Martin's Cove 11-29-2009

Hello again everyone,

Another week of playing with the big-boy toys. This week began with rehabbing some of the trekker trails. Some of the trails ran through areas that after a rain or during the spring run off became very swampy. Although some of the leaders thought that hiking through these swampy areas might give the trekkers a more realistic experience, I disagreed. My argument against this idea was three fold. 1. The trekkers are very creative young people -- if the trail was full of mud and water, they would just walk around those areas and create new trails, which was evident. 2. It really was not a true pioneer experience because the pioneers would have avoided the swampy areas also, if at all possible. 3. And lastly, because we are in an area prone to rattlesnakes, and snakes are easy to see on the trails it is much better to keep the trekkers on the trails and not in the weeds and bushes where the snakes cannot be easily seen in advance. I was given permission to fill in the swampy areas. The bottom line is that the trekkers get plenty of realistic pioneer experiences with the normal everyday Wyoming weather.

The latter part of this week I have been kept busy removing all the pea gravel around the Visitors Center and replacing it with 3/4 inch rock. The leaders feel that this rock will stay in place better. I have no argument.

On Thanksgiving day we had a rewarding experience going the Salvation Army and helping to feed the homeless. The SA does such a great job assisting the less fortunate in our communities.

I found out today that a missionary couple serving here (Sudweeks) knew Eloise Leavitt from St. George, I told them that she was like a second mother to me, and that her sons were more like brothers than nephews. She was a remarkable woman and a great mother, and we all miss her.

Brothers and sisters, family and friends I know that the Lord lives and we are privileged to feel His presence in our lives everyday. May He bless you in whatever your righteous desires may be and may He bless all of those whom you care about, especially the sick and afflicted is our daily prayer.

Elder Leavitt

Hi everyone -- our computer has not been working for several days, so it's nice to be back online.

What a great week -- met a woman in Sam's Town who came over to talk to me because she saw my badge. It turns out that she is a convert to the Church and lives at a neighboring ranch. However, she had been in this area for only about a year but hadn't been to Church -- so I invited her to come to Church w/ us at Martin's Cove. She and her husband showed up on Sunday and we had a great time. They actually raise sheep instead of cattle, but that's OK by me. It was very interesting talking to her husband as he is a native of Casper and knew the history of this area. He was also a classmate of Dick Cheney -- I hope no one holds that against him! He is not a member of the Church but said that he is interested in investigating it. So, they plan on coming to Church with us eventho they have to drive almost 100 miles to get here!

We have had a lot of visitors this week as people were traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday. I worked in the Visitor's Center for 3 days and met so many wonderful people from all over the country. I didn't work in the Visitor's Center much last summer, as I was usually in the office, so I have really appreciated the opportunity to meet our visitors and tell them the story of the handcart pioneers. Had a funny experience w/ a couple today who had identical twin 2 year olds, also dressed identically :) It took me a minute to figure that out as they were running in and out -- I thought for a minute I was in the "Twilight Zone" :)

Thanksgiving was a very special day. Besides the Missionaries, there were many other volunteers not only from the Salvation Army, but other service organizations as well. We all worked well together and enjoyed meeting some new friends. We later all went to the movie "Blind Side" which was great -- I can recommend it to you. (I need to mention that we Missionaries fixed our own Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday -- it was almost as good as what we had at the Salvation Army !)

The weather has been so nice that I have begun to wonder if I'll ever see snow. However, the weather report says that the cold weather is on the way. Apparently the high's this week will only be in the teen's. Snow is also predicted, so maybe we'll have a white Christmas after all.

Tonight was such a beautiful sight -- we had a gorgeous sunset -- a full moon coming up over Devil's Gate, and the Visitor's Center was all lit up with Christmas lights. The Missionaries have been working so hard and the Homestead area is spectacular -- lights everywhere.

Well, so long from "the high plains of Wyoming".

Our love to you all,

Peggy