Week of Firsts

It seems like it has been a long week, but I checked and it has just been seven days.  I don’t know how to explain it but we have kept ourselves busy.  When we aren’t at the Fort we are home weeding the yard or working on computer projects.  This morning one of our missionary neighbors came over and said that we would win for the cleanest yard.  He is a rancher from the next valley over and I think he and his wife must sit in their trailer and just laugh at the “city slickers” trying to clear the weed patch.  We are at least doing our part in filling up the dumpsters with bags of weeds.

This week for P-day we drove over to Hwy 89 and drove down along the Sevier River.  There were a lot of geocaches along the way so I had to find as many as possible.  They were on the sides of mountains as well as on the banks of the river.  We stopped at Big Rock Candy Mountain that seems to be eroding away.  Back in the day, when the song of the same name was popular, the locals stuck a sign out in front of their hill/mountain and the name stuck.  They even have a Lemonade Springs along one of the trails.  We also drove into Marysvale that is an old mining town, but now seems to be a hub for ATV enthusiasts since the town is basically one huge RV park.  When I went into a craft shop, I got to talk to the clerk and it turns out she knows Brian and Carla Thompson who she grew up with in Phoenix (her and her husband are Lynn and Tracy Armstrong).  I am amazed how connections are made between people.  Speaking of that idea, one of the tours Stephen and I did this week was with a couple that had been visiting their grandchildren in Clovis, CA. 

We also had time one morning to ride bikes up to the top of Cove Creek.   It was a couple of miles ride on a dirt/gravel road.  Luckily we ran into a guy driving a grader who gave us more exact instructions. We had a nice conversation until he asked if I’d worked outside the home and I said yes and then he proceeded to tell us how having his wife at home all the time made all the difference in his family.  The good news is that we found the creek.  On the way back to the Fort I saw a white spot on the hill so I said I was going to go look at it – I thought it might be the limestone quarry I’ve been looking for.  It was strange in that the area looked like there had been some excavation and it smelled like sulfur.  It made for a long bike ride.

Possible lime kiln in the limestone quarry.

We were getting ready to close the fort Tuesday night when a guy stopped by and asked if he could video a song in the Fort.  I went down to listen to him and he was pretty good.  He wrote the song that he recorded.  It is called “This is the Place”.  Take a moment and go to this link at YouTube to listen to the performance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iVgklu4a40)

Stephen and I were out walking Friday morning when we saw a really strange bus pull into the Chevron Station.  We walked back quickly so I could get a closer look at it.  It turned out to be part of a German company called Rotel Tours (look at their Facebook page for some of the places they go).  Check out the 

pictures – the bus is ½ tour bus and ½ sleeper.  I actually asked the 

driver if they were planning to stop at Cove Fort but he said it wasn’t on the itinerary.  It gave me the idea that perhaps we should be contacting the various tour companies that drive by on I-15 and I-70 to see if they would like to bring their people to Cove Fort.  When I shared the idea with the Christensens, our site directors, they liked it, so now I am charged with trying to find

tour companies that would have tours passing through our area.

This week we got to take our first, and probably only, school tour through the fort.  Stephen had ten girls in his group and I had ten boys. It was fun to take them through and try to answer all of their questions.  The best part was when we went to the barn and I was showing the boys the salt licks from the Redmond area.  The next thing I knew they were over there licking them with their tongues.  They couldn’t hurt the salt but I could barely imagine the number of germs that they were ingesting.  Our other first for the week was that we both got our first referral cards.  Stephen actually got two, but I just got mine yesterday.  It was unexpected since the guy just wanted to walk through the fort.  He wound up going through all the rooms, all of the outbuildings, and when he was finally headed for the restroom, I mentioned that there was a movie and he wanted to see that as well.  It was a great feeling being able to answer his questions and share my testimony with him.  He even said he plans to return with his two teenage sons later this summer.  He gave me his contact information and now I get to follow up on it via email and make sure that he gets his questions answered. 

That’s it for now.  We still have just eight grandchildren but are hoping for word this week that the number has been bumped to nine.

Springs and Snakes

The week started with a surprising Mother’s Day for me in that every one of the children called me on Sunday.  It was great hearing from all of them even if the reception in the trailer park was bad.  Sometimes Curtis forgets the day but he said he couldn’t have forgotten this year even if he’d tried.  He, and the other customs agents, had been confiscating flower arrangements/bouquets all week from Mexican that were bringing them across the border to their moms.  I felt bad for the moms who didn’t get flowers from their children, but I was excited to have Curtis call me. 

