We really scurried through our short list of tasks this morning in order to get on the road to Brookings to visit with our good friends and fellow senior (albeit, they are much younger than we are) missionaries, Elder and Sister Higginbotham.
Tuesday- Keep making those house calls – Madi
Oh my goodness. I have seen the Ocean Spray plant here in Bandon. I thought it was one of Bandon’s premiere businesses! Wrong! Although Bandon is touted as the cranberry capital of the world, for most of the year Ocean Spray only employs one full time and 2 part time workers. For 6 weeks at harvest time in October/November they hire another 20 employees to help receive the harvest from local growers which is sorted, cleaned and sent to other facilities for processing into products. See, there is no industry in Bandon! No wonder there is such poverty here! Okay, we did learn a lot about cranberries. So we are here to tell you that you cannot believe those Ocean Spray cranberry ads on TV! Yes, they are called cranberry bogs…. But cranberry plants do not grow in water. The bogs are only flooded for about 5 or 6 days during the harvesting process. Can’t wait now to see the cranberry bogs in bloom this spring. In the evening it was off to the E.A.T Program. Allyson is healthy again and was back in charge of things tonight like she usually is. She is such a dear lady and a very hard worker. We just had to greet her with a good hug tonight! Howard and Audrey were our co-workers doing dishes tonight. They work one week and Tom and Carol work the next. And, we enjoy both couples when they work with us. It is work, but it is a treat to work with such nice people from other Churches in Bandon. We are all serving the same Lord.
Wednesday- Be good missionaries – Chloe
Today we had a good visit with Chuck Salt and invited him to help us with the “Stop Smoking Program” by being the “friendshipper” for Patrick. We went over the program with him and got him to commit to help us by helping Patrick. Then we called Patrick to set a date to meet to get him going on the Program. Patrick actually sounded excited about coming and said whatever date and time we picked would be fine with him and he would be there. That’s a good start Patrick! We pray this will be the blessing Patrick is looking for. So we are set to meet this Friday at 2:30 in the afternoon. We also had visits today with Ida Cluff and Susie Elliott and her grandson Nick. We called Maggie Warren to check on her hubby, Ernie. He is home from the VA hospital but he is still in a lot of pain. We now just have to pray that the VA will approve his doctor’s request for acupuncture.
Tonight was the Relief Society Supper Club.
Thursday- Be Happy! – Josh Moss
We got to meet our new Zone Leader today at District Meeting. First, may we say that we will miss Elder Johnson so much. He has been with us since we first arrived. He took us under his wing and gave us great care. Thank you Elder Johnson, you will long be remembered. So now we have Elder Fristrup from Minnesota as companion to our other Zone Leader, Elder Plumb (our Mitchell look-alike). And, surprise, not long ago Elder Fristrup was serving in Ashland under the direction of Bishop Scott Shumway and having the big waffle feed every Sunday after Church at the Stacy Skillman house! Our kiddles have always been our claim to fame! Hopefully, they always will be. We did two big role plays today. First, each companionship wrote a synopsis on one of their investigator families and then we exchanged our write-ups and planned a lesson for the family. Then we gave the lesson to the companionship as if they were the family. Elder Wels and I teamed with Elder Ewell and Elder Jones. I don’t know how much we helped them, though we did share with them Scott’s ideas for bringing the Spirit into the lesson at the very beginning. We do know Elder Ewell and Elder Jones helped us a ton. Great ideas and great verbiage! Second, Elder Plumb sat in the middle of us playing the part of “Maxine”, another investigator. If “Maxine” looked at you, you would have to either ask her a question, quote her a scripture, or bear your testimony about whatever was going on in the discussion with her. Wow! That was a “think on your feet” moment. It was pretty cool. Elder Wels and I managed to come up with something each time “Maxine” looked at us. I think Elder Ewell was the winner of that role play!
After the meeting we went to Staples to pay for the notebook we bought last week for which we were not charged. Luckily I looked at the sales slip when we got home. We bought 3 items and were only charged for 2. We looked for Claire so she could help us again. I think last week we were all so excited about her desire to hear more about the Church that things just got mixed up a bit and she did not ring up the notebook. That taken care of, we again had a great conversation about her desire to learn more about the Church. We again invited her to come on Sunday and we gave her the phone number of the Elders in Coos Bay where she lives. Then we called the Elders to make sure that they would contact her this evening. Bet we go to Staples again next week to check on her again. I would go just to hear to talk. She is from Scotland and has that lovely baroque. From there it was our weekly grocery shopping at WalMart and then back to Bandon for lunch at Subway………THEY HAVE GLUTEN-FREE BREAD NOW!!!!! Color me happy! It was fabulous! Thank you Subway!!!!!!!!.
