This week, we picked up the elders and were off to the Trinity Lutheran Church to serve turkey dinner to people off the street.  They have a dinner once a month called the “Soul Kitchen” where all are welcome.  It was held in the basement of the church that was built in 1904.  It had a few good interest points, one of which is Tiffany stained glass in the ceiling of the “chapel” and in the windows.  They were “priceless” and beautiful.  Most of the people were very humble and sweet.  A lot of them seemed to be missing their teeth and a comb for their hair.  We had over 200 show up and I swear I washed every one of their plates!  The ladies in the kitchen were very kind but really needed a lesson from the Relief Society on how to serve.  It took five of them three minutes to fill one plate.  It was like the five stooges tripping over each other.  I had to snicker.  We came home feeling physically tired but spiritually strengthened.  Looking forward to next month but this time I won’t be the last one out of the kitchen.  Dang elders ditched us and left early with the other two elders from Tamaqua.  Stinkers.  They must have had appointments. 

Anita Italian catholic "stuck in the 60's"  Can out talk ANYONE~!!!! 

We do Meals On Wheels twice a week, on Wed. and Fridays.  Thanks goodness we have a GPS or we would have been going crazy.  All of the people on Meals are very nice.  Several are only living in the moment, if you know what I mean.  A few, we just leave at the door and never even see them.  Some we knock and go in to put the meal in the fridge.  There are a couple that seem to want to talk or visit.  This should prove to be interesting. 

This is Tony and Scoobie Do his dog.  Super nice  has MS  One of our "favorites"!!!

We finally got the internet!!  Ta Da!!  So we found a Staples and bought a printer.  Except for Walmart, they were the only ones we could find that carried printers in this big city.  haha  Thanks to Brett, Ross stopped his frustration and got it running.   Took a few hours!!!

Knocking on "less active doors"  

We had our first visit to the hospital to give a blessing with the elders to a less active who had had a stroke.  After, we went with the elders on a few appointments and finding less actives. 

Not too many answered the door, we are finding that isn't unusual.  The elders are amazing, they don't seem to get discourage but keep on knocking.  We personally get cold, the wind always seems to be blowing bringing the "wind chill" factor down 10 degrees or less.    

These are OUR Elders!!  Elder Newbold from slc, Leavitt from Idaho.
 They teach the Dominicans and we are learning to
speak spanish with them!!  

Windshield of our Lexus!!!

This was the coldest day so far.  We can tell it is going to be a long winter!! We must look for some thermals

Super hard to to scrap off!!!

On Fri., we drove with our Elders to join our other set of Elders (Parker & Barker)  in Tamaqua (about 25 min. drive) for our District Meeting which included a set of Sister and one set of elders in Pottsville making a total of eight missionaries.   We had to make it back for Meals.

 We don't seem to ever get the same route.
  
On Sat. we drove to Pottsville (everything is "villes" or "town") fifty mins. away to pick up the Elders, get them back to Hazleton, go grocery shopping, made some sandwiches so we could head out to Reading for Stake Conference.  We ended up the day with going with the Elders to the Adult meeting in Reading.  Reading (Red-ing) is a REAL standard ward house which was nice to see and be in however because of the numbers we had to meet in the high school for the Sunday Morning session (1st time to attend a stake conference in a high school!!!)  Reading is an hour and a half to drive to which made it a very long day.  The thick fog didn't help the driving situation going and coming home on saturday.   It was also Super foggy going and coming on Sunday morning for the regular session.

Nov. 3rd Sun.    Sunday we were given callings by President Molano.  Ross will be the new second counselor and I will be teaching the Temple Prep class. This week was fun.  We had Kyle and Amy spend Sunday night with us.  They brought delicious donut dough that we smoked up the apartment cooking but they were awesome.  It was kinda sad when it came time to settle down for the night; they had to bring their own bedding, the heater stopped working and they slept in the smoke.  Poor Amy's eyes turned red but we all survived.  The next morning, we left early for the 2 hour drive to Philly.  Wow, what a city.  There was way too much to see at one visit but we did our best.  In a nut shell, we saw the Liberty Bell, did a Independence Hall tour, visited Ben Franklin's grave, went into the church our forefathers worshipped in. visited the US Mint (where Ross lost his watch), saw the oldest still functioning street/alley, ate an authentic Philly sandwich, etc.....  It was great (would have been greater if I had worn flats instead of heels, ouch!).  We got through in time to meet up with the other senior couples for a tour at the construction site of the new temple.  WooHoo!  A couple of us got there early so the project manager (Elder Carr) sent us over early, Ross got a worker to open the gate so we could go in and take pictures.  Ooops!  NO ONE is allowed in there but we got a few great pictures before being hustled out.  We also were given a piece of granite from the bottom of the foundation.  What a keep sake!  After our meeting, Kyle and Amy left for home and we went to dinner with the group.  Three of the 12-ish couples ended up at the Mission Home for the night.  The Crumps (from Bluffdale) drove us home the next morning on their way back to their place in Montrose.  Good down to earth people.  During the rest of the week, we did our Meals On Wheels and attended the DC Temple.  Since it was our Stake Temple Day, there was a special meeting on the seventh floor (the Priesthood floor) after the session we went to.  What a beautiful edifice!    

Kyle & Amys donuts  yum yum yum!!!