           

Clint and Jane Moffit

The other good thing about Sunday was a visit from Clint and Jane Moffit who were on their way home after a wedding and a graduation in Utah.  It was good to be able to take them on a tour of the fort and to hear about their family and how things are going in the ward.  We have one senior couple here that has only been here for two and a half weeks and twenty-five different friends and family have visited them.  He was a dentist in SLC so they have had a lot of former patients and children stopping by.  I don’t think that we can catch up to them, but it is great having friends from home stop by.

           
                                                      Saw our first two snakes this week.  The first one was up in the hills while I was searching for the limekilns.  I’d tell you what kind it was, but by the time I landed from my jump it had slithered away.  A couple of the elders found the other one around the MPR.  It was fun to watch as the guys talked a good story about liking snakes, but then they had to call Elder Burr (our most elderly elder) to come and pick it up.  They called it a blow snake, which is supposedly harmless.  They moved it across the road, but I must admit I’m always on the lookout for it when I’m outside reading.

           
The fort had quite a few fieldtrips this week by schools in the surrounding counties.  They even had a service project from a class at Millard HS where the kids came and dug out and sprayed for thistle weed.  The local ranchers bought them lunch and the Cove Fort missionaries cooked it for them.  All the activity helped the day go by fast. 

           
We took one tour through this week where we discovered that the couple and us were both living in the Turlock Ward in 1980.  The world just keeps shrinking.  Another good tour was one that I had with a newly married couple who were starting their honeymoon at Cove Fort.  They were taking their time so we got to do the entire tour and at the end I gave out my first “prairie diamonds” – horseshoe nails in the shape of a ring.

           
The buzz in the MPR on Friday morning was the news of the death of Sis. Monson.  When we tried   In retrospect, I thought about how little I knew about Sis. Monson.  I’m so glad that Pres. Monson made the decision to spend her 85^th birthday with her rather than attending the cultural event prior to the Calgary Temple dedication.
to get more information we couldn’t due to the windstorm that was attacking us at the Fort.

           
We had a couple of visitors to the MPR this week.  One gentleman was looking for a cemetery around Cove Fort thinking that he had an ancestor buried in it.  Other people were giving him directions to local cemeteries, but I found him on findagrave.com.  It was nice to be able to help someone they were looking for.  The other person that popped in was a lady who stopped to rest in the parking lot.  She came in to thank all of the missionaries for providing a safe haven for travelers.  She commented on how her daughter drives the I-15 frequently and often stops at the fort to rest and how the missionaries have watched over her and even taken her to their homes to give her something to eat.  She was in tears as she was thanking all of us.  It is nice to know that one of the original purposes for building the fort is still happening as the Church provides a way station for the tired and weary as they journey past Cove Fort.  

Met a couple of returned senior couples that had served as FM missionaries at Adam-ondi-Ahman in Missouri.  That sounded like an interesting mission as the men worked on the road, mended fences, did the landscaping, and moved the grass.  The women, on the other hand, worked four hours per day for four days each week doing indexing in an air-conditioned room.  I continue to be amazed at the variety of mission possibilities – there is definitely something for everybody.

Overlooking valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman

Hot Springs in Meadow

This week for P-day we stayed close to home since we needed to be back for FHE that night.  We finally found the hot springs in Meadow.  Of course with directions such as “turn at the big tree” and “go about 2 or 3 miles”, it was rather iffy whether we would find the place.   On our second attempt at asking directions, we stopped at the Post Office.  The postmistress called home and the next thing we knew we had a personal escort to the hot springs.  Now if any of them had just said that they were “at the end of the road” we could have found them on our own.  As you can see from the pictures they were very nice and worth the trip.  I think they are a hometown secret because there were no signs posted any where on how to get there.  The funny thing about the experience was when we stopped for lunch they had a map posted on the wall that actually pinpointed the hot springs location.  The locals swim in the springs and actually scuba dive in them as well.  We settled for just soaking   our legs.  Also made a visit to the Old Statehouse in Fillmore.  Interesting place especially since you can get up close to the exhibits and displays.

           
Well, that is it for another week.  Hope all is going well with you.

Mothers' Day at Cove Fort

Happy Mothers’ Day to all of you back home.   Because Church is early I did not get my typical breakfast in bed, but that is OK.  Last night we celebrated the special day at Cove Fort by having a social that was planned and put on by the Elders.  It was a nice event with all of the sisters just being waited on.  The men ended the evening by presenting all of us with long-stemmed red roses and chocolate just prior to serenading us.   

