The Sequim of a few years ago was a big dairy community.
"President" and Sister Shaw, who first started inviting the missionaries to lunch each Wednesday about 35 years ago when he was the Bishop and then the Stake President, and has done it ever since, was telling us about it. He said when he grew up here, and even when he and Sister Shaw were raising their children, there were about 300 big dairy operations here. Now, he says with regret in his voice, there are only 3 left. Most of the people have sold out to developers because they couldn't make enough money or they retired and their kids wanted a different kind of life.
The land that the chapel sits on was donated to the Church by his dad and was built in 3 stages. Fifty years ago there was a little Branch here, part of the Northwestern States Mission. Now there are 3 wards in Sequim, 2 in Port Angeles, a Branch in Joyce, 2 wards in Chimacum (the Port Townsend Ward and Chimacum, which includes Port Ludlow,) and a ward in Forks, all part of the Port Angeles Stake.
This old grain elevator, so much the center of the economy years ago, represents the old Sequim.
This is the new Sequim. With all the stores we think of as necessary to our convenience in this day and age--a Walmart, a Costco, a small JC Penny's. We can tell that President Shaw, who is now in his 80's, misses the old Sequim, and Sister Shaw feels very uncomfortable with the new "round-a-bouts" that one is never sure how to safely get in, and uncertain if one will ever get out!
There are many people here that have moved up from southern California, from the eastern U.S., and from other parts of Washington, because the weather here is so beautiful--especially they say, in June. They all say, "Just wait until summer! You will never want to leave!"
I want to tell you about some of the people we have met and learned to love.
First there is the couple who rent an apartment to some of the Elders. They are not members of the Church, but for some reason, when we met them the first time we loved each other! He is 89 years old and she is probably in her late 70's. He is so deaf that he wears some kind of head phones hooked to a machine that amplifies everything. Still, he mostly lip reads. He was an architect by profession, and when he retired he decided to build his dream house with big beams and real river rock. He planned it, then set about figuring out how to do it. He found an old bridge built of huge beams that was being demolished to make way for a steel bridge. He bought the whole bridge for $5,000. He hired someone to help him pull the bridge apart and haul the beams to his site. He and Dad laughed because He spent days and days pulling 10 inch spikes out of the 18x18 beams, while Dad was pounding them in to build our log house! He hauled large river rocks to the site and used them to build some of his walls and the fireplace. We loved seeing the house and looking at his dreams come to reality.
We stayed for almost an hour the very first time we met and they begged us to come again to visit. We said we would come the next week because we would be coming to check the Elder's apartment again so that they could pass my inspection! (We have to score the Elder's and Sister's cleanliness and since I won't turn in a bad score they sometimes have to do it over. It was much cleaner the second time!)
We visited again the second time--mostly about the houses and horses. He loved that Michael trained horses! And as the first time, she and I mostly talked together and Elder Walker and he mostly visited and laughed. When we left, afraid that we had overstayed our welcome, they begged us to come again the next week. We couldn't come on Saturday, but said that we could visit on Monday. We had discovered that visit that one of her daughters was a Mormon! In fact she called while we were there and "J" showed me pictures of her fine family. The daughter has done very well in real estate in Seattle, and she and her husband are planning to retire early and soon serve a mission!
The next time we visited we sat down in the living room together and we asked them to tell us about themselves. This is a third marriage for both of them--their second marriages were to each other, and their third also! They were cute explaining that one! We asked more questions and "H" grew softer and softer and more and more open. He talked a little about the religion he had been raised in and how he had attended other churches--rather the opposite of Mormons. It was harder for her to share with us and as he got softer she got a bit more tense. It was time for us to go--probably past time--when "H" asked Bruce if he had gone on a mission as a young man and why we were serving a mission now? They had company coming and we needed to get out of their hair so we couldn't answer, but they invited us to come back for lunch the next Monday, which is tomorrow.
I was amazed that they would continue to invite us--afraid we would wear out our welcome, but the Elders say that they love us and as long as they are the ones inviting we have nothing to worry about. We are praying that tomorrow we will be inspired and the Spirit of the Lord will help us and will testify to them if we get to go further in our discussions. It will be interesting to see if the subject of religion continues or is skirted. Pray for them and us, please!
Another couple we love is the Pinkstons! They are members of the Church who moved here about 12 years ago with 3 other couples from southern California. She was a city girl, raised in a part-member family where the parents turned to alcohol when heavy financial troubles came. She wanted to be pure and clean and stayed away from the life style her parents and brothers and sisters adopted. She went to BYU where she participated in the Women's Chorus, and where she met Brother Pinkston.
They fell in love and married August 18, 1961-- just 4 days before us!
They are such a happy, positive couple! She loved to paint and has beautiful paintings all over her walls! She loved learning and taking part in cultural things so she always wanted to live in the city. Brother Pinkston always longed for a more rural setting.
Then Sister Pinkston was stricken with MS. She lost her ability to do the detailed movement oil painting required and turned to water colors. Soon she lost the ability to paint at all. She is essentially quadriplegic. Since she couldn't enjoy participating in the city life she loved, she told her husband that it was his turn to choose and she would go anywhere he wanted. They came up here to visit friends and fell in love with the area. They live in a beautiful setting and she lays in a chair all day. She smiles and laughs gently when we come, and loves visiting. He says he is relegated to visiting with the RS sisters about recipes, etc! Who would have ever expected such a fate! (He also says he would like to learn how to make bread like mine, so we will have a bread making day.) But, he says it all with a smile, teases his wife, shows us pictures of the beautiful girl she was when they met, and tells faith promoting stories.
When we were admiring them for the positive way they handle the big challenges or problems in life she said, "If you're positive about your big problems, they become little problems!"
What great people!
Whoops! It is 11 pm! Past our bedtime. I'll try to write more soon.
Love you!
Elder and Sister Walker
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