pretty great out here if I do say so myself. The weather was
ridiculously warm this week and everyone tells me to enjoy it, because
usually by this time of the year it should be really cold. It's a
pretty dry warm and everyone here just talks about how great it is,
but I'm just used to it because it feels exactly like Utah!
Monday was pretty fun! The Bakers rescheduled for FHE to Tuesday, so
we went out to the Roeselers again and we helped Bro Roeseler try to
change his brake pads and oil, but we ran into a billion little
problems because the last time he had his oil changed, he had it done
at walmart. Lesson for the day is if you want something done right, do
it yourself. If you want something done wrong, take it to Walmart!
Tuesday we stopped by Tom's because he needed some help modifying his
new trailer. As we were working, this guy on a jazzy rolls up. Now
everyone knows this guy, he's super nice and just rolls around
Palmerton all day. He doesn't have any legs and he's just not in great
shape, he's also a Jehovah's Witness! The JW (Geno) and Tom are
buddies and he loves talking to us. He needed some help because his
wheelchair lift in his car wouldn't fit his 4-wheeled scooter. Tom
remembered one of his buddies had an old ramp that we could put on
Geno's trailer hitch, so we went and picked that up. We put it on, but
his chair didn't fit, so we had to rig it up so the chair barely fit!
It was a bunch of running back and forth in Palmerton! Geno was super
appreciative and anytime we would see someone he'd say "these guys are
mormons!" Then he'd turn to us and say "I'm not ashamed to say I'm
with mormons!" Yeah you better not be ashamed Geno. Anyways It was fun
helping him out! Tom kept saying he wanted a picture of the two
mormons and the JW working together. After we were done Tom kept
saying that we should get extra points in heaven for helping a JW! If
only that's how it worked Tom!
Wednesday we went over and helped Bro Schoenberger take his A/C units
out of his house and rake all of the leaves in the yard. He had this
insane backpack leaf blower he let me use and man that thing had
power!!! We then headed out to the Kellars to help them out. We moved
a bunch of wood for him, fixed a bookshelf and did a few other small
jobs. I love going over there because they are so nice and funny and
old so it's good to help out! They always try to do stuff themselves
but we go over and take on the hard stuff so they don't work
themselves too much!
Thursday we had Zone Training. I walked into the Nazareth chapel and
saw a brown and gold volleyball in the back of the gym and I was like
there is no way. I walked over and low and behold it was a Davis Dart
Volleyball. A Davis Dart volleyball all the way out in PA??? There's a
Sister in my zone who went to Viewmont with me and she couldn't
believe it when I showed her! Then was talking to my Zone Leader,
Elder Clark who's from Bear Lake about it. I was like "yo how did this
get here?" and he said "You can find trash no matter where you are!"
After the training we went to help out Daniel Baker raking his leaves,
and while we were doing it he stepped on a rake and it came up and
smacked him in the face hahahaha. He came to a lesson with us for
Casper, and the kids progressing really well! I'm pretty happy about
it! Afterwards we went up to Albrightsville, which is a place neither
me or Elder Stimpson have been. A new family moved in up there so we
went to have dinner with them. They are super awesome! It's a mother,
her son and her daughter. Now her son Harry and her daughter Cira are
probably in their late 20's early 30's or something like that. Their
last name is Zambrano or Parraga, but no one can usually pronounce
their last name so they tell us to just call them by their first
names. Anyways they speak Spanish and they have a heavy spanish accent
and a less active family in Albrightsville, The Macarenos have gotten
to know them pretty well, so they were over as well. All of them were
speaking spanish at one point, and I now know how foreign speaking
missionaries feel when they first get to the field and can't speak the
language! Anyways they are super nice and really fun, and I think they
will help us a lot with the Missionary work in Albrightsville!
Friday we were gonna have exchanges with our Zone Leaders. They called
us up and say "find us the best chinese place in your area and we will
meet you there at 1" Well we live in Lehighton, there's literally
nothing here! We ended up finding this little chinese buffet and went
there for lunch and YOOO It was some good stuff! Cheap too for a
buffet!! We had exchanges and I took Elder Fernandes over to meet Tom.
