Happy Spring!

This mountain peak is called "The Three Kings" for the three spikes points

Happy Spring!

There are so many things blooming here!  My favorite are the lilacs.  This week, I picked some for my desk.  Walt isn’t fond of the smell, so it’s possible it might keep him at a distance.  Just teasing.  He is so good about helping me with things.  I will come into his office with a question or a problem and he just stops and helps me.  I am not that way.  If I am in the middle of a project or something that requires a lot of details and he comes to my desk, I shoo him away.  I’ve got to work on that.

The office is a busy place these days.  There is no longer a lack of something to do.  It seems once we get a group of new missionaries all situated then we are planning for the next group.  The next two weeks will be very busy.  On Tuesday (19th) we have only 5 new ones (reassigned from a foreign mission) and 19 leaving to go home on Friday.  The following week really gets going.  Monday (Memorial Day) we currently, currently being the optimal word, have 23 arriving, Tues (27th) 11 arriving and then one a day the rest of the week; even Saturday.  Things can change pretty quickly though.  Tuesday, after our staff meeting, Sister Wild’s email started dinging like crazy.  In 30 minutes we went from one on the 25th and one on the 26th to 23 and 11.  At least we have more time to prepare than the last time.

I am seeing an increase in my duties with food.  The arriving group will need lunch.  Probably the same menu as last time, but this time there should be a sufficient amount of food.  This small group will be good practice for the larger groups coming in the following week.  I would much rather have food left over than run out like last time.  I did consult a few missionaries (Elders and Sisters) about how much they would eat.  On Friday, there is the tradition of pizza for lunch.  I have figured out all the quantities, places to get the food and am ready for next week.  

We had four baptisms last week!  That makes 8 so far this month!  I hope we keep on this roll.  I am getting much faster and efficient at getting the baptism pictures done for the board.  I try to get them up by Monday.  Right now the space on the board is getting shared more half and half, since pictures of the arriving missionaries go up there as well.  Missionaries that come by the office love to check out the board.  Sometimes these new ones are people that were in their home town.  

Walt spent a lot of this past week playing Fireman  - putting out fires.  One instance was when one set of missionaries took their car in for repair and neglected to take the gas card with them.  Someone took it from the car and was using it.  They were successful at obtaining a car wash, but the card was declined at the grocery store.  Thank goodness the credit card company notified Walt.  He has also spent a lot of his time this past week qualifying newly arrived missionaries to be able to drive.  Legally, they have to have a certain amount of training about safety and driving a mission vehicle prior to driving.  

Elder Lowther and Elder Barton, me and Walt

Friday, we drove up to meet the Hamilton Elders to switch trucks.  It works well to do it on Fridays and then we have the opportunity to visit trails in that area.  The next two Fridays will be very busy, so it was this week or wait a while.  The weather started off pretty nice on Friday, but got rainy the closer we got.  When we drove through the pass in the mountains in Butte, it was snowing.

We checked into our hotel before meeting up with the Elders.  That way we got all of our things out ahead of time.  We got an upgrade on our room, and ended up with a King suite.  It was pretty sweet.  It even had a balcony with a sliding glass door over looking a creek.  We ended up with 3 hours before finishing up with the truck switch and a zoom meeting with one of the Mission Presidency, President Snyder.  So we went for a drive down Rattlesnake road; which leads to the Rattlesnake river.  We had on our regular missionary clothes, but the path was just a normal type wooded path.  The river wasn’t far and we went to check it out.  There were so many beautiful river rocks there.  Walt went back to the car to get a back pack.  We spent about a half hour collecting rocks and walking along the river.  A much better way to spend our time than hanging out in the hotel room.  

