Spring peeked out

We were actually able to be outside without our jackets on.  I was in Spanish Fork and actually overheard someone say, “summer has arrived”.  I’m not jumping on that bandwagon yet, but have really enjoyed the warmer weather.  So spring looks like it may have finally found us in Cove Fort this week.

Apple tree ready to blossom

 Things were very busy last Sunday at the fort and I was able to split from Stephen and take some solo tours.  Our director, Elder Christensen, has requested that we go out as couples when we are slow and have plenty of man/woman power.  I on the other hand prefer to go out on my own, but that is just me and so far I have done what I’ve been told (as an aside, we passed a little teardrop trailer the other day on the freeway that had a sticker on it that said “I go where I’m towed” – I thought it was cute).  One of the tours I took was with a single woman who was working at the University of Arizona, at Flagstaff, and finishing her Masters of Fine Arts in Writing.  She is planning to start a historical sites blog/book this summer.  I loved taking her around because she was interested in all of the historical aspects and reasons for why the fort was built here.  When I asked if she wanted a Book of Mormon she was very quick to turn me down, but did give me her email address so that I could send her additional pictures of the outbuildings that weren’t open that day.  

The rest of the week was relatively slow with only one day with over a 100 visitors and one with only 61 and that included people just stopping to use our restrooms (they are the best between SLC and St. George – they should be with four FM couples assigned to keep them sparkling). The big excitement one morning was when a herd/flock of about 3000 sheep was driven down the road in front of the fort.  It included three "sheepboys" on horseback and several dogs.  We actually saw the same flock later in the day walking along the mountain side headed towards Richfield.

Friday the director changed our opening hours because there were some early morning visitors.  We will now be opening the fort at 8:00.  No more sleeping in for us.  Stephen and I took two tours through the fort.  The interesting thing was that they were each with a couple from foreign countries.  So maybe you don’t count Canada as a foreign country, but the other people were visiting from Liverpool, England.  I thought that we might get a referral from the Canadians but in the end we were only able to plant, and fertilize, some gospel seeds.  The Canadians just happened on the fort after stopping at the Chevron station to use their restrooms (my job this week is to walk up and check out those restrooms to make sure that they aren’t as nice as ours).  They said they had about 15 minutes, but they were with us for over an hour.  He was taking pictures of everything in the fort and in the outbuildings as well.  We even had a conversation about the “ay” part of their language – they really do say that a LOT.  The English couple had a family member tell them about the fort.  They had stopped in Las Vegas and seen the remains of the Mormon fort in the old downtown area and were showing us pictures of it.  I am definitely going to have to learn more about that fort and stop to see it the next time we drive through.

Monday we worked late, so we did some geocaching in the morning.  Someone has set out twenty geocaches on the road in front of the fort.  They weren’t very exciting but it did help my caching numbers go up.  We also went for a hike to the fort’s well water storage on a hill close to the trailer park.  You can see in some of the photos where the fire a few years ago wiped out a lot of the trees.  It was a fun walk with a little rock climbing/scrambling thrown in.   

 Thursday was P-day and so we drove into Beaver to do a little grocery shopping at the dam (just kidding).  We drove out southwest of town to Minersville.  There really isn’t anything in Minersville that we found, but at least now I don’t have to keep worrying about what I might be missing out there.  We were searching for geocaches along the way.  The one I liked the best was one I didn’t find the cache but thought that the history of it was interesting.  It was an old dance floor, down the side of the road to Minersville, where the locals would come on the weekends to party and dance.  It was rumored that the kids would be sleeping in the cars while the parents were having a good time and/or fist fighting depending on their moods.  I of course left my camera in the car and didn’t get a picture of the place but it was very nice with a stream running along the side of the dance floor.  It looked as though someone still uses it, as there were signs of a campfire and also a portable barbecue.

