Hello everyone from the Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission. It has definitely been an exciting 6 weeks. I am so thankful that Sister Sigmon and I had the same spiritual experience in wanting to return again this summer here in Wyoming. We have seen the Lord’s tender mercies in our preparation and in our lives to be able to serve here again this summer. Many of our experiences are very personal and close to us I will not share those in this letter. We arrived here last Saturday and it did not take long to get settled in. We are excited to be here and it does feel like home.
I was called to be an assistant FM (Facilities Management) over Martin’s Cove. I am somewhat intimidated but excited to serve in this capacity. We have a great facility to take care of. I don’t fully understand this role as of yet since the church is making some changes on certain responsibilities to this position. This week I have been doing lots of plumbing getting water turned on in wash houses and trailers. It has been quite exciting. Typically the water is blown out in the fall from all the pipes but as you know this does not always work. In the old trailer which we lived in last year when we turned on the water we had to repair 7 bursted pipes. Needless to say I think this trailer was one which was forgotten to be purged last winter. Normally if you had a Home Depot close by and a week to work on it it wouldn’t be such a big problem. Somewhere the schedule was missed and people arrived to move into this trailer on Wednesday. It was very busy afternoon trying to get it ready for them.
The Wyoming weather has not changed. We have been snowed on 2-3 times this week then it is sunny, then the wind blows so you always have to have gloves and coats with you. You never know if you have to dress up or dress down. It is kind of fun getting to wear my cowboy hats again. It has been a great week working with the couples that we worked with last year. These Elders and Sisters are truly some of my dearest friends. I know this is where the Lord wants me for the next 6 months. We were able to serve in the Visitor’s Center on Wednesday afternoon. We had 3 different families come through and they were all just amazing. I just wish they would come through all at the same time. Then I would only cry once instead of 3 different times. Gotta run for now. I love you all and thank you so much for your support. We could not do this without your love and understanding.
Elder Sigmon
Longer Version:
We tend to get into a trend called life and at the same time we try to do those things which the Lord would have us do to be of service and aid to others around us. As you know we have been home from our mission since late September last year. We loved it but it also was a lot of hard work.
We decided to go back and visit our mission the beginning of February. At the end of the treks with the kids there is a video they show called the “Remember Video.” It has scenes of the places they walked and saw while on their trek. They show them in the summer and then they also show it in the winter. You see the Rescue statues covered in snow, handcarts, etc. Because of this video Karl wanted to come back and see the winter scenes for himself. The trip was planned and we decided to travel back to Martin’s Cove in Wyoming and then on the way back home we would stop and visit some of the former missionaries we had served with. The whole trip would take a week and it ended up being 2500 miles and 40 hours of driving. Luckily I got to be the passenger and since Karl likes to be a truck driver who am I to deny him that privilege.
We started out by stopping in Denver and having dinner with family before heading onto Wyoming the next morning. When we arrived to Martin’s Cove it was about 1:30 in the afternoon and we were able to have lunch with Elder and Sister Taylor. Then we headed over to the Gathering Room where we stayed. While we were there all the missionaries serving the winter came over to visit with us. We had a wonderful evening full of laughter and being together once again. This was Saturday evening and the next day was church. We were excited to go to church and share in their meetings and the potluck afterwards. Something happened at these meetings we did not anticipate and it was that morning we both knew we would be coming back and serve again in this mission this next summer for 6 months. But with this knowledge comes a lot of things to set into motion and get taken care of in order for this to happen. The regular person would have already begun this process long before February 4th. Especially since the anticipated report date would be March 21st.
Some of the things which needed to happen was to get home and let family know of the new path we would be on. It definitely was a surprise to some and not so much to others. I do have to say it was a surprise to us to but we were also very excited as we loved serving last year in the Wyoming Mormon Trail Mission! Things needed to be figured out like who was going to be able to take care of our dog, Jedi along with many other logistic things. We needed to wrap up projects we had been working on and get them to a stopping point. We needed to resubmit our papers to the church and wait for a call to our mission to come. The one thing we didn’t have to do again was return to the Missionary Training Center in Utah. But to turn in our papers we needed to have physicals to make sure we could do all the work required and the dentist to make sure our teeth wouldn’t be falling out. These appointments were able to be made quickly and all the necessary paperwork and interviews taken care of in a timely manner. Then we just had to wait for the call to come so we could accept it and get on the road. While waiting we were working hard trying to tie up the loose ends on our projects so we weren’t home packing. You know the show “I Can Name that Tune in ….. Notes?” Well we always said if we went back to our mission we could be packed in 2 weeks easily. Well we ended up packing in 12 hours. I wouldn’t recommend trying to pack for 6 months in 12 hours 😃.
The days were going by and no call was coming. It was Wednesday, March 21st and we were still waiting for our call. Then we got a text from our Bishop saying that when he went to check on our status it said Assignmnent made. So we made a few calls and found out our call could arrive today or tomorrow by FedEx. It was 10 a.m. and we decided to run some necessary errands. As we pulled out of our driveway we saw the FedEx truck so we quickly backed up and met the FedEx guy.
We took Jedi to his new home (the Ivey’s) while we are gone which is out in the country where he can play with Pygmy goats, chickens, ducks, several other dogs and other humans and children. I even think there may be a cat. Needless to say he is being spoiled and seems to be adjusting quite well. I hope he can contribute something to his new family while we are away and not be a problem. I am very grateful he is happy and looks quite comfortable.
We have jumped right into things and reunited with missionaries who served with us last summer. There are 16 couples who returned from last summer. We make 17. New missionaries start coming in Wednesday, the 28th. We already started having dinners together. This is harder to do once we get into the full swing of things but it is nice while it is a little lax.
L-R: Elder Ward, Sister and Brother Smart, Sister Ward, Elder & Sister Sigmon
Oh and to remind us that we are in Wyoming and it is still winter and what snow looked like we had some on Sunday and Wednesday. Wednesday was quite a bit more.
It is all good and we look forward to the different and similar adventures this season as we serve here at this wonderful place and with these wonderful people. We hope you are all doing well and we love you.
