Picture of Sister Palmer and her companion, Sister Chausow

Nine Miracles

To start off, I just want to brag about the training that the assistants gave at transfer meeting.

First of all, instead of excluding the missionaries who are merely companions of "the leaders," the assistants invited every missionary who was not training to attend the "Mission Leadership" meeting. After all, every single one of us is in a position to influence others for good, so we are all leaders.

The assistants passed out pieces of paper so that everyone could take notes, even if we forgot to bring a study notebook with us to the meeting. We then watched President Monson's conference talk on obedience. The Spirit taught me that daily obedience requires discipline. The discipline I learn here will help me be obedient when I get home from my mission. The Spirit also taught me that I was being really negative at the time. I decided that I wanted and needed to change that (i.e. I needed to repent). I learned that it is only possible to be exactly obedient if we are doing it out of love. One of the missionaries in the room quoted the Doctrine and Covenants, which teaches that "no [missionary] receiveth the fulness unless [s]he keepeth His commandments" (Kirtland, Ohio, May 1833). The guide to a successful transfer is obedience to the commandments of God.

I came out of the meeting with a renewed commitment to obey every commandment with exactness, every time. Sister Chausow and I talked today about our zone's culture. She said that she feels our zone is at an 8 out of 10 on the "obedience" scale. That's good. But it's not exact obedience. We have been striving, every day, for exact obedience. We get up at 6:20 so that we can have a full 30 minutes of exercise time every morning. Before her mission, Sister Chausow printed out some "pinterest" workouts, which she keeps in a ziploc bag. Every other day, we draw out a workout from her bag. On the other three days, we walk and jog. Getting 30 minutes of good exercise is something that we can control. When 7 o'clock rolls around, we can feel confident in knowing that so far, we have been exactly obedient. We are starting our day guilt-free.

I have also committed myself to writing a little something in my journal every single night. I am trying to focus on "how I saw God's hand in my life" and "how I got to be God's hands in somebody else's life." It's a good way for me to reflect on the day. And these are the things that I really desire to remember.

Sister Chausow and I have committed to each other that we are going to be exactly obedient. Sometimes we have to problem-solve together to figure out how we are going to be exactly obedient. Like I learned at the transfer meeting, obedience requires discipline. I strongly believe that it is because of our increased obedience (and repentance) that we have seen some little miracles every single day this transfer.

On Wednesday, Sister LeBlanc (active, unendowed convert, needs strenghtening) took us out to dinner. Sister Chausow warned me beforehand that she probably was taking us to dinner because she figured we wouldn't be able to talk about spiritual things at a restaurant. Serendipitously, the hostess seated us in the back in a quiet little booth. We talked with her about temples and found out her real concern. It did not "count" as a lesson, but Sister Chausow said that she had never opened up that much before. (First miracle.)

Then we had a lesson with the Eades (active, need strengthening). We met Sister Eades' teenage son and her son's teammate. We taught a lesson about the little things and the sacrament with a non-member present. (Second miracle.) We need to follow up with Sister Eades to see what Tori thought about the lesson.

During weekly planning, I learned about how Sister Jones and Sister Chausow were using their own version of 5-5-5 to strive for balance in their lessons. Right now, we want to teach five lessons to investigators, five lessons to returning members, and five lessons to active members every week. Once we hit 5-5-5, we will switch our goal to 6-6-6. Once we hit 6-6-6, we weill switch to 7-7-7. Or at least that's the plan at this point.

We took our lunch break on Thursday to take a returning member named Karen out to frozen yogurt for her birthday. She was turning 22, so we taught her a lesson about where and WHO she was 25 years ago. She shared with us that she wants the Book of Mormon and the Church to be true, but she doesn't know if they are yet. Sister Chausow did a great job introducing and using Alma 32:27 to answer Karen's question of the soul. She, too, opened up to us in a way that she never had before. (Third miracle.)

On Saturday a less-active sister named Jennifer called us and asked for help. Right before transfers, this very same sister told Sister Jones and Sister Chausow that she didn't want to meet up with the missionaries any more. We got to deliver her food order to her and share a brief spiritual thought on grace. We also gave her adorable daughter two coloring pages with gospel themes. (Fourth miracle.)

