June 29, 2014

This week we were with the Wellington Stake.  A smaller group,

only 105 people.  We were the only missionaries assigned to the

group.  Kinda scary for them!  We didn't lose any for very

long and returned safely to the place they started.

We had rain again, we are on a roll.  Rain on two treks

and snow last week.  The rain creates problems with the 

roads and getting support vehicles in and out of areas.  

Trekkers can get around pretty good, those carts can go

lots of places big trucks can't. 

We've made some great new friends and at the end of the

week we are sad to say goodbye.  It is amazing how quickly

you get close to some people.  And don't we look

good out in the prairie.

Treks have a way of binding people together.  We all

laughed, cried, learned new things and got dirty together.

This was taken on Murphy Ridge, the dust was pretty thick.

On Wednesday it was kinda warm and dry, but Thursday 

night it rained pretty good and all that dust became slimy mud.

It started to rain just as we were teaching them to dance the

Virginia Reel.  Yep, Jeff and I teaching dance, how funny

is that?  So funny it made the clouds cry with laughter.

After four days this was their group as they came back

to where they began.  As we went thru the last gate

I asked them, "You can make a choice, do you want to

go straight back to the cars or do you want to make a

hard left turn and start on the trail again?"  You

can't believe how many yelled, "Let's do it again!"

Now, that is a great pay off for us.  When they start

they are kinda not real happy, it is a "My mother made

me come" attitude.  How wonderful that at the end

they are saying how glad they are they came and how 

they wished it wouldn't end.  My hope is that they

never forget the feelings they felt here on the 

plains of the D.L. & L. 

June 22, 2014

This week we started on Thursday June 19 with the Roy Stake.

We, and they, were glad they weren't scheduled for Wednesday

because of all the snow we got.  By Thursday things were

drying out and the weather was perfect for walking, walking and 

walking.  This is Jeff talking to them before we started.  

He is in a big chute thing, I said he looked kinda like

a King Benjamin!

One of their food trucks was a actual refrigerated vendor

truck.  It looked so funny out in the meadow, they even had

the open sign on and the menu posted on the window.

We liked eating with them.  On the side it said,

"Greek Gallery"

This is actually from another trek.  The Tremonton Stake

came and did a trek based on the experiences of the Saints

from the first Vision to Nauvoo.  They built the Kirtland Temple

and then tore it down and built the Nauvoo Temple the

next day in a new site.  Sister Nordick and I decided

to crash their party and see the Temple.  We even got

our picture taken by one the the families.  Each week

we get to see all kinds of different things.

This is our Trail Boss,Wendell Rich, aka

Captain Willie.  He and Jeff celebrating a wonderful

trek, NO ONE DIED!  A first for Captain Willie.

What a sight this was, the trekkers heading into the

herd of cattle.  Can you begin to imagine how many

fresh cow pies there were?  The calls were funny to 

listen to, "Hole in the Middle, Hole on the right, Holes everywhere.

Pie in the middle, the left the right, pies everywhere.

A whole new meaning to "FRESH PIES"

Speaking of Pies, this was waiting for them at the finish 

of the trek!  The kids were excited to eat and the cooks

were happy to NOT COOK!  Me, I got to take the leftovers

back to share with the other missionaries, or not!

This is a booklet they put together for all the trekkers

and they gave us each a copy also.  At the finish they

presented to Nordicks and us a wooden plaque.  Their

theme was "I am ready now."  We really had a great

time with them.  They were very prepared and really easy

to work with when we had to delay or change things to

get things to work.  Our motto here is, "WE are Flexible"

Yep, that is me, I would now be the reigning Missionary 

Queen of Trek, notice the buckskin gloves, the rodeo

wave, the dirt on the shoes and pants (Oh you can't see it?

Believe me it is there) and of course the ever winning

decoration of ticks climbing up your pants and sleeves!

I know, true beauty is hard to beat!

Here is Jeff photo bombing the guest speaker for the

fireside on Friday night.  He is Richard Benedick the actor

who portrayed Ephriam Hanks in the newest movie.

He was a great speaker and how fun to see him 

there, with all the others in pioneer clothes, it truly

felt like we had stepped back in time.  At the end

of the evening a Sister Kirkman played the violin.

