Jack Frost Nipping at our Noses

This past week we took a short trip to Utah to see a doctor.  Ely is 3 hours from anywhere so the people here have to go to Salt Lake or Cedar City to see a doctor.  There are a few here but not specialists and we have not heard good things about the doctors in Ely.  We left Tuesday and got there just in time to go to dinner with our former New York Mission President and his wife.  That was a fun time. 

 

Wednesday morning we were able to go to our granddaughter Bethany’s preschool program.  She was way cute and we wished we could have stayed for more concerts and recitals. 

I spent the rest of the morning at the pulmonologist’s office having tests and doing fun stuff to try to figure out why I can’t breathe (a minor thing).  She said what I had suspected, that it’s probably a combination of the altitude in Ely (6500 ft.) and the allergens.  Marc may have mentioned that there are more people here on oxygen that we have seen anywhere else.  I’m hoping to avoid that last resort.  Then Marc spent the afternoon at Costco having his hearing aids adjusted.  Exciting, I know.

We were anxious to get back to Ely and get back to work.  We stopped by Marc’s mom’s place on our way out of Utah for a sort visit then headed west.  Sorry to those we didn’t get to see on our whirlwind trip.

We are finally past the finding people to teach stage in this ward and are in the actual teaching stage.  Three of the people we are working with were at Sacrament Meeting today so that was a happy thing.  It was our Christmas program so they may have gone anyway but we like to think we helped.  One man even introduced us to all his family which made us feel good.

 With some of the people we visit we discuss Come Follow Me lessons and with some we are starting from scratch with the missionary lessons, depending on where the member is at and how long it has been since they attended church. 

We have seen the need for a Come Follow Me study group for single adults and ran it past the Stake President.  He was all for it since they don’t have any single adult program here.  Now we have to iron out all the details and figure out when to hold it since people work shifts here—usually 6 am to 6 pm or 6 pm to 6 am.  They often alternate shifts and it’s hard on them.

We are taking our charge from President Godoy, to watch over the young elders, to heart and have been inviting them to dinner and/or lunch.  We dropped in on a couple elders one morning (we warned them that would happen) but we took donuts so it was all good.  We wanted to observe them in their habitat and are trying to determine if there are any problems brewing.  So far—so good.  Their apartment is in sort of a sketchy area and we asked them if they felt safe.  They said they did and that there were a few druggies in the area but that they were very nice.

The 1st Ward Elders' Apartment.  I wanted to complain to the
mission but we realized it's fairly nice inside and they would
be hard pressed to find a better place in Ely.

Christmas is a little different on a mission.  It’s hard to teach people the week before and probably after.  People are busy and missionary visits are not high on their priority list.  On Christmas day, the 6 elders will come here for a district council meeting in the morning and then will stay for lunch and maybe games.  Then we have invited a single man from the ward over for dinner.  It will be a busy day after all.  I look forward to talking with our kids, even though we do it often.  It has been cold here but not much snow yet.  A white Christmas is expected though.  Yay!

Our Little Tree

People here are very nice to us and we hope we can stick it out till June.  We’re hoping when the weather starts to warm up a bit I’ll be able to breathe easier.  I’m exercising my faith till then.  We love Ely and enjoy our work here.

An every day occurrence about half a block from us. 

Still in Ely...

Not much exciting has happened, so I’ll start writing and see what comes out.  We had Zone Conference last week, so we drove to Elko (3 hours) Thursday, early enough to enjoy (one of us) a wild shopping spree at Walmart and meet some elders at the East mission storage unit to get a few things we needed.  Then we went out to dinner with the office senior couples (Langstons and Sevys), had interviews with President Godoy and then stayed in a hotel overnight.  On Friday, Zone Conference was from 9-3, then we drove back to Ely.  It was a nice break from the normal day-to-day activity!  We were amazed that Elko definitely felt to us like ‘the big city’.  It’s amazing how fast you get used to the small town traffic and atmosphere in Ely (even if there are no stores, and Amazon is your best friend). 