Probably the best tour that I had all week was last Sunday.  There was a mom traveling with her three sons and her two twin sisters.  The brothers were about my age all recently retired or soon to be.  Mom could walk but they had her in a wheelchair and the “boys” took turns pushing the chair.  I loved some of their comments in regards to that – “I’ve always wanted to push you around” and “I’ve always wanted to take you to the barn” – all said with love and affection.  They were all members of the church but the oldest son had “found science” and given up on his testimony.  The brothers got along so well and enjoyed each others’ company that it made it very fun to be hanging out with them.  I just hope my boys/children can be this good of friends as they grow older.  The family was not in a hurry at all and so I had lots of time to answer their questions and share information about the fort.  It was two hours later that I finally said goodbye to them. 

We had a surprise visit on Monday from John and Carol Wright.  What a treat!  We had a late shift so we were there working on the internet in our casual clothes when a couple of the missionaries came in and mentioned that someone was in the fort who had been looking for us.  Not wanting to miss someone else, I sprinted down to the fort to find them.  John and Carol were half-way through the fort, but I was able to take over the tour and take them through the north side.  It was so good to see someone from home.  They seem to be “first” kind of people.  When we first moved to Clovis thirty-one years ago, they were the first people in the ward to invite us over for dinner and now they are the first from the ward to pay us a visit.  It was nice to chat and the visit was over way too soon.

Things were slow during the week, so one day we even approached one vehicle as it was slowly crawling past the fort. They were taking pictures of the front and we were able to entice them to come in.  The next thing you know we may have to stand on the road flipping an arrow and dancing around to get people to stop on the slower days.  They say things should pick up once school is out in a couple of weeks.  We did have a Shelby car club stop by the fort this week.  They added a bit of excitement to the day and it made for a good photo op with all of the cars lined up in the parking lot. 

We learned to play Kings in the Corner this week from one of the missionary couples, the Hemmerts, that came over for dinner.  It was fun to cook for someone other than ourselves and to have something to do in the evening.  I’ve been busy at night working on going through marriage records from Illinois looking for my dad’s family and typing up notes about Cove Fort.  So far, I haven’t run out of things to do.

Jared and Clara win the prize for being the first of our children to send us a written letter through snail mail since we have been at the fort.  It is really nice to get mail.   

We went on our first bike ride this week up behind the picnic area.  The Christensens loaned us their bikes so we could go explore a bit.  Stephen did alright, but I was envisioning exploring the dirt roads for a couple of hours.  We were back within 45 minutes.  I guess we will just build up to the longer experience.

 

P-day found us in St. George.  We were able to take in a temple session and also take care of our basic errands.  Friday we spent most of the day exploring Zions’ National Park.  We followed the Wrights’ idea and hiked up to the Emerald Pools. I was a little surprised that Stephen agreed to climbing all the way to the upper pool but glad that he did since it was my favorite. The pools were not too full but still nice to see.  We tried to find Menu Falls but were unsuccessful so it will give us another reason to come back in the future.  The coloring of the cliffs was spectacular.  If any of you are planning a trip there and need a good place to eat, be sure to check out Blondie’s Diner just outside the park in Springdale. 

Insights

There have been lots of good things happening this week at Cove Fort.  It is always great to be able to share some of them with family and friends.  Now I know the length of some (most) of my posts may seem a little long, but I really do not share everything that is happening here.  With that in mind, let us begin.

             

Our speakers on Sunday were the Millard Stake President and his wife.  She talked about her mother who was a convert and how she had written a letter, years later, to the family of the girl who had been her friend and shared the gospel with her.  Then the stake president changed his talk and spoke about testimonies.  He said it was important to share your testimony with your children about what you believe.  But he went on to say that most of us stop there.  What he thought that we need to do is tell our children why we have a testimony.  What brought us to that point of knowledge.  I was impressed by his comments.

On Sunday, Stephen and I were put out of our misery by actually finally getting to present the Sunday School lesson that we had been preparing for about two weeks.  It was on Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy.  It was a great topic and one that we were able to find lots of material on – perhaps too much.  It was fun to be teaching again and to be energized by the responses of the participants.  It was good to have the PowerPoint work without problem – yes, I do love to use PowerPoint for lessons especially for the visuals that can enhance any lesson/presentation.

