Sunday, October 23, we attended our first Branch Council Meeting at 8:45 a.m.. We learned that this was primarily a missionary meeting…we had better be a bit more prepared to take control of most of the meeting. We are learning “Line upon line”. We went to meet Karsten & Yiena Salin, an inactive couple in the afternoon. He is Dutch and she is from Hong Kong. They are a very delightful couple. He is much older than she is and could probably run circles around all of us.
Monday we got our laundry and ironing done and headed for Central Point to swap out the truck for the much better gas mileage car. We also had a list of things to get from the house. Things that never dawned on us until we were in Bandon and found a need for them…like propane bottles. We brought the little BBQ but forgot the propane. It is all part of our learning experience. We wondered how we would feel going back to our little house. Strangely, or perhaps miraculously, we felt nothing. It felt like Gentry’s house not ours. That was a good thing.
We had dinner with our good friends Byron & Nova Johnson and Bob & Rita Phair at a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix. Another note to self…No ground beef, it is not gluten-free! It was nice to do our Monday Family Home Evening dinner again. We miss our friends.
Then it was off to the Shumway’s to help Tanner celebrate his big #16th birthday. Tanner, you are getting too tall! We can’t wait to hear that you passed your driver’s test on the 8th! We had a delightful time with the Shums and the Skill’s. My favorite part of the evening was “Favorite Day”, I love that part of hearing about everyone’s day and then having family prayer. Thanks family!
Tuesday we ran errands in and around Medford and then headed back to Bandon to be here in time to work at The Barn serving dinner. Such sweet people there! We used our travel time to home and back to study Preach My Gospel. We hope someday soon we feel ready to do that!
Wednesday the Zone Leaders (Elder Jones and Elder Johnson) came to our Branch to go over our Area Book and answer any questions that we had. Picture these two adorable 20 year old Elders teaching this 60+ year old missionary couple. And taught us they did! We invited them back to the trailer for lunch and had a delightful visit with them. Elder Jones is a real cowboy! He works on his Grandfather’s million acre cattle ranch! He was even wearing cowboy boots! He wants to take over the ranch some day. Elder Jones wants to be a landscaper when his mission is over. He loves being outdoors and working with plants. Whatever they do, they will be successful. You can just tell that by getting to know them. In the afternoon we went to several inactive member homes and met with little success. But we are getting to know the town better. We called Tom and Lizzy Olive to see if we could see them in the evening (we had an ulterior motive) and got an invitation to come for dinner. Tom BBQ’d us a wonderful steak dinner with his famous mashed potatoes. We waited until after dinner to ask Sister Olive to talk with us at Sacrament on the 13th. She said she would “be thrilled” to do that. You just gotta love members that are so willing to do whatever is asked of them. They are an amazing couple. She has only been a member of the Church for 4 years but has the testimony that seems so much wiser than that. It was a fun evening!
Thursday we went to our second District Meeting. I tried to take my new “role playing” attitude with me. Again the meeting was conducted by Elder Plumb (my Mitchell look-alike). The absolutely worst part of the meeting for me is at the very beginning when everyone arrives. Those cutie-pie Elders go around and they each just give the other a big back slapping hug. Elder Wels even gets a hug from each one of them. Oh, how this Gramma missionary loves hugs… but DARN….. they can’t hug me and I just get handshakes! Unamerican and just not fair!! But mission rules are rules and I completely understand though I do not have to like it.
After the marvelously instructive meeting we ran our errands at WalMart and Bi-Mart. Just inside the door at WalMart I came face to face with these bags!
On the way home we had time to go visit with Sharon Nazer , a lovely older member who is the only active member of her family. She definitely sets a good example for them by having her son bring her to church every week.
Then it was home in time to meet Bob and Rita Phair. How cool that one of our best friends is the PFR (Physical Facilities Rep) for the Church in this area. Of course, he had to inspect the Bandon building! And Rita got to come too. We had so much fun with them! In the evening we went with them to visit their ex-neighbors, Tammy and Jerry Greer, who had moved to Bandon earlier this year. We had an enjoyable visit with them and their goldendoodle, Macie, and her 9 puppies. How cute they were!
Friday morning we took Bob and Rita on a tour of Bandon beaches and the “Face Rock” right near their hotel, the Inn at Face Rock. We literally had to point out to Bob the features of the rock that gave it its name. Can you see it looks like a face in the picture?
In the afternoon we worked on our calendar, made lots of calls for appointments, and worked on our talks for Sunday. In the evening we went back to the Olive’s on the pretext of checking on the progress of Sister Olive’s talk for Sunday. But if we are honest here…. It was also the night that Extreme Home Makeover was doing their story about the McPhail Family in Medford. We were so involved with all the happenings while the show was being filmed that we really wanted to see the end result. Sister Olive, as an elementary principal of a Grants Pass school several years ago and a participant in the Sparrow Program, knew the McPhail family. It was fun to have her commentary on the family during the show.
Saturday we had a 10:00 am appointment to meet with Lynda Sessions. She was the first name I had in my head when we arrived in Bandon. She works at the Temple 3 days each month. One of those days is the very same day that Byron and Nova work at the Temple. So Byron had told me that she would be leading the music in Sacrament and there she was! We had a lovely chat with her that lasted for 3 hours. She has 3 inactive sisters on her visiting teaching route and she gave us the scoop on each one of them. Armed with info maybe when we visit them we can touch their hearts. In the afternoon we met with more disappointments as all our calls were met with “you can’t visit us right now excuses”. So we did some good exercise and worked to polish up our talks.
Today at Church I recognized a few more faces and could even put some names on them. That felt good. Bro. and Sis. Cooper talked on fasting today. They were both excellent. Lee gave a very good talk on the power of one in missionary work in the Priesthood/Relief Society meeting. He far outshined me! I was so pleased for him. And, so happy that is behind us. I am afraid that in this small branch we are going to have ample opportunity to talk…… Someone out there want to please send me some of their “talking talents”!!!!!
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