The photos are pretty dark in the shade but we will remember the missionaries.  E/S Iverson, E/S Holdaway, E/S Simper, E/S Davis, E/S Coon, E/S Barrett, E/S Minnick and E/S Starr

 We had some lunch and then enjoyed the scenery of the river and the natural bridge.

These are some of the red rocks which circled the area where the Natural Bridge is located.  There is only one way in or out of this park because the river has made it's way through the rocks and it is like an oasis in the High Plains of Wyoming.

One week on Thursday all the missionaries who had PD went to the Wyoming Natural Bridge names Ayres Bridge and had lunch.  It is located about 30 miles East of Casper Wyoming.  Pretty cool huh!!!!  It doesn't quite live up to Rainbow Bridge at Lake Powell but it is a beautiful park and we had a great day.

Elder Fenn (right) and Elder Brunson (left).  Elder Fenn is director of the Mormon Handcart Historic Sites (Martin's Cove and Willie Site) and Elder Brunson is his assistant. 

Sagebrush along the trail at the Willie Site.  It can be beautiful but "deer ticks" love to hide here and they are very dangerous this time of year.

Looking along the old "trail" to the East.  You can see the trail as you drive along this area.  It is beautiful with the hills and sky and clouds.  Here again - this is not the way the pioneers saw this area.  They were in an early winter storm with high winds and snows.

Elder Starr standing by the Sweetwater River at 6th crossing.  The Willows (red bushes) in the background are a sample of the Willows that the Willie Company would have sought shelter in during the early October storms of 1856.  As you can see they would provide little shelter but they are thick in the area so the pioneers used them to shelter from the winds.  The name "6th crossing" indicates that it was the 6th time the pioneers had crossed the Sweetwater River.

This would be called a "clothes tree".  It is a rare day in Wyoming when clothes can be hung outside without blowing away.  I is a good way to dry clothes when we get the chance.

Touring the Willie Site at Sixth Crossing of the Sweetwater.  This is the new visitor's center under construction.  It is a beautiful building and is set upon a hill.  It can be seen for miles as you approach on the highway headed to Lander Wyoming.

 Elder Starr on the new stairway inside the visitor's center.  It brings back so many memories of our cabin.  It is a beautifully done building and most of it was all volunteer labor by the missionaries.

Sister Starr standing on the deck overlooking the Sweetwater River and valley below.

We never tire of this sight.  The Handcart with Devil's Gate in the background.  I wish the pioneers could have been able to enjoy the beauty of this sight as we do.  The Handcart reminds me of Grandpa Allan and all the work he did with wheels and handcarts.  He loved the pioneers and I feel him near as we serve on our assignments.

More welcoming at the Cove.  This robin was here last year and welcomes us again this year for an early spring.

The flowers came early and were beautiful.  It is so fun to see the daffodils come up through the ground and then burst into full bloom.  There is so much beauty all around us.  I think there must be a song in those words.

Elder Starr - welcoming the Trek Leaders for training.  He looks like a missionary and a Wyoming Cowboy all rolled into one.  Love the Stetson.

Our friend - a mother antelope welcoming us back right in our back yard.  They seem so gentle and tame and just know that we are here and that we are good neighbors.

Of course you know we must have our first snow storm after getting settled in our spot at Missionary Village.  The bird feeder - a gift from Brent's family - got a good dusting and the birds had to stay away for a few days.  It is a beautiful sight to see the snow blanketing all the prairie and having the antelope grazing through the snow.

Upon our arrival at Missionary Village we found a welcome sign made by the "Polar Bear" missionaries to welcome us back "HOME".  It was a great sight with flags waving and lots of love to go around.  We miss our home in Mesa and our family but love being here with all the other missionaries on our assignments.

I brought a bunch of cut squares from the Martin's Cove Humanitarian Center so we could sew them together for quilts.  Erin took some and made them into the right size for "Wounded Warrior" projects and sewed them together for her mutual project.  When we arrived back in Wyoming they were thrilled with her design and the good work she put into her project to make our project a success.  Thank you so much

This is how we looked last year and this year.  Not much has changed except we know more about what we are doing this year and feel a little more confident and yet so humbled by the new missionaries and their eagerness to learn and serve.

Just want to post that we are here in Wyoming again - beginning the 2012 summer season for another six months.  So far it has been a little different than in 2011.  We haven't had time to take nearly as many pictures so I will post those later.  Second the weather has been really, really different.  We are actually experiencing spring weather and not so much rain and snow.  This can be a good a bad thing - the area is so terribly dry that we are all drying out and have to have the vaporizer running at night.  We had so much rain last year we didn't need to water our little lawn until June - however now it looks really dead so we have started to water our little patch. 
We have a fantastic set of new missionaries who are so eager and talented.  Our little Branch Choir has 61 people in it.  Doubt that any ward can match that. 
Sister Starr is busy working on scheduling the weekly assignments for missionaries and soon we will train new missionaries at the Base Post and then the Trekkers will begin coming.  The time flies by so quickly here that we hardly get time to turn around each day.
Love serving - and we continue to learn new things each day.
Today Sister Starr took a young man and his mother from Brazil through the Visitor's center and out on the trail.  It was a really wonderful experience.
Elder Starr has been working on work crew a lot and getting the winter out of everywhere so the summer schedule can arrive.  He will train two couples assigned to us for Base Post and then help others learn their protocol on the rovers.
Thanks so much to everyone for your love and support.  I will include photos next time.  The animals are out - the cows are calving and soon the antelope will have their babies.  It has  been so warm that the snakes have come out already.
We think of everyone so often and send our love.