She played "Come Come Ye Saints"  Wow, what

a beautiful memory that is in my mind.  The county

we are in and the spirit that is here was overpowering.

I truly believe the pioneers are with us and are

celebrating our victories each day as we learn to

"Walk by Faith, one step at a time."

June 18, 2014

This is what we did yesterday.  Our toilet valve has not

been working properly and yesterday it quit totally.  Luckily we

had gone into Ogden and purchased a new valve on

Monday.  So Jeff took it apart and after some interesting

problems we got it working.  It is never fun to work

with sewer systems.  We worked to get port-a-johns

ready also, so poop is our middle name.

We did have some bad weather yesterday, SNOW!  

June 17 and we had about 4 inches of snow.  We had

trekkers come in today.  Our group comes in on Thursday

so we are praying for sun and warmer weather.  One

good thing, no dust, just mud!  When we got up this

morning our water was frozen also.  It took a couple of hours

before it was running.

Life in Wyoming is never boring.  We continue to marvel at

how quickly we go from sun, to wind, to rain, to snow and back

again.  We are glad we have coats, shoes and warm beds at night.

This is a excited Jeff.  On Tuesday night we went out walking with

another Missionary, Jeff found these.  We have to show them to 

the ranch, they may keep them to sell.  But doesn't Jeff

look great with horns.

This would be me completing one of my goals to become

a real trek missionary.  I can't tell you what it is, if you

don't know, that is your loss!

This is our first group as they prepare to leave.

There were about 260 people on this Trek.  That includes

all the support and kitchen people.  We had 22

carts going.  What a sight that made along the ridges.

We sure met some great youth and they inspired us in

many ways.  How fun it is to be with them.

This would be one young man catching a badger in

a hole.   (Not really, it was his hat but boy did it

look like he had a real badger.)

This would be Elder and Sister Cowan REAL

TREK MISSIONARIES!

June 8, 2014

Tonight we had a special fireside.  The Sisters of 

Presidents Hinckley's wife, Marjorie, came to the D.L. & L.

They are so funny and were so fun to listen to.  They came to 

share the story of their Grandmother, Mary Goble who came in the

Hunt Wagon Company, with the Martin Group.  They had with them the

actual grave marker for Mary Goble's baby sister Edith.

Edith died on the trail in November 1856.

The story of how they came to have the marker was amazing and

truly a tender mercy of the Lord.  I can't even begin to tell

you what we all felt as we listened to them talk.  It was

a moment we will never forget.  This moment was worth

all we have done to be here.

The best part was yet to come.  Afterwards they got talking about the 

city of Nephi and their family.  Jeff got thinking, he has relatives

through his Dad's mom's family, the Ingram's and there were

some Gobles in it.  He asked them the name.  He came back

to the trailer and looked on his family tree.  Jeff has been 

spending lots of time there these past weeks.  Well guess what,

the connection is there.  Jeff is a descendant of Mary Goble!

We have been looking for a connection and tonight we found it.

Gary Johnson, what are the chances?  100%

On Saturday we were able to really leave the Cowan

mark on the D.L. & L.  We have a new trail they

have been developing.  Part of the trail had a ton of 

bones laying around.  Jeff got the idea to call the area

Bone Hollow!  He started to wire a bone to the 

top of the post to mark it.  He gathered more of them and 

put faces on them with a black marker.  Well, on

Saturday we went out there with our load of

bone faces and put a face on each post.  There were

12 bone faces in all.

Here are a couple of examples of what they look like.

We laughed as we did it and hope the trekkers will laugh

as they go along the trail.  We feel like this is

our contribution to the trail.  Christy Huff has a women's 

pull trail named for her, we have Bone Hollow.

Jeff even made up words for the Song Rawhide and sang

to the other missionaries on Saturday morning.  And Friday,

our 41st anniversary he took me dancing!  Yep, We

did square dancing with the group preparing us

to teach it to the trekkers.  I am thinking that was

a great way to celebrate our anniversary, dancing to

"Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny O"

This is the pot gut I saved on Friday afternoon.  He

was stuck down in a water valve hole.  He was making

a loud yelling sound. 

