Nov 30 07

November 30, 2007

It all started with an innocent sip of iced tea. From there it was all downhill for our current missionary companionship, ending this evening with a policeman parked in our driveway reporting drunk and disorderly behavior on the part of Elders Wahlquist and Armajo. And they seemed like such nice boys.

Here are the gruesome details of their fall from grace. It had been raining all day here and everything was muddy. The Elders arrived about 3:00, after we had been to Show Low for interviews and a Wal-Mart shopping stop. After visiting for a few minutes they left to make some visits. Around 6:00 they were trying to organize the baptism for tomorrow morning, so they headed up to visit President Bonito. Given the information about the rain, one would suppose that taking a shortcut through a deep, unpaved wash would not be the best choice. Nevertheless, they opted for the shortcut, resulting in a call to Robert a few minutes later regarding being hopelessly mired in the red clay mud at the bottom of the wash. Robert went over there, and with the truck in 4-wheel drive, pulling as hard as it could, and both Elders and Byron (bet he wishes he’d never met us) out in the mud pushing the car, they were able to free the car. Robert returned home and the Elders went to make one last stop.

Just after Robert arrived we heard the police car honking in the driveway. Robert went out and the officer barely contained his laughter as he reported that he had just stopped to investigate what he could only assume must have been a drunk driver, as the car had been driven into a ditch and there were two men inside the car in very dirty clothing…so dirty that the officer said he didn’t realize they were the missionaries because they weren’t wearing their white shirts. Well, they were, but the shirts are now covered in mud and therefore are the lovely red color of the dirt around here. The policeman told Robert, “Your friends said to come and get you and tell you they need help.”

So off again went Robert, into the rain, to pull them out for the second time in less than an hour. When they finally arrived here they looked like wet rats. Robert gave Wahlquist his jogging suit and Armajo his fleece sweat pants and shirt to wear home. We fed them, gave them our cell phone, and told them if we didn’t hear from them in one hour we’d be out searching for them. They were also told not to drive off the pavement under any circumstances. They dutifully reported in less than an hour that they were safely home in Show Low.

In addition to all this fun, I made 2 cakes for the baptism tomorrow, cooked 3 lbs of hamburger for the dinner on Sunday, and made a batch of fudge. And that was all after interviews and getting groceries at Wal-Mart.