On Monday we took a drive to the charcoal ovens that are about 20 miles from Ely.  I was more interested than Diane, and she was wearing her good tennis shoes, so she stayed in the car out of the mud and snow.  The ovens burned wood into charcoal for use in the smelting ovens at the mines.  Loading one oven with wood required all the trees on 6 acres of land, so the requirements for six ovens stripped all the land around pretty quickly.  Luckily, charcoal was replaced by coke (from coal) a couple years later, so the whole county wasn’t denuded.  You can see more info in the picture I included.  The road to the ovens was 10 miles of pot-holed dirt road.  The dust was kept down by the recent snow melt, but the resulting mud made a mess of the car (so it looks more like we belong in Ely).  There’s one car wash in town, but most people don’t bother as long as they can see out of their vehicle.

Six ovens in a row

Inside looking up

Road cattleguards are everywhere

Highway is 5 miles STRAIGHT ahead.

In our interview with President Godoy, he reiterated that he wants us to work closely with the zone leader to ensure the safety and success of the six young missionaries in Ely, and he has given us authority to do many things that normal senior couples don’t get an opportunity to do.  He even invited the zone leader into our interview so he would know what President Godoy wants us to do.  Things like apartment inspections, interviews, and working with new missionaries.  We don’t know how we will make it work, but we know it will work out if that’s what the Lord desires.  Right now, we are relatively new to the area, but before long we will be the most stable part of the missionary work here!  We often wish we had more than 6 months, so we could get more done…  However, as is normal in mortality, that desire is somewhat offset by a few on-going health issues.  Diane is having trouble breathing here.  The combination of the high altitude and her asthma has made it uncomfortable (and she reminds me sometimes that breathing is not optional).  We have an appointment with a lung doctor in Utah next week, and hopefully he/she will be able to provide some relief.  Diane has always been such a trooper, and she continues to do what needs to be done, but it would be really nice if she could enjoy it more!!  We know that a way will be provided to keep serving, and we hope it’s in Ely!!  We love the Lord, and will do whatever He wants us to do.

Ely (ee'-lee) Nevada

Hard to believe we have been in Ely for nearly a month!  It’s a unique town (in our experience anyway).  Lots of blue-collar workers who work variable rotating shifts in the mines or at the state prison.  Also many older people, and a smaller population of middle-aged people.  Our stake president told us this morning that 20 years ago the big mine closed, and most young families had to move out to find employment, then when the mine reopened several years later, many of the families didn’t come back.  He also said that many miners now commute from other areas (like St George, UT, or Elko, NV, etc.), coming to Ely for their 4 or 5 12-hour shifts, then returning home for their 4 days off.  All this makes for an interesting demographic profile—many of the people have been here their whole life, and the town is full of their relatives.  Often when we look in our electronic area book (which includes the whole town) for a family, we find 6 or 8 or more other families with the same last name.  And everyone seems to know everyone, with many connections! 

From our front porch 12/2/19.  12" of snow and another storm coming Wednesday.

We went to breakfast this morning at the stake president’s home with the six young elders.  He has been hosting the breakfasts once a transfer since the mission was formed 7 or 8 years ago.  He mentioned an interesting thing.  He said our missions in Ely will be more like Alma and Amulek than Ammon and the sons of Mosiah!  The sons of Mosiah taught mostly people who had no familiarity with the church (the Lamanites), while Alma and Amulek taught many people who had connections with the church and its members.  President Fullmer said only 30% of the stake members are active, and that many of the non-members may be only first and second generation non-members, with many active relatives.  It was an interesting perspective, and opened our eyes to some of the things we have begun to see!  We just want to do good in any way we can for the stake!



When we arrived, we were assigned to work first in the Ely Second ward, and the Bishop gave us a list of 18 members to begin working with.  As we’ve met them we realized that they are mostly older (60-91 years old, in fact), with maybe two exceptions we haven’t met yet.  We thought they had assigned us old people since we are older (and they would give us some younger people once they saw how cool we were…).  That may still be true, but now we realize that there are many older less-active people who need our attention.  In other areas (like home, or even Reno) I tended to ignore the 70-80 year old deacons because I thought they were less likely to be receptive than families or individuals who were more recently associated with the church.  Here, those individuals may be our primary mission!!  With the first list we’ve had varying degrees of success, from people who welcome us right in like long-lost friends, to people who are suspicious that they are on some list somewhere and would like to be off it!  Our goal with people is to get to know them well enough to determine if they are ready to strengthen or rekindle their relationship with Christ. 



