Leaving Sunny California for Wintery Utah

So we have completed phase 1 of our mission, which was serving on the Nut Farm in California.   We are headed back to Utah until the next phase, which will begin March 1st in Florida for 12 months.

The past 3 weeks were pretty crazy, as we had many projects to complete.  On my end, Sister Smith and I were given $200 and asked to plant flowers in several flower beds around the main office.  Where I come from, when November hits we are usually pulling OUT flowers before the snow falls, not planting them,  but oh well, we do what we're told.  I have no trouble spending someone else's money!

 I just hope they all flourish, fill in and look fabulous.  Unfortunately I won't be here to see the end results.

Another project I was involved in was scanning very large maps and building plans onto the computer so the original mouse-eaten copies could be pitched.  Some of the maps were pretty fragile and dirty, so they were a little challenging to feed through the scanner.  Although we got around 200 maps scanned while I was here, we only scratched the surface of the work that could be done.  

A third project came about when a company in Japan found 2 aspirins in their order of almonds, which meant that all production workers had to have the pockets taken off their work smocks so that nothing gets carried into the production areas.  So Sister Smith and I began the tedious task of unpicking the pockets.  The problem was that there were 150+ smocks, and the pockets are all sewn into the side seams.  It takes about 45 minutes to unpick each smock, so between volunteering at the elementary school, helping teach English classes to Spanish workers, scanning documents and planting flowers, we were unpicking smocks in every free moment we had.

But wait....that isn't all.  With Christmas just around the corner, the company puts together about 250 gift boxes for employees, vendors and some people in high places in Salt Lake.  Each large gift box holds a bag of walnuts, a bag of raw almonds and a bag of roasted almonds.  The nuts come loose in big boxes, so guess who got to scoop the almonds and walnuts into the bags and seal them up...yup, me and Sister Smith.  We had 2 of the production workers come in to help us which made the task go faster, and we had it done in a few days.  

In the meantime, Bruce and Elder Smith were working on the two garages.  The trusses arrived and the men were able to get them installed with the help of an extended fork lift.

With the end gables in place, they were prepared to put the roof on each garage.  For this project they were able to get help from two strapping farm workers who had experience walking on rafters while carrying 4X8 sheets of plywood.  

On his last two days on the job Bruce, Elder Smith and Elder Garner (who just arrived from Idaho) were able to get the paper on the roof and begin putting on the shingles.

Although Bruce will not be able to see the project through to completion, he feels good about the service and work he was able to perform while he was here.


We bid farewell to the many friends and co-workers that we have enjoyed the past four months, and are looking forward to new adventures in Florida.
Until then, we won't be creating any more blog posts.  We will be busy in Utah preparing for our daughter Rachel's wedding in December, and doing some clerical work at the Farmland Reserve office in Salt Lake.  Join us again in March!