special and the opportunity to be a part of it is such a blessing in our lives. Today at Branch Council we talked about specific things we can do to help reactivate the members who aren't attending right now. Rosebud has enough members to be a ward if even half of them were active. There is much work to do. 

One wonderful thing that happened in our family this week was that our granddaughter Kati finished her 18 month mission and arrived home from Ukraine on Wednesday. We talked to her on Facetime for a few minutes. We are so proud of Kati and her commitment to serve our Heavenly Father. We can't wait to hug her!

We hope you have a wonderful week. Our love and prayers are always with you.

Elder and Sister Lindsey

John Cooper

Dear Family and Friends,

John Cooper was 22 and a member of the Hodgett Wagon Company, one of the two wagon companies following the Martin Handcart Company in 1856. On his journey he fell in love with a young woman who was also traveling in the Hodgett Wagon Company and they planned to be married as soon as they arrived in Salt Lake City.

When the wagons were unloaded at Fort Seminoe so that the people with frozen limbs could ride in them into the valley John Cooper was asked to be one of the 20 young men to stay the winter on starvation rations to protect the goods. This he did saying goodby to his sweetheart. Two days after he arrived in Salt Lake City in June of 1857 they were married. There was a difference in John though because when John left England he weighed 160 pounds and when he arrived in Salt Lake City he weighed 80 pounds. John had a motto in life that hangs on a little sign in our motorhome  (thank you Elder and Sister Black) and that motto was; "We must not expect everything to run smooth." This is the saying that ran constantly through my mind this week.

These two showed up and spent a couple days hanging out with us, they were sure cute and it was hard not to fall in love with them.

On Tuesday Elder Lindsey finished the last of his second round of antibiotics but was so much worse that we knew we had to get him into a doctor. We were able to get an appointment in Valentine at the clinic attached to the hospital so we headed over there. After blood tests and a CT scan they made arrangements for Elder Lindsey to be admitted into the Rapid City Regional Hospital. The doctor in Valentine did not know what was wrong but felt he was too sick to stay at their hospital. After a quick stop back in Rosebud to pack a few items we were off. It was a three hour drive, mostly in the dark with lots of road construction but we made it. The clinic was nice enough to give Elder Lindsey a shot of a pretty strong pain medication before we hit the road so he rode in relative comfort. 

We were a direct admit into the hospital and we saw doctors immediately. They did a full workup and did a clinical diagnosis for Polymyositis Rheumatica. They then gave him a huge dose of steroids, more pain medication and several potassium pills as his potassium was dangerously low, and moved us to a room. We got settled around 2:00am and managed to doze off and on until about 5:30am when the day started in force. The steroids worked wonders as the terrible muscle and joint pain he'd been experiencing for the last three weeks began to subside. 

Wednesday morning President and Sister Anderson visited with us and offered the mission home if I or we needed to stay in town for a few days. All of the members here have been wonderful, checking in on us, praying for us and offering help. President Allen even fixed our sewer hose while we were gone so Elder Lindsey didn't have to crawl under the motorhome again.

We can't say enough about the wonderful care that Elder Lindsey (and I) received at this hospital. Everyone was kind, compassionate, and knowledgeable. They worked hard to keep both of us comfortable and to figure out the puzzle of his illness.

Wednesday evening the doctor decided that  they would do a temporal artery biopsy to rule out a more dangerous disease. They did this on Thursday afternoon and we were discharged about noon on Friday. The biopsy was negative which was a relief. We now have an appointment with a Ruematologist on Friday, October17th back in Rapid City. By then all the blood work will be back and hopefully the tests will back up the original diagnosis. 

After three days in the hospital we were anxious to get home so we headed out immediately. The drive home was much nicer...I could see where we were. This country is really quite beautiful. We decided to stop in Wall for lunch...home of the famous Wall Drug Store. We spent a few minutes looking around then shared a buffalo burger before getting back on the road for home. 

Elder Lindsey outside Wall Drug.

Friday night we were in bed early and Saturday we slept late! It was wonderful. Ever since Elder Lindsey got sick he hasn't been able to sleep laying down but would instead sit in a chair in the living room with a small electric heater blowing warm air on him. He hasn't had a good nights sleep in over three weeks so for him to have gone to bed in our bed and slept long and hard is a wonderful tender mercy and blessing for both of us.

Saturday Elder Lindsey spent time puttering around outside doing a few things that need to be done before winter. I decided to clean the chapel and foyer of the church in preparation for Sunday. After I finished at the church I made two apple crisps with the apples President Allen gave us. I baked one and froze the other. It was lovely to be home.

These last three weeks certainly haven't  been what we expected but we have had many tender mercies and blessings that continue to remind us that Heavenly Father is in charge and is mindful of us and our circumstances. The first night in the hospital when I was feeling discouraged the song "Count Your Many Blessings" came into my mind and each time I woke up the words would still be there and they were a great comfort to me as  I was reminded that even in the midst of trials when things aren't running smoothly our Heavenly Father is still there loving us and guiding us.

