Christmas 2014

Here we are in the rainy northwest – an hour north of Seattle, just outside Granite Falls, Washington.  We are near the Cascade Mountains so we get a lot of rain.  We have been on our church service mission for 6 months and have 6 more months to go.  We are having a great deal of fun – I didn’t think missions were supposed to BE fun, but ours is.  We are running a year-round campground with another missionary couple; taking reservations, mowing lawns, cleaning bathrooms, mowing lawns, collecting money, mowing lawns, trimming bushes, picking the blackberries, salmon berries and thimble berries, mowing lawns, replacing toilet paper, mowing lawns, fixing things that break (lawnmowers, swings, water taps, toilets, etc.), helping people who lose things, mowing lawns, helping people start fires, mowing lawns, answering the phone, taking care of deposits, moving the slip-n-slide, mowing lawns, selling wood, acting as security, ordering supplies, cleaning up along the river when it floods and doing the paperwork.  Oh, and mowing lawns.   We have 44 acres of lawn to mow each week, rain or shine.  We had a nice cold snap last week so FINALLY the lawn stopped growing and now the guys are spending the winter fixing lawnmowers and sharpening lawnmower blades. Whew!   We work 10 – 14 hours a day in the summer.  Now it has gotten cooler, we are down to about 4- 6 hours a day. 

We get one day off a week (not counting Sunday) and we have taken advantage of that by seeing as much of Washington and some of Canada, that we can drive to and be back the same day.  We’ve put 11,000 miles on our truck since we’ve left home!

Some summer weekends we have 900 people in camp and then school starts.  We now have about 3 Boy Scout events a week, rain or shine, 60 degrees to 18 degrees.  We’ve had Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Young Women camps and events, Stake Fathers and Sons events, Ward Socials, family reunions, birthday parties, and single families.  We’ve had large church groups of Russians, Ukrainians & Samoans.   Wow, thinking back has made me tired!   We have met a lot of very nice people.

We have been blessed with visits from family and friends:  Layne and Kirks family came in July,  Brent & Lori Mitchell (from Utah), Joe & Charlie Richardson were in Seattle  (from Utah) and came to see us, Layne came back for a meeting and stayed several days, and Ryan is coming for several days just before Christmas.  Anyone else wanna come?  You’d better hurry!

Have I mentioned how beautiful it is here? Words cannot describe how beautiful it is. Huge cedars, Douglas Firs, Western Hemlock, Big Leaf Maple, to name just a few in our camp – so, so beautiful.

We are so grateful to be able to serve the Lord in this small capacity, so grateful for all our blessings and for the wonderful people we have met.

We wish many blessings to you,

Tim & Linda Mitchell

12629 155th Ave NE, Arlington, WA 98223

Today is the first day of the Georgia National Fair and we are so sad not to be there this year - but it is for a good cause that we are not - We are serving a year as church service missionaries!  We are having a good experience and would like to share that with you on FaceBook - Tim and Linda's 1st Church Mission - if you'd like to watch what we are doing .

We are into the slow time of year, the kids are all back at at school and the temperature is dipping down to the 40's and we are having rain, rain, rain!  We do have a few brave souls come and camp - yeah for them!

Working, working

 

We have been working hard, mowing lawns, hauling wood, welcoming guests, cleaning bathrooms,  replacing toilet paper, mowing lawns.... etc.

SO it was time for a day off.   We actually get Sundays off (usually, not always though, if we have a guest we get to stay here) and one other day of the week that we aren't busy - like Monday or Tuesday.   This week we drove town to Mt St. Helens, and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!   The visitors centers (there are at least 4) told the story and had different movies and different exhibits.

It was clouding most of our drive there (3 hours one way) but as soon as we got there, the clouds left and we had blue sky.  

And the Johnsons come!

We are so happy the Johnsons arrived!  They are so easy to like and work with!   They are from Southern California.  AND Julie is a good cook. 

Tim and Paul get along really well

We had our first FULL camp this weekend.  There were 866 people at the fathers and sons camp out.  

The Brinkerhoffs leave. Sniff.

Well, our new friends Eric & Colene Brinkerhoff left us today.   They have been on their mission for 18 months and it was time for them to go home.  It was a really sad time for me.   We had one family camping here but after 2 whole days of rain they decided they were done and went home early. 

                We get our new couple tomorrow but I don’t know what time.  They are the Johnsons and are from California and that is about all I know right now.

