One month anniversary

Hi All! We have officially been missionaries for one month now. Time has flown by for us – so much to do and so little time. We had our first baptism Friday evening when Millie Yoder was baptized by her husband Barry, who has only been a member for two months. Barry had a stroke a while ago and is rather unsteady, so another member, Bro. Grass, was also in the font. So many people all squashed into the small baptismal font. Bro Grass was there is make sure Barry didn’t lose his balance – his job was to pick up whoever fell down!! Luckily, no one did, but I have never seen anyone baptized in slow motion before – it took forever to get her completely underwater, but everything went well – no repeat necessary! It was Millie’s birthday too, so we had cake and ice cream afterwards at church and there was a good turnout of branch members. It took Dad over 2 hours to fill the font because we kept running out of warm water, but we were just happy that it all went pretty much as scheduled. We invited another new member, Bonnie, to come and she did. She even came to church today too. It is my hope that she and Millie become buddies and grow together in the gospel. Hey, it worked for Kathy and Fauna who didn’t know each other until I asked them to decorate together for a Relief Society meeting and the rest is history!!

The week had two major highlights. One was the baptism of course, and the second was our trip down to Hershey on Saturday. It was my early Mothers’ Day present – it was wonderful. The Hershey area is very pretty – the entire town was created by Mr. Hershey in the late 1800’s to make milk chocolate, which he pioneered in this country. He had no children and no siblings, so when he died his entire empire went to a trust that still runs the company and divides the profits among the town's schools, hospitals, etc. His wife, who died pretty early, wanted him to start a school for orphaned or disadvantaged children, and it is still running today. Completely free tuition, housing in very nice homes (there are about 25 homes just for these kids and one set of dorm parents in each house), food, clothing, and a weekly allowance for all the children, ages 4 to 18. Then the trust sends them off to college and pays for that!! I am amazed at the degree of commitment to keep this wonderful program growing. Anyway, the town is lovely, and the economy is good. Even during the depression, the Hershey company employed everyone who wanted a job, and found them a home to live in. The city had zero unemployment during the entire depression. Today, the schools in town are state of the art with indoor pools, skating rinks, etc and the Middle School is a showplace and the landmark of the town. The Middle School??? Amazing! We did not go to the amusement park at all but it has 11 cool roller coasters – Lynnie and I are going back to Hershey in September, so we will go on every one of the roller coasters! Sure we will. Just being around that much chocolate was exciting for me, and we learned all about how they make it which is pretty complex. NOTE TO GRANDCHILDREN: Milton Hershey would be a great person to write a Biography Book Report on-he is a definite pioneer, successful businessman and historical figure!! I can see everyone in class loving it and getting a piece of chocolate!! I am mad at myself for not knowing about him before this so all your Dads could report on this interesting man.

We are excited to talk to you all on Sunday. Hopefully, Ty can call us for a few minutes, and then have a chance to do a conference call with whoever can make it work. This is his last call home, so I would rather you talk to him than me if you have to choose.

Now that our upstairs neighbors have moved in with their two 100 lb dogs (honestly!), it is pretty noisy around here. The dogs only get taken out once a day to poop on the lawn that Dad has agreed to mow. They get frisky at 7:00am and start barking for some reason. The upstairs has only wood floors, so we hear them all night walking around. I am hoping I get used to it. I am making a list of all the reasons I love this little apartment – I will send it soon. The dogs will not be on the list.

Our love to every one of you. I am thinking about my wonderful, beautiful daughters in law and feeling so grateful for them in my life. They are such good wives and mothers and I love you all for the way you treat our sons. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO VICKY, SANDY, DEVON, BECKY, RACHAEL, AND HEATHER. We love you. Mom and Dad

Thunderstorms!

