July 28, 2010

July 28, 2010

The days are flying buy. We hit the half way mark on July 15. We are having many wonderful experiences as we work and eat with the girls and leaders. And find connections with families on the weekend. One boy went to school with Brock, my nephew. Several girls from So Jordon 5^th ward know Mason, my grandson, because they go to Bingham, too. Some from the Butler Stake know Rob and Tara and McCLearys. I’ve found out Elder Garlick is my cousin. My Dad has Garlicks’ in his family. Some know people in Richmond.

The last few weeks I’ve had a harder time. I don’t have time to regroup between groups. The girls leave on Friday mornings and the families come Friday at 2pm. We check them in and we check them out and we restock the bathrooms for each new group. Robert hauls a lot of garbage, I give lectures on Bertha Stone Reeder. We have orientation every Monday morning, which we take turns presenting with the Henrie’s, the other camp host couple. I have many pictures and I wish I could include them all. Here are just a few.

5 July 2010

Whew!! What a wild week this has been! I’ll work backwards from yesterday. The 4^th of July Sunday was 46 degrees when we went to church at the Hinckley Pavilion (outside). Until four weeks ago we were driving down to Heber to a meeting house. I went prepared this time because two weeks ago I froze with just a blanket. Snow boots, hoodie and coat, and a quilt. It wasn’t so bad that way. The breeze blows through all the pavilions. It’s the best place to be on a hot day, of which we have had only a few. Robert froze. Only wore his suit………..

We had a girl collapse on the hike to the Lake last Monday. She and a leader headed back to Camp Esther. It was a steep climb and very narrow. She collapsed again. The Security Team got there quickly and transported her on a stretcher up to Camp Esther where the ambulance met them. That was about 4pm and she died around 7pm at the Heber Valley Hospital. We are still waiting for the results of the autopsy. Brother Wright said at church yesterday that there were extenuating circumstances. We tried to keep it from the rest of the girls. We have about 2700 a week. To my knowledge we did, and the week went smoothly for them…..

Congratulations to Marci and Paul!! They just found out they are getting a boy in November.

Last week, when I was talking to Shaynna, she put Brenner on the phone, he’s two years old (by the way he loves grandpa’s tractor) He said, “Hi Gram-tractor!!!” We tried to visit for a few minutes, and then he said,” Bye, bye ,bye Gram-tractor”. What a cutie!

I miss my family, but I love serving a mission! We are almost to the half-way mark. ( Three months left)

Life In Pictures

For some reason I can't get the pictures to work!

Here’s our life in pictures. Animals everywhere.. This is their home and they just meander around. A coyote did kill a doe and her newborn fawn the other day. The semi is bringing food for a stake!!! We are well and loving our mission.

Spring

Well, spring lasted about 3 days!!! It is still raining since the middle of the week. One camp host explained it like this, “The pot guts are lining up two by two, ready to get on the Ark!”

Legacy Lake and Challenge Courses have been canceled. The camp is full of families and other organizations, but they mostly stay in the cabins!! What else can you do???? No hiking for sure. Oh, but one woman was jogging!!!

We had a fun week with Altamont Stake being in Camp Sariah, right next to us. We got to visit with a lot of leaders (don’t know the girls, we’ve been gone too long. Bishop Curtis Miles and his counselor, Kelly Bird came to the trailer and we caught up on a lot of news. Carla Todd ( married to Bruce) called from Camp Rebecca, she’s in the Roosevelt West Stake, and I went over to visit.

I’ve been so busy haven’t had time to go down to Admin to post these. But will do it today!

Busy

We are really into Girls Camp. Monday mornings the buses come and drop them off and Friday mornings they pick them up( if it’s a Stake) The first Monday , 6 nice buses pulled in and deposited 320 girls. What a site, when you’re new and don’t know what you are doing!! If it’s wards they come in cars and we have cars everywhere and have to orient them all on parking and everything else. Then Friday’s at 2pm, families start coming. After we check them in, they usually want to go to the Challenge course or Legacy Lake and we make those arrangements. They can stay until 5pm on Saturdays. Saturday nights we collapse!.

We get along really well with our Camp Host companions, Elder and Sister Henrie, from N. Logan. They help us and we help them.

