Gate Duty and Wedding of Adam and Marissa

We had a wonderful Sabbath on July 17, 2016 with Ward Conference at the building we call the Sage Building. They had wonderful speakers and lessons given by the Stake Leaders. It was great to sustain our Prophet and General Authorities.  We enjoyed a fun night of playing games with Elder and Sister Howard and Elder and Sister Walker, train dominoes was a big success. The Bartons had family staying this weekend.

Monday July 18, we headed to Mirror Lake with Elder and Sister Howard. This is about a hour away and Sister Call's dad Ralph Silver used to take the scouts there all the time when he was scout master and so we wanted to go see how beautiful it was. We were not disappointed, it was in the mountains and trees and gorgeous. We saw Pass Lake, Butterfly lake and Mirror Lake. We had lunch and talked to a few fisherman and enjoyed a nice walk by the lake. On the way home we checked out the golf course in Evanston and the airport that has landing lights right up against the property where we trek.

Mirror Lake

Sister Howard and Sister Call found this kids play cool log to crawl in

Sister Howard had to check out the water

For family night Howard hosted Family Feud TV addition. The Elders won, and we celebrated the 47th Wedding anniversary on Elder and Sister Ekins. We even got a few drops of rain that night, and a beautiful skyline. We could sure use some more rain, The Ranch is sure dry.

Elder and Sister Ekins celebrating their 47th wedding anniversary

Sister Barton enjoying the little bit of rain

Beautiful rain clouds

Tuesday was port-a-john cleaning and we had six sisters this week with 66 port-a-johns to clean. We are getting the system down and it is going a lot more smoothly then a few weeks a go. There was only nine handcarts that needed repairs this week, so the jobs went faster this week.  We worked with the Ekins and made another handcart. We are to use up all the knotty maple wood this summer. We had dinner at the trek center with the Ekins and had another round of ROCK, this time Sister Call dominated, it's about time she made a come back. Then the Elders had to zero in the 22 rifle on the back lawn of the Depot. (The difference between men and boys are the size of their toys)

Making more handcarts

Wednesday July 20 was gate duty for us. We only had two treks this week so not too many people coming in or out. Elder and Sister Johnson are usually on gate duty this summer, so we really enjoyed doing this. We have our stop sign and stop all the vehicles and welcome them and send them to the right staging area. We got everyone in from 8:15 to 11:30.  We worked on making more carts, watering lawns and trees, washing trucks, We went a visited the Cowans and Bartons who had a family trek from Cedar City. It was so fun to see the little ones and see their cute carts that had covers to keep the sun off the kids who rode. The ward was having a great time, and enjoyed getting to know some more Call's. Every week there is usually someone related to Anson Call. We had dinner at the trek center with the Walkers and Ekins.

On gate duty by the railroad tracks

The Gate at DL&L

The darling handcart covers with the family ward

This little guy loved to pose for our picture

We had Sister Call's two daughters Sharley and Kristen visit us today, and their friend Alisa. We gave them a tour or the ranch and then we left for home in Spanish Fork, Utah to prepare for Adam Call and Marisa Monson's wedding. This is Elder Call's son.

Sister Call and her daughters visit the ranch and Kristen is ready to pull a handcart

Pulling a handcart at the trek center

When you go home there is always lots of yard work to do. We spent four hours wedding, and mowing, so eight hours on the yard. It looks a lot better for one one month until we are done for this summer. It was great to have Elder Call's sister and brother-in-law Corinne and Paul Simpson stay with us while they are here for a family reunion. We had a wonderful visit with them. We went and decorated the church in Draper for the wedding dinner.

Saturday July 23, 2016 the wedding of Adam Call and Marisa Monson at the Draper Utah Temple. It was a beautiful ceremony and beautiful day and beautiful reception. We are so happy for them as they start their life together. They are making their new life together in Sandy, Utah. It was so nice to have all of Elder Call's eight children there for this wonderful celebration

The Call's at Adam and Marisa Wedding

Sister Call, Adam, Marisa, Elder Call, at the Draper Temple

Elder Call and his son Adam at the reception

The 6 Call boys, Ian, Shawn, Jon, Adam, Michael, Chris

Lisa, Adam, Tonya, (Adam's two sisters)

Looking pretty sharp at the reception in a tux Elder Call

Biggest trek of the Year, most trekkers on the ranch this week

Sunday July 10, we sang in sacrament meeting in two different wards. Who would of ever thought we would be singing so much? The Pearts talked in one of the meetings and they did an excellent job. The second meeting at 1:00 I think a lot of the missionaries had a hard time keeping their eyes open for the whole meeting.

