"Time"

ELO

Well this week has been quite the week. It was definitely a week. 7 days. Just the week. But, I survived ;) Some big things that happened were Zone Conference on Friday with Gladys from Portal being installed in our car and service on Saturday. Also we had a break the fast potluck this Sunday. I think that's a first. It was super nice. 

But, first for the prep for Zone conference. I don't think I've spent so much time cleaning a vehicle in my life. To give a bit of a backdrop why let me list a few things that's led up to this. A year ago when the Meadow Lake Elders first got this car (which I was around for) They had just got it from CTK. The only area in the mission that the Elders live on the Rez. This vehicle had been driving dusty roads for quite a time before that without washing it that much. So the insides of the doors were caked with dust it seemed at least an inch thick. Luckily that had been cleaned a bit. Elder Bassett who was serving in Meadow Lake while I was serving in North Battleford and is now serving in North Battleford told me that part. But, the worst was yet to come. Because we Meadow Lake Elders pass through NB on our way to Saskatoon we just carpool with them all the time. So the car thus needs not to be cleaned as often because no one ever sees it. So here it is romping around on the rez up here for at least 6-8 months not getting cleaned. And I come into the scene and Gladys needs to be installed so we have to have the car sparkling for the guy coming from headquarters. Lets just say I would rather spend a few hours cleaning rather than losing a lot of time in the future in case the car got taken away. And that's what we did. I think the floor mats are secretly bags of holding (from dungeons and dragons for those of you who don't know what that is) because whenever we beat them against the ground there's still a layer of dust comes out.

But, we didn't lose the car privilege at Zone Conference and it was one of the better Zone Conferences I've been to. Learned lots of stuff and had a generally good time. Sidenote that I should add: the night before Elder Morrill brought some wax and now part of one of Elder Mikesell's legs is hairless and theirs a patch missing from the other. Good times. To add to that I got to billet with Elder Lee one last time. I also got to meet my other brother from Elder Lee. It was nice. The next day Elder Lee also gave his last testimony at a Zone Conference and I'm super happy I got to be around for that. It gets real when your first companion is finally going home. 

While all of this was happening Gladys was being installed. I must say it's not as bad as I was expecting. It's still a robot telling you how to drive every once and a while but, if you're already a good driver you don't need to worry. I think Gladys has only got mad at me once so far.

Finally for excitement this week. We got to do service up on waterhen again. This time we were preparing for a Sweat lodge. I'll have to get into what a Sweat Lodge is some other time but, to be basic it's another Native thing that you go into this hut and sweat your face off because there is rocks that just got taken off of a fire, flaming red, and water that's splashed on them every once and a while. It's like church for them. 

But, While there we had a good time. I got to carry around a hatchet for a while and chop up trees. I also got to try and use a bull whip. I'm not very good still. One of the highlights however was we had an Otter run through camp. On the day I decided to have a camera along and be taking pictures. I got some really good pictures of it while I was chasing it. So yoked about that :) I don't have my camera on me right now but, when I do get it I'll try and send some pics. 

Thank you for all of your love and support. Love youz  

- Elder Mikesell

P.s. Shoutout to Brady and Emily for going to be receiving a saving ordinance this week ;)