Our Week In The Mission Field

Schedule:

Monday- MLC Review with the entire Zone.  The zone leaders and sister training leaders did a great job as usual.  Gary made the typical run to Waldron to get the Mena elders.  However, when it was time to head back to Mena, Ft. Smith was hit by a thunderstorm and pouring rain, so we reroute to our apartment to wait the storm out.  They did companion study while we worked on our stuff.

Jena had a busy week and did 6 birthday cards at the first of the week and three or four more near the end of the week.

Tuesday:  Dinner and Institute   I had been woken early by another thunderstorm going by and decided as I listened to the rain that Chili would be great for dinner that night.  When I headed to the store around 11:00 am and it was 85 degrees and 85 % humidity, I reconsidered my plans--but my shopping list had been made and I decided to go ahead with it.

Everyone liked the chili and the story.  Sally was especially excited.  She said that chili was one of her top five favorite foods and it was especially sweet that I made it for that night as she will be gone the rest of the summer teaching at a music camp in Wisconsin. Another accidental blessing for her!

Wednesday: We spent some time making our poster cards for the missionaries for the apartment inspections this transfer.  They came with bottles of cold Minute Maid Lemonade.

Wednesday evening, we headed to Bentonville (again) for our YSA temple trip.  This was the first time that we had done a sealing session together with the YSA branch.  Sally had just gotten her endowment the Saturday before and she wanted us to go with her again before she headed to her summer job.  Lizzy and Nyomi will be leaving on their missions at the end of June, so it was a special time to be in  the temple together.

Pictures to follow.

Thursday morning: We were off to do the first round of apartment inspections--we did four in the morning and then Clarksville that night after Institute.

The view down our hill---pretty white clouds after some days of thunderstorms and high humidity.

We got into Prairie Grove a little bit early so continued to take pictures of grave markers in their city cemetery.  We got new phones a week or so ago (although I just started using mine yesterday) and one of the features is better picture taken and less glare on the screen.  Gary said it worked great.

Everywhere the fields are cut with their spring harvest.

Wild flowers are everywhere as well....

Thursday night was dinner and Institute in Clarksville followed by an apartment inspection with the Clarksville elders.

Friday:  Off to Greenwood and then Mena for apartment inspections.  I think it is the first time that we got them all done in two days.  They all did an excellent job getting their apartments cleaning even their ovens.

We took the Mena elders to lunch at our favorite Mena drive in with the color changing straws.  I am amused by simple things.

On our way down to Mena--on a new road, of course.  We passed by this truck.  We didn't have time to stop so we went back to take pictures.  As I took the photos, I noticed that it was decorated with Christmas lights and some Christmas ornaments which made it even a better, fun photo.

While I was taking the photos, a car stopped and an old man got out.  At first, I was worried that he was mad at me taking pictures, but he actually was wondering if I needed any help.  He had lots of old cars and trucks in a lot across the street from this one.  He told me that he actually drove this old 1952 truck to this spot.  For years, they decorated it for every holiday, but over the past few years they have just done it at Christmas and Easter.  After we talked a bit, I asked him if he would pose by his truck and he was happy to "even though he was ugly as sin..." or some such saying.  People are so great!

He told us that we needed to go visit Shady, Arkansas, a place south of Mena.  He said that there is a natural meadow there that is the only one between the Rockies and the Appalachian mountains. We did not find it following his directions, but we had a beautiful drive through the hills of Arkansas which is always a fun thing.  (And google could not confirm such a place.)  We did make it to Shady, Arkansas, but we didn't see the spot he had tried to explain to us.

We didn't see the creek but liked the view...

I added a rock to a pile that had been started...

For our granddaughter-Carter!

Oh, the things you will see.....

This home had a row of weather vanes on their fence.

The Van Buren Elders had posted a picture of the two of them in front of the Oklahoma sign off the freeway.  They can't leave the state or their zone.  We however can travel through Oklahoma so we opted to take the OK route home from Mena which is actually about 5 miles further but a bit faster because of the speed limits.  So we took this photo of us in Oklahoma coming into Arkansas.

At that same spot, there was a bar with doors labeled Arkansas and Oklahoma.  We didn't go in to check if the prices and taxes were the same or different depending on which end of the bar you sat in.

And more green trees...love them!

Saturday:  The morning we spent doing some laundry and house cleaning.  Then Jena and I went with the sister missionaries and visited five newly graduated seniors to invite them to the YSA branch.  It took us about four hours and over 100 miles, but it was a fun afternoon and it was great to meet and talk to the new seniors and/or their parents.

Saturday afternoon, Sally texted and asked me to prepare the RS lesson for today (Sunday) so that it what I did Saturday night.

And then we are back to Sunday...today...and I am caught up finally with the blog!!