Sunday, May 15, 2016

So there we were when it started to snow……

We had a rather unique weather experience this week; one that I am not sure we will want to experience again for awhile. First let me lead into the story……

In last week’s blog I mentioned that our missionaries would have the opportunity to get together for a temple session, followed by lunch and a zone conference. Through much of Monday and Tuesday we prepared to make the trip to Cardston, Alberta, where the first of the temple visits and zone conferences would be held. This meant getting all of the car inspection stuff restocked and moved out into the mission truck which Elder and Sister Sefcik would be driving to Cardston along with a chest of drawers needed by one set of missionaries. Kathy and I would be driving a new Rogue to be swapped for an older Cruz which is to be sold. We loaded the Rogue with boxes containing copies of a booklet that Pres. and Sis. Miles have prepared for the missionaries who have gone home in the past few months. All of the missionaries presently serving have already received a copy of the same booklet. Because it is so much less expensive to mail stuff from the U.S., we would be taking advantage of this by hauling the mail across the border while in Cardston, which is just north of the border.

On Monday and Tuesday the weather was beautiful, and Wednesday was beautiful as well as we drove to Cardston. The weather forecasters, however, were warning of a change.

Arriving in Cardston, we checked into our motel and then drove south to Babb, Montana, which is just across the border. 

View of Old Chief Mountain from Babb, Montana
We carried in the boxes and boxes of mailing envelopes containing the booklets and the poor postmistress started the process of putting postage on each of the envelopes. Since it would take awhile for the postmistress to finish, Elder and Sister Sefcik and Kathy and I decided to take a drive to St Mary’s, just a bit further south, and continue on into the part of Glacier National Park that is nearby. For those who have not been there, may I say, this is a really beautiful area. I will include some pictures. The lake in the pictures is St. Mary’s Lake. Unfortunately, the area is still recovering from a couple of devastating fires, the last one just a year ago.

St Mary's Lake on the Northeastern edge of Glacier National Park
When we got back to the post office in Babb, the postmistress was finished with the mailers and so we paid for the postage and drove back to Cardston. We arrived back in time to go to the Cardston Temple to do a session. This is a beautifully unique temple and we greatly enjoyed the session and seeing the beauty of the building and the grounds.



While in the temple the clouds had started to thicken. Still the forecast was for light rain and cooler temperatures for Thursday. After returning to the motel, we had dinner and settled in for the night.

On Thursday morning, there was evidence of some very light rain having fallen sometime during the night. We went to breakfast and then to the Stake Center across from the Temple grounds where we set up for the missionaries and, as they arrived, we directed them to the respective zone parking areas. I have described before how we have the missionaries park their cars by zone, turn the front wheels all the way to the left, raise the hood, and leave the key on the front seat in preparation for the car inspections. Since we would have some 40 cars to inspect, I had asked one of the Cardston Wards to provide us with three pairs of men to help with the car inspections and they did. With the help our hope was to be finished by noon. The men arrived right on schedule and I gave them some instructions, a clipboard, a tire gauge, a tread depth measuring device, and we all went to work. Some light rain was falling as we began.

As we worked there was an occasional snowflake amid the drizzling rain, then there were a few more snowflakes, and soon the precipitation was more snow than rain. Then the fun began,  - the snowflakes got bigger and bigger so much so that we could barely see across the parking lot. The snowflakes became the size of silver dollars and soon it was impossible to adequately inspect for exterior cleanliness, windshield condition, or body and fender damage due to the sticking snow. To make a long wet story shorter, before we were finished some three hours later, the snow depth had reached 4 inches of wet, dense snow! By the time we were finished with the inspection we were all cold, wet, and ready to be done. The heavy snow continued through the lunch period and into the afternoon. Before it quit, the forecast of light rain showers had become 9 inches of snow. Our return trip to Calgary quickly revealed less and less snow and none some 20 miles further north at Ft Macleod. Fortunately, next week when we will do it all over again (twice more), the weather should be better, but we are wary of forecasts.

Friday was a more typical day; oil changes, cracked windshields, a set of lost keys, an impounded car, and a speeding ticket to deal with.

Love to you all.

Evan and Kathy

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