Branson, Springfield, and Monet, Missouri (May 3 through 5)

May 3 the three of us had our first interview with President and Sister Collins.  That was sweet.

We also enjoyed talking with the young sisters and elders who also had to have their cars inspected by the Harwards.  That is not a job I would want to do.....this is serious business as the missionaries first must clean their cars, inside and out, before the inspections.  Then do a safety inspection themselves of their cars and then having things rechecked by the Harwards.  It was also fun to spend some time with the Harwards who serve usually up in the mission office.  

Heading north now--first to Bentonville to pick up a smoke detector/CO2 monitor for our duplex......

We stopped at a Taco Bell and I loved the mural in the store.

It happened at the mission office was a sister from Texas who knew my friend, Julie Copfer.  She was on my list of missionaries to look for and she said that on the prior Monday, her mother had reminded her to look for us--we somewhat stand out as a companionship of 3!  We took a picture and sent it off to Julie and to her mom.

And then we were off to our first YSA senior missionaries district meetings--to be held in Branson, Missouri.  (Being senior missionaries has some awesome perks including fun district meetings throughout the mission.)

Northern Arkansas and then southern Missouri is just rolling hills and narrow tree lined roads with little towns here and there.  It was a very fun drive...again better for me than for Gary who did the driving.

A few bridges along the way added to the fun.

and more hills.

Getting close with Branson signs appearing....

We are here.

I knew that Branson was now the home of plays and concerts, but I didn't realize that it was a major entertainment place of all sorts of family fun type venues.  It was crazy.  Like one of the missionaries said, "Branson is a clean version of Las Vega."  That is what it is like.  

We headed to the College of the Ozarks for a "farm to table" dining experience which is just south of Branson.  It was delicious.  I also loved the symbols of Christ that appear in many places throughout the area.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and were able to walk to our evening show right next to the hotel--Rick Thomas, Illusionist.  It was okay.  Not a big fan of magic shows and I appreciated his use of the word "illusionist."  If you like that type of thing, it is probably a good example of it.

Thursday morning we had our district meeting at the hotel with the other three couples who also serve in YSA /Institute assignments.  We realized that we each have unique situations that we are dealing with for sure and there isn't one right way to do our assignments.  One comment that was made was to bring your strengths to the assignment.  That made sense to me, but I need to figure out exactly what that is.

Between meetings and our shows, we walked down the Main street of Branson and enjoyed some of the sights.

These were in front of the Wax Museum

Even the restaurants join in the fun...

Wonder Works is a family science museum with lots of hands-on activities.  I would love to go inside, but we didn't have time this trip.

This is an aquarium.....

with a water show in the front pond.

I like water towers.

Outside of the Sights and Sounds Theatre where we saw the Bible story of Queen Esther.

The theatre

This was a great production and the staging and use of the aisles was spectacular!!!  Be prepared to be amazed!

Then that night we saw the Haygoods in concert.  They did an awesome music show.  It is a family with one daughter and five brothers involved which has been running since the early 1990s when they were still children.  Crazy and fun!

Friday morning we had another short district meeting and we took this photo with the Moffats, Gremlicks, and us   (Nortons left earlier because of health concerns.)  I think our next district meeting is to be at the Kansas City Temple and surrounding area in about 3 months.

We then headed straight north to Springfield, MO which is about 30 minutes north.  As I have mentioned, Branson was in our ward in 1978 when we lived in Springfield.

We really didn't not recognize Springfield at all. We headed to the visitor's center and then walked a bit of the down town but nothing really seemed familiar.  45 years can do that to a place.

Some city art downtown...

Gary liked the frog the best.

Here we are in Springfield, Missouri....

Then we headed west to Monet, MO to spend a great afternoon with Elder Larry Faria (his wife Sandi was gone helping out her son and daughter-in-law).  Elder Faria serves as a service missionary for the Collections Zone at the Church History Museum.  We have talked to him by phone and also on Zoom, but this was our first in-person meeting.  It was wonderful.  He served us a great salad made totally with organic vegetables, chicken and dressing.  He is currently fighting cancer and has turned to eating a very clean diet which his wife has done for a long time.  I have to say that it was an amazing salad and almost persuaded me to consider more organic items.

He is a convert to the Church so we got to hear about that story plus many more.  He is a collector himself of Church History items, plus he also searches the internet for items that the Church is looking for.  That is what his mission assignment is.

He shared some of his collections with us which is so unique and told us some amazing stories about collecting Church History items.

Gary and Jena with Elder Faria

Their home is in the middle of a pretty grove of trees and this one near their driveway got a face from pieces picked up at a flea market in the area.

What a honor it was to spend time with Elder Faria and to hear some amazing stories of God's involvement in His work on earth.

We had another great drive back to Ft. Smith arriving before the storms and before it was too dark.  What a great three days and two night trip!  And it was nice to be back "home" in Ft. Smith.