Heartbound

Last night we had a special Relief Society meeting.  The vocal group, Heartbound, came and performed for us.  This is a special group of ladies that share a spiritual message through their own original music.  We have been fans for years. 

Deb, Me'Chel and Lori sang the most beautiful songs full of inspiration.  They had us laughing and crying.  What an tremendous spirit they have. 

With the Henderson's

Their final song was their version of How Great Thou Art and I Need Thee Every Hour.  As they sang, this amazing sunset was unfolding- an amazing manifestation of our Saviour's love for us

Heartbound and the sister missionaries

We met Deb years ago.  She is a great friend to
Gwyn, Dayna's amazing "other mother".  I also had the opportunity to rub shoulders a bit with these great ladies when I worked at Deseret Book years ago.

This evening was one of the highlights of our mission.  Thanks Heartbound!!!

Check them out at heartboundmusic.com

Badgers!!!

I have been waiting all summer to see a badger.  The holes are everywhere, I have almost tripped over several.  Today finally, I saw not one, but two badgers!!!

This is the first guy I saw. We were in Camp Smith working on benches, when I heard a rustling and went to investigate.  He was pretty shy, but I managed to get this picture. 

This big fella we just happened across as we were driving into camp 5 in Esther.  He was digging a huge hole at the base of a huge pine tree.  He wasn't in the least bit shy, and posed for lots of pictures in between digging spurts!

Our Home Away From Home

     So, we were told that they were going to stain the missionary cabins August 22.  They told our neighbors that they could go home from Sat night until Wednesday, because of the fumes.  Because Granger is in charge of the sprayer, he needed to be here every day, so they told us they would put us up on a motel in Heber.  Suddenly, on Wednesday morning, the 17th, during devotional,we got a call that they were actually staining the cabins- NOW!   I ran to the cabin and very quickly decided what we needed to take for who knows how long!  I packed it all in the car- as they were in the process of taping our cabin shut.  I then hung out at guest services until Granger was done for the day, and we headed down to Heber.  The Holiday Inn was totally booked up, so we went down the street to the Swiss Alps Inn.  It was not very fancy, but it was clean and we enjoyed staying there

I actually took my sewing machine with me and spent Thursday in the room finishing my missionary signature quilt so I could get it done for the talent show.  I finished the top and got the back pieced.

Elder Oliekan and Elder Terry- figuring things out

This is how I left my cabin

Power washing

Masking and Taping

Brushing the stain on the cabins- ours is the closest one

We both worked Friday, and after our session on Challenge Course, we headed home for p-day.  My brother, Gary, was down from Seattle.  He and Parker, his grandson, spent the night at our house.  After breakfast at Granny Annie's, we went to Hunter's first ever football game.  They lost, but Hunter caught an interception!  Then we went home and I finished quilting my quilt.

      Sunday we attended my nephew's homecoming.  Nate did an awesome job on his talk. We then went to a special meeting in our stake to realign our ward boundries.  They left our ward intact and added the bottom of Shadowbrook ward back into our ward.  Our ward is now twice as big.  It's a good thing.  We are back with people we were with about 20 years ago.  Things will be a lot different when we go home.

     We headed back up the mountain and stayed in our newly stained, only slightly smelly, cabin on Sunday night.  The night we were supposed to leave in the first place!

     

Fun Friday!!!

 We had a fun day on Friday!  We started the morning with a devotional at 9:00 am.  Elder Mark P. Durham, an area seventy, came and addressed us.  His remarks were brief, but very applicable to us as we are serving the Lord.

Camp Abish - a beautiful morning

Elder Durham, Brother Whimpey, and Elder Pulsipher

Elder Mark P Durham

 After the devotional, I spent a few hours in Camp Rebekah cutting masking papers to cover the windows next week when we are staining.  Granger spent the morning with the staining crew putting the finishing touches on Camp Esther.

At 1:00pm, we were invited by the Challenge Courses to a "Thank You" ice cream social.  They threw a party to thank all of the missionaries that come on Friday and Saturday to help with the challenge courses.  It was a lot of fun!

Elder Phillips, Sister Winterton and Sister Anderson

Elder Winterton- ice cream expert!

