Grudgingly!!

I continue to get in touch with people that have been a part of my life.  I have never forgotten 2 Missionaries that were in Homer.  I'll first share a bit of the correspondence that I have had with one of them. My first in 39 years!  Elder Poulos.....


8/30/2012-- 
So wonderful to hear from you, Sister Seljestad!!! I have such wonderful memories of you and your family when I served in Homer!

8/30--

I remember going to the Lower 48 to help with one of parents surgeries and finding out when I came back that Terry had invited you to pitch a tent in the back "yard". I was horrified!   He and I really had a go round. Down in the woods, no real road, no real running water, 3 children and a baby, and on and on!!   

I felt so bad that you had to go through that experience but I remember one of you telling me that you would someday tell your children that you, as others in the Book of Mormon, dwelt in a tent!  Now I look at it and think to myself...what a grand adventure for you to have had!!  and as for that junky looking trailer you moved into, as a step up from the tent?!, where on earth was that? I just remember feeling so bad that we couldn't offer more than a tent!  Bless your heart!

Elder Poulos, it was wonderful to share a segment of my life with you, even though it was such a hard time for me to have you stuck out in a tent!!  Terry had said...if it's not there they will take the Missionaries out of here.

8/31--
how thrilled I was to have heard from you! I still maintain contact with my Mission President, President Killpack, and when we first talked after 30 years he told me how sorry he was to have had Elder Halverson and I live in a tent on your property! He still remembered! I won’t give up that memory for anything – no need to apologize, I told him! Thank you for adding some more information regarding that experience. Time has erased a lot from my memory and I couldn’t recall the details you outlined – funny that must be now that you can look back on it! I do recall making that statement to you and that has come to pass in my life and has even been shared with my grandchildren! I can’t tell you how many times I have shared my experiences in Homer with other missionaries and friends throughout my life. Thank you forever!

9/1--
Ah, Homer was such a great place to serve as a young missionary. ....I can not remember where we got the tent, but that experience taught me I could do just fine no matter what life throws at me. All I needed to do was to maintain a positive attitude and show faith in our Heavenly Father - all will work out and you WILL be blessed for your sacrifice! Elder Halverson and I were sent to open the area for proselyting, we arrived in Soldotna and then the next day to Homer on June 23, 1973. Elder Halverson and I were together for about 2 months and he went home. My new companion was Elder Damon (he and I moved into the “hunter’s trailer” after Elder Halverson went home). We stayed in Homer until I went home on October 28, 1973. I think he then went to Anchorage (?). 
Mike and I remember our time together in Homer as the best time of our missions! 

Left- Elder Halverson  Right- Elder Poulos -- 1973

Elder Halverson-?-Elder Poulos-?-  District meeting in front of "The Tent"

"hunters trailer" -1st snow of September 1973

Oh, my goodness sakes alive.  I had long wondered what their take was on Tent Time in Homer.  It was haunting me and I guess I just needed to hear that they weren't marred for life by the experience.  I was marred to certain extent!

I found it interesting that after 30 years when the missionary contacted his Mission President that was one of the first things he talked about...putting the two Elders in a tent.  If there were to be Homer Missionaries there was truly no room in any inn! 

Terry was the Branch President.  We had survival living at that point with really severe items like....no source of steady running water, an impassable road. 4 children and the youngest wasn't really a baby, he would have been two at that time.

Not whining but it was a really tough life right then.  I had gone Stateside, with our toddler,  to help my parents through some sort health crisis.  When I get home, lo and behold, a tent is pitched out back and we now have 2 Elders.  They had no kitchen, no water, no bathroom (did they use the old outhouse?) etc. etc.  So they will be in with us but not really in with us.  They had no car (In 1973 there was very little blacktop.  all dirt and rocks etc.).

Terry said that if they weren't in the tent then the Mission would close the area as there was nowhere else for them to live.  I said one of those statements that causes a little sign to go off over your head, an arrow points at you and flashing words read...bypass the celestial kingdom and go directly to outer darkness.  I said... Then let them close the area.

Oh, my the house heated up!

I was so happy that the Elders found it the highpoint of their Mission.  I'm glad they have challenging experiences to share.  That did give me some peace of mind.

One thing the Elder said that just shocked the socks off of me...It was only 2 months!!!  That is beyond belief!!  Two months in the tent.  I thought it was months and months!  and months!  And then only 2 more months and it was all over.  4 months total!  I wish I knew were my time chart is in calibrating how long that is on the Lord's clock.  Maybe a nanosecond?? an eye-blink?

A plug for keeping journals.  Terry and I neither one have a clue about what is referred to as The Hunters Trailer.  I'm in hopes that our son Greg will recognize it.  Elder P. says that was what they lived in after the tent.  I wish one of the 4 of us had written that in a journal. 

(an aside.  When I get sick I make potato soup.  I use to occasionally make it for dinner until Terry and all the kids said they couldn't stand it.  I still make it when anyone is sick and they do get well real fast!  Anyhow the stress of reliving all this, made me seek comfort and I actually made some potato soup!  when I showed Terry, the Hunters Trailer, and we were talking about it, he was so shocked at what he saw and that he provided it, that he asked if I had any potato soup left!)

Hearing from the Elder of how much they enjoyed their time in the tent did make me feel better.

So I have a strike of evil against me.  I know it and the Lord knows it but I'm thinking during that 1000 years of sorting and straightening things out during the millennium perhaps I'll get dealt a bit of slack.  I'm well aware of my bad attitude and that is interesting when all others involved were happy and had a great attitude.  Yesterday I thought...what did their Mothers think of this tent dwelling????

Truth be told I realize it's more about me than them.  Everything in my life, at that point, was inadequate to take in other people and I had a lot of resentment when it was foist upon me.  

I told Terry, at that time in 1973, that my attitude was so bad that I wouldn't receive a single lick of service rendered in the points department!  I backed it up with Moroni 7....

 5 For I remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also.

 6 For behold, God hath said a man being ^aevil cannot do that which is good; for if he ^boffereth a gift, or ^cprayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real ^dintent it profiteth him nothing.

 7 For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.

 8 For behold, if a man being ^aevil giveth a gift, he doeth it ^bgrudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.

 9 And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with ^areal intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.

 10 Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will he give a good gift.

Elder Poulos was so sweet in his memories that I may just chalk this up as a life experience and move on.  Isn't it about time???????  I'm thinking so!