Church in a small Branch is very different than what we are used to except for the Spirit which is still there and witnessing the truthfulness of the Gospel to all who will listen. We are feeling very blessed. Elder Lindsey is stronger every day and we are so grateful that Heavenly Father is allowing us to serve these wonderful people here in Rosebud.

We love you all,
Elder and Sister Lindsey

New Home

October 5, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Moving is hard...even if all you do is drive your home to the next destination! We spent Monday at Martin's Cove, Elder Lindsey resting as he tried to kick the illness that had a strong hold on him. We did take the opportunity to drive to Lower Cove and enjoy lunch as we visited this sacred place one last time.

Looking into Martin's Cove from the Lower Cove Monument.

As we ate lunch we watched this beautiful storm move across the valley complete with lightning and rolling thunder.

Elder Lindsey at the monument.

As we headed back to the Homestead I had Elder Lindsey drop me off at the Visitors' Center thinking I would give the Grover's an opportunity to take a quick lunch break. As it turned out the Grover's, myself and Sister Jensen who came over from the office were busy with visitors non stop until well after 4:30pm when I snuck away. The Grovers had visitors until after 6:00pm. The Visitors Center hours changed from 9:00am to 4:00pm after labor day but the people keep coming and as missionaries we are thrilled to welcome them no matter what time they arrive. 

Our special friends Elder and Sister Mellor had us for dinner before we got together with everyone for Family Home evening. Pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy and vegetables...it was delicious! For FHE the Mellors showed pictures of their first mission. They served in Eagle Butte which is in the same District we are now serving in. We learned a lot and what they had to say just made us more excited to start our new adventure.

Elder and Sister Mellor, we have had such fun serving with them!

Tuesday morning we pulled out of Martin's Cove at 8:00am. Elder Lindsey drove the motorhome and I followed him driving the Tahoe and pulling the trailer. We stopped in Casper for a quick breakfast and to pick up something at Walmart then were on the road again. The day seemed long but really went by quickly and smoothly. We stopped a couple times for a quick restroom break and once for lunch (it's great to have your own restroom and kitchen). We arrived in Rosebud at 5:00pm (central time) so the trip of just under 400 miles took only eight hours. 

Shortly after our arrival President Allen arrived to help us get set up. He was followed by The Barker family and President Gilson and children (the Branch President). We felt very welcomed! Wednesday was spent unpacking and setting up and unfortunately for Elder Lindsey he was getting sicker. He had finished his antibiotic on Sunday and everyday after he was again feeling worse. On Thursday we called our doctor in Salt Lake and he ordered another antibiotic which we had overnighted with FedEx. 

Friday was spent waiting for  FedEx. By this time Elder Lindsey was very sick. Getting something delivered in a town without addresses is an adventure. I was on the phone with the FedEx office in Pierre (pronounced Pier) giving directions to the church as they were relaying the directions to the driver. It all worked, the driver arrived and since I'd just baked cookies I had a couple for him and he in turn said he now knows where we live!

We now have a PO Box. If you'd like to send snail mail our address is; PO Box 531 Rosebud, South Dakota 57570. Rosebud is a lovely little town. As soon as Elder Lindsey gets his health back we will work on a little video of the area. 

Saturday Elder Lindsey was already starting to feel better. We watched morning Conference then drove to Valentine, Nebraska (38 miles) to get a longer sewer hose for the motor home. It was a tender mercy that someone at the auto parts store knew of a man who has a small business of parts for motorhomes and even though he wasn't open he lives right next door and was very willing to help us get what we needed. 

Elder Lindsey attended Priesthood Session with a few others in the Church while I watched it in the motorhome as I wrote the blog. There is much work to be done here. Of the 300 members on the rolls of this Branch only 30 to 50 attend and addiction is taking it's toll on otherwise good people. We spent some time talking to President Allen about the direction he wants us to take and are excited to get out and meet the people.

A couple more "it's a small world". The Branch President's wife Jennifer is the daughter of the manager of the  motor pool at the COB and someone I knew for years and the District Presidents son recently returned from serving in the Salt Lake Mission and he spoke at Highland Cove while Elder Lindsey was Branch President there.

Sunday we attended General Conference at the church (a long walk) and between sessions we had a potluck lunch. Something we are very used to coming from Martin's Cove. We learned today that fry bread is not scones and that Navajo Tacos are Indian Tacos. We also taught our first missionary lesson between sessions to a 13 year old cousin of a member. She really wants to be baptised but has no real knowledge of the Savior or his teachings so we are starting with the basics. We will meet with her again on Thursday evening.

The front of the chapel looking from the motorhome.

Our home looking from the front of the chapel.

And we thought we lived close to the church in Utah!

This is such a pretty view across the lawn of the church looking down into Rosebud.

Please continue to keep Elder Lindsey in your prayers. He received a wonderful blessing tonight from the District and Branch President and we have the faith to know all will be well. We are holding tight to the quote that hangs by our door from John Cooper "We must not expect everything to run smooth." We have been so welcomed into this little community and already feel a love for the people we are getting to know.

Our love and prayers are with each of you,

Elder and Sister Lindsey