Goblins and other visitors

Things are really beginning to hop around the fort right now.  Our director keeps changing the work shifts in an attempt to find the best timeframe, but he isn't quite there yet.  We received phone calls and texts three times this week to come in early to work when they ran out of missionaries on the current shift.  One of the days, Stephen wasn't quite ready yet, so I hopped on the bicycle and pedaled to work as fast as I could.  I was barely off my bike when I got an assignment to take a group of senior ladies.  We actually had 730 visitors yesterday.

I've had some interesting tours this week.  One of them began with the husband asking me "Why are you here representing the Mormons?"  You can guess that they had a few negative feelings about the Church, since their granddaughter had recently converted.  It was a little touchy along the way, and you may not believe this, but they did NOT take me up on my offer to give them a Book of Mormon.

The senior ladies that I took on a tour were a little slower in speed, so we spent two and a half hours together.  They were very friendly.  I thought it was interesting that they all decided on a whim to go on a road trip to see the Manti Pageant.  They were from Riverside and spent a lot of time together quilting.  I promised to send them the pattern for the Carolina Lily quilt on the bed in the Men's room as soon as Marva and Anna Laura finish the pattern.  These ladies, along with the C7 quilting group, are working on developing patterns for the quilts at Cove Fort.  I am so impressed with their abilities and willingness to give service to our visitors at Cove Fort.

My other interesting tours were people that we knew that came by.  One was the wife of the San Rafael Stake President 35 years ago when we were living in Terra Linda.   I was shocked that I actually recognized this woman and even more so that I remembered her name.  Another surprise visitor was one of our trainers from the MTC, Sister Bateman.  Stephen and I were just getting off shift when she walked up and called me by name.  I felt a little obligaEnsign that says "we need to commit to serve the Lord and our communities with faith and diligence as the pioneers did?"  We are starting to use that as we talk with our visitors.

ted to stay and take her on the tour.  There was a little pressure to try and do all the things that she had taught us -- such as invite and promise.  I also was the lucky person who got to be the guide for the St. George Visitor Center Director and his wife.  I pretended that they were just like anyone else, like Sis. Hinckley as she treated everyone just the same.  Pioneer values are always a good thing to follow.  Which reminds me -- have you read the talk by M. Russell Ballard in the July

We had a great P-day as we visited several of the great hiking areas in the eastern part of the state.  The Lows, another couple serving here, served as tour guides and took us to Capitol Reef National Park, Goblin Valley State Park, and to Little Wild Horse Canyon.  We left early and didn't get home until 9:30 that night.  Goblin Valley was the area where they filmed part of the movie Galaxy Quest where they had to go to get a new "berillion sphere".  Very strange formations which we got to hike all around and through.  Probably my favorite stop of the day was at Little Wild Horse Canyon where we spent a couple of hours hiking in a slot canyon.  It was neat walking through the area and touching the walls of the canyon as we passed through.  I'm hoping that we will have another chance to hike in a slot canyon before we come home.

We had three couples over for dinner on Thursday evening.  It was the start of the really hot weather (at least for here, but not for the rest of you) and we actually wound up sitting outside because the trailer just would not cool down.  While we were outside Elder Low noticed that there was a plane just circling around.  It was making no noise so we determined that it had to be a glider.  Before very long, we noticed that it was headed down and actually disappeared behind the hill.  We all jumped into our cars and headed over to the fort to see if we could find the plane.  It had actually landed in a cut field just behind the fort.  There was a gate so everyone else stopped but I just climbed over and headed into the field to see if the pilot needed any help.  Just as I started off, one of the Elders yelled at me to watch out for snakes.  That made me a little nervous as the alfalfa was knee-high. 

Everything was OK other than the fact that the guy needed his partner to find a way into the field to bring his trailer.  It was a big event here at the Fort.

That is about the limit of what happened this week.  We are enjoying what we are doing and are looking forward to seeing some of you during the next few months.

Manti Pageant

We just got back today from the Mormon Miracle Pageant that was held in Manti, Utah.  It was first performed in 1967 to a crowd of about 2,000 people.  Today, they estimate that nearly 80,000 people are in attendance during its eight day run.  Stephen and I hadn’t been to it in probably twenty-five years since the kids were little.  They perform on the southern slope of the temple hill with the Manti Temple as the backdrop.  The pageant includes three separate, but related faith-promoting dramatizations:  stories from the Book of Mormon, the experiences of Joseph Smth, Jr.; and then the journey of the Mormon pioneers who followed Brigham Young to Utah.  It has a lot of pageantry and grandeur which makes it great.  The hard parts of the whole experience are waiting until 9:30 for it to get dark enough to perform, sitting on the hard metal chairs, and trying to keep warm as the evening gets progressively cooler/colder. 

