Safe At Home
Returned Missionary Drive-By Parades By Cindy R. Williams
M
issionary drive-by parades are the new “welcome home” for returned missionaries during this global pandemic. With social distancing becoming a way of life, the tradition of open houses and speaking in sacrament meeting have ended for a time. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are known for being crafty, inventive, frugal and big on get-togethers. It’s no surprise that enterprising families have created a new way to celebrate the return of their missionaries. The Church chartered two Delta jumbo jets and brought U.S. and Canadian missionaries home from Guatemala on March 30, 2020. Once home, the missionaries entered a fourteen-day quarantine. Elder Chase Williams of Gilbert was one of those
Photo Courtesy Cindy R Williams
Elder Chase Williams returns home from his mission.
Photo Courtesy Cindy R Williams
Cindy Williams, Elder Chase Williams, Jeff Williams experienced a very different missionary homecoming during the pandemic.
missionaries. Williams says, “Since we are unable able to meet in our building currently, my mom suggested we do a ‘drive-by’ where we sit in camping chairs in our front yard and people drive by and wave and talk to us from their car windows.” “We invited the other missionaries that had been flown home early to be Continued on pg. 23
Photo by Duaine and Dianne Burden
Duaine and Dianne Burden opened Jalapeño Bucks in April 2015 in the family orange grove after years of making food for friends out of their home.
By Emily Jex Boyle
confess: I crave BBQ when the orange blossoms are out. Here in Mesa, it’s become a regular thing, dinner at Jalapeño Bucks with its “New Wave Mexican Soul Food” on the corner of one of Arizona’s oldest orange groves. We dig into our order of hot tortilla chips and fresh mango salsa along with plates of brisket quesadillas and Sure Crazy sauce. Sitting there, watching the last of the sun’s rays
Photo courtesy of Duaine and Dianne Burden
Duaine and Dianne Burden, founders of Jalapeño Bucks.
18 • ArizonaBeehive.com •
paint Red Mountain as Neil Young sings “Heart of Gold.” We take it in. For a moment, the world feels just about as right as it could. Their most popular dishes: the green chili shredded beef burrito with cheese and the brisket sandwich. After years of making sauces, salsas and burros from home for family and friends, Duaine and Dianne Burden, owners of Jalapeño Bucks, watched demand grow. With email/text lists of more than 650 people, the menu went out Monday and pick-up was Saturday from a fridge on the Burdens’ porch. Payment was on the honor system: leave money in the box. One weekend after rolling 30 dozen burritos, Duaine looked at Dianne and said, “I’m go-
ing to build you a restaurant.” It took two years to build. In April 2015, Jalapeño Bucks opened its doors on the Burden family’s orange grove in North Mesa, one of the oldest groves in Arizona. Duaine remembers Dianne’s hesitance in opening the restaurant:
“I kinda forced her to come,” he says. “But she seems to have had a change of heart after she looked at the cash register at the end of the day. The next work day, she got up an hour earlier and told me to get up.” On the second day, some local Boeing employees stopped in for lunch. One customer insisted on a brisket sandwich. They’d never made one, but it soon became a menu Continued on pg. 23