Elders Winterton and Christensen- two big dippers!!!
Coconut Almond, please!!!

CC 4 team +volunteers

We reported for challenge course duty at 3:30.The group we had this week was an Asian Young Single Adult group.  They spoke Chinese and English.  

Chillin' 'til the group arrives!

We were asked to do "Life Line" with the group.  In this activity, the kids are told that this activity represents their journey through life.

Each person is blindfolded and asked to wait

One at a time they are brought to the line. They are told to follow the line to the end

                                  

There are many detours that they have to negotiate along the way.  Some are able to go right through.  Some get caught up going in circles, and some even go back to the beginning. 

When they reach the end, they are welcomed home.  We then have a discussion about how this relates to life on this earth.  This particular group was amazing.  They had such a great spirit and great insights into the gospel plan.  We really enjoyed working with this group. 

After doing the zip line and Life Line, the group did the "Wall"

The object of this activity is to get everyone in the group over the wall in 10 minutes.  They were awesome!!!

When we got back to the cabin, the lake team did an "All Call" for the missionaries that wanted to come and take a ride at the lake.  They have opened the dam a week earlier than last year, and the water is going down fast.  We actually got to go out on the pontoon boat one last time.  They even let us drive!  

One of the paddle boats had gotten stuck in the mud.  Granger was able to throw them a rope and tow them out.  

We loved the lake last year and have missed it this summer.  We loved being able to take a farewell cruise.  It was a perfect ending to a great day!

Challenge Course

One of our opportunities this summer was to help on the Challenge Course.  We were assigned to help at course #4 on Fridays, 3:30-5:30 pm session.  Our job was to run low course activities so the certified missionaries were free to run the high course.  We had groups and families.  Some were very special experiences, some were pure chaos!

We had about an hour of training.  We got to do some of the different activities.

Some of the challenge course missionaries

Elder Oliekan playing Blind Tag

Elder Oliekan and Elder Moretti trying to figure out Criss Cross

Elder Oliekan decided to try the high course

Almost there

Zipping!!!

These are the wonderful missionaries we get to work with every week: Christensen's, Bolingbroke's, Saliby's and Anderson's

Sisters' Saliby, Christensen, Anderson and Bolingbroke

I Feel My Saviour's Love

One of my favorite things to do this summer has been to give the presentation, "I Feel My Saviour's Love".  Each sister that has this assignment comes up with her own presentation, with her own style, to share with the girls.  I was able to do a presentation at least once a week.  

 I was fortunate to mostly have wards, so the groups were small and manageable.  The stakes were more of a challenge.

I started my presentation by showing this picture of a little yellow flower growing in the rocks out on the parkway.  I asked them to tell me how it made them feel, what they thought of when they saw it.  I got a lot of different responses including lonely, alone, faith, determination, hope.  

  I played off of the responses and we had a discussion about the hard things we have in our lives- how do we become the person God intends us to be, what resources do we have to help us, etc.  

We talked about how they were a unique daughter of our Heavenly Father and how He had created them individually with a mission to discover and fulfill.  

We also discussed how the challenges we face help us grow stronger and help us discover who we are.  I showed them a geode and talked about how the crystals are formed from the adversity of the elements.  The same is true of us.  We are molded by the way we handle adversity and trials in our lives.  

I gave them three challenges:

1- Choose to be happy

2-Choose to be grateful

3-Choose to serve

At the end, I show them this picture of the little yellow flower a few weeks later.  It had reached up to the sun and reached down to the water.  It had reached the measure of it's creation.  As we reach up to the "Son" and reach deep for the "Living Water", we too will reach the measure of our creation.

We ended singing "I Feel My Saviour's Love", the camp theme song.

Each group was different.  Some were more receptive than others.  Some groups had a very special spirit about them. This was one of the highlight of this mission for me.

The Nephi 4th ward was one of our favorite groups.  They gave us each a candy lei as a thank you for coming to their camp.

More Kids Pics!

I forgot that I had taken pictures on two cameras.  I found these today and thought I would add them!

Talia with Sister Edwards

Claire, Taryn, Jackson, Kevin, and Aaron

Ryker

Kortny

Rivka

Dayna with Sister Winterton

Brian

Greg

Robyn

Granger

Jackson