Missionary Connections 24-7

Here I am as we head out to Mosida on Monday.  I'm taking a picture of the sunrise and accidentally take a picture of the 'Elberta Temple', its really a grain silo, but the locals think its similar to a temple, and call it that in jest. 

Here they are in the morning before it gets too hot.

Each 'family' had a baby (Bag of beans) to be carried. The ward was divided into five families. One of the 'baby beans' would not complete the trek.

Another family with their baby beans.

We loved that they used five of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel for their 'family' names.  I especially love it, because we call out Hurrah for Israel, as the trekkers leave.  I got to tell them about Sam being of the house of Judah.  They said they are all of the houses of Ephraim and Mananas.  

Here a couple of good old pioneers, Elder Smith and Elder Perkins.

and they are off ... Hurrah for Israel.

This sister was left behind with us, because she has a condition, that makes her faint in the heat of the day, and we had plenty.  She is also a doctor, who got her training in Mexico.  She hopes to continue her medical education here so she can work as a doctor in the USA.  She has actually been working as a surgeon.  She looks like she is 15, but is actually about 25.

Sister Smith was showing us pictures that her daughter, who is a professional photographer, has taken of her children.  I thought Bri would get a kick out of this one. (Its from the working in the candy factory episode of I Love Lucy for those who are not aficionados)

Adi's birthday was the next day, but I put her here because I think she looks something like the adorable young doctor.

Here she is when she went out to the first vignette with us.

Here is a deer fly that landed on my apron.  I think they are so pretty.  They look kind of tweedy to me.

On Tuesday we got to go out early and do the trail review with Bishop Nefi Garrido.  He is showing me a picture from Google Maps, that actually shows trekkers on one of our trails.  I loved that.

Sitting quietly in our little shade in the evening watching our vignette.

Here is Elder Smith as he does the Ephraim Hanks vignette.  He is actually the one that wrote it, and I love to see him do it.  He is a farmer from down the road from Mosida, and also wrote a short history of Mosida in the Trek Site book.  He is very articulate, and an excellent writer as well.

This little gal spranged her ankle on the first section of the trek the first morning, so we got to see a lot of her.  She was so brave, and so insistent on staying with the trekkers. I thought she was very wise when she said, "You know, the real trekkers had injuries too, so I think that me continuing as best I can will just make it seem more real for everyone, even for me."

That night we had a very pleasant surprise when Becca called at asked to kill some time with us while her kids were at Adi's birthday party.  What a treat, we almost never get to have one on one with our children, and its our favorite.

We even found out, during our chat, that its not gold that is at the end of the rainbow, but silver.

And here we are Wednesday at the beginning of the women's pull.  The bishop had chosen the brother and sister to represent Joseph and Emily Wall who were 17 and 16 in the story we tell.  The brother and sister he suggested are both youth leaders in their 20's, but it work well.  They had matching huge dimples on their right cheeks.

This little gal was allowed to ride in a cart part of that day, something that rarely happens.  She had had heat exhaustion on Tuesday, and had to be brought in and showered to cool her down.  Of course clean clothes were required and we hadn't thought to bring in her bucket, so we provided her with clothing from our example box.  I really think that was a prompting, for which I was very grateful,

and here is our spranged ankle girl, still smiling at the end of the women's pull, she was pulled in one of our rickshaws.

We always rush over to the 'river' when we get back from the women's pull to be ready, but we miss our lunch in doing so, then we wait and wait ... so Sister Smith had the thought that we could take our lunches out with us, and it was lovely to have a picnic while we waited.  

While sitting there, one of the birds that I always see that have a yellow under belly and wings, like this bird's white areas, was flying over the area.  I have wondered what they were for weeks now, but this time I could see the split tail and knew they were swallows.  Elder Smith told me, they are very common Barn Swallows.  That was fun.  We also had a lot of seagulls playing in updrafts, which is like an areal show, really.

This picture shows the water dripping off the rocks, a water feature that was built by Elder Nielsen a couple of years ago.  It adds the sound of moving water to our 'river', which makes it much more realistic.

It beautiful and clear before the carts go through.

Here's Dad in position at the 'head' of the river to instruct those who will shortly cross.

After we say goodbye to the lovely Park View First Ward out of Eagle Mountain, we headed back to the lodge for our debriefing on our trek with the other two couples.  A gal who had come in with the trek that started that day was in the lodge, and it turns out that she and Dad worked together at the Associated.  Her name is Lynda Callister.

Sister Child had joked with Elder Munro, a while back, after she had finished learning about how we manage the porta potties, that she thought she deserved some recognition for her accomplishment.  That day, as he was working with the incoming trek, he brought her this certificate.  She was delighted. So now she is officially Potty Trained.

On Thursday, due to the fact that the Andreasons had gotten Covid, we filled in for them by doing the Orientation meeting at the Elkridge Stake Center.  I loved watching this young lady's obvious pleasure as her friend french braiding her hair.  I remember my girls always complained because I evidently did it too tight.

They started with this western style musical performance, two of the members of the group were children of ShaMayne and Jack Mason.  You can see Dad on the other side of the base fiddle head.

and here he does the orientation.

