Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016 – Mission Trg. Mtg., Clarence & Gloria Starks, M Russell Ballard, Wasp Sting

This morning after our weekly mission-wide training meeting we had a surprise visit from Clarence & Gloria Starks. Gloria is my sister-in-law, she was married to my brother, Jim, before he passed away in 1981. We had no clue they would be in Nauvoo until yesterday when we got a surprise phone call from them.

Then they took us to meet an old friend of Clarence’s, Jack Haywood and his wife Silvia, they are from Indiana. The next big surprise was getting to see Jack Haywood for the first time in 45 years.  Jack and I were on the Mesa High School Varsity football team together, way back in 1967! What a great surprise reunion.

After we got back from our training meeting in Nauvoo, we got back to our work in Carthage. I spent the rest of the day mowing and Sis. Johnson spent the rest of the day pulling dandelions. We are really working extra hard making the grounds look nice because we have a special visitor coming this weekend. Previously we heard rumors that Elder M. Russell Ballard would be here on Saturday. Today in the offices of FM’s new managing director, Jordon Bodily, we got the official word; Apostle Ballard will be attending the family reunion of the descendents of Joseph Smith Sr. & Lucy Mack Smith this Saturday and Sunday.

I didn’t know this but Elder M. Russell Ballard is a direct descendent of Hyrum Smith, the brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. FM has been told to expect over 250 people to be at the Carthage Visitor’s Center Saturday morning at 8:00am for a special Family reunion meeting outdoors on the grounds. Sis. Johnson and I have been asked to help prepare the grounds as well as set up chairs on Friday afternoon. Sis. Johnson and I are excited; it’s not every day you get a visit from an Apostle of the Lord, right in your own back yard!

While I was mowing near the visitor’s center this afternoon, Elder Bass asked me to help him remove large windows from the visitor’s center so he could clean them. They are very big and require two people to take them down and put them back up again. The first window went fine but the second on had a problem. We didn’t know it but hidden behind the false shutters was a large wasp nest. 

Well . . . wasps were flying everywhere and there was no place to run. As I swatted one away from my face, I got stung on the hand!  Elder Bass got through the fight unscathed. But, OUCH, that really stings. I’m allergic to some types of stings so Sis. Bowler gave me a Benadryl tablet so I wouldn’t go into anaphylactic shock.

Sis. Bowler said a little girl was near the flower beds earlier today and was also stung by a wasp. I told Sis. Johnson about the child being stung and she said, “of course, I have guard wasps. I have trained my wasps to protect my flowers so people will stop picking them.” Trained wasps or not, the whole nest paid for their attack with their lives. “Wasp & Hornet Jet Spray” is wonderful. I can knock down a nest and kill every wasp on it from 20 feet away.