The Last Week of January

 We drove back into Veneta on Saturday the 24th to have dinner with a couple and share our message.  The sky was simply stunting!  It is hard to believe that any artist could come up with such a beautiful palette.

We had a great visit with the Thompsons who have been members under a year.  He had a very rough childhood and the gospel and living the gospel are a total change for him but he such a delightful person who is so totally thrilled with the changes that are happening in his life. 

One of the other families that we had visited with earlier in the week called that afternoon to tell us that a neighbor who they had not known was an inactive member was due for surgery for a growth in her stomach and her father, an active member, had requested that she get a blessing so she had come to Bary Foster with the request.  He called Mike and asked if we could come out and assist, which we did.  On Tuesday, when she got home from the hospital Linda Foster and I tood a meal over to them.  As I held her hand and talked with her she asked if I had heard that it was benign.  She said that she had felt such a peace with the blessing.  She was in a lot of pain and I asked if she wanted a comfort blessing, which she did.  The husband was a very pleasant guy and very appreciative of the food.   We are hoping that some doors will be opened there.

Before we went to drop the food off we went to visit a fellow  (probably in his 60's) whose parents were very active but his father has passed away and his mother is now in an assisted living center.  He was working outside and we chatted with him for a minute and he told us that "Florence" had been by that morning.  (We found out later in the conversation that Florence was Jehovah Witness.)  We just stood out and chatted with him and I finally said, "You are LDS aren't you?"  To which he shook his head and said, "Yes, I am."  Chit chat continued between him and Mike and then he took on a new look and said, "I really need to get back to Church.  My wife is Catholic and even though she is not active in her church she doesn't want me active in mine so to keep the peace I just do nothing." 

I asked if he could receive the Ensign magazie to start getting the gospel in the home a little and he said that he would like that and that he thought she would be okay with that.  He has diabetes and has spent a lot of the last year in a wheel chair and on crutches and seemed to be feeling rather tender hearted and closer to the spirit as the converstion went on.  We left with a very positive feeling and I came home and ordered him a gift subscription to the Ensign.  I hope it will softly open some doors.  

Today there was a service project for the Red Cross that involved all of the missionaries from Eugene, Santa Clara and Springfield zones.  We were the only couple. The goal is a great one but I was just dying to get in there and organize things and save hours of people's time and make it more functional.  The plan was to send teams out to homes and offer the installation of free smoke alarms.  They have found that it is much cheaper to help people prevent fires that to help them with a crisis and aterward so they zeroed in on an area that has had a higher than average fire problem for us to visit.  

We were to arrive before 8 AM but there is a city regulation that you can't go to doors until 10AM.  If it had been efficently handled we could have been ready and out the door in 30 minutes but as it was we barely got out by 10.  Everyone had to have their social security number to volunteer and at least 20 missionaries did not know their social security numbers so special forms had to be filled out and they had to be with someone with a social security nimber.   It would have been easy to tell everyone at district meetings that they would need their SS # if that information had been shared.  

 Some of us were to be writers and others speakers and they changed what we were to hand out and when to hand it out in the process of training us.  Some of the team leaders were not there when we divided into teams and the groupswere not divided with the leaders.  Some were driven in Red Cross cars and some drove their own mission vehicles to their areas.  

We were given a two block area to canvass but the 5th house told us that he would like the alarms.  It was almost 40 minutes later when the installer arrived.  Thank goodness the guy was pleasant, we were invited into his warm house and he enjoyed chatting.  By the time his alarms were installed it was time to go back to the Baptist Church which was the command post.  We were fed pizza and sandwiches and thanked for our work and were sent on our way.  It seems like a very worthwhile project but needs lots of polishing to be successful.  

I did see two different TV stations interviewing a Red Cross guy about the project and I heard him say twice that they got lots of help from the LDS Chrch.  Hopefully it will be a positive PR thing for the Church.  

We chatted a bit with a lady who is an employee with the Red Cross who lives in Salem, I think.  She and her husband were standing near us as we were getting into our groups and she commented about the quality of the young men who were serving.  I explained that they serve at their own expense and that they come out as boys and go home as men.  (There were girls there too but they are already more mature.)  She said that they have a hard time finding volunteers in Portland so would seriously suggest that Red Cross contact the LDS mission there.  I believe we made some positive impressions.  

The Chinese Touch in this Mission

The day before we left for Oregon Lanny and Shirley came past to say goodbye and I mentioned that I had a crazy desire to help a Chinese person to be able to find the gospel here in America.  I certainly was clueless as to how and we still have three months to see what else may happen but here are some interesting things.

