June 30, 2019

Sitting in the backyard shade reading scriptures and throwing the bone to Baylie. Scaring off raccoons at night. :). Camping for a birthday party and just showing up and doing nothing but enjoy the campsite. View from the top of Horse Flat trail plus green views along the way. Marco Polo app. Airborne trampoline place in Draper watching Cam and Sadie have fun jumping and hanging with cousins. Seeing Taylor again after his mission.

June 24, 2019

From Mason's email:

Hey yall! It's been another fantastic week this week! Sorry, I don't have a ton of time because we had a big pday as a zone. We all got together and played soccer, and volleyball, and uno, and just had a good time.

This week we had a zone goal to find 100 new people in our zone. So we went out working hard and praying that the Lord would bless us. Well we got blessed and we were able to find 131 new people this week! So that took up most of our time and other than that, I dint have much else to talk about. We just did a ton of finding and it was awesome to talk to so many wonderful people... And some crazy ones along the way.

June 23, 2019

Best pit toilet experience ever at timpooneke. Smelled like flowers. Hot dogs on the fire. Meadow in the campground is gorgeous. Let’s just say Baylie loves the mountains. Texas Roadhouse bday dinner for Tanner - mmm (their rolls are so yummy). Having us all together was good. Mason texts. Early morning hikes. The lightning and green on our hike was so pretty. Blue bells. Great trail that Darren picked to hike (snow gauging trail). Kenz and Tanner living here for a minute is such a blessing - Caam has been extra funny and happy with Kenz around and we got snow cones.

June 17, 2019

Just so you have a quick summary of our week, Elder Cluff broke his glasses, our apartment kitchen flooded, I got stung by a bee, we lost someone's dog on exchanges, we almost got eaten by a dog on exchanges, we got in a car accident on exchanges (don't worry, we're fine and it was with a member so it wasn't even us driving), so yeah, it's been an eventful week!

But honestly it's been a pretty good week! Richard has been progressing well and Bailey is back in town and even brought his sister with him to church. Things are definitely looking good for Olive Branch!

June 16, 2019

Seven Brothers burger and fries.  American Fork Canyon green.  Good green trails.  Yellow flowers.  Mason telling about how they cut down a tree with a handsaw.  Capitol Reef.  Grand Wash hike - especially the yellow flowers.  Muddy river crossings.  Backpacks.  Pins.  Sitting around in a camp chair.  Light rain.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Site 66 in CR.  Bedtime tent chatting.  Panorama Point View.  YCL scripture share.  Capitol Reef stars.  Being done with camp.  Showers.  Godd fathers.  Battle bash game of the Bateman's.

June 14, 2019

Girls Camp is over.  Phew.  Things to remember:

Jane Long, Eryka Perry, Rylie Draper, Alyssa Huff, Cassidy King, Meigen Salazar, 

Sadie Draper, Cilisia Bitter, Cambrie Martel, Rose Long, Cambri Burgon, 

Sam Christensen (hiding in the back), Natalie Schaeffer, Camry Perry, Kaydee Van Alfen, 

Kelly King, Steph Pickle, Camrie Draper, and Angee Draper

Grand Wash "walk".  Squishing kids in the car to make less trips.  Also squishing Kelly and Natalie in the front seat.  :). Our Netherlands neighbors.  Telling the girls "shhhhhh" a million times after 10pm.  4 adults giggling in the tent.  Backpacks and pins.  The pins Sadie, Ry, and Sam made me.  Pleasant creek as a muddy river.  Lots of river crossings.  Lots of sand and little rocks in our shoes.  Pleasant Creek analogies.  So much camp chair sitting.  Ry has serious hammock skills.  Cam is a trooper.  Sadie enjoying her first girls camp.  Campground deer.  Campground views.  Panorama Poing.  YCL scripture shares.  Hickman Bridge hike that was soooo hot.  (Only 80 degrees.)  Wondering if we should hike Sulfur Crrek and having it rain to tell us no before we debated too long.  Tuck in treats and favorite things.  Testimony meeting without a campfire.  Cohab Canyon with Kaydee and Kelly plus Sam and Cambrie and brethren.  Fast clean up Friday morning thanks to cleanup Thursday evening.  Sharing one of my favorite places with a bunch of YW. 