Hi Family! Pa and I are sort of shut in today because of bad thunderstorms. We did head out to take some nice flowery plants to two little ladies and invite them to the baptism tomorrow. They looked at us as if we were crazy – out in the weather all dressed up in missionary garb. The thunder kept me awake last night, mostly because the emergency siren kept going off and I kept wondering what it meant and what should I do. Today I asked the workers that are putting on a new roof on our little house (ironically, it is a metal roof!! In lightening land? I don’t understand that move!) what that siren meant. One said it was maybe a fire truck, one said it might mean calling the volunteer firemen to a fire started by lightening, one said maybe a flash flood warning (we are one block from the river), and the last one said maybe tornado warning. All these sounded scary to me, but when I asked what should I do when I hear the siren, they all said “Pull up the covers and go to sleep”!! Good advice?!@#$ It might work tonight since I am so tired….. Love to all, Abby and PaPa

Miracles!!

Hi to all! It has been a fast week for us. First of all, Spring in PA is unlike any spring I have ever known – it was cold and damp every day this week, especially in the mornings. We are talking in the 30’s and 40’s every morning, and then an afternoon temp of 50 if we are lucky! I brought very few winter clothes, but I am making due. Roseann Neff, our RS President, gave me one of her warm jackets and I am sure grateful. Sister Neff reminds me of Val – super loving, interested in everything and everyone, and loves the gospel. She has never been married, and hasn’t given up hope on that score. You would all love her.

We didn’t teach any lessons this week, but we are making big plans. We are beginning to realize that a big part of Missionary work is developing patience. It is hard to drum up investigators and we are on the Lord’s timetable, not our own. We actually had a few good conversations with each of our sons and loved their counsel – pretty great to get sage advice from our children. Tyler is having the same challenges as we are, and that is a unique experience. His life parallels ours in many ways, except he has been a missionary three times longer than we have! So, we have been praying for the Branch and asking all of our family to pray as well. I have always had a testimony about the power of prayer, but today we witnessed a miracle.

We were assigned to speak today in Sacrament Mtg, and as we watched people walk in, there were many we did not recognize. By the time the meeting started, the chapel (not really a chapel) was full. We gave our talks, and after the meeting we started trying to meet people. It turns out that TWO NEW FAMILIES MOVED INTO THE BRANCH THIS WEEK!! This is huge for a congregation of 38 people. One family is from Utah, starting a new job right out of college, and they have 2 children-the other is a couple that might not be permanent, but we are hoping they decide to stay here. Thank you, thank you for your prayers on behalf of the Lock Haven Branch. During the 3rd hour, our Branch President enlisted the efforts of all the Branch in rescuing the 100 members that are less active. We feel so empowered now that the Branch is involved in helping us do this work. It has been a wonderful day, and we are both humbled that the Lord is mindful of this little Branch.

We had a Branch Talent Show on Friday night. There was gymnastics and a family skit (remember Family Camp?), two original songs by Emily Burnworth who has the voice of an angel and is trying to break into musical theatre in NY, a bassoon duet (which you wouldn’t expect to be great, but it was!), a story told by our Branch Presidents’ father that had all 6 of the children entranced. There were displays of knitted baby clothes, a unique genealogy display, beautiful wooden ornaments make by our Branch President, some very good paintings, and probably the most unusual was a display on the Civil War by Brother Yoder who is a newly baptized member and whose wife is getting baptized this Friday. The children sat on the floor at his feet and he gave a very short, but heartfelt presentation as he read a few excerpts from a few of the books he had brought. He is not a public speaker, but a simple man who is passionate about the gospel and the Civil War. It was very short, and ended with him saying how sad he felt that so many people had to die, but each side was fighting for something they believed in. The dessert was made by the President’s son who is a trained chef and it was yummy. Less than 40 people attended, but according to Bro. Yoder, it was one of the best nights of his life. We feel so blessed to be associated with the people here.

Dad and I drove to Bald Eagle State Part (20 miles away) and took a long hike – it was cold, but sunny and a very pretty place. We decided to go back often to see it change into summer, and then fall.

