Spring Weather!!

Panoramic view on our trail at Sylvan Lake SD

Today is beautiful weather!  We have been having quite a bit of that this past week and are loving it.  Although next Monday - Wednesday they are predicting snow.  We’ll see how it all turns out.  Today is a low key day for us - I am a bit under the weather.  I don’t have the dreaded coronavirus, but am just achey and weak.

This past Monday started out quite interesting. We found out we would only have about 3 students for Monday and Tuesday seminary due to the Science Fair for the high school.  We got to seminary at our usual time and waited, and waited, and waited.  Finally about 7 am, we decided to just go home.  Two girls showed up and were thoroughly confused when no one else was there.  We said we were just packing up to go home, and they were good with that.  I explained it would count as an absence but they were happy just to go back home.  So we texted our last possible student and left.  We passed him on the way home.  The rest of the day  was spent preparing for the week and preparing our taxes.  The biggest part was mileage for 2019.  We’ve put 40,000 miles on our car since we’ve gotten here.

My big group in Seminary on Monday

Tuesday, our 3 students showed up on time!!!  It was a good lesson and activity for Doctrinal Mastery.  The kids don’t have to memorize the scriptures but I think it’s good for them to understand the scripture well.  So we did a fill in the blank activity.  They said it helped.  them a lot.  :). We made our Thrift store run.  Just got a few nutrition books and Walt got some local T-shirts.   We came up with a good person to help me work on the Wyoming quilt.  There is a sister who is a bit lonely and has had a lot of losses in the past 5 years (husband and 2 sons).  Found out she is quite the seamstress.  

That afternoon, the Elders came by for final goodbyes to Elder Sullivan.  Transfers were on Wednesday and he is leaving to go to Cody.  He has been here about 6 months.  He was hoping to stay one more.  Another one bites the dust!  We’re always keeping our fingers crossed that we get an enthusiastic and hard working Elder.  After meeting Elder Palmer, I think we scored!!

Walt, Me, Elder Sullivan and Elder Walker.  (Elder Sullivan got transferred to Cody WY)

Wednesday was full attendance in seminary and the last for the week!!  We never keep up with why there isn’t school, just that we won’t have to teach those days.  So Thursday and Friday we got to sleep in.  We had lunch at the Senior Center.  The menu was chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, etc.  There was a record turn out.  We didn’t eat lunch that day, chicken fried steak just isn’t our thing.  It turned out to be a good plan.  They were short help in the kitchen that day.  In fact, we got there late and they were getting nervous.  It’s so nice to be appreciated.  Instead of socializing while eating, we just stayed in the kitchen and helped.  

The weather was so pretty that day.  The temperature after lunch was nearly 54 degrees.  Around 6 pm, it started snowing!  Very big, fluffy snowflakes!!  What crazy weather.  Lots of places have the saying, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes, it will change.”  I think Wyoming is the winner on this one!

Thursday, we took a ride up to Spearfish.  We needed some groceries and there was no meeting in Gillette due to transfers.  The weather was nice and we thought riding through Spearfish Canyon would be pretty.  We found they have quite a bit more snow than we do.  I think the last decent snow we had, they got 20+ inches.  It’s colder there as well.  We got some great pictures.  That area has a lot of snow mobile trials.  In fact, most of the hiking trails are used for snowmobiles right now.  We did stop and ask one place about renting one, but it would cost us $200!!  Too steep for us.  

In front of a frozen Bridal Veil Falls

Bridal Veil Falls - Frozen

We did some shopping at Safeway.  That store is doing the Monopoly game and gives out game pieces.  They gave me mine and I turned around and gave them to the lady behind me.  She was so excited.  With the tickets Walt got, I gave them to another person.  I loved the big smiles doing that brought.  I didn’t need them, and it felt good to put a smile on these people’s faces.  

Next 3 pictures - just trying to capture the amount of snow on our way to Spearfish SD

This one was taller than me.  