I loved hanging out with Kelly, Steph, and Natalie and I love CR.

 (Steph, Kelly, me, Natalie)

Most of the Beehives - Sadie, Alyssa, Cambri, and Camry in the back.

 Cam at Panorama Point

 Girls at Hickman Bridge

 Leaders - Kelly King, me, Heidi Frandsen, Natalie Schaeffer, and Steph Pickle

Pleasant Creek hike

June 10, 2019

From Mason's email:

Hey yall! I can't believe another week is already over with. Let me tell ya, time flies by as a missionary. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. Don't ask me how it works, but it's kinda weird. It's been a good week though, full of lots of service.

So to start off, we were driving and there was a tree that fell over onto someone's porch. So we knocked on her door and offered to clear it out. She said yes, and the only thing we were able to find to cut it up, was a little saw. Needless to say, it was some tough work and we are sore and worn out, but we enjoyed being able to help her out, because she really needed it. The tree blew over onto her porch, barely missing her house. So we have started teaching her and she's super grateful, because she saw how hard it was to get it out.

We have also started teaching a guy named Richard. He is really cool, likes to make music in his studio, and never wears a shirt. We knocked on his door and he had a TON of preconceived notions about the church, mostly from TV shows and stuff. So we've been able to clear those up, and he's really started to see the good in the church. The other day he said to us, "I just can't figure out why everybody hates yall so much. They talk so much bad, but I've only found good!" So we're really excited for him and he is committed to come to church this Sunday. He's awesome!

June 9, 2019

New Harmony Snow College mom/kids trip.  Pine Hollow.  Salted caramel ice cream $1 scoop.  Celebrating summer with said ice cream.  Finding out Ry likes country music.  Random Thursday game night with K and T (where I even win a game or two).  Oquirrh Mountain Temple - baptisms with some YW.  Temple art.

(Patty, Tara, me, Mary Ellen)

June 4, 2019

New Harmony things to remember from our mom/kid trip with Patty, Tara, Mary Ellen and some kids:

I just really like my grinds (friends). 

Ry wearing Kaitlyn’s onesie PJs. 

Swimming in cedar city. 

Finding frogs. 

Catching frogs. 

Hearing the frogs. 

Watching the frogs. 

Being carried away by flies. 

Playing in the water at Kolob. 

Delicious breakfasts. 

Giggly girls. 

Way cool red cliffs hike. 

Sunset at red cliffs. 

Most delicious ice cream (custard) at Nielsen’s in St George. 

 

Sunday evening we met in New Harmony at Tara's Father-in-law's house to stay.   

Monday we hiked a little in Kolob Canyon.  Then we went to the Cedar City swimming pool.  Then a hike in Red Cliffs Reserve.  Then Nielsen's Custard.  

Tuesday was clean up and go home.  Way to short of a get together.

June 3, 2019

From Mason's email:

This week I went on exchanges to Memphis twice! Memphis has a little bit of my heart. So I loved being there again and we had a really funny thing happen. So we were biking and came across a lady. She was kinda freaking out saying she heard a man down the hill who was yelling help. So we parked our bikes and decided we had to see if someone was actually in need of help. Keep in mind it's like a 20 foot hill through the jungles of Memphis. So we climb down through spider webs, probably a lot of ticks, and bugs, got all dirty and at the bottom there was a barbed wire fence. So we start walking along it through the bushes, and then we saw it. There was a goat! At this point the lady had called 911 and was talking to them, so we told her to hang up and it was just a goat and she was super embarrassed. We started climbing back up and we got back and she was gone so we didn't even get to talk to her haha. Long story short, we explored through the jungle in search of a goat.