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