Week 7 -- As Busy As We Can Handle

The mosquitoes around here are starting to get really bad – annoying! We have one Elder that just rides a rover around here doing what they call “fogging” (spraying for mosquitoes). We think they come out of the fog laughing at us.

Monday morning we spent a little time doing odd jobs. From about midday until almost 6 we spent the day in Outfitting where we greet trek groups and get them ready to start out on their trek. It’s an interesting process. We go on their buses and assign the ma’s, pa’s, trek leaders and trek medical people places to go. We give each of the groups safety briefings and instructions. Next, if they are not already grouped into families, we assign them to get organized and to get a handcart for each family. Once they have loaded their handcarts and filled their water containers, they walk a short distance to Fort Seminoe. Here they are acquainted with Daniel W. Jones, one of the rescuers and a person who stayed another 7 months after the handcart pioneers left for Salt Lake. Elder Smart told the Dan Jones story, in his usual entertaining way, to a couple of trekker groups.

Outfitting (attached to Fort Seminoe)

Later that day we had a quick dinner and then we were off to home evening. Yes, it was one busy day.

At the Visitors' Center

We felt fortunate to have the late shift, Tuesday, in the visitors’ center. Our shift was from 2:30 until 9. That meant that we could sleep in a little. Sister Smart gave out a copy of the Book of Mormon to a non member and got a referral from some members that she showed through the center. Just before we closed, Elder Smart had the opportunity of taking the last couple of the day through and they were from Draper – didn’t know them, though.

Wednesday we started on the work crew affixing a cabinet to a shed. Sister Smart then began cutting lawns while Elder Smart went to the office trying to figure out finances for the mission and the branch. Our former clerk is having some serious heart problems and has temporarily left for SLC. We spent the rest of the day in Outfitting greeting one very large group from Colorado and one smaller group from Logan. Elder Smart told the Dan Jones story 3 times today. We had a square dancing assignment that evening for one of the groups, but they decided cancel just like the group we were assigned to on Monday. That was okay with us. We were “too pooped to pop”.

Group Arrives at Outfitting

Handcarts at Outfitting

We spent all day Thursday in Outfitting. Actually we spent more than all day in Outfitting. Our first Trek arrived at 5:30 am from Cedar City. They weren’t supposed to be there until 6:30. We heard the news over our mission radios and made it in by 7. They were just finishing breakfast. We continued welcoming 3 other groups that day. However, Sister Smart took off with the last small family group as their trek host. During a lot of the day we occupied the “Trek Center” where each of the groups come after their experience in the fort. Here we welcome them, introduce them to their trek host, start the trek with prayer, sing the song “Fire and the Covenant”, play a short video, tell them the story of Patience Loader (Sister Smart) and then send them on their way down the trail. With the last group of the day, Sister Smart was the one who walked with them on the trail to Martin’s Cove. She also discovered that some of them were related to her through William James, who died at Rock Creek Hollow. Didn’t get home until about 7:30 – once again, very tired but happy to serve. By the end of this day there were some 1500 trekkers on our trails.

Trek Center

Friday, Elder Smart spent most of his day in the office working on mission and branch finances. We also had an assignment to clean one of the buildings on the homestead – the sewing center. Since Sister Smart was assigned to scrape benches at one of the trek camp grounds, Elder Smart started the sewing room cleaning in between his office work. Sister Smart came back to the homestead for lunch and finished the cleaning. It was a busy day for both of us. Because Saturday was p-day, we finished the evening by relaxing with a DVD.

Our p-day was spent in Rawlins. We did our shopping, washed and gassed our car, and had lunch at Bucks. We spent a leisurely afternoon and did some wash. Oh did we mention our afternoon nap.

Sunday is always a great day. We always enjoy our Church meetings. We enjoy our pot luck dinner afterwards. And did we mention an afternoon nap?

We would like to mentioned that Harlie became our first seminary graduate. We are very proud of her💓! Our faith and prayers go out to Kathie who had a serious operation this past week. Also in our prayers are Steve and Rachelle on the passing of Steve's grandmother.

That's enough for this week. Please know that we have a strong testimony of the gospel and that we love you all.😇

Grandma & Grandpa, Mom & Dad, Annie & Paul, Sister and Elder Smart