Manti Temple

Wednesday we had the opportunity to travel to Manti with Elder C and two other couples to do a session at the Manti Temple.  It is about 90 minutes from us.  We had been there with Stephen’s grandfather twenty-five or thirty years ago and I had forgotten the beauty of the craftsmanship of the   The temple itself is amazing – not only the seven story high spiral staircases, but the way it is laid out and the fact that they do “live” sessions there.  I went to sit down in the chapel when I noticed Stephen sitting up on the stand.  We had the opportunity to serve as the witness couple.  I’m glad that I didn’t fall down the steps going to and from the altar in one of the rooms.  It was a great experience and I can hardly wait to go back there again.

early pioneers.

 

Geoff is in the gray chasing the ball on the right

Stephen and I swapped shifts on Friday so that we could get to Provo before dark.  We had gotten permission from the mission president for us to go outside the mission boundaries to go to Samantha’s baptism.  We got to Provo in time to spend time with Cory and his family.  Stephen even got to practice his babysitting skills as he watched the kids while Cory and Suzanne went to a ward activity.  Saturday we got to go and watch Geoffrey, Cory’s second son, play in a soccer game – it was nice to be able to watch him participate since we haven’t had any grandkids around our area to go and support at games.  I’m very impressed with all of you who spend hours at your grandkids’ activities. 

Samantha and Matt Shirts prior to baptism

The highlight of our week was Samantha’s baptism.  Her folks arrived at the stake center at the same time we did.  It was interesting to see her walk across the parking lot in her little white jumpsuit looking already for her baptism.  In Utah, at least in Jenny and Cory’s wards/stakes, they meet together in the chapel and then dismiss the families one at a time for their baptism and then each family is sent to a different room for the confirmation.  Maybe it is that way in our ward/stake at home but since I haven’t gone to a baptism at home in a long time I have no idea.  Stephen was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost.  He stressed over that for most of the week and was glad when it was delivered.  He did fine.  Each of the children, all three of them, were asked to come up and bear their testimonies before they were baptized and then we sang their favorite Primary song.  It really was a very nice service.  It was great to see Matt exercising his priesthood authority as he held Sam’s hands and baptized her.  She was radiant when she came up out of the water.  Jenny had a great luncheon prepared for all of us.  I am always impressed with her entertaining/cooking abilities.  This was a great weekend for the Shirts since besides the baptism, they were able to go to Matt’s graduation from Weber State yesterday where he was awarded his Bachelor’s of Nursing (or it might be a BA – I’m just not certain).  

Payson Temple

Provo City

On the way home yesterday, we drove past two temples that are in the process of construction.  There were two huge cranes on either side of the Provo City Temple which are just newly placed as Cory had just recently noticed them.  It really looks like the outer walls of the temple are just floating when you drive by.  The other photo is of the Payson Temple which has been under construction for several years (according to Cory).  We took the picture as we were speeding by on the freeway but it still shows how there is nothing around it on the freeway side.

That is it for another week.  I should mention that the second original artifact that is located at the fort is the rocking chair that belonged to Adelaide Hinckley.  It was returned to the fort by President Hinckley’s children. 

Is it Spring yet?

That's the Prius in the foreground

When we were packing for our mission, I checked with Ashley to see if the clothes that I’d selected were appropriate.  Her comment to me was that most of them were for cold weather.  I have to tell you that I evidently didn’t pack for cold weather because we were freezing on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We woke up to snow covering the ground on Wednesday.  We’d hoped that we were over this type of weather as you may remember that we arrived last week with snow on the ground as well.  Things were pretty slow at the fort for those two days.  Wednesday we spent our morning shift sitting in the MPR watching the snow fall through the large bank of windows.  It really was beautiful – from the warmth of the MPR.  It was even beautiful outside  when we took a couple of tours but I was definitely was wishing that I was wearing my Levis, gloves, scarf, and hat (none of which I have with me). 

Cove Fort on Wednesday -- BRRR!!!

