MASSIVE 8 part bloggy!

OK, first of all, for all of you who I told I would be posting a new post and then didn’t… yeah… that was my bad… totally. But here it is. So I was thinking of doing 7 separate blogs, but then I thought some people may not realize it and so on and so forth and so here is a huge one with tons of pictures and 7 different events. It starts at my visit to Fossil to check out fellow MTSer Sean Kelley in his assignment and will culminate in the DC for this year, as it should.

I realize many of you will not make it to the bottom of this… if you have even made it this far…

Anyway, here it all is!

Fossil Trip 5/12/2009

Whoa, this was only two weeks ago! That means the following 6 events all happened in that time period. Weird.

So I made a visit to Portland and on my way back I decided to take the long way and visit Sean Kelley in Fossil. He had just moved in a few days ago and So I wanted to see how he was doing. Sean doesn’t actually live in Fossil, but he lives in Condon, a WAY bigger place than fossil. It has such amenities like… a Murray’s… and a Hotel…. And a … ok, so it’s not THAT much bigger than Fossil. But it DOES have cell service and it does have a MOVIE THEATER!!!! (although it is only open on the weekend and only has one showing per day)

Anyway, he’s renting a small house out there that’s really nice. He’s all settled in and in the congregation and has completely made the change over in under a week. AWESOME. He’s even got a job,… in the state that has the worst unemployment rate in the country, in the county with the worst unemployment rate in the state, and in likely the town with the worst chances for work in that county! That’s all the work of the Holy Spirit right there! So, good on him, everything is falling into place and I’m sure it will continue to do so!

Enjoy the pics.

on a road I got lost on on the way to fossil. I think somewhere by Wasco.

Sean outside his new home.

Murray's. gifts/pharmecy/department store/food/coffee
ONE showtime.
Sean's new job. Working in the kitchen.
the living room
the kitchen
kitchen-living room
the bar

Demolition Day! 5/14/2009

So, two days later, I invited all the young people in my congregation to rip, scrap, pull and yank on random things in my trailer to their hearts content. It was tons of fun, but then all of a sudden made it real and meant that I actually was going to remodel this thing. There’s no going back now!

In that day, we got all the wallpaper taken off, the walls spackled, then painted with mold killer, we got all the carpet and linoleum torn out, we gutted the bathroom, mowed the lawn, pulled all the grass out of the planter beds, planted lettuce and onions (which promptly died after I didn’t water them for four days in 86 degree weather, who knew?), and ripped out a section of wall that had mold growing on it. All in all, a successful day!

DeWayne Turner. A great and helpful guy.
Jacey, DeWayne and Jodie
drop off something gross?
Lonnie Koziol (sp?) singlehandedly took down the bathroom
Sierra
Khaden peeling wallpaper
Mesa and Dave working to clear the garden
Ahhh! Vinegar waer!
Jacey peeling wallapaer in the kitchen
pile - o - junk

It Smells Like Burning… 5/15/2009

You know those stories that people tell you, and as they are telling you, in your mind your like, “Is he stupid?”. .. and then you tell them, “Did you really think that was a good idea??? You know what could have happened??” You know, those stories?

… get ready, cuz here comes one…

So, those of you that know me pretty well know I have issues with my hair… What it does, is that it grows straight out from my head. It didn’t matter much in the past when I spiked it a bit or had the “horn swoop” going on, but those styles seemed to prove a bit to faddish for my liking. HENCE, if I just let it dry after washing it, it will dry out in a big pouffy asian fro. … not a good look… SO normally I have to wear a beanie after taking a shower to get it to lie down. This mean I can no longer take a shower 5 minutes before I have to get out the door, I actually have to PLAN out my mornings. THIS, is no good either…

I have tried just about everything. Gel… nope. Hair glue… nope. I even tried a durag! That actually was the worst! What that one did is that it got my hair to lie down, but when you tie a durag down the “ribbons” that you tie get the hair to lie down a bit flatter in those parts. So when I took it off … mushroom top… not flattering. In fact, a bit disturbing. So it was settling down with the idea that the beanie is to be my lot… That was until about a week and a half ago…

Khaden (my half Asian friend who also deals with these problems) let me know he was going to try relaxer. What’s relaxer you might ask? It’s basically some kind of treatment to make your hair soft and straight and comb-able. Mainly used by black girls to make their hair silky smooth. It would have been smart to consult with one of these girls… BUT NOT ME! It’s actually called Africa’s Best… it even has olive oil in it… awesome. Look at the box below…

This is what it has come down to…

Now, Khaden had already tried the treatment. He had come out to visit me in Canyon City and had brought it with him. I felt his hair and seemed to have worked….