We had our good friend Paul Tucker and his daughter Megan and son-in-law Ben and their 3 children come up for the weekend. We took them on short 4 wheel ride, with their allergies it was short, but fun for the kids. They had a great time relaxing and watching videos, and playing games. and seeing the wildlife on the ranch.

Paul Tucker and Elder Call, friends for life

Monday night we had a wonderful family night with with the Stake Presidency from the Evanston Stake and, it was presented by the Dennis Family. They were here last Fathers Day when we came up to check out the ranch and serving a mission here. In 1985 Brother Dennis rode their horses over 576 miles from Chimney Rock to Fort Bridger. This took 31 days. He told of the different places on the trail where the pioneers came through and what happened at each place. They even made National Geographic magazine.

 This family was also involved with the "Second Rescue" in the Riverton Wyoming Stake of getting the names and doing all the Temple work for the Willy and Martin handcart members and doing their temple work. This is such an impressive story of miracles of how this all came about before the internet, that makes research so easy.

Brother Dennis did a lot of treks after that making handcarts out of the old electrical wire spools. We have come a long ways with treks since that time.

Brother Dennis, one of the first trekkers.

Jarem Dennis, sharing special experiences of trekking

7-11-16 Monday Slurpee Day. Stephanie Sabin had our 23rd grandchild.They live in Oklahoma. Proud parents Eric and Stephanie Sabin, and big brother Ethan. Little Mateo Paul Sabin arrived at 2:29 and was 7 lbs 10 ozs and 21 1/2 inches long. This is a special day, because it is Sister Call's mom's birthday and nine  year anniversary of Eric returning from his mission in the West Indies. Baby Mateo is doing well. Stephanie was diagnosed with post partum cardiomyopathy. She had a lot of specialist do many tests and will need to be watched very carefully for many months to come. They left the hospital on Saturday.

Mateo Paul Sabin, 7 lbs, 10 oz, 21 1/2/inches 

We had a rough week the last week on the handcarts and many repairs had to be done on them on Tuesday. We also call it port-a-john Tuesday now for the sisters as we get to sweep, spray them down with simple green, and wipe out as much dirt as possible. It is hard to keep anything very clean out here in the dirt. A lot of things about this mission are hard, but the rewards are so worth it. We just joke to the trekkers that dirt is the breakfast of champions.

Wednesday July 13, we had South Weber Stake come with 568 people and 47 handcarts. We were on trail 14 but did part of trail 29, so the first day was over 11 miles. We were with Elder and Sister Brinkerhoff, and Elder and Sister Higginson, Their theme was "Conquer Your Quest" They had 4 companies and one was the Young Single Adult Ward. It was good we had 6 missionaries since they spaced them out like 4 treks. They had two trail bosses for each company. They liked to do things on the trail and keep the youth out all day, instead of getting to camp and having their activities there. It was a challenge for the missionaries, but tried to accommodate their wishes.

The Call Clan, Elder and Sister Call and Tammy and Anson Bowen Call IV
his son was on the trek also and is Anson Bowen Call V.

Fireside, we had a lot of trekkers this week

Brother Welch, trail boss, Elder and Sister Brinkerhoff, Elder and Sister Call, Elder and Sister Higginson

This group had more blisters them all of our other ones put together. We think the doctors and medics put on yards and yards of moleskin. Every water stop which is about every 30 minutes of walking was 15 minutes with all the blister repair.

Elder  and Sister Snow who is the Church Historian was their guest speaker on Wednesday. We are so privileged to here some amazing firesides each week on these treks.

Elder and Sister Snow

There is a new 4 wheeler side by side that is a little bigger than the other ones and it really kicks up the dust and fills the inside with dust. We had it this week, and so the three sisters who drove it this week were covered with dirt, so we loved walking instead of having to drive it.

