BeReal Photos

request came while we were driving to Clarksville on Thursday--we are really missionaries doing stuff!!

 

Jazz Concert

One of our young adults--Danny--is in the Jazz band at UAFS and they had a free concert on campus on Wednesday so we headed there in our missionary clothes to watch it.  It is a small and pretty campus.

Danny is the trumpet player on the left.  He is very good and had several solo pieces.  The whole concert was excellent and we were glad that we had attended.  Danny seemed surprised but happy to see us as well.

The Ft. Smith elders joined us for the concert as well.  We also saw Sally with some of her friends at the concert.

It is fun to support these young adults in their activities.
 

Moments From Our Tuesday

After a Sunday night and Monday rainstorm, all of the gutters and streams in the area are flowing quickly with the runoff on Tuesday.  No hail or thunder that we heard, just a lot of rain.  Gary said about 1 1/2 inches fell from midnight to about 7:00 am.

For Institute we talked about Having Hope through Christ's Resurrection and Finding Grace in Jesus's Atonement.  Very excellent topics and discussion.  Sister Holding drew this great vine based on John 15:1-8 as we talked about our absolute need to have access to Christ's grace in our lives EVERYDAY!!!

It is so great to see the young adults think and share their ponderings on these critical subjects.  They are so brave to share these things with their peers.  I loved watching Sally come to understand grace more fully as she shared that change with us.

And the moon that night was a beautiful orange and huge....at Karina's apartment when we dropped her off...

and then at our house over the treetops.  The pictures don't do it justice, but they help me remember.

That is a sample Tuesday along with reviewing our lesson prep, buying groceries and preparing food (sloppy joes), serving dinner, teaching two lessons, and cleaning up, and carpool. Just a busy day in the mission field  (as opposed to this Saturday where I am spending the morning cleaning the apartment and the afternoon on the computer catching up the blog. Still need to run to the store for a salad for our Easter dinner tomorrow in Bentonville and take my walk---these are the catchup days and I like them, too).

Palm Sunday Road Trip

We made Easter "baskets' for each of the missionary apartments but it included a pack of cards with something to read each day of the week from Palm Sunday to Easter, so we decided to deliver them in person to the missionaries last Sunday (except for poor Mena.  They got theirs on Monday.  We decided adding another 150 drive after doing the Ft. Smith-Van Buren-Clarksville-Greenwood-Ft. Smith loop was a little too much.)  Actually these pictures were taken before we added pictures of Christ for each missionary and also eclipse glasses for everyone.

It was fun surprising them with a delivery.  We would text them as we headed to their city and meet them where they were at--at the Church or their apartments (we tried to go around dinner time to catch them close by) They love these simple silly things we do to remind them that they are loved and noticed--not just by us, but by their Heavenly Father and their Savior.

Saturday in Springfield, MO-Part Two

 or maybe this should be called- "The Circle of Life"-moment

our first apartment as a married couple-
top floor

Jena took this picture for us--of course, I don't have any comparable picture of us.  Film was too expensive back then.  You only took pictures of special events.  I know that 46 years ago, we had no idea what our lives were going to be like and how blessed we would be in all of our adventures!

This is where the swimming pool used to be--now cemented in...

but with the sides of the pool still warning you not to dive in!!  We loved this pool and loved swimming in it in the evenings and on Saturdays that first summer.  The YW and YM enjoyed it from time to time as well.

Another funny spot in Springfield--not historical in any way but somewhat on our way out of town after we didn't find the Church we attended.  Our memories and growth of Springfield made that not work. We knew that the Church building had been sold to another church so we couldn't use 'find a meetinghouse' to find it.

We stopped at the Roaring River State Park in south Missouri.  The river water was so clear here.  With the reflection and all of the plants it is hard to see, but it was beautiful.

Heading in the right direction....

We arrived back in Arkansas by dinner time Saturday night.  It was a busy and happy few days, but we were tired by the time we got home.

Saturday In Springfield, MO-Part One

One last Branson Water tower as we headed to Springfield on Saturday.

So many reminders of faith along the roads here and in Arkansas....

Many areas here the mountainsides have been carved out to allow for the building of these freeways.  Notice how straight the lines are within the rocks.  One of the missionaries pointed out that this is due to this area being at the bottom of a large lake for thousands of years and then later not subject to the earthquakes that impacted the west and the coastal areas. 

Finally...the famous--Bass Pro Shop of Springfield, Missouri.  This is where the Bass Pro Shop founder started and the actual little shop is on display on the second floor of this huge---and I mean HUGE--store with acres of outdoor stuff to buy and lots of displays and museums and a waterfall and running stream through the store.  The missionaries told us later that going to this store is one of the frequent p-day activities for the missionaries in Springfield.

Large aquariums are throughout the store---

Even the statues are huge--notice the height of the person in behind the horse.