I used one of the port-a-john grabbers to fish him out of the

hole.  He was hard to grab hold of and was not

cooperating with me.  When I finally got him out and

dropped him on the lawn, he just sat there looking at me.

He was all wet and yucky looking.  I said to him, "This

would be the time for you to run away."  He looked at me

and finally scampered away.  So maybe now

I could qualify to have a cape of my own!

This week, on Wednesday, we have our first trek groups

arriving!  How exciting.  Hopefully we will be

alive on Saturday, not buried along the trail, and

I will be able to post our first pictures of handcarts

on the dusty trail.  Wish us luck and hum

"Some must push and some must pull" as

you think of us this week.

June 5,2014 add on

I forgot the best picture.  We finally got a picture of 

the baby antelope.  These two were standing on the 

road as we approached.  They were so scared they

didn't know which way to run.

 This blurry pictures is them running up the hill.  Mama

was coming from the other direction.  We are

hoping we will get to see them more the bigger they get.

June 5, 2014

This would be our professional John Pit Crew ready and

waiting to report for DUTY!  Don't you feel bad

you're not part of this crew?

I know the 4th of July is a month away, but doesn't that look

like a parade getting ready to start?  Really?  It brings tears

to my eyes!  Can't you hear the cannons booming?

The band playing?  The firecrackers popping?

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple today.

Check out Elder Nordick trying to photo Bomb our picture!

He needs to take lessons from a Pro!

This would be the pro, Elder Cowan in the back of

the picture of the Shields.  What a fun day we had.

And this would be what I found in our mail slot.  

Would you say it was a gift?  A bill? A thank you card?

A tasty new food just put out on the market and they

are sending free samples?  I don't know.  Could you send

me your thoughts?  I do know we were the only

ones to receive one so it must be special, right?

Big news June 3, 2014

Jeff just got home he went with Elder Kennedy out to look

For wildlife.  They hit the jackpot!  He saw two moose!

As you can see, no pictures it was near dusk and way far away.

They were looking through a spotting scope.  Just know, he was 

pretty excited.  They also saw several elk.  Big night on the D.L. &L.

June 3, 2014

We went on a field trip today to visit some of the

pioneer historical sites around Evanston.  This is Muddy

Creek, a private Ranch runs a trek group like ours.

They had a cart sitting there by the meadow area.

Our Elders were so interested in how their carts were made.

There was some real inspections going on.

This is a sign for the area.  It says Muddy Creek Campground

Mormon Pioneers July 9, 1847

We were on the trail that Brigham Young took when 

they first came to Utah.

This is one of three graves there at Muddy Creek.  It

is for Catherine Jones Bennett 1860.  She was

part of a ox cart company.  While we were looking at the

grave some of her family came to visit the grave for

the first time.  They live in Holden Utah and we actually knew

lots of their family.  It was fun to be with them as 

they saw for the first time the head stone and realized how

many people see it every year.

This would be Jeff hiding from the trespass police!

They had some of these Hand Cart Crossing Signs, they

looked fun.

We took a lunch break at Pioneer hollow.  There 

were cow pies everywhere and they were "FRESHER"

than our lunches.

We hiked up to a site where Philo Dibble Jr and carved

his name into the sand stone on a cliff.  It is dated

Nov 24, 1857.  They were there watching for Johnson's

army.  We could see some wagon markings on some rock close by.

This is Jeff climbing, or trying, to climb a Kiln.  They

had three right there together they had reconstructed.

This used to be a important supplier of briquettes for the

area.  The area is Piedmont Kilns.

We were right by the original train tracks and this is a hand

made culvert that was placed under the tracks.  I climbed 

thru from one side to the other.  It was taller on the other side

and tapered down on this side, so as you can see I 

was on my knees.  Jeff did not see the fun in going

inside.  What a loss for him!

Sorry Ray, this would be that clean truck you spent time with

Jeff cleaning just yesterday!  I tried to take a picture of the whole

truck but it didn't do it justice.  You know, those white vehicles

just don't show the dirt!  But, trust me, it is no longer clean

and shiny.   I do know, if trucks could talk he would say,

"Boy did I have a great time on the Pioneer Trail!

Brigham has no room to brag, we went on that trail

lots faster than his group went over 167 years ago."