Pay Sisters Pay a visit

Monday May 23, was our P-day and we drove to Rockport Reservoir, that is really close to where we are staying and we are going camping there over Labor Day with the Call Family, We then went to Park City and had lunch on Main Street and found this tree where there were shoes, and ski boots hanging all over it.

That night for family night the Walkers were in charge and we had a fun Cowboy poetry night, and tall tales night, and fractured fairy tales. We laughed and had such a wonderful night.

Tuesday May 24, the Elders had their lesson on filling the Water-buffalo's and cleaning them out, and put the chemical T-clore in and drove them to make sure they get all sanitized. The Sisters wrote on all the walls of the Port-a-Johns the instructions for the Trekkers, and had a lesson on T-clore and what to do for the the water-buffalo drivers. We have to make sure the trekkers have clean drinking water. We brushed linseed oil on the handcarts, had a bread making demonstration from Sister Hutchings, and painted some posts that are placed in the fields for the trekkers to follow. Elder Call helped with making more handcarts.

Sanitizing the Water Buffalo's

Sister Call painting Linseed oil on the newly finished carts.

Elder Howard mounting the axle for the wheels.

Just finishing up on another (number 11) handcart.

Wednesday May 25, our job was to power wash the port-a-johns. There so many trailers of them, it took all day to do this. After they are power washed we have to take all the plugs out and fill them with water to activate the chemicals in them, and then put the plugs back in them. It was not the warmest day and our hands and feet were really cold by the end, and it made us appreciate the pioneers a little more and the sacrifices they made walking in the bitter cold. We really are spoiled. Then they are taken down to staging at all the different places where the treks start.

Port-a-Johns at Fox Hollow staging, one of many staging areas

Some of the Port-a-Johns ready to take to staging area

Wednesday night we had a wonderful night with Joann Pay Baird, and Dorine Pay Lloyd, who are Marjorie Pay Hinckley's sisters. They are known as the Pay Sisters and in their family there are 5 girls and one brother. We had dinner with them and all the Stake Presidency and what a treat this was. After dinner they did a fireside for us and it was amazing. Words can not describe what a most enjoyable evening it was. They are so cute and spry and spunky for their age. They shared a cute saying at the first of their talk that goes like this.

I know just how ugly I are
My face ain't no bright shining star
But I really don't mind it
Because I'm behind it
It's you folks out front gets the jar

Then they told of the story of their grandparents Richard Pay and Mary Goble. The Sisters have been to England and all the places their grandparents traveled to get to Salt Lake. Their story was very touching and their dad was the 13th child and their grandparents suffered much and lost many of their children. Then after their story they showed us a grave marker of Edith Goble. It says our baby Edith Goble born Sept 23, 1856, died Nov 4, 1856. The story of how they got it was wonderful, truly a miracle.  If you want to read more of the story it is in the book "Tell my story, Too," with the Hunt Company.

They go around and speak to groups all the time and one young man at Martins Cove where they presented the story, broke down in tears and said wow this makes it so real, these are not just stories, it brings them to life.

The Pay Sisters

They sang their song.

This grave marker was found floating in a puddle in Idaho.

I was a board from the side of a wagon.

Thursday May 26, we were in charge of Pray meeting the scripture an pioneer story again and what a treat to share with the Pay Sisters.  Then we traveled to the Guild Ranch that is out by Fort Bridger, it is 35,000 acres and been in their family since 1869 and is now in the 7th generation. We were treated to the day with Wendy Peterson who runs treks on the ranch for the last 6 years. They have about 6,000 come through each summer, and they do their own trekking. This is on the actual trail. We saw the rust on the rocks from the handcarts, Brigham's Arrow where the advanced party of Brigham Young and Parley P. Pratt came out of Fort Bridger and made a course correction and put this large arrow in the ground of rocks so all the saints will turn at the arrow. We drove and saw where they went down a big hill and on to the muddy. The muddy is a river they crossed. We had lunch at the muddy and all the pioneers came through there. We thought of our Pioneer ancestors that were in this same spot as we sat today. We went and saw some pioneer graves. What a special day.

On the Guild ranch just south of Fort Bridger.

All of us listening to Wendy Guild Peterson tell about the Mormon trail that crosses their ranch.

Pioneer Graves

Brigham's Arrow

Mormon Trail Marker

Lunch at the Muddy Camp crossing.

