Super Crazy Week

Finally found a cowboy hat for me at the thrift store.  Now we're twins

I think we left off last week with Monday being covered.  Maybe the only thing not covered was taking cookies over to Kay’s house.  She is the 14 year old girl that was baptized this summer.  She has been having some medical issues and hasn’t been to church in a month.  Her phone is broken so that makes it really difficult to get in touch with her.  So my big idea on Monday was to take her family some freshly made chocolate chip cookies.  It was a snowy day and the kids were out of school for Veteran’s Day.  I figured my chances of finding someone home would be good.  I got there and knocked.  Then I hear, “Someone is at the door!”  No one comes to answer.  Just silence.  Then I hear the microwave beeping, no other sounds or people to answer the door.  I felt so rejected.  So I just left the cookies at the door.

I know she’s having medical issues, but seems ok whenever I do see her.  I haven’t been able to talk to her in a month.  It just makes me wonder if she changed her mind about coming to church any more.  I just need an opportunity to talk with her.  But I texted her mom that I had left cookies on her door and hoped they enjoyed them.  She texted right back that they got them and thanked me.  She also said the Kay would come to the youth activity on Wednesday night!   Wow!!!  I couldn’t believe it.   

She came to both actives that night.  The Relief Society (18 and older) were having a craft activity and invited the Young Women to come as well.  Then later the girls had their own activity as usual on Wed night.  So Kay came to both.  We had a great conversation about a lot of things.  She still believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and wants to come when she can.  When I asked her mom Saturday about coming on Sunday,  her mom said she could come to the second hour, but not the first, she needs the sleep since she is sick.  I’ll take what I can get.  I was just so happy to finally get to talk to her.  Her phone will only cost $20 to fix, but she don’t have the money right now.  I offered to pay the $20 - even explaining my motive was so I can text her instead of her mom.  She says No. 

Tuesday and Thursday were crazy busy days.  We haven’t had that in a while.  Since teaching seminary, we’ve not had much time at all for regular missionary work.  We have gotten better at preparing our lessons quicker and not stressing over the little stuff.  We have always continued with our volunteer work in the community, missionary meetings and conferences, and then there’s about 3-4 families that we work with weekly.   The Bishop has been concerned about some people he would like to have visited but seem to be falling between the cracks.  We’re trying.  So we figured it we could increase our visits and still survive.

Tuesday, we had 5 appointments.  First one, here in town.  Second one was at the Pithans and they live in SD - only about 20 minutes down the road.  We haven’t been to visit them in a while.  This is the family whose son passed away two days after we got here.  Pat and I have a very special connection because of that.  She has lots of health issues and it’s so hard for her to come church.  She really loves it when we come to visit.  We’lll be going back around the 25th and help unload pellets for his pellet stove.  We’ll bring the Elders with us for that one.  We love visiting that family.

Third visit was at the totally opposite end of our ward boundaries.  It took 1 1/2 hours to get there - the Smith.  We had a nice message to share with them and Nic had a great time shooting down soldiers with a nerf gun with Elder Vann.  Renee’s new pain meds are stronger and she gets tired a lot more.  So we have been trying to keep our visits to an hour.  Walt loves to make Renee to laugh and does silly things to me that cracks her up.  I guess for Renee’s joy, I’ll play along.  He can be so silly.

Visit 4 was at Gary’s house.  I didn’t give him a hard time about standing me up for a ride, just visited him and talked about things.  He’s wanting to take a break from church for now and claims it is because he doesn’t like me having to drive 2 extra hours on Sunday to pick him up.  Guess we’re going to need to find some men that can take turns picking him up.

Our last visit was in Newcastle - a dinner and a lesson.  The husband of this family thinks very much like Walt; therefore, they have great conversations.  We really enjoying teaching them and their friendship.   So it was quite the busy day and we were very tired by the end.

