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!