I have contact with an LDS young man who we met while in China.  He had known that BYU faculty lived in certain apartments in our building and came to our apartment to give a Christmas gift to one, believing that possibly a couple who he had met still lived there.  We invited him in and started a wonderful friendship.  He had found out that his English teacher several years before (a long story) was LDS and eventually was baptized in Hong Kong and is a part of a tiny Chinese branch in the Yellow Island area of Qingdao.  He and his mother came to see us and had dinner last winter. His name is Simon Song.

He wrote not long ago and I told him that we were on a mission for the Church.  In the conversations back and forth I told him that we had taught English on Skype to Church employees in Asia and he asked if there was any way that he could be a part of that.  I was certain that he couldn't because he is not a Church employee and he lives in Mainland China so a mission could not serve him.

When I was wishing for more to do one day I wrote to him and told him that I would be happy to meet him at 6 AM my time once a week and teach him English.  We have met three times so far.  We don't discuss gospel doctrine but I have learned a lot about the Church in China presently.

Some general information about the Church in China first. In 1921 President McKay dedicated China but the conditions were so unstable that nothing was done to begin work at the time.  He quoted from Jeremiah 3:14 where it says ", ...and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring your to Zion."

 In 1949 Elder Matthew Cowley opened the mission for the Colony of Hong Kong.  He, with four others went up onto Victoria Peak where they could see the city and face mainland China.  They engraved the date into a rock along the path there.

When Mike and I met Charlotte's friends the Linfords in Hong Kong in 2010 they took us up there and here is that picture by the carving.

Last week Simon was able to go to the same spot with our Chinese Seventy Elder Gong and the members of the District Presidency that he serves with. He is the taller one in the center.

Simon joined the Church on his own but had a girlfriend that we spent some time with that he was very much in love with.  In the years since we left they were married, she joined the Church and they had a baby boy last fall.  He informed me a few weeks ago that he was now serving in the district presidency of one of the seven districts in China that serve Chinese LDS members.  The President, next to Elder Gong in the picture, joined the Church from China (I don't know those circumstances) some years before Simon joined.  The second counselor joined the Church while studying abroad. I can't remember which country he was in at the time but he is a perfect example of how we see strong members returning to China "one of a city" to prepare the country for the gospel.  

The reason that Simon was in Hong Kong last week was because the Church was holding training meetings for all of the Chinese leadership in Mainland China.  Simon was able to take Helen with him and they were able to be sealed in the Hong Kong temple.  

It will not be an easy time for them.  She is already complaining about him spending so much time in Church service rather than at work or with his family. It really is a sacrifice, too.  It is all night on a train just to go to his district meetings when they are held.  It is just such a foreign thing culturally for them.   His mother, who lives with them, will not join the Church because she is still afraid of the government and restrictions.  Their branches are small and they are often mostly women 

Flash back to Oregon and our mission.  We drove three Chinese student to Corvallis to a Christmas party in December.  At that time we invited them to come to our home some time to have Chinese food.  They came this past Saturday.  One of the three has been having missionary lessons with two Sister missionaries who work from the LDS Institute on campus.  She is very much in love the getting to know God and the gospel.  She is going back to China at the end of February and was very worried that she would lose contact with the Church when she returned because Chinese people were not to talk to anyone except family about the Church.  

It just so happens that last week as Simon and I spoke he told me of the lifting of the ban and people can now investigate the Church without being family members.  I guess that happened about a year ago.  I mentioned it to this girl Jakie and came in to look for Simon's information.  I heard her say to the sisters.  "This is an answer to our prayers, isn't it?"  

I am extremely grateful for these little puzzle pieces falling together and hope that there will be more of this story to report.  

MLK DAY

The Food Pantry where we usually work on Monday was closed for MLK so we decided to look at TripAdvisor and see what we should see in Eugene.  The first place was Spencer Butte Park which is in the SE area of the city.  We took a lunch thinking it might be a real park but it was actually a trail head.  The parking lot was packed and the trails were muddy.  We ate our lunch on a rock and decided that we would return in the Spring after it had been dryer for a few days and it wasn't a holiday.  The trails climb some but I think we could handle it and would like to in better circumstances.

Next we went to a place which is not very far from our apartment called the Conger Clock Museum.  It is a clock repair place, clock store and museum of so many fascinating things.  Check it out on the web but I'll try to include a few pictures that I took.

After we left there we went to a hand wash car wash and thought we had washed the car.  The heavy dirt was gone but even the windows are still coated with a baked on dust.  We will either have to have it done or take rags with us next time.  We were surprised that in this big city of 157,000+ there only seem to be a handful of car washes.  I guess that when it rains so much people don't see the use but we still had Utah dirt on our car.  We'll try again next P-day.

