Missionary Breakfast

The Wrights. Sister Wright is in the Heber Valley Camp Young Women Presidency. Her first name is Kathryn...is it any wonder she is such a neat person? Brother Wright is a counselor in the Presidency or camp management. They live in Heber City. They are two of the nicest people you could ever meet.

Elder Cole in Tabasco sleep pants, Elder Felter in Bronco pj bottoms, and Elder Conlin in his Super Hero pants. These guys are also known as the 'Three Musketeers.' Some missionaries got a real kick out of them showing up in pajamas while others thought it was rather undignified. Some people just don't know how to have fun. There were even some stuffy people who showed up in black suits, white shirts and ties. For Pete's sake, this was in an open air pavilion at 7:30 a.m. and it was so cold that the butter was so hard it wouldn't spread on the pancakes. We ate on paper plates and sat on aluminum picnic benches.

This is Genna Vee Woolsey, the President of the Heber Valley Camp Young Women. She is a very awesome, dedicated, sharp, organized, fun leader. I wish she was the policy maker for all aspects of the camp! We really like her. She doesn't get paid for her work even though it is basically a full-time job. She lives in Heber. She has eight children. The woman on her left (only half of her is showing) is one of Sister Woolsey's counselors, Diane Rasband, another special individual.

The breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, pancakes with syrup and milk or juice...pretty good!

Some of the head honchos (and cooks)...Elder Anderson, Brother Horner and Brother Giles.

After breakfast we drove to Salt Lake City to tour the church Humanitarian Center. We ate at the Sizzler, made a couple of quick stops, then headed back to the mountain.

New Assignment

The oldest camps at Heber Valley (Smith and Esther) have been here for five years. These camps are also the two that are open year round so they get the most use. Now that the challenge courses are mainly open on weekends only, during the week we work in the above mentioned camps. For the fire mitigation plan, we use weedeaters to cut the tall brush down around the cabins. I think it is supposed to actually be cut back 30 feet from structures. We have only been clearing everything within about 10-15 feet of the cabins. Then we rake the grasses, weeds, and wildflowers into huge piles to be hauled off. Next we wash the log exteriors with a nozzle on a hose. After it has thoroughly dried we mask the windows, doors, light fixtures, cabin numbers etc. Then we spray a waterproof sealer onto the log siding, wipe up any overspray, brush any drips or runs and remove the masking, cardboard and tape. The cabins look so much better! The grasses were so tall they obscured most of the signs within the camps so I also took a weedeater and cleared areas to make them more visable. Today we were so proud of our work ten of us went into town and treated ourselves at a nice restaurant. I haven't take many pictures of our project, but here are a few:

Elder Conlin, Elder Andersen and Sister Cole

Elder Felter starting to mask a back door...notice the washed out looking logs compared to what they look like in the other pictures. Now they look like new cabins.

Elder Cole spraying the waterproof sealer onto the side of a cabin.

The Johnson Family

Our kids and grandkids attended Sacrament Meeting with us at camp. After the meeting, Jill took a picture of the Johnson family. Back row: Bryan, Riley (12) and Kimberly. Front row: Ashley (10), Brynlee (4), and Jayse (7).

The following pictures are of the oldest three Johnson kids on a mountain hike:

Pictures when our family was at camp

When our family was visiting at Heber Valley Camp some of them were dive-bombed by a bird. Bryan found the reason...a mother robin had a nest of newly hatched babies just off the path by the pavilion we were using. With a million trees to pick from, I wonder why the robin chose such a high traffic area. Here are a couple of pictures:

Left to right-- Riley, Courtney, Jayse, Kimberly, Brynlee, Hailey and Ashley getting sweatshirts on to go out into the cool evening air. We had a separate cabin for each family. This picture shows the interior of the cabin which has bunks for sixteen people.

L to R: Natalie, Jayse, Katelyn and Tanner at the campfire

Jayse and Brynlee

Some of the grandkids around the campfire

Many posts in a short time

I have updated my blog and have posted many pictures in the last few days. I had lots of pictures on my camera card but the card wouldn't work in the slot on our laptop. When Reed bought a 4GB SD memory card for his new camera, it came with a little adapter that plugs into a USB port. Wa-la! Now I am able to blog from our laptop and post pictures on them! Finally!



On my last visit home Brandon had to extract one of my teeth. I had a porcelain crown that broke off. I swallowed half. I thought he could just smooth the sharp and jagged edges until a new crown could be made after we returned from our mission. Unfortunately, the tooth under the crown had some decay in it and the tooth base fractured in several places. It couldn't be saved.