Stephen stuffing flyers at Information Booth

There were three missionary couples from Cove Fort assigned to work in the information booths.  We weren’t one of them but we went over anyway and helped until the performance started.  As full-time missionaries we were blessed with being able to eat the famous BBQ Turkey Dinner that they sell throughout the town for free.  I love this turkey since it tastes like steak but is actually healthier for you.

Last Sunday on the way to the fort I noticed something laying along the side of the road.  As I got closer, I noticed that it was a snake and made a big circle around it.  It wasn’t the same color as the ones we have been seeing around the fort so I walked back for a closer look.  I have to say that I was a little surprised when I noticed that at the end of its tail that there were 4 or 5 buttons.

Rattle snake like I saw on road

Blow snake hiding at fort

Friday, I had just finished a tour with a mom and her two daughters when they went to look at a horse trough and jumped back fast.  There was a snake behind the trough.  It’s head didn’t look like a rattler, but the coloring did and I couldn’t see its tale well enough so I went to get one of the FM Elders to take care of it. I am now walking more on the asphalt than on the shoulder of the road.

Monday was a great day for tours.  Stephen and I took a Baptist couple from NC through the fort.  They asked some really great questions and, with the help of the Holy Ghost, we were able to successfully answer all of them.  One of the last questions they asked was the LDS belief about the Godhead.  I shared the 1^st Article of Faith and they came back with the Godhead is just one being with three purposes just like an egg.  I was very impressed with Stephen’s response when he said that an egg actually has three separate parts and that they work together for one purpose.  I thought that was quick thinking on the spot.  They didn’t want to leave their names or take a Book of Mormon but it was still exciting to talk with them.  Stephen and I then were assigned to a group of young men that were visiting the fort.  I was very surprised when Elder C asked me to do the pre-set (getting people in the right attitude to try and think of names of families and friends that might benefit from hearing the Gospel).  Then at the end of my tour with the group of young men, Stephen asked me if I would take over his tour.  I thought that it was a bit odd, but I agreed to do so.  It was a pleasant surprise to find Courtney Nelson standing by one of our trees surrounding by her siblings.  I had a great time taking them through the fort and being able to catch up on things in the Nelson/Sherwood family as well as in the ward.  Stephen and I are very grateful for the visit and for the box from home that she was gracious enough to drop off for us. 

 

                                                                                      

This seemed like movie week as we saw two separate films.  Monday night we watched 17 Miracles for Family Home Evening.  It is the show that played in Fresno for a couple of nights last year and is about the Willie’s Handcart Company.  It was really a good film.  Everyone in Utah is currently talking about Ephraim’s Rescue that is playing in some of the theaters.  It is the story of another handcart rescue.  They say they originally wanted to include it in 17 Miracles but it would have made the show way too long.  If it comes to Fresno/Clovis it might be a great FHE activity.  On Wednesday, we went to Richfield to do our shopping and also went to the theater to see Man of Steel, the new Superman movie.  It seemed to me like it went on forever especially since we all know that Superman will win in the end.  They could have easily cut out about half of the fighting scenes and I would have been a happy camper. 

We had one of the other missionary couples, the Burrs, invite us to drive out to the obsidian

beds with them.  They are located about twenty miles west of Kanosh on “improved” roads (dirt with gravel and rock).  Luckily, one of the other Elders had drawn a map with instructions on how to get there since we seemed to just be driving through grazing fields with not a lot of landmarks to guide us.  We finally found them.  I thought that we would just be finding little chips of obsidian but we were able to pick up large chunks of the stuff.  We thought we were taking a lot when we filled up an 8 ounce Cool Whip tub, but it was nothing in comparison to the 5-gallon bucket that Elder Burr brought out.  I’ll be interested in seeing what he does with all of that.  The Burrs are definitely from the area as Elder Burr was flying down the road where Stephen would probably just be going at about 10 mph.

While geocaching in Clear Creek Canyon this week, I came upon an interesting discovery even though I didn’t come up with the cache.  While climbing through the underbrush, I came across a tunnel with a big metal door at the end of it.  Stephen went to ask about it at the Visitors’ Center at the Fremont Indian State Park.  Seems as though I had found a cave/tunnel where the government stores dynamite and other explosives.  The ranger was pretty impressed that we had run into it. 

