All Hands on Deck!

Barbara decorated their door to honor the health care workers.  It's beautiful!

We have had lots of very nice weather this past week.  Sunshine and warmer temperatures always make a person feel good.  

Walt and I are getting more and more comfortable with our tasks at the Mission Office.  Things never slow down for Walt, and I have found things to keep me busy.  I suggested to Sister Wild that we make new covers for the gas cards that are in each vehicle.  They were in coin brown envelopes and were falling apart.  We put the numbers on new ones and laminated them.  They turned out very well and the missionaries were excited to get something so nice.

Sister Wild then came up with another project for us that week.  The bathroom at the Mission Office has to be remodeled into a handicap accessible one.  We will lose one of our storage closets in the process.  Since things are slow, she wanted to go ahead and put everything into the one we would be keeping.  This was the perfect opportunity to purge some really old things that no one has been brave enough to throw away.  It took us all day, but we got it done and it looks great.  I was totally in my element with organizing things.  We work well together.

Walt found a computer monitor not being used in the closet and Sister Wild said, if you want a bigger monitor, there you go.  So Walt brought it into his office and put it beside his original one; they are both the same size.  Now he looks like Command Central.  He has the most computer knowledge in the office and keeps everything on them.  He can even make things move from one screen  to the other one.  He never ceases to amaze me.  He is definitely my “go to guy” when I can’t figure out something.  

Command Central

Thursday, was definitely our most eventful day.  When we came in that morning, Sister Wild says, “We have 3 new missionaries coming on May 5th.”  That was only 4 days away!  By about 1 pm, we were at 8 missionaries.  Between 2:30 pm and 3:30 pm, we jumped to 32 missionaries!!!  Talk about astonished.  I kept telling President Larson, we should take bets on who gets closest to the final number.  He was convinced it wouldn’t go over 26 because that is how many he said we could handle at one time.  It was unbelievable!!  All of them were being reassigned from a foreign mission.  A cool thing was that one of them was one of my young women from the Broomall Ward when she was a beehive.  I did give her a call that night and really surprised her with the news that I would see her on the 5th.  She had no idea we were even on a mission.  

There is a lot of work to do to get ready for all of this.  Usually our biggest group of new missionaries has been 9-10.  32 is a lot bigger.  President Larson has the biggest job - deciding where in the mission they should serve.  All of us have a part in this, but not as big as his.  There is the fun task of getting them from the airport and from where they are sleeping in groups of 10 to conform with COVID -19 social distancing regulations.  Then - where 32 missionaries will sleep on Tuesday night, getting their paperwork and pictures for the mission board taken, and new name tags (they need ones in English now).  Guess it’s a good thing all the projects are finished.

Saw this across the street from a gas station.  Used Cow LOT!!

Friday, we spent 2 hours helping with things for the new arrivals.  All hands on deck.  Then we left for Missoula.  Walt had 2 TIWI’s to replace there.  We had not been to that part of Montana yet.  It’s a 5 hour drive, but the scenery is spectacular.  It is definitely the prettier part of Montana.  But of course, we haven’t seen all of Montana yet.  My sister and mom live there also. We told them we could visit a short time if . . .   everyone wore mask, we stayed outside, everyone stayed 6 feet from us, and hand sanitizer was available.   It may sound like overkill, but I wanted to keep safe and obey the mission rules for this.  It worked out great and made for a great picture.

Missionaries Walt replaced the TIWI's for. 

Our social distancing!

Saturday, we went hiking to a place called Pattie Canyon.  Kristy and Barbara had told us it was pretty there and lots of trails.  It was so beautiful there.  We just can’t get enough of nature, especially here.  About half way through, I was ready for a rest and Walt was ready for more hiking.  We found a nice shady spot with a good view of the big mountains and off he went.  Behind where I was sitting, was a pretty big mountain/hill, that’s where he went.  He was gone about an hour and had jelly legs by the time he got back.  He said once he got to the top, there was another part just as tall, so he came on down.  I enjoyed the sun, the birds, the views and the people on mountain bikes panting like crazy coming up the hill.  We are happy with hiking.  

Cool bridge between the mountains

The next pictures are from our hike

These were all over the woods.  I call them "Upside down flowers"

Sunday, we left in the morning to come back to Billings.  We wanted to be able to take more stops on the way home.  We did find some pretty places to stretch our legs, and take pictures.  We got home by 5 pm. It was so good to be home and not in the car.  It was a fun week-end and a beautiful one as well.

The next pictures are from an area between Butte and Bozeman with lots of boulders.  So cool

Just a fun fact.  Today is Richard Smith’s  (young one) one year anniversary of getting baptized.  He was still deciding if he wanted to and Elder Glover gave him some dates in May to consider.  When May 4th came up, he quickly said “YES!”  He is a Star Wars Fan! May the 4th be with you.  It was a memorable moment and pretty funny.  Whatever works.  

We sure miss all of our friends in Newcastle.  We have made so many close friends there that will be our friends forever.  We look forward to seeing them all again in July.  

I know it’s a short letter this time, but still plenty of pictures.  That’s really the best part.  Mother’s day is on Sunday and we look forward to seeing our moms, if only virtually.  I did remember that Mother’s Day is this coming up Sunday, and bought my mom some  flowers to plant in the yard.  Good timing!

We hope you all continue to be healthy and smart.  Different states have different rules and various amounts of the COVID-19 cases.  The more we all help each other, the better off we all are.  We are so grateful to serve Heavenly Father at this time.  There are too many connections in our timing and placement to every doubt we were meant to come to this mission at this time.  The miracles we have experienced are plentiful, and we feel so blessed to have been a part of them. I love that President Nelson continually encourages us to try more to “Hear Him”, the Savior.  I couldn’t end on a better note than that.