Thursday is usually the night for the hoedown and then a special devotional by a member of the Stake Presidency.

Hoedowns are always fun

Friday they had a really nice woman's pull and the young men sang at the top as the woman came up the hill. With this large of a group it was really loud and didn't get drowned out with the wind. It was all good and then they had their meeting afterwards with their own individual families. We trekked down the trail about two more miles and had lunch by families and solo time with letters after lunch in a meadow. One of the young men wanted to see cows so bad. They had moved them just a few days before and there were many cow pies as evidence in eating lunch and solo time.

Solo time at lunch on the trail. 

I walked a lot with the the trail bosses of Trudy and Dirk the blue company, and got to know them and there medic Keith. It was like my own little trek, since this stake really liked to keep the 4 groups separated.

At camp they had a lot of games of tug a war, cow pie frisbe toss, calf roping, kubb, a viking game. log sawing, board games of Chinese checkers and checkers. Also crafts of tic-tac-toe made with rocks and then making punch letters on washers to make necklaces. The biggest hit was the beauty salon, where they washed with conditioner and small bottles of water the youths hair and then braided it and also did foot washing with cold water. By the third day of trekking they loved any part of being able to be clean.

Beanbag toss

Team snowshowing

Cow pie frisby

lassoing

The food all week was excellent, as all our treks feed us so well. We tell them there is only one problem with it and that is they feed us too well.

Beautiful sunsets on the ranch

At the end of the trek as we were coming back into staging thy gave us each a white handkerchief.

In Pioneer times, a white handkerchief was often waved to welcome home those who had been away, show support to those leaving to serve the Lord, and a sign of love to family and friends. Today as you complete this Pioneer Trek, we give you a white handkerchief for the very same reasons. Families can be forever. So go forth, and Conquer you Quest.

The weeks gifts, of song book, handkerchief,neckerchief,and games made.

Fifth week of trekking, textbook trek

We started out on Monday the 4th of July with pulling a handcart and walking and throwing out candy in the Woodruff 4th of July parade. It was so much fun! The whole parade is about 3 blocks long and then we turn around and walk back the other direction. There were lots of horses with the royalty from all the near by towns, lots of old cars and trailers pulling some groups. There was one dance team that had music, and us with Elder Higginson, Elder and Sister Barton playing harmonicas. We won the best entry, so with that being said you know how small a parade it was. There was so much candy being thrown out the kids had buckets full.

Waiting to go with our handcart in the parade

Some of the missionaries ready for the parade

Part of the queens in the parade

One of the cars in the parade

Trying to be Mater

This is the float in front of us with some of the cowboy families.

Elder and Sister Call in the parade

Linda Shirley, Sister Call's former manager and her roommate Janice Foutz, and Darwin and Deanna Kocherhans, friends from Orem came for the weekend to visit. We drove in the 4 wheeler over some pretty dusty trails, and they attended church with us on Sunday. Darwin went fishing on Monday afternoon with Elder Ekins, and Elder Higginson. He was the only one to catch a fish. We went to Randolph to see President Wilford Woodruff's home, and had lunch at the park. There was a group singing and doing cowboy poetry, a fun small town 4th of July.

Deanna and Darwin Kocherhans at the Wilford Woodruff home in Randolph

Linda Shirley and Janice Foutz, a fun weekend with them.

Elder and Sister Call 

Evanston is the place to be for fireworks on the 4th of July. The whole sky is lit up by everyone lighting them off. We had a wonderful view for almost an hour long show. We enjoyed a fun night with the Bartons, Pearts, and Cowans.

A long day of cart repairs and port-a-john cleaning and planning for the stake coming on Tuesday. We finished up that night after 8:00 pm.

Wednesday we started out early in staging as Maple Mountain Stake from Spanish Fork came. There theme was "Fight for the Kingdom- Press Forward in Faith." This is the stake next to us in Spanish Fork, and we went to their pre-trek fireside. Elder Call's niece and husband were Ma and Pa's and two of their children came and two of his nieces children came from Abu Dhabi. Also our dentist was one of the captains and he is also a bishop in the stake. Wednesday theme: Walk Humbly

Elder and Sister Call, four great-nieces and great-nephews, Todd and Karie Powell.

