Farewell, Acadia

     Acadia, my oldest granddaughter, begins a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints tomorrow, Wednesday October 24, 2018.  It has long been the desire of her heart to show her love for the Lord and share the joy of the gospel by serving a full-time mission.  We are excited for and proud of her.
   
     Some of us were able to go up for her last weekend at home.

     Feeling that I am getting too old for the long push,  I planned to take it somewhat easy, visit my sister overnight at Klamath Falls, and make a two day drive.  David, Teresa, and Andrew who had more commitments in Sacramento, drove up together in one long day drive. Well, Miriam and I did make a  two day drive.  She drove a good deal while I dozed.  We had planned to visit my sister Lainee on the way up, but we left late, had to make a lot of potty stops, lost Costco, and it just got to be too late. Instead of making the detour to Klamath Falls, we stopped at a hotel.  We tried to call Lainee on the way down to see if we could visit, but failed to connect.

     Yes.  I lost a Costco.  When traveling between Rosers and home I always gas at Costco in Medford.  So we confidently left the freeway and headed down the road.  My GPS suggested a left turn that we "knew" was a misdirection.  But when we got to Costco, it wasn't there.  It LOOKED like the right place except no sign of Costco or a gas station. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.  I went into  McDonalds and told the young workers that I was lost;  I thought there was a Costco there.  They told me that there WAS, but about a year ago it closed because there was a new one about 3 miles away. I guess the GPS had been right even though the address shown before we started was the Crater Lake Highway location.  We didn't have any trouble finding it on the return trip.

    Other than that mishap, the drive was quite pleasant. The weather was perfect. The scenery was lovely, although there were many signs of drought and fire.  Miriam and I listened to The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper a delightful, surprising, entertaining tale of a widower's quest to learn about a mysterious piece of jewelry and his wife's life before they met.  

    Miriam and I stopped at Oregon Eugene Mission office. Not easy to find that basement hole in the wall!  We left a card for Acadia - her first "mail" on her mission!  I remarked to Miriam that how as it was so close to her home, her mom might deliver packages to the mission office rather than mail them.  (She would not deliver them to Acadia because missionaries have no face to face contact with their families while on their missions.  They write (email now) weekly and they speak by phone or video conference on Mother's Day and Christmas.  Mostly they are fully dedicated to the work.  Besides, Acadia might be assigned almost anywhere from central Oregon to Mt Shasta, from the coast to Nevada).  Miriam thought that was ridiculous.  Later we learned that because of Acadia's strict dietary restrictions, Sariah would, indeed, deliver (heavy) packages of nutrition supplements to the office before zone conferences to be passed on to Acadia.

    Thinking that the Rosers might be overrun and that a real bed and less busy bathroom might be more comfortable, I booked a hotel room for Miriam, Andrew, and I (shared, not individual.  I am not rich) We spent our waking hours at Rosers.

    Because he had been unwell early in the week, David could not take time off work Friday.  They left early in the morning Saturday, made good time, and arrived in the early evening.

    It was a delightful weekend.  Saturday, Miriam, Sariah, and I got lunch from the Golden China which might be the best Chinese food I have eaten. (I had teriyaki chicken, sesame chicken, and pineapple beef, noodles and rice) It was delicious.  Ryan and Acadia got sushi somewhere.  Aurora had already eaten leftovers at home, but Sariah got crab cakes at her request.  (no, thanks)    We played Life.  That game has changed since I was a kid!  The Rosers readied the house and treats for the Open House Sunday. Sariah made delicious asparagus stuffed chicken.  After dinner we made woofums around the firepit on Roser's deck.

    At church, we were all charmed by the beautiful duet of Aurora and her friend Grace singing a lovely medley arranged and played by Acadia.  Sweet, pure voices, beautiful song.  Acadia gave an excellent talk.  She will be such a good missionary.  Strong testimony, sincere, friendly.

      We made bracelets with kits Teresa brought and Sariah fixed a delicious pork roast dinner.  (We did offer to help but Sariah was totally organized) After dinner, however, we remembered that Aurora had planned to make Caesar Salad.  oh well

       Acadia kept saying that 7 people would come to the Open House that evening.  Of course, there were considerably more.  I mostly enjoyed visiting with my sister Kris and her husband Gary.  And we played Sleeping Queens. Everyone enjoyed the yummy gluten free treats Acadia made.

       Too soon the weekend was over.  We said our good-byes.  For a year and a half to Acadia and until Thanksgiving to the rest of the Rosers.

     David, Teresa, and Andrew headed out one street while Miriam and I headed out another.  Serendipity. We met up at Costco in Albany when we filled our cars.  They had gassed up, but were washing the windows when we got there.  David washed my windows.  I thought that was the last we would see of them because they continued on while we made a potty stop.  Surprisingly somewhere along the way they passed us on the freeway!  We followed them until we had to make a rest stop at Weed.  I was sure then that they would be home long before us.  At Medford, (well Center Point, I think it was) we made a last effort to contact my sister Lainee, but did not.  So we continued on.  We made good time and got home about 10pm.  Joseph welcomed us.  Andrew was not there.  What? I was certain they would be well before us.  Within a couple of minutes, to my relief, DTA arrived.  We had not made as many rest stops as anticipated and apparently I am the speedster. Also, we only stopped long enough for me to put together sandwiches with ingredients I had prepped and ate as I drove.   They stopped and did a little picnic.  I actually drove the whole way myself!  And I thought I was getting too old for that.  The weekend must have invigorated me.

