Keeping Busy

Us walking back from the first attempt on a hike.

The weeks seem to be going by so fast.  Once we are done in the office each day, there is only about 4 hours before it’s time for bed.   We are enjoying our time in the office and feel we are doing a good job.  I was thinking after a couple of weeks that I would be bored.  There are a lot of things tied up with missionaries arriving and baptisms for my position, and neither of those are happening right now.  Another big part of my job is referrals.  That is when people are interested in learning more about the Gospel and would like to talk with missionaries or missionaries find someone interested.  I have had no training at all at this, but found a section in the “manual” for my job.  I did get someone on the phone from support to help me figure it all out.  That is keeping me pretty busy.  

Walt has the ability (with the TIWI’s in each mission car) to see where the missionaries are driving and how they are driving.  He can even tell when they have unplugged their TIWI’s.  When he first got here, there were a dozen or so TIWIS’s that weren’t working, so some of the missionaries just unplugged them.  He is getting them fixed or replaced and cracking down on the unplugging.  It keeps him busy.  

When there are issues as to whether the TIWI is working properly or not, and the car is in Billings, we drive it for a few days to figure things out.  Rough life.  He is also working on accidents (about 6 right now) and repairs, etc.  The Sr missionary before him, had been sick for a while and things got backed up.  There is a lot to keep up with.  Think of having 130 teenagers driving 94 different cars.  That says it all.

Tuesday, was a beautiful day and Walt figured out a way to make the most of it.  The Sister missionaries in Worland had a cracked windshield and the town is small and not many options for car repairs.  Since there are extra cars right now, Walt could switch out cars with them.  So we met them in Greybull, which is about an hour away from Worland.  It was a great day to be driving.  Walt picked the A&W place to meet them.  I was up for some treats.  I got a root beer float and Walt got a thing like a Blizzard.  When the sisters got there we treated them to something as well.  

Enjoying our treats at the A & W place

Afterwards, we took a drive up the canyon and took a little walk.  Walt had found this place with a trail along the creek.  It was really beautiful.  Some of it was a bit more strenuous than we anticipated.  We did find a great place to take a break.  It had some great sitting stones, nice and flat.  I stayed there in the shade by the creek, while Walt went on for a bit.  He is always ready to walk longer, and that’s fine with me.  It was so peaceful to just listen to the water and enjoy the peacefulness.  After a while, I noticed Walt up the creek a bit.  He was looking for rocks.  He was just so cute, I just love that man.  He was so in his element.  We only took a short time there and headed back to Billings.  

Our nice sitting place near the creek

We talked to Cash on our way back.  It was his birthday - turned 14 years old!!  I can’t believe he is getting so old.  His voice is much deeper now.  He was fun to talk to.  He had a great day with John (Pappy) up at the Pappy Shack.  It’s small cabin up in the mountains.  They have made some great memories there.

That evening we had a Zone Conference on Zoom.  That has really become a life saver for people needing to meet together.  It was a good conference.  The main theme was “Doubt Not - Fear Not.”  With so many changes and this crazy virus, there are lots of fears.  We were encouraged to trust in God.  He can lead us in the direction He needs us to go.  As missionaries we need to be strong and know that each of us are where Heavenly Father needs us to be at this time.  It is probably very different than most of us anticipated.  We do know that things change but we do feel we are exactly where we are needed in our service.  I just thought it was a great message - especially at this time.  

Wednesday was our weekly office meeting with President Larson.  It’s pretty cool to part of what is going on and being helpful with the ins and outs of the mission.  We usually get the latest information at that meeting and a better feel on ways to help President and Sister Larson be able to focus on their tasks and let us take care of the rest.  It should be interesting to see how soon missionaries will be re-assigned that were sent home from their foreign missions and how many.  So many things that no one knows until it’s happening.

Thursday and Friday were both busy days.  Getting things organized has been a job for both of us.  Everyone thinks differently, and we are arranging things in a manner that works for us.  Sister Wild and I are getting along great and worked together on a project on Friday.  The weather has been nice enough to walk nearly every day.