Muddy Camp all pioneers crossed here at the muddy.

Marker for the Mormon camp site and crossing.

Pioneer Grave in the middle of a field.

We left to go to Kelsie Nicole Sabin Bonnett's high school graduation from Orem High.  Kelsie is Sharley and John Bonnett's daughter. Gaylene's grand daughter. That is what is nice about this mission is that we can leave for special events.
Kelsie graduated with honors and will be attending BYU in the fall on scholarship.

Friday May 27, we returned to the Ranch and finished another handcart and put linseed on two more.

Saturday May 28, We finished another handcart, so now that makes 11 that have been made this year and Elder Call has helped with all 11. In the afternoon we spayed weeds on a trail and went through   gallons of weed killer. There are lots of roads to spray still. A fun dinner night with Elder and Sister Ekin's and then playing Rook, we are keeping score over the summer and so far played 12 games. It's been fun to play since it's been so many years since I used to play it a lot with my grandmother.

Here is a finished handcart. Ready for use this summer.

We used "Wormy Maple" for the box.
It's beautiful when the Linseed oil is put on.
It's a very hard wood and should last a long time.

Sunday May, 28, after a wonderful day at church and planned potluck lunch that is always so tasty we went with The Ekin's and Howard's to walk up to the water tank. (BTW is 7012 feet, that is why it is so cold here.) When we went to leave for the walk we heard some screeching and two badgers were fighting by the corrals. The badgers are mean and do a lot of damage here so we are not happy when we see them. We see wild life every day here.

Two Badgers that just finished fighting. One limped away.

Taking a walk up to the water tank with the Ekins and Howards.

This antelope spent the day right around the compound.

Canadian Honkers that landed next to the compound.

Meet the Missionaries

Meet the missionaries, we have 11 missionary couples on Deseret Land and Livestock Ranch, there are five second year missionaries and 7 first year missionaries, we serve for 2 summers from the end of April through the end of August. We trek for 9 weeks and have 5 stakes come each week. Two missionary couples trek with a ward or stake each week. One couple is assigned to be on gate duty for the treks for the week.

 Elder Dennis and Sister Jan Peart, from Heber City Utah. Second year missionaries and the
Trek Directors for 2017-2018.

Elder David and Sister Linda Ekins from Hinckley Utah, first year missionaries.

 Elder Bryce and Sister Fay Walker, from Emmett Idaho, first year missionaries and newlyweds of 7 months.

 Elder Bob and Sister Deb Barton form Mesa, Arizona, first year missionaries, and on their 3rd mission.

 Elder Steven and Sister Dolores Higginson, second year missionaries, from St George, Utah, on their. 4th mission .Elder Higginson is the brother of Deb Barton.

 Elder James and Sister Clara Mae Brinkerhoff, second year missionaries, from Emmett, Idaho.

 Elder Mike and Sister Marlene Hutchings, first year missionaries from Draper, Utah.

 Elder Terry and Sister Susan Howard, first year missionaries from Emmett, Idaho.

 Elder Jeff and Sister Deb Cowan, Trek Directors for the second year and 3rd year at DL&L, from Cedar City, Utah.

 Elder and Sister Caverhill, on a church building mission, stationed at the ranch headquarters.

Elder Spencer and Sister Gaylene Call, first year missionaries, from Spanish Fork, Utah.

Elder Kelly and Sister Roseanne Johnson, 2nd year missionaries, from Evanston Wyoming.

Names of the missionaries for 2016 on the plaque at the Trek Center.

Spiritual Highs this week

Monday May 9th, was our P-day, we went to Evanston and called the Bartons another missionary couple who had stayed in town overnight to meet us for lunch, we went to "Jodies" recommended by our trek directors. Tender mercies that the Stake Presidents wife and first counselors wife came in to eat. We told them to come out to the ranch for family night, we had the dessert and were having a missionary couple from last year a Naturalist to show us all his elk, bobcat, moose, beaver, coyote, wolf, bear pelts, or anthers for all these different animals. Fascinating night, and all the Stake Presidency and wives came.

Elder Call is in charge of teaching all the missionaries how to make handcarts. We each get to make one.

We had our two route reviews this week. We have to learn the routes, the routes that the trekkers are on and the support route for the port-a-johns and water buffalo, and the support roads for the food trailers. We have 9 weeks of trekking and we are the lead missionary couple on 3 of them. Each stake has to come and see their route, these take about three to four hours.