THE PROBLEM: So apparently, you mix two different solutions together and then apply it to your head… basically applying a chemistry experiment to your hair… You are supposed to put it in and not let it sit for more than 30-45 mins. Now,… Khaden had done this a WEEK AND A HALF earlier and had mixed the entire solution together. So this concoction of chemicals had been sitting around for that long…. But he had TONS left over… He had told me that it may not be good anymore, but there “is no harm in trying it out”. Yeah, I know, famous last words.

You are supposed to apply it to your hair, let it sit for 8 mins, then comb it through for another 8, then rinse it out, then use the special shampoo and then condition it.

… after having it in for about 3 minutes… BURNING. Not that bad at first, but then… BURNING BURNING! I told Khaden that I Didn’t think it was supposed to feel that way… and he said it does “tingle” a bit… but to me it was a bit more like… “MY BRAIN IS ON FIRE!” I made it to 4 minutes and then started to quickly comb it out… this lasted for about another 3 minutes before I could not stand it and had to rinse it out….

… Now… imagine you lit your head on fire… and then someone dumped boiling hot water on it… this is how this felt when I put my head under the faucet… Like pouring hot water over an open wound. Oodles of caboodles of fun and sillyness! But I was too deep into this now, there was no turning back. I managed through the rinse and then proceeded to go through similar experiences with the shampoo and then with the conditioner.

In the end, I still have my hair, although the following day my entire scalp crusted over with … I don’t even know what it was, it’s like a scab, but there weren’t really any open wounds… maybe tons of tiny ones, I dunno. That was fun to rub out when I took my next shower…

The best part of the story, apparently, the solution HALF worked. Some parts of my hair lay down very nice and flat, while others still pouf out. The result? Lopsided. I look like one of those wall balls we used to play with in elementary school, but that was left out in the sun on one side and the rubber expanded and it not looks like an cockeyed egg rather than a wall ball… that = my hair. AWESOME.

So all things considered, I still have to use my beanie to lay the lopsided part down and I’ve learned a very valuable lesson… (Proverbs 15:22) Talk to those who know what they’re doing, and you might keep your hair.

Yeah! Africa's BEST!

First Bible Study in the Country 5/16/2009

Well, I officially have my first study. There are two families that come to our congregation that speak Spanish. One is comprised of a single father and his son and two daughters. The other is a single mom and her two daughters. They are both very faithful to the meetings. The father speaks VERY little English, and thus in my mind I equated… no English/quiet guy = NOT BAPTIZED/NEEDS A STUDY. Try backpedaling from asking a man if he would like to study and he tells you that he’s been baptized for longer that YOU (1994). How embarrassing… yeah, no wriggling outta that one, so then I shift and ask if his SON would like a study. BINGO. Crisis averted… kinda… yeah, not really.

So I am Studying with his sin Usiel (sp?) and had my first study with him about two weeks ago. They live about 40 miles away from the kingdom hall, so it’s pretty impressive that they make it to every meeting. They recently moved from Madras as his dad found a job as a ranch hand. They live in one of four houses on this ranch that is 25,000 acres big!!! Thousand… HUGE! They raise about 1,000 head of free range wild cattle and wild horses too. This first meeting with him we just got to know each other a bit and he DROVE me around a small portion of the ranch. ( I think he’s like 13) He showed me the “barn” which is literally a house like twice the size of mine; it houses this huge horse that was a prize winner until it hurt its foot. Then to the Old lady’s house that owns the ranch. She lives there alone. Kinda sad. I want her to know the truth.

Anyway, here are the images from that.

It's pronounced oo-see-el

This ... is a barn
so is this...
Horsey has a hurt foot.
horses are big! That eye is the size of my fist!
The lake on their property
the barn door.
looking out through the barn's front room
Baby donkey! he's little. Him and Pyper would be friends.
the lady's dining room.
look at dose eyes
BULL

Droppin’ da Elm 5/17/2009

Busy. Busy. Busy. So far, this blog has pretty much been a day by day synopsis! I’m getting tired just writing about it again. Today, a brother and a few others from around the area came over and cut down a big Elm tree that was tearing up the skirting on the back side of my trailer. It was HUGE, and there were two power lines and one cable line running through it that we had to drop the tree down around. This is why we had to cut it down in chunks as shown in these pictures and not just dropping it down all at once. This is Tom McCartney, the Service Overseer in my new Cong.

