We are moving to Elgin, Oregon, population 1651. We have lived in La Grande for over 10 years. We lived in this beautiful big old house for one year, and now we will go to a new land, make new friends, and make our home in a new house.It was Saturday night of Conference weekend when we went to the stake center up the road for a baptism. The little girl who was being baptized is a girl from Elgin whose father directs the plays at the Elgin Opera House and who has worked with Sam several different times therewith. The newly-called bishop was a carpenter who had also worked with these men and all had a positive relationship with each other. Throughout the course of the baptism, Sam felt prompted again and again that he needed to speak with the new bishop. An appropriate moment never came up, so Sam dismissed these promptings. On Monday morning, however, the father of the baptized girl called up Sam and told him that he had felt like he needed to ask Sam to speak with the bishop. Sam figured that he should probably just call up the bishop and see why both he and his friend had felt these promptings. The bishop's reaction to Sam's call was that he had felt prompted to speak with Sam and ask him to join the ward by moving out there to Elgin. Since that fateful conversation, everything has fallen into place for us to make the move. I don't know why the Lord wants us out there, but it is obvious to me that He does. We found a cozy cottage close to the church, the schools, and the Opera House. Our landlord has been uncharacteristically encouraging about it, even letting us break our lease without penalty. That in itself is a miracle. Another miracle is my attitude. At first I was so upset that I made everyone's life miserable. I love the home we're in. We have so much room to spare, room for all of the activities we could possibly choose. The home we're moving into is literally 1/3 the space, with no extra room for anything. Not even an office. But for some reason my attitude changed yesterday when I found out that we're in it for reals. I am so excited for the new adventure we're on! Home isn't the house with the most room for all the kids and places for visitors to stay. It's the place where we all love each other and are willing to make our circumstances work, no matter what they are. I have such a wonderful life and the best family I could ever choose. My husband is the coolest person, and his passions make him beautiful. Although my life is on a track I hadn't planned for, I am grateful that the Lord takes care of us in any circumstance.
10 comments:
Way to go, Rachel!!! I'm so happy you're looking forward to this!! I think you are incredible. This move will probably turn out to be a blessing you couldn't envision. The Lord looks out for us.
Just think: You'll be able to add SO MUCH to the new ward out in Elgin! Your talents will not only be needed, but also be appreciated profusely! You'll probably grow the primary by 600%!
And, you know, it could just be temporary. Who knows? And you DO have a cool family!!
How exciting, not only the new adventure, but that you know for sure where the Lord wants you!
Yay! I'm so happy to read this and know how happy and calm you are about the move. It is obviously a move that your family needs to make, and will bring a lot of happiness to your life. Good luck with everything! I still wish I could help more!
Those kind of promptings are ones I live in fear of! I'm so glad to have a cousin so exemplary in courage and faith so that if my time ever comes I can know that I might have just the tiniest amount of the same DNA running through my strand. Good luck! I, for one, am excited for you to live in a "cozy cottage." That sounds so romantic.
You will always (hopefully not ALWAYS) have a cousin to commiserate with about your tiny house. If ever you get to a point that you feel like you will burst--you know who to call for support (me).
Good luck in your venture. Keep us updated.
It really has been amazing how it's all come together. It all came to a frenetic head in one day and I said, "this will be impossible because of 1-5." All the daunting problems literally were solved in the same hour! Rachel's attitude about it was one of the biggest factors and in that same hour, the Lord changed her heart, completely. It was amazing. I have been shown how much of my life is spent saying, "well this can't happen because...(insert lame excuse here.)" Then I exercise the smallest fraction of faith, almost just hope, and mountains move. We really are just children with a loving Father ready to lift us up at the asking.
I'll go where You want me to go.
That's so true, Sam! All it takes is just a smidge of faith, and we're off on a journey we couldn't do alone. I'm so glad you're with me to share the journey!
So how goes the moving process? We missed you at the cousin reunion - you would have had the best time ever! But I realize that major exercises of faith require you to actually show up for the Lord's show. Hope all is well, and that your family is settling happily in your new home.
We haven't moved yet - our day to get it all loaded and unloaded is November 1. We just had a garage sale yesterday and got rid of a lot of big and little stuff, so now our garage is cleaned out and ready to be stuffed full again!
I've been thinking about this a lot the past few days. It reminds me of when we finally decided to move to Idaho Falls. We had wanted to move for a couple of years, but there were seriously like 45 mountains in our way. Once we finally made the decision to go, everything fell into place immediately. There was a huge list of lame excuses, and they all got taken care of. In the past few months, my faith has been shaken. I often wonder why we came here and what we're doing here, and why we couldn't have just stayed in Portland. It takes looking back at the miracles that occurred to get us here for me to renew that faith and hope for the future. (And unfortunately I'm stubborn, so that has to occur on a daily basis lately!) I'm glad you wrote this down so that you can always remember how you got to Elgin and the blessings that will surely come from being obedient to promptings. You're a great example. Good luck with the move!
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