Afterwards we got a picture of ShaMayne and her two youngest.

I headed to work that day, and saw this green child's chair.  I had brought in the red one to sell, but when I saw that they matched, and knew that I have an authentic 1930s child's play table to go with them, I had to buy it.  I just hate to paint either to match the other, as they both have old paint. Not sure what I'll do, but an antique child's set is a sure sell, and for much more than the price of the individual pieces.  One small difference is that the front legs on the red one are further splayed than the other.

I had to laugh when my friend Chris, who lives in San Francisco posted these pictures of himself on Instagram.  I laughed and told him that I've been wearing hats like that a lot this summer.  He is so fun.

Another fun Insta find is this one of Charlie.  

and yet another of Chris' posts.  How fun is that?

After work, and the temple for Dad, we met at the Art Museum in Springville to attend the reception of Elder Hooper, from our first mission.  His name is Tyler and we also saw him at an art show with the Kews, and then again at Darby's graduation.  He is kind of hard to miss.

I worked again on Friday, and Dad did some handyman things for me, as well as mowing the lawn,  

After work Dad and I got home, we decided to walk up to the Scottish Festival in the park.  We walked around a bit, and had some Fish and Chips, which seemed perfect.

I laughed when I saw this Payson Style Scottish Cowboy!!

We watched a Perry Mason that night, and low and behold who would be the suspect Perry defends, but a young Robert Redford, we got a kick out of that.

I was up first thing on Saturday making pulla rolls for Dad's reunion which was held in the church next to the Jordan River Temple.

Here Sister Wade is shown presenting with a picture of her family at the time they arrived in Finland as Mission President and family in 1972.  This reunion was in honor of the 50th anniversary of this event. The first thing that President Wade did upon arriving was to 

order a new batch of missionaries.  The two first batches who came would double the missionary contingent in Finland.  Dad was a member of the first group of 24 missionaries, the next group would be 19.

There was an extensive Zoom connection that included half a dozen in Finland, and another half a dozen from other places. The meeting started with each of the Wade children standing and talking about their time in Finland, and how Finnish traditions were always after so important to them. As you see there were five children when they arrived, then while they were there they had another child, then back home they would have more.  It was fun because they would each say, I was in Finland from the time I was one until I was four, etc.  One of those born later said, "I was negative 5 to negative 2 during my family's time in Finland. I laughed so hard at that one.

Dad and I were able to introduce the Kervinens before they spoke, which was great.  We love them so much.  We also had the temple president there, and his wife spoke, and they were introduced by the Holopainens.  Dad knew him on his first mission, and we knew them both when we were there on our missions. The concluding speaker was a fellow missionary from the Wade's time, Elder Brent Nelson of the Seventy, so that was pretty cool.  He was actually on Church Business in New York, but greeted us all before they played a short video with his message.

This is in the break out sessions for each of the three years.  Dad was in the first group for those from 72.  These are Elder Dowdle and Elder Rowberry and their wives.

We did a Relatives around me during lunch, and these two gentlemen won with a third cousinship.  They are Elders Halling and Rassmusen.

Dad was my closet with 8th cousin, three times removed, until this man came up with 8th cousin twice removed, Lonny Stillman.

Here is Sister Wade with four of those original 24 missionaries.

These are all of the missionaries who were able to come, which I thought was pretty remarkable for 50 years later.

Everyone wanted a picture.

Next we went to the temple together at the Jordan River Temple.  The fire in Tooelle made the sky look like sunset, though it was just about 6.   We headed home then went to Salem to pick up a beautiful side by side desk that I had gotten a call about.  Its something like the one I got from Barb's sister Donelle, but is very fancy, and they only asked 200, so a win-win.  Dad will have to make a few repairs, but the oak finish is in great shape for the most part. 

After that we headed out for dinner, Thai food in Payson, our first time there.  Its interesting to me that some restaurants don't even have printed menus anymore.

But boy the foot was ymmy.

This morning we headed to the Conference Center to meet with the group and attend the Music and the Spoken Word broadcast.  I wore another polkadot outfit, and I was not alone.

Here I am with one of Sister Wade's daughters in law.  Her name is Emily Redd Wade, Jonathan's wife.  Dad did some sleuthing and found out that she is Claudia Redd Sandburg's, my next door neighbor growing up, first cousin once removed.  She also married a returned missionary from Finland who served during the Wades time there. How crazy is that.  When I told her I grew up next to Wayne Redd, she said, Oh Uncle Wayne was famous for saying, "Don't let a few facts get in the way of a good story."  that really surprised me, because he was so 'follow the rules' when he was my bishop growing up.  So fun.

Here are those of us who attended the program.

On our way out we saw this man, Elder Parker, and commented that our leader at Mosida is also named Elder Parker.  Turns out he is from England, and they are on the between weekend at the MTC.  They are headed to Philippins.

And last, but not least, is this picture Darby posted.  She has evidently given up on hay pellets for her horses and has gone for the real thing.  She captioned this post on Facebook with.

"How horse people work out."  

Yep, we're still giggling.