The Happiest Place on Earth

We finished up the week with more interviews....



This is the High Plains Zone... I have had a wonderful time talking to them and getting to know them better. I've been so impressed with the Young Men and Women they are. We talked about their homes and families. Some had photo books so I got to see what their families and lives look like. We talked about the prettiest spots in the mission. The answers vary by where home is. For some it's the Valley; others said Salida, and still others Castle Rock and Larkspur because  of the view of the Rockies. Now that we've been around the mission, I can honestly say they're all my favorite. Questions that they have asked me, What do I like best about coming on a mission and being in Colorado? My number two answer ...when our car navigation tells us "slow traffic ahead", we look around and wonder where. Colorado Springs traffic is so different from LA traffic. My #1 favorite thing? ...Meeting and being with all of them.

Friday night we drove out to Manitou Springs area for a Baptismal Interview. It was late in the evening when we were done so we had just a brief date night at a place called The Dive..

We have now officially been to all three Triple D's Diners..Drive In's and this is our Dive.

I tried a local favorite called a slopper...it's and open face burger with green chili on it.

This baptism was so sweet. I visited with the family while President Stevenson conducted the baptismal interview. The mom is a widow and active member of the church;  her son and his new wife (the one baptized) of just 3 weeks at the time are a great help to her. Helping her take care of the upkeep of the home. The wife who was baptized has been taking the missionary discussions and loves the gospel. When she became interested in the gospel she brought her boyfriend--now her husband--back to church with her. He had stopped coming to church when he was 14. All these years his mother loved him and prayed for him...and is now seeing him become an active member and working toward the temple in a year. She was baptized by her Brother in Law. She came up out of the water just beaming. She said I don't think I remember ever feeling this happy before. Answers to a mother's prayers do happen.

Our Elders

After the Baptism we drove down to Manassa for Manassa Days. There are a ton of photos so It will be a separate post.

Last but not least, we met for interviews with the Castle Rock Zone.

These sweet sisters serve in the Castle Rock Ward with a family we knew were in our mission.

Jerome and Ardel Gienger. I've known the Giengers since I was 13 or 14 years old when they were a newly married couple. Our families were stationed in Germany together...and then we were in Provo together at BYU when Jerome was in Grad School and we were just a newly engaged and then newly married couple...we watched the BYU Miracle Game (1980 Holiday Bowl) at their home. I'm so excited to get to see them again. 💕 the Giengers. 

Aren't they and amazing group? We're so excited to serve with them.

The President Stance

One interesting question I got was: Were you and President Stevenson talked about at General Conference? My answer was, no...the nearest I came to that is the patriarch, Brother Peter Mourik, who gave me my blessing was talked about in General Conference. Brother Mourik was the Patriarch for the Service Men's Stake I lived in in Germany.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl8V8aZB_wg

The missionaries then told me: We had a visiting General Authority here. He told us about a Stake President and his wife who had season passes to Disneyland. They went often with their children,  grandchildren, friends, and often for Date Nights. When they discovered how many times they had been to Disneyland and compared it to the number of times they had been to the temple--which was at least monthly but usually twice a month--they decided that they should attend the temple at least as many times as they went to Disneyland...the speaker ended with "that Stake President and Wife are your New Mission President and wife."

The missionaries asked: "Is that story true? Are you the Stake President and his wife?" IT IS! And We ARE!?!? ...... I don't know how a General Authority heard that story. President Stevenson used that story in a Stake Conference, but there were no visiting Authorities there, to encourage members of our Stake to think about their temple attendance and maybe increase it to as often as the times they do something they enjoy. That the temple is truly "the Happiest Place on Earth" and we should enjoy spending time there as much as we enjoy doing other things. I had been to Disneyland 39 times in less than a year. During that year I had also accepted the invitation to be an Ordinance Worker in the temple. We also decide to spend as many Date Nights at the temple as we did at Disneyland and during the time following the discovery attend the temple far many more times than Disneyland. Our temple President and Matron were there at our stake conference...and at other Stake Conferences invited the Members to spend more time at "the Happiest Place on Earth" ...the Redlands Temple.

Manassa Days

On Saturday, we drove down to Manassa for Manassa Days (their version of Pioneer Day). This is Mount Blanca. Its on the opposite side of the Highway from the volcanic dykes. The thing that first caught my attention were the height of the drift fences... 

They are taller than a car... that means the drive will be fun in the winter. The peak of the mountain is white Blanca all year round even when the snow is gone.

As we drove into town, we were greeted by banners and a giant flag hung between to fire department ladder trucks, and a huge carnival.

Manassa and its neighboring city Sanford were established in 1878, when Brigham Young sent  the Saints there to build a settlement. It's named after Manasseh in the Old Testament. During Manassa Days the Population grows from the normal 1,000 resident to 10,000 people. The festivities include a parade, rodeo, Demolition Derby, and Fireworks over the "M" on the mountain.

The town is laid out in a grid pattern like cities and towns in Utah and Idaho. This was also the 1st Stake established in Colorado.

It is also the childhood home of World Champion Boxer and Actor Jack Dempsey, a.k.a the Manassa Mauler. 

