"I Would Like You To Consider A Different Mission"

“I’D LIKE YOU TO CONSIDER A DIFFERENT MISSION”

 

On Sunday, February 28, 2016, my husband, Alan and I sat in the office of our new-to-us Stake President Reece Bawden of the Citrus Heights Stake. 

 

One week prior, our ward and stake boundaries were realigned.  In the change, Alan was released as the Bishop of the Valley View Ward and our house now sits in the McDowell Ward boundaries. 

 

Through a series of miracles, we had been preparing to serve a mission thinking Alan would have been released the prior October.  Little did we know the stake and ward boundary changes were in the works.   When President Todd R. Kerr, Hermosa Vista Stake called us in to release Alan, he apologized for the long wait. Not knowing what our call would be, he gave us his ecclesiastical promise we would soon know what the delay meant for us.

 

It was good to meet with Pres. Bawden, a former ward member, and share our excitement to serve a mission, especially since our youngest was currently serving in the Singapore Mission.  That night the long-awaited button was pushed! In about six weeks, we would learn our fate (aka “call”).  We hoped for England (where both sides of our ancestry originated), Bolivia (where Alan served his mission at age 19), even Hawaii Polynesian Cultural Center (where Alan could use his welder/fabricating skills.)

 

Two weeks after submitting our “papers”, Pres. Bawden called us back to his office.  Confusion filled our minds.  What would he want to talk to us about?  He couldn’t be issuing us a calling knowing we were leaving soon.  The best we could come up with was perhaps he wanted us to teach a 6-week self-reliance or marriage class.

 

“I’d like you to consider a different mission,” were the words used by Pres. Bawden.  That is when we learned the Citrus Heights Stake has the stewardship of Camp LoMia.  The Church Recreational Properties Department has been encouraging our Stake leaders to call church-service missionaries to live full-time at the camp for two years and care for it! 

 

As we listened to what the mission would entail the Spirit filled the room.  My thoughts were, “I hope Alan doesn’t dismiss the idea because it is so close to home.”  I learned, later, Alan’s mind was already filling with project ideas he would like to do at the camp. 

 

Thus began our love affair with Camp LoMia! 

 

As a lover of history, I looked online to learn all I could about the history of the camp.  In that I was disappointed.  Fortunately, Sister Kathy Winn, (she and her husband John are the camp directors) handed me a book prepared by Sister Jeanine Smith, granddaughter of Lo Wright.  In it was pictures and copies of documents telling how and why the land was purchased in 1940.  But that was 77 years ago!  I wanted to know more!

 

That desire was the springboard for this blog, a history that is available for any and all lovers of Camp LoMia.  Many a testimony has been born and blossomed at Camp LoMia.  It is hard not to feel the presence of the Spirit including angels on both sides of the veil!  This is dedicated property and is choice land!

 

I know many who read this blog have stories of their own.  This is one of the purposes of the blog.  PLEASE CONTRIBUTE!  (Details about how to contribute will follow.)