Wednesday was our usual Senior Center Lunch service.  We didn’t eat all of our lunch, so we packed up the leftovers to take home.  When it was time to go, I found Walt in the kitchen with bags of food.  There was way too much food left, so they were sending it home with us.  There was also a big box of very ripe bananas for the taking.  I grabbed two bunches for us and one for a widow sister in the ward - the one that does all our mending and sewing needs for free.  I figured she might want some bananas to make banana bread.  So we stopped by her house on the way home.  When we got there, we decided to share our extra food.  We gave her chicken, potatoes, dessert and the bananas.  She was very grateful.  Later that night, a sister at the church activity said she heard we took dinner over to that widow.  That widow had told her how grateful she was for that because she and her grandson were having a really difficult day.  That made us feel a bit of inspiration in picking up bananas for her in the first place.  Always listen to the Spirit.  

Thursday was almost as busy as Tuesday; maybe even busier.  We had District Council in Gillette.  We had a few things to pick up for Gary, and a backpack to pick up for the Smiths while at Walmart in Gillette.  Our meeting ended a little early, so it helped in getting all the errands done.  We stopped by Gary’s first for delivering, and he had ALL of the food ready for Thanksgiving for our widow sister in the ward.  When he gets an idea going, he doesn’t stop until it’s done.  Although right now, all the food is in my freezer until next week.  He is such a giving person.  We stopped at the Smith’s next with the backpack and kept the visit short.  It doesn’t take much to wear Renee out these days.  I promised her we would stop staying so long.

We had plenty of time to fix dinner and eat before heading off to Bingo at the Manor.  It has been a month since we have been there.  There were two Thursdays in October we were gone for meetings, then Halloween and their annual craft fair.  We’ve really missed seeing everyone.  They missed us too.  We’ve been doing this so long, that Walt and I can clean up the place and put the furniture back without the staff help.  They love us!!

We had one more short stop to make before our day was done.  Lucille, our up the hill neighbor, needed some computer and phone assistance.  When we got there, she was finishing up the movie “To Kill a Mocking Bird.”  She wanted us to come in and finish watching it with her.  We both just wanted go home and go to bed; but we finished watching with her.  Towards the end she was crying.  I figured either the movie was touching or it made her miss her husband (he was a lawyer).  I asked her if it made her miss her husband.  She shook her head - yes.  Then she told us about him as a lawyer and some of his tough cases.  I think she really appreciated the company and having someone to talk to about what a wonderful man and lawyer he was.  Then we got one of her technical problems solved, but are still working on the second one.  We ended up getting home about 9:30.  I still had my lesson to finish for seminary the next day.  We got to bed late, were very exhausted, but did a lot of good that day.

Friday went very well for seminary.  I brought sausage biscuits and French toast casserole.  Fridays are always the best.  Our friend Keith collects  scrap iron, copper and other such things and sells them for extra money.  He is on disability from the coal mine.  The Bishop has a trailer that came with his property that is not worth fixing. His plan is to burn it down to get rid of it.  So we worked it out with all involved for Keith to go and get what he wants from the trailer and then the Bishop will burn the rest.  Friday, we took Keith out to the ranch (Bishop’s) and we (mostly Walt) helped him get all the windows off, move appliances to one part of the trailer and take the swamp cooler off the roof.  With everything Keith will get from the trailer, he should make about $1,500 or more.  We helped until about 2:30 p,m.  

Walt helping to remove windows from the trailer

Removing the swamp cooler sides

Pushing it off the roof

 The horse pasture is right beside the trailer and Walt called out to Sunny (the horse he rides) and eventually all the horses came over to say Hi.  I think they thought he might have something for them to nibble on.  After lunch, Walt took out some old apples that Becky had to feed the horses.  Of course, they were out far in the pasture, and calling didn’t seem to work.  Then before we left the ranch, Walt needed to change his pants and so we went back to the house.  I was out back looking for any sign of the horses.  I started calling out and clicking like people do when they ride horses.  I didn’t know anything else to do.  About two minutes later, from way far away, I see the entire group (12) galloping towards the house.  I called into the house for Walt, but no answer.  The sound was amazing.  It’s the kind of thing I’ve seen in movies but never experienced in person.  You can feel the earth shaking with all the hooves hitting the dirt.  Walt came out from the side and I ran in to get the rest of the apples.  He had quite the crowd nudging him for a bit of apple.  He loved it.