Ever since I have been in the area, we have tried contacting a referral named Lily. We have been calling her every day at a different time. On Thursday and Friday when we called her, we did not leave a message (which is a tip that I learned from Sister Megan Spencer). On Saturday, we left a message. An hour later, she called us back and set up a return appointment for Tuesday. (Fifth miracle.)

Saturday evening, we stopped by the Risutto family. Sister Risutto is a family member and Brother Risutto is a non-member who used to be hostile to the missionaries but who now tolerates us. When we got to their house, we knocked on their door and waited. They didn't answer. We knocked again. Still no answer. Sister Chausow suggested that we call them, so we did. Brother Risutto answered the phone and I spoke to him. When he realized that we were missionaries, he passed the phone to his wife and we set up an appointment for later on in the week. We ended the call in a warm manner and Sister Chausow started writing a note to put in their door. As she was putting the note in the door, the Risuttos pulled up. Now, this encounter could have been really awkward. We were basically "caught" calling them right at their doorstep. But my impetuousness in this case may have helped us as I found myself speaking to the Risuttos: "Oh no! You caught us!" They laughed. I continued: "My dad - he's not Mormon - get's SOOO annoyed whenever the missionaries just 'drop by' to see him! And now we're doing the same thing!" Again, they laughed. And then Brother Risutto asked us if we had to leave, or if we could come in for a bit. (Sixth miracle.) We said we would love to stay, and then we helped them carry in their groceries.

In the past, Brother Risutto has stayed in the living room while the sisters talk to and teach his wife in the kitchen. This time, he came into the kitchen and made small talk. He asked where we were from. It was very hopeful. (Seventh miracle.)

After we read 2 Nephi 8 with Sister Risutto, we went back out to our car. As we were getting in, Sister Chausow got the impression to go talk to the Risutto's neighbors. It looked like they were drinking in their car port, and I really don't like arguing with drunk people, so I didn't really want to go talk to them. I warned her that they were probably drunk, but I said that I didn't really mind getting insulted, since that was the worst we could do (which was a fitting and inspired resonse, given what we read in 2 Nephi 8). Turns out they were just frying fish, and one of the people invited us to pray with her and come back another day. So now we have a PI named Anita. (Eighth miracle).

Yesterday we found out from Sister Tchoukalov that Sister Scott's husband is willing to meet with us missionaries. Here's why this is so cool: Sister Jones and Sister Chausow had identified a "trifecta" of non-member husbands. Brother Scott is one of them. Sister Jones and Sister Chausow had been practicing their teaching skills with Sister Scott by teaching her the first three lessons, and they were starting on teaching her all of the commandments. Sister Chausow thought that Sister Scott was annoyed at them. So the fact that she not only wants to continue meeting with us sister missionaries, but that she also wants us to teach her non-member husband, in another miracle. The ninth miracle, I think. And just to top it all off, Sister Tchoukalov is one of the assigned visiting teachers for Sister Scott. So we are getting this "tip" in the Lord's appointed way. The members of the Church are doing the finding, and then we missionaries will get to do the teaching. That is how we align the keys.

I know I've written a ton, but it's been a really good week. I am thrilled to be here, serving with Sister Chausow. She has opened up to me and helped me *understand* that she needs me to give her words of affirmation so that she can feel loved. I can do that. I like words.

Developing the faith to find those who are ready

At call-ins, Elder Riendeau asked us what was the biggest thing that we learned at Zone Training on Saturday.  Ironically, what I thought of was not actually taught by any of the speakers, but it came from a side-conversation that Sister Spencer and I had with Elder Burch during a break.  

Elder Burch was talking about how it had been challenging for him to be Sister Crookston's leader in Baton Rouge because they had different definitions of success.  What I learned from the conversation is just how important it is to have balance in your key indicators.

When our mission adopted the goal to teach 20 lessons per week per companionship, I showed initial resistance (for about five minutes), and then I embraced it as a way for us to become the best teaching mission in the world.  In my mind, the primary purpose for us to teach more lessons was so that we would become better teachers.

But we teach people, not lessons!  And even though I obviously wanted all of the people here in Natchitoches to progress, I was more committed to teaching 20 lessons per week than to teaching people that were ready to receive the restored gospel.  I was great at loving people who had no one else to love them.  But I think I was giving these wonderful people too much priority.  I think that I was thinking, "a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush."

Sister Spencer has helped me realize that part of being a great missionary is having the faith that there are people in our area who are ready to progress toward Jesus Christ TODAY.  Our job as missionaries is to teach true doctrine, with love and the Holy Ghost, present people with a clear choice, and then respect their agency.  

