My New Motor Home

Gordon Smith sent a photo of an extremely extravagant motor home with this comment: I just thought I would send all of you a picture of my new motor home.
At least I wish it was mine.  However, I wouldn’t even be able to buy the gas for it.


Myrna wrote: Nope! I'm with my dad: take a comfortable car that can get into any parking lot, eat out and sleep at a good motel. Take your time and have fun. Can you imagine trying to drive that thing in Nauvoo? If you want to camp out, you couldn't even get that thing in a campground. Sometimes, big isn't better.


Gordon wrote: I don’t really want a big motor home like that one either.  We have a nice medium sized travel trailer.   We enjoy it very much. The trouble with motel camping is:  I can’t take that motel and park it along the stream where I like to camp.  I can’t sit around the camp fire and watch the fish jump in that stream while I roast a hot dog when I motel camp.  I can’t sit in a folding camp chair and look at the beautiful sky, watch for satellites, find the big and  little dipper with the North star, without being hampered by all of the surrounding city lights when I am motel camping.  I can’t conveniently cook my favorite forty mile Dutch oven stew on the
asphalt in the motel parking lot.  I can’t walk on the trail through the trees along that stream while camping at the motel.  There are a million reasons why camping in the mountains is better than camping  in a motel.  But most of all, the food just tastes better up there.  And I like to watch all of the animals.  Last time we camped, I saw deer, forest grouse, wild turkeys, many types of birds, butterflies, fish. squirrels, and voles.  Plus, if I want to, I can take my trailer to trailer parks near all of neat places a person would like to go like Disneyland, Nauvoo, etc., etc.

Oh well, motel campers help me to have more space in the mountains.

Lots of love,

Gordon


Myrna wrote: I didn't mean to imply that we don't like camping because we do. We have family camps and 'just us" camps all summer long. We love it and always have. So did my dad who would invite us all to go boat-fishing with him. BUT, when we drive cross country to Boston to visit Melanie, or Johnstown (Todd), or Colorado Springs (Kirsten) or El Paso (David), we drive long days and stay in motels at night. We'd rather spend the time in the homes of the kids than drag a trailer around. We have a mid-sized trailer that sleeps eight and we spend a lot of time camping in our beloved mountains. I still like campfire cooking even though we have a good stove and oven in the trailer. (We even have a microwave, if you can imagine the weirdness of that.) We'd rather Dutch oven our meals. Remember, I am married to a man who has 40-years of scout mastering in his blood. He even likes tent sleeping.


Gordon wrote: Myrna,  Do you have any idea how special you are?

Yes, there are times when it is better, and easier, to stay in a motel when you travel. And I also have enjoyed tent camping.  However, this old body of mine with the artificial knee, artificial hip, back with two rods and six screws,  three vertebra unroofed in my lower back, and three vertebra fused in my neck, I just don’t sleep very well on an air mattress anymore.  As my English Department chairman at Spanish Fork High School said to me the year before she retired, “Old age is a s _  _ of a b_ _ _ _!”  She just came into my office, shut the door, and said, “Gordon.”  I said, “What.”  She then said what I have quoted her as saying.  She then opened the door and left.  That was the total conversation.  She was a jewel.  I loved her like a sister.  The students
loved her too.  She retired the next year, and was dead the next year.  The stress of public education does not kill you.  However, the stress of it lowers the ability of your body to defend itself from other problems.  She died of cancer.

I would like  to take our trailer and travel across America and back some year.  Travel three or four hundred miles, stay for a week, see what you wanted to in that area, travel again, stop again, etc. until we had been to the states and places we would like to see.  Then come home.  However, I am not sure this eighty year old body of mine will let me.  Therefore, maybe I will just take us to the nice places  closer to home.   I do still go on the deer camp with our boys each year.  I don’t hunt.  Just camp and cook.  The last time I hunted was when I was seventy two.  I did get my deer that year, and drug it out by myself.  Three years ago, Roberta went with us on the deer hunt.  The boys all had permits in the Book Cliffs.  We stayed nine days.  The boys all got a nice deer.  That was the year I received my artificial hip.  I am sure Roberta went just to take care of me.  However, the boys have all said over, and over, that it was the most fun hunt they have ever been on.  It wasn’t the deer they got.  It was just that  mom was there.

We have taken the trailer to Utah Lake State Park during general conference in the Spring.  It is nice to relax there and watch conference in the trailer.  I want to do the same thing at Rockport Reservoir some year.  We camped there on the deer hunt one year.  I found that you can get channel five on television there.  Good fishing too.

Well, I am sure you are tired of reading all of this blarney.  And I think I better get to bed.  It is 12:40 am.

You and that good man of yours have a good day

Love Ya,

Gordon

Arranging for Baptisms

Ed wrote: We can work out something for the 21st. Call me. 835-2291. Love, Pres. Pinegar


"Call me 435-835-2291 or 435-835-4727. Schedule your baptismal dates with the temple 435-835-2291. I look froward from hearing from her (AnnMarie). Love, Pres. Pinegar"  


Myrna: President Pinegar spoke at Julie's conference session on Saturday. When I got home from the temple that night, he had left a message to call him because, he said, he had it worked out. I knew he was speaking again today at a different place so I decided to just facebook message him. He usually answers on Monday morning, though the temple isn't open until Tuesday. I would still call him tomorrow on the special number he gave you.

