Missionaries everywhere!!

Pretty flowers from our hike on Saturday

Our week started off with a bang.  No Memorial Day for us - we had 10 newly reassigned missionaries arriving.  I am in charge of the lunch for all the arrivals.  Since it was Memorial Day, I decided to get some patriotic decorations.  I don't think Walt understands the need for decorations and  such, but I just wanted these missionaries to really feel welcomed.  I think it's been hard for them, coming home from their missions, being released, and just home waiting for reassignment.  I want them to be excited to be here in the Montana Billings Mission.

All ready for some missionaries

We made 4 kinds and I labeled them so there wouldn't be any surprises

The lunch turned out well.  I tried to keep track of how much they ate, to make sure there was enough for Tuesday.  The funny part is that I didn't do the math right and had Plenty!!.  Although the left overs after Tuesday  given to Sister Larson and she served them on Wednesday.   The Monday group didn't really eat that much.  They got to hang around Billings until Thursday when transfers occurred.  They took a hike Tuesday morning, and then had a meeting with the Tuesday group and President and Sister Larson.  Poor Sister Larson had to feed all these missionaries for three nights.  It was wonderful that the weather was so nice and they could set up outside.  Plenty of Elders to help set up table and chairs and Sisters to help Sister Larson.  There were 10 that arrived on Monday and 23 on Tuesday.

Can you tell which sandwiches were the most popular?

President Larson addressing the new group.  33 missionaries.  It's panoramic, so a little distorted

Tuesday's lunch turned out well, but a few surprises.  The Sister Trainer Leaders showed up to lunch a little early to help.  There was a group coming at 12:30 and the bigger group coming at 2 pm.  The Sisters said, "A group is here!"  To my surprise it was the group of 10 from Monday.  I didn't realize they would be there eating.  It's fine - I had plenty.  The other problem was seating.  I did have 2 other tables cloths and quickly got some Elders to set up the extra table and chairs.  It all turned out fine.

Walt, Elder Sanchez, Elder Glover, and Elder C. Lewis

The Tuesday lunch!!  A big crowd

Walt helped me a lot on Monday.  Tuesday he was busy getting cars assigned and getting drivers certified to drive.  We had 8 sets of Elders that were doubled in an area, both new ones.  So one of them needed to be certified to drive.  He was quite busy with his own thing.  I did get the Monday Elders to help me clean up.  I even had a few doing dishes and moping.  Go Elders!!!

Wednesday didn't lighten up much, There were lots of missionaries hanging out when we got to work.  All the sisters hung around my desk.  It was really nice to get to know these two groups.  After breakfast outside, they were shuffled off to a service project doing landscaping at the temple, and another one working on videos for social media.  Our missionaries have done some really good videos.  I have posted some on my FaceBook page - so take a look.  We had some calmness at the office until the end of the day.  

Walt spent the day getting cars ready to go out with the new missionaries.  There were 3 new trucks that needed a TIWI installed.  That is Walt’s job and does it so well.  The guys previously took the whole side dash apart to do the installation.  Walt figured out how to just put it in without all that mess.  I love how smart he is.  

Thursday morning started out early for us.  It was transfer day and one of our favorite sisters from Gillette was leaving (Sister Carlile).  They were headed out at 6:45 a.m. (that was the plan) and so we got up at 6:30 and headed to the mission office.  They didn't leave until 7:15.  It was nice to be there for President Larson's pep talk before they all headed out for various areas.  He is so focused on being obedient and keeping our covenants.  I really like that.  

One last time to see Sis Carlile.  Walt, Me, Sister Carlile, and Sister Pond

Waiting for the loading up and heading out

The trailer is used to transport all the luggage.  The tables and chairs are from breakfast.  The faces you can see are all new sisters.  Sister Veater, Sister Lee and Sister Fellows

So off they all went.  By the way, Elder Glover, our Newcastle buddy, is the new AP (Assistant to the President) serving with Elder Mumford.  It's so cool that we started with Elder Glover and will end with him in Billings.  He had the fun of driving the "space shuttle" van of all sisters to Bozeman for the transfer.  They all meet there and then switched missionaries around.  I totally gave him a hard time about that, and got a picture!

Elder Glover with the Sisters.

The Sisters that are heading West - Sister Carlise, Sister Chase, and the rest are all new ones.

Friday was a lot calmer.  We were all able to get some serious work done.  Walt actually spent the day putting out fires.  A few things had gone awry during transfers, and he had to fix them.  I'm glad it was Friday.  Sister Wild and I spent the day getting all our list updated from all the new ones and transfers.  A lot of areas that had missionaries removed when we lost so many, were now being filled.  We left right at 5 o'clock that day.  We had stayed Monday until 7:30 pm and on Tuesday until 7 pm.  We were ready to go right on time that day.  We were grateful we survived the week.