Still cold at night here, we had a frozen water one night, We bought an insulated water hose, but didn't realize you have heat tape the stand up pipe also, so heat tape was purchased.

Thursday May 12, Jolene Allphin the author of "Tell my story too" came and presented a morning side. What an  amazing morning, we could of listened  to her stories all day. A spiritual up lift to our week. She has done research on the handcart companies, each person and each rescuer on them. Such sacrifices they went through. Each morning at pray meeting we each share one of their stories. She shared the love story of Anson Call and Margaretta Clark, Anson is Elder Call's great-great grandfather. Anson was one of the rescuers. Elder Call shared this story in our farewell talk.

Some of our work assignments, includes, spraying weeds, cleaning, painting, welding, changing oil in trucks, making port-a-john plugs, mowing, building projects, venting the dryers, washing 7 farm trucks, moving handcarts, washing 6 side by sides, learning trails, and support routes, doing route reviews with the stakes coming, knocking down swallow nests, spraying the thistles on all the roads we trek on, picking up about 30 trash bags of garbage along our exit, and pounding in new stakes for the routes and adding arrows at critical points, covering the heat vents in the trek center, building carts, building steps and hand rails for the port-a-johns, fixing rivets for all the port-a-johns, hauling the handcarts to the staging areas, taking the pull bars and ropes to staging for the 150 handcarts. This is just some of the work projects we have each day, this is why it takes 6 weeks to get ready for the trekkers to come.

Friday May 13, at prayer meeting we were told of the Elder and Sister Caverhills who are service missionaries who builds buildings. They are on the ranch building at the cowboys headquarters that is on the other side about 30 miles away. We met them that night at the gate as we went to meet a stake there coming to rent a handcart. We invited them to our special meetings and they joined us at the Temple on Tuesday. Everyday there are these tender mercies.

Saturday May 14, This day was the sheep round up at the corrals by us and we enjoyed watching them do their work, they have quite the production line. One of the workers is in the Stake Presidency of the stake that is coming on route review next week. They don't like us taking pictures of what they do to the sheep for fear of PETA. So we just take pictures of the sheep dog taking a break. (BTW it is a big dog.)

After our work assignments we left the ranch for home for the weekend. It seemed really different to not be in our bubble of spirituality that is felt here. With only 11 missionary couples we are so isolated here and loving the spirit of this dedicated property set apart for the youth to come and feel of the pioneers and what they sacrificed for us.

We went to Jori Maxwell's wedding reception in Midway. Jori worked at the Testing Center. We had a wonderful visit with some dear friends for two hours as we set on the patio and visited. A relaxing night.

Sunday May 15, special baby blessing of Olivia Tregaskis, daughter of Alyson and David. This is Sister Call's daughters baby. A beautiful blessing given by David. We had a nice visit with family and shared some of our missionary moments.

Monday May 16, our P day and lots of weeds to take care of at our home, they grow fast in 3 weeks with all the rain, then Elder Call got some golf in with his son Jon, and Sister Call enjoyed tending Olivia for the day. It was nice to get back to the ranch where we feel it is our home and where we are to be at this time. We pulled in just as the missionaries were going to watch "Once I was a Beehive." Such a cute movie if you have not seen it I highly recommend it. Lots of laughing and some tears also shed among the missionaries.



Tuesday May 17, We had a wonderful trip to the Payson Temple and then dinner at the Family Tree restaurant in Santaquin. It was a long day, but a great day with the missionaries.

Wednesday May 18,
A beehive of activities at the ranch in order for our special guests. A fun  hot dog roast and campfire and games. We laughed so hard our stomachs hurt after we were done.

Thursday May 19, Elder Mark Durham and Elder Lynn Summerhays the new and released area authority 70's came to our pray meeting. This was another spiritual experience. We felt like we had our own little general conference just for us. Elder Durham, pronounced some really special blessing on us. This is a dedicated land set apart to bless the lives of the youth that come on these treks.

We all drove that afternoon to the far east side of the ranch to learn another escape route in case of fire. WOW was it beautiful with  deep canyons, aspens and pine trees, and streams. This is where the outfitters go fishing. We came out by Croydon, Utah and Lost Creek State Park. We then had dinner all together at Taggarts. Beautiful place and amazing food. Would very much recommend it. A end to a perfect day.