Tulips or Two Lips on the Prarie

Monday June 27th started with mowing lawns and sprucing up the area as Elder Durham, our area authority 70, was coming with his wife for two days.  Sister Durham was just released as a councilor in the General Primary Presidency and spoke in last General Conference. They were very fun to have around.  Each missionary couple had an interview with them to see how we were doing and to learn more about us.  We had a big turkey dinner (like Thanksgiving) Monday night and then they did a fireside. The Evanston Stake Presidency also came. It was a very special night.  He talked about charity and how we need it for ourselves and each other and everyone we serve and gave us a blessing that as we served we would receive the gift of charity in our lives.  He also talked about doubt not fear not for the Lord is in charge. That proved so true for me this week as we trekked with the Fruits Heights Stake (350 people and 31 handcarts). They loaded everything in their carts, tarps, buckets, table, poles and 2x4's for building their shelters, dutch ovens, sleeping bags and everything they had. There had to be at least 400 to 500 lbs of gear in each handcart.  Some were piled 7 feet high. The first day of trekking was trying to retie and hold all that stuff together over bumpy trails and badger holes. The lead cart carried the American flag.

We love to see the American Flag on the handcarts

We were on this trek with Elder and Sister Barton, and Elder and Sister Higginson. Three missionary couples this week. We were the lead couple on this and we had Gary and Lisa Larson as the trail bosses and they were so great to work with. This stake has been doing treks every 4 years since 1997 and they were very organized. All of the Stake Presidency came, and Pres Edgington  has run his sheep on this ranch for many years. Pres McKay has a ranch in Huntsville and a house next to the President David O McKay's home. They both know this ranch so well.

Call's, Barton's, and Higginson's

President McKay, Elder Call, President Sargent, President Edgington

The first night in camp one of the girls asked me if we walk home at night, back to our trailers, then her Pa told her he has a heater for their tarp tents, she said really? I told her we plug it into a current bush. She asked what currents were, I explained about little red berries. She still didn't get it after I explained about electricity and current. She was so gullible. 

Tarp City

We had Hawaiian haystacks and every time we have these it rains, well it did rain not much but enough to cool it off at night. There theme is OHANA, means family, Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten. A Hawaiian based theme. They had linen table clothes out in the dirt, very impressive.

Linen tablecloths for the Hawaiian Haystacks Dinner

There was one game they called tulips on the prairie that was quite a sight to behold.  The medical staff referred to it as face tag, Elder Barton called it a combination of Wrestling and the Dating Game.  They all gathered in a circle and each boy and girl were assigned a letter or number.  One would sit in the middle and they would call out a letter for a boy and one for a girl and then they would try to kiss the one on the cheek that was running before they could get to the one in the middle and kiss them on the cheek.  It was crazy watching some of the tackles that took place all to try to stay out of the middle.  This has been a tradition for their stake at each of their last 4 treks.  No one had ever gotten hurt before but this one resulted in one broken collarbone, one concussion and one black eye (the collarbone and concussion were boys).  The young women that gave the young man the concussion was given the number 54 on the back of her shirt, a football line backer number, and she wore it proudly.  These kids were intense!

They had a great fireside on Friday night with Elder Gary Coleman an emeritus 70.  He spoke about our pre-existence with our Heavenly Father and how we are all fore ordained to be here at this time.  It was good to hear, and believe me we have strong youth both physically and spiritually.

Every trek we meet people who have connections with people we know. One nurse flew with Sister Call's brother, Gary Silver who is a Doctor and went in his private plane to pick up patients in the intermountain West area. She told a crazy story about that. The port-a-john driver does research at the U of U and did a lot of research with Dr Bromberg who was the neurologist that took care of Sister Call's first husband Paul Sabin, who died of ALS, Another medical couple comes from Anson Call's wife Margaretta Clark, who Anson rescued from the Martin Handcart company.

We were on trail 14 and it was about 25, miles long. We had a wonderful week with the Fruit Heights Stake. 

Flowers in the urinals in the port-a-johns in the ones labeled for the woman

Games played, steal the pig

Hawaiian dress up relay game

Hawaiian stick toss game

Hoedown dance, they all love to get involved in dancing

A sweet sister would wash all the girls feet when they got to camp

The leaders, kitchen helpers, and support drivers on the last day

They wrote on their trailer on the last morning before leaving

The other side of the trailer at staging

Theme for the week

Third time around "Press Forward with Faith"

We have a missionary choir and we have sung for two Sundays now, and have about 3 more Sacrament meetings scheduled to sing at. We have learned and stretched and grown in so many ways on this mission. The song we sing is a pioneer based song. "To Those Who Came Before Me" by Sally DeFord, Sister Barton is our chorister, and Sister Ekins is our accompanist.


