HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!

From one of our walks

This has been one of the most relaxing Mother’s Day.  For once, LOTS, of Mothers got to sleep in a little and not spend the morning getting the children ready for church.  That is a gift all in itself.  It was a quiet but nice day here for us.  Walt set up a time to Zoom meet with his mom and our daughters.  His mom has really missed being able to see the family.  Christmas was the start of a long spell of not family visits and still continues.  I would say  Zoom has been a wonderful asset to many people’s lives right now.  Just think of all the tech savvy seniors that are out there now.  Do we count as seniors?  I guess it depends on who you ask.

This week has been one of the most intense since we’ve been here.  We have never been so happy to have Friday come.  Monday started out as the “calm before the storm.”  Our big group of missionaries being reassigned from a foreign mission to ours, arrived on Tuesday.

I thought Monday would be crazy, but lots of decisions hinged on where President Larson would assign them to serve.  So glad I have nothing to do with that part.  Just doing what I am told works fine for me.  I did finalize on Monday who wanted/needed new names tags in English, and which kind they preferred.  We did know when each flight was arriving on Tuesday, but it is the President and the AP’s (Assistants  to the President) that decided about transportation and such.  President Larson was up past midnight making area assignments.  

Tuesday was the BIG DAY!  I arrived to the office and found a sticky note on my desk with the word LUNCH, and then a menu listed below.  I assumed it was for me, and started seeing what we had in stock and what would need to be ordered.  I checked with Sister Larson about timing, and started.  Costco now delivers for free and quickly.  I ordered everything we needed for lunch at 9:30 and it was at the office by 10:25.  That is impressive.  I had to rethink the usual sandwich order the office does because Costco isn’t doing those right now.  After consulting with Sister Wild, I called a local sub shop that was able to handle a large order to be picked up a few hours later.  I found out later, Sister Larson had left that sticky note on my desk by accident, but was so grateful for my jumping in and taking charge.  I just assumed it was for me.  Glad I could help.  

Our first group arrived at the office about 12:30 pm.  The AP’s brought them to the office for “processing”.  If it works for cows, it works for missionaries!.  Sister Wild took their picture, and gave out paperwork to be completed, while I made copies of their license, medical card, and driving history and took their passports.  We keep them safe in the mission home, but some looked quite concerned when I asked for them.  This is quite the change for all these missionaries.  They were serving in various countries - New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Mexico, and Canada.  The first group was only 5.  The second group that arrived around 2:30 had 16!  It was interesting to keep them in small groups of 10 or less, and still circulating to where they needed to be.  They arrived at the office, got processed and then were taken to the Sweetgrass chapel for lunch and finishing their paperwork.  Some time later, they were farmed out to various other missionaries to spend the night.  There is an upstairs “Bunk house” at the mission office and 4-6 Elders slept there.

The last group arrived at 8:30 pm.  The Wilds and us came back to the office to take care of them as well.  It was a lot calmer than earlier that day.  While waiting for them to arrive, we chatted up the Elders that were staying at the Bunk House for the night.  It was fun to hear their questions about Montana; especially food and weather.  Most of these missionaries were serving in very warm parts of the world and thought it was already chilly.  They’ll learn - like we did.  3 Elders arrived about 8:45 and then the last 2 sisters arrived about 9:15.  Our Sister from PA was in that group.  When she came in, I said, “I’m not supposed to be hugging anyone, but I’m going to hug you anyway.”  It was so cool to see her after all these years!!  We even remembered to get a selfie with Sister Kim.  We finally left around 9:45 pm.  The Wilds didn’t get to leave until 10:30 pm.  It was a long, intense, but exciting day.

Walt, Me, and Sister Megan Kim

I figured Wednesday might be busy, but it was definitely busy.  Most of the missionaries left that morning to their new areas.  They were dispersed to Bozeman, Helena, Great Falls, and Wyoming.  Lots were put into areas in Billings, mostly taking combined areas and splitting them apart.  There were about 4-5 sets that were doubled into an area.  (That is when two new missionaries are put into an area together.). It’s all an adventure.  Walt was busy with getting cars reassigned, qualifying people to be able to drive by training them and getting the necessary paperwork completed.  He was busy for 2 days with that.  I think that will continue through the end of the month, since we are getting 10 more missionaries on several different days.  I don’t think his job is ever not busy.  

After President Larson gets the new assignments into the computer for the mission, we start updating all the charts, lists, etc.  Then in 2 weeks we get to do it again.  This one was the most difficult because of the large number of missionaries that arrived  Sister Wild has the most to do with updates.

