What a lovely day we enjoyed today, sunny and 68 degrees! It was a lazy day, a laundry and cleaning day, a get-a-haircut day, a run some errands day…… so nothing great to report. So thought you might enjoy a bit of Bandon history:
Upon his arrival in Oregon in June 1873, Irish immigrant George Bennett (1827-1900) and a handful of other colonists decided to establish a new community at the mouth of the Coquille River. Bennett named the future community after his home town Bandon, located in County Cork, Ireland. Bennett brought with him an ornamental shrub (Ulex europaeus)—known variously as gorse, Irish furze, and Irish hedge—that soon became a common sight in the new town.
On September 26, 1936 a forest fire burned several miles east of town, far enough away that the residents of Bandon were not particularly worried. A sudden shift in the wind, however, drove the flames swiftly westward. Ignited by the forest fire, the town’s abundant gorse exploded into an inferno. One Bandon resident told a Coos Bay Times reporter shortly after the fire: “That Irish hedge was the worst thing—when the fire hit it right across from my house, the flames shot up high into the air. It was just as though there had been gasoline poured on the fire. And water was just no good against it—wouldn’t touch it! The stuff seemed just full of oil.” Ironically, just a week before the fire a state plant pathologist had warned Bandon’s residents of the fire hazards posed by the gorse. The fire quickly swept through the town, laying waste to the business district along with hundreds of homes. Only a handful of structures were left standing by the time the fire died out. Most of the town’s 1,800 residents managed to reach safety, though ten died in the flames. (Pictured here is gorse. This time of year it blooms with lovely yellow flowers. But it is a stiff prickly weed and it grows EVERYWHERE! It grows all around our RV Park!)
Tonight we were blessed to take our Ida Cluff to another birthday celebration dinner, this time at the home of Tom and Liz Olive. Yesterday in testimony meeting Tom Olive said he enjoyed having the missionaries (and me in particular) over for dinner because he could always fix steak and potatoes because of my gluten intolerance. He was true to his words and we had steak for dinner. It was very yummy and Liz made a decadent chocolate gluten-free dessert. Dinner at their house is always scrumptious! For F.H.E. Tom gave us a lesson on the Priesthood. It was a fun evening as always.
Tuesday – Follow His example – Connor
The question of the day….. were the computers working at the Family History Center today? The answer…. Not in the beginning! Pam Hansen spent a lot of time on the phone working through the problems with Oscar Morales in Coos Bay. Between the two of them they finally had the computers nicely matched with Salt Lake about 30 minutes before the center closed. No one from the community was there so we worked on Lee’s family history and got one line back another couple of generations. Next Tuesday will be fun and hopefully they will come!
From the F.H.C. we headed back to Tiffany’s Drug Store to iron out our purchases of yesterday. We bought 80 gold coin candies, some birthday cards, and 4 padded envelopes for mailing. Somehow our cashier got side-tracked and forgot to charge us for the candy. So she had to do a second checkout just for the candy. This morning I happened to look at the receipt and saw that she only rang up 40 candies. So then I looked at the other receipt and saw she only rang up 3 padded envelopes when we had 4 of them. It must not have been her day yesterday. The manager of the store was more than happy to help us get it all straightened out. We celebrated afterwards by going to Dairy Queen for a Choco-cherry Blizzard. James came in while we were ordering and we got to treat him to his lunch. James is disabled and on a fixed income so we felt good that we could pay for his meal. Tonight was the E.A.T. Program. Tonight it was Spaghetti. We had a great time washing dishes with Tom and Carol.
Wednesday – Be strong! – Josh Moss
It was Zone Conference in Eugene today. That meant the alarm went off at 4:00 am this morning. Ugh! We left our RV Park at 5:00 am with 54 degrees in Bandon! We caught up with the rains in Coos Bay, some fog and cooler temperatures. In Eugene at 8:00 it was a warm 39 degrees! Luckily with the warmth of 60+ Elders and our Mission Presidency and their wives, we were feeling toasty in no time! The theme for our conference was “Choose you this day”. There is danger in the word “someday” when it means “not this day”. Even the Savior knew he had to work while he could: In John 9:4-5 we read; “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” So let us say; Lord, what would you have me do? Let me serve THIS day. We drove through pouring rain on our return trip until we hit Coos Bay… Bandon was dry! We arrived home at 6:00 p.m. It was a long lovely day!