Thursday and Friday, I had some very interesting conversations with a couple of our visitors.  The first conversation was just being friendly since the guy was not on a tour.  He mentioned that he was a descendant of Nicholas Paul, the chief stonemason for Cove Fort.  He is actually the guy who built the fireplaces, chimneys, and arch on the front of the fort.  I had a great time sharing information with this visitor about his ancestor and learning more.  It has too be a great feeling having ancestors that you know a lot about and are extremely proud of.  Someday, I hope to make that same type of connection in my family.  Anyway, we talked for about thirty minutes until his wife sent one of his daughters to collect him.  Then, if that wasn’t exciting enough, the very next day, on my first tour, the family was 5^th and 6^th generation descendants from Nicholas Paul.  I had such a good time talking back and forth about their grandfather.  This was a great family because their ten year old immediately asked us if she could hug the missionary.  That does not happen every day.  This little girl is SO excited to get older so she can serve a full time mission. 

This morning we woke up in our car in Stephen’s grandfather’s driveway.  We had made

arrangements to stay at his house through his aunt.  His cousin had the windows opened airing the place out, but he forgot to leave the door unlocked.  At 11:45 at night we were in no position to try to break into the house.  At least with the cold temperature and the early sunrise we were definitely up in time for church.  We actually had time to wander the city cemetery in Mt. Pleasant looking for Shelley, McArthur, and Burnside relatives.  I really love the way the headstones today have the names, and sometimes birth dates, of all of the people’s children.  What a great help for geneaologists.

Time to get ready for our shift.  Hope your week goes well.

Linda

Fathers' Day

The fathers at Cove Fort were feted last night at a social in their honor.  At the end of the evening the ladies sang some “ballads” to them.  Below are the words to my favorite one:

            Five Handsome Husbands

        (sung to tune of 5 Little Ducks)

Many handsome husbands we do know –

Fat ones, skinny ones, tall ones so,

But the one in the middle that belongs to me

I love him and he loves me.

Down to Cove Fort we did go

Wibble, wobble, wibble, wobble to and from

But the one in the middle that belongs to me

I love him and he loves me.

I am happy to say that I was not the lyricist for this, but it was fun to sing along while one of the sisters played her accordion.  They were all presented with aprons afterwards with an embroidered picture of Cove Fort.  Quite the nice gift.

We were expecting Chris DeWoody this week, but due to time constraints and prior commitments she wasn’t able to make it.  It was nice to have been thought of at least.  As soon as we knew that Chris wouldn’t make it, I joined the carpool to go watch a woven rug demonstration up in Kanosh.  The lady who weaves all the rugs at Cove Fort had invited the sisters to come up and see how she does it.  The loom was similar in many aspects to the one at the fort, but since it was too big for her needs, she had her husband cut off part of it and now has a traveling loom for when she goes around to do demonstrations.  One of the amazing things was that she strings the loom with enough warp to make about fifty-five foot long rugs.  Someone asked her how much material it took to weave one five foot rug and she said 180 yards.  I really couldn’t understand how she used so much, until someone said that the fabric was only 2 inches wide, so she really used ten yards per rug.  She can make one rug every two hours and charges $60 for one.  We even got to give it a try.  It requires the coordination of hands on the shuttle and feet on the pedals.  It would be an interesting pastime as long as you had enough room to store the loom.

Stephen and I had the opportunity to go on a ride on the bike path along the Sevier River.  Luckily, our directors, the Christensens, have a bike carrier for four bikes so we were able to get the bikes there.  We started at Big Rock Candy Mountain and coasted down the trail.  Unfortunately going back was uphill.  I was very glad to finally get to the top of the trail at the end of the ride.  I’ve included a picture of the train tunnel that we rode to before turning around. 

On our P-day we drove over to Monroe, a small farming community that my mother lived in for a few years when she remarried.  We were geocaching and had an opportunity to drive up into Monrovian Canyon.  It had the steep high rock faces with a beautiful stream running through it.  I wish now that I had selected a few more caches in the canyon so that we would have spent more time there.  We must have been there at just the right time of year because there were swallowtail butterflies all over the roadside.

One of the things that Stephen did for me this week was to go get the rider mower so that I could cut the grass in our fenced in area.  I can see why people enjoy cutting grass when they have one of those.  Who knows, I may turn into Forrest Gump and start offering to cut the grass for everyone in Clovis.