We checked out the Kiwanis Thrift Store in town at the request of Lorna Salt, who just happens to be the President of the local chapter. We didn’t buy anything, but I can tell her I was there. The store just happens to be around the corner from Waterman’s Automotive. So we stopped in to say hello to Franklin Waterman. We are just trying to work our way into his heart. He is the non-member husband to Traci Waterman. She would love for her husband to join the Church. We would too. He is a very friendly fellow and we had a great little conversation. From there we hit another thrift store as Elder Wels is actually looking for a bell to use as part of the “Stop Smoking Program” we are giving tomorrow. He found a small one for 50 cents. Yea, now home for a short rest before we head out to the Family History Center tonight. Kim Yates was our instructor at the Family History Library tonight and Elder Wels and I were her only patrons. Yea! We got quality teaching time with Kim! We now know how to turn on the computers, register new Patrons and get into all the programs. That’s a good thing because we just learned the press release is going out nest Tuesday and says that the Family History Library will begin operation on Tuesday, January 17th. Whoa…. That is this next Tuesday! And, it is our day to run the library. Better go practice a bit before then. It is all very exciting and we hope the community will come and take the opportunity to do family history. The official Open House is set for Sunday, January 22nd at 2:00 p.m.
Friday- Keep the Spirit with YOU! - Chloe
Most of the day was spent preparing for and then teaching the “Stop Smoking Program” to Patrick. We appreciate Lorna and Chuck Salt who happily accepted our invitation to be “friendshippers” for Patrick and invited us to hold our program at their house. Patrick is such a fine man with a sincere desire to rid himself of his addiction to smoking. We presented him with the 15 step, one week plan to a smoke free life. If he will follow each step to the letter for just 7 days he can be free of his addiction. We know this will not be easy for him but he is so willing to try. We opened our meeting with prayer and asked that Heavenly Father would bless Patrick with a good understanding of the program and with an increased ability to complete the program successfully. Patrick is on total disability due to a horrendous injury received while in the military. He suffers terribly from P.T.S.D. He told us that the only place where he truly feels peace is when he is at church on Sundays. We called on Patrick to give our closing prayer and it was the sweetest prayer. He said he was so grateful to those of us, his good friends who were gathered there to give of our time to help him reach his goal. Oh Patrick, you will be in our thoughts and our prayers so much in the coming week!
Saturday- Preach on the Beach - Tanner
We spent our day time hours out visiting our inactive member friends who we thought might be home on a Saturday. We had a nice day and enjoyed lots of fun visits. But we most looked forward to our evening appointment with our Friend Ida Cluff. Tonight was her appointment with Stake Patriarch Moyer to get her Patriarchal Blessing. Patriarchal blessings are given to worthy members of the Church by ordained patriarchs. Her blessing will include a declaration of her lineage stating that she is of the house of Israel—a descendant of Abraham, belonging to a specific tribe of Jacob. It will also contain personal counsel from the Lord. Patriarchal blessings are sacred and personal. Ida will treasure its words, ponder them, and live to be worthy to receive the promised blessings in this life and in the life to come. Ida’s daughter, Janelle drove down from Washington to be with her Mom and brought along 2 of Ida’s granddaughters and 2 great granddaughters! That’s four generations!!!! It was a wonderful evening and we were blessed to be a part of it!
OYM!***** – Bryce (Elder Bryce Shumway)
After a wonderful day at Church, we took Elders Davis and Gamez and headed for Coos Bay to attend a very special Stake missionary meeting with our Mission President, President Young. There was a big turn out of Bishoprics, Branch Presidencies, ward mission leaders and missionaries. You gotta love these “Shot in the arm” meetings. It was a wonderful way to end a good week. Hope your week was as good as ours!
*****End note….. OYM stands for “Open Your Mouth”… a missionary term meaning just start up that conversation and see where it leads. It could be the best journey for everyone!
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