We were on trail 6 with Elder and Sister Hutchings, This trail is beautiful when you get to the second night camp, it is by the aspen trees. It is a long first day of 10 miles, and the third day of 10 miles.We had over 450 on this trek with 40 carts.

Elder and Sister Hutchings, and Sister and Elder Call

They had everything so well planned out and we facilitated it to make to happen. We placed a broken handcart on the trail, and then took some leaders in the 4 wheeler to place them as Indians with a sign that said Indian Territory. Then there were people dead, and a mother kneeling by the handcart and a man trying to fix the handcart. They had to walk in silence for one mile while they were in Indian Territory.

Silent vignette of broken down handcart in Indian Territory.

Thursday theme: Faith and Trust, the day started early for us as we had to be at camp by 6:00. They woke up everyone with a mob scene and driving the youth out without breakfast. Over the speakers they had gun shots and yelling you Mormons get out of here, then shaking the tents and yelling to get out. There were over 150 tents so this took awhile. Then down the trail a mile was breakfast. They had two youth that came that were non members and called out were not Mormons. On the way out they discussed with each company the extermination order, and what it was all about driving out the Mormons.

Mobsters forcing trekkers out of camp.

Along the trail was violins playing, "Come, Come, Ye Saints," as they came down by a small lake. 

At camp on Thursday after everything was set up they divided into there 9 companies and had 9 different vignettes. They rotated the people performing around after about every 5 minutes. We were taught a great fun pioneer song, The youth committee did so much planning and involved in all of this. 

A company watching the 9 different vignettes in the afternoon at camp.

Then there was games. A slingshot throw at a 9 foot Goliath. Tug of war, mine field where someone is blind folded and has to lead the people to not step on cow pies. Gunny sack races, three legged races, kick ball, relay races. They had a wonderful time. Them a hoedown that night where they danced until 10:00 way after dark. We get to drive the hoedown caller out to the gate and there was a beautiful crescent moon that seemed right over the horizon as it kept appearing and disappearing over the hills. We arrived back to our trailer after 11:00. We rely on the blessing from Elder Durham that our bodies will be renewed and every morning they are. This is sacred ground and we are blessed everyday to serve here.

Elder Call and Goliath

Blind, minefield

4 way tug-of-war

Three legged race

Hoedown

Friday theme: Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ. Friday was an amazing Woman's Pull. They took our advise on things to do to make it spiritual and it was so touching. Music at the end on their sound system and the men lining the path with their hats over their hearts and the women not running back down to help the others. So moving, that really touched the young men. There were lots of tears from these young men. It was touching to walk through these young men.

Coming up the Woman's pull

Vignettes later that day that we helped getting them in place. A couple burying a baby, and the women with jerky in their aprons from the cave. There was a Cholera outbreak and each handcart had someone get sick and ride in the handcart. When they see a post with a white handkerchief on it they are healed, they talk about how Christ heals us. The trading post for the youth to buy candy and trinkets with beans. A beautiful fireside with the wards and then with their families.

We had one young man on the trek that was blind and used a walking stick. It is amazing the faith of many of these youth and what they do to come and participate.

Blind young man with his walking stick. So impressive.

Each night they had about a five minute video shown on the side of the trailer. Wednesday was "Joy in the Journey" Thursday was "Prayer of a walking child"

Saturday theme: Endure to the End: We had such a perfect trek, at staging waiting for the buses they thanked the missionaries and sang "As I have loved you." they gave everyone a T-shirt with the theme on it and it is to remind them as they go back into the world after this trek, they are on their own trek through life.

Waiting for the buses to come, enjoying one last devotional with a talk on "What is Zion"

Brother Larsen talked about Zion and what it is: family, harmony, love, unity, communion with God and his children. Bringing all his children together and Heaven was cheering.

Elder and Sister Hutchings, Mark and Maryann Larsen, Sister and Elder Call

The T-shirt with the Payson Temple, journal and thank you card, dog tag with the theme