The Home was relocated to the center of town and is now a small museum.

Dempsey was LDS and known for his great kindnesss and generosity.

The Celebration begins on Thursday evening and last through Saturday night.

The Missionaries helped in the Hamburger booth ...

and had a booth set up in the park. 

They handed out over 200 copies of the Book of Mormon during the 2 and 1/2 days.

One of the hand carts the missionaries pulled during the Parade, and two of our lovely Sisters. At one point during the parade our sister missionaries were pulling some of our larger Elders in the handcart.  Angels helping them push from behind I'm sure.

Sister Stevenson bonding with the missionaries.  President Stevenson passed!

I just barely missed getting a shot of the sea of white on the Avalanche ride...every seat was filled by a missionary. A little fun among all the hard work.

 

These are the stake offices for the Manassa Stake, built in 1913 and 1914. It was dedicated by Elder James E. Talmage on February 15, 1914... over the doors is written Holiness to the Lord...

I've heard differing stories about it. It was built shortly after they settled the area,

and now serves as the Stake offices and in the lower level is the Bishops Storehouse.

Putting away the hand carts...

We stayed the night on and attended church here the next day as well as a Baptism service for Jordyn.

When there is a Baptism, the Elders call a member of the ward and they come over and fill the Baptismal Font...but when they arrived at the Chapel to set up, they discovered the font was still empty because the person was out of town for the weekend...and the font takes one and one half hours to fill...

...so...they turned on the faucet full blast and formed a Fire Brigade to fill the font as quickly as possible. Every clean container they could find was put into use.

even the children helped, carrying pitcher after pitcher full of water. 

The elders carried huge stock pots full of water...

...all the trash cans were washed and put into use...

you can see how good natured everybody was about it...

The font was filled in about half an hour...and the Baptism started only 30 minutes late.

This was definitely a baptism that will not be forgotten. The Chapel was full of people. 

Interviews

We started our first round of interviews this week.

I slacked on my bloggerly (is that a real word?) duties...I forgot to take photos in the 1st few zones... sorry missionary families with children serving in the Springs, North, Fountain and East Zones! I won't forget next time around.

This week we drove down to Alamosa ...for some reason the pictures of our drive loaded out of order ... but you can still tell that the drive down to the San Luis Valley is septacular! 

These are the Sengre de Christo Mountains ... I am amazed by what looks like walls going up the mountains . It's called the Big Wall...it does look like a smaller version of the Great Wall of China. 

This one looks like stegosaurus spikes to me...(I have sons and grandsons ...they love dinosaurs) it called the Devil's Stairway.

On investigation (thank you google) I discovered that they are volcanic dykes...magma filled fissures in the ground and over time with erosion the dykes were exposed...so they are walls of basalt..( again I have sons and grandsons...we love ❤️ volcanos 🌋  too) On one of our Preparation Days we would love to go get a closer view. 

These are the Spanish Peaks! Absolutely breath taking...and we get to serve here!

When we were just outside Alamosa the clouds got dark and drizzly but just around the storm there was a ring of light streaming through the clouds.that surrounded the whole valley.

It looked stunning! We were driving so this was the best I could get...I would have loved to get a panorama of it. The light encircled the whole valley.

This is another shot of the Spanish Peaks... so beautiful!

 

Our Alamosa and Salida Sisters having lunch after interviews...missed taking pics the whole rest of the morning...😕

 

When we were done with interviews we had a late lunch at Oscars...the Missionaries said the food there is wonderful We weren't disappointed. 

President Stevenson went out with two of our elders (the Zone Leaders for Alamos and Manassa zones) for a lesson at a members home.  He loves participating in this part of the work!

  Our Alamosa and Manassa Zone Leaders

But I did better the next day in the Manassa Zone.

I really enjoyed visiting with the Elders and Sisters while they waited for their interviews

Our sweet sisters...

We met them so quickly the week before. 120 new Names in 48 hours...I want to be able to say their names without looking at their tags.

 

Great missionaries come in all sizes!

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Val's Place, the only Restaurant in Manassa but it's very cute and the food and service are excellent! Best burger with a fried egg President has ever had (including Fatburger, sorry Scott.)

 

I did better on Thursday, these are the Missionaries from the Pueblo Zone. It was 100 degrees plus in Pueblo that day and no A/C in the interview room.  So President shed his coat and invited missionaries to do the same during the interviews.

Another small world story. The elder in the center is the cousin of a sweet Sister Missionary, Natalie Shaw, who served in our ward back home 🏡  in Chino Hills. She just got married recently and I was able to show him pictures of her on her wedding day and a huge group picture of all his family at the temple. So fun to make that connection!

Our Zone Leaders and more of the Zone....

...(notice 2 of the elders are in the photos twice!) our Elders serving in a branch in Raton, New Mexico, and in a branch in Walsenburg. Our Senior Couple who are member leadership support in the very small branch there in Walsenburg as well. There used to be a mine and a factory in Walsenburg but when they both closed the town changed drastically.

We have loved the time spent in interviews with these wonderful missionaries!