Sorry it has been so long since I have posted the latest on this blog....and to think I was originally going to post every two weeks! Little did I know how very, very busy we would be. We still travel 2-3 thousand miles each month, teaching people about our wonderful church, finding people that haven't been found for 10-20 years, and just visiting the many wonderful members of our Branch. Very often when we are traveling on this Highway 20 that stretches through the mountain, towns and valleys we are looking at this very scene...a logging truck. They are quite plentiful despite the cut-backs due to Government regulations and are only a problem when trying to get to an appointment on time and the truck is creeping along, especially when the road climbs again. Such is life in WV!
Here are some of the best times of our mission. When we are able to interact with the wonderful Elders and Sisters. They are ages 18-21 and although young in years are very spiritually mature in the Lord's Gospel. Elder Morgan on the left is our direct supervisor...calling for weekly reports. He is our DL (District Leader). On the right is one of the other Elders in our District...He is an AP (assistant to the Mission President) and a real spiritual Giant. We are enjoying the nice weather outside the chapel in small town of Flatwoods.
Well, this is the Simons trailer that is being that was moved out to make room for bigger, newer one. Elder McBean has been working with this for months to clean up the mess and get ready for this better trailer. They are now jacking up different corners of the bigger trailer and putting blocks under for support and to make it level. After spending 2 days, the trailer started to slide (not good) and it was determined that because they are on soft dirt (which gets softer with so much rain) and the ground is sloped that they need to
dig holes to put in frames into which concrete will be poured to make a permanent and stable foundation for the trailer. This is up a mountain
in a hallar that has no real road, no drain field
no source of clean water and lots and lots of "junk"! I have also been working inside the trailers (2 pushed together) to help Susan (lady in red shirt) to clean, organize and make the home livable. Because water is so scarce we have washed and folded around 70 loads of laundry for them (yes, it was piled up everywhere!) and tried to get them to put trash in a trash can instead of on the floor!
Elder McBean is sitting in the middle of the 3 people.
Yes, I do have fun making fall baskets to take around for visits. We sure do miss our wonderful (inexpensive) and delicious WA apples!
This is 7:15 a.m. when I am out for my daily walk. This is before time change and the street lights are still on. I. love walking across the Swinging Bridge and seeing the "mood" of the Elk River below. This scene is a mere 2 blocks from Main Street. So love these rustic surroundings.
OK...so Elder McBean has been waiting an entire year to go to one of the most well-known events in WV - Bridge Day. We drove 2 hours south to the New River Gorge Bridge...one of the highest in the world. Early in the morning we joined the other 80,000 + visitors to watch these daring adventurers leap (with parachute on back) off this bridge that is 876 feet high. Wow! here is someone leaping...
Here is someone that is being catapulted off the bridge (worse)...
And this is the river below...(yellow and blue parachutes) with rescue boats in the water for those who miss the big X on the ground and land in the cold river below. Thank goodness there were no accidents today. There are often fatalities.
The lay-offs in the coal mines continue to happen 100-1000 people at a time. It is crushing an already fragile economy. Signs such as this are quite common!
Fall has been so very beautiful...as was last fall. Here is a single lane road complete with mists, curves and color. Elder McBean so enjoys driving these roads.
This is so typical to find a hallar like this...starts out gravel and turns into dirt, rocks and potholes. No name to the road that will go deeper into the mountains making it hard to find families who may live there.
Our main road of travel...highway 20....takes us through the Monongahela National Forest. Such beautiful, beautiful country!!
A few words from Elder McBean... Working in a small Branch 45-50 Sac. meeting att. is much different than a ward where most things get done on a fairly regular basis. We have a new Branch Pres. who has not been a member very long and does not really know how the church operates, so the stake is working hard to get things up to speed, he is a good man and wants to do things right so it will happen. H.T. has not been done for years and is really hard to get started, ( you know, " an object in motion etc. ") The Branch Pres. last mo. in Sac. mtg. did say he was committed to doing one a mo. he didn't but I am sure he will. We are only trying to teach about 25 families who are possible to bring back into activity. Be faithful, support your Bishop, have a great life, prepare for Exaltation, See you in March. Elder M
