Service, Service, and more Service

Hay bailing, lots of work

11 hours of service over the space of two days, my goodness! 

What better way is there to spend our time than in the service of our fellow man! 

Hey there, it's your friendly out of your neighborhood missionary. This past week we had a big slump. 

Because of damage that was caused by previous missionaries, we had to turn in our truck to the shop to repair a small scratch of paint about the size of a dime. We were without a truck for three days. 

During this time we did lots of service. 

We helped a non member family move out and into their new home (both in the same town). We had made a great impression on them and they even invited us over for dinner sometime in the next week. 

Haybailing

I went on an exchange to Kamiah, about 45 minutes south of where we live. There we also had a good amount of service. We bailed hay for about 2 hours. I have never bailed hay before and found it quite fun, except for those little bits and pieces that make it into your cloths and poke you like tiny needles that wasn't very fun. 

We then on the next day of service helped a member put up bird netting and Chicken wire around his duck coup? Is that what it's called? It took us a lot longer than we would have thought, that bird netting is a pain to put up, it sticks to everything. It was a fun challenge. 

Huckleberrys, they were small but delicious

On the next day of service the members came to me, and asked for help building a Chicken coup. 200 bails of hay, 11 hours of moving, 40 feet of wire, 20 feet of netting, 5 Huckleberry bags. 4 Ensign magazines, 3 lessons, 2 full bags of sand and the lie that it's slightly cloudy. (to the tune of 12 Days of Christmas...)

This makeshift song basically sums up our entire week. We aren't very busy with the work, so in order to try and keep busy we help out with as much service as possible. 

I picked my first Huckleberries the other day. 

We herd the member wrong and thought we would be sharing a message, but instead, we all picked Huckleberries in our proselyting cloths. Luck would have it that non of us got the juice on our shirts by natural causes. I got a rotten berry chucked at me unknowingly and got a small spot on my sleeve, but that's was it. 

A cool local history school, where we helped some members supplies back in

It was a fun week, and I got a few pictures for ya'll, so I hope you enjoy. 

The way we got out truck back after dropping it off.
Not enough rooms? Modern problems require modern solutions, back it in! 

A nice view, they are all over Orofino

A cool location we saw on our way home one day

A fate we can't escape

The biggest Chalupa I have ever had.
This was my face when I realized that I had to finish.

Life is fraught with many different roads, courses and decisions, whatever word you choose to use. Here in Orofino life has so far made choices for us. For instance poor internet connection and cell service. Getting in contact with people can be a real struggle for us, but now that we can go around outside the game has changed. 

Just yesterday we were able to get back in contact 2 people we had lost since the Quarantine started. 

The first - he was a nice guy, seemed surprised to see us. He told us that for some reason we stopped coming by and he didn't know why, though he quickly caught on when we started talking about the virus and its affects on missionary work. He seemed interested to meet with us again, but unfortunately he said the next best time would have to be on the 25th. 

Orofino is a beautiful place.

The other we met with was an interesting character. The second we knocked on his door his dogs started going crazy, which was promptly followed by a very loud SHUT UP! followed by some other colorful words.

He told us that he was an old retired prison guard. He said he was nervous to find someone from his work at the door, but was relieved to see us instead.

He told us that at the time we were talking with and teaching him he was sent in a good place, he then told us that he was find now and was not in need of our help. Friendly guy though, we will have to keep trying with him.

The other day we were didn't have much going for us, so we decided to call up some of the people we teach to check up on them and see if we can do anything for them. We ended up spending about 1 hours and 40 minutes in on one call.

Lots of nice views, long drives and relaxing colors. It's a great place.

We teach this older couple that really struggles with rambling. It's not just that they ramble though, it's also the discussions we have. At some point in the middle of it our discussion one of them will make a comment about a scripture that is unrelated to the topic, quote it and begin a new discussion. It doesn't help that they over complicate almost everything we talk about. I am glad the gospel is simple enough that a child can understand. Other than that we are making progress.

Now the fate we can't escape is boredom, because the work is really slow for us, it is difficult for us to do lots of work with our current restrictions. But hey, you do what you can.

Far Far Away on Somebody's Plain

The New Zone

Well, in Orofino everything is at least 30 minutes away. Today we went to the closest city which is about 50 minutes away, that's the norm for us. We are a driving companionship.

The work is slow down here, but it isn't boring. The place is beautiful and most places we go we are either at the bottom of the valley or at the top of it, both have great views.

We haven't been able to get much contact with people we teach, just a few here and there. The one we have taught since I've been here is an older Seventh Day Adventist who have a few extra beliefs. They seem to like us a lot, but when we were about to commit them to read the Book of Mormon, they challenged us to read some of their literature as well, so now I have some homework to do.

My Last Zone R.I.P Sisters

It's funny, right after our lesson we asked if there was anything we could do to help them, and they told us they were building an extra room in their home. When we offered them our help in building they said that it was an answer to their prayers. They were very grateful to find us willing to help.

Service of pulling weeds along some tracks.
It was hot and a pleasant view. 

The End of the Line for Us

Well,  because I'm short on time and on stories I will end it here, but not without a cool picture or two.