Bandon Oregon

I had never heard of Bandon Oregon, so when Adam told me he wanted to go to Bandon and play golf for Thanksgiving I thought he had miss understood the plan.  Now that we are here I can tell you it does in fact exist but if you aren’t coming to golf there isn’t much more here. That being said… it is a perfect place for us to be for our vacation.  There is nothing here but beautiful views and golf.  The nearest town is about 10 mins away and the only fast food restaurant there is Dariy Queen.  There are a couple small stores for groceries and then a cute little board walk with a few little tourist trap stores.  

Adam has been golfing, Briggs has been his caddy, and Ila has found a friend. I have enjoyed watching World Cup soccer, catching up on work and a few little outings to see the beauty here.  

Life after …

Adam planned a gold trip with some of his golf buddies.  I didn’t become involved in the plans until after Avram was gone so Thursday we decided we would actually leave and go on this trip for Thanksgiving.  That gave us one day to prepare and leave.  Friday I spent most of the day doing laundry and trying to catch up on my side job of book world for Modern Mountain Builders.  Which left us with a million things to do Saturday morning before we took off.  

Adam was busy taking care of a car situation and buttoning up a few things with work so he could leave.  I was able to get the house clean, laundry done, dog poop scooped, chickens fed and taken care of, dogs taken care of, leaves cleaned and drain by walk out cleaned up in case of storm, garage cleaned up so mom and dad didnt have to go through an obstacle course when stoping by, garbages out, trip food packed, myself packed and thankfully a shouter before we left at 11 am on Saturday. If this sounds exhausting and too much…it was!  

We were able to get to Reno on Saturday and spend the night with the Oneil’s. (Adams good friend/ comp from his mission). 

After spending the night with the Oneil’s, we woke up early and started our 2nd day of driving.  It has been a long time since I have been on a road trip this far.  15 1/2 hours of driving later We arrived in Bandon Oregon.  

Our two smugglers are stuck in the same bed together.  LOL.

I had never heard of Weed California

I think this is Mount Shasta. 

First Phone call

After a week in the MTC we finally heard from Avram.  I will say, this was a dream come true for me.  There was nothing more I wanted to hear then the following… “ Anyways me and my companion have been putting the extra hours on the books in comp study we have about 2 to 3 comp studies a day and i don't regret a second of it i can feel my testimony and faith grow stronger every time along with my knowledge of the gospel we go work out and yes Isaac there is a weight room here not any kinda racks but dumbbells benches and all kinda core and cardio machines i've been spending time on the bikes and they have T.V.'s here and i just biked and listened to elder holland that guy has such great talks on being an effective missionary and i ended up hearing this at the perfect time. Anyways I love it here. I love the Christs Gospel  and the Book of mormon and I love BYU chocolate milk.”

When we talked to him on the phone he couldnt say enough about how great the MTC has been.  He also could hardly get through a sentence without laughing with another missionary about something.  The light of Christ truly changes people and fills us with true joy and happiness. 

MTC

I was very skeptical about the Home MTC.  Looking back, Im sure several weeks of home MTC could be more challenging, but the week and 1/2 Avram was in the home MTC was one of best weeks I have ever had with Avram. 

1. The spirit in our home was amazing.  

2. Every hour or so, Avram would come upstairs and tell me all about the things he was learning

3. Avram and I had some great gospel discussions.  It was the first time I felt like I was talking with Avram, instead of preaching to him.  

4. It just so happens that our Stake had a “missionary week” for the youth.  So Tuesday evening, Wed morning and evening, Thursday morning and evening, the youth went to the stake center to learn about missionary work and do different activities.  Avram was able to go to a couple of the meetings, which meant either Adam or I went along.  

5. Once in awhile Avram would come up stairs and say something like, “I need to teach you …” or “I need to share my testimony about ….” 

Avram had a P day so he and his companion decided they wanted to meet up for lunch.  His comp is from PG and just so happens to be one of Jared, my nephew, best friends.  We decided to meet at the church office building for taco Tuesday.  Avram and Elder Whitiera hit it off immediately.  They had a lot of fun together and a lot of laughs.   Mom and Dad were able to take the boys around so they could get pointers from the sister missionaries on temple square.  