With the ones who have welcomed us, we have started by initiating weekly sessions to study and discuss the ‘Come Follow Me’ lessons with them in their homes.  It’s fun to see the different levels of knowledge and willingness to participate!  And there is always a good spirit there!  So far, none of the less-active people have started attending again, but it seems to start with them saying, “You know, I really should get busy and go to church again.”  We’ve heard that several times, so we know there’s hope.  We are thankful to be serving, even though we can never do enough!  The mission that will find us in Ely seems to be shaping into a completely different mission than what our missions were in Reno and NYC, and we are confident we will learn to love it just as much!! 

There are always deer around!  

Winter Hiking (before snow)

ditto

Red highway in Cave Lake State Park

Out four-wheelin' in the Lexus

A buck a block from the house (before snow)

Looking from the back side of the largest open pit mine.

The slag piles are miles long!

Lame Ducks…And Still Loving it!

Things have solidified as far as our pending move to Ely.  We are moving out on 11/1, mostly so the sisters who are packed in with two others can move in and get settled.  Meanwhile, the appliances for our new home in Ely have been ordered, but have not arrived.  They should be in the first week of November, but you know how that goes…  Anyway, to get things solidified and let the sisters move in, we are out of here on the 1^st.  Our plan is to leave early on the 1^st, take one carload of stuff and drop it off in the new place in Ely, then drive on to SLC and visit Mom and other relatives for two or three days.  Meanwhile, hopefully our appliances will come in, and the housing/finance senior elder will have time to move furniture into the house!  We hope things don’t drag out, but they could.  It’s very weird to take a mid-mission “vacation”, but President Godoy agreed this would be a good time to go visit Mom, and help the timing work out for all the other pieces of the move.  So, we are excited to visit with Utah family in a week!

This is the new place in Ely.

Meanwhile, back in our Reno area, we have transitioned most work over to Sister Turner (from St George) and Sister Liechty (N Ogden).  We’ve kept ownership of a few appointments with people we are working especially closely with.  (i.e., This morning I went over to one semi-active brother’s house so he could help me get rid of the squeak in our back brakes (which drives my companion crazy! But out of my hearing range...).  We were successful, once we found the one socket size I needed in his less-than-organized toolbox.  I also noticed he has a ping pong table, so I let him beat me in a couple of games to build up his self-esteem.  (He was pretty good for an old guy…my age.)  It was a good, productive morning, and my companion will be happy!)  We gave our going-away talks last Sunday.  It was a little strange since we just gave our first talks two months ago!  The ward also took the entire last hour to rollout the new ward mission plan (complete with fridge magnets, so you know it must be good).  It was a great meeting, and perfect timing to have the new fulltime sisters there also!


This last Monday we went up to Lake Tahoe for the last time.  It was a beautiful day!  We did the Shirley Canyon Trail, which starts near the Squaw Peak ski area (home of the 1960 winter Olympics) and goes to the top of the mountain (if we had gone that far).  It was a beautiful hike!  Very rocky trail that sometimes felt more like climbing than hiking…It was very colorful with the changing leaves, and Diane made it more so by leaving a swatch of blood in the rocks.  (Then she worried about being ‘the injured, weak one’ the rest of the hike.)  THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL WORLD WE LIVE IN!  


Wednesday was our last weekly visit to the senior memory care center in Reno.  We have been going each week since we came.  When we go in the workers gather as many patients as they can, and we sing old songs, and show pictures from the church library and tell the stories.  The ladies are sweet and we love them.  They range from almost no visible signs of dementia, to unable to speak at all.  We envisioned this last meeting of being one of the best, but life has a way of keeping you humble!  We only had two ladies stay, plus one who was having a bad day so she left (after giving us a piece of her mind).  It was still a special experience working with the two ladies, although the singing struggled without the strong singers.  On the way out Margaret, who was the one having the bad day, was in the hall with two workers trying to reason with her.  Diane said cheerfully, “Margaret, have a good day!”, and Margaret responded, “You know I won’t, and neither will you!  You are going to the devil!!”  It’s wonderful to see them when they have moments of clarity, but sad to see them when they don’t!  It has been a life-changing experience to work with them.  Another one of those experiences from having the faith to go on a mission!

We are excited for the next phase of our mission, and sad to see this one end!  It’s all part of a growth process that we are convinced Heavenly Father watches over closely.  There are no coincidences.

Squaw Valley Ski Area near Lake Tahoe

Up there is where the trail ended, but we didn't make it that far.