Linda riding her new toy.

On Thursday and Friday I was excited in that I received a referral card on both of those days.  The first card was from a Korean family from Wisconsin.  They said that they would like a Book of Mormon in Korean but the best I could do was English.  They are on vacation, so I will contact them in a week or so to see if they have any questions and to see if we can have missionaries bring them a Book of Mormon in Korean.  Then the next day a couple from San Diego stopped by on their journey to Massachusetts where they are moving.  The husband actually gave me the name of a friend that he thought might benefit from the Gospel.  We’ll see how these turn out.  Even yesterday I had a family who did not want a Book of Mormon but accepted the Joseph Smith Story and the Family Proclamation.  The mom said she was going to read them.  The Missionary Department is encouraging the missionaries to stay in contact (phone, email) with those who show interest and be their bridge until they are ready to meet with the missionaries in their local areas.

Things are starting to get busier at the fort all the time.  On Saturday, our count for the day was 620.  It was great, because as soon as you finished one tour there was another one waiting for you.  This is SO much better than just sitting around waiting for people to show up.

Howdy Doody Hoo-Doos

Stephen and I were happy to see Monday come and go, as it was our job to teach the Family Home Evening (FHE) lesson that night.  It was on the topic “Not my will, but Thine be done”.  We enjoyed doing it because we were able to demonstrate that the lesson doesn’t have to be given just by reading out of the manual.  One of the activities we had them do was to put themselves in chronological order according to their birthdates.  They couldn’t talk or write notes and only had five minutes to get all 40 of them in order.  There were six mistakes, which wasn’t bad.  It was great to see them out of their chairs interacting with each other.  We’d also gone up to Cove Creek to find some small chunks of pink rhyolite to pass out – we related the movement of the stones in the creek to the way we go through life following the will of the Father – that as we travel along we have our rough edges knocked off and we become smoothed and polished through our various experiences and trials.  We even had a scripture for them to take home and put up.  It was fun doing the lesson but it was also great to have it over.

We were waiting for the wife and family to join the husband for a tour on Monday afternoon.  In our “get-to-know-you” conversation we told him we were from Clovis and he mentioned that his wife had lived there.  When she finally came up to us, she read our name badges and asked if we were from Clovis.  It turned out to be Lindsay Thomas, Eric and Debbie Thomas’ second daughter.  It was fun to be able to take them and their three children through the fort and catch up on what her parents and siblings had been doing for the past twenty-five years.  She asked about many of you to see if you were still living in the ward.  I was kicking myself after they left since I didn’t have my camera with me to take a picture.

While I was walking to the fort on Tuesday, I noticed a car had pulled over to the side of the road and the guy was out taking pictures.  As I got closer I saw what had caught his attention.  There was a guy  in the field mowing his hay/alfalfa. What made it unique was that he was doing it by pony power.  It was fun to stand there and watch the process for a little while.  As I walked past the field for the rest of the week, I observed that the hay was swept into rows and then just yesterday it was sitting there in small bales.  It makes me wonder if he did it all by pony-power or if used something more modern. 

Since we didn’t have room to bring bikes with us, our directors have been nice and let us borrow their bikes to go riding.  This week, Sister C let us know that they had bought new bikes for themselves and that we could take their old ones down to “The Holler” (trailer park) so that anyone that didn’t have bikes could use them.  That was very nice since there are about a third of us that don’t have bikes. 

This week I finished working on my Trivia Game about Cove Fort.  It took a little while to do, but now I can move on to other things.  Heaven forbid if I shouldn’t have something to do to keep me busy.

Ira Hinckley home in Fillmore, Utah

Thursday we drove up to Fillmore so that I could do some research at the county recorder’s office.  I wanted to know the actual amount of land that the Hinckley’s bought back from the Kesler family in 1988.  I was excited to find what I was looking for and to get my answer – 11.25 acres.  Stephen went exploring around town so I could have the time to myself.  I was surprised when he arrived and told me that it was closing time.  There is just something about searching through old records that makes me lose all track of time.  We’ll have to go back again so that I can get back to the original deeds with Ira Hinckley’s information on them.

We were up early on Friday and on the road by 5:45

We drove a  couple of hours to get to Bryce Canyon National Park.

