As soon as we left the Yellowstone and stopped at a McDonald’s parking lot to get directions to Idaho Falls from West Yellowstone City, our truck started sputtering and shimmying after we hit a pothole. It was extreme. We were not able to continue on to Idaho Falls for fear of breaking down along the way. We had to stay the night in our truck again, but were so blessed to have permission to do so in the parking lot of the local Church of Christ, thanks to our new friend Jamie Odle, who is the sister of our Youth Pastor’s wife back home in Lubbock.

The next morning, we headed straight to NAPA to work on the truck. Matt changed the spark plugs and wires in hopes that it would fix the problem. We met a man in the parking lot named Mackey. He is from Idaho Falls and suggested we visit a church called Watersprings. We visited that church 4 times. It was a wonderful church. We enjoyed our visits every time.

We stayed the first few nights at Jamie Odle’s church and got to meet Pastor Andy Burns. It was nice meeting him and he was kind to let us stay there, even though we weren’t there to work for him.

We got a call in the first few days from Pastor Roger Odegard, from First Southern Baptist Westminster in Colorado, whose wife is from Idaho Falls. He used to pastor a church there called Falls Baptist Church. He got us in touch with Dennis Haines from Falls BC. It wasn’t long before we had moved into the basement of Falls Baptist and had a plan for Matt to preach there on the following Sunday. We spent an evening with Pastor Shawn and Sara Given, as well. That night, he asked Nemo to preach a “sermonette” the following Sunday. Nemo did an awesome job! You can see that video on our YouTube.

We spent 7 weeks in Idaho Falls, starting a Saturday evening Bible Study, passing out 1500 flyers, and leading a lady that we met at the mall to salvation. Her name is Tandy Waters and she is a wonderful friend! We also did a lot of manual labor in tree removal and trimming. The church needed their trees trimmed up higher to see the building from the road better. Matt and the boys got out and did an awesome job of beautifying the property. We also went to the home of one of the church members, Dick Jorgenson, and removed an enormous part of his tree in his backyard that fell because of the heavy snow that came one weekend. Tree trimming is a booming business in that area. The snow is so heavy it just tears the limbs down.

Another thing that was such a blessing while we were in Idaho Falls was the fact that we hung around long enough to have a mailing address! Our truck had need of some very necessary repairs and by having an address he was able to order them much cheaper online. He replaced the fuel pump and a few other things. He also had the distributor replaced, which needed to be done by a mechanic. Thanks so much to Bro. Dick for using the connection he had to a mechanic! He was able to get us the labor done free of charge. We only had to pay for the part! God is so good!

Part of our “extra curricular activities” in Idaho Falls included TWO trips to the Emergency Room with Nemo. Once to get 4 stitches in his finger after he sliced it to the tendon with a pocket knife. Then FOUR DAYS later for a severely banged up knee while playing airsoft with Zeke. Mrs. Myra Elrod was kind enough to save us from another visit for stitch removal by doing so herself. Thank you so much!

Our much “funner” activity was gleaning potatoes from the fields. While we were there, it was harvest time for the potato farmers. They actually let the kids out of school for the week so that the children can help their families with the harvesting. That is so incredible! I received a call one evening from Dennis Haines that we could go glean the potatoes up the road from the church.That was easily one of the coolest things we have done! Right out of the Bible! We made a good haul, too, as you can see in the picture below.

We finally left Idaho on November 10th. We are now Taylorsville, UT. Stay tuned to the next blog for some interesting facts about Bible Baptist Church here in Taylorsville.