It's a Wonderful Life week #39

This week has  been a lot of doing what we do every week.  It would seem it may be boring, but just the opposite.  It is a wonderful life here at Martin's Cove.  This is such a sacred place that the Spirit is strong.  What more could we ask for.  Any of our senior friends or siblings that are reading this...don't deny yourselves of the great blessing the Lord has in store for you if you will follow his council and serve a mission.

We Share This Sacred Beautiful Place With Friends

We have spent most of our time this week working in the office.  President and Sister Pace are still in Salt Lake receiving treatments at The Huntsman Center.  This puts more on us to do everything that we can on our own.  Our leaders in Salt Lake have told President Pace that he should stay in Salt Lake at least until this series of chemo is finished.  That means the the middle of February is the earliest that he and his wife will be joining us.  We ask for prayers in their behalf.

As usual Elder Smart is sharing his talents and helping all the missionaries with their Family History.  He usually stays an extra couple of hours each night in the office to do this.  This is what he loves!  Our Schwan's truck driver is LDS from Rawlins.  He is the High Councilman over Family History in his stake.  He has recruited Elder Smart to do a couple of Seminars in Rawlins to help the members there learn how to find temple names  This should be fun.

We are really learning to love all the fellow missionaries here.  Sundays are so spiritual.  Our meetings are amazing.  We love going to church and hearing the other missionaries talk and teach.  We had the "opportunity" of speaking in sacrament this week.  We grow each time we have this "opportunity".

We spent our Prep Day at home this week.  It is always good to get some things done around the house and just relax. Two weeks without going to the grocery store is enough, though.  Since we do not have food storage here, nor room to store extra, we will be ready to hit the grocery store tomorrow.

We have had a good snow storm this week.  Pictures below show the church owned snow plow at Martin's cove plowing our driveway and our rover after the storm

The snow here is very different than the snow we get in Utah.  Utah's snow is full of moisture.  The snow here is dry and flakey.  It can be easily blown by the wind.  We plow the roads after a snow storm but the wind continues to blow and it will cause drifts that will sometimes be several feet high.  This then requires us to use the snow plow every day and sometimes more than once a day to plow the roads to remove the drifts.  This has happened this week...one snow storm and plowing all week.  It has been cold and so the snow does not melt. It just drifts.  We had temperatures below 0 one day and the snow froze so hard that we had a very hard time getting rid of any drifts.  It is finally warm enough today that some of it is melting.

Where did our rover go?
Picture is taken from in the house through the window and screen.

Clearing the snow off of our driveway

We have a strong testimony of the gospel and the Plan of Salvation.  Our trials on this earth are necessary for our progression.  We have a loving Heavenly Father and Mother that love us and are routing for us, but they will never take away our agency.  We pray that you all can feel His love and know that you can make it through your trials, for you are a child of deity.

Love always,

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

Happy Birthday this week to Steve Smith.🎂🎂🎂🎂🎂

Winter's Arrived -- Week 38

We titled this one "Winter's Arrived" because we got hit pretty good with a storm, Saturday night and Sunday.  The picture below shows what we woke up seeing on Sunday morning.  It was bad enough that our High Council speaker, who was coming from Casper (60 miles away), called and said he couldn't make it.  So, we had one of those Sacrament meetings where people were called out of the audience.  Speaking of the audience, there were a total of 10 at our meeting -- one couple was gone taking care of family matters and our president and his wife are in Salt Lake dealing with health issues.  

Our Rover Covered

The rest of the week was a little more comfortable.  At one point the weather was so comfortable that we had to look hard to find any snow.  We had some of our usual assignments.  We were in the office, painting signs, cleaning toilets, and one day, our work crew day, we were asked to take a bucket loader tire to Casper and have it replaced with a new one.

New and Old Tire

Of course, once we had the new tire we had to put it back on the loader.  It took fiive missionaries and one John Deere tractor to get the tire back on.