Monday we took our first excursion to one of the surrounding towns.  We traveled south to Beaver to do some shopping for things that we were in need of.  While in town I stopped at the Public Library and was surprised to find that they would let the missionaries at Cove Fort check out materials but that there was a $10 fee.  I have decided that we definitely don’t need to read those books – whatever happened to Ben Franklin’s idea of a free library?  Oh well – it seems to be a common practice because they were going to charge me $20 in Richfield.  To make myself feel better, I went geocaching but only found two our of the four that we were looking for.  We did go to the Cache Valley Cheese factory to pick up our obligatory bag of curds – if Kevin were here I’d share them with him.

This week, when the weather warmed up at the end of the week, we were able to take several tours through the fort.  Most of them have been members who have never been here before and had finally decided to stop.  Two of the couples we took through had served at Cove Fort as missionaries.  It was nice to talk with them and hear how things had been in the past and learn some of the ways that they shared the gospel with the visitors in the various rooms in the fort. 

Thursday was our Prep Day and so we left for a drive over the mountains to The Forgotten Corridor.  As you can see the mountains still had a lot of snow on them.  There were warnings for ice on the highway bridges, but since the road is I70 they keep it clear of snow.  We drove through Joseph (named by Joseph Young, Brigham’s oldest son), Monroe (where my mother had lived with her second husband for several years), and then into the thriving metropolis of Richfield.

Cemetery marker at HS

Richfield really is the biggest city around – they have all the usual businesses such as Big 5, Pizza Hut, Autozone, Dollar Tree, Kmart and Walmart, Deseret Industries, the new version of Albertsons, and a clothing store owned by our Cove Fort Directors called Christensens.  We spent the morning exploring around the town and doing some comparative shopping.  After a little geocaching which took us to a block of LDS buildings including the Academy Hall that they used in a way similar to the United Order and to the High School where they had moved the pioneer cemetery to accommodate the football stadium.  Stephen was dying (no reference to the last sentence) to eat out so we had lunch before doing our shopping for the week.  We ate at a little establishment called Pepper Belly’s so we could get our Mexican food fix.  The food was good and the interior  was decorated with old signs and supplies from service stations of the 50’s era.  It was a very pleasant place to spend some time.  We were quite surprised to find that they only charged us half the amount of our bill – they evidently give a missionary discount since that was what was written on the bill.  I would love to go back again, but feel a little guilty doing that .

This week we were given a tour of all of the outbuildings by Elder Ence (one of the  FM missionaries).  It was interesting to see the things up close and to gain more knowledge of the  things in the buildings.  During Cove Fort Days we may be stationed at these buildings so it is important to learn about their uses.

Evenings some time pass a little slowly.  I especially miss the nightly walks.  I’ve been able to walk to the fort to go to work three times so far and hope to do it all the time as long as the weather cooperates and it is not too windy.  (As a side note, the first day when I walked I forgot to change out of my tennis shoes so Sis. Christensen pulled me out to talk to me about my attire -- I quickly explained that I'd just forgotten to change and all was well.)  This week I was able to finish Jenny’s pioneer outfit that I told her I would do for her.  It kept me busy but I’m glad to say that it is done and ready to take to her next week.

I promised to mention one of the three original items that are located in the fort.  The first one that people see is the mantle clock that Pres. Hinckley brought to the fort on May 21, 1994 when he dedicated the fort.  They tell us that it actually works, but to help preserve it they never wind it – or so they tell us.  Come back next week to see one of the other original artifacts.

Hinckley Clock in Angeline's Room

Cove Fort today, 4/21/2013

First Week at Fort Cove

This has been a great week!  We started the week by watching General Conference in the Conference Center with Wayne and Libby Clarke sitting right next to us.  We had lunch at Jenny’s house with her family and arrived in Provo in time to meet Cory’s family at our hotel to watch the afternoon session of conference.

Monday, we started our MTC training with just the couples that will be serving at a visitors’ center or historical site.  They invited us to go to Temple Square in SLC to take a tour with the sister missionaries.  The trainers wanted us to see what it felt like to be a guest on a tour before they turn us loose giving them.  The sisters that we were with did a good job.  The thing that I liked the least was when they asked for a referral and then didn’t say anything for 3-4 minutes – that was VERY uncomfortable.  Right along the lines of a very slow day at Fast and Testimony meeting.  After training, Stephen and I spent our evening at BYU in the family history section.  Cory had told us about the recent digitization of the Church’s Missionary Index from the beginning of the church to 1972, so we spent most of our time looking in it.  You may want to check that out to find information about your ancestors that may have served missions for the church.

