Weekly Letter

Dear Family,

Good Sunday evening to everyone.  Another week come and gone.  We had a pretty good week. On Monday we went to a state park near us called Coopers Rock. There is a deep canyon with a river running through it. The lookout is a big rock jutting out over the canyon with a view up and down the river. With the fall colors it was beautiful.  We tried to see why it is called Coopers Rock but couldn't find any information about it.  We happened to meet some Elders from another district on the trail.  One of them is an missionary that was here on exchanges the week we got here.  Another one was from American Falls, Idaho.  He was excited  when we told him Mom had lived in Rockland and I had lived in Aberdeen when we were young. For those of you who aren't familiar with that part of Idaho, those three little towns are just a few miles apart.

Most of the rest of the week was planning our visits and driving around the country trying to find people that would answer the door.  We went with the Elders to visit a man and his lady friend.  His name is Kenny and he lived in Idaho Falls for several years at the same time we were there.  He is originally from here and married a lady from Idaho Falls. They had just decided to move back here when she got really sick with some odd disease that is always fatal and is fast moving.  She died less that a month after they turned and he quit coming to church.  We are trying to fellowship him and his lady friend has shown some interest in the church.  I asked him if we could come by occasionally to visit and he kind of reluctantly said yes. He's a good guy and we look forward to getting to know him better.

We visited with another lady that hasn't been to church in years.  She comes from a very active family who were some of the early members of the branch. She said she remembers her mother having bake sales and selling hoagies to raise money for the building fund for the new chapel.  We had a great visit with her and invited her to come to church, but she says she works on Sundays.

Friday we went to Friendsville and worked in the museum and history center.  We work with a 92-year old lady that has been working in the history  center for more that forty years.  We have been helping her to organize some files that got messed up during a move.  She has been very happy to have had us help.  They are closing down for the winter, but she might call for a little help if she needs it.  The timing was good because we are starting out volunteer work at the hospital next week.  

The branch has been keeping us busy.  Since we got here, Mom and I gave talks in Sacrament Meeting, I taught our empty nest Family Home Evening lesson, I taught Priesthood meeting today and we were asked to teach the 5th Sunday lesson next week.  I guess that's why we are here. We are glad to have this opportunity to serve.

I guess that's all for now. Thank you for your love and prayers.  We pray for you all the time and hope things are going well for all of you.

Love,

Mom and Dad

P.S. - We have attached some pictures of our visit to Coopers Rock