When we were returning to camp from visiting Robin on our prep day, we got a phone call from another missionary couple asking us if we would like to go to 'Swiss Days' in Midway and then get something to eat. We met them and had a good time. Jill has been to 'Swiss Days' a few times. Now I know what she has been talking about. It is sort of like 'Summerfest' which is held on the Logan Tabernacle grounds each June, except on a much larger scale.

Wheelin' to Bald Knoll

We went to a place called 'Bald Knoll.' It is 10,091 feet above sea level. Some of these pictures were taken from the top. It sounds like we spend all our time going for rides and taking pictures of mountain ranges, flowers and animals. Actually we do very little of that...it is just that we don't take pictures of the everyday stuff. Besides that, after a 'hard day at the office' we can reach some of these places within 10 minutes.

Pretty, huh? The green mountain meadows remind me of New Zealand. The picture below with the sheep in the foreground make it look like New Zealand as well.

"I'm on top of the world looking down on creation..." This thing-a-ma-jig is on top of Bald Knoll.

This is a picture of when we just arrived on top and were getting off our 4-wheelers.

Flowers along the mountainside trails are below:

Visiting Burkhardts

On our preparation day we watched Ashlyn and Katelyn while Robin and Andrew went to the temple. Ashlyn and Katelyn posed for pictures in their princess dress-ups.

Robin took us to see this new temple under construction in Draper. There are some huge mansions that look like castles in the temple neighborhood. Some probably rival the temple for square footage...what a ridiculous excess. Our humble cabin abode is sufficient for our needs.

Another view

Robin and Andrew lived so far away from us but at the current time they live closest to us. We have appreciated their hospitality in providing us a place to stay on our day off. Robin has been a great chauffeur as she takes us around to places like Cabela's and Costco. When we entered Costco Ashlyn and Katelyn kept saying they wanted to go see the chickens. We couldn't figure out what they were so excited about as Costco doesn't have a petting zoo or animal display. Robin explained that they like to watch the chickens on the rotisserie. How funny! We bought one of the chickens for lunch. It was very tasty.

God's Country

This is a view from Lookout Point. The larger lake is Legacy Lake. The water level is down somewhat as they have started the annual draining. The water is used for irrigation in the valley below. It is too shallow to get the canoes and paddleboats on it now so all lakefront activities have closed. The smaller lake stays year-round.

I thought this crooked tree was rather unique.

Mirror image

More Moose Pics

Good looking bull moose. I didn't dare get much closer. He was watching me pretty carefully.

He had enough of me...he turned to leave.

This bull moose was with another bull and a cow. They were checking out all the facilities in Camp Reeder. One missionary got a great close-up of the two bulls on either side of the volleyball net as if they were trying to figure out how to play.


This cow and calf were by the giant swing on the challenge course. I think there was another calf which did not get in the picture.

Taking a break for nursing time

Rainy days & Mondays always get me down...

Today is Monday, September 1st. It is Labor Day. It is a foggy, windy, rainy, cold, miserable day. There have even been a few snowflakes. Between the storms Reed has to go out and get the puddles off the ATV covers and readjust them. We can't get much outside work done. I am mainly doing laundry and blogging. I feel sorry for the masses of people out trying to have the last hurrah of summer. The temperature is 41 degrees right now and is dropping. (11 a.m.)

Our 6 month mission call is coming to a close. It has been physically exhausting work but for the most part, we have really enjoyed it. We loved about 98 percent of the missionaries. They are the cream of the crop! They are nice, friendly, multi-talented people. It is a joy to associate with them. There have been a couple of 'bad apples' who have made things unpleasant at times. I suppose you get those kind anywhere you go. The actual work is great, whereas camp politics are a downer. The surroundings couldn't be more beautiful! The great outdoors with beautiful panoramic vistas and an abundance of animal life have been a wonderful place to spend our days in the service of others. How could it get any better when you ride 4-wheelers and wear jeans and a camp shirt? We really loved working with the young women on the challenge course. They arrive so full of enthusiasm and bring a special spirit to the mountain. Their Young Women leaders are very organized so everything goes like clock work. We sort of tolerate the families who come on weekends. However, it is fun to see the smiles and hear the laughter of the little children. That is our reward. Last week we had an interview to see what our thoughts were about coming back another summer. After careful and prayerful consideration of personal issues, family issues and Heber Valley Camp issues, we decided not to return. With our 2 year temple calling which entailed working Saturdays, then this 6 month mission added to that, we feel we need some Saturday freedom or family time. With our family members working or going to school during the week and with their own callings at church on Sunday, Saturdays are about the only day available. Who knows, maybe after a break we will be ready to put our papers in to see where the luck of the draw (or inspiration) takes us. I am glad we have come on this mission and highly recommend it to others.