The middle of September we had an assignment to teach an inservice lesson in Russellville. It is about 80 miles away and so we decided to make it a three fold trip. We were going to visit the Institute Class on Wednesday evening, stay over night and visit early morning seminary on Thursday and teach our Inservice lesson on Thursday evening. We decided to leave early on Wednesday and spend a good part of the day at Mount Magazine State Park. Mount Magazine was about 30 or 40 miles from Russellville. We arrived at the Visitors Center at about 11o'clock in the morning. As we pulled into our parking spot, I noticed the car next to us was from Utah. Now that is very unusual. There on the sidewalk in front of us was Elder and Sister Smith, the Danville missionaries. We had planned to visit them on Thursday and were going to call them when we got back into Russellville. We were both pleasantly surprised. They had just arrived a few minutes before us and so we decided to see the sights together. It was fun to visit and get to know them better. They arrived in the mission in July. We had a fun and relaxing day and ended at the Lodge for lunch. We had window seats and could see out over the valley.
Even though Mount Magazine is Arkansas' tallest mountain it is only about half the size of Mount Timpanogas. It is covered in trees and is very green and beautiful. It will be awesome in a few weeks when the leaves change colors. We saw a hint of fall with a few colored leaves here and there. What a great afternoon we had. The rest of the evening proceded as planned. We had a great Inservice meeting even though it was small. We felt like we accomplished much and got to know the teachers better. It was late when we arrived home, but we felt good about what we had accomplished.
We have been extremely busy these past few weeks visiting classes, teaching inservice and preparing things for our replacement couple. It has been hard as we have experienced our last YSA planning meetings, last Institute classes in the outlying areas, and so forth. We have been invited to eat with some of our friends here and have enjoyed spending time with them. Walter and Tanya invited us over for a Ukranian Dinner. Tanya is an amazing cook and it was very delicious. The Walker's took us to dinner at a nice restaurant. We have many friends and have been so blessed to know and love the people here. They hold a special place in our hearts.
We have a difficult time thinking about telling our Young Single Adults Good-by. We keep putting it off. We are having an Institute Party--Good-by Party on Friday. We love these young people and we will miss them.
We do not know how to put into words the way we feel. We feel so greatly blessed from our Heavenly Father to have had this opportunity. We have learned many things. We have been stretched out of our comfort zone, which brings growth. We take a part of Arkansas back with us in the memories we have had here. We love this place and these people! They are dear to our heart.
2 comments:
Beautiful pictures!!! I'm glad you were able to see a few of the sights and spend the day with friends. I'm sure it is going to be really hard to say goodbye to all of your dear friends. But we are all so excited for you to come home. See Ya Soon!!! Love Ya!
I can't believe how green it is. That mountain looks a little different than the ones here in Utah. I think it is wonderful all the experiences you both have had while serving a mission. It is always fun to hear about them. We look forward to seeing you soon.
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