For so long, I've hated the idea of "dropping" someone.  What I understand now, is that you never really "drop" anyone, but sometimes, it is a good thing to put someone on the back burner and allow the Holy Ghost to work on their heart while we serve those who are thirsty for our message TODAY.  Great missionaries have faith that somehow, God will make sure that these precious souls of Natchitoches are not forgotten.

At the same time, it has been really really cool to see a ten year-old girl named Angel progress.  She lives in Carter trailer park, where the trailers lack carpet and there are holes in the plywood flooring.  She and her family have a very limited understanding of who God is and who Jesus Christ is.  Sister Hartshorn and I met them before Christmas and shared a Christmas message with them.  We got a return appointment and shared "Joy to the World" with them.  We tried really hard to just jump into the message of the Restoration, but we figured out that they needed a lot of time spend on basic gospel beliefs.  When we later watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them, they were asking us questions like, "Is that Jesus' son?" and "Is that the devil?"  (It was like watching a movie with six year-old Karen Marie.)  We have been working with some of the daughters in the family to help them improve in their reading ability.  We have sung primary songs (i.e. the catchy songs that kids in the Church sing on Sundays).  Whenever we go to Carter trailer park to visit someone else, we check up on them.  They need a lot of love.  

This last week, Sister Spencer and I got to teach Angel the full Restoration.  At the beginning, when we were talking about who God is, the importance of families, prophets, and the life of Jesus Christ, Angel was able to teach the lesson to us, using the pictures in the pamphlet as a guide.  (That's another one of the great things about pamphlets...people can teach themselves!)  The experience made me think of the first time I met with missionaries; Elder Baker and Elder Moss told me afterward that *I* pretty much taught the Restoration to *them.*  

I guess my point is that sometimes it seems like all we're doing is loving people and hoeing the ground for future missionaries, but sometimes, unexpectedly, we get to see the early summer fruit beginning to bud.  

In my last two transfers, I am going to try really hard to apply everything that I have learned from Sister Spencer.

I'm gonna be a Ragin' Cajun!

I am going to be transferred to Lafayette tomorrow.  Lafayette is in between Baton Rouge and Natchitoches and is home of the Ragin' Cajuns (University of Louisiana).  That's a pretty cool mascot.


My new address will be:

Sister Ryan Palmer
710 S College Rd #15
Lafayette, LA 70503

Normally, missionaries don't know where they're going when they get transferred, but this time, eight of us sisters have been asked to serve as "Sister Training Leaders."  This is a new, Church-wide assignment that has been implemented due to the increased number of sister missionaries serving around the world.  In the past, 75 percent of the missionary force was male.  Now that it's closer to 50-50, Salt Lake City wants to make sure that all sisters are getting the support they need.  Every mission in the world has been asked to assign a sufficient number of "sister training leaders" to ensure that all sisters go on an exchange at least once per transfer cycle (i.e. once every six weeks).  I have been asked to be one of those sisters.  My new companion (Sister Wolf) and I will be responsible for going on exchanges with the other five companionships in the Lafayette AND Alexandria zones.  I will get to return to Natchitoches and Morgan City, plus get to know Opolousas and New Iberia!

Follow all promptings IMMEDIATELY!

About six months ago, we were staying in the mission home for HurriConference and we got to watch the biopic of President Monson's life.  I remember the story of the time that President Monson received a prompting to leave his "important church meeting" and go visit a particular member of the Church.  At the time, he brushed that prompting aside.  But the prompting kept coming.  And so finally, belatedly, he decided to heed the prompting.  He excused himself from the meeting and rushed to the hospital bedside of his friend, only to find out that his friend had just passed away.  Before passing away, the friend had been asking for him.  Because he did not respond immediately to the prompting, he missed out on a chance to be an instrument in God's hands.

I kinda feel that way today.  Yesterday morning I felt like we should stop by Nicki G's house before going to church, just to make sure that she was up and determined to come to church.  But I felt like going to ward council was more important.  

We had already updated our ward mission leader about what help we wanted from ward council.  If we had stopped by Nicki's house, we would have found her feeling like she couldn't attend church because she woke up late and thought she needed to be at the church building by 8:30.  We would have been able to reassure her that sacrament meeting does not begin until 9 AM, and we could have stayed with her, offering emotional support as she continued to get herself and her 12-month old baby ready for church.  She would have come to church and listened to a powerful talk about forgiving those who have hurt us.  She would have felt the Spirit.  