Stephen at the MTC on Tuesday morning during the snow storm.

There was a big snowstorm on Tuesday in the Rocky Mountain areas including Utah and Wyoming.  It was so bad that the twenty couples going to the Mormon Handcart Historical Sites were told to wait to leave until Friday.  The area was snowed in and the water in the pipes was frozen.  Luckily it wasn’t that bad at Cove Fort.

At the MTC we practiced how to give brief gospel messages when you have just a short time with people.  This is a very hard concept for most people to grasp.  One to two sentences stretched into two or more paragraphs.  As some of you may be thinking, this was not a difficult assignment for Stephen and I.  One of the things that I learned that I hadn’t realized before was that Preach My Gospel was written by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve.  The trainers quoted Elder Boyd K. Packer as saying that Preach My Gospel was “written from behind the veil”.  An interesting story about the book involves the bulleted portions on pp. 176 and 177.  Evidently Pres. Packer wrote them and gave them to the committee to include in the book.  When he saw a copy of the draft he noticed that they had changed his wording and told them to put it in exactly as he had given it to them.  This may just be Mormon Myth material but it was shared at the MTC so it should have some credibility.

The Tuesday Devotional speaker was Gerald N. Lund, former member of the Seventy.  He spoke on “How do you know if ‘that’ was from the Lord?”  Some of his thoughts were:

• What we receive from the Lord is more important than how it comes.
• The Spirit often gives direction without explanation
• Quoted Pres. Packer as saying “The Spirit caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied, we might not feel it at all.”
• Revelation comes according to God’s own time, in His way, according to His own will.
• “If you want to speak to God get on your knees.  If you want God to speak to you then open the scriptures.”
• God expects us to develop spiritual self-reliance.  We do NOT need to be told everything.

Wednesday we said farewell to the MTC and headed south to Cove Fort.  We arrived at the Fort just before five o’clock.  We met Elder and Sister Christensen, were given some information about the site and procedures, and sent to the trailer park to settle in.  We arrived at our trailer to find it already labeled with our name and surrounded with about a foot of snow.  We spent the night unpacking all the things that we had brought and settling in.

First day in our new mobile home

 

Studying in the living area

Our guest accommodations

The mobile home is really quite nice if you don't mind pink.  The place feels very spacious compared to some of the trailers that we have visited in with other missionaries this week.  We are excited that we do have a second bedroom so that        friends  and family can come to the Fort for a visit and have a place to stay.  The extra bedroom even has a matching extra  bathroom for added privacy.

The Fort had about a foot and a half of snow when we arrived, but it has slowly been melting.  We noticed today that the garden areas are completely clear so they may start planting the vegetables soon.  

Thursday and Friday were training days for all of the new missionaries.  We went on the tour of the Fort three times on Thursday and then the same amount the next day.  Stephen’s younger sister, Rosemarie Bergquist, surprised us by stopping by with her family to visit us Friday evening.  We headed back to the Fort and they became our guinea pigs for giving the tour for the first time.  It was nice to be able to practice on family before being turned loose on the general population.

Saturday was a VERY slow day at the Fort.  During our six-hour duty time we gave just two tours.  We took a picture of our first tour group that included a young man who had just received his mission call to Eugene, Oregon.  Both of the groups we took through today were active members of the Church from Utah.  I don’t think that we will be seeing their referral cards again but who knows they may surprise us. 

Our 1st tour group -- we didn't lose any of them!

We had our first Sunday meeting in the Twig this morning.  They named it that because we are too small to be a branch.  We have sacrament meeting and Sunday School lesson on Sunday and do the Priesthood/Relief Society lesson for Family Home Evening on Monday nights.  I think it is interesting that there are members from the Fillmore Ward who come down on Saturday morning and cover the tours while the missionaries attend their meetings.  It is nice to see the support that is given by the surrounding wards.