Walt loving on the horses

The horses galloping in when I tried to call them

Walt in heaven with horses all around him

There is a family that is one of the Bishop’s neighbors that we have met a couple of times at ranching activities - like branding, processing, etc.  They are really nice and the Bishop has been wanting us to visit with them some time.  Walt suggested we take them some of the banana bread we made from those 2 bunches of ripe bananas.  I wasn’t sure that would work, since it was daytime and we were just dropping by.  The wife was home and invited us in.  The funniest part was how she hesitated.  She says - Please don’t judge me . . . I started decorating for Christmas already.  That was hilarious.  I told her that I had also.  I was telling her how I didn’t bring any Christmas decorations with me on our mission and was about to say how we’ve been finding some at thrift shops, and she immediately said she was sure she had some she could give me.  She asked was there something I didn’t have, so I told her a wreath.  She went in the next room and came back with an adorable wreath with a Santa in the middle.  I hung it up on our living room door.  It was a wonderful visit, and her husband came home about half way through the visit.  They are both very kind and friendly.  Some how, she ended up giving me several pairs of boots that her daughter had out grown.  So now I have my first pair of cowboy boots (brand new), Muck boots and some cute furry boots.  Merry Christmas to me.  They would love to have us over for dinner some time as well.  So we left my number with them.   Another busy day of missionary work!!

Saturday was way less busy.  We got to sleep in until 9.  I was lamenting the fact that we had an appt at 10 am, and then that person texted me and asked could we move it to 11 am.  Sweet!!!!  The appointment was with the Willadson’s.  We haven’t seen them since the Pow Wow in October.  I called them on Wednesday to see if we could bring them some banana bread.  Then he wanted to feed us lunch as well.  He makes some really yummy BBQ chicken!  So when he asked what we would like to have for lunch, I said - BBQ chicken.  It was a good lunch.  They got a puppy in the Spring and then got a second one in October.  The first puppy is crazy.  Whenever there is company she jumps all over the place and on people.  They had to put her outside after 5 minutes of us arriving.  Then, when Jim was going out to check the chicken, this dog came barreling in jumped on me and my face.  She was fast.  She only nipped my finger though.  Back out she went.  Dogs always seem to love me.  

Our last appointment for the day actually forgot we were coming.  So after we showed up, we just rescheduled.  They had company there.  When we pulled up in their driveway and saw another car, Walt predicted they had forgotten.   Score for him.  It was all good, we were very ok with just going home and getting ready for Sunday.   We have a big travel week coming up and we were leaving right after lunch.  So we got it all packed and ready.

So tonight, we are staying at the Snyder’s home in Worland, WY.  He is in the Mission presidency and our Zone Conference this time is in Worland.  We met them a couple of months ago and really hit it off with them.  We were excited that they could accommodate us.  It’s a 4 hour drive, so we came tonight for the meeting in the morning.  We have an area authority visiting our mission.  They are a wonderful couple and are treating us like royalty.  

I guess that is all for now.  This is the first week since starting to teach Seminary that we have been this busy with other missionary work.  It was exhausting but felt good.  This week is traveling Sunday-Monday, in Newcastle for Tuesday and Wednesday, and then traveling to Billings for the week-end.  Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  We had talks on gratitude today at church.  Which was held in the gym since the heat didn’t work in the chapel.  It made me think about the amazing blessings we have in our lives.  We’re so grateful for our family.  Everyone gets along, talks to each other and loves each other.  There is a lot to be said for that these days.  Thank you all for being part of our wonderful and crazy family.  We have been so blessed while on our mission.  Thank you all for loving and supporting us while we do this “crazy mission thing.” (as Emma says).   Have a blessed week!!

Evidently, the JOY stocking hangers are for hanging red ties on.

The stable that Walt built.  It's perfect.  A new nativity set to add to my permanent collection.