Great Day and Snow (Mike)

Today was a good day. We started the morning moving snow. I ran a power snow broom and cleared all of the walkways. We delayed opening the fort until ten.

I went out to start opening up at nine thirty and noticed a couple of young men parked on the far side of the parking lot. I went over and welcomed them and offered a tour. They were from San Diego and both of them were shivering in the cold wind. I waited until they got their warmer coats and walked with them to the movie room. They told me that they were on their way to Colorado to meet some friends and go skiing. They were both college students in San Diego. I showed them the Cove Fort video and took them on the tour. They were both full of questions about the fort and the Church. The tour took a long time and we hadn’t even opened for tours yet, so I had all the time we needed to teach them about the church. Both were very sincere and wanted to learn more. They each filled out a referral card requesting a Book of Mormon and the missionaries to come and teach them.


The day ended with four referral cards and around sixty visitors, mostly members of the church. We have mostly church members stopping in for tours and not so many nonmember tourists since the cold weather started.

We just got back from Richfield grocery shopping and plan to stay home on our P day tomorrow.

The weather forecast for tomorrow night is Blizzard conditions with possible five inches of snow and forty mile per hour winds.....We’ll be moving snow on Wednesday with below zero temperatures. Sounds like fun.......good thing I went and got some good long johns.

Snow (Mike)

We got our first snow storm. It was coming down heavy as I closed the fort last night. I couldn't believe it...just as it started snowing and the sun was going down, people started coming in. We had to conduct tours by flash light. One of my tours yesterday was a minister who gave me a referral to send the missionaries and a Book of Mormon to her house. She has a congregation in Oklahoma.....they are Messiahonic Jews......Jews who believe in Christ, they have a Rabbi who is their leader. As I took she and her husband on the tour, I raised some questions that really made her think.....I taught her about temples and temple work, the restoration, and eternal marriage, maybe something will come of it.

As I finally closed, two cars pulled in looking for a place to stay to get out of the blizzard. One was a girl who was returning from Iron Man competition and the other was a man, a member from Uraguay, who had been here before. We put them up for the night. The girl filled out a referral card for the missionaries to come to her home. It was a wild night. We had only 45 visitors yesterday, but lots of success on referrals....five I think.
Today we had only 15 visitors, but nine referrals.
Sunday, we had 256 visitors, and some neat experiences. most of us had six tours, which kept us running the whole time. We had fun all day.
This mission is the greatest!

Fall Days (Mike)

As we move closer to winter, the numbers of people have been getting smaller. All of the summer missionaries have returned home except those of us who were asked to extend. We only run two shifts now with the nine couples who are still here. The leaves are falling and the days are getting cool, but the weather has been wonderful so far. The forecast is for snow today and the rest of the week.


Even though the numbers of people are dropping off, we have still been getting near one hundred people a day and good member and non member referrals....probably because we can spend more time with them.

Yesterday was especially good we had over two hundred and fifty visitors, mostly members and just a few nonmembers. I had two non member tours and both of them wanted the missionaries to come. Both tours were from California. The first was a man and wife who where of Caribbean Island ancestry. They were neat people, and will make good members some day. They let me know that they were active in their Christian church, but they desired a Book of Mormon and a video.

The other non member was a single lady traveling home to California. She was really interested in the Book of Mormon when I explained what it was, and wanted the missionaries to come and teach her more. She didn’t claim any religion.

I had one member tour where a man and his family of teenagers came through on a tour. At the end the father filled a member referral out for his sister. As he was filling it out, tears started rolling down his cheeks and he said,” I’m going to just call her.” He called her on his cell and said, “Sis, would it be alright if I send you a video, and have the missionaries bring it.” She said, “Yes.” The whole family was excited, because the sister had never allowed any contact from the church.

Each day since my last writing on my birthday on the 22nd, I have had at least one nonmember who requested the missionaries to come and teach them....this is great.

We have been having fun after hours. We had a date night at the twig. Travis Kessler and his family joined us. We just had good food and festive decorations and spent time visiting and laughing like old people enjoy doing.

The other day we took one of the couples out to warm springs and to Kanosh to show them around. We ended up at Cuffs Drive in for good food. We were shopping in Richfield and met up with the Halls at Steve’s Steak house for a great meal. The winter wind is howling around the house, and we are expecting snow today. We are keeping warm and having a great time. This has been a totally fun and spiritual experience and I don’t know when I have enjoyed anything more.