Wk 87 - Five guys, a hand saw, and a rope

Companion: Elder Paul
Area: Newark

Cane's with Randy

Howdy howdy,

What a week! Well it definitely started off with a boom! We had a pretty stellar district council first thing! It was pretty powerful and we had a cool experience where I kept having this feeling that I needed to talk about following the Spirit and right before it ended I had an opportunity to do so! It came out really well and then Elder Lowry looked at me and said, "Wow God is good, I literally was going to ask you to give a training on that but I felt like it was too late!" man I LOVE God! Anyways that's just one example of how the Spirit works! 

After District council the Mt Vernon Elders came down for an exchange! We went right away to the Rine's and Grime's to help them do some service! Now here's where the title comes into play! They told us they had a couple small trees to cut down. In our heads we pictured like maybe ten feet start up trees that they didn't want anymore. We were completely wrong. We, no joke, had one very dull hand saw, five guys, and a rope to get two, at least forty feet tall trees down! So we started going to town on the roof at the top of the tree to get it trimmed up enough to cut down and not wreck the wires. While trying a rope around it we  pulled it in the direction we needed them to go! It was awesome! We had to keep rotating who was on the saw to keep some fresh hands on it! It was good stuff! We got all but about twenty feet of the bigger tree down before realizing we had no where to put the trees because we were already cutting in the neighbors yard!!! We ended up asking the neighbor if we could use their huge fire pit and try burning very green and wet trees! It miraculously worked and we got almost all of it burnt! After that, Elder Shumway and I headed to the Littles' for dinner. They had some fat steaks! They were soo good! That was probably the most rare steak I had ever eaten but man it was good! Guess you gotta love eating steak out of a puddle of blood!!! We went and had ward coordination after that and then finished the night off Facebook finding! Great day! 

Wednesday was a last minute day! We were supposed to have service with some members that have a ranch but last minute they had something come up so instead of finishing exchanges we sent the other elders home and video called into Cambridges District council! It was awesome, they have two sets of senior couples in that District and needles to say they are very wise and I got some great insights out of it! That evening was probably one of the best things that has happened in Newark so far. Pat Schofield invited us to take part in giving his son a name because he just got the Melchezidek Priesthood and could do it! So we got to do it at his mom's house and when we stood in the circle the Spirit was so strong and it was really cool to see someone I love like Patrick who's a "big tough" construction worker, have a soft side! He'd kill me if he knew I wrote that but I figured I could say it anyways! After that we headed to the church to teach young men's! It was a blast! They come up with an over all biggest fear of going on a mission. It was knocking on doors, and talking to people! So we talked about it and then we did role plays for a while! It was awesome! They were pretty darn awkward! I forgot how crazy it seems especially because a lot of these guys hardly leave the house besides school! I love them though, they're awesome! That night we went and gave a blessing to Cyndi, who's a recent convert and is going through some health issues. It was an uplifting way to finish the night by exercising the Priesthood! That night the assistants came over for exchanges and Elder Johnston picked me up to go back to Powell! They live just over an hour away so we got back past bed time and I was pooped the next day, but it was worth it cause it was fun to talk to someone I played baseball against my whole life and who went to lone peak!! Haha 

Awe man Thursday was a great day! We started the day tracting! We knocked a bunch of apartments and did something that I had only learned once previously! It's sweet! We ask if they'd be willing to help us with a survey about families and religious things. They usually say yeah and let us in. There's ten questions and they're very inspired! A couple of my favorite ones are, 

"If there was another book of scripture written by prophets of God just like the Bible, would you read it?" and 

"Have you ever wondered where you came from? Why are you here? And where are you going?"! Its genius because we know exactly how to teach them based off of the responses they give! I love it. In the morning we met one lady who needed to plan of salvation! We ended up walking around a couple of different parks to talk to people. We met another lady who just moved here and simply was looking for the right church! I also got to meet one of my Dad's friends from high-school! Then that night we had a huge miracle. We had about an hour left so we picked an apartment complex to knock! Literally the first door!! We knocked, used the good ol survey and a family of three let us in! They each participated, gave us a drink, and we ended up having a full blown lesson and taught them the restoration! It was incredible! So we found five that day even though we were pooped then drove back to Newark! It was a blessed day! I love Elder Johnston, he's a stud! 

Friday! The day of planning and all of that good stuff! In the morning we actually decided to go play bingo with Lelah! It was so sweet! She was stoked! The lady running the thing was someone that we knocked into! So it's was good to see her again and hopefully, she'll let us back in soon! But Lelah ended up winning! It was sweet! But after that we had a bunch of calls and planning to do so we got it done! 

Joseph!

Saturday we had a pretty solid day! We got to go have a lesson with Joseph and had a good chat!! He's recent convert and a pretty good guy. We had a lesson with a guy named Matt who is married to a member. That went pretty well and I hope there's some great potential with him! After that we ended up going back to the tree to finish the job! This time we brought a hatchet! About fifteen hits and the hatchet broke so we defaulted to the back of the hammer and went to town on it! By some miraculous way it worked! We got pretty far when we had another member come and rip the tree down with his rope and his truck! It was awesome! After we showered and changed we went and picked up some Canes! We got Canes for Randy because he's never had it!!! That blew our mind but it was pretty cool to watch him try it out! That night we drove out to New Albany to do a baptismal interview. I got to interview a kid named Brendan and he's a stud! He's 16 and found the church on his own and he knows it's true already! It's awesome!

Baptism interview

Sunday we had an awesome block of meetings! Right after church we met with Jeanie! She's a 16 year old member's girlfriend. She is awesome! That's the third time we met with her and she's finally ready to pray about a date! We're excited for our next lesson! Afterwards we had a meeting with our Bishop! It was sweet! We visited the Garbe's and they were cool but man they loved to talk! Then we took Bennett out, who's a youth, to go find some one who had just moved in. It started snowing and we ended up knocking the whole apartment and finally found the room he was in but he wasn't home. So we're gonna try another time. We headed back to the Rich's house to share a message and they ended up feeding us some way good Irish food! It was pretty sweet! 

Bennett

Monday morning we got to go do service for the Powells for a while. We did a bunch of dry wall and insulation! It was awesome! We love being around them, they're always good for life talks! That evening we stopped by Rupert who just lost his son. That went pretty well. After that we stopped by a guy named Matt. He was previously a member but hasn't been for over fifteen years but he did serve a mission! It was a good experience to talk to him!

Tuesday we got to go out to the Powells again to help finish the job in the basement! That was fun as always. Afterwards we took Randy to meet Ron and had a great lesson. We took Randy to give a blessing to someone in the hospital. We got to feast at Arby's that night which was awesome. Then we had a good ol ward coordination! After that we headed to a sister's house with Bro Eppich. She told us she needed her housed blessed and that there was some evil spirits! Shiver me timbers she wasn't kidding! There was definitely someone not of God there. But I'll tell you what, the moment we blessed it there was a lot better feeling in the room!

Today we went mountain biking and hit some sweet jumps! Even though we couldn't do much... haha But we also played disc golf which was sweet! And of course we had to hit up the East West Chinese Buffet! What a way to finish the transfer! Oh how I'll miss Elder Paul! Sure love that man! 

I love ya'll and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Smoot!