Limited Shopping

Poplar City shopping is limited.   There are two small grocery stores  Main Street and Tandys.  Expect to pay about a dollar more per item than in Wolfpoint.

Only for a real need do we give them business even though they are just half a block away.

Dining out also has little choice.  The Buckhorn isn't too bad.  We have gone there for lunch on Weds. for Senior.

Our only experience at the Overland wasn't pleasant.  We waited for a hour for a BLT sandwich which came served burnt on white bread, $6.00.  Elder Allsop's meal was better, but the wait was too much.  

Wolfpoint Shopping 

For most of our shopping we travel the 23 miles to Wolfpoint where there is one small Albertsons and a Alco.  Those two stores have been sufficient for our needs.

Of course we usually can't leave town without a stop at the Auto Parts and Hardware store for Elder Allsop.

The Best Gas Prices around seems to be at Exxon.

For dining McDonalds attracts the Elders especially after 3 hr. District Meetings on Thursdays when about a dozen Elders converge on them.

We've enjoyed a few meals at the Old Town Grill.  They offer American and Mexican American menu.

In December the Sunset about 4:00 pm  This was taken as we entered Billings on the way to Zone Conference.  Montana does have amazing sunsets.

Cub Scouts full of energy and enthusiasm

Give them a Basketball and Cub Scouts are happy.  We let them shoot a few for 10 mins. after arriving then they are ready to settle down and do some Cub Scouting.

A most exciting project was building their very own tool box.  Elder Allsop did lots of work to prepare, pricing lumber, picking it up, measuring and cutting it for each boy then helped them glue and nail the parts together.  

President Hollom comes every week.  He loves to help the boys and support us.

President Hollom helps his nephew Hudson, one of our Webelos.

We have asked this father to be our Cubmaster and he accepted.  Here he is helping his son one of our Wolves.  He's been very supportive coming each week to help his sons achieve.

In all four boys completed an 18 inch tool box.  They were very proud of them.

Thanksgiving with the Elders

L-R Sister Allsop, Elder Villjo, Elder Allsop, Elder McLaren, Elder Rodrick; Elder Faifutu; Elder Mamaes

These are the Elders we enjoyed Thanksgiving with in 2013.  We invited the Wolfpoint Elders Villejo (Philippine) and Elder Mamaes (Somalian)

Elders have fun too.  Notice the Turkey hat.

A full Thanksgiving meal was served in Poplar Branch Cultural Hall.  There were no complaints about our cooking.   Missionaries love food and a lot of it.

This is where the 4 Elders serving in Poplar live.  The blue blanket had to go.  So I retrieved drapes cast aside in the fallen down garage in their back yard, wash, bought drapery hooks and hung them.
They were thankful.  Now it doesn't look so much like a getto home.

Elder McLaren finished his mission in Poplar.  He arrived just 2 days before we did in September.  Back home in Yuma, AZ he quickly became engaged to the girl he converted and baptized in High School.  He'll be very successful in life because he was as a obedient missionary.

Poplar Elders October-November 2013

 These are the Elder's whom were in Poplar when we arrived.  We have enjoyed having them to dinner once a week and meeting with them in planning meetings.  Elder Meraz  (L-R) has finished his mission and returned home.  Elder Fuifatu has been out a year, and 

Elder McLaren finishes his mission in early December.



Elder Rorick, the computer buff, has about 2 mons. 
left

Before


Elder Salvador demonstrates the size of the hole in the Cultural Hall wall that Elder Allsop miraculously repaired.

After

 North Eastern Montana can have some beautiful sunsets.  This was captured driving home between Wolfpoint and Poplar in October 2013.

 The Baptism we witnessed on Nov. 16, 2013 was a special experience. It was held in Plentywood's reservoir.  A pick up truck was first backed down the boat ramp to break the ice.





                                                                       
Pictured to the left are the two Elders who taught Marcus as well as his friend Reese who baptized him.  Note the chunks of ice they are holding.

It was indeed a special experience for all.

Mission Training Center (MTC)

After a relaxed drive to Orem and a pleasant stay with Sid and Lousie overnight, we entered the Mission Training Center on time the morning of September 9, 2013.  They are efficient with check-in proceedures so it wasn't long until we knew the agenda.  There was an extra large group of Seniors Missionaries checking in that day 84, so we lucked out when we were place at the Marriott Courtyard in Orem. After lunch we assembled for a group meeting at the LDS Meetinghouse next door where all of our training was held that week. We were divided into Districts with 3 other couples. Our trainer in the mornings was Brother Zundell a young RM now a BYU student and in the afternoon were Sisters Anderson and Sister Sanford also young cute BYU studens. They were all delightful.

L-R: Our trainers Sisters Anderson and Sanford; Elder and Sister Talley from Star Valley going to Lima, Peru in Humanitarian; Elder and Sister Talley from Logan serving from home as medical advisors; Elder and Sister Johnson from May, Idaho going to the Marshall Island in Perpetual Ed. program and us.

Meal time comes around very often at the MTC especially when you are not use to eating 3 times a day.  The choices are many and the desserts irresistible.

This is for you Seth.  I spoke to a table full of Korean sisters.  They were impressed with my Korean greeting, and thank you spoken in their language.  Cute girls, huh!

We attended many devotionals with fabulous speakers.  This one was our Departing Devotional where instructions on traveling were also given.  Some applied to us and some didn't as we were driving to our Mission area.

Our Second week at the MTC was for Humanitarian training.  Everyone in our group were going to some far away place,The Talleyare going to Peru,the Singleys to Laos, the Greers to Ecuador,and the Woodruffs to Sir Lanka. People chuckled when we responded that we were going to Montana on a humanitarian assignment.