Flowers at the Rattlesnake River

Rattlesnake River.  Love those river rocks

Saturday, turned out to be a very nice day.  In fact, it got a little warm while we were hiking.  When we saw the Elders on Friday, we talked about hiking and they recommended Como Lake.  We haven’t hiked to or around a lake here yet, so that sounded great.  Then we found out there is a waterfall there.  So Saturday, we headed to Lake Como.  It is so pretty in that part of Montana.  Lots of huge mountains, evergreens and rocks.  Hamilton is located in the Bitterroot Valley.  There are several mountain ranges there - Sapphire Mountains, Trappers Peak and the Three Kings (think that one is a nick name) are the ones I remember.

We came prepared for a weeny roast for lunch.  We brought our newly acquired flint and I was able to start it pretty well; quite proud of myself.  There was enough twigs and small wood, plus pine needles to start a decent fire for cooking 4 hotdogs.  Walt carved some green sticks for roasting.  I am sure glad we ate before we hiked.

Looks like I'm trying to burn the hotdogs.  Como Lake in the back ground

The hike started out well.  The beginning is paved; which at first felt lame. Then not too far later, it become a real hiking  trail.  Some of it was pretty rocky and other parts were covered with pine needles - more cushy.  We didn’t know how far the waterfalls would be.  The Elders said it was an 8 mile hike around the entire lake.  After a while, we saw some water falls way across the other side of the lake.  It looked very far away.  We just kept hiking.  There were quite a few people with the same idea of hiking that trail, and many times we stood aways off the path to allow someone to hike through.  The trail wasn’t very wide and we were trying to keep our social distance.  I did ask a guy passing by if those falls across the lake were the ones we would be hiking to.  He said, it would take quite a hike to get to those.  The ones we were probably looking for were at the end of the lake, much closer.  We were grateful to hear that.  We came to a fast running stream that sure looked cool and inviting.  It had gotten progressively warmer and cooling off our feet sure sounded good.  It was cold, but quite refreshing.  We saw quite a bit of traffic there and most people gave a comment or two about how cold it must be and how they thought it was a good idea.  

Lake Como

Creek where we cooled our feet

We traveled on, and would get excited every time we heard the sound of water.  The second time, it was a river.  It was a little tricky to cross.  I like to watch someone else cross first if possible, to see which way they wen.  Sometimes that works for me and other times, not.  My stride is so much shorter than most and going from one rock to another can be tricky.  We both did fine.  Our hiking poles help a lot with balance for that type of thing.  They are one of the best things we brought with us on our mission.  We bought them when we started hiking the Appalachian trail in PA.   It seemed to take forever to get to the falls.  It always seems longer when you aren’t sure how far to go.  We passed an open area that had a field of flowers on one side and an open area to the lake.  Quite a few people had stopped there for a nice break.

Me crossing the creek

The field of flowers

Opening to the lake.  Walt was able to get a picture without people in it.

The trail, mountain on other side of the lake

Really cool tree stump Walt saw

Onward we went.  Finally, we could hear the roar of the falls.  Then the trail split and it wasn’t very specific indicating which way to go.  Walt figured it would be down and I was to stay put until he checked it out.  I just wanted to see the falls, so I hiked the upward trail.  That area had camping and the the top area of the falls.  It was so amazing.  I totally forgot about staying put and went to the water.  The power of that rushing water was so thrilling.  I wanted to get closer.  Then I saw Walt coming and he was not happy with me.  That was quite understandable since I didn’t do as we had agreed.  I would have felt the same way.  We both sat down on the rocks near the river and just took it all in.  One of the places I sat, felt like you were almost part of it all.  I didn’t get too close; that would have been a disastrous situation, if I fell in. 

Then we climbed down the side of the falls until we got to the bottom.  It was like a small canyon.  When we sat close, we could feel the coolness and it felt wonderful.  We would have liked to have stayed a long time, but as usual, time was ticking away.  It had taken us 2 1/2 hours to hike there. (It was a 3 1/2 mile hike to the falls.) We had not walked at a hurried pace, just taking our time, enjoying the scenery.  We figured we should try to get back a little faster.

