The beginning of this mission was rather rocky. After only two days in the MTC I got very very sick and had to miss the rest of the week of classes. We were able in to get in to visit Dr Frantz (my niece's husband who is a gastrointestinologist who was very helpful. We felt that although it was not convenient it was a "tender mercy". He scheduled a colonoscopy the next day although I wasn't due to have one for another year and a half and found four polyps and one was very large. He said that he would have been very concerned had that one been able to grow for that length of time. Had I become sick at home the family doctor would just have treated a flu and the polyps would never have been found.
The first day we drove only to Ely, NV and spent the night in a hotel there. We went to our very favorite Chinese restaurant there, the Hapy Garden, and had a meal worth waiting for. There is no better WonTon soup anywhere. We were supposed to have dinner that night with Sydne Maycock, an old friend from GA, but she fell while walking her dog and had to go to the emergency room rather than meeting us.
The next morning we headed off to spend some time with Laurel's family in Washoe Valley. We went to a big fabric store that I would have died for a few years back, went to a bookstore and then met Russell and the school kids and had pizza together. It was a fun stop along the way.
We were up early the next morning and headed up to Oregon. We had an amazing breakfast at Lumberjack Restaurant in Susanville, CA. I have never been served a bigger or thicker slice of ham. I gave half to Mike and left some and I love ham.
We arrived safely on Saturday afternoon. We went directly to the Mission Office where the President and wife and another couple met us and gave us the key to our apartment. When we got here the elders from our Ward were waiting to help unload the car.
We had Stake Conference that night where the Mission President and his wife were two of the speakers. They have only been here since August so it was the first time for them to speak in that Stake. After we went to Walmart and WinCo for Sunday dinner stuff.
We attended the Sunday Stake Conference at our chapel in Veneta (about 15 min west of Eugene). We met so many friendly people who seemed excited to have us there. The Bishop invited us to dinner that night and another couple for Tuesday night. The meeting was great with President Monson, Elder Neal Anderson, Kent F Richards and Sister Jean Steven as speakers.
We spent Monday spending money. I had lists for things from the Dollar Tree, Walmart, Costco and WinCo and we were both totally exhausted by the end of the day. We think of little thing now but we are pretty well set up for living comfortably for the next six months.
Tuesday was mostly spent setting things up, waiting and visiting. Our housing coordinator came to see how things were, then the Comcast guy came and set us up and then our District Leader and companion came to visit us. We went to dinner with them to the member's home last night.
We spent a lot of Wednesday mapping out the ward which has many small towns in about a 30 mile radius. We went to visit an inactive couple and a part member couple later in the day. They were delightful people that would add such a strenght to any ward.
We love our apartment. It is large, clean, and has a washer, dryer, dishwasher, microwave and very nice furniture that the mission moved in. The location couldn't be better. Veneta is a town of about 5,000 and the only apartment they could fin there was a dump. The 15 minute drive is out into a beautiful countryside. If we were working in the office the drive would be at least the same amount of time but through the city.
Several people have asked us why we are not living in Veneta or said that it is too bad that we are not there but there is no question that this is a bigger and nicer place than we could have gotten there for the same money. It is really rather nice to drive through the countryside for 15 minutes to get over there. I'm going to post some picturesfrom Google of Fern Ridge Lake which is a large manmade lake that we pass. Right now much of it has been drained because it is mostly used for sailing but you can see why, even as a swampy scene right now it is a pleasant drive.
On Thursday the Elders who are assigned to the Ward called us to meet with them and the Ward Mission Leader for splits. We went over at 7:00 and it was dark and a very heavy rainstorm. When we got there we found that only the Elders were there and they went to one place and we went to visit some members. The Ward Mission Leader was out of town.
We have been rearranging the Ward List in a more workable order for missionaries. It is LOTS of typing but there are several small towns assigned to this 30 mile radius. When you don't know the area you could really waste time. We drove just one street from the top address of a Ward member to the bottom address and it took about an hour with a few stops and turns. I got the idea to make up a little flyer with our names and phone numbers, our picture, a little story of the gingersnaps and President Monson and the recipe and we are baking cookies and delivering a little plate of them with the flyer to introduce ourselves. We are hoping to help them sort through their Ward list and get rid of probably names who probably don't even live there any more. They have something like 120 prospective Elders on their list so perhaps we can help to sort this out and even help some to become active.
Last Sunday the Bisop gave us four families to visit and we were able to get to three of them. We couldn't find the house for the fourth. Other than that we had not guidelines for what to do with our week. One suggestion I will make, if asked for them, would be to send MLS missionaries out with suggestions of things that you can do and send Wards things that they can get help from from MLS missionaries. I think that things could be much more productive with a bit or training and organization.
On Friday we went to our District Meeting and we were extremely impressed with the quality of our Elders, their knowledge and leadership abilities. There is no question that this program is in the Lord's hands. No normal 18 & 19 year old group of boys would perform like that.
Saturday night we got together with 5 other couples who are serving in the area. Three couples are assigned to the office. One sister is the Secretary, one the nurse, one helps her husband with housing and other things, one brother is over finance, one over apartments and one over cars. We had none of this when I went on my mission years ago. The other two couples are at a girls camp very near here. One lives in a 5th wheel and the other in a home that is on the property. It is near Monroe, Oregon. Here is the picture from their website.
They told us that their positions have already been filled for when they go home and that is not for over a year. I checked the Church website for camps to find this and there are pages of them with missionary opportunities for most of them.
It was fun to spend some time with the 10 of them and we invited them to our apartment for a December dinner.
Today things seemed to begin to fall into place for us being a bit more useful. On the 1st and 3rd Tuesday evenings the missionaries will have exchanges with the elders. On the 2nd Tuesday we will have exchanges with the High Priests. On Thursday evenings all of the Ward missionaries and regualar missionaries are to go out. They are looking at offering some type of Institute class on Wednesday evenings for parents who drop kids off and others who are interested. I'd like to teach those classes if they call me. They are also looking at offering the 12 step program for addiction in Veneta because it is hard to get people into Eugene. I offered to look into us teaching that.
We have a set of Chinese elders in our zone who work mostly with students at OU. We offered to teach an oral language class for them when we talked to the zone leader and he seemed excited about it. We could get the materials from the China Teachers program because they are all on line now. That would be fun and exciting for us. It would be about the same driving time but in the opposite direction from our Ward building.
I offered that we would be happy to deliver flyers for the Ward Christmas party while we were in Ward Council so we were put on the committee and will probably publish them on Mike's magic printer.
Life is good. We love you.
No comments:
Post a Comment