Lee Turner


careful...
Branches all over teh yard
Droppin the logs

Back in P-town/Reunion w/ the Suess Girls 5/18/2009

Well, now I am in Portland again… it must be Monday… So as the story goes, I had to come down to Portland to finish up some work. The BEST part about it all was when I got to downtown I called my client to make sure that he was going to be able to pay me after I finished up his project… and he wasn’t ready… actually he wasn’t going to be ready for another TWO MONTHS!! What? Really? It’s ridiculous. One of those things that cause instant irritation…

But not all was lost. As coincidence would have it, Some good friends of mine, Elsie and Hannah Suess, were back in Portland visiting from where they are currently serving as Need Greaters in Ecuador. IT was great to see them again. IT was weird talking to Hannah, looking back on where our lives have taken us since we were in Pioneer Service School together 4.5 years ago. It is very encouraging to see my friends and family doing great things for Jehovah. Really, to see that it is possible. Especially these girls, they are experiencing things that are easily yearbook quality. It’s amazing what Jehovah allows us to do and how many opportunities are open to His people. We are the busiest, most well informed, successful, well traveled, experienced, and HAPPY people! It boggles my mind when I think about what I am doing.

Well, just a couple pics from the meet and greet.

Hannah and Holly playing some rubber band golf game
Michael and Elsie and... is that someone about to torch her hair??
Hannah and Leah
with Elsie
blurry living room pic

Back in Canyon City/Brick Hearth 5/22/2009

Ok, so had to come back for two days so that I can get this brick pad laid out so that when I come back next week there we can cut the flooring around it. Crazy and insane amounts of driving required.

Tom McCartney, an elder in my congregation, came over and helped me to build the bas of this brick hearth. SO here ya go. Look to forward posts for the final product.

the first sheet of underlayment is down over the tar paper. Gus the deer is overseeing the project. :P

there goes the old wood stove.
All the sheets are down.

Bricks are set for the base.
All my junk in the office.
This is what my bathroom looks like.
the bedroom is ready for flooring.
The cinder block base is down. starting on the bricks
There it is!
Ready to get off to the convention

Back in P-town/DISTRICT CONVENTION!!!! 5/23-25/2009

Yeah, that’s right… It’s the next day… as the brick stuff. I have officially been back and forth from Canyon city to Portland three times now in a week and a half… and it’s not over…

But this time I came back for the final purchases of some larger items, but ALSO for the 2008-2009 District Convention. For those of you who have already seen it, I first of all hope that you are not ruining it for everybody else by telling them the releases and any thing else. They deserve to be fed by the slave, not us. Second, though, WASN’T IT AMAZING!?!? Incredible. Man, there were times where it touched your heart so deeply it brought tears to your eyes? It did for me.

Can we be any more certain that it’s all about to end? Is it any doubt what the faithful and discreet slave is telling us we need to be doing? It is so encouraging to see so many of those that I know living FULL FORCE for Jehovah. France, Africa, The Dominican Republic and all over the country in small remote congregations and foreign languages. I stand humbled in their shadows but are propelled to match up to them.

It amazes me at times how strong some people are, and here I am with so many things I need to work on. Some are HUGE chunks of my personality. They make me afraid at times,… is Satan getting closer? At times it does feel that way. Others have decided, on their own to make their life for Jehovah… I filled out an application, received the greatest training in the world, and then just sat back and allowed Jehovah to make the hard decisions for me. It’s amazing what they do and are for sure not appreciated enough.

Conventions like this one make you rethink things and hope that soon Jehovah will see something that can be used in the new system. Here’s to trying my best to live with you all forever.

bret, jared and Jesse behind the loading dock

Donovan Williams
Cheyanne and ... a girl from Astoria... Yeah, I know, I am really bad with names...
wait... What?
Josh and Caleb... or Cameron... who knows...
Marcus and Karina giving their experience
Bro. Herd
Tyra, Brandon, Star and Esther
Lillian, Tabitha and Lane
... ... dang... wait... almost got it.... PAtrick? dang no... AHHHHH!!!!
The Memorial Coliseum
Livengood Brothers! They are coming out in August
getting plans together.
Strke a pose ladies!
out at dinner at Greek food
Lane brought donuts. The best overseer EVER
Lillian Lewis
da girls
Me with Matt and Eileen Olds
with the Tripletts
with the Herds!
me and esther and star with some guys kids
with Tim Antonio
The Herds
Jared, Laura (were both in the drama) and Jessica
Kasey and Heather
the Parmely's!!! YAY! Just back from Africa