Thursday, Friday, Saturday

I apologize that this sounds very choppy, with lots of little comments and explanations thrown in, I'm a bit tired *yeah, that's a good excuse*

It's Saturday night and I'm sitting next to a washing machine, writing on my laptop. I volunteered to take the laundry to be washed this evening as it would free up the other team members (no point in everyone going, and I'd probably drive anyway) and to give me a chance to write a little.

First a bit about Thursday, which was essentially the same as Wednesday. We went door to door and handed out flyers to people. This trip was much more encouraging for me because we actually had quite a number of people who were at home. Stephen and myself even came across a house that was a daycare center and the lady there sounded interested and took one of the flyers. We felt like we'd struck a goldmine.

After going around during the morning, we headed back to the office and ate a brief lunch, then I started in on painting around the top of the walls by the ceiling, which had not been finished last time. Before long I had several people asking me what to do and then everybody jumped in and we were busily working on the room by the time Bruce arrived. I think we did a pretty good-looking job and it certainly looks much better than it did before. My compliments to Mrs P on colour choice!

Then we ran home, showered very quickly (a couple of us) and then went over to the N house for supper and a game afterward. It was a very enjoyable evening, I talked to Mr N about how things were going with my family, what I had been doing, and a few other things upon my mind, though I didn't feel like we had quite enough time. I felt badly though because we did stay a bit late (until nearly 10:30 I think). Oh, and of course we were forced (by Laura and Stephen) to watch a Three Stooges movie (the Plumbers!) which was as good the second time as it was the first and was made even more amusing by the plumbing attempts I'd made earlier in the day (the thumb screw wouldn't tighten on the sink's plug's handle, if you catch my drift).

The next morning I got up at about 5:50 AM to go do some laundry (and a little bit of David's), since I hadn't had time previously and really needed to get some done (I did a lot of sweating in one of those recent posts) so I dropped by Walmart (24 hours!) and picked up some detergent and some quarters from the lady at the cash register. Then went to my old RV park (since the laundromat was closed at 6:00 in the morning) and finished everything and had a chance to read Schaff's history. I certainly am not getting very far in my reading on this trip.

I arrived back just in time to take a shower and go over to the S house for chocolate banana pancakes, which were very good! Then we prepared our belongings for the camping trip and took off for the Parnell house.

There was an assembly gathering already and we swapped a few people around to various seats and then took off on the drive to Apache, where there was an old RP mission to the indians, and is one of the things that I want to write about in more detail.

We also visited a cemetery and saw some names that were mentioned in the brief history Bruce had read for us. We then went on to the campground where I spent some time helping to set up a tent, hiking around the lake a bit, skipping rocks with Betty and Laura, reading in trees, and general stuff around the lake.

While Betty and Laura and myself were skipping rocks, we were treated to quite an interesting sight: Christi and Austin were trying to cross the lake at a low part. The mud was a little deeper in some places than expected, Austin was trying to help Christi and sinking in the mud up to where he had rolled his pant legs up (his pants were quite wet by the end of this ordeal), Christi was shrieking and both were laughing. What was funny was that apparently both hadn't noticed the bridge that was about 40 feet to their right in the trees. Ah, well, it was very entertaining in any event! Most people were sleeping in tents but I didn't want to, partially because of the heat, stuffiness, old-tent smell, the multitude of bodies, and that I couldn't dig a spot for my hips in the ground (not having a mattress, digging a small hole in the ground a few inches deep for your hips makes it almost more comfortable than a bed in some ways, believe it or not). Plus, it had been a while since I'd been sleeping outside and really wanted to again, staring up at the moon and stars. Brad didn't seem to think it was a good idea and told me to shake my bag out and something about snakes and coons and mosquitos. I think that perhaps with the shirts I wear or my manner or something he may have thought I was just a city kid wanting to sleep under the stars. I think I knew fully well what I was doing, having done it more than once before! Bruce and Clay also slept outside so I wasn't the only one. Bruce had a racoon pat his head during the night, apparently seeing if he was asleep.

Oh, and I was glad to see that Ryan, Jonathan's brother, had come along as well. He made quite a few snide comments that had nearly everyone laughing.

The next morning most everyone was up early to go to the small hill behind the campsite (about a quarter of a mile away) to watch the sunrise with Brad. Part of my family arrived soon after we made it back to camp and had cleaned up everything and we all headed out to the spot where we were to rappel.

After a brief hike, we arrived at the spot and began to set up. It was fun to watch everyone go down. I remember long ago (when I was probably about 10-12) having that fear as I backed out over the edge and could sympathize with what some people were going through. We had a few people lose their balance and smash into the side of the rock but no one was injured (at least it appeared so) and everyone had fun. I was glad that many had the opportunity to go down twice because it's hard to get the feel for it if you only do it once, as Evelyn put it. David, Beau, and myself went on a little rock climbing tour, investigating various spots. The canyon was very interesting and had some great rock formations. I didn't do anything daring because of the lack of a harness but it might be fun to try a couple of spots in the future.

Then we all headed out to my family's house, ate lunch, fixed a flat tire that the P-Van had picked up on the way out, and then came back home to Stillwater, where I took the team members to Braums (which they had never been in before) and then back to where we are staying. And that (in brief terms) covers what has gone on the last few days.