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.