Instead, I ignored a prompting, and my stubbornness negatively affected one of Heavenly Father's children.

Luckily, Heavenly Father *has* given us the doctrine of repentance.  During the sacrament, I had a chance to talk to my Father about our morning.  We made plans to go see Nicki next Sunday at about 8 AM.  And I learned pretty much the same lesson that President Monson learned early on in his life. 

New companion, new district leader

This transfer is going to provide me with a huge opportunity to love and to serve.  I will have a chance to experience being an instrument in God's hands to help someone experience the healing power of the Atonement.  (Yes, I realize that I've been doing that my whole mission...but this transfer it's going to be a lot more personal, since I *really* want to help my companion, and I'm with her 24/7.) 

 

Sister Ballantyne's wounds are more visible than most people's wounds are.  I want to make sure that she has a chance to grow here.  I think that will best happen if she feels safe and loved.  (Now I see what President Wall meant when he said that I'm an amateur psychologist.)  She is very self-conscious of her typical, human weaknesses.  Ironically, she is no less capable than any other missionary.  In fact, there are many reasons why her unique life experiences and skills make her particularly qualified to help the people of Natchitoches to come unto Christ.  There have been a lot of sweet "coincidences" (i.e tender mercies of the Lord) that have shown both of us that God knew exactly what He was doing when He inspired a prophet, seer, and revelator to assign her to serve in this mission.  Here are a few people that have already benefited from Sister Ballantyne's assignment to Natchitoches:

1.  Jennifer R (a convert of 18 months, from a part-member family)
2.  Kenyuada K (a convert of 13 months, returning to activity)
3.  Nicole (a new investigator as of last night, whose five year-old daughter has Down's Syndrome and uses sign-language to commmunicate)
4. Brother Donaho (a returning member who served an ASL mission in California)

And that's after just four days in the area!  I think that she "must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). 

 

In other news, this is my first transfer of having a district leader who arrived in the mission field AFTER I did.  It's interesting because for the last two transfers, I think that Elder Riendeau looked to Sister Hartshorn and me for guidance and leadership; he respects us.  As district leader, he still respects us, but he is also trying to find his way as our God-assigned leader.  He knows that he has greater responsibilty now, and he takes it very seriously.  Right now, I think he tends to act the way that he *thinks* a good leader would act.  It's a lot like when I first got to the mission field and I would act the way I *thought* a good missionary would act.  With time, I was able to integrate the mission vision into my very being, and now being a missionary is more natural than being a civilian.  I know that it will be the same for him.  The trick is that I want to empower him by sustaining his leadership and treating him the way Jesus Christ would treat His district leader.  (That's an interesting thought, isn't it?)

 

I got a lot out of Saturday's temple session.  I had not attended a temple session since February 2012, when I was in Provo at the MTC.  After 12 months of NOT going, I was able to make so many connections between the things we are taught in the temple and the things that Preach My Gospel teaches us about becoming representatives of Jesus Christ.  It was really cool.  I can see how that one prophet of the church was able to say, toward the end of his life, that he was finally *beginning* to understand the endowment ceremony.  As cool as it was to see my increase in understanding, I don't ever want to go 12 months without attending the temple!

Miracles from loving, serving, and teaching

For the past two weeks or so, we have been helping Nicole T clean and organize her trailer, in preparation for having her home blessed by a Melchizidek priesthood holder. What's cool is that she has donated to the ward five bags of good, barely worn clothing that can be sold at the Young Men's Yard Sale.

She also gave us a bag of baby food that she did not need.

 

 

She wanted it to be sold at the yard sale, but people don't really buy baby food at yard sales, so we thought about who we know that could use rice cereal and jarred baby food. We thought of Nicki and Matthew. We asked Nicole if she would like to go with us to deliver the baby food and teach a short lesson to Nicki, and she said she would love to.

Nicole does not have the strongest testimony in the world, but she contributed to the lesson. Nicki shared that she was going to accompany her friend to the doctor's office that day, and Nicole asked for the name of her friend.

"Jessica," answered Nicki.

It turns out that Nicki's friend is the ex-girlfriend and "baby-momma" of Nicole's husband.

