Saint Maries is awesome! I am definitely going to love it here. My area is the second largest area in the mission. Which is pretty sweet. We are 30 minutes away from the nearest missionaries which are in Plummer and we are an hour drive to the stake center in Cour De' Alene. Our Church building is definitely the smallest I've had on my mission, the chapel only as 15 pews in it.
To put in perspective how boonie our area is, it took a whole post-it note of directions and a crudely drawn map to get us to our dinner appointment on Friday. The drive to his trailer was an hour long. He warned us not to come if it was raining because he didn't want us to get stuck. He also told us to leave our apartment by 2:00 and no later than 3:00 so that he still have some sunlight when we head back home.
On our way up there the roads kept getting smaller and smaller and the ruts int eh road got deeper and deeper, As we drove further realized that this was why our Jeep was "trail rated"
The trailer he lived in way literally just in the middle of the woods far away from people. It was a camper trailer in a clearing surrounded by 4 military shipping containers, that he used as workshops. One of them is for his black-smithing where he makes all his tools and knifes. Another is for gun smithing, and another for leather work, the last one is his food and clothing storage. The plan is to weld all of them together then hollow it out to make one giant metal box then to build a log cabin on top of the giant box. Afterwards he is going to cover the box with earth and rocks So it just looks like a cabin sitting on a little hill.
As soon as we got there we talked for a few minutes then he asked us what we wanted to eat, he gave us the options of pork, beef, or chicken. We chose chicken. He went into his trailer and pulled a package of chicken out of his freezer. He then started to show us what was in all of his containers. After the first container he looked at his watch and then asked us how long he had. We told him that we didn't have any set appointments after him so we weren't in a rush he smiled then said, "Good, the chicken is going to take a while to thaw" It turns out that he just put the chicken on the counter to thaw.
We also learned that he had no running water or electricity. So before diner he handed me a bucket to go get water from his well, while he and my companion got some firewood. I'm still uncertain about how safe it is to have a wood burning stove in a camper trailer but he didn't seem too overly concerned about it.
Other than him we had a couple good lessons already this week, we met a couple investigators, recent converts, and several inactive members. The ward is great, I like being in this part of Idaho. It makes for a lot of variety at church. I think we had everywhere from dirty jeans and t-shirt to white shirts and jeans, to suit jackets and jeans, and just suits. Our ward definitely has character.
I feel like I could write a lot more but this email is already pretty long. More next week!
-Elder Rebalkin
To put in perspective how boonie our area is, it took a whole post-it note of directions and a crudely drawn map to get us to our dinner appointment on Friday. The drive to his trailer was an hour long. He warned us not to come if it was raining because he didn't want us to get stuck. He also told us to leave our apartment by 2:00 and no later than 3:00 so that he still have some sunlight when we head back home.
On our way up there the roads kept getting smaller and smaller and the ruts int eh road got deeper and deeper, As we drove further realized that this was why our Jeep was "trail rated"
The trailer he lived in way literally just in the middle of the woods far away from people. It was a camper trailer in a clearing surrounded by 4 military shipping containers, that he used as workshops. One of them is for his black-smithing where he makes all his tools and knifes. Another is for gun smithing, and another for leather work, the last one is his food and clothing storage. The plan is to weld all of them together then hollow it out to make one giant metal box then to build a log cabin on top of the giant box. Afterwards he is going to cover the box with earth and rocks So it just looks like a cabin sitting on a little hill.
As soon as we got there we talked for a few minutes then he asked us what we wanted to eat, he gave us the options of pork, beef, or chicken. We chose chicken. He went into his trailer and pulled a package of chicken out of his freezer. He then started to show us what was in all of his containers. After the first container he looked at his watch and then asked us how long he had. We told him that we didn't have any set appointments after him so we weren't in a rush he smiled then said, "Good, the chicken is going to take a while to thaw" It turns out that he just put the chicken on the counter to thaw.
We also learned that he had no running water or electricity. So before diner he handed me a bucket to go get water from his well, while he and my companion got some firewood. I'm still uncertain about how safe it is to have a wood burning stove in a camper trailer but he didn't seem too overly concerned about it.
Other than him we had a couple good lessons already this week, we met a couple investigators, recent converts, and several inactive members. The ward is great, I like being in this part of Idaho. It makes for a lot of variety at church. I think we had everywhere from dirty jeans and t-shirt to white shirts and jeans, to suit jackets and jeans, and just suits. Our ward definitely has character.
I feel like I could write a lot more but this email is already pretty long. More next week!
-Elder Rebalkin