On our P-day this week, we went home to Richmond. It’s been 7 weeks. The house seemed so big! All four of the kids and families that live in the Valley came Monday night. It was sooooo good to see them. I was really missing EVERY one of them. Jaynee, Kevin and family had a REALLY nice surprise for us. They had worked in the rain weeding and mowing the yard for 3 hours before we got home. The yard looked wonderful and they looked like drowned rats! Thanks again Day family!!!

Marci and Paul plan on living in our house while their new one is getting built in Hyrum. They’ll be moving in sometime between June16-20. Good luck, guys. And good luck to Shaynna and Nathan, that things will quit breaking down!!..........I’m back! Just had a knock on the door. One ward was cleaning the bathrooms and they needed more garbage bags. Good luck to Ron and Deo, that things can go more smoothly in their move to a new house!

Til next time!!!!

Memorial Day

On Sunday afternoon of Memorial weekend, Jaynee , Kevin, Maddie, Marshall, Dawson and Dallas spent the afternoon. It just happened to be a nice one. Sure enjoyed them.

Senior Moment

I’m waiting for a call on the radio telling me our first campers have arrived at the welcome center. I thought I’d better update things. I’m going to tell on myself. I can do it now that’s it’s been a week.

I took some meat into the walk in fridge-freezer in the pavilion. I walked into the fridge and tried the freezer door. Couldn’t get it open. After trying and trying I thought I’d just leave it in the fridge part, tried to go out the the fridge door and it wouldn’t open either! I thought, this only happens in the movies, not in real life! Thank goodness I had my coat and gloves on. I just stood there in the fridge thinking what should I do. I knew Robert was out and about on his 4-wheeler and eventually he would come along and see my 4-wheeler running outside of the pavilion. It took about 10 min., but he came in calling my name and I started pounding on the door! I was never so glad to see any one in my life. He said it would have been funny except for the scared look on my face. You see, all I had to do was push on the fridge door and it opened…………da! What a SENIOR moment that was!

Another interesting thing happened this week. Monday I ended up in the Heber Valley Hospital emergency room. That morning I’d had chest pain and heaviness and shortness of breath. After resting for 3-4 hours it got better and then came back again. So, we decided we needed to check my blood pressure. We couldn’t find anyone with a cuff, even at the welcome center so we headed to Heber to Smith’s and used their machine. BP was 187/98. Well, that wasn’t good so we headed to the Hospital. After blood tests and EKG, they thought there might be a blood clot in my lungs, so off to the C-scan we go. No blood clot, but I do have gall stones and that could cause these symptoms. Nothing life threatening and I thank Heavenly Father for another of HIS tender mercies. Rob came to Heber straight from work in SL. He and Robert gave me a blessing. I know I am supposed to be here and finish this mission and I plan to do just that, (with HIS help)

Campers

Wow, what a week we’ve had!!! This past week we’ve had to prepare all 20 cabins, clean 15 toilets, 1 big pavilion, one medium pavilion and three small ones. Brother and Sister Henrie are our camp host couple and they are from North Logan! They are around 70 but do really well. She has health problems, too, so we stop and rest when we get tired, IF, guests aren’t here.

Friday night we had our first campers. Mostly Fathers and Sons and one RS group of ladies on a Retreat. Not quite all 320 beds were filled. Saturday Afternoon was Open House. Bro Henrie thought we’d only see about 12 people…..I’ll bet we had 200. The four of us were run ragged for 4 hrs with YW leaders coming to check out what they had reserved, families and some future missionaries. We answered questions and found out the right answer when we didn’t know! I’ve had to take today off to recoup. I’m sure glad we have 4-wheeler, saves a lot of walking. The snow is still not gone, but going slowly.

Monte and Veann Bolton came to visit this week. They were missionaries here in 2004. They ended up staying 30 months. They were in on lots of the beginnings of this camp. Until next time, adios.

First Campers

Wow, what a week we’ve had!!! This past week we’ve had to prepare all 20 cabins, clean 15 toilets, 1 big pavilion, one medium pavilion and three small ones. Brother and Sister Henrie are our camp host couple and they are from North Logan! They are around 70 but do really well. She has health problems, too, so we stop and rest when we get tired, IF, guests aren’t here.