That was ironic. But Nicole assured us, "She cool. We cool."

Everybody knows everybody here in Natchitoches!

On the way back, Nicole asked us if we could stop off at her mother's house. We asked Nicole if she thought that her mother would be interested in hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Nicole said that her mom was open to it.

So we got to meet Nicole's non-member mother, teach her the Restoration, give her a copy of the Book of Mormon, invite her to read it, and get a return appointment for two days later. What's cool is that this all started because we loved, served, and taught Nicole. Then she decided that she wanted to share that experience with her mother.

We also got to meet some of Sister Johnson's Brazilian friends this last week. We spent three and a half hours on Wednesday helping Sister Johnson make about 150 Brazilian h'orderves (called coxinhas, or "little chicken thighs") for her friend Denise's wedding.

 

 

She was pretty overwhelmed with the herculean task of cooking chicken, shredding it, making dough, shaping the chicken thighs out of the shredded chicken and dough, breading the cones, frying the cones, and then putting them in party paper, all while taking care of their three year-old daughter. Sister Hartshorn and I took turns helping Sister Johnson in the kitchen while the other one entertained Lisa in the living room. (All four people were visible to each other.)

 

On Thursday evening, we attended the wedding, and we were asked to help the bridesmaids fix some of their wardrobe malfunctions with our amazing sewing skills (I threaded a needle and then sewed on a button).

 

We are hoping that Sister Johnson will arrange for some additional meetings with these friends in the future. 

It was pretty cool to get an almost immersion-like experience in Brazilian culture.  I never learned how to make coxinha when I was living in Tucson!  It's pretty cool that I got a chance to learn about such a traditional Brazilian food while living in northern Louisiana.

Finally! A third transfer in the same area!

Well, it finally happened!  I get to stay in Natchitoches for a third transfer, which is the first time I have ever stayed in one area for longer than 12 weeks.  
 
I will be training a new missionary.  Sister Hartshorn is leaving Natchitoches and was told by President Wall that she, too, is going to be training a new missionary.  She and her new companion are going to replace two elders in an area that is yet unknown to us.  I think there is a 40 percent chance that she and her new companion are going to be the first sisters to serve in New Orleans proper.  (I have served in three areas that included parts of real New Orleans, but we always lived in a small suburb of New Orleans like Chalmette, Kenner, and Gretna.)
 
We found out this morning that we do not have to drive the 3.5 hours on our own from Natchitoches to Baton Rouge, and then back.  Instead, the Many (MAN-knee) elders are going to pick us up at 5 AM tomorrow and we are going to drive with them for an hour to Alexandria.  They are going to park their car at a fast food restaurant and then all four of us are going to join the office elders in "the transfer van" for the final 2.5 hours of our journey.  
 
[Wanna see what the transfer van looks like? Go to our mission website and scroll down to where it says Zone Conference: November 2012 and watch the video!]
 
We should arrive at the Baton Rouge Stake Center (where I went to church a year ago, in my first area) around 8:30 and we'll have a chance to unload Sister Hartshorn's luggage and bicycle before the "Train the Trainer" meeting begins at 9:15.  We'll be in there for about an hour, and then the real transfer meeting will begin.  We'll find out who our new companions are at that meeting.  Then we'll have lunch before we pack up a new set of luggage and head back to Alexandria, and then finally Natchitoches.

Miracles from working with members

Here's the new blog update:

Elder Christiansen (our district leader, who goes home in ten days) has been focusing a lot on how weekly planning should go, particularly how we can use weekly planning to help align the keys between the missionaries and the members. Yesterday we felt prompted to call our ward mission leader - Brother Johnson - in the afternoon to check in with him about our plans for the day. We did not have any set appointments for Sunday, which is unusual for us. We let him know that we hoped to see Nicki G and Matthew H, as well as Sister Robertson. We asked him if there was anyone else he thought we should see.

Calling him was an act of faith. We were pretty confident in our plans, but we have learned enough about Brother Johnson to know that he wants to feel included. And he should be! He's the ward mission leader! We were not sure if he was going to give us any feedback that would change our course of action, but we wanted to be more like the missionaries in the Preach My Gospel DVDs (who called their ward mission leader every day to report on their work).

Brother Johnson said that he would LOVE to go see Nicki and Matthew with us. We were humbled by his willingness to give up his Sunday afternoon to go teaching with us. We arranged to knock on his door at 4 PM so that he could follow us to Nicki and Matthew's home.

