Ground Hog's Day in Windsor June 27, 2026

 

Every day seems to be the same, wake up, read scriptures, pray, pack boxes, haul boxes to the staging area in the garage, clean, repeat. The gems of the day are when our friends come over to say good bye and we get to spend good time with them, and in the evenings people have us over for games and dinner.  We are so grateful for all the helpers who come to give a few hours.

Something that made this week different was we got to participate in TREK!  We made lunch for 60 people, manned a gold mining experience, and put on a ten minute readers theater about a man and woman who came to California on the Ship Brooklyn.

This year trek explored the influence of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California.  

For example did you know that when the saints took the ship Brooklyn from New York to Yerba Buena (San Francisco), California they were expecting to be in Mexico?  The US government had allowed mobs to drive them out of the country so away they went to find a place to live in their unified communities without people killing, robbing, raping, and beating them.  The other saints left Illinois heading west and the two groups were to search for a safe place to settle through inspiration.

Sam Brannon was the leader of the Ship Brooklyn saints.  When they had reached the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) they were told the US was at war with Mexico and the admiral there insisted that they would be forced to fight the Mexicans for the US.  The saints were ANGRY with this and extremely disheartened to find the US flag being hoisted up as they arrived in the bay.  The war was over, and they were now in the very country they were fleeing.

Undaunted they began to work anyway to build up community.  It was a hard time with everything in great chaos.  Leadership was changing, allegiances were changing.  They began to bring about stability. They established schools, libraries, printing businesses, farming, and more.

So the kids in Trek were divided into four groups and given clues and they raced around to different points in San Francisco that had to do with the early saints and their influence in California

We were the GOLD Mining station.  We had a tarp in the park on the Embarcadero with a hill of sand.  Then we hid "gold"  some was light glass beads or larger plastic spray painted gold.  Then we also had several heavy fishing sinkers (small sized) that we spray painted gold.  These were the "real" gold.

Whenever the kids found us we would have them gather around the hill and tell them that gold was 8 times heavier than most rocks that same size and other properties that made it stand above and aside from the rest of the minerals.  In the pile they would find many things that looked like gold, but they would only be given their prize if they found the "real" gold.  Then they started sifting and digging.  Some tried to exchange their light weight gold only to be told it wasn't "real". They were surprised and kept digging for something different...I loved it when I heard, "AHH, this is it", or "HEY, this is different." When they found the tiny but heavy "gold".

As they dug we explained that in life many people, media platforms, and organizations claim to have the treasure they need in life, or the attitude that will make them happy, or what truth was....so many different claims you couldn't anticipate them all.  But the truths that Jesus teaches are the REAL gold.  The more you study His words and develop a personal relationship with Him the easier it is to discern the fake from the real.  It just FEELS different.

Tomorrow is our homecoming!

10am on Sunday June 28 you can either attend or zoom attend our homecoming report. See zoom link below

 

Zoom Link: 
                https://zoom.us/j/9418696798?pwd=YmhXNjlDYnQrY3RJT3FCWmdybzRUZz09

We hope this week brings you JOY! We love you.

Heather and Reg.

Taking Possesion

 

This week we were packing and packing. A few friends offered to help and we were able to visit as we packed. We are So grateful for their gift of time and strength! We took a second load to the dump, thank you Paul and then Wednesday flew out to Missouri to, "Take Possession" of the new house. 

The property is Sooo peaceful.  When we first looked at the property we couldn't walk the back field because the owners had a bull in it.

We walked all the way to the back and around our pond. There were some great climbing trees in the back and delicious mulberry trees full of fruit.

Suddenly Reg yelped! The BULL appeared walking out of the barn/shelter.

I had a long piece of hose in my hand and Reg picked up a big stick. I ran straight for the gate he ran the other way behind the shelter. The bull seemed to wonder which way to go and I got to the gate, scrabbling with the chain.

I stood there waiting to fling it open for Reg and then lock it. Reg peeked around the corner of the shelter. The bull went back inside and Reg made a break for it.

We laughed. That was adventurous,!

Come to find out, the previous owners could not catch the bull nor two of their goats. Hence they couldn't finish packing all their stuff in the garage!  They chased them for hours, reportedly, and finally just left. They said they would return Friday or Saturday morning. 

We left Saturday morning to come back and pack more and they hadn't shown up. LoL

We did Bless the new house with a birthday party for Ephraim. Ben made the cake and a great time was had by all.

We pack our moving truck on July 8. We're grateful for this new home. We're grate for our friends and family. Thank you God for all of our adventures. We will miss our CA friends and glad we can make use of our time to see as many as we can😍

Back Again

We arrived home safe and sound by the grace of God on Monday night of this week! Our renter is having trouble finding a new place so we're letting her stay an extra month knowing we are going to be wrestling the yard into submission and packing up the house. 

It's been wonderful. She is a delight to live with and has done a great job keeping our home safe and our trees alive and cats fed.  The three peach trees are loaded with almost ripe fruit. The nectarine is almost ripe. The plum tree is burgeoning with ripe plums, the orange, tangerine, and lemon trees are full of fruit. The raspberries are producing, the fig tree is full. It's a dream. 

is

We woke up the first day grateful for our bed and home and began to "dematerialize". We spend 6-8 hours a day packing, sorting, and tossing. Our good friend, Paul LeBrett came to haul our trailer and dump it. We are so grateful.

Neighbors and friends drop by and we see how blessed we are. Our bishop came by to interview us for our next mission. We were asked to serve in Missouri Historic Sites FM. So we bought a house in Independence. We close next week. We will be central to 3 of our 4  kids

So on to new adventures!

We love you and pray you will always be in our lives.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path! Be not wise in your own eyes, fear/respect God and depart from evil and it will be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones! 

Proverbs 3: 5-8

 

The Long Road Home: Week Four

 

This past week we visited several friends who left our mission before us as we drove home from Bear lake.

We went to a very fun dinosaur museum with cool interactive experiences.

My back was still killing me but God blessed me to still be able to interact with my family.

Half way through the museum I had to rent a wheelchair! Lol. That was a new moment.

Then Autumn and Spring and some other female family members went hiking in Moab for three days.

I stayed behind and helped Reg babysit the four grandchildren. It was so fun. Thanks to my sister, Jo, we went swimming two days in a row. It was so fun.

On Wednesday I asked all of my extended family to pray over my back. The next morning I felt markedly better. This morning I was able to stand without pain. I testify that prayer works. Your prayers matter and our combined prayers have great power! 

Tomorrow night we will be back home in California after over a year and a half.

Thank you God for this Grand Adventure.

We have already submitted our paperwork for another mission. We wish to "Die in the saddle" so to speak. So we will enjoy California for a little while more then set out again.

Stay tuned.