Adam and I were able to meet Elder Whitieras parents, who are from New Zealand. 

It was also so comforting when we dropped Avram off at the MTC, because he already knew a bunch of missionaries, the missionaries in his district and he was super excited to start his adventure.

This was the night before Avram went into the MTC.  We all got in a good cry.

Below is Avrams last time with Q.  Crystal, David and Q came over in the morning and we had breakfast together.  

Avram has gotten really close to Q the past couple of weeks.  Crystal has been over a lot and we have done a lot together.  It has been a really fun time.  

The MTC final good byes. 

This is the hardest picture for me to look at.  These two have grown up together and been best friends.  

Squeezing in all we can

Halloween came and went.  With our “Pre-thanksgiving feast” that we had with the family I just skipped Halloween.  I ended up picking up a costume for Ila Saturday before Halloween and that was the extent of my Halloween focus.  

We did go to the the ward Halloween party.  I actually took over a bunch of left overs desserts and rolls from Avrams farewell.  

Ok, let me back up a little.  Avrams mission farewell was on Oct 30.  That is a difficult event to plan for.  I had no idea how many people to expect.  I decided to provide soup, rolls, some desserts, and a hot cocoa bar for the luncheon.  Crystal, Mom and Nicholle each brought a different type of soup and then I made 3 different kinds.  I tried to spread out the work so each day for a week I tried to bake 2-3 batches of cookies/brownies.  Saturday I made 5 batches of dough for rolls.  

Avram has been trying to be independent in his preparation for his mission.  I told him I would sit down and work on his talk with him.  He said, “No mom, I’ve got this.”  I few hours later I turned on the computer and happened to find Avrams talk.  He had introduced his name and shared the topic he was to speak on…and that was the end.  I told Avram, its ok to get help.  I still call my mom and go over my talks with her.  I think that helped him feel more comfortable about his mom helping.   Well, I wrote a talk, handed it to him and told him “Here are some notes, you can use whatever you want or you don’t have to use any of it.”  He was grateful and took the papers.  I didn’t know what he had decided to do until I heard his talk over the pulpit.  He ended up using the talk I wrote but I was so proud of him because he practiced it and studied it a lot so that he was familiar with the talk and he didn’t have to read the whole thing.  

He presented himself so well and he did a great job.  Even two weeks later I have people telling me how well he did.  I know that there are many people in the ward that have watched him grow up and have a small understanding of the miracle that is standing in front of us.  

The farewell went well, we had nearly a perfect amount of soup and I had lots of left over rolls and desserts.  I think the kids, including Avrams friends, like the hot cocoa bar the most.  

Avram had a bucket list before leaving on his mission.  He had a few movies he wanted to watch (Jurassic Park series) and he wanted to go to the Zoo, Natural History Museum and the Aquarium.  His friends thought he was crazy and didn’t want to do these things, but this is Avram and I love this about him.  Crystal joined us for most of the events which he loved! He and Q have bonded a lot the past couple of weeks.  It has been a lot of fun watching them but in some ways its bad because it will be harder for Avram to say good bye.  

On Thursday we had a scone party.  These boys have come to my house many times for lunch.  I would feed them scones when they came over.  They love the scones!  We had this group over for one last lunch of scones and hot cocoa.  

The Natural History Museum was done the same way it was when he was a little kid.  He had little to no interest in 90% of the museum.  He was there for the dinosaur part.   (I love this kid)

This past Sunday Avram was set apart as a missionary.  He was so excited to officially put on that name tag.  It was wonderful to have the Adams, G&G Anthony, and Nicholle join us for this occasion.  Earlier that day we had fast and testimony meeting.  Briggs got up and bore his testimony.  He shared about how thankful he was to have shared a room with his best friend.  He said, we take good things for granted too often and then when its gone we realize how good we had it.  Avram had a hard time holding it together as Briggs spoke.  Those two have a special connection.  They have been through a lot together.

Adam and I also shared our testimonies.  I just kept thinking this may be the last fast and testimony meeting I have with my kids like this.  The next time we are together, things could be very different.  

It has been such a wonderful opportunity and adventure helping Avram prepare for his mission.