Apiece of the many waterfalls in the store...

The buck below was actually found by deer hunters on the side of a dirt road already dead.  Since they had already used their deer tags for that hunt, they called the Forest Service to come and get the buck.  If I remember right, he was a "42 point" buck which is a record for this part of the world--maybe anywhere.  Vets determined that he had died from old age shortly before the hunters found him.  So, now he is stuffed and on display in this store.

If you have ever wondered what you looked like to the fish in the stream as you stand in the water in your waders--now your know.

Even the ceilings are covered with nature displays--mostly underwater ones...

There are several museums within the store as well and many quotes related to nature and conservation.  All good reminders....

Our selfie in front of the founder--Johnny Morris.

Off To Branson Again

We do lead a fun life.  This time we headed to Branson to hold our quarterly Senior Missionary District meeting.  We gathered on Thursday and stayed through Saturday morning.

Spring has arrived in northern Arkansas.

The Ellises had traveled up to Branson the day before and she had shared a picture of the Rag Barn and the chickens in front.  She didn't tell me where it was, but I recognized it as we came around a corner so Gary turned around so I could get some pictures.

Sister Ellis went inside, but we just enjoyed the outside.

We had arranged to meet Ellises for lunch since we were the first ones in town.  We went to the Mel's Hard Luck Cafe where all of the servers sing.  It was loud but fun as they each took their turn to sing--sometimes while delivering food to a table.  We noticed this table noticing us and started up a conversation.  Turns out that they are members of the Church from Arizona here in Branson for a vacation.  Both of them are currently serving in a YSA ward in Thatcher, AZ and they both have served as senior missionaries, too--the couple on the left was in Independence, MO and the one on the right was in northern Wisconsin.  Br. Roberts was teasing us about being in Branson seeing shows during our mission until his wife asked him to share how many times he went ice fishing on THEIR mission....we had a very enjoyable conversation with them.  It turns out that one of their YSA sisters is currently serving in our mission up in the Ft. Roberts Zone so we let the couple there know to send their regards.  As always, it is a small world in the Church.

Jena posing with Elvis....

The little shopping mall around the restaurant.

A very tourist plan

The Sight and Sounds Theatre

Waiting for Queen Esther to start.....

After Queen Esther, we had dinner at the McFarlain Family Restaurant and then played games at the Dutton Inn where some of the missionaries were staying.

Friday morning we started with our formal district meeting which was awesome.  Gary had each couple take 5 minutes (after about a 10 minute prep time) to share a message with the rest of us about their service and how it is impacting themselves and others.  Everyone did a wonderful job and there was tears shed for sure.  Then we had Elder and Sister Delimont share their testimonies as they will be released before our next quarterly get-together.  The Delimonts started their mission in the Oregon Salem mission but because of health reasons had to return home in December, but they have continue to serve within their home stake and have been a good addition to our senior missionaries district.  (She wrote the sweetest message on our group chat after our event saying that she feels that they were so blessed by coming home and becoming a part of this remote district of missionaries.  In their other mission, they were the only remote serving senior missionaries and she said that they have gained so much by being with us and interacting in other ways.  We will miss them as they are released in a couple of weeks.)

We then headed for lunch at the Hughes Brothers BBQ at their theatre.

Left to right: Delimonts, Sister Baird, Ellises with Elder Baird behind,
Bevans, Jena, us, and Cooks (Griffins were somewhere but
missed this picture.)

The Hughes Brothers and The Dutton Family are both LDS families and have theatres across the street from each other.  They both provided free --front row tickets for us which was so great.  Jena made these cute thank you cards for them which we all signed (sorry, no pictures of them.)  We enjoyed both shows very much--although the Duttons were an extra step above amazing!  We saw the Hughes Brothers in the afternoon and the Duttons in the evening.

They did a medley of Broadway tunes which I loved....

The Brothers....

And then the Duttons----

This was such a cute act.
The young man in the orange has small horns of various sizes
along his arms, legs, and truck and he plays music
along with his uncle.  It made us all laugh so much.

Hard to see but they are pulling the bow across the violin next to them.
So fun to watch....

The Dutton parents--I think he is 82 and she is 76 or something.  He was a professor at BYU in economics for many many years until the kids convinced them to retire at 55 and join the whole family in Branson as professional performers.  There are 7 children and many many grandchildren who perform, but people come and go as their life dictates.  Two of the grandchildren just got home from mission in the past couple of months and they are already back to performing.

It was a fun performance and the music was excellent.  I would highly recommend them if you ever go to Branson.  They also perform in Mesa during the winter months.

Saturday morning, we packed up and people started heading their own directions.  Several wanted to go to the Bass Pro Shop in Springfield, MO, which is the granddaddy of all Bass Pro Shops so we decided it was a good time for us to head to Springfield again.

Watch for details on the next post.