. Stephen was sure that we’d wind up with about 200 pictures on the camera since around every bend there seemed to be another formation that was snapshot worthy.  It is truly a spectacular place to visit.  We started at Inspiration Point to get a full view of the amphitheater area.  We went to Sunset and Sunrise Points as well – Stephen drove and I walked the Rim Trail since I couldn’t get enough of the “fins and hoo-doos”.  At Sunrise Point, we walked down into the formations until we got to Queen Victoria and the Queen’s Garden area.  I’d have liked to have hiked more but I was counting my blessings that we got to do as much as we did.    We stopped for lunch at Ruby’s Restaurant just outside the park.  It is hard to imagine not stopping there since the entire town seems to be owned by Ruby.  We had a great lunch and then were pleasantly surprised to find out that the owner always buys lunch for the missionaries. 

We were searching for a geocache at Mossy Cave so we got to do another one-mile loop after lunch.  The trail we followed was right along the Tropic Ditch that the Mormon Pioneers dug in the 1890's to provide irrigation.  They dug the waterway for two miles.

                                                      On the way home we stopped in Panguitch to look at their quilt show.  They had classes going in all the classrooms and a big display of handmade quilts in the gym.  It was interesting to see all of the old Singer Featherweight machines that the ladies were sewing with since that was the machine that I learned to sew on when I first started in 4-H in the 1960s.  Just before we left, we saw a short video about the actual Panguitch Quilt Walk.  In the 1860s there was a very hard winter and the families in Panguitch were going to starve if they didn’t get more supplies.  Seven men were sent to Parowan, forty miles away, to get more food for the people.  They had only gone ten miles when the snow became so deep that they couldn’t get through with the wagon.  The men knelt down on a quilt on the snow and prayed for what they should do. The answer they received was that they should walk on the quilts, which they did.  It took them a lot longer than expected, but the seven men were able to get the supplies and return in time to save their families.  For more information about this historic walk check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DLnIEVOsUE.  The people of Panguitch actually have a Quilt Walk Park dedicated to the memory of these seven men.  There are seven benches in the park with each one dedicated to one of the men and with information about his life.  I’m very glad that we stopped.

This morning I started to head out for church and got to the main road before I turned around and went back home.  The cattle herds around us had somehow managed to get loose and there were   I decided that the safest thing to do was to walk home and call the owner of the cattle.  Then, being the great husband that he is, Stephen drove me down the rode past the cows so I could finish my walk to church

about a hundred cattle moseying around on the road including some bulls.

We just read Elder Neil L. Andersen’s Conference Talk, It’s a Miracle.  He said, “If you are not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart – painted, as Paul said, ‘not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.’  And returned missionaries, find your old missionary tag.  Don’t wear it, but put it where you can see it.  The Lord needs you now more than ever to be an instrument in His hands.  All of us have a contribution to make to this miracle.”  I am glad to be able to wear a missionary tag and to share my love of Jesus Christ and his gospel with those that visit Cove Fort.

One last thing – I want to share a scripture that seems to keep popping up in my life. It is found in 1 Peter 3:15, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.”  There are opportunities everyday to share our testimonies – I hope that we don’t miss any of them.

New Grandson Finally Arrives

Andrew Hyrum Nimer

Jared called us on Wednesday morning to let us know that little Andrew Hyrum had been born at 11:47 the night before.  He weighed in at 8 pounds and 5 ounces.  He finally got to come home on Saturday, June 1, 2013.  We are so happy to finally have our newest (number nine) grandchild here safe and sound.  Congratulations to Jared and Clara.

Memorial Day weekend was the busiest that it has been at the fort so far.  Monday we had 489 visitors.  There were people everywhere, but it was great being busy. 

We had the opportunity on Tuesday to invite two of the couples from “the Holler” over for dinner.  It was great being able to spend the evening socializing with our neighbors and playing games.  We are hoping to invite everybody over at some point since Stephen and I both socialize better in small groups than large.  While we were walking home on Wednesday from the top of the mountain, one of our neighbors suggested that we get together to play games sometime so they came that night.  We learned how to play Kings Gone Wild, a card game with a special deck. 