                After the Brinkerhoffs left, I went through the house to see what was there and discovered they had left 3 suits in the closet by accident.  Colene called tonight and I asked her about them and she was going to put them in the car at the last minute and she had forgotten.  I will mail them to her

                SLC FM group came through the camp tonight with Bishop Katz – our fearless leader – to look at things.   Everyone was quite worried about the impression they would get but the camp was just beautiful.   Bishop Katz wants to build 9 more cabins here – donated labor and materials – and they have a problem with that.  We have tent pads but the tents are worn out with holes in the tops.   Each tent costs $1,500 to 2,000 to replace.   Donated time and materials for the cabins would be $0.  (shrug)    When the FM group asked who would keep up the cabins I raised my hand meaning the volunteer missionaries who keep up the place. 

                I found out that there is 40 acres of grass here.  I think Tim has mowed 30 acres so far.  I am learning and relearning the office as I need to teach someone next week how to work the office with me.

                Tomorrow I get to learn how to set up reservations on the church web site!  I sure hope I can do this as it would make our life so much easier here!  

We are here!!

This is a few days journals so read away!

May 1, 2014 – Thursday -  We have been at our camp for 2 days… and MAN I am tired!

Minding the gate- checking people in to the camp for the night. We have two fathers and sons groups and one priesthood group. There are 10 areas to camp here so it's a light camp night.

May 3, 2014 –Friday

We had our first campers last night, two fathers & sons groups and a prospective Elders group.  We started checking people in at 4 pm and didn’t finish until after 10.  The other couple here, Eric & Colleen Brinkerhoff from Glendale Utah, who have been here 15 months, and we sat outside the guard house and signed people in.   Around 5 I suggested they go get their dinner while we watched the gate and then come relieve us and we would get some dinner.   They are very good company and know about everthing there is to know about this camp.  Sadly, they leave Thursday and the new couple, Paul & Julie Johnson from the Redlands, CA (about 50 miles east of Los Angeles)  Arrive the same day.  I sure hope we will become good friends!   

We live in the trailer behind the house  and we can’t see quite as much as the people living in the house can see (people coming and going), but we can see the lower camp grounds much easier than they.  

               Up to this point, I have been using only my phone to take pictures, but after, sadly, accidently erasing most of the “party” and family reunion type pictures from my phone, I will start using my camera too.  I am so sad about the pictures.   My family (Ron, Kathy, Carole, & I) will never be together like that again, I am sure.   So mad at myself.  After taking a dozen pictures or so, I DID post a picture (not necessary the best picture) on Facebook so I do have one picture of each of the important ones. 

               WHERE did I read on all the info I read about service missions that you work 5-6 hours a day?  Not so!   We start about 8, break for lunch, work until 5, break for dinner, and work until dark!!!about 12 hours a day!   What is with that!!! 

               After going home for what we thought was the night, a very happy father and son arrived with the son’s completed eagle project – 5 beautiful picnic tables.  We tried taking pictures, but it was after 9 so I am afraid they aren’t very good.  They were so excited.  J 

May 3, 2014 – Saturday

               The first of the famous Washington rains started today.  It looks like it’ll rain for a week.  It is mostly a soft rain with bouts of downpours.  A family came to picnic during the rain… not something that we’d do in the south, but they are so used to the rain that it didn’t bother them at all!

               Tim started his working with the tractor moving tables and Port-a-potties

May 4 – Sunday

               Our first Sunday here – fast Sunday.   It is in a newish building and the chapel is a little smaller than ours.   The seats in the front – on the stand – were benches and not fold down seats… I haven’t seen that before, but it makes sense.   Colleen Brinkerhoff (the sister part of the other couple here with us who leave on Thursday) introduced us to as many people as she could.  She is very nice.   They are from Southern UT.  We were invited, with the Brinkerhoffs to dinner at Sister Cowards house.  She is the “mama” of the missionaries, young or old, and feeds then/us regularly.  This ward has only one set of Elders, one of which has been here since OCTOBER!!!     They have been notified they will both be transferred this week.   The Brinkerhoffs have quite taken then under their wing and invite them 2 -3 times a week for dinner.  I don’t think we will follow suit as we are in our little camper and won’t be able to do that. 

Rolling down the road

We pulled out of Georgia Monday morning pulling our 5th wheel camper headed first to Salt Lake City where we will spend some time with brothers and sisters, then head up to Seattle area for our mission area near Granite Fallls. 