ROCKY trail (with hiking beauty)

(It was worse than it looks.)

 If you look closely, you can see the blue paint, 

which tells where the trail goes.

Tender Hearts and Tender Mercies

(This is mostly written by Diane, but I’m finishing it up for her while she’s at the eye doctor’s office.)  We are excited to announce our big news:  We are being transferred!  The mission has had a large influx of new missionaries and there is a shortage of areas for all of them.  So they have put a set of sisters in our ward.  Since our ward is small, President Godoy gave us three choices.  We could stay where we are and be assigned an additional ward, we could work in the Young Single Adult Ward, or we could go to Ely (pronounced e’-lee).  We felt best about going to Ely, even though it is 5 hours from here.  It’s only two hours or so from Salt Lake, so we’ll go to Utah for any critical medical appointments (or if we just can’t stand being away from Costco and Macys).


About 30% of the population of Ely are members of the church.  But only about 30% of them are active so we will feel needed there.  The stake president is excited to be getting a senior couple.  We will be assigned to the stake rather than to a specific ward.  We aren’t sure how that will work yet but will find out soon enough.  President has also asked us to watch over the 6 elders who are there.  They are pretty cut off from the rest of the mission so he feels like a senior couple will be very helpful for them.


We drove over to Ely on Monday to check out some apartments.  It is a long drive over what is known as “The Loneliest Road in America”.  Our GPS even calls it that!  The eastern part of the drive is quite pretty with mountains, small pines and junipers.  Ely is surrounded by mountains and we love it.  

When we got there we checked out some apartments.  The first was a very small house (about 660 sq. ft).  The second was infested with carpet beetles (they were everywhere!) and the bathroom was somewhat third-worldly.  We also checked out some complexes and talked to a realtor.  Then we called a realtor named Angela who Elder Langston from the office had been talking to previously.  She had a house for sale, but was very leery to rent it, since it was all fixed up ready for sale.  She said she would ask her husband but didn’t think they would be able to rent it to us.  She asked us to call in the morning, since he was out of town until later in the evening.  It seemed there were literally no apartments available in Ely! 


We went to dinner with heavy hearts not knowing how things could possibly work out and thinking we may have to stay in Reno.  When we asked for our check, our server said, “Oh, your check has been taken care of.”  We met a member from Sparks on our way out who denied paying our check but we are pretty sure it was him.  People never know what an uplift they give to missionaries when they show them such kindnesses.
  

Sorry, this is such a long story, but I just have to share it.  In the morning we decided to go to see Angela in person rather than calling.  As we pulled up to the realtor’s there was a man just leaving.  He was Angela’s husband.  We talked to him and he invited us back into the office.  We had a nice conversation with him, but he gave us the same story about a guy who was renting but wanted to buy the house across the street. We could maybe rent the smaller house (which wasn’t as nice) but it would be a while and was kind of iffy.  Marc felt impressed to say, “Well, if the Lord wants us here He will provide a way.”  Brad said, “Well, yes, we’d like to help with that if we can.” 

I asked if we could just drive by and see the outside of the rental house (currently rented), so he gave us the address.  We drove by and the rental house was VERY small and kind of dumpy.  The other house they were selling was across the street, and we wished we could have that one.  A few minutes later Angela called and said Brad had told her he wanted us to rent the nicer house!  We were both quite emotional and stopped to say a prayer of thanks for our Father’s tender mercies!  He really does watch over His missionaries and provides a way to accomplish the work He has for us to do. So, we’ll be going to Ely in a couple of weeks!


In the meantime, we are sharing our area (again), but this time with two young sisters.  We met with them yesterday to get organized and split up the ward, the people we have been working with, and the dinner appointments (we mostly kept the ones they couldn’t go to, like single men.)  They are living with two other sisters in an apartment the size of ours, so the sooner we leave, the sooner they can get settled.  We have mixed feelings about leaving, of course.  We are excited to start part two of our mission, but oh so sad to leave the people we have come to love!


Last Sunday was our stake’s Senior Mission Fireside.  We were pleased with the program and the spirit that was there, but disappointed by the turnout.  There were only about 30 people there who were not on the program.  Even though it was mostly the ‘low hanging fruit’ (people who are already excited to go), we felt it answered many of their questions and hopefully got them excited to attend the four-session senior mission preparation course that will start on 10/27.  We thought we would be teaching it, but now the stake will call a couple to teach and we will coordinate with them before we leave.  According to the brethren, the missions around the world could use four times the current number of senior missionaries!