We ended our trip with a stop at a Mexican place called Barbacoa.  It is similar to Chipotle.  The food was very tasty and we were treated to an amazing sunset.  We saw a Dairy Queen and decided to stop and split a blizzard.  Then we saw a sign about their anniversary and a second blizzard would only cost 80 cents!  Done deal - we’ll take 2 then. Great way to end the day.

Beautiful Sunset.  Hate the signs and wires in the way, but it is what it is

Friday morning, our church hosted the National Day of Prayer for the Newcastle community.  For the longest time, our church wasn’t even invited to participate.  We’re making progress.  I signed up to bring sandwiches.  The sign up sheet said to bring 2 dozen.  Walt thought that sounded like too many, but that’s how many I made.  Since I had lots of tuna, that was what I made.  There was a decent turn out, mostly older ladies.  Our Elders came too.  I was proud of them, they sat with a group for lunch and socialized.  Later, when things were winding down, I went over to their table and asked the ladies if they knew these fine gentlemen would do service for them.  They had no idea.  When Elder Walker pulled out his card so one of the ladies could contact him, all the rest wanted one too.  They even set up a time later that day to shovel snow for one of them.  There are lots of widows in our town.  It’s a good way for the community to see what good people we are.  We think our presence here and the service we provide have helped the church’s image here.  I hadn’t thought of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints having a bad image in a community any more.  There’s always room for improvement.  We did know about half the people there from the Senior Center but sat with people we didn’t know.  Now we know more ladies!

Making my 2 dozen tuna salad sandwiches

Most of my 2 dozen sandwiches were still on the plate at the end of the event.  Thinking of young Richard Smith and his teenage appetite, we took sandwiches, chips and cookies that were left and delivered it to them.  The kids were all playing outside.  Young Richard came running up when he saw us.  When he saw the sandwiches, he was in heaven.  I told him to eat all he wanted!!  They were all gone by the end of the night.  Score.  Sunday, someone pointed out that there were more sandwiches in the fridge at church.  I gave the Smiths those too.

After dinner, I went to visit Sister Greene.  She is the sister who has lost 3 loved ones in the past 5 years.  We’ve really made a connection.  We understand the pain of losing a child; although losing 2 and a husband would seem like more than I could bear.  She has such an amazing testimony of the Savior.  She lives her life in a way that keeps her close to the Spirit and she listens.  It’s one thing to ask for help and direction, and another to do it.  I have such admiration for her.  I was at her house for 3 1/2 hours.  We talk a lot about our familes; especially those we’ve lost.  I asked her if my visits leave her in a bad spot when we’re done, because of what we talk about it.  She said - not at all.  Talking about it helps her work through things.  She told me that night that she felt Heavenly Father sent me to her to help her work through this.  It’s hard to describe what it feels like when someone tells you that.  I feel honored and humbled and hope that I am doing it the way Heavenly Father wants me to.  Walt suggested I ask her about helping me with my Wyoming quilt.  I think it sounds great!  She is an amazing seamstress (just found that out on Friday).  It would be great to do that together.

Saturday was a wonderful day!!  It was in the 60’s that day and just filled with sunshine.  Walt had scoped out Custer State park for an adventure.  We watch the weather all week for the perfect day to do something fun.  The park office was closed so we just headed to Sylvan Lake.  We hadn’t been there yet.  I think ice fishing season is over, everything is thawing.  We parked and started to hike around.  There are several trails.  We got a little ways down a trail and decided we should get our hiking poles from the car, as well as, better shoes, and some water.  We picked a different trail and headed out.  There had been a lot of snow and had it been melting all week.  The trail was slick from packed down and melty snow.  The rest was mud.  We were so glad we had our poles; otherwise, we might have wiped out a time or two.  The views are just amazing.  Lots of boulders, rocks and beautiful evergreen trees.  We got to a nice overlook and then the trail turned narrow, steeper and deeper.  We only went a little ways before turning back. Our legs were getting tired and we still had to get back.  It was a good call.