                                                                                                                                 Wednesday we got to see what Cove Fort Days might be like.  We had 200 youth from Ivins

Room of Light

Bible and Book of Mormon

Stake (near St. George) stop for a tour.  We were all assigned to different rooms and the youth moved from room to room with their leaders.  Stephen was assigned to the Bunk House that is at the end of the tour.  He said that most of the groups that came through were running behind, so he had to give an abbreviated tour.  I, on the other hand, was positioned in the Women’s Room or Room of Light.  I had 15-20 chances to get the three-minute presentation down right.  We talked about the Light of Christ and how we can receive it from the Bible, but if we never open and read our scriptures then the light can’t penetrate our souls.  The Bible is literally supported on the table by a Book of Mormon.  We know that the Book of Mormon supports the teachings of Christ found n the bible and that it is a second witness of Christ.  We want to study both of these books of scriptures so that we can gather up as much light as possible so that when we are overflowing with this light it will radiate out to others.  The Hinckleys understood the importance of scripture study and called the family together, morning and night, to read and ponder the word of god.

Thursday we worked in the morning and then went to Richfield in the afternoon to shop for food for when the grandkids came.  We treated ourselves to a movie at the local theater, or I should say that they treated us.  The theater there lets the missionaries from Cove Fort come for free and they even provide popcorn and soda for them.  Stephen was in heaven (almost) since the show they were playing was the newest Star Trek movie.  It definitely was an action movie.

Cory and Suzanne and the grandkids arrived around 10:30 on Friday morning.  As soon as we packed a lunch we were on the road for a day filled with adventures.  Our first stop was at the Fremont Indian State Park.  It was hard to move the kids out of the Discovery Center where they got to live the life of Fremont Indians and play at being scientists including donning lab coats for experiments.  Lila even had time to weave an entire rug.

We of course included some geocaching in the afternoon.  I gave the GPS to Suzanne and put them in charge of finding the sites.  We went past one of them so I told them to take the second dirt road.  The problem with that plan was that Cory didn’t see the first dirt road and went sailing past the second one.  After a tour of an unknown area, they finally turned around and found the right road and the geocache. 

Then it was on to Marysvale and the Miners’ Park.  It was a great place to explore but it was about 10 miles from the highway and about six of those miles were dirt road with lots of loose rocks.  Stephen was ready to turn around but luckily we finally saw the sign at the end of the road.  We were able to walk around the mining area and learned a lot of things about the mining industry in the area.  There was a creek running through Bullion Canyon so we spent quite awhile there looking for rocks and then throwing a lot of them back into the creek.  There was a bit of excitement when Lila let go of her newly acquired pink geocaching turtle and it started floating down the creek.  Cory attempted to get it but it continued past him even with him going into the stream a bit.  He and I tore off downstream trying to catch up to it.  I went further downstream but was happy to be signaled that Cory had caught it above where I was.  Lila was happily reunited with her toy and her dad got a big hug for all of his efforts. 

Bullion Waterfall

Cory's family in front of Bullion Waterfall

 

It had been a long day but we had one more stop to make before leaving the canyon.  Several of the missionaries had told us that we should go see Bullion Waterfall because it was just as spectacular as Yosemite Falls.  Being the relatively snobbish Californians that we are, we wanted to see if their claim to fame was accurate.  We had to park our cars at the trailhead and then walk into the falls.  Now we have to say that we never saw another car and/or hikers on the trail, but there were quite a few ATV/OHV.  It was “just” a mile to the falls, but it was a LONG mile.  Poor Cory had the added disadvantage of having to carry his youngest son, Christian, up the mountain and down.  The falls were worth the hike, but it would have been nice to ride up to them on an ATV.  There were some people at the top of the falls preparing to rappel down them, but after twenty minutes of waiting and the sun starting to set, we finally had to start down the trail without seeing them dangling from their ropes.  It was a great day, but I was definitely glad to get home.

Geoff, Christian, Lila, and Alex

Christian, Cory, Stephen doing hoop game

Saturday morning, Cory, Alex, and I went on a five mile hike to fulfill one of his Scouting requirements.  The three of us hiked up to Cove Creek where the Hinckley boys would have to go to get water for the fort.  It was a great walk with great weather, temperature, road conditions, and company.  During the hike back and forth we saw quite a bit of wildlife: a velvet ant, several types of lizards, a snake (that I almost stepped on), swift nests under the freeway, and a coyote.  As soon as we got back it was time to gather up the family and head for the fort.  It was fun taking everyone through the fort and sharing the life and times of the Hinckleys with them.  They had a great time playing with the hoops at the bunkhouse.  We only got half-way through the fort, so we hope that they will come again while we are here so we can finish the tour.

It has been a great week with blessings pouring into us from all areas.  Serving a mission allows your family, as well as yourself, to receive blessings in their lives.  I am so glad that we are here and that we chose to “Catch the Wave” that Elder Russell M. Nelson referred to in his conference talk in April.