I got transferred out of Airway Heights Washington and I was super bummed because that area was so fun with all the sketchy trailer parks and fetty-walkers we called them aka homeless people tripping off of fentanyl pills. Some of the hardest goodbyes of my mission thus far came a few weeks ago when I left. I had to say goodbye to Mariah who was the lady that got baptized at the end of my time there. She was a miracle, she had been in contact with missionaries previously in her life but fell off the radar and when I got to the area I found her and we were able to teach her and she has a desire to get to the temple to do family history work for her deceased husband! When I told her I was going to Orofino she told me a story a way back in her crazy days she was hiding out in a trap house and the feds came busting up into the house so she tried to jump out of bathroom window and fell into a bathtub full of uncured meth and got horrible burns all over herself. She repented and is now not doing that stuff anymore haha. She has 27 friends in the federal prison that is in Orofino that all committed money laundering and cock fighting. I also had to say goodbye to Clarice a funny Hawaiian lady who really loves to smoke weed and come to church. She cracks us up. And then Greg, a gentleman who got baptized a few months ago and when his baptismal record was submitted Salt Lake said there was already one for him. Long story short he was baptized in 1985 and somewhere along the line had a stroke and forgot about it. When he got baptized a few months ago he was found through a Facebook ad and was super opposed to coming to church and reading from The Book of Mormon because he was a die-hard Baptist but the Spirit worked on him and he got baptized and then that's when he found out he was already a member but oh well the Lord's work is the Lord's work. Saying goodbye to him was really hard because in my time there we started to teach his grandkids who are very sweet souls who will slowly slowly progress to the point of being baptized.
I loved Airway Heights and it was sad to leave but I knew Orofino was going to be awesome because I have been hearing about it for the duration of my mission. In short it is a really small town in the middle of a mountain with a fishing river that runs through that is world renowned for salmon and steelhead. It is exactly what I expected! Except for we do not have a truck as I was hoping. We drive 30-ish minutes to contacts sometimes through the beautiful mountains of North Idaho and we see turkey and deer on the daily. The members are all a little whack but they are super nice and feed us well I was actually able to go out to a lake and catch a few bass which I have not done in a long time so that was refreshing. When I got here there was a friend who was being taught and we finished up his lessons and he got baptized on Saturday. His name is Roy Adams and he is the funniest 65-year-old man. He lives in a simple trailer in the middle of the woods and all he does is chop wood all day long. We were worried that he wasn't going to pull up to his baptism cuz he was 20 minutes late and then lo and behold he rolled up on a Harley. That was on Saturday and since then we have seen many more miracles with having nine friends who are preparing to be baptized. Another really cool miracle is that there is a young lady named Peyton who we saw at a basketball activity in church and we just assumed she was a member back from college for the summer. Turns out she is not a member and she's been attending church since she was 12 years old with a less active family and she has been bringing them to church and now has a desire to be baptized. Long story short now is her time, God has prepared her for this point and since we found her its been fast and now she's getting baptized tomorrow on the 11th of June with the sisters in YSA.
I would have to say the best part of my week was yesterday when we were able to go up to a place called the Challenge Academy with a few members of our ward. There is a military school way off in the middle of nowhere for troubled kids. Every Sunday different churches are able to presents a worship service and our church has been affiliated with this program for a couple of years. My companion and I went yesterday because it was the final meeting before graduation on Saturday. There was a testimony meeting and sacrament and there were 20 or so kids in military garbs and they all looked like they have lived rough lives and from their experiences that they shared most of them have come from backgrounds of troubled homes, drugs, violence etc. It was super humbling to see the Spirit work upon them as they all bore testimony of the truthfulness of the church and of finding God through the academy. At least seven of the kids have a desire to be baptized and so we gave them our phone number because we could not give them our contact information. As soon as they graduate we invited them to call us so we could refer them to where they live. At least four of the kids live inside our district boundary. It was a super spiritual experience to say the least. My mission president, President LeBaron has set the goal for 100 baptisms for month for the last while. He goes home in a few short weeks and he wants to hit 100 before June 24th. As of today the mission has baptized 30 converts and is on track for 100 and we have never felt more joy as a mission than we are feeling now. I'm grateful to be a part of this work and to be serving in an area where we can help people get to that point.
Also funny story! On our way to dinner last night we had to take a back road because of the direction we were coming from so we were driving up the back side of a mountain and we passed a member family who was walking and they seemed concerned that we were driving that road. They told us it was a super sketchy logging road and that people have died rolling off the road before. They also told us a few months ago that some prisoners broke out of jail in Boise and killed an old man in his cabin at the top of that road. When we said we would go for it they looked very worried and they actually called the member family we were eating with and checked on our progress like three times but that road is pretty easy peasy so that was what was funny about it!
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