Memorial Day

It sounds like almost everywhere had cold rainy weather for the holiday.   Saturday we went to Ft. Yates to join the Elders there for some service projects.   (we got to wear jeans - a first for us)   First we went to the ranch of the RS president and helped her family brand cattle.   You can see from the pictures that Dad got right into things.   I held everyone's cameras.   Well, someone had to do it. :)   They fed us lunch afterwards set out on the tail gate of a truck. (my first tail gate party). 

Working with Elder Davis - he took hold of the back leg and Steve "flopped" the calf on its side.

The family branded about 70 caves on Saturday.   They end up with a tag in their ears, three different shots, the brand and for the males they are made steers.   These people made it all look so easy and they were very fast.

 

Next we went to a woman who's not a member of the church, but likes the missionaries.   She is 80 years old and lives alone in Ft. Yates.   We helped her plant her garden in the back - tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, and do some yard work there.   She showed us many quilts she has made, and gave us some beautiful key rings made from antlers that are carved into animal shapes.   Her son carves them, and they are her "thank you" gift for helping.

What a wonderful picture of Elder Davis and Elder Grant with a sweet Sioux baby girl, framed by the center of a Star Quilt.

We did a couple of other things for people before leaving Ft. Yates.   When we got home we had ice cream with a couple we know here in Bismarck.

Sunday we went to McLaughlin Branch to church (about 100 mile drive) to do music for sacrament mtg, and then drove to Ft. Yates to help there at the end of their meetings.   Wonderful people in both places.   We met with the Bismarck YSAs that evening.

Seen on many fences in North Dakota.   A boot on the fence was a sign that the person living down the lane was home.  Now boots on fence posts are just decoration.

North Dakota has one of the largest oil reserves in North America.   This is a site you see all over the Northwest part of North Dakota.   The people tell us that as long as the company can get $60.00 a barrel they can continue to drill new wells.   The storage tanks will fill and then the crude oil is trucked away by trucks to Mandan where it is refined.

Another sign that one is traveling through North Dakota are the piles of rocks in the fields.   The farmers pull them into one big pile.   These giant rocks are all over the land - remnants of the last Ice Age.   Steve remembers Denmark looking like this.

Monday morning there was a temple endowment session we attended.   They also do one on Labor Day.   Some people come who can't get to the temple other times.   It's graduation time here, so in the afternoon we attended an open house for one of the graduates.   Except for an hour's walk around the local golf course (where we found 8 golf balls in different places around the sidewalk and gave them to golfers we saw) we stayed inside where it was warm.

Summer's officially started. Yahoo! 

Love Elder and Sister Harris

Dad and I have had a big weekend. There was a big youth activity Saturday morning at our church (for the Stake, which means lots of travel for everyone outside Bismarck.) Then seminary graduation Saturday afternoon, which went very nicely. We did a lot of work to prepare for that - collecting lists of stake awards and special recognitions for students and teachers, printing the program, arranging music, printing diplomas and Stake President's Awards, etc - but all went very well. I played the organ for the graduation - my first chance since coming here. (don't want to get too rusty).

A special treat was that the missionaries here before us, Lund and Karen Johnson from Pocatello, came for the graduation and we got to meet them. It was so fun to see them face to face, and we visited all weekend about various things. They had a busy schedule seeing the people they wanted to see, but we ended up at the same activities. They are great people and we are very happy to know them.

Today was Branch Conference in the two branches on the Reservation - McLaughlin South Dakota (10 to 1), and Ft. Yates (1-3). We attended both, and I played the piano for both meetings. All the Stake people also attended both - following each other in cars down to McL and then back to Ft. Yates, and finally home. You will notice that the small branches only have a 2 hour block, but most people drive a ways to get there. For us it's 1 1/2 hrs each way to Ft. Y. (McL is another half hour further). That would be like driving from HR to Ft. Collins each week for church. If we drove that far in Colo, we'd be in traffic all the way. Here we drive along the Missouri River, a very quiet ride (at 65 mph) - past buffalo, cows, horses, wild turkeys, fields turning green, flooding (we see willow trees putting on leaves, and the water covers their entire trunks) and other signs of spring. We enjoy the drive very much.

Saturday at the stake youth activity, we walked into the gym and knew the name of every seminary-aged teenager there. It was a great feeling to be able to visit with each one. We are beginning to feel very much at home here. All is well. Thanks for your continued prayers.

Love - Mom