Monday night we had a fun night with all the cowboys and ranch staff and their families. We had wonderful chicken enchiladas and the kids had a wonderful time playing in the bubbles and shooting bow and arrows at buffalo's and doing hatchet throws, flying kites, pioneer paint ball (flour in nylon socks) and just having fun visiting and getting to know those who run the ranch, The home ranch is at the other end of the ranch and there are about 7 homes and about 21 out buildings. Some of the ranch workers live in Woodruff also.

Shooting buffalo with bow and arrows

Cowboy Ranch Dinner

Pioneer paint ball, bubbles and roping all at the same time

They loved the bubbles

Elder Call, Elder Cowan, Elder Higginson and Brother Jones played golf on Monday morning in Evanston at Purple Sage Golf Course. Elder Call loved having other missionaries here that love to golf as much as he does.

Golf course in Evanston that they played at

Tuesday is our day of preparing for the next trek that starts on Wednesday. So what does Sister Brinkerhoff get to do on her 50th wedding anniversary? Yes cleaning the port-a-johns. She was such a great sport and so we got a fun picture of her. Oh the things you get to do on a mission.

Sister Brinkerhoff on her 50th Anniversary

Sister Hutchings had a fun Un-birthday party for all of us. Her birthday is in December, and likes to have a half birthday in June. The weather has been so nice we had another outdoor party. We have a lot of birthdays in the summer. So those who do not have a summer birthday she had special treats for them. We sure have wonderful missionaries to work and play with.

This week we were on trail 23 with Elder and Sister Barton. We were with Murray South Stake. Their theme was "Press Forward with Faith". Each week the ward or stake that comes increases just a little for us. We have had fun with our small groups, and it is amazing how attached you become to them in just 4 days. We had 152 this week and 9 handcarts, with 13 in each family. This stake has been trekking here for years and like clockwork they schedule trek every 4 years.

The one thing we learned the first week here is to be flexible. You have to be flexible with weather, with injuries, with bus schedules, with cows in your campground, with a multitude of situations. We had one the first day with their buses being so late. We didn't get out of staging until 2:00 pm. Being on this trail and having to change the campground because of cows we were able to get to camp by about 6. Some trails are longer the first day and we would not of gotten to camp until 10 or later leaving at 2:00.

The other nice thing was that the first night camp is so close to our trailers. We were able to be one of the first ones home that night instead of the last ones from the weeks before.

Thursday another tender mercies. I was driving the 4 wheeler side by side. I happened to come off the trail right by a service road and waiting for the trekkers to move further down the road, when I got a call on our walkie talkie that a trailer had come off a truck. So I was able to turn around and get two of the support staff to go and find the cotter pin and the hitch pin for the trailer. By being there it saved so much time of them having to walk back about a half mile to find it. They also had a flat tire and had to find a flat spot to change it. So this is what being flexible is all about.

Playing in the meadow of yellow flowers

Quite the art of setting up sleeping arrangements under tarps and handcarts

Water stop and a few minutes for a quick nap in the road

Elder and Sister Barton and Elder and Sister Call

Friday after the women's pull that went very well for them I was in the 4 wheeler again and a beautiful drop down to camp. I was sitting at the top of the hill, and had two young women in with me who were having some health issues. We were there for about 45 minutes waiting for the trekkers to reach the road. It was an amazing experience because I started talking to them and sharing some really special and tender experiences I have had in life and what I wanted them to strive for in their lives. It was like a testimony meeting right there in our 4 wheeler. We have been told to look for miracles everyday and to follow the spirit. It was one of those moments I will not forget, and they won't either.

Once down the hill I was able to pick up the videotographer and take him down a ways to get back to the group. Then I picked up the Stake President who needed a ride and had the best visit with him, these Bishops and Stake Leaders are such phenomenal people and we get to rub shoulders with them every week, and also with the cream of the crop youth. I know the church is going to be in great hands in the future with all these youth that we have seen the last three weeks.

This stake had a lot of fun pioneer games, These are some of them, Tug of war

Stick Pull

Elder Call and Elder Barton on the log sawing contest, they were beaten by two girls with 19 seconds

Bow and Arrow shooting

Elder Call leading back to camp by the Dance Hall of the Dead, this is where some sheep, or cattle got in and fell through the floor and were trapped there and died.

Back to staging after a wonderful 4 days and ready to go home after their shower fast of 4 days.

Waiting for the buses to come on Wednesday Elder Barton saw something in the bushes and walked down the road and it was a baby moose. They are usually at the far west of the ranch in the trees, not down by I-80 in the hot sage brush. It was so fun to see this

Baby Moose at the staging area, You can see semi's on I-80 in the background, that is how close he was.

We have a birds nest under our trailer. The mother bird is patiently sitting on her nest.

