Relief Society President at Ft. Yates, North Dakota

There are very few members attending the Branch in Ft. Yates. The Branch President, President Laundreax (He is Indian, but I am not positive he comes from the local tribe) lives 20 minutes from the church in a small community called Cannon Ball.
The Tribe community of Cannon Ball derives its name from large stones, (actually big boulders) that are found there naturally,that are perfectly round. They look like cannon balls. It is an interesting phenomenen to see. They are a good 24 inches to 36 inches in width sometimes.

President Laundreax's name is French in nature. This is a reflection of the
French explorers who settled and explored the area during the time of the "Lewis and Clark" expeditions through the Northwestern part of the United States. Some of the explorers became involved with the native North Dakota Indian women.

Pres. Laudreax and his wife are the only active temple endowed couple in the branch that I am aware of. I understand he has been the Branch President for nearly eight years. The first Sunday I attended the Branch I was shocked that the Pres. called on me to bare my testimony. I was already in culture shock that day. I was not prepared for the small number of members in attendance when I arrived to church. Roger tried to explain this to me before we arrived to church, but seeing is believing.


Sis. Rosalyn Sandland is the Relief Society President in the Ft. Yates Branch. She and the Elders say they "Prayed us to Ft.Yates". She works as a fulltime Secretary for the Tribe lawyers in a very nice building here in Ft.Yates. Her husband is a Rancher and they have crops for feed that they have been harvesting recently. She works all day and then goes home to help her husband cut the alfalfa in the evening until it gets dark.

We have been visiting the less active in the branch ever since the first week I arrived here. So far we have been to around 20 sisters homes. I love visiting with her, she has a wonderful spirit about her and is so loving towards the sisters in the Branch.

The visits are paying off, as we have seen an increase in Sacrament Meeting attendance. The first week I attended the Branch, there were 15 in attendance. Four weeks later.... we had 35 in attendance this past Sunday. For some reason they do not have Sunday School class here, which is greatly needed to teach the members the basic doctrines of the church. No one knows why they stopped or when.

Sacrament meeting is first, and half of the women show up in pants. After Sacrament meeting there is Relief Society, Primary, Priesthood, and sometimes YW if any teenage girls show up. They are not quick to extend callings in the Branch. I have been leading the singing in Sacrament Meeting and teaching the Relief Society lesson ever since the first week I attended. This past week I did both of those activities and Roger and I also spoke in Sacrament Meeting. A case of overexposure for sure! (I can't call them "callings" because I have not been called to them, just appointed for now.)

Usually we have three or four sisters stay for Relief Society, and the others leave after Sacrament Meeting. This past Sunday there were seven in attendance in Relief Society. It is such a blessing to have more sisters coming out. You have never heard a prayer until you have heard the native american women pray. I am always amazed with their deep devotion and expression. There is so much activation work to do, and it is a very big challenge to know where to begin. We have no idea what has happened to the members or why they stopped coming.

A few years ago there was a senior missionary couple the "Ellisons" from an area near Lehi, Utah, who served their mission here in Ft. Yates. I wish we could have two sets of Senior Missionaries couples here right now to help train and build up the branch. Senior Missionaries couples make a huge difference in branches like this. The people love the Ellison's so much and talk about them with such high regard. Unfortunately, once they left from their mission, the branch did not sustain itself for long.

Many of the members living in Ft.Yates were once involved in the Indian Placement program when Pres. Kimball was the Prophet. It was a requirement of the participants to be members of the church in order to participate in the program. Many have fond memories of their foster families and the experiences they had living with LDS families. It is debatable whether they were ever truly converted and had Testimonies of the Gospel though. Often, they comment how well they did personally while living with these families. They struggled returning to the tribe and the peer pressure back on the reservation when they completed their stays. Sometimes those who did not participate in these programs were not very welcoming back of the ones who went away to participate in the program.

The alcohol,drug addiction, and diabetes is a problem here on the "Resv". (This is what the local indians call the reservation) That is a subject for another blog day! Also one day I will share Rogers experience at the dental clinic here. Lets just say, there is a lot of tooth pulling going on!