Because of the prompting (from the Holy Ghost) to call Brother Johnson, we were able to:

1.Show Brother Johnson that we cared about him and wanted to involve him.
2. Invite the Spirit into three different homes because of the powerful, real testimony of a non-missionary.
3. Get the mother of one of our investigators to open up to us and share her concerns.
4. Find a new investigator.
5. Invite said new investigator to be baptized in the first lesson.
6. Have a positive, genuine interaction with the non-member husband of one of our returning members.
7. Help Brother Johnson make contact with a man who might hire him to do some remodeling work (which would help the Johnson family financially).
8. Teach two lessons to investigators with an active member present.
9. End the week with 19 lessons taught.

I know that working with ward leaders (instead of above them) is the will of God. I know that I need to do a better job in the future of communicating with and seeking guidance from my local leaders. I know that the principle of repentance allows me to assess my life on a continuing basis and make changes where I need to.

New Apartment in Natchitoches

Well, we finally got to move into our new apartment.  My new address is:

Sister Ryan Palmer
810 Woodyard Dr
Apartment 2
Natchitoches, LA 71457

 

It is a two-story, one-bedroom, one-bath apartment that has its own little dock along the Cane River Lake.  Two weeks ago, our mission president came up to Natchitoches for a Specialized Training/District Council and he checked out our apartment to make sure it was kosher.  He told us that we should have district meeting out on the dock some time!  Sister Hartshorn thinks he was joking, but I don't know why he would joke about something like that. 

We spent a fair amount of time cleaning our new apartment, since the previous tenants didn't clean it very well before leaving, and the landlord lives 90 minutes away, in Alexandria.  Our refrigerator and freezer were keeping things warmer than room temperature, so we called our landlord and got a new refrigerator delivered on Saturday.  It doesn't smell at all, unlike the old one, which had formerly frozen corn and green beans developing some pretty cool bacterial and fungal colonies.

 

We helped a less-active convert to our church move on Friday.  Her trailer park was closing down because the cess pool was getting out of hand.  She moved a quarter of a mile up the road into a much nicer trailer.  What kills me is that we went over every other day for a week before her move and helped her clean and pack, but she apparently didn't do any packing on her own.  Admittedly, she didn't have any boxes to move her stuff, so there wasn't much she could do.  The elder's quorum and young men helped her move, along with one of the counselors in the bishopric.  Brother Clark was pretty frustrated by how much work still remained to be done.  The cool thing was that when I was in Metairie, one of our recent converts - Claudia M- asked us to help her good friend (a non-member) move from her family's house to a one bedroom apartment.  Claudia's friend was a hardcore hoarder.  She refused to throw away moldy potatos.  Her clothes stank.  She didn't have enough room in her old bedroom to hang them up or fold them, so they just got thrown on the floor and on top of each other.  However, this friend was the daughter of professional movers, and so she taught us a "mover's trick" for moving unorganized stuff.  (It's not really that fancy of a trick...you just lay a bedsheet on the ground and fill it with stuff.  Then you tie non-adjacent corners to each other and make the sort of bag a hobo would use.)

Helping Claudia's friend in Metairie meant that I was prepared for Nicole's trailer on Friday.  I knew exactly what to do.  We put all of her bedsheets in a pile so that we could fill each bedsheet, one by one, with clothing, shoes, DVDs, books, and dolls.  When the men were transporting her big stuff (e.g. washing machine, dining room table, etc), we sisters did what women do best: we cleaned and organized.  By the time they came back, we had about 9 bedsheets worth of stuff ready to be loaded in the back of Brother Clark's horse/mule trailer. 

President Rasmussen (our Elder's Quorum President) was really appreciative.  It kinda surprised me.  I mean, all we did was put clothes in bedsheets. 

After about 2 hours, the move was completed and President Rasmussen, his son Wyatt, and the young men left for a camping trip.  We were concerned that leaving at 5 PM was not going to be enough time for them to make it to camp and set up their tents before sunset, but I guess they did alright.  They walked 20 miles the following day (Saturday)! 

Yesterday, I told Brother Martin (one of the Young Men's leaders) that I would have paid $20 to hike 20 miles, and he told me, "Well, you give me the money, and we'll get you set up!  Anything to make a buck!"