Are we in the party branch?

Monday evening we braved the snowstorm for the first time and went to our Salt Lake Second Branch ( more like a stake conference in attendance!) for their Hail and Farewell party. The branch is made up of all missionaries, mostly senior missionaries and some young Elders and sisters. Every few months they have this party to hail the new missionaries and pay farewell to those going home within the next two months. It had a cowboy theme and was lots of fun. It was a potluck, so I had an hour to throw together what I called missionary first day surprise. I made beef rice-a-roni and added black beans, tomatoes, and cheese. I baked it and took it, but not many people ate it. Ha! I ran into CJ Shults from Mesa, a single woman whom I have known for about twenty years who is also serving a mission there. We sang lots of cowboy songs, had a crazy auction with funny money, two young elders sang and played the guitar, and a counselor in the mission presidency recited cowboy story poems in his cowboy hat and angora chaps. All the new ones had to introduce ourselves, and the ones leaving had to speak briefly. One Elder had a big brass gong for anyone who spoke too long or said something really funny or crazy. We think we will really like our branch.