Almost There and There

Only a few more days 'til we report to Martin's. Our mission president has indicated that we are "assigned" to serve in the Martin's Cove Visitors Center. All seems in order, so what could go wrong?

Our car -- Found out on Friday, 21 April, that our car needs a new engine. Wow! Fortunately they had a spare in the local warehouse, so it is supposed to be done on Monday evening (we hope so, since we're supposed to leave on Wednesday.

Illness -- Paul has come down with a good cold. Here's hoping that it will be gone by Wednesday. It wasn't.

Loaded

Well, we took off Wednesday, as instructed by our mission president. We were loaded to the hilt! Had no mishaps on the way. Stopped in Rawlins and got gas and milk. Guess I should say we stopped, once we found it. It was snowing so bad and our windows were frosting up, we actually missed Rawlins and had to turn around once we realized that we missed it.

Missionary Village

About 45 miles north of Rawlins we almost did it again. A small sign on the left of the road points out Missionary Village or Ranch 66 as it is sometimes called. After a short 1 mile, dirt road drive, we came upon our destination. We pulled in to mobile home #1 and discovered our home for the next 6 months. Our neighbors across the street were soon in our yard, helping us unload. Their name is Elder and Sister Schow from Alberta, Canada. They are also our district leaders. They served here last year and seem like really nice people.

Before we had got too far along in our settling, we were told of a pot luck dinner in the pavilion right next to us. That came in handy. We didn’t have to prepare a meal and we got to meet a bunch of the missionaries serving here. One of the couples we met is the Harris’s from Melborne, Florida. They were Bryson and DK Shreeve’s home teachers. We met couples from all over the country.

Our New Home

It Got Worse

Thursday morning we went to a daily orientation and then took off to Casper, about 60 miles away. We particularly wanted phone service so we bought a new phone along with some internet time. Our Sprint and Verizon phones have no service around here. We splurged and ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant. We also did some shopping for the next week. On the way back home we experienced a Wyoming blizzard. We were very happy to be in the car rather than pulling handcarts. We thought it was nice of the schedulers to give us a P-day on the day after our arrival.

Friday was “stay in” day. Roads were closed. Lots of snow fell. We continued to put things away and make our home comfortable. Someone decided that we should get together in the afternoon at the pavilion and watch a movie. Later we finally got our computer set up so we could watch an occasional DVD.

The next day turned out to be our first real missionary day. We dressed in our official trek garb and arrived at 8. For the first hour we cleaned and got ready for visitors. Then from 9 to 2 we took groups and families through the 7 room center. It was fun and faith promoting. It was also emotional as we told the stories of the ranch, the restoration of the gospel, the trail across the plains, the handcart experience, the rescuers, and finally ended with videos, testimonies and hopes for referrals. All in all it was great experience.

Visitor Center Couple

Sunday, our first one, was a unique day. We started out at 9:15. We had to get to the building called the “barn” so we could set up for a pot luck following Church. Our block of meetings was from 10 to 1. Potluck followed the meetings. Then we had a half an hour of district meeting. We learned who our district consisted of – four couples – Schow’s from Canada, Taylor’s from Soda Springs, ID, Hysell’s and us.

We love those we have left behind, but have testimonies of this wonderful work and of our Savior.