Newport's friendliest ward

I grew up in Utah, and when people talk about how church is different outside of Utah I sometimes don't really believe them. I can understand the concept, but sometimes don't comprehend how different it can really be. The church is the church is the church you know? We have all kinds of members here, and all kinds of members everywhere else.

Sunday morning we got up and drove 20 minutes to Newport for church. There was a sign pointing to the LDS church which made me laugh only because if there were signs pointing to LDS churches in Utah they wouldn't be much help because on every corner they'd point in ever direction. When we walked in a cute little family said hi to us and asked where we were from. Turns out they were from Fillmore, and knew somebody my mom knew.

My mom happens to be the queen of "six degrees of separation" game. The first thing she does when she's meeting someone new is ask where they're from, where they went on their mission, and if they know _____. Invariably she makes a connection withing 10 minutes. Before we sat down in the chapel, 3 or 4 more people told us they were glad to have us with them this week and hoped we enjoyed our time there. All in the 20 foot walk from the doorway to the chapel.

About halfway through their sacrament meeting, Josh nudged me and I looked over and wished I had my camera. We were sitting at the end of the row and every one of our parents were asleep. All in a row, all with their heads up, but starting to nod. We laughed and listened to the speaker reverently. We're such good examples. :)

After church (and my mom making 6 new very close friends) we decided that since we couldn't go back to our room (we had to switch rooms) we'd go see some lighthouses. Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was first on our list and was really pretty cool. That one isn't functioning, but used to back in the day. Now it's just an old house that they've set up like a museum. After getting our fill there, we headed up to Yaquina Head which is the tallest lighthouse in something - Oregon, the US, something. We walked up to the top of it (114 steps) and saw the light. It was incredible. The prisms and stuff were so cool! Then we went out to the beach. We were all still in our Sunday duds, and my nylons were torn from a mishap at the temple, so I was barefoot and stuck my toe in the ocean. I wanted to really get in, but it was SOO cold! Oh well, maybe next time. Instead of uploading pictures one by one here, here's the link to the album, or you can go to photobucket for ALL of the pictures.

Before long it was dark and we headed back to our hotel. Looked through DF's spotting scope at the ships off the shore and hung out. All in all it was a great day.