Still getting ready

April 25, 2011

Today we met for the first day of training as the Challenge Course missionaries. The training will last several weeks. We studied the rules and proceedures as an overview today. Then we went into Provo to get fitted for our harnesses. We will spend most of the day tied to ropes once the campers arrive so it is important these harnesses fit well.

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. Our first Easter as missionaries and the first Sunday meeting as our own ward group. In between Sacrament and Sunday School, the Stake President called Dale to be in the High Priest Group leadership. He will serve as the secretary. All the rest of the group are 2nd year missionaries. He is the greenie. They went into priesthood meeting, were set apart, and conducted the meeting. Isn't it amazing that the church organization can make order out of chaos immediately. The church is true. Now this group will organize our mission into Districts through which all our assignments will come. There is no such thing as VT and Home teaching. The Districts will be how we will be organized as far as church assignments and teaching. It will be interesting to see how all this works.

This weekend was our ATV training. I learned how to make sharp turns without tipping over. I drove winding around the cones without tipping the cones over. I drove over logs. (Actually I failed this part and had to do it again. I went too slow and the log just rolled in front of the tires pushing them along instead of going over them.) I did pass....finally.

Inside the cabin

We arrived at the Camp Thursday and started cleaning out 6 months worth of dust, dead flies,etc. Friday we had our interviews and got our camp shirts, jackets, hoodies and name tags. We have spent the weekend moving in and buying the few things we needed to settle in. We have already met the nicest people. Our neighbors in the cabin by ours is a couple named Randall. He is from Cedar City originally. He taught music at BYU, then retired after being the dept. head of Music there. He was a mission President in Canada. Really nice people. When he was a missionary, his mission president was President Monson.
Our first visitors. Todd and his brother John Blickenstaff helped us get an antennae for the TV set up. Dean and Lana came for dinner. (Todd and John had already eaten and we couldn't tempt them join us.) As you can see, I've already gained 10 pounds. The missionaries that are here year round made homemade bread and cookies, and are feeding us way too much. It is yummy, but it has got to stop. Starting Tuesday we have training all day, everyday. We won't get our assignments until the end of this week.

More Cabin Pictures

The loft is about 1/2 the size of the cabin. We use it for storage. The table is like a folding long church dining table. The bathroom is part of the bedroom area. The shower is in the area behind the wall the towels are on, but it is a nice sized bathroom and shower.

We both have a dresser and nightstand. Dale stacked his. I'm too short to see in the top drawer, if I did that to mine.

As you can see, the washer and dryer are in the bedroom, which is reall very handy. The closet isn't too small either. So you see we are set.

Heber Valley Camp

This is the Welcome Center at the Heber Valley Camp. Our cabin is located just past the Welcome Center and to the right. Great views from our cabin.


There's about 3 feet of snow on the level. It is melting, but there is so much more snow than normal, that we have been asked to pray for temperance in the weather...NO MORE SNOW, PLEASE.

This is home. There are 2 duplexes, ours is the first (closest to the dumpsters. Not a problem now, but come summer we will be hoping the breeze goes in the other direction.)
We are almost moved in, so tomorrow we will post pictures of the inside of the cabin. We had our interview today, and I think we passed. We also got our name tags and official camp shirts, jackets, and hoodies. We are so excited. We love it. We've met missionaries from Boise, St. George, and a lot from the Wasatch Front.