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.