Our New Home in Bandon!

On Friday October 14th we traveled up to the Mission President's home in Eugene for a wee bit of an orientation and a good "get-to-know-you" chat.  President Young is a very loving and dedicated man.  He asked lots of questions about us and then he threw out the curve ball by saying..

"Sister Wels can you tell me what happened in 1820?" 

Gulp!  It was at that exact moment that I truly felt like a green missionary!!!  Can't remember a thing I said but I must have passed.... he did not fire me!  He was using me as an example of letting the spirit guide what I said.  Lesson learned.  Stay close to the Spirit so the Spirit will stay close to me.

The two Mission Assistants then took us to the mission office where we were greeted by office staff headed by Elder and Sister Watts from Grants Pass.  They were once our Baptismal Coordinators at the Medford Temple so it was fun to see them in a missionary setting.  We were given our new name tags and now we look at bit more official.  Plus we were given a lot of materials to read and all of the missionary handouts.  We have a lot of homework to do!  The truck was definitely a few pounds heavier going home.

Saturday about 10:30 we pulled away from our house and towed our home on wheels to its new location in the Bandon By the Sea RV Park.  The afternoon and evening were spent getting us settled.  About 8:00 pm we called the Bandon Branch President and reported for duty.  Oh boy, our first meeting would be in his office at 9:00 am.

Oh my goodness.... cultural shock hit this morning.  Tiny branch!!  Tiny building!!  There was a whopping 32 people at  the 10am Sacrament Meeting this morning.  Both of us were invited to speak at Sacrament this morning.  We just jumped into this mission with both feet and then some today!  

We met with the Branch President Stockford during Sunday School time.  He gave us a newly printed ward list.  We only had time to go over the first page of 8 pages of ward members.  14 families on that first page and 12 of them are inactive!  Do you suppose we have some work to do?  Elder Wels was immediately made the Ward Mission Leader!  And we now have 5 meetings to attend before next Sunday.  I think we are going to be busy. 

There were 12 ladies in Relief Society this morning.  12 strong sisters!  I met President Wright's sister in law.  She is a hoot! Cynthia Wright said I would enjoy her sister.  I think she is right!  

Elder Wels said there were 5 men in the High Priest group.  They may be few in numbers but they are really good members.  We felt loved and wanted but a bit overwhelmed.  I was feeling swamped until Heavenly Father reminded me that I could eat an elephant if I just did it one bite at a time.  Please pass the salt!