Big Horn sheep (Ewes and Lambs, no Ram) along the road to Custer.  

Sylvan Lake.  Starting to thaw

I am the red dot on top of the front rock.

Selfie with a view

This is how deep the snow was on the side of the trail.  Note- the foot prints I am standing in were already there.

Sylvan Lake.  Walt is actually standing on top of the rock - it's that big

I loved this bench on the trail at the lake.  Great message.  

From there we drove around a bit, and would turn down a random road or two.  We got to one road that I had seen went all the way back to Custer.  We traveled a good ways down and see a car just stopped. They were concerned about the mud ahead.  There was a huge pool of mud.  Not like a puddle, just deep thick mud tracks.  Walt got out and sized it up and decided it was too risky.  We didn’t really want to get stuck and had no way of getting help.  

me on the rocks

I love how trees just grow in the middle of a rock

The trial getting narrower, steeper and slicker

Harney's Peak at the lake

This pretty area is where Walt found some beautiful rose quartz

View from the top of the hill where the quartz was

A view from the other side of that mountain

Such magnificent rock structures

We ended up driving through Keystone - never been there before.  It is mostly a small tourist town outside of Mount Rushmore.  I think the population is only 397.  Like all tourist towns here, there is nothing going on off season.  We were hoping to find a place for dinner.  So we kept driving on to Custer.  The couple of places that looked good for dinner were packed!!!  So we grabbed some chicken, potatoes and salad at the Dakotamart and sat in the parking lot to eat.  We are so romantic!!  Plus it only cost us half of what eating at a restaurant would cost.  What can we say - we’re cheap!!  It was a very fun day!

Sunday was a good one; low on attendance.  Hailey wasn’t there, so no lesson.  We had our scripture discussion group at Gary’s that afternoon.  The Aylesworths were supposed to bring the food this week, but Keith was sick.  So I put together some tuna and egg salad sandwiches.  I still had tuna salad left from Friday.  I also had enough veggies for a veggie tray, some pretzels, and some brownies from the freezer.  Not bad for the last minute.  The discussion went well.  We’re so grateful for Sis Booth.  She knows her stuff.  

I will finish with today.  I forgot to reset my alarm and this morning I woke up to a text from one of my students asking if there is seminary today.  Dang it!!  I had started feeling poorly last night, so I just texted the rest of the students and told them no seminary - my bad.  I ended up sleeping until nearly noon, and still didn’t feel that well.  We drove into Gillette to get some water and a few other things.  Whenever news goes out about needing to buy something to prepare for possible problems with the coronavirus, it is gone!!  We have already experienced that with hand sanitizer.  Even in a remote place like this, the shelves get empty.  We have plenty of food, tp, and hand sanitizer - just not extra water.  I couldn’t believe the shelves.  So many were empty or nearly there!!  TP was the biggest surprise.  Kate says in Provo they are limiting the quantities you can buy of certain things.  What a crazy world.  We’re not fearful, but want to have whatever we need before it isn’t available.  So we got our water, some fruit and veggies and rotisserie chicken.  We also got our car washed!!!!  It’s been so very dirty but also very muddy, so what is the point.  With the warmer temperatures, the mud is finally drying out, so we went for it.  It’s so nice to not get filthy just leaning up against the car.  We actually made it to our door without getting it dirty.  We’ll see how long it last.

We just want you all to know how much we love serving a mission.  It’s had it’s up and downs, thankfully, more ups than downs.  It’s hard being away from our family; especially those adorable grandchildren.  We are grateful they are willing to share us with the people of Newcastle.  I think of the people who we’ve helped to be baptized, go to the temple, come back to church, or even move on in their grieving process and also of the people that have helped and blessed our lives as well.  We only have 4 months left!!!  We miss you guys so much.