You must be tired of reading this by now so I think that I will stop until the next time. 

A fact about the Fort that we learned this week – there are only three original artifacts that are in the Fort that were here when the Hinckley’s lived here.  Stay tune in the weeks to come to see what they are.

General Conference

Can you find us in the crowd?

Yesterday we were able to watch the morning session of conference in the Conference Center.  It was fun being there as President Monson gave his talk about how to get rid of grass.  Everyone in the center was enjoying his facial expressions and pausing that made the story so much better.  We also got to experience the friendly people with the signs on the street who were willing to sing for a ticket to conference.  That was on the way in.  On the way out, they were replaced with all the people who were trying to "save" us from the error of ways.  One man offered to roll up his sign and put on a suit so he could fall asleep during the next session of conference if someone could show him in the Bible where it said that we would be gods.  I don't get what they really think they are accomplishing there but there is that freedom of speech thing that we have to respect I guess.

Clarke's at General Conference

The best part of the morning was that we sat with Wayne and Libby during the session and got to talk for over an hour.  It was good to see them.  Not much else to report, but wanted to post pictures of the first people from home that we've seen since starting our mission. 

It is so nice to be in Utah and just be able to watch conference on "regular" TV as well as BYUtv.  Cory and his family came over in the afternoon and watched the last session in our hotel room with us.  It was a tad crowded but at least we didn't have a crowd of people to get through when it was all over.

MTC 2013

Stephen and I just finished our first week at the MTC (Mission Training Center) in Provo, Utah.  What a great experience this has been.  We came at a time when there were 124 senior couples and over 3000 junior missionaries.  They seem to be bursting at the seams trying to find places to house the large numbers.  We are staying at the Marriott in downtown Provo just a few blocks from Cory and Suzanne. 

We reported at 10:30 on Monday, April 1st, and spent the majority of the day in basic orientation meetings.  We were able to drive onto "the campus" and park inside.  The first thing they did after checking us in was to give us our black and white name badges.  That seemed to be a turning point when I felt we were actually official.  They made it clear that whenever we were out and about we need to wear those badges since we never know who we will meet and we want them to recognize us as missionaries. 

Tuesday we began our district classes with our instructors who were all young returned missionaries.  I was so impressed with their spiritual insights as well as their teaching skills.  It didn't take long to see that the new youth curriculum being used in the Church is based on this same principle of teaching with and by the spirit.  There will be lots of opportunities to bear testimony and make promises to people.  Tonight we went to the Devotional.  Seniors had reserved seating on the floor close to the speakers' stand but we had to be there early.  Michael Ringwood of the Seventy was the speaker.  He shared with us the necessity of enduring to the end and not letting "things" get in our way of accomplishing this goal.  We were finally able to find our niece, Kaytie, as she had been chosen, among 3500 missionaries, to give the benediction.

Wednesday was our first experience in the TRC (Teaching Resource Center) giving a lesson on the Restoration.  Most of the people seemed a little distraught about this but my feeling was that what would they do if we didn't do well?  Nothing other than encourage us to do better next time.  It really was a good experience and the time went by much too quickly.  It was fun to meet these "investigators" who volunteer their time to help prepare the missionaries.

Thursday we went to the TRC (it was actually just cubicles set up in the cultural hall) again but this time taught a follow-up lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  This investigator was very helpful -- I don't know how many we will have in real life that are so agreeable.  I was surprised to hear my name called and to look up and see Devin Wright.  He looked like a missionary.

Our last teaching experience we did was with the other senior couples taking turns being the less-active members and then the missionaries.  I found this one to be the most difficult.  The good news is that this is probably not going to happen in our mission assignment but it is definitely something that I could utilize when we get back to our ward.  We said goodbye to many of the couples today as they were leaving for their assignments.

We have no classes over the weekend since it is conference but we begin again on Monday morning.