Thursday – Heavenly Father is almost as proud of you as ME! – Sheralyn
Karma Ellgen flew into Medford from Las Vegas and then drove all the way over from Central Point to visit us!
Thanks Debbie Barber for loaning her your car. Karma lived in Central Point for 5 wonderful years and then her husband, Ken, decided to quit his job at Crater Lake National Park and take a better job at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We were not happy about that. But then they have penciled us in to work at the North Rim for the summer of 2013! Could be fun! So today we got to show Karma the sights and sounds of Bandon By the Sea. We did up old town and introduced her to Cranberry Sweets. We went there after lunch to enjoy dessert! We also introduced her to rock and shell hunting along the Bandon coast. It is amazing that you can spend hours walking the beach and it just seems like minutes. She was hooked! And she has the bag of shells to prove it! She also learned to keep one eye on the waves as they tend to chase you up the beach once in a while. We shared lots of giggles as we ran from the waves. That made us hungry so we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town. Then we spent a whole wonderful evening just catching up on old times and new happenings. The lovely thing about old friends is that you can be apart for a long time but when you get back together it is as if you were never apart. This evening the rains began and the wind began to blow so it was a good evening to stay put and talk.
Friday – I love you more than all the M & M’s in the world! – Madi
Boy! The rains were fierce today and the winds were even better! So glad that we walked the beaches yesterday! We enjoyed a leisurely morning and a late breakfast. Today was a good day to stay put and get out a new puzzle. Karma is a master at them and we are getting better.
We did venture out in the late afternoon when the rains subsided for a bit. We took Karma to see the painting of Elephant Rock that hangs in the Wheelhouse Mercantile. Jill Stockford’s painting certainly makes you grasp the vision of the famous rock. We took her to Tom Olive’s myrtlewood factory and to Dairy Queen for the mandatory Blizzard (in place of lunch). Then back to the trailer to work on the puzzle. We told Karma she could not go home until it was finished. And Darn! By late evening we did finish it! I guess it is true that even good things (or fabulous visits) usually come to an end.
Saturday – I love you – Connor
Karma left about 8:30 this morning. I hated to see her go, we were having so much fun. Okay… back into missionary mode! We got a referral from the Coquille missionaries to go see a gentleman who lost his wife a couple of years ago and now he is dying of cancer. They thought we could ease his spiritual pain with a lesson on why bad things happen to good people and the Plan of Salvation. We found him not to be at home. So we will try again at the first of the week. Then it was off to extend an invitation or a reminder about a baptism for 8 year old Seth Waterman being held this afternoon. We thought it would be a good reminder of spiritual times for some sweet inactives. This afternoon we attended a worldwide Leadership meeting that was broadcast via satellite to the Bandon building. These meetings are a shot in the arm and we leave wanting so badly to try harder and love these members more, if that is possible. Seth’s baptism was wonderful. Such a cute 8 year old! Glory Be! We had one inactive gentleman come and we were so grateful. Kim Powell gave an amazing talk on Baptism and she gave me her notes. That talk is now filed away for future use someday. Thanks Kim.
Sunday – I never thought you’d serve a mission before ME! – Tanner
I put my coat on this morning at 8:00 am when we left the trailer headed down to Port Orford to attend their Branch Council Meeting and their Church service. I am so impressed with the men and women of their Branch Council. You can actually feel their love for their branch members. We, as missionaries, try to work with the inactives to help them come back into activity in the Branch. But it is the members themselves who have the most success with reaching out and loving their members back into the fold. The Port Orford Branch has had a lot of success with reaching out in love. After Church we made several visits to inactive families. All of them welcomed us into their homes where we enjoyed lovely visits and as we left we gave them invitations to a Branch Valentine social set for next Saturday. We arrived home about 8:00 pm where I took my coat off for the first time today! It was chilly here today and NO ONE turns up their heat here, not even the Church! Our propane heater is happily pumping heat into the trailer. It is a warm 73.4 degrees in here and I am warm and happy and coatless.
The first Counselor in the branch Presidency conducted today in Sacrament. Justin has M.S. and uses a scooter to get around. Each time he approached the podium he struggled to stand at the microphone. He is in his early 30’s. What a dedicated sweet young man he is. We could all learn much from him.
Quote of the day to ponder: “We are not mortal beings in search of a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings who have been placed in a mortal existence. What are we here to learn?”
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