We  had several really nice going away parties thrown for us.  All of our kids and grand kids came for two days celebrating the April birthdays of April , Tyler, Jeremiah, Timothy, Layne, & Cade - whew!  April is a expensive month!  We had all hoped to attend Timothy's baseball game but the rain cancelled the game, darn it!

We had planned to drive only 6 hours a day, but we weren't tired so the first day we drove 15 hours and spent the night at a rest area in Missouri.  We slept very well all snug in our little house on wheels. 

Yesterday we drove 14 hours then pulled into a beautiful rest area outside of Laramie WY - and woke up to snow!   I had thrown extra blankets on us before we went to bed and didn't get cold until morning.  Tim said our thermostat said it was 53 degrees inside the campers and it was 30 degrees outside - so our little house must be well insulated !

The pictures!

The pictures April took are done!   I am quite delighted with them!

April has a nice business taking pictures and I loved what she did with ours!  

Dented Car

Darn!  We hit a deer on the way home from the Boy Scout Court of Honor tonight and mashed the hood of our car.  The deer ran away (probably with a broken leg).  We must have made enough noise sliding on the road that people came running out of the house that was nearby.

Not happy.

Bleeding hearts

My "Bleeding Hearts" are blooming! My mom had some of the plants and when they bloom it makes me think of her.

Farewell talks in church

What a great week I’ve had.  Busy, busy, busy.   T-shirts are finally done so I broke out the soap supplies and started on soap.  The Lavender rain gave me fits and I had to make it over again.  I have lots and lots of lavender rain to give away to family, and lots of nice to sell.  The batch became “soap” before I could get it in the molds and became hard as a rock and crumbly  -  grrrrr.   I shredded a lot of it and will take it with us on our mission (the camper will smell really good!  I hope Tim doesn’t mind smelling like lavender!)  and put the shreds in some soap sacks for us to use.

Tim and I spoke in church today; it was our mission farewell talks.  We talked about missions and service.  Because I am in charge of the ward bulletin, I also arranged what songs I wanted (Way on a Mountain Top (because we are going to the mountains), Come, Come Ye Saints, (because my talk talked about it and it is my favorite song) and We are Sowing (because it is about missionary work) and I also had a cute cover that was of senior missionaries!  LOL!   I got quite a kick out of my church program and Sunday morning!  AND Kirk and Jana surprised us and drove down from Augusta to come listen to us!  They had to turn around and go right back after sacrament meeting as Samantha was speaking in their ward.  How sweet of them!

A busy day!

We went to Augusta today to celebrate Eliza’s 4^th birthday.  I got her a pink sparkly cowboy hat and a pink sparkly purse.  She really liked them.  Grandpa put a dollar in the purse, she liked that too!

THEN April took about 100 pictures of Tim and I.  We had taken extra clothes with us so we could have some pre-mission pictures.  She takes such good pictures and I can’t wait to see ours!  We had pictures in church clothes and holding a rake and hoe (service missionaries) and pictures of us in casual clothes sitting on a hay bale and various other places.  It was lots of fun. This is the first time I have ever had pictures like this taken and it was fun. 

We left (after a scrumptious lunch) and headed to Samantha’s soccer game at her middle school.  Their team won and I think Samantha played most of the game.  We then went to their home and they fed us dinner!   What a great day!

I got home to more little league shirts to do and because I have plans for tomorrow, I did them as soon as I got home and they are done and awaiting pickup!

Rain, Rain, Rain

A letter to and from our missions current residents....

On Sun, Mar 9, 2014 at 1:12 PM, Mitchell Creations! wrote:

Happy Sunday to you!

First thing in the mornings I check Conyers weather, then I check Granite Falls weather.  Today I see you have a flood warning.  How high has the river gotten when you’ve been there.

And… I forget, how long HAVE you been there?

We are finally getting spring.  Daffodils everywhere!  Tulips don’t do well here (our winters are “normally” not cold enough) but we do get crocus and lots of flowering trees.  

6 weeks and 1 day until we leave! 

-          Linda

Cascade Park Camp	Mar 10 (8 days ago)
to Mitchells

We have been here in Cascade park,oh, it was a year in Feb so....

We were down in Camp Nisqually for 3 months, then got transfered  to Cascade Park.  

We have seen the river almost to the grass on the bottom level and it is there again.