Elder Fernandes was in the Marines for 4 years before his mission, so
he talked to Tom about it for a bit. It brought up memories of Tom's
son being in the service and Tom started crying, which has never
happened before! I took him over to meet Jeff the Jew and they talked
a bunch about the service too! Then Jeff gave me a present for feeding
him taco bell a week ago, he said he really appreciated it and I'm the
first missionary to feed him all 15 years he's been visiting with
them! We made a few stop by's but no one was home until we went out to
the Kennedy's. Sister Kennedy was home and she used to live in Hawaii,
and Elder Fernandes has family from there so they talked about it for
a bit. Elder Fernandes forgot his nametag back at the apartment so we
went back to get it and walked the streets of Palmerton and there
really wasn't anyone to talk to, so me and Elder Fernandes just kept
talking and he's a really cool guy!
Saturday Elder Stimpson and Elder Clark came back to exchange and we
were sitting around our apartment for a bit. Elder Fernandes was like
"so the question is... Chinese buffet?" We all laughed because we
thought he was joking, but he was serious so we all headed out to the
Chinese Buffet again! Makes me miss Wok Lin with all the guys back
home. We got a phone call that a new family moved in, The Martinez
family, so we headed out to meet them! They were really nice and they
have 3 sons, age 15, 13 and 9! So we finally have youth/young men! We
had a lesson with Charles out at the church, and we were about to
leave when our Branch President rolled up and asked if we could help
him clean the church! We were cool with it because our dinner
appointment cancelled. President Relitz took us out to eat after too!
We went to Jeff's later and he did a natal chart for us, which is
where all the planets and stuff were at the exact moment you were
born! It's like a patriarchal blessing based on the planets and it's
pretty interesting to read!
Church was good as always on Sunday! During Sacrament Casper sat by me
and handed me his phone so he would't use it and pay attention and I
was like Yo!! That's awesome! During Priesthood, President Relitz was
conducting, and he was asking us if we got fed enough and we said yes
and he was like "I can definitely tell you aren't starving! One of you
has eaten a lot since you've been here! I won't say names!" Well he
was joking about me! haha but a member, Bro Unger thought that he was
referring to Elder Stimpson so he called Elder Stimpson fat like 3
times before the end of church!!! The struggle of being in a driving
area! After church we stopped by Tom's and in our conversation he said
something about us and the cross, and we were like no we don't
celebrate the cross. We explained it to him and he actually really
understood our point and thought it was very interesting and liked it!
One day that guy will be a member!!! We headed out to the Roeselers
for dinner, and his wife had to leave soon after we got there. Bro
Roeseler realized he'd never shown us around his house so he did and
all of the sudden he pulled out these wheels you attach to your shoes!
He said he wanted Heely's when they came out, but he could never find
them in his size, so he went and made these "wheelies" for himself! I
strapped them on and started zooming around the house, he slapped on
his roller skates, Elder Stimpson grabbed a scooter, we moved all the
furniture and turned his house into a roller skating rink! It was
awesome! Pictures will be below!!
Altogether it was a fun week filled with service! Never did I imagine
I'd be helping out a JW! As for our investigators, Jon the ice cream
miracle, works two jobs and it's hard for us to meet with him, but
he's pretty prepared! Casper is doing great, he's just gotta be to
church 2 more times! Jenny got a job and she works a lot, so it's
getting tough to reteach her and to teach her son Christian. Hopefully
we will get things worked out this week to teach all of them! I hope
you all are doing great! I miss you all a lot and I keep you in my
prayers! Have a great week everyone!
Elder Dylan Smith
Here's the trash that I found straight outta Davis High School
Here's a donkey I found while raking leaves!!!
And here's Bro Roeseler on his skates with his daughter Emily, Elder Stimpson on a scooter and me with my new tracting wheelz.
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