Bull Snakes Everywhere

This is going to be short. Just wanted to share with you my favorite animal in North Dakota. (Be sure and click on the picture to really see the size). In fact I love them so much, Roger made Kyle swear to not tell me they saw some Bull Snakes while Kyle was here in June helping Roger move in. They are nearly five feet long, just in case you can't tell in the picture. In about a 5 mile radius we saw three bull snakes that had been run over. Lets just say, hiking through the Dakota plains with knee high grass does not tempt nor thrill me right now. That kind of adventure I can live without.

Also, the other day I stepped out on our front porch. I jumped as nearly 100 small black crickets were jumping to avoid my step down. A few did not move fast enough unfortunately. I had not seen this phenomenem before. Pretty Gross! I later found out that this is not a usual happening here in Ft Yates. I was told that legend is that it is a sign we are going to have a really bad winter. Great! The lawn, the house, the sidewalk are all covered with these sweet little critters. Maybe the bull snakes will eat them?

Where are the seagulls when you need them? Actually there are seagulls in North Dakota. North and South Dakota were once covered by an ancient ocean. So there are seagulls all around the area. Not as big as the ones around the great Salt Lake, or at the ocean.

South Dakota - McLaughlin

Roger splits time between two dental clinics, one in Fort Yates, North Dakota, and the other one in McLaughlin, South Dakota. They are in the process of hiring another dentist for McLaughlin, South Dakota. He called me to bring his special magnifying glasses to him at the McLaughlin clinic which is 30 miles away from Ft.Yates. As long as I was there, I thought I would travel another 30 miles to a town called Mobridge, South Dakota.

North and South Dakota, besides the Indian population was homesteaded by Russian, German, and Norwegian Immigrants. While I was in Mobridge, I picked up a local "Centennial" cookbook. It has been fun to browse through the recipes. I thought I would share one of the German Russian Dishes found in the recipe book.

Fleich Kuechle

Dough:

4 C. Flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
4 tsp. shortening
1 2/3 cup milk

Mix together flour, salt, and baking powder; cut in shortening with fork or patstry blender until it looks like coarse corn meal. Add milk and mix in to make a soft, but not sticky, dough.

Filling:

1 1/2 lb. hamburger
2 tsp. sat
2/3 c. water
chopped onion and pepper to taste

Brown hamburger and onion in water; stir in salt. Roll half of dough to 1/8 in. thickness. Cut into 6 inch squares. Spread meat thinly over 1/2 of each square; fold over and pinch edges to seal. Drop dough into deep hot fat and fry slowly until nicely browned. Makes about 20 meat pies.

Trip to Chicago

Roger and I had a little diversion with a trip to Illinois for a open house for Lauren and Joe. Joe's family lives in Sycamore, Illinois. We live in the most beautiful and diverse country in the world. It makes me proud to be an American!


Just to make all of my St. George friends really envious, notice how green everything is in Illinois, and they do not have any sprinkler systems. I was green with envy!

Here is a great idea for a modified chicken coop. Joe's family had this in their backyard. In the upper portion of the chicken coop is the penthouse for the chickens to lay their eggs. I think I will try to make one next spring and have fresh eggs!



Some of the original early 1900's homes in Sycamore Illinois. I would love to live in one on these old homes. They have so much personality.


Yes, this is a "bigger than life" size Marilyn Monroe on Michigan Street (where all the big stores are) in downtown Chicago.

Picture of Downtown Chicago Skyline.








This is a shot of the symphony, community Choir, and Opera in action in Centennial Park, downtown Chicago. The City of Chicago offers these free concerts in the park during the summmer. On this night they were performing Vivaldi's Requiem. It was incredible. The people in the audience bring their chairs, picnic dinners and enjoy the evening of entertainment.

Good Day Sunshine! Sunflowers Galore

Pictures of the fields of Sunflowers in full bloom throughout North Dakota. If anyone knows me well, you would know that I love Sunflowers. I had a patch in my backyard in St.George, UT.

Oh, give me a home, Where the Buffalo Roam

The Sioux-Standing Rock Indian Tribe have a Buffalo Ranch on the Reservation. We happened to find them close to the fence one day so that we could get some great shots of them. If you have not stood next to a Buffalo lately, trust me...they are huge!


I had my first Bison (Buffalo) sandwich the other day. Not bad!

Temple in Bismarck, North Dakota

Lauren and Joe came to visit on their way to Sycamore, Illinois. We traveled an hour north to Bismarck and walked around the Temple grounds.