My next big task this week was DVR’s. (Driver Vehicle Report) The drivers have to turn one in every month.  There are 94 mission cars.  This is something I am able to help Walt with every month.  I gather, check information and then harass the ones who are late.  I start off nice and then it gets to the point I give them a phone call stating Elder Vann needs that in by 12 that day.  I am always nice, but straight to the point when it’s getting down to the wire.  We received the last 3 on Friday.  Walt has a report he has a deadline for as well.

This past week, our mission had 5 baptisms!! That was so exciting, but I had to go over my notes to make sure I knew what to do.  That can be a busy job just getting all of that completed.  I think the hardest part is entering the information into the Church record system.  Some of these missionaries don’t write clearly, and the information I am typing in for this new convert is their official record.  One form was so difficult to decipher that I just called the newly baptized person on the phone to confirm information.  She was really sweet about it.

So literally, every day this week, was jam packed with things to do.  We left every night just exhausted.  On  Wednesday, we found out a set of Elders would be moving into the Thomas’ old apartment, same complex as ours.  This is where we were keeping our extra freezer items.  We had the keys, so Walt met them there that evening.  We decided to use our last restaurant gift card (Texas Roadhouse) for dinner that night.  We were so glad to have that.  Some restaurants started having dine in seating in limited numbers on Friday, but we are still good with just curb side pickup.

By Friday, we were so glad to have the week-end.  We needed some down time.  When President asked if anyone had plans for the week-end, I piped up with “We’re going hiking - somewhere.”  Walt did some investigating on line and I checked the weather for our weekly Saturday adventure.  He picked a perfect place - Pine Creek.  We drove to Livingston and then just a short drive down the road is this beautiful tiny place.  It’s not really a town.  There is a town sign, and a school (they actually use an old one room school house that has been added to a little), but I didn’t even see a post office.  It is near one of the Yellowstone Park entrances; which are all still closed for now.  

Be

Such a beautiful sky and huge pines

It was such a beautiful day.  It was in the high 50’s and total sun.  The hike was a moderate one; several stretches of uphill but plenty of level hiking.  There were some great patches of mud, and a tiny bit of snow.  At one point, we weren’t sure if we should keep hiking or go back.  There was supposed to be a waterfall, but hadn’t seen it and it was getting late.  The river was right there but saw no signs of the falls.  We decided to give it a little longer and were so pleased to hear it just a little ways longer.  It was well worth the effort.  The last bit of the hike was steep.  I always love to have a “prize” at the end.  This was definitely a prize.  I wish we could have just stayed there for a long time, but the trail was popular that day and it’s just not the same having other people hanging around. 

Love being near the water

Our waterfall Prize - Pictures never do it justice

Walt getting a better shot

This is the bridge in front of the water fall.

We did stop at a place prior to that with a nice group of boulders near the river.  I found a sunny one to sit on and just enjoyed.  Walt went on adventuring - it’s what he does.  He found some really nice rocks that are almost an emerald color when wet or you shine a flash light behind them.  He looked it up and found they are called Aventurine. He finds some really cool things.  I tease him and say, when it’s time to pack up to go home, there will be a pile of food and a pile of rocks and we’ll have decide which one gets to go.  I guess the best solution is to eat more!!

Aventurine

It was just a wonderful day.  Even the drive to Pine Creek and back was beautiful!  It’s sad to think we only have 7 more hikes to enjoy.  So many hikes; so little time!

The next few pictures are just some of the beautiful sights from that trip

Thursday, we were able to participate in a Zoom discussion with Haley and the Newcastle Elders.  We are happy to be able to be part of that.  We are hoping things work out that she can be baptized while we are still here and can attend.

There was still snow near the tops.  Not sure if that is frozen water or snow.

We have been enjoying the flowers and flowering trees as we take nightly walks.  There are lots of tulips and the lilacs are starting to blossom everywhere.  On Saturday before we left for our hike, we notice some writing on the sidewalk and some flowers.  We went to investigate.  There must be an annual Women’s Walk/Run here and someone writes encouraging notes and leaves flowers or other decoration with them.  We walked to a few of them and took pictures.  It’s a cool thing to do.  I don’t think they were having it this year, but the encouraging messages worked well with Mother’s Day being the next day. 

I just wanted to give a shout out to all the Mothers!!  It’s a tough job!  As they say “Motherhood is not for wimps.”  I have loved being a mom and the things it has taught me, and the ways it has helped me to grow as a person.  It is one of the most rewarding opportunities I have been blessed with.  Walt and I have both been blessed with good mothers and other women who have blessed our lives.  We have met some amazing mothers on our mission;  some that are older and others that are younger than us.  We learn great things from all of them.  We are so grateful for that.

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mothers (some of you are both mothers and fathers)!  We love you all.