A Hot June, a Rodeo and The 4th of July

June has been a month filled with fun activities, meeting with lots of people and finding ways to stay cool. With temperatures soaring up to 108° F it has been an interesting time doing our work to find and teach people without getting too over heated.

The Beef Empire Days parade was pretty good, even though it only had one band.

But spending some time in our air-conditioned car or air-conditioned buildings has made it possible to survive, and also the fact they have dry heat here in Kansas, not heat and humidity.
One of the first things we did was to participate in the Beef Empire Days Festival. The highlight of this for us was the Rodeo.

Pictured at right is the message board at the Rodeo. It really helped us to know what was going on.

Sister Howlett doesn’t ever remember actually going to a rodeo, only seeing movies or reading about them. Elder Howlett remembers them from his childhood. So this was a great evening for us.

It was lots of fun to enjoy it with two recent converts, Gill Asebedo and Deanne Peat, who went with us.

Two of our friends, Gill Asebedo at left and Deanne Peat are here with Elder Howlett in the stands at the rodeo.

Both our friends have lived here in Garden City for a long time so they could explain a lot about the rodeos and other things. We had a great time seeing all the different entries of bronco and bull riding, calf roping, girls’ barrel racing, etc. How those men could actually stay on the bucking broncos or the bucking bulls was hard to believe.

At right you can see one of the contestants trying to stay on the bucking bronco, but it looks like he may be bucked off.

It seemed to us that they would have their brains scrambled and their bones all broken, but they all got up from their falls off the animals. If they were lucky they were able to be scooped off by another rider coming to pull them off. The clowns played a very important part in the evening as they distracted the mad bulls from chasing and goring the riders as they escaped the area.

At left notice the clown in the red barrel waiting to see what will happen to the man on the bull. The clown will help distract the bull by lifting up the barrel and running with his feet stuck out the bottom of the barrel. This was fun to watch.

It is another world than the ones we have been used to, but it is so important to lots of people here in Kansas. Cowboys, cowgirls and the western style of living are very popular here. What a fun time we had, and enjoying it with our friends made it even better.

Also during June we attended a funeral for the sister of a good friend in our ward. Bessie Tillies’s sister,

Notice here to the right Bessie Tillies is holding a flower from her sister, Nellie's funeral bouquet.

Nellie, was a great friend to lots of people in the town and she helped many. Our friend Bessie and her son Travis will miss their beloved sister and aunt very much.

It was also a fun evening when Elder Howlett took Sister Howlett out for her birthday dinner and he invited two of their recent converts and friends, Gill Asebedo and Emma Curnette. The buffet dinner was delicious!

Seated from left to right are Elder Howlett, Sister Howlett Gill Asebedo, and Emma Curnette, some of our special friends.


The 4th of July was quite different in Garden City. It was a great day for a parade, but there wasn’t one. There weren’t enough entries to have a parade. It has been so hot here in Garden City that everything is dry and the County authorities were afraid that any fireworks would ignite the dry prairie.

As you can see here to the right, everything is so dry because not much grows without rain or sprinkled water around here.

So all the planned evening fireworks in Garden City were cancelled and most people went to visit other towns where the fireworks were not outlawed, therefore the parade “fizzled” out. The sale of fireworks was also forbidden in Finney county, so many people went elsewhere to celebrate.

This Rhinocerus is just one of the many different kinds of animals in the Finney County Zoo for all to see.

However, we had a great time visiting the local Zoo and then listening to a terrific band concert in the downtown park pavilion. It was a couple of hours of band music to remember our American history, the sacrifice of the military for our freedom and the creation of our great country.

At right you can see several kids marching around in front of the band. They were waving their flags to the tune "It's a Grand Old Flag."

When the band played a rousing medley of patriotic songs we enjoyed watching the kids in the crowd march around with flags to “It’s a Grand Old Flag” and “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Enjoying this with friends made it even more special.

That day ended with a traditional barbeque dinner at a friend’s home. We had a great time and a delicious dinner. What a wonderful ending of a special day to remember our Independence and the Founding Fathers who gave up so much to create our country for us. We are so fortunate for our noble heritage.