Well it is up to the grass, which when you get here you will see that that is a lot of water, but it doesn't really bother us yet. Although the grass everywhere is quite saturated and so we discourage driving on the grass. There is a bit of flooding on roads that are close to a river. 

Our tulips are trying to come up and you will love the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon just north of us.  It is so awesome, but so are the daffodils that come up just before the Tulips.  Anyway we enjoyed them. The Tulip Festival starts about April 26 for about a week. 

See ya soon

CP Missionary

   

Sunday

March 9, 2014 – Sunday               

We had a really good stake conference today… our 2^nd already this year!   Elder Quinton L Cook presented one for the missionaries yesterday and I got to go to that one too as I had taken the sisters to it at the Brockett building.  That one was for two whole missions.  I got to see a lot of our former missionaries and it was tons of fun.  Then, our area Seventy, Elder Fred A Parker, was the keynote speaker at our stake conference today. Both of the conferences were well worth the time. 

Ok, ready for the countdown?  We leave six weeks and 1 day from today!    Whooooo Hoooooo.  

It is Little League time again which means I am madly doing little league t-shirts.  I try to turn them around in one day and mostly I can do that.  Eddie Bagwell gets the business, I do the work and turn them back to him and he collects the money then pays me for my work.  We both work hard for the work/money!    PLUS I have one of my big accounts to do (not t-shirts).   Sigh.   When it rains it pours!

Making Belly Balms

Still getting things ready to go.   

Today I made belly balms because I was almost out.    Happily I had enough belly balm tubes to finish up the job, but I am totally out of lip balm tubes so I ordered some and will finish up with the balms when they come in.   I am hoping to take lip balms with me on my mission to pass out at will as kind of an advertisement.    

I ordered some more lye so I can get some soaps made for Tyler to sell for me.   I don’t want my customers to be unhappy with me being gone, so he will have lots of soap for sale!

         Tim is still getting his side of our adventure ready to go by letting renters know we will be gone and where to take their rent (Ryan’s karate studio).

8 weeks!

Just 8 more weeks until we leave!

Our mission call is here !

We are so excited!  Our official mission call came today!

For the young missionaries, there are lots and lots of page of instructions... but not for the senior couples, I guess.  One page from our Stake President!   Just 1 month and 3 weeks to go!

Cascade park

From Cascade Park today- 

Here is the spot that your RV/trailer goes in.  Nice and close to the house. The hook-ups are hooked on to the house.

There is another spot that is down off the hill and further away from the office, and is not quite as convenient.  The phone doesn't work there very well.  It is between the tractor shed and the garage.

 

Scouts...

I have been a Boy Scout committee member for a really long time.... 30 years or so.  I am in charge of advancements and membership records.   I am happy to report..... I turned in our recharter today - only 2 months late!  

I will hang my head in shame.  (I wonder who will be doing it next year?)

:)

Service Mission information...

Here is an email sent and received from the couple we are replacing at Cascade Park Campground:

From: Cascade Park Camp [mailto:cascadeparkcamp@ldsmail.net] 
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 1:10 PM
To: MitchellCreations.com
Subject: Re: Cascade Park Camp
My husband got some coordinates for you so you can see what Cascade Park looked like last summer. Do you do google-earth? You can put in these co-ordinates up in the SEARCH on the left hand corner and it should bring you right across the continent to Cascade Park in Washington - 48 06 40 N 122 01 26 W

On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 12:15 PM, Mitchell Creations! wrote:
Thanks! It is fun looking around. Where would we be parking our 5th wheel? I don’t see a camp ground (where campers are parked).

From: Cascade Park Camp [mailto:cascadeparkcamp@ldsmail.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2014 1:52 PM
To: Mitchell Creations!
Subject: Re: Cascade Park Camp
When you look at the house, on the left side of it there is a big tree and a white 5th wheel trailer sticking out from it. That is the RV hook-up for missionaries. There are no RV camping spots, so to speak, just for the camp missionaries. Needless to say we get to be close neighbors. The office is on the other side of the house, actually part of the house. Anyway it will be fun and exciting to meet you.
Are you still snowed in? When do you start your westward trek? How long will it take for you to get to Washington?
It is cold here, but we have not had much snow. A flake and a skiff here and there is about all.

Ice Storm

We are having quite an ice storm, here in the South!  It rains ice and sticks to the trees, bending limbs down and snapping weak limbs off.  If it falls over a power line - we go without heat or lights.  Bummer.

