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                                                                                                       Oct 28th, 2017

 Dear Family and Friends,

 Just can't help taking pictures everywhere we go, always something colorful and new if you keep your eyes open. I gathered these leaves on a recent walk, but decided to leave them behind and just take a picture of them to remind me of their beauty.  And the berries, I don't know what they are....

One highlight from the month was having Elder Klibengat visit our mission!  What a power testimony and conversion story he has.  He was basically just handed a Book of Mormon by one of his friends and that was the beginning.  He started reading on his own, prayed about it, and over the course of a year, he was baptized.  Soon after his baptism his friend left for college, he had no family support and he felt completely on his own. All he could do was to trust in the Lord and he did. There are SO many things I would like to share from his visit.  He was definitely very blunt and to the point about how we all need to be living our lives in these last days.  Some of his points include: " There is power in the Book of Mormon that won't come from anyone or anywhere else. Beg for insights as we read. We must be good at repenting ourselves before we can ask others to do so. God will call down the powers of heaven in our behalf if we are doing our best. Satan leads us away when we decide to stop reading our scriptures and having our prayers. He knows that he can attack and when that crisis of faith comes, we will be weak. Christ is coming soon, he senses the urgency that the Brethren feel.  We are to look for Him and prepare for Him so that we can run to Him."  He was very perceptive as he looked out over the room of missionaries and spoke to those who were being disobedient, not by name, but he knew. He wanted to go on record that he was here, he spoke, he warned and instructed.

We had worked through our P-day on Saturday, so Monday afternoon we visited the Arkansas State Capitol and got to heft $450,000.00 or 16 pounds of "Loot"!  Very beautiful capital of granite, marble and hard wood.  Some type of event was being held there, so Max, this next picture is for you!

Below is Sister Eda Aguilara from Honduras.  She is here with a group of people learning about Head Start and how to apply for funding to start a school back home.  She served a mission in SLC on temple square a few years ago, and she is amazing.  Elder Hess calls her Miss Honduras; she is is quite tall and very beautiful.  She keeps saying, "when you come to see me in Honduras....well, that's one place that was not on my bucket list!  But, maybe, just maybe....

On a Friday afternoon the senior couples headed out to Mountain View in the Ozarks.  We were so hoping to see the fall colors, but fall had not made it's appearance yet. We stopped by Jimmy Driftwood's barn for some REAL Blue Grass music.  The assorted group below are all volunteers and play every Friday and Sunday night in Mountain View.  They pass the basket for donations to keep the place in repairs.  What a bunch of characters with a whole lot of talent!!

 The man on the right played several instruments, one of them being a dulcimer.  He was the leader for the group and after the program I spend 10 minutes asking about dulcimers.  He said, come on back tomorrow and I'll give you a lesson!

 I didn't go back for the lesson, but the next day at the Ozark Heritage Center we saw several other people who played them.  This is Debra, a basket weaver, and musician. The Center was a haven for learning all of the Ozark crafts and skills.  Soap and perfume making, weaving, toys, blacksmith, herbs, spinning, copper, corn husk dolls, gun smith, knives, leather, stained glass, printing and more. The people in the area pass down their knowledge so that this heritage isn't  lost.  We talked to several of the teenagers there who were playing violins and guitar.  The schools in this district have a program called "Roots".  It offers all students a chance to acquire and learn to play a stringed instrument.

 No canning this year for me!  But sure wish we had a few bottles of peaches for this winter...

I guess this is a lemon, but take a look at the size of this thing!!

 We pause for a group photo, left to right, E/S Wies, Baird, Sorensen, and Hess.

Next we drove to the Blanchard Springs Caverns, an amazing adventure and underground wonder!

 This picture does NOT do any justice to the size of this cavern, large enough to hold many many buildings inside! We are looking down into the cave and it's plethora of formations.  We walked down hundreds of steps to reach the bottom.

One of the smaller rooms.  Our guide would point out small hills (40 feet long by 6-8 feet tall)of black stuff now and then, any guesses as to what it was? Guano!  Yep, that's another word for bat poop!  Elder Hess posses for a silly picture at a beautiful place. We headed home late afternoon after making one more stop... We just stopped by to take a look....or so we thought!  After all, I was the 3rd person from Wyoming that very day who had been into the McSpadden shop and bought one of their handcrafted dulcimers; all woods from AR.

Beautiful ride home.

You probably don't recognize Matthew McKinney, but he was in one of our earlier posts when he was at our apartment with the Elders.  He is a first generation missionary in his family, and was called to the Provo City, UT mission.  Really proud of this young man! Come on Elder Hess, smile.....

We visited the AR State Fair one afternoon, quite a money maker with $10. parking and entrance fees! We enjoyed the many types of animals, miniatures, and novelties like the Zonkie below.

 

 What's a fair with out fair food!  Elder Hess enjoying his large corn dog.

 The exhibit booth was interesting, and the produce very different from that of the Valley...how would you like to cut into a 122 pound watermelon or a 166 pound squash???

  Guess we'll be home in time to check out the Lincoln County Fair next year.

 Once in a while we do have a "blue" day and miss our family, or things just don't seem to be going as well as we would like.  On a day just like that last week, we had a box of "Sunshine" arrive, just in time.  Made our day!

The days are definitely getting colder, we had our first frost this morning!  Must mean that Halloween is getting close.  At least there is no snow on the ground. This blowup greets us every night when we drive into our apartment complex.  Friday night was our ward Halloween party, and the missionaries got into the right spirit of the night, plus one cute family of trolls!  Transfers were on Monday, and Elder Miller, third from the left, fell off his bike and broke his arm the first day in his new area, not a good way to start out a transfer.  The flip side of that though, is now he and Elder Sagle get a car for a few weeks.  Poor Sisters are now full bike area while he recovers.

Our High Counselor gave us some good advice on Sunday.  Any large decision needs to be made with fasting and prayer and as the Lord pours out His judgments upon the earth, we will need Him more and more. He told a cute story about his son and how in the morning he would hear his young son say, "another day on the lily pad".  When he asked his son what that meant, his son replied that  at school, the teacher had a large chart with frogs on it, and depending on how you acted that day you would either be on a lily pad where it was safe, or you would be in the pond where the alligators were.  No one wanted to be near the alligators, so the kids all tried to stay "safe" on a lily pad.  So to all our dear ones, please stay safe on a lily pad, stay close to our loving Savior, Redeemer and Friend.

 Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night.

Love you,
Elder and Sister Hess