Oldest continuously inhabited street in  America  Elfreth Alley  

US mint Philadelphia

Washington DC Temple  

Liberty Bell Phladelphia

Constitution Signing Room Philadelphia

Philly Cheese Steak Sandwitches Downtown Philadelphia 

First Week in Pennsylvania

Beautiful sunsets!

Lots of windmills in Kansas

                                                 









With nervous excitement, we pulled in to the Mission Office on Friday Oct 25th 2013 around 2:00 pm.  The Pres. was in a Zone Leaders Meeting and so we got acquainted with the office staff til President Gary Anderson and his wife came out and invited us in.  We were tired and hungry but in we went.  The room was filled with very young missionaries and we introduced ourselves and bore our testimonies.  Later, they invited us to either spend the night or travel on to our new assignment which is MLS (member, leadership, support), in Hazleton.  We were told of a great double wide trailer with covered parking.

Sounded awesome so we opted to drive on.  After two more hours of traveling, we arrived at our second floor apartment and parking is several yards away (NOT covered).  We quickly unloaded the car just in time for the elders (four of them) to come to help us.  Great timing!  We took a little time to get acquainted and they offered to drive us around.  By this time, it is getting dark and they took us into their teaching area which is very depressed.  By this time, not having eaten lunch, we mentioned food.  Being missionaries, they directed us to a Philly sandwich shop.  Its around 8:30pm.  That was a quick $55 we hadn't planned on.  After arriving back home alone and tired, we made our bed only to find there weren't any blankets and we hadn't brought any.  We slept under a robe and a fleece throw.  We couldn't figure out the heater but we were too tired to care.  The next morning (Sat.), we unpacked.  The apartment is small and cozy.  We have two bedrooms, and living room/kitchen with a one bum bathroom and separate washer/dryer in the hall.

After getting acquainted with our new home, we went exploring in the car and found a Walmart where we were able to buy a blanket!! and some food.  On Sunday, we picked up Elder Leavitt and Elder Newbold for church at 7:20.  What the heck, early but we'll get use to it.   The branch building is in Hometown, four townships away.  Once there, we met our new branch president, Pres. Molano.  He is from Columbia and is very strong in the church.  His accent is also very strong even thought he has lived in the US for 30 years.  There were lots of handshaking and introducing ourselves.  The branch is very small and covers a sizable area. With all the extra meetings (PEC and branch council), we didn't get home til around 3:00 pm.  This is going to be interesting!

The rest of the week was pretty much settling in, staring at the walls, and taking the the elders to a few appointments. We did do our first Meals On Wheels.  Delivering meals to shut-ins is a great way of getting to know the area AND a way of getting to know people AND do a good deed.  Anita, the lady over it, is a real kick.  She is in her late (very late) 50's and stuck in the 60's.  Anita is a real keeper, she is great.  For Halloween but got invited to dinner by the Fairalls (you will be hearing a lot more about them later), Sis. Fairall can totally out talk anybody I have ever heard.  She is in her mid-60's, a real mover and shaker.  She and her husband (the High Priest group leader, he is one of four total in the branch) took us out to dinner. We don't have a radio, TV or internet and our phones aren't completely working so we are going a little stir crazy.  Guess this is what is known as culture shock.  We did get the internet ordered but it will be at least two weeks.  Erg!

Our cute cozy living room

Kitchen/dining

master bedroom (king bed!!)

The wall Elder Wilson stares at.

Quickly Leaving WOW

We entered the MTC the morning of Oct 14th and spent one full week of Preach My Gospel.  Most of the group left but we were to continue on to train for the office machines, programs, etc.  On our first day (21st), we were in class with three other couples who had their pictures on the wall but ours were absent.  On a break, we called the mission office with feelings of concern.  The secretary strongly advised us to call the president even though he was driving to an appointment.  When we did so, he was surprised to find we hadn't been informed of our assignment change!  WHAT?!  We were to be MLS (member, leadership support) and were to come soon.  We checked ourselves out of the glorious MTC and raced home.  In record time, we had packed everything we could think of to shove in the car only to find out later that it WASN'T everything we needed.  We quickly text the kids that we were leaving..  Tammy's phone immediately sounded off with all sorts of beeps and rings. We thought everyone might want to see what happens when you pack in only 2 hours.  

We were able to tearfully hug and kiss Rob, Melissa and the kids and Marci before heading out.  Some thought it was a joke even as we entered Wyoming which is where we made our first nights stay.  As we traveled along, we started thinking of things we may have forgotten like: the checkbook (Ross had $1 in his wallet), coats, Tammy's scriptures, etc.  Our checking account was actually in the red but that wasn't going to stop us.  We stopped in Cheyenne, next night was Omaha, then South Bend and finally Monroeville PA.  We learned that not all Marriott are created equal.  The more expensive didn't have breakfast, good to know.  Thank goodness for Marriott Rewards which paid for all our lodging (over 80,000 points).  We experienced high wind, saw tons of wonderful wind mills,  watched thousands of acres of dead corn fields then tons of rolling hills covered with trees.  We learned all about toll road, learned the meaning of love/hate situations with them.

...and we're off!

We received word today, from our President, that he needed us to come out as soon as possible, rather than leaving Friday. Our assignment has changed from being office missionaries to MLS missionaries. We're not sure exactly what that means yet, but the church is true, so off we go. We came home from the MTC, finished packing up the car and headed out. We made it to Cheyenne after 9pm.

Welcome to our mission blog!

Stay tuned for all our adventures in Pennsylvania.