Home away from home

Greetings from Mill Hall and Lock Haven, PA! What a week it has been – we will try to briefly summarize. This part of central Pennsylvania is very rural and our Stake is huge. It takes about 3 hours to drive from one end of the Stake to the other! We are coming to realize that church members just drive a lot! Today was Mormon Helping Hands Project and about 400 members came from all over to help clean up the Fairgrounds that had been damaged by severe floods last September. Very impressive to be among such devoted people.

Our little apartment is clean and has most of the conveniences, except air conditioning and a garbage disposal. It is very close to a pretty creek with fish and ducks and lovely trees which makes a pretty walk for me each day. Elder Abbott has found a pretty good running course as well. So we are settled in our apartment and I did get my heart’s desire with a comfortable bed and a bathtub – I forgot to wish for a garbage disposal!!

We are shadowing a great set of Elders and we have “helped” them teach a few lessons. They will leave us on our own very soon, and that scares me a little. It is one thing to know about the Gospel and have a testimony – it is another thing entirely to be able to explain things, ask the right questions, and guide an investigator in the right direction. Elder Abbott is good at it, I am still struggling. I like the concept that as the investigator is learning line upon line, we missionaries are learning to teach in the exact same way! We are teaching a nice lady named Millie whose husband was baptized last year, and a young adult named Vickie who has had no real religious background. Both are coming along – Millie is scheduled to be baptized May 4.

Our little Branch as about 40 active members – there were about 30 at church last week. No Young Men, 2 Young Women, and 7 children in Primary. The Leadership of the Branch is a strong nucleus of people who seems to take turns serving in the key positions. They are an interesting bunch – several are professors at the nearby university and as a whole they are well educated and strong in their LDS background. The rest of the people on the ward list are less active and struggle in a big way with life. There is very little in between, which is a burden on the stalwart families. We are here to support the ward leadership, take some of the burden off them and do our best to find families interested in finding happiness through living the gospel. The Branch has been very welcoming. They say they have prayed for us to come. I have gone with the Relief President on some visits that would break your heart. Please pray for us and for our little Branch.

We are hoping to get involved in the community soon. We will be meeting with the Historical Society next week and will be helping out with a 5K run this coming Saturday. This community has a strong cultural identity with lots of activities that need volunteers. There is a summer playhouse close by and we hope to get involved in that – how fun will that be? The idea is for us to be a visible representative of the church and hopefully get lots of people asking questions. It will keep us busy too.

There are Amish living here and last week on the way to church we stopped at an intersection at the same time as a horse and buggy – we also saw a buggy tied up in the Wal-Mart Parking Lot. Pretty bizarre!! We took a nice ride yesterday and saw more Amish doing their farm work with a huge wagon pulled by 8 horses. It felt like we had gone back in time.

We miss you all and hope you are all well. Call us in the evenings and we can chat – we miss talking to you. This great adventure has turned into a wonderful blessing for both of us. We are happy to be here. Love to all, Sister Abby

Just wanted to add a bit more. As Mom said, there are a lot people with somewhat crazy life stories and challenges in the Branch. Hopefully we can help. I’ve attached a picture of our place and the stream that goes nearby.

Love,
Dad