Along the way there, some of my toes were getting sore.  I just figured it was the rocky path.  I commented to Walt and he said it sounded like I might be getting a blister.  There was no sense in seeing till we were back.  Walt’s knees started to hurt and then his ankle.  He was wearing an older pair of sneakers and there wasn’t much cushion from the rocky path left in them.  You would think with hiking every week-end, our bodies would hold up a little better than this.  The trail seemed to last forever on the way back.  The longer we walked, the more painful things became.  We were delighted to see the paved part, but found it hurt our feet more than the rugged trail.  We were so very grateful to get back to our truck.  We sat down and took off our shoes.  I didn’t have just one blister, I had 4.  One is quite huge on my big toe, the toe that kept hurting on the hike.  Then one on my heel; same foot, and two on the toes of my other foot.  The only thing I can figure is that I was wearing Walt’s socks, which are thicker than I normally wear and the long hike just rubbed everything the wrong way.  There was no way I was getting those shoes back on.  That left me with no good alternatives for shoes.  Not far down the road, we spotted a Family Dollar store and I walked in with just socks.  I should say- limped in and gingerly, to see if they had some slide in type sandals.  They did - but boy are they ugly.  The were soft enough and worked.  Beggars can’t be choosey.  

Walt drove half way home; despite his sore feet and knees.  He’s my hero.  Once we were on the highway, I took over since I can use cruise control.  We looked up directions to get home from that point and it was 6 hours away.  Dang it.  We were following the directions; looking for Route 43.  Somehow we missed the turn and then Walt sees a sign that says, “Welcome to Idaho.”  That’s not in our mission!  We stopped at the sign, got a selfie, and turned around.  Thank goodness Route 43 was only a tiny bit away.  It was so scenic.  The road went up and down the mountains and was windy.  The tops of the mountains were still covered with a good amount of snow.  At least we didn’t hike there.  

We crossed the Continental Divide several times

Backing up a bit, there were so many beautiful wild flowers along our trail to the water fall.  We both got some good pictures.  The only two I recognized were Blanket flowers and  Red Painted Brush.  There were some gorgeous purple ones and some white ones that reminded me a lot of azaleas.  It might be a wild version; they were white flowers.  It sure made the journey delightful.  So glad we hiked it in the spring.  We also saw some tiny purple butterflies.  It would have been really cool to get a picture of them, but they move too fast.  I have never seen butterflies like them before.

Red Paint Brush

Blanket flowers.  They grow in bunches all along the mountain sides

The middle of this flower is so awesome

It was a long day, but pretty wonderful, (if we don’t count the blisters, sore feet, knees and ankle).  Today it is still a bit tricky to walk around.  I am sporting my glittery sandals and wonder if that is what I will be wearing to work tomorrow.   I sent a picture to Kate and she said - Just wear them proud.  We’ll see.  The weather is supposed to be pretty warm this week, so maybe my other sandals will work.

Speaking of weather - it has really been some kind of crazy weather this past week.  Monday was cold and dreary and then it started to snow.  Nothing really sticking but we like the warm weather better.  It stayed that way most of the week and then it got pretty nice.  Yesterday when we were hiking, it got to the low 70’s.  Today it’s in the low 80’s and will be that way for a few days.

Lake Como

Today was really nice.  The new thing today was the cottonwood trees.  It’s that time of year when the seedlings (not sure if that is the right term) blow all around, like cotton in the air.  That’s something we don’t experience in PA.  We found out Walt is allergic, as many people are. I spent a good amount of time outside on our porch, resting up my feet, but Walt had to stay inside.  It got a bit too warm by the afternoon, so we are both in for the night.  

We hope you all are doing ok.  Sometimes it’s rather nice to be in our mission “bubble” with all that is going on in the world.  Reality will come soon enough.  We only have 6 weeks left.  We’re not sure how it will go at the mission office when we are finished.  Things are just too up in the air to know.  We can’t wait to see you and give lots of hugs (hopefully by then it’s allowed).