Saturday was our adventure day.  We slept in and had a nice breakfast and then headed out.  I had found a nice hike not far away (1 1/2 - 2 hours) at a place called Judith Gap.  It was a little tricky to find the right roads.  We were doing ok, sometimes the road was a little rough (as usual) and quite muddy.  There was still a little snow on the road.  Then we came across 3 trucks, one was totally stuck in deep snow and mud.  That was the end of how far we could drive.  Just that morning, I was thinking about what we had in the car and what we needed to pack.  We had our heavy winter coats and snow boots still in the car from another trip.  I thought, we don’t need those on a day like today.  How wrong I was.  The temperature wasn’t bad and the sun was shining, but we have learned that snow on the ground can easily be deep snow.  So we changed our shoes and started walking.  We didn’t get very far and felt it was a waste of time.  So we walked back through the woods where there was less snow, fixed some sandwiches and figured we would try another place.  

Us at the first place, lots of snow behind us

There is an old camp near the trail.  We saw this log chair.

 

The snow is over my boots here

A very old water tower at Judith Gap.  

There is a windmill farm near Judith Gap.  You can see the mountains, in the background

Twice that day, we followed a long road, over private property, back onto the National Forest, only to find the road too deep with snow to continue on to the trail head.  We did end up finding a couple of trails that were easier to get to, but will have to save those for another day.  It was getting late.   It was still a nice day and we enjoyed ourselves.  We still got to be out in nature, and see lots of prairies and cows.  It may sound silly to enjoy seeing cows, but it’s Spring and there are lots of calves - so cute!

Cute calves

We got to go in a different direction than our other trips.  Once we got out of Billings, it looked so much like the area near us in Wyoming.  I guess we have really grown to love that place and the beautiful scenery it offers.  It just felt like being “home” again.

One of the places we plan to go back to another day.

Love the views

Our car got quite muddy, of course, so we got our weekly car wash.  We are going to look into one of the offers we’ve seen where you can pay one price per month and get your car washed as often as you want.  That would work perfectly for us.  Our car was constantly dirty in Newcastle, always a dirt road or mud (just in our driveway).  Here we park our car at the Mission Office so feel we should keep it cleaner.  It really only gets dirty on Saturdays.

Sunday was another beautiful day.  It was sunny, in the low 70’s and a nice breeze.  We had gotten an email from our Bishop in Greencastle that the ward had put together a sacrament meeting to watch on You Tube.  I think that is so wonderful that they do that.  It isn’t every week, but it’s so nice to feel some normal type meeting on Sunday.  We start to watch it, and the first speaker is Cash!  Wow, we weren’t expecting that.  He spoke about Families, and did a really good job.  We called later to share our joy and tell him what a good job he did.  We also sent the link to several family members to enjoy as well.  We’re so proud of all our grandchildren.  They are growing up fast, but are strong individuals with a lot of love for each other and their families, and of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  It’s a great feeling.

Walt took a little nap while I wrote in my journal, made a late lunch and some Brunswick stew.  I am finally learning to make it very similar to Sue’s.  It turns into a much larger batch than anticipated, but Sue had taught me how to make it last in the fridge by hot canning it.  So that might be the last batch I need to make on our mission.  We were able to take a very nice walk.  There are several neighborhoods here, and we enjoy looking at the houses as we walk by.

The time is creeping up us now.  When I counted today, we only have 9 more Saturdays to go on adventures in Montana.  We will be home in 11 Saturdays.  The kids were very excited when we pointed that out to them.  Tomorrow night during Family Night, they are going to make a chain and cut off one link.  I don’t know if it will be one every week or every day, until we get home.  We will definitely be home by Walt’s birthday.  It will be one of his bests.

We will continue to serve until the day we are released.  You never know what’s coming down the pike from one day to the next but we are ready to roll with it and do whatever we are asked to do to serve God.  As it stands now, we get released from our mission (but are still missionaries until our Stake President releases us from the assignment) on July 4th.  If things can get back to normal, we’d like to drive to Newcastle on the fourth of July and have a ward picnic and an official good-bye gathering for us,  It was rough leaving out of the blue, barely getting to tell any one good-bey or give them a hug.  Then we would stay with someone on Saturday, and go to church one last time in Newcastle.  That would be the dream plan.  It would take us 3-4 day to get back to Greencastle, so probably get there around Wednesday or Thursday that week,  I think there is going to be a lot joy on both sides for the reunion.

Please stay safe and healthy!!  We love and miss you all!