    I almost forgot. Our coming home book was All The Ever Afters  which is also quite good and which we must yet finish. Reading Club!

An email to my friend with some of my beliefs and thoughts

You are right.  God is pretty clear against witchcraft.  And we are to avoid even the appearance of evil.  I may have to rethink one of my two basic Halloween costumes - the witch and the fancy lady.  don't think I look like an evil witch?  When I was a kid, my go to was Indian or hobo - probably not politically correct these days. We members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints don't take Halloween at all seriously.  It's just a time to have fun.  Some people like way too much gore for my taste.  on the other hand, there are probably members who avoid Halloween - they avoid Harry Potter and the like.  (I am ok with Harry Potter and our leaders have even quoted it). But mostly we just take the fun.  My problem with Halloween is that it gets more attention than I think it deserves, but people like to dress up, pretend, and have treats.  For me it's way too close to Christmas to spend much money on!  I have 8 children, 5 children-in-law, and 8 grandchildren.  I can barely do presents for them so extended family and dear friends are lucky if I get them a card.

Ha ha.  I agree with you about completely white-washing a person's character.  Just because you died doesn't make you good!  No need to do a lot of dragging through the mud and bashing - we are not supposed to judge.  But why pretend the person was so good when they were not?  Maybe there are those who saw different sides of a person and no one is ALL bad, but dying does not purge one.  That made my ex-husband's funeral a little interesting.  I didn't go, and he was not totally wicked.  There were good things to be said about him and of course, you can just review his life facts.  But it was a little weird for my kids to have people offering them sympathy when they had not lost anything.  He didn't have a good relationship with them. That was the sorrow, not the loss of his presence. 

The idea of singing away the dead person's sins, well I should not judge, but that sure doesn't work with me.  Each person must repent of his own sins.  No one can cleanse us but Christ and that on the conditions of repentance.

How we live and the choices we make will determine our eternal destiny.  We have been taught that this life is the time to prepare to meet God, but we also believe in eternal progression.  I am not sure how it works, but I know we continue to learn, especially if we have tried to learn, grow, and obey in this life.  We will continue to do so. Righteous spirits minister to and teach spirits who did not receive the gospel of Christ in life. I think and HOPE we can continue to repent and grow. I don't know if we can change kingdoms, but I think we can at least level up within a kingdom.  But it won't be easier, we will still be who we are.  If we do not choose good and TRY to follow God, we probably will have much the same attitude - possibly even when we can see the consequences.  Although, I must say, we have all lost someone who we hope sees the light and chooses better in the after life.

Part of the good news is we believe in degrees of glory.  Three main degrees of glory with levels within.  And a degree of NO glory that is hell.  Those who follow God and make and keep sacred covenants with Him will be able to dwell with Him in the Celestial Kingdom.  In the middle kingdom, the Terrestrial,  will be good, but not fully righteous people.  People who were not very good, but not did not knowingly and willfully deny the Christ will be in the lower level, the Telestial World.  From what I hear, this is still a great place, better than earth (and I pretty much like earth, well without war, disasters, and illness).  Those who stubbornly and willfully deny the Holy Ghost and Christ will be in Outer Darkness, hell.  They have rejected God's light and will be without it.  Personally I think a LOT of people will be in the two T's and will be mostly happy about it.  I kind of think we will achieve our idea of heaven - what we believe in and aim for, but that is my personal interpretation.

Like you, we believe that the spirit is eternal.  We believe our spirits lived before this life in heaven with God our Father.  We believe we came here to gain a body and to learn and be tested.  We believe that because of Christ's triumph over death, we too will be resurrected - spirit and body restored to each other forever, with the body perfected.  I sometimes wonder about the science of all those people getting their bodies back, the science of how much matter is there on earth?  But God is a much better scientist than any of us and I believe His promise.

We believe that if we make and keep sacred covenants, we can not only dwell in the presence of God, we can keep our family organizations.  I don't know what happens if we don't.  I am pretty sure we will remember and know our friends and family, but we will not have the same claim of association.  Not sure how it works.

I tend to like cemeteries and think of them as peaceful places. I have never been in one at night.  I don't know if  some inner superstition or something would come out if I were. Of course, I am nervous being alone outside at night anywhere except my own yard. Of course, I don't think the person is there, but I understand people wanting to visit.  We think that the body should be treated with respect.  We believe our body is a temple for our spirit.  In respect, it is good to take care of the cemetery. 

I have thought about my own burial and been drawn to this cemetery or that in the past.  But this summer, I purchased rights to a tree in a forest in Mendocino County (Better Place Forests) where I will have my ashes placed and my family can have their ashes placed too.  This was a big step for me because in the past, I was kind of anti cremation.  I thought the church opposed it, but the policy is not clear, and the church recognizes that in some places cremation is the only legal choice.  I have slight fear of being burned alive, but I have the same fear of being buried alive.  That has happened in past centuries.  I told my children to just make sure I am well and truly dead.  I would rather become one with a tree than molder in box. From parts of the forest you can see the ocean.  It is lovely there.  I hope to visit my tree several times before I need it.  I spent a fortune, but we can place the ashes of 10 people before having to pay for more.  So I and my 8 natural born children are covered.  In-laws and grands will have to pay.  Divided out, it is much cheaper than a regular burial.  I am going to look into body donation.  Help science and get the cremation paid for.  A friend did that which made things much easier for his wife. But I am also interested in being an organ donor and and I don't know if one can do both organ and body donation.

I am supposed to be preparing for a trip to Washington State to visit my family there.  My granddaughter, Acadia, is leaving next week to serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Oregon.