Transfer Call

On Wednesday, March 20, it was transfer call morning.  At 6:45 am., we all get on the transfer call--since it is p-day, no one is in missionary clothes yet--to hear who is going, who is staying, and who is coming on Transfer Day which is on Friday.  Even now over a week later, it makes me sad to think about the missionaries who left our zone this last transfer, although we are loving the new ones as well.  We don't turn on our camera for this meeting.

This time the zone leaders announced that "...the Halls are staying!" and everyone cheered!! They are so funny.  It is very unlikely we would be moved and it would be even more odd to hear about it on a transfer call.  Senior missionaries fill different roles within a mission.  Occasionally, you will hear about senior couples being moved--usually to fill needed roles in the mission office or somewhere else, but it doesn't happen very often.

I went back to bed after the call!!

 

Game Night at Our Ft. Smith Institute

On the Tuesday night during the college's spring break, we had a game night at the Church.  After a simple dinner of hot dogs, etc., we ate, played games and enjoyed being together.  Here is most of our group except for the other Ft. Smith missionaries who stopped in for dinner and fellowshipping but left before the games and also Kayley, who doesn't like to be in pictures. 

We love these sweet YSA humans--each so unique in their own way.

9-square was a big hit!

Karina and Candy

Sister Anderson, Sally, Jena, and Lizzy

Game Night treats...which also included root beer floats--a big hit and actually new to a couple of the young adults.

Mena Monday Apartment Inspection and Bonus Bridges

On Monday mornings, Gary frequently picks up the Mena elders in Waldron and brings them up to Ft. Smith for district or zone meetings.  This save miles for them.  We then run them back to Waldron after the meetings and they usually do missionary work in that area before heading back to Mena.  Since we were in the middle of apartment inspections a couple of weeks ago, we made arrangements to meet them at dinner time to inspect their apartment.  That meant we had 3 hours free in the area around Mena.  Gary had done some research and found 3 bridges on the historical registry for such things.  One to the southwest of Mena and two to the south east and much further out.  Gary determined that we could do all three of them if we hustled and didn't have any bad roads or missed turns---and of course, we had both of those things---lots of dirt roads and one turn that our car's GPS missed so we had to backtrack after ending up in someone's private lane.

Here is the first bridge-Mountain Fork bridge----by Hatfield, AR.  Built prior to 1920 but not sure when.

A little rickety as you can see--

Of course, I love to walk across the bridges but this one had a tiny hill and I couldn't see if cars were approaching from the other side--nor could they---

So, I had Gary and Jena (she chose NOT to walk across this bridge with me) drive in front of me to protect me from oncoming traffic.....

This was the road base of the bridge and I knew that I didn't want to have to step off the area designed for the tires and trust the siderails to support me...

It was a cool bridge though....

This is Bill---Oh the things you see on the scenic byways of Arkansas.

This is the sign when we knew that our car's GPS had mislead us......

The next two bridges were in a state park and both are old stone bridges built in the 1930s, I think. They are called the Shady Lake CCC Bridges as they were built as part of the government work crews of the 1930s.  It was hard (in missionary clothes and shoes) to get a good shot of the bridges from a distance.

This was the second one---

As a result of the dirt roads and the missed turn, we were going to be a few minutes late to the appointment for the apartment inspection.  No problem--we can be fast.....

until we came to a train crossing--no worries, we like trains--but then it stopped for about five minutes, then went again a few car lengths and then stopped for...25 minutes.  And of course, we didn't have cell service to let the missionaries know.  So, finally after other cars moved, we back out and found another way around the train....and we sent the missionaries off to their dinner appointment since we were now going to be about 35 minutes late.

We got lunch, visited a local Wal-Mart, and then stopped at a city cemetery to take pictures until the missionaries were done with their dinner appointment. We usually avoid city cemeteries because we assumed that they have been done and so focus on the ones out in the countryside.  

A mixture of the autumn leaves with the spring grasses
and little flowers

We weren't there very long before the missionaries called and were home for their inspection.  However, in that short time, Gary and I got about 40 pictures and almost every single one of them was not in Find A Grave.  Some of them had open requests which is always a good feeling.  We will definitely be spending more time at this huge cemetery each time we head to Mena.

This cemetery had fun names for their streets.

It is a beautiful cemetery on some small hills in town.  I loved these "mushroom" trees--trimmed so neatly.

From our Wal-Mart stop!

We will miss these days that combine district meetings, exploring, photographing gravestones, and being with the young missionaries.  What a great life we lead!
 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

The day we remember that we are blessed, not lucky!!!

The cute cookies we served after our excellent Branch Conference today.

Us in our green dresses.....