The Temple in Bismarck is one of the smaller models. Roger and I have been there a few times and the most we have been with in a session is 16 people. The great thing about temples, it does not matter what size they are....the same peaceful spirit is there.
The Temple is near a huge water tower, so that helps me find it everytime I travel there. It is also nextdoor to the Bismarck Stake Center Building. I love how all Temple grounds are maintained and always have such beautiful flowers.

It is a good thing they have an Angel Moroni facing east on top of the temple, because I can not yet tell East From West, or North from South. There are no mountain ranges near Bismarck like there are in Utah to orient yourself with to determine the direction. The Missouri River does not help with directions either, It takes a turn from a West to East direction onto a North to South Direction near Bismarck somewhere.









We had lunch at this quaint Restaurant "Fiesta Villa". It was once the Train Station on Main street, downtown Bismarck, North Dakota.

Trip to the Flood Zone - Minot, ND

Picture of homes that were flooded in Minot, North Dakota and the LDS Helping Hands.Notice the black tar like mud, decks and sheds up in trees, etc.

Roger, myself, Elder Woods, and Elder Venegas traveled to Minot to help those who were flooded out of their homes. It was beyond description what we saw. The homes had been flooded up to the roof lines of one story homes. Everything most people valued, were destroyed in the floods. Couches, hutches, chairs, tables, etc were all in piles in front of the homes. There was so much sewage and debris mixed with the water during the flooding that the homes were covered in mud like matter inside and out.



It is a three hour drive to Minot from Ft. Yates. We left at 5:30 am and arrived in Minot at 8:30 am. We went directly to the church building in Minot, where there is a emergency command post. As we drove up to the building, I was not prepared to see a tent city all set up on the lawn at the church. The tents are used by volunteers to stay in while they help with the clean up.




Our LDS helping hands crew in Minot, ND.

We received a helping hands t-shirt, and rubber boots,gloves, tools, and a mask to wear while we were working in the homes. We were assigned a work detail group and met up with three other Elders serving in Minot, two young girls (sisters) from one of the Minot wards, and a fellow who came from Sheridan Wyoming. All together there was 10 working on this house.

It was humbling to climb out our truck and approach the home where we were assigned to work. A couple who are the owners of the home, in their sixties were there working alongside of us. The husband has colon cancer. The owners are determined to rebuild their home which is no more than a block from the river. So many of their neighbors are walking away from their homes out of fear of this happening again, or lack of resources to rebuild.

Our job was to pull out all of the drywall and insulation, in order to get to the bare two by fours of the home. This was a much older home which was a little bit more of a challenge to pull apart because of the plastering and drywall construction practices from over 60 years ago. It was a dirty, stinky job.
The dry wall would sometimes come off the walls inch by inch and never as a whole sheet.


It was hard work and we were exhausted by the end of our shift that day. The owners of the home were so grateful for our efforts as they could not afford to hire someone to come dismantle their home. The home will air out for a few weeks and then the re-building begins.




View of flooded street.


Just for your information. The Elders in this mission have come for complete weeks camping out at the church and working. They would work any where from 8 to 12 hours a day. It is a good thing they are young! The church has a hotline that people call requesting help. They do not have to be LDS to get help. Questions are asked about the condition of their homes and special needs and then the requests are prioritized according to the circumstances. It was a great experience to be a part of the recovery and rebuilding process for the people in Minot, North Dakota.

Indian Pow Wow

Picture 1: Teenage Boys in full dance costumes.




On Friday night we went to the big event of the community - the "Standing Rock Indian POW WOW"




During the summer each of the Indian tribes have a Pow Wow, in which they invite the other tribes to participate. Each tribe has groups of dancers and drummers who compete at the events.

Picture 2: Junior Princess from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation



The costumes are so colorful and it is mesmerizing watching them dance around the pavilion where the Pow Wow is held. Each tribe has their own set of drums with anywhere from three to six men drumming on the large drums at one time. They have their individual styles of drumming and dancing per tribe.

Picture 3: The very young to the very old participate in the competition.

At the same time, in another location close to the Pow Wow there was a tribal
rodeo going on. The Indians Tribes in North and South Dakota are into rodeos just like our towns and cities in Utah are in the summer.