New Tire on Bucket Loader

At one time during the week, things were so relaxed that Sister Smart discovered that she had mis-matched her boots.  Maybe we need to stop watching late ballgames😁😁

Two Different Boots

Guess that about ends it for this week.  We hope this finds everyone well and enjoying life.  We are happy to be here serving.  Missionary work is great!  The Gospel is true.

Love to all,

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

Honoring Our Beloved President Monson Week #37

The weeks are flying past us.  The pace is much slower during the winter off season, but we are still busy.  Elder Smart continues to handle all financial records, the monthly newsletter, and the mission history.  Sister Smart works on the weekly assignments for missionaries, does the program for Sundays, answers the phone, answers mission emails, and schedules school groups and campgrounds.  We assist each other on most of the above.   In addition we are assigned as a couple, weekly cleaning assignments, what ever needs to be done on our work crew day, and serving in the visitors' center.  We also retreive the mail each day and distribute it. Theres are usually other things that we are asked to do, but the above things are every week.  Hopefully this gives you an idea of what keeps us busy.  Below is the weekly assignment sheet that Sister Smart did for this week.  You can also see  2 of 8 pages from Elder Smart's  monthly newsletter

This week's assignment Chart

Page From Newsletter

Newsletter

We enjoyed a fresh halibut dinner on Monday thanks to Elder and Sister Balentine.  They are a couple that served here this summer.  They went halibut fishing when they got home and they froze some and shipped it to us.  It was still frozen when it arrived.  We had some of it a couple of months ago and had the last of it Monday evening.  It was sooooo good!  Fresh halibut is so much better than any we have ever heaten.  Even anti-fish Elder Smart enjoyed it.

Our work crew assignment this week was to clean out the inside of the pickup trucks owned by the

Church here at Martin's Cove.

Elder Smart Washing Truck

Friday afternoon we all gathered in the chapel and watched the funeral of President Monson.  We all feel such great gratitude for his service and example.

Our mission president, President Lonny Pace, has been diagnosed with cancer.  He has been working with the doctors at Wyoming Medical Center in Casper.  He needs to go to Salt Lake to get some tests done and get a suggested treatment plan from Huntsman Cancer Center.  President and Sister Pace will be leaving tomorrow morning and we do not know when they will return.  Our prayers our with them.

Pres Pace in Casper hospital after surgery

President Pace Wiith Back Brace

We want to share our testimony of Jesus Christ.  We know he lives and loves all.  We can only find happiness by being obedient to his commandments.  Obedience brings happiness and prosperity.

We miss all of you and love you.

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

A Fast Week! -- Week 36

This has been a fast but somewhat uneventful week.  It started off on Monday with the new year.  We essentially had the day off.  No meetings.  No assignments -- only family home evening, which consisted of treats and football.

Tuesday was our prep day and we went to Casper to do shopping.  We also ate out at a Mexican restaurant (thanks Alan & Pat).  But mostly we enjoyed just relaxing at home.

Dinner in Casper (On the Border)

Sister Smart at Home (Trying Not to Smell Mice)

Elder Smart Enjoys Sports & Movies

We had visitors' center a couple of times this week.  As usual there are always good things that that happen in the Visitors' Center.  A couple from brought a sculpture from Rawlins as a donation to the mission from a deceased sculpturer.  It represents a family who lost a child who was taken into heaven. 

Another visitor stopped by on his own.  He's moving his family from New Mexico but they won't be coming until August.  Ends up his wife has several ancestors in the handcart companies.  Yes, he's LDS.  On top of that, he's the new Chief of Police in Casper,

Donated Sculpture

In the mean time, all of us at the mission have been praying and fasting for our mission president and his wife.  He struggles with cancer but is very positive.  Our missionaries have really rallied round them and have shown an increase of love and faith toward them.

Pres & Sis Pace (Note His Brace)

Aside from all the forgoing, we continue to manage the office.  We are very involved with year end reports and setting up the new year.

We hope all of you have a wonderful new year, having an ever increasing faith in the Lord.

Please know of our love for family and friends, and our testimony of a loving Father in Heaven!

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

ps  Happy Birthday to our Rachelle on the 11th 

Deer in the Snow