Historic Transfer and the Grand Canyon

We were all quite excited to see in the Church News the new mission president for our mission!  Here is his bio that appeared in the Church News:  "Michael Brown Ahlander, 62, and Rebecca Maxwell Ahlander, three children, Orchard 6th Ward, Orem Utah Orchard Stake: Nevada Las Vegas West Mission. Brother Ahlander is a stake Young Men president and former stake president, bishop, high councilor, branch president at the Provo MTC and missionary in the Norway Oslo Mission. Owner, Ahlander Hardware Company and Agent, Smith Insurance Services. Born in Provo, Utah, to Joseph Frederick and Anna Elaine Brown Ahlander.

Sister Ahlander is a compassionate service coordinator and former stake Young Women president, stake Primary president, counselor in a stake Relief Society presidency, ward Relief Society president, counselor in a ward Young Women presidency and Gospel Doctrine teacher. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Neal Ash and Colleen Fern Hinckley Maxwell."

Pretty exciting, huh?  Can you believe that Sis. Ahlander is the daughter of Elder Neal A. Maxwell?  And Brandon told us that Pres. Ahlander was his MTC branch president.  We'll be excited to meet them in just four short months!  We can't imagine what they're going through to prepare for this, but Pres. Black has talked to them about the mission and sent them a lot of information, including the calendar that I so laboriously had to put together for the new year!

Here is Glen at our SIXTH transfer--only a five week transfer because of the shortened training at the MTC.  It was probably my hardest transfer just because I had so much to get ready but with one less week to do it in.  Glen was able to get all the housing and furniture done with the help of the Lord and the members' involvement, which was unprecedented.  Note my table with the mail and all the packages to give to the missionaries.  I really do love transfer days though, in spite of all the work.  We did the orientation again, which went well, and then Glen helped me to serve the lunch to the missionaries.      

The missionaries visit with each other as they  wait to hear who will be training which missionary.  This was also a historic transfer for two more reasons:  We got the first batch of missionaries from the MTC with only spending 12 days at the MTC, and we also got our first 19 year old sister missionaries--who were AWESOME!!  We love welcoming the new missionaries into the mission!  Each group brings a unique spirit with them and we were especially impressed with the 8 new sisters we got in this group of 26 missionaries.  These consistent huge groups of new missionaries are also unprecedented and requires us to really reach into our energy reserves to do the necessary work to prepare for all of them!  We also received several 18 year old elders.  

  

A new zone was also created with this transfer:  the Elkhorn Springs Zone, bringing the total to 11 zones in the mission.  When we got here there were only six zones!!!  The growth of the mission is just staggering. Elder Parker and Elder Carlson are the new zone leaders, and Tuesday, the day after transfers, (all the zone leaders come into the office on Tuesdays) they came in and brought me a big bag of M&M's with peanuts!  They wouldn't tell me how they knew that I loved M&M's with peanuts!  They are awesome elders and we were excited that they are new zone leaders, as well as the other new zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers that we have.

Tuesdays are also the day that I'm notified from SLC of the new missionaries who are coming to the mission, and I was notified of nine new missionaries coming.  That means I send them a letter and other papers welcoming them to the mission and prepare the immense paperwork involved for each of them.  I was also working on the congratulations letters for the new missionary leadership of the mission and the letters to the parents of the 26 new missionaries--plus the departing paperwork for three of our visa waiters.  It was a particularly huge amount of paperwork for one week, and I worked nonstop all week with great intensity. I sent about 150 letters this week!

To be able to leave the mission boundaries, we have to first ask Pres. Black and he in turn has to ask Elder Dwight W. Pincock, who is over our mission.  We asked Pres. Black if we could go to the Grand Canyon, and not only did we get permission, but he suggested that we leave on Friday morning and not come in to the office.  Can you believe that?  We were so excited because we had had such a hard week.  I felt a little guilty because there is still so much work to do, but Elder Dana kept saying, "Just go and have a good time and get your work done next week!"

As we left Las Vegas we drove by beautiful Lake Mead--this picture was taken from our car!

It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon and I had made a reservation to stay at the Grand Canyon Resort, which was in the middle of pretty desolate country.  At first we wondered what we had gotten ourselves in to, put it turned out to be awesome!  Here is the little cabin that we stayed in at a Groupon rate. 

The inside of the cabin, but this picture doesn't do it justice.  It really was pretty spacious.

We went a hike and then went on a horseback ride and then went to dinner on the ranch.  We ate dinner with a couple from Scotland and another one from England and it was so fun talking to them!  Then we went to a cowboy campfire and roasted some'mores and "Cowboy Dave" sang songs with the guitar and talked.  It was SO much fun and the stars that night were so brilliant.  We could even see Jupiter!  We just loved it and were glad for the heat of the campfire--it was cold! 

The next morning we drove the 20 minutes to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon, which is owned by the Hualapai Indian Reservation.  The gamyu means "hello" in their language.

The reservation requires that we park our vehicle and board buses which transport us to three different locations in their portion of the Grand Canyon.  Our first stop was Eagle Point, which was just magnificent.  Can you see the stone eagle in the rocks just to the left of Glen's head?

Here's a closer picture of it.  The creations of the Lord are so stunning!

We were able to meet and talk to several members of the Hualapai nation and it was pretty interesting to talk to them.  They were dressed in native costumes, even though they don't wear them on a daily basis.  We learned a lot. 

Next to Eagle Point is the famous Grand Canyon Skywalk, which jets 70 feet over the canyon and has a glass bottom so you can look through it into the canyon.  It is suspended 4,000 feet above the canyon and was pretty spectacular.  Glen is standing there on the skywalk with his black jacket on waving his hand!  We watched the video of how this was made.

Our next stop was Guano Point and we ate lunch at this spectacular place.  We were glad to be able to eat out in the sun to get warmed up!  Touring helicopters flew into the canyon every few minutes--it was unbelievable.  We met people here from all over the world--China, Korea, Russia, France, Australia, Great Britain, Japan, Phillipines, and so many other places.

Our last stop was at Hualapai Ranch where we took a wagon ride, did a tomahawk toss, (I even hit the target with the tomahawk!) a rope toss (Glen roped the fake cow, but I couldn't) and other activities.  It was so much fun!  What a great end to a great tour.  We drove back to Las Vegas with renewed energy and were so grateful that we were able to go and see one of the Seven Wonders of the world.