Saturday we did our volunteer work at the Historical Society 5K run. Dad ran and I cooked 100 hotdogs. The sun came out for the runners for about 45 minutes, then it clouded over again. We talked to a few people about the church, and the winner of the men’s division told me that he is an inactive member who used to live in the area. We were happy that we could at least talk to people and explain a little about being a missionary.

Tonight we will go back to church for Young Women in Excellence/New Beginnings – we only have one young woman and a new 12 yr old, so the whole evening will be in honor of these two girls. I think that is wonderful.

The apartment above us is about ready for renters, and it looks like they will be here this week. It was nice not to have footsteps above us and toilets flushing,etc, but maybe they would like to hear about the gospel??

Our love to all, and please continue your prayers for us and the Branch. Have a wonderful week, everyone!!

Community Service

We started our community service today by helping get set up for the 5K run at the Historical Society headquarters ( the oldest house in town with a great history). We set up tents, filled contestants bags, and Dad mowed the lawn. On the day of the race, Saturday, we will be cooking burgers, helping with registration, etc. Dad is going to run too. The run is along the banks of the Susquehanna River – very pretty. The website for the historical society is clintoncountyhistory.com if you are interested to see where we will be spending 6 hours a week.

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

Major Road Trip!

Hi to everyone! It is our last day on the road and two whole weeks since we left home. It has been a wonderful two weeks. I have loved this road trip-easy for me to say, because I just sit here sipping soda, enjoying the scenery. We stop whenever we want to and look at something interesting like Fort Bridger in Wyo and the Abraham Lincoln Prestdential Library and Museum in Springfield. Our hotels have been amazing and big props to I80 rest stops that put all other rest stops to shame! Today we arrive in Pittsburgh and tonight we stay at President Topham's home, then tomorrow we drive 3 hours more to our little home in Mill Hall.

It is hard to sum up our week at the MTC. Inspiring, humbling,challenging seems about right. We came away with a great respect for our sons who spent 2 months preparing to serve-it is harder than we ever thought!

The highlight of the trip was Nauvoo. It is completely staffed with Sr. Couples all dressed in costume and we loved their energy and knowledge about church history. The setting is beautiful-lovely trees,grass,charming homes and the glorious temple setting on a rise overlooking the site. We took the carriage ride around old Nauvoo and the teamster was telling stories about past Nauvoo residents. One of the stories went like this: "one of the greatest ladies of Nauvoo was a woman named Abigail Abbott. She was widowed and raised 8 kids through the hard winters and the trek to Utah. Her son, Myron, writes that during one particularly hard time the family had no money and no food. Little Myron, ten years old, was complaining about being hungry and Abigail told him to pray for help. He did as his mother suggested and as he was walking down a path by their home, he found a dime! That dime bought 15 pounds of flour and mother mixed it with water and a pinch of sugar. Myron remembers it as one of the best meals he had ever tasted." Little Myron is Dads great,great grandfather and this is a cherished family story! The Elder telling the story was so excited to meet us because he had been telling that story for his whole mission!

Another cool thing that happened was that we took the picture of a cute family as we were taking pictures of the temple. We found out they are Kathy Willis cousins visiting from Nevada! What are the chances of that? As we left Nauvoo we took the gorgeous road that winds next to the Mississippi River to Carthage. We took the tour of Carthage jail and sat in the very room where Joseph and Hyrum were martyred. We will send pictures when we get settled.

The weather has been very nice the whole trip, so there has been great scenery for me to enjoy as I sip my soda! The "heartland" of America is an amazing place,

We hope everyone is well. We miss you all and would love to hear from you.

Lots of love, Elder and Sister Abbott

The MTC

Today was our first day in the Mission Training Center. It is an amazing place-we were among some great Senior Couples who will be serving all over the world. There were so many there that some of us were assigned to the Marriott hotel for our accommodations. I am pretty sure it is nicer here than the dorms. We feel spoiled and very, very blessed. Much love to everyone.