          

Spring may be officially here as there were lots of nice days at the fort this week.  It was so nice that one morning I determined that I was going to go out and dig up all of the dandelions in our yard.  After digging out just a few, I realized that I might need to change my plan of attack since I was leaving three-inch holes wherever I removed a weed.  Then I thought that I would take Stephen’s advice and just pop the heads off of them.  I thought that I could win that battle, but alas and alack I was taken aback as the numbers were too overwhelming.  Just forty-five minutes into the battle I had to surrender and wait for another day to fight again.  The good news is that the park manager says that they will be spraying the dandelions soon.  I guess we will just enjoy those perky little yellow blooms until they die a well-deserved death.

             

I love being at Cove Fort and being away from “everyday things”.  It makes for a very peaceful existence.  It also causes people to be more concerned about others.  The other day I had just finished a tour and decided to go down to the fort to look for candles and to try to draw out some of the quilt patterns.  There were LOTS of missionaries in the preparation room so I really didn’t see a need to tell anyone where I was going besides which there are huge windows in the front of the MPR where we can see everything going on between us and the back of the fort.  Anyway, I must have been down there for thirty minutes just enjoying the solitude.  When I came out I ran into Stephen who had been sent down by the shift supervisor to see if I was there and that I was OK.  It is nice to be cared about but the short leash is a little hard to adjust to sometimes.

            

 During the week I have had several insights into the things at Cove Fort and been able to develop some other gospel messages that I can share when we take tours.  In the Telegraph Room, it dawned on me that we can draw parallels between the telegraph and communication with worldly things and the communications from God through his living prophet (there is a picture of Brigham Young in that room).  The other idea came when I took an eighteen-year-old missionary (he reports on Wednesday to the MTC to go to Bulgaria) and his siblings on a tour.  We were talking about the Hinckley clock (remember it was the first of the three original artifacts that I told you about) and how it allegedly still works but that they are trying to preserve it by not winding it regularly.  I mentioned that sometimes if valuable things aren’t used that they will be lost anyway.  I was so amazed when he turned to me and said, “Like a testimony.”  What a powerful message.  It is important that we share our testimonies as often as we can to preserve this valuable possession.  Luckily, at Cove Fort that is not a problem as we do it several times on every tour.

             

I’ve been enjoying my morning walks to the fort.  It was a little cold earlier in the morning so people driving by were treated to the styling look of sweatpants under my skirt.  Not exactly missionary attire but it did keep me warm.  One of the mornings this week I was almost to the fort when I noticed three cows on my side of the road.  I switched sides and so did they.  I walked a little closer and realized that what I’d thought were cows were actually bulls.  At that point I turned around and started walking home looking for Stephen to come along in the car and give me a ride past the bulls.  Luckily that has only happened once.  Although, last night on our way home there were more escapees from the fields, and the owner was out on his ATV herding his cattle back to the corral.

             

This week we had a Friday night social to honor the Mission President who will be leaving in June.  It was a very nice event with lots of time spent on decorations by two of the sisters and some delicious pot roast (at least that is what people, including Stephen, told me).  One of the missionary couples lives in Beaver, so we were able to have them come over to our mobile home after our shift and spend some time just visiting.  They even helped us put together part of our 1000 piece puzzle.  We now have a nice picture of the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park laying on our dining table.

Tomahawk throw

Big time trappers

Yesterday for P-Day we went to the Fremont Indian State Park that is on the way to Richfield.  That was a great place to visit.  The rock formations were so interesting and colorful.  The park has preserved a lot of petroglyphs and pictographs.  I thought that we might get to go hiking but no such luck.  That is OK because we have the whole summer ahead of us.  One of the things that we found while we were there was a rendezvous.  It was a gathering of mountain men who were camped together to do some competitive events.  We got to see them shooting black powder rifles and arrows and throwing tomahawks and knives.  It was an interesting side trip.  We met up with eight of the other missionary couples to have dinner at The Cowboy Corral in Elsinore.  It was such a fun place.  They had a BBQ steak and fried chicken buffet that was made on the BBQ outside.  They also had a local country group come and play music, which was very homey.  They say that they never lock the door so if you are hungry you can come in and fix what you want, clean up, and then leave your money on the counter.  I just love that small town feel.

During the week I was reading about the life of Nicholas Paul who was the chief mason in the building of Cove Fort.  He was an English convert from South Africa who gave up everything when he joined the church.  He had a strong testimony of the gospel, but wound up with all sorts of legal and interpersonal issues with his neighbors.  He finally stopped attending church and associating with church members.  It reminded me of how easy it is to let others influence our relationship with our Heavenly Father and cause us to drift away from Him.  I hope that we will always be careful to remember that the church is true whether the people are or not.

I’m glad that we are serving here at Cove Fort and have all of these opportunities to bear and share testimonies with those who visit.   It truly is a blessing in our lives.