Icicles hanging from the Dogwood Tree

Ice on the deck - I poured some seed on the deck because the birdfeeder was frozen.

Cold stormy weather...

When the weather gets bad, my bird feeder gets really busy!  Here are a male and female cardinal and some Carolina Chickadees.

What the birds knock out of the feeder, the doves eat from the ground.

Having fun with friends

Doreen Williams

Started of the day going to the mall to walk.  Doreen Williams usually walks with me, and she did today.  We usually walk 2 to 3 miles each morning.   I can really tell my stamina is much better than when I don’t walk.

I went to visit Celia Ashwell today.  She signed up

Celia on her computer

for Facebook just to watch us on our mission… how cool is that!  She had signed up for FB, but couldn't figure how to use it, so I went to her house and we worked on it.  She also got an email address, which she hasn't had for several years.  Go Celia!!  This picture shows her with her granddaughter.  

Rockdale County has cancelled school for tomorrow because it is suppose to snow again.  So far, the local kids have missed 4 days this year due to cold or snow. 

A special day!

What a beautiful day!

Rebekah was baptized today.  The WHOLE family came!  Her Little Rock grandparents and Uncle Jonathan (Betsy’s only brother), her Uncle Richard and new wife, our whole family and cousins.  We held the meeting in the chapel, we had so many people come.   McKenzie and Samantha played their flutes while Lorrie played the piano and Betsy sang.  Both Grandmas gave talks, Jeremiah and Timothy give the prayers.  What a great day.

I had a vinyl job for Bishop Phil Kimble and got it done and delivered; New signs for his business trucks.  He then asked if I could do a rush job – a T-shirt for his daughter.  She hates Idaho’s cold weather so the shirt said: -8 (degrees) is Great – and then I put a few snowflakes on the shirt.  I thought it was cute. 

One of the nice things today was the weather was so nice.  The kids played outside, jumping on the trampoline.  And in the evening, Tim and I had a nice soak in the hottub… the frogs were singing and singing and singing and we could see beautiful stars above us.  What a blessed day.  :)

The Interview

Mission update:  We had our Bishop interview on Sunday and our Stake interview tonight… yeah!!      President Johnson was a lot of fun and made me feel really good about going on our mission.  He asked why we chose to do a service mission and I told him that we were not quiet people and we needed to go someplace we could be loud and laugh.  He laughed.

                I watched Jeremiah and Rebekah this afternoon after school because Betsy had a late class.  While Beck was at the house, Betsy called her and reminded her that she needed to clean her room or not go to the Princess Ball Friday night with her daddy.  Right after dinner, Rebekah and I went to her house and we started cleaning her bedroom (she had already worked on it for an hour but when she came over for dinner, she had chalk colored her hair so I am not sure how long she actually worked on the room!)  Tim took Jeremiah to Karate and we stayed and worked on her room.  We only took out one large garbage sack full but we made quite a nice start on her room.   Her other grandma comes tomorrow so we needed it decent.  My goodness, that girl has a TON of clothes!    We left at 6:30 for the mission interview and took Rebekah with us.   She played on the iPad while we were busy, and counted how many rooms are in the church (40).   When we got home, we went back to her room…the only thing I really wanted to finish was to clean the bird cage….. and we got that finished just as her mom got home from school.  Yea! 

We are going on a church service mission!

We are going on a church service mission!   I am so excited!

 As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Ladder-day Saints, we believe in service to our fellow man and spreading the happy words of Jesus Christ.  Each of our 4 sons served 2 year proselyting missions and now it is our turn.

Ours will be different from the boy's missions.... ours is going to be a service mission and it will be for one year.

One of the "perks" of being old missionaries is that you can pick what you would like to do and Tim has been looking over the Church web site at the senior (that is us!) missions that they (the Church) need filled.  There are things like, family history center, genealogy center, work with Young Single Adults in England, take care of church camps for .... wait, what?  church camps?  outdoors?  trees?  water?   Hey!  that is right up our alley!

"Full time Senior Church Service Missionary Opportunities
Duties may include: Office work, grounds maintenance, heavy equipment use and maintenance, custodial work, cooking, construction, building maintenance, directing service groups and overseeing equestrian program.  Copuple or individuals to serve 5-6 days per week, for 12 - 24 months"

How cool does that sound!