So now the week-end was here!!!  It's always so nice to relax and not just for a few hours and then prepare for the next day of work.  Saturday, we had our plan for hiking up near Red Lodge.  This is a Ski resort area and has lots of beautiful mountains, camping and hiking.  Another nice aspect is that the drive there is only over an hour.  We were out of the door at 10 am.  That was rather shocking.  We never plan on a specific time, but we were out pretty early.  The first place we stopped was Wild Bill Lake.  They have a picnic area there and the lake.  I was able to start a fire again with the flint and super proud.  Not sure I could have kept it going without Walt's help.  I've got to work on that one.  Hotdogs are so yummy cooked on an open fire.  

Our picnic lunch at Wild Bill Lake.  

Cooking our hotdogs

Then we walked around the lake.  It seems most people go there to fish.  It was definitely a nice day for it.  We just walked/hiked around the lake.  It was quite nice.  Walt saw some great fishing areas; ones that no one was at.   Too bad he doesn't have a Montana fishing license.  

Wild Bill Lake

The next place we went was the Basin.   We didn't know anything about either of these places prior to getting there.  There were two options for this trail; a lower basin and upper basin.  The lower was 2.5  miles and the upper was 4.  We definitely wanted the shorter hike.  The hike went uphill pretty quickly, but we were pleasantly surprised to hear waterfalls not long into the hike.  They were so awesome.  I love when a hike has a “prize” at the end.  We got a prize pretty quickly.  It was rather warm and being near the falls cooled us off.  We hiked along the falls for a while.  It just got better and better.  Then the trail head up again with no trees for shade.  It was switchbacks to get to the other part of the falls.  We stopped a ways up for a rest and were so in awe when we turned around.  The view was magnificent!  We will never get tired of views like that.  There aren’t many in Pennsylvania.  We will really miss the beauty of this area.

The following are all of our hike to the Lower Basin

This is the part of the trail with the switchback and nice view

We got back to the river and took a break.  My toes were hurting again, so I wanted to check my blister.  I had bought some bandages for blisters and brought them with me. When I took off my shoes, I saw it.  Glad I had the bandages.  We had still not reached the lower Basin at this point.  I told Walt to go ahead without me.  I still had to hike back and didn’t want to push it with the blister.  I told him to take good pictures.  I looked at my phone to check weather and saw thunder storms were predicted at 5 pm.  Walt was back in 20 minutes.  I asked him how it was.  He didn’t get there.  He had walked 10 minutes and then asked some girls passing by how much further.  It was still a good distance away.  So he just came back.  We made it down the trail much faster.  Then decided to drive down the road to see what else there was to see.  A lot of people pull up in some random spot that look good to them and set up camp.  That just seems weird to us.  In PA, you can only camp at designated camping areas.  A lot of people have campers here and I think that makes it a bit easier.  The road ended at a trail head right near the river.  We stopped there for some pictures, and I made some sandwiches.  We have learned to come prepared with what you need since most times we ended up out in the woods or mountains.  

Walt got some pictures while I made some sandwiches

Not long after we started driving back, it started to rain, a little at first, then harder and then hail.  Of course!!  The hail didn’t last long and we were out of the rain by the time we got to Laurel.  It never did rain in Billings.  After some homemade pizza, we just chilled on our porch and enjoyed the summer evening.  We had done enough walking for one day.

Today was pretty calm and quiet.  We met with some of the missionaries to participate in the sacrament.  I thoroughly enjoyed the music once again.  We are not sure when we will be able to meet as a ward for church due to stricter rules in the State of Montana.  Wyoming is ready to meet together next week, with social distancing and safe practices in place.  We have to admit, we are a bit jealous and would love to meet with our Newcastle friends again.

So now we start on our final countdown of our mission.  Our magnetic calendar will hold 5 weeks and that is all that is left.  We are starting to getting pretty homesick, but will have no trouble enduring to the end.  When I’m at work, I want to stay and help.  Once home for the day, we’re ready to head back to PA.  I guess even Senior Couples get “trunky”.  It’s a missionary term that describes missionaries at the end of their mission.  They are ready to pack up and go home.  Not everyone gets that way.  We just miss our family.  We miss seeing them, hugging them and just being around them.  These last 5 weeks will probably go by pretty fast.

That is it for the week.  We survived!!   No new missionaries (so far) until June 16th and 17th.  Things can change very quickly though.   We sure miss you all!!  Hope your week is a good one.