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