I have commission meeting on Tuesday morning but Dad is planning on coming up for little Rachel and for the other kids if they need picking up or whatever. He said he and Rachel would go to McDonald's for lunch and she could play there for awhile. I hate that we have holidays on Monday because that always fouls me up. Dad said he will miss me only because he will end up sitting on the floor playing dolls with Rachel. (Secretly, he likes it--being the doll that does whatever Rachel tells it to do.)

Ed Pinegar wrote: "Perfect. Call me at the temple between 7 am and 2 pm Tues Weds or Fri and we will work it out. Love" 

"Myrna, You and your great husband are examples of light to all who know you. Thanks for your kindness. Love, brother Ed" 

Faith

I would like to start off my email by telling you all a story of true faith, one that I believe you will enjoy.
Once upon a time there were two Sister missionaries who belonged to the Idaho Pocatello Mission. The dear Sisters had a fairly large area, and the district to which they belonged covered vast amounts of land in southern Idaho. One day after having some meetings and some appointments, the Sisters got into their cute, little Toyota and started driving; however, the Sisters forgot to check their gas gauge before getting into their car and driving away. After a while the car ran out of gas and the car came to a complete stop. The Sisters were bewildered and had no idea as to what could have happened until they noticed that there was absolutely no gas in the car. Confused and nervous the Sisters brainstormed and tried to be missionaries of solutions, not problems. Finally the Sisters got out of the car and did the only thing that they could think of. Yes........they filled the tank with a few gallons of WATER. They took the water that they had for emergencies and poured in all into the gas tank. The Sisters then got back in the car and prayed that the Lord might bless them and change the water into gas. One of the Sisters turned on the car, but to their surprise, NOTHING HAPPENED. Lesson learned? The faith of two Sister missionaries just outside Pocatello, Idaho is not great enough to turn water into combustible gasoline.
Gas: $2,50/gallon One Toyota Car: $30.000 Trial of Faith: Priceless

It is interesting to think about how much faith they must have had to have that idea and think that it would work. The Lord promises us miracles all the time, but we really do not understand how He will do them. I really like this story because, apart from being freaking hilarious, it helps me to realize that we all need to trust in the Lord so much and we need to rely on His ability to work whatever kind of miracle in our lives. No matter how big, no matter how small, he will be able to help us with any problem and He will do his part to help us.

So this week has been rather interesting. We had another training activity in Managua on Tuesday, and then Tuesday night I went to go speak to my Zone Leaders' investigator. Their investigator had been having some problems in deciding to get baptized and finalizing a date for his baptism. On the way back from Managua I was speaking to one of my Zone Leaders and he looked at me and said,"You need to go meet/talk to Denis tonight." I said, "Okay." Well, the other Zone Leader and I went looking for this man. He wasn't at home, he happened to be in the hospítal tending to his sick mother, so ZL 2 and I went on the hunt in the hospital. On the 4th floor we found him with his mother, the poor woman. Side note: Hospitals in Nicaragua are like hospitals from horror movies, with the light, the same look, feel eerie sense of something lurking about in the darkness waiting to come out and snatch you. After a few minutes of chatting with this man and his mother I told him that I would like to speak with him alone to see how much the "lazy boys" were teaching him. ;) We started talking and I started doing his interview with him. He answered all of the questions well, but there was something inside me that was telling me, "He's still doubting. There's a problem." and i was just like, "GOSH! What do I need to do? How can I help him?" ANd then I just started asking him a few other questions until I finally asked him what his worry was, why he was doubting everything. He explained it, laughed a little bit and then just looked at me. In that instant I was able to see him as a child of my Heavenly Father, I was able to love him and testify of what I knew, believed, and felt. I was able to help him. He got baptized on Saturday. That was an amazing experience that made me SO happy.

Wednesday was interesting, but I cannot remember why. Thursday and Friday we did "mini changes" in the Zone. I was assigned to be with an elder for 24 hours and then we went out to work together. We had so much fun and we worked really well together. I got to know him very quickly and we get along so very well. We talked about everything from surfing to Russian literature, from family to strange cultural identies. We talked about a lot of different things. We also found a few interesting people to teach. Then Saturday came and I helped the Zone Leaders out with their baptism and went to the Adult Session of Stake Conference with a recent convert family. Sunday was equally crazy and packed full of fun crying babies, crying adults, people running around in the hallways and missionaries trying to count the assistance of the conference fervently while having literally hundreds of people getting up and walking around, talking, eating you name it while the conference was happening. Fun stuff.

I just want you all to know that despite the amount of complaints I make, I really do love my mission. I love the opportunities that I have to help the Lord's work here in this part of His vineyard progress. I am so grateful for the wonderful people that I have met in every single one of my areas and for how much they care about me, how much they teach me and how much they are willing to sacrifice for my wellbeing. Right now I love this one family in my ward, the Acosta famliy. They are some amazing people. Next week I will tell you about them a little bit more. Apparently they have not been very happy with a lot of the missionaries that have been here in the past, but they love me and my companion and they are willing to help us do anything.

Well, I love this mission. I love this area. I love my companion. I love my investigators, my Savior, the family Acosta, the food here. I am so grateful for this blessed opportunity. I hope that you all have a great week and that you are all able to find peace, tranquility, and happiness this week as you go about your varied activities.

Grandma, I cannot wait to get back and go to Manti with you and Grandpa. I have never been that great of an artist, but I am good at public speaking and things dealing with writing creatively. Hahaha. Still proud of me?
Andrea and Alena...how's life? Maybe I'll have to save up money when I get back to invite you, your husbands and your children to Brick Oven. :P

Love,
Elder B