We made our weekly stop at WalMart, went past WinCo to get a roasted chicken and spent the evening trying to set up appointments.  We have decided to try once or twice and then not try again with these active members.  Free agency is what it is all about on all levels.

I made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Splenda and half ww flour yesterday and they really turned out very good.  We are trying to cut white out of our diet as much as possible.  Watch for the "new" Ellingtons.  Right?

Dinner at "Our Daily Bread"

Since we started coming to Veneta I've wanted to eat in this little place.  Tonight we went there with a part-member couple from our Ward.  They bake wonderful breads every day, thus the title, "Our Daily Bread".  Not too much is "churchy" inside except the high ceiling and the windows but it is a fun little place.  There were probably not more than about 8 tables of various sizes in the main room.  There is a side room to the north but they were not using it tonight.  The breads and dressings were really very good.  They are having their anniversary on the 31st with Prime Rib for $10.95 so we are going to see about reservations for that night, too.  We have only eaten out a few lunches since we got here so this was fun.  Mike had helped the husband put insulation into a home that they are building today and she is an elementary teacher who's great grandparents lived in Manti and Mt Pleasant and her parents now live in St George.  It was easy to visit.

Some of our World

We really haven't done much that is new this week so I'm going to post some pictures of our apartment and of a logging area just west of Veneta that is in our Ward area.

I was thinking of labeling them but decided that anyone who couldn't figure out what rooms they are probably shouldn't be looking at them. I did omit the bathroom.  It is very large with lots of cabinet space.  One of the nicest apartment baths that I have seen.

There are two logging companies in Noti, Oregon.  Here are some snapshots from the car.

We pass logging trucks like Bob used to drive all day long.  Some of them are loaded with these mammoth logs.  It is quite impressive. 

Ducks Quack - Eagels Soar

No one can make you serve customers well....that's because great service is a choice.

Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that  proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the  airport.  When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the  taxi was polished to a bright shine.  Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and  rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey .

He handed my friend a laminated card and said: 'I'm Wally, your driver.  While I'm loading your bags in the trunk I'd like you to read my mission statement.'

Taken aback, Harvey read the card.  It said: Wally's Mission Statement: To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment....

This blew Harvey away.  Especially when he noticed  that the inside of the cab matched the outside.  Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, 'Would you like a cup of coffee?  I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.'  My friend  said jokingly, 'No, I'd prefer a soft drink.'  Wally smiled and said, 'No  problem.  I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice..'  Almost stuttering, Harvey said, 'I'll take a Diet  Coke.'

Handing him his drink, Wally said, 'If you'd like something  to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA  Today..'

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another  laminated card, 'These are the stations I get and the music they play, if  you'd like to listen to the radio.'

And as if that weren't enough,  Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the  temperature was comfortable for him.  Then he advised Harvey of the best  route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he'd be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts...

'Tell me, Wally,'  my amazed friend asked the driver, 'have you always served customers like this?'

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror.  'No, not always.  In fact, it's only been in the last two years.  My first five years driving, I  spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do.  Then I heard the personal growth guru, Wayne Dyer, on the radio one day.

He had just written a book called You'll See It When You  Believe It.  Dyer said that if you get up in the morning expecting to have  a bad day, you'll rarely disappoint yourself.  He said, 'Stop complaining!  Differentiate yourself from your competition.  Don't be a duck.  Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain.  Eagles soar above the crowd.'

'That hit me right between the eyes,' said Wally. 'Dyer was really talking about me.  I was always quacking and complaining, so I  decided to change my attitude and become an eagle.  I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers.  The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.'

'I take it that has paid off for you,' Harvey said.

'It sure has,' Wally replied.  'My first year as an eagle, I  doubled my income from the previous year.  This year I'll probably quadruple it. You were lucky to get me today.  I don't sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine.  If I can't pick them up myself, I get a  reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.'

Wally was phenomenal.  He was running a limo service out of  a Yellow Cab.  I've probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call.  The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn't do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice.  He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles.

How about us?  Smile, and the whole world smiles with you....
The ball is in our hands!

A man reaps what he sows. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not  give up... let us do good to all people.

Ducks Quack, Eagles  Soar.  

Have a nice day, unless you already have other plans.

       

SORROW looks back, WORRY looks around, and FAITH looks UP...  BECAUSE OF FATHER'S LOVE, I AM  CHANGED!!!

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.

It's about learning to dance in the rain."

 I thought this one was worth saving, sharing and remembering.  

Just Curious

It seems that I never get any comments on the blog.  I'll keep doing it because it is my "picture journal" but I am curious if anyone ever reads it.