Overview of Third Area: Sutherlin

Sutherlin was a little over an hour south of Eugene. It was the smallest town I served in. We were the only Elders in Sutherlin and our area was huge. We covered Umpqua, Elkton, Yoncalla, as well as other places that were so small they may or may not have had a name. I have a picture of the Elkton town mall. It was abandoned and looked like a glorified rusted out trailer home. Umpqua consisted of some houses that were miles apart and a Post Office/Bar/Gas Station. I only went out there once on a ridiculously hot day (115 degrees and muggy) so we could use the AC in the car (we weren't allowed AC in the apartment). I believe it only got down to a cool 98 degrees in the apartment that night. I have never known such misery since that day and count my blessings that I haven't had to. This ungodly heat only lasted a week and the residents say it was way out of the ordinary. My district included the Zone Leaders and another set of elders in Roseburg and a set in Myrtle Creek. This particular zone only had one district in it so we affectionately referred to it as the diszone. I think the only place I served that had more than one district in the zone was my last area (you'll hear about that one later).

We had another Chevy Malibu in this area. This one was a 2005. We named it Cabillo (pronounced cah-by-oh). We got that name from a cheesy film the church put out called "The Trophy Case". It's the name of the horse in the film. I don't know if that's the way it's spelled or not but that's the way I imagined it to be spelled. I was in this area for 4 1/2 months (April 2006 - August 2006). I had my first companion for one transfer and my second companion for two. They white washed the area with sisters after us (white washing means they pulled both missionaries out and put in two new ones). Our apartment was owned by the High Priests Group Leader. I'm sure he cut the church a deal. He had the two apartments above his garage in the backyard. We were in one and the neighbors were in the other.

This is the area in which I was introduced to allergies. I had never had an allergic reaction to anything in my life. Never a stuffed nose nor an itchy eye until this summer in Sutherlin. I wrote home telling my mom about my eyes itching like mad and my nose flowing like there was no tomorrow. I remember sitting on a less active family's front porch talking to them when I sneezed and blow snot all over in my hands. I left my hands where they were on my face and asked for a tissue. They brought me a teeny tiny tissue. I figured that wouldn't do it and asked for a paper towel. It's amazing the amount of snot the human face can hold. Three paper towels later I was finally presentable, but still sniffling like there was another gallon hidden in my face somewhere even after that blowout. I'm sure my parents had a good laugh over that one. My mom told me it sounded like allergies. I remember thinking allergies? I don't have those! I located some antihistamines and it at least stopped the insane snot flow I had. Ever since then every Spring and every Fall I usually suffer with the dreaded allergies. I've lucked out this spring so far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe I was healed in my sleep or the salt bath on the cruise I just went on cured me. I'll hope either way.

The same Summer I was also introduced to Poison Oak unbeknownst to me. I just knew I was developing these weird itchy bumps on my ankles that eventually started to ooze. Not knowing what the deal was I figured it was some rash and in my mind hydrogen peroxide would make it go away. I poured the stuff on my ankles and would watch it fizz a bit. After that didn't seem to do much I tried rubbing alcohol. My how the fires from the ninth level of Hell burned with rubbing alcohol! I took that as a sign it was working. This continued for about a week and a half to two weeks. In the mean time I got some cool bumps on my hands and fingers that hurt. My ankles oozed nasty stuff so bad that I started duct taping paper towels around my ankles so I didn't get any nasty stuff on my pants. At long last I finally decided I'd had enough and that this fun stuff wasn't going to go away. My ankles had swollen and were bright red and almost purple in places. My skin was peeling and my hands hurt so much writing was obnoxious. I talked to the Zone Leaders and after waiting for them to talk to the Assistants to the President they concurred that the ER would be a good idea. I was driven to the ER in Roseburg.

Finally at almost 2AM I was released. I was put on antibiotics for the cellulitis I gave myself by dumping rubbing alcohol on my legs. They let me know it started as Poison Oak but the rubbing alcohol had made it worse. If cellulitis goes untreated that can turn into blood poisoning and that can be bad news. They also put me on some steroids to make the bumps go away on my hands. Several weeks later I finally was freed of that curse. I still have some discoloration on my legs from that fun time.

We occasionally saw wild turkeys hanging around on the edge of town. Blackberry bushes were here and there. It was the first area I was in that was on the west side of the mountain range so it was green.

I hit my year mark in Sutherlin so I burned a shirt. We had some quirky little traditions. When you were out three months you burned a sock, six months was a tie, a year was a shirt, 18 months was suit pants, and two years was an entire suit. I strictly adhered to these foolish traditions on the exact days of my anniversary. The sock and tie I burned were mine but the rest of them were old ones I had discovered left behind in apartment closets. Long live the foolish traditions of our fathers.