The week of Humanitarian training we were moved back to the MTC and housed in the usual Senior Missionaries accomodations. We were on the 3rd. floor of the same building as the Bookstore and Post Office. It was no Marriott, but the accomodations were fine.

We were anxious to meet with the people from the Missionary Dept. in Salt Lake and finally had the meeting on Wednesday.  We met with Elder and Sister Kimball who are Service Missionaries sent on special assignments anywhere in the world, and Brother Ferrin Squires who is working directly with the committee formed for the Native American Inititive.  They told us much about the kinds of problems in Wolf Point and Poplar Montana which are part of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

Arriving in Poplar

Arrival time was 6:00 pm September 21, 2013.  We found our cute little home at 205 D Street West.  We were pleased to have a carport and a small garage.  The home is comfortable and just right for a Senior couple.  It was like being newly weds and coming home from a honeymoon to unpack the boxes of our household items that the church provided and had setting inside. Our vehicle was also filled to the brim from what we had brought from home.

This is the view from across the street.  It is a new business, a Deli called Andy's All.  President of the Branch Pres. Hollom works there part time because it is his brother's business.  The red home on the corner of the intersection is our landlord's Don and Donna Gungell.  He is very nice, and got right on a plumbing problem and a broken washing machine.

Here is the Poplar Branch Meeting house.  The chapel has 13 benches and there is a Relief Society room and 4 maybe 5 classrooms, a library, clerks office and Presidents office and a mid-size Cultural Hall.

Our first week at church, I counted 25 in attendance which included the 4 Elders serving here and ourselves. Only one deacon comes and he passes the sacrament to everyone in about 5 mins.  There is much reactivation work that needs to be done here.

Soon after arriving, Elder Allsop and I went about cleaning up the debris and cutting down the weeds in the barrow pit next to the church.  Then we got enough interest that Pres. Hollom came with a riding mower one afternoon and began cutting the tall grass and weeds in the field next to the meetinghouse.  The Elder's and ourselves and one ward member Sister Baurers helped.  It surely did improve our image to have it done and we felt it set an example to the neighbors most of whom do not mow and keep their yards nice.

Picking up trash that is dropped and blown around, could be a daily job in Poplar.

This abandon trailer home is the view directily across the street from the Branch Meetinghouse.

To become acquainted with where people live listed on the branch membership rolls, we made a Newsletter telling about various activities going on in the branch and delivered them over the course of a couple of weeks to every one that we had a solid address for.  Here is Elder Allsop coming out of one of the homes where he left the newsletter on the doorstep.

Our Mission Call

After a 5 week wait, our Mission call came on June 7, 2013. Many family members gathered around and those that live a distance were waiting via phone to hear as we opened our call. It is an exciting time when you think that you could be assigned to anywhere in the world. Our hearts skipped a beat when we read Montana Billings Mission and that we were to report Sept. 2, 2013. The Mission covers all the state of Montana and about a third of Wyoming down as far south as Lander and Riverton. A couple of week after our call came, we received a phone call from the Mission President Mecham. He told me that he had reviewed our application and thought we were the perfect couple to be given a new assignment. He asked if I was ready to be a pioneer. He said that a committee had been formed among the brethren in Salt Lake of which Elder Hales and Andersen were part of it, and they reported to Pres. Boyd K. Packer. There has been 3 or 4 areas in the United States identified that needs to have a special effort in bringing the Native American Indians some hope. He said they are in a dark place and need light brought into their lives. He said that we would be assigned to work in the very Northeast part of the state on Montana. We would live in Poplar but would also work in Wolf Point and perhaps Frazier. These communities are on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation where Sioux and Assiniboine Indians live. It would be not an entirely white shirt mission and would be the first humanitarian type mission in the United State. All other humanitarian efforts are out of this country.

Much of the summer was spent preparing to leave a 160 acre farm and our home. Richard had much to do keeping crops watered and repairing and updating the irrigation system so that it would be easier for someone else to run the wheel lines and pivot. Cleone tried to go through every room organizing, discarding and packing what she hoped would fit in the car. We did get us a more suitable vehicle for winters in Montana, a 2004 Honda Pilot. Things were going along on schedule then about 2 weeks before we were to leave our pivot crashed. An electrician had made adjustments so that the safety switches did not activate and stop the pivot from walking when it got out of alignment. That disaster caused a bit of panic to get dismantled, repaired and operation again before we were to leave. We were blessed and thanks to the aid of family and others, a functioning upright pivot was a reality. Later in the summer our MTC entry date was changed to September 9, 2013. Besides doing the "Preach My Gospel" training we were asked to stay another week and also do Humanitarian training which is only offered once a month. I commented that you always wish you had just one more week before some big event, well we got it.

FHE and Going Away Party

Many of our family gathered for a last Family Home Evening and "Send-Off party" on September 2, 2013. After a song and prayer, we took the opportunity to explain in simple terms for the benefit of the young grandchildren what we we might be doing on our mission, and that is helping people with problems like alcohol, drugs and family problems in the little city of Poplar, Montana.  

Ella leads us in a song.

Many listening ears.

In the back yard we enjoyed fun activites organized and conducted by Sheri. It was the guys against the gals. We played a Missionary Taboo Word guessing game, then we tried to arrange, in chronological order, Gospel Art posters of the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon, followed by the game "Name that Tune" sung in la,la,la,la fashion of the Primary songs.

What a pleasant time it was being with our wonderful family.

It was the guys against the gals.

Everyone got a turn.

Young and old had a great time.