Birds nest under our trailer, by the stabilizer

After our trek left on Saturday and we got all our work done, we drove to Riverton to Sister Call's sons Scott's house for dinner. Eric, her other son flew out from Oklahoma to help her daughter Alyson and son-in-law David and their baby Olivia move to Iowa for medical school. It was so much fun to have the whole family there and to celebrate Gaylene's birthday. Family means so much to us and they are being blessed for us serving on this mission. Shamae has just gone through breast cancer surgery and they had all run the American Fork Cancer race in honor of her that morning.

Elder Call and Olivia Tregaskis

Addy, Eric, Clair

Alyson and Olivia

John, Addy, Wylin, Kristen

Blake and Cooper

Claire, Chase, Parker

Elder Call, and Scott Sabin, playing with Coopers golf  clubs. Cooper is 5 and loving golf lessons, he is a natural.

Sister Call's birthday present

Then Sunday June 26th Eric, Alyson, David, and Olivia stopped by on the way to Iowa to see us and to see where we live, we only had a few minutes with them but so much fun. This was another tender mercy since we had Stake Conference and the timing was perfect.

Eric, Alyson, David, Sister Call and baby Olivia

Eric and David and baby Olivia

Alyson and Sister Call, saying goodbye at the gate

Benjamin 1st ward trek and visit from Flinders who does trekking in Argintina

Tuesday night we had a special dinner and fireside with Elder and Sister Flinders who  have been trekking in Argintina for seven years. They are the only couple there and there story of how they gained access to handcarts and how they cleared the land for a trek there on the church farm was amazing. Lives are being changed there by them doing these treks. They trek in 100 degree weather and 90% humidity. There woman's pull is through a lagoon there, where the water comes up to the bottom of the cart.

Benjamin 1st ward was the ward we were with this week with Elder and Sister Peart. We were the lead missionaries this week and have been working with Ammon and Kristen Grant, from route reviews with them to many emails and texts and planning with the ward. We had 8 carts and 82 people. There theme was Valiant Footsteps. It was a fantastic group once more. Most of these youth are ranchers or farmers and they know how to work. Sister Call was driving support of there 6 vehicles and missed a turn and so she radioed back and told them they had to turn around in and through the sagebrush. They were all so nice and radioed back we all know how to back up trailers, we do this everyday.

The trail we are on is 30 miles and it is about 15-20 miles from our camp, so we have a long ways to travel to be with them every morning and night, but it is so amazing how close of a friendship you make with these youth and leaders in just a few days time. Long lasting memories, and you find so many connections of who they know that you know it is so neat. Every day there are miracles that take place on this dedicated land. This week we had one girl that had just recovered from brain surgery and had to ride a lot in the handcarts and her family pulled her. Also a boy who has problems with his feet and a year ago couldn't walk and his family pulled him a lot as he sat on top of the buckets.

A huge miracle that happened on the second day of trek we had a 10 mile walk and the ward had 8 different trail trials and so they would be delivered their trail trial and have to pull their cart over to perform their trial, like walking in cardboard shoes, burying a loved one, burying a baby that they carried with them, carrying a heavy backpack simulating someone was sick and needed carrying.

So with these trials they got further spread out along the trail. Elder and Sister Call were the lead and follower, and we opened a gate and once you open a gate you need to make sure the last person in the 4 wheeler closes it so the cows don't go to another field. We had passed these cows about 3 miles back so didn't think anything about it to be by it until the 4 wheeler came through. About 300 yards we stopped for a water break and turned around and the bulls came through and headed up the fence line. Elder Call started walking back towards them hitting the grass with his walking stick wondering how soon our mission was coming to an end for letting them out. Sister Call looked and said the cows are out. The trekkers turned around and started running back to the bulls and spreading out to surround them and jumping sage brush. One Pa, Brother Gurr got to them first in front of them and they stopped and looked at him and he knew they could charge him, but he raised his arms and shouted and they turned around and started back down the fence line. Sister Call heard slow them down, and 2 jumped the fence and the other 6 went back through the gate. Getting back I heard Brother Terry one of the Pa's say, "well it's not their first rodeo." Only farm kids from Benjamin know how to handle cattle.

The next miracle was that the two that jumped the fence loosened the poles, In the back of  the 4 wheeler was a sled hammer from the trail trials that they had to beat a tire simulating digging a grave. So another tender mercy.

Talking to Brother Gurr later that night he said he knew that there were angel around him, those bulls could of charged him, he got there so fast because he was on cross country in High School. He is not even a rancher or farmer. He is very small frame and could be taken as one of the youth.

Sunday Fathers Day we sang in Sacrament meeting in Woodruff where the home ranch cowboys meet. Mike Meek the ranch manager is in the bishopric and he was conducting. Every ward we attend we learn so much or meet people who knows people we know.

Another great week. We get up at 6:00 and get back every night about 10:30 or 11:00, but it is all so rewarding to see how this dedicated land changes lives.