We went on a really nice hike the Monday before last, and I’ll add some pictures of the hike.  It’s called the Hunter Creek Trail, and we really enjoyed it!  A nice 6+ mile hike with falls at the turnaround point.  This is a beautiful world, and we are so happy our missions allow us to see a little more of it.  We are blessed and happy even when we sometimes feel our age!!

Hunter Creek Trail

Falls behind us

Ely Macys

Ely Railroad Museum

Ely

Ely

Ely Stake Center

It's a mining town mostly surrounded by mountains.

7500' elevation.

Stokes Castle in Austin Nevada. A wealthy miner
built this for his sons who lived in it for a total of
2 months.

Loving the Mission Life

Well, it’s been a couple of weeks and it is still my turn to write the blog.  It’s not that I haven’t written because there is nothing going on but there’s a lot going on so I haven’t written.

We have turned that corner in our mission where we feel like an actual part of the ward and the people are not just our ward members but are now our friends. 

A really great day is when we knock on the door of people who are not regular church attenders and who have never met us and they welcome us with open arms.  Makes you wonder how many wards have those people who are just waiting for someone to welcome them back to the fold.

We have 4 or 5 families that we have been teaching on a regular basis. Most are less active but we are also teaching 8-year old Bradley. Marc wrote about him.  He has very little gospel knowledge but it’s like teaching a sponge.  He just soaks up everything we tell him.  The first week we explained who God was and talked about prophets, including some stories such as the story of Daniel.  Last week at the beginning of our lesson we asked him if he remembered who God is.  He said “He’s the one who gives special powers to people.”  (Well, that’s true but we had to ask him to explain what he meant.)  He said “like when he gave special powers to the guy in the Lion’s den so the lions couldn’t hurt him.”  We gave him a Bible and a Book of Mormon (along with the Children’s Book of Mormon Stories).  He was so excited.  He held them up and said, “Oh, you mean THIS book was written for the people in the Old World and THIS book was written for the people over here?”  Then he held them together.  It was quite a remarkable visual.  He’s just so adorable and we just love him and can’t wait for him to be baptized.  Next time we plan to take 8 year old Braxton and his mom with us.  Braxton already made a prayer rock for Bradley!  If you don’t know what a prayer rock is, it’s a small decorated rock that you put on your pillow to remind you to pray.  The theory being that if you forget, your head hits the rock and you remember, ha-ha.  Kids are just awesome. 

Steam Train

Two Saturdays ago we took the steam train from Carson City up to Virginia City.  The Sevys (brand new office couple) went with us on their first outing in Nevada.  A wonderful time was had by all.  As you may know, Virginia City is an old western mining town. You may remember it from Bonanza.  As we were standing there taking pictures, 6 or 7 wild horses just came walking by big as life and happy as you please.  They walked right by us up to some guy’s house and started helping themselves to his pears.  I think it must have been a regular thing for them.

I am including pictures (below) taken at our Senior Couple pot-luck for the departing office couple, the Sapps.  The office here is amazing!  I may be a little jealous.  They each have their own office.  With doors!  And there are couches!

We are loving our ladies at the memory care center.  They love to hear bible stories.  Last week I told them the story of Jesus healing the blind man.  They remember who Jesus is but most forget the stories.  When I finished, one lady had tears in her eyes and another crossed herself.  It felt good to add just a little uplift to their day.

We are finding more to do and maybe even feeling a little less guilty about when we are not as busy.  We are loving the mission life.

On the Train.  Elder Williams let me borrow his hat.

Jailbirds

Elder Williams at Virginia City

Virginia City with the Sevy's from Virginia

Virginia City Mines

Wild Horses

I think he thought I had food for him.  They weren't very
shy for wild horses.

Wild Horses Actually in the Wild

Sister Williams with Elder & Sister Latu

Fancy Office

One of our walks.  We love the trails that
go straight up.

Scary bush tunnel.  I was sure there were
cougars or ticks.

First Snow in our Ward 

Another Walk

Handsome Mountain Man

That's our ward behind us.

Sister Pole'o (from Tonga) and Sister Fox at District Meeting.
They live upstairs from us.

Elders Role-playing at District Meeting

 

Dinner with Sister Fox and Sister Pole'o.