Friday night we had our first campers. Mostly Fathers and Sons and one RS group of ladies on a Retreat. Not quite all 320 beds were filled. Saturday Afternoon was Open House. Bro Henrie thought we’d only see about 12 people…..I’ll bet we had 200. The four of us were run ragged for 4 hrs with YW leaders coming to check out what they had reserved, families and some future missionaries. We answered questions and found out the right answer when we didn’t know! I’ve had to take today off to recoup. I’m sure glad we have 4-wheeler, saves a lot of walking. The snow is still not gone, but going slowly.

Monte and Veann Bolton came to visit this week. They were missionaries here in 2004. They ended up staying 30 months. They were in on lots of the beginnings of this camp. Until next time, adios.

Grandpa and Nelda drove all the way to Heber to have lunch with Robert and I at the Hub Cafe. We were together for 1 1/2 hrs.. It worked pretty good with the van and Jazzi chair, but he has to stay in it from the Rest Home until he gets back to the the rest home. He looked good, but said he was seeing double today. He says this is no way to live. I agree. I feel so bad for him. Here's our picture.

Tons of Snow

We can see the bare ground down lower on the mountain, up here is getting better, too. It’s still getting down to 20 degrees at night. Last week we spent Mon-Thurs at Claes Ropes in Provo. We drove to Rob’s in So Jordan each night to sleep. We learned Challenge Courses and team building and processing activities. I made it through 3 of the 4 days. My headaches are so much less since I stopped chocolate, nuts and MSG. And, the Lord has a big part of it too. I am doing so much more than I was at home.

The other missionaries are such nice people. Every Sunday after church we have Pot Gut Dinner and then a District Meeting (about 7 couples in a district)) and learn Preach My Gospel

Our first campers are coming this weekend, the May 14^th. We think they are mostly Father and Sons. We have lots of cabins to prepare, since the snow has been so deep we couldn’t get to them. Our camp will be full. All 20 cabins. Each one holds 16 people. The first girls are due May 31.

I feel bad that I can’t write as often or phone, but we have to drive down the mountain to get reception.

We appreciate Shaynna and Nathan, Carson, Breckin, London and Brenner for driving up here to see us for mothers day. We met in Heber and had a few hours at McDonald’s yesterday.

Til next post, Over and out!

Shaynna and Nathan and family came to Heber's McDonald's to see us for Mother's Day

Pictures

SPEARED!!!!!!!!!

Boy are we having a ball???????? I poked my head out of the trailer door to spray my hair and I got SPEARED with an icicle. About 6 inches of it was laying in the snow and the other 7-8 was still hooked to the roof!!!! We are basically spinning our wheels with all this snow. There was 20 inches of new as of yesterday and it is snowing heavily right now. Although, there is a group up here for Woodbadge and I think they are freezing. Over and out for now.( that’s what we say on our walkie-talkie type radios)

We Made It

Hi Everybody! We have been officially on our mission since April 15. Our trailer is parked in Heber in Cowboy Town with tons of other missionaries, waiting for the snow to melt. It’s called Cowboy Town because across the street is where they have the State Rodeo Finals. The Heber Creeper is parked close by, too. Last week was non- stop meetings and training. We needed to learn about all the jobs and activities that go on here. There are 115 missionaries!! We are our own Branch. Everyone is very friendly, but we are especially glad to have Earl and Nancy Reary right next door.

We got our assignment last Friday as Camp Hosts in the Bertha Stone Reeder Camp. We work with another missionary couple, Brother and Sister Henrie ( from North Logan). But, we will be one of the last trailers to go up because the water line is broken. So until it is fixed, we are here.

This place is huge. 8,000 acres of wilderness and Camp Reeder is the highest camp. We’ll be up by the moose and elk. Our camp has 6 camps with 3-4 cabins each and a pavilion – each cabin sleeps 16 people on bunk beds. We can hold 320 people at once and we are booked all summer. Families will start coming on May 14! Hope the snow is gone, but it will be cold. Then the girls start coming May 31, Mon thru Friday. Families come Friday afternoon til Sat night.

Well, that is enough for now. Will write more later!