MARTINS COVE 6/28/09

Howdy Pilgrims,
Well another week of the good life,with the exception that I lost my prescription glasses somewhere in Casper. We searched every where with no luck! Fortunately I'm farsighted so I only really need the glasses to read and we have plenty of generic reading glasses. I'm not much of a book worm anyway. I've been able to do a few interesting projects this week. We have a 4000 gal. water truck that they had to throw a fill hose into the river and use a trash pump to fill it. (most of the roads are dirt and need to be wet to control the dust) It took between 25 and30 minutes to fill it, when they could get the pump to work. ( it was sucking up a lot of mud and rocks from the bottom of the river)So I designed them a wet well out of a piece of galvanized culvert,cut some holes in it and placed it in the river. Then I ran a 3" pipe to the wet well and then ran it down so that it stayed above the bottom out of the mud. I also set it up so the fill hose could run directly to the truck. No one previously had been aware that the truck was designed to pump its own water and fill itself. It will now fill up in about 12 minutes without needing a separate pump. I've also had the opportunity to work allot with the backhoe this week, which feels right at home to me. The other day we had the opportunity to work with a family group of about 80 people from Idaho. This family had about 30 little kids with them. While most of the adults visited the Cove the kids stayed at Handcart parking where we were stationed. I was not only were able to tell the Martins Cove story to the adults up in the Dan Jones Cove, (named after one of the rescuers, who risked this life for the handcart pioneers) but I was also able to tell some stories to the kids. When I finished telling one story I asked if there were any questions. One little boy about 3 years old raised his hand,and when I called on him he said,THANK YOU! Isn't it great to feel appreciated. We also had the opportunity to help 3 young people who had a blow-out on the highway. Their rim was ruined and Elder Freeman, our mission leader, drove them into Casper to a junk yard to get a replacement. As it turned out the new rim was slightly the wrong size rim, but I was able to do some grinding and make it work. So we sent them gratefully on their way with the advice to check the lugnuts regularly to make sure they stayed tight. As far as they were from a town, it was a blessing that they broke down near a place equipped and willing to help them. Sister Leavitt was also a great help as she communicated with their mother in Washington state who was frantically trying to get them help. They had called their mother to find out where out where the nearest town was located . Their mother saw Martins Cove Historical Site on the map and called us. It's my turn and as usual, ElderLeavitt pretty much covered all the bases. Although we stay really busy and go to bed exhausted, our weeks are getting more "routine"and it seems we don't have as much to report. For Relief Society we had a class on "rock hounding" -- finding the rocks (which there are a lot of around here!), polishing them and then making jewelry. It was very successful with about 35 people there. We also have finished our directory of the Relief Society Sisters --including pictures. This was a huge project and thanks to my counselors, we got it done. This week we are looking forward to seeing our friend, Maria and her parents and sister. We have a BBQ planned for the 4th of July and fireworks over Alcova Lake. Also we're having a pancake dinner for Family Home Evening on Monday and Charlie and I are in charge. So will close for tonight and thank all of you who are sending us emails and letters. With love, The Leavitt's