OUR NEW MISSION!!!!

We have noticed that there are a number of readers out there of our blog even though we haven't added to it for over a year or two!!! Must be some interest in serving or visiting over there. It was a wonderful 18 months the we really miss!!

We are now embarked on another mission and that is to get ready financially for another mission!! So we have started our latest venture...CASTLE ROCK LAVENDER. please take a moment to breeze through it.The web site is simply wwwcastlerocklavender.com.

I also have a web page for my counseling practice...www.billdaviscounselor.com

BURNS & LAVENDER

                                                                              

 www.castlerocklavender.com

REALLY ?????

Ellen being an RN and stubbornly sticking with just the "truth" and the "facts" wants to really know for sure what our wonderful lavender plants will do.....so as we move forward with rolling out our products online at we will not issue any wonderful statements and promises.  But we will pass along to you testimonials from those using our products and you can judge for yourself.
 So we just heard a great story from our lifelong friends, Bill and Rise, that he heard during a break while in one of our temples recently . Another man there, Jerry Jensen, was telling about his wife's burn. She was making pear jam and it splashed and burned her thumb and part of her index finger. She ran cold water on it and then immediately applied lavender oil directly to the burned area. She realized quickly a reduction in pain and in two days it was mostly healed and on the third day it was completely healed. The best part is that there was no scaring at all. She told me when I talked to her that unless you look very closely one cannot tell any difference in the color between the new and old skin.

Ellen and I have talked to her personally and verified this story. She does not sell lavender. But guess what?  We do!! Probably everyone should have some in their first aid kit. Connect to our web site if you think this is a good idea for you....www.castlerocklavender.com

Here is a story from the research I have done:

Gattefossé’s Burn

“In 1910 French chemist and scholar René-Maurice Gattefossé discovered the virtues of the essential oil of lavender. Gattefossé badly burned his hand during an experiment in a perfumery plant and plunged his hand into the nearest tub of liquid, which just happened to be lavender essential oil. He was later amazed at how quickly his burn healed and with very little scarring. This started a fascination with essential oils and inspired him to experiment with them during the First World War on soldiers in the military hospitals.”

If you’re in the aromatherapy biz, you are probably familiar with the story. The above version appears, word-for-word, on several websites, and the same basic tale on many. I’m fascinated by the appearance of “In 1910” in the story which, although true, is quite a recent development. There’s only one original source of that date: Monsieur Gattefossé, but whoever wrote the above clearly did not read Gattefossé’s own account. Ah well, that’s how it goes with rumours.

The story is basically correct, apart from the instinctual plunging of the hand into the nearest available liquid, which is total fiction. Anyway, who leaves large containers of lavender oil lying around unlidded? Certainly not a perfume chemist like Gattefossé.

It’s remarkable how the mythical aspects of the tale have continued, long after the publication in English, in 1993, of his 1937 book, Aromatherapie, (by the way, this was the first appearance of the word "aromatherapy” in print). Yes, he burned his hand in his laboratory and

yes, he treated it with lavender oil, but this was not a eureka-like, lucky chance

moment. It would be great if it was true. Translated from French, this is Gattefossé’s own description of the incident, and this is all he has to say about it:

“The external application of small quantities of essences rapidly stops the spread of gangrenous sores. In my personal experience, after a laboratory explosion covered me with burning substances which I extinguished by rolling on a grassy lawn, both my hands were covered with a rapidly developing gas gangrene. Just one rinse with lavender essence stopped “the gasification of the tissue”. This treatment was followed by profuse sweating, and healing began the next day (July 1910).”

His application of lavender oil was clearly an intentional act, and the result impressed him greatly, and possibly saved his life. It was a special moment for him, and for aromatherapy.

Gas gangrene is a potentially fatal infection, and was the cause of many amputations and deaths in the First World War. Although traumatic gas gangrene is rare today, 25% of those who contract it still die. It is caused by infection of a wound, most commonly by Clostridium perfringens. Onset is rapid and dramatic (though it normally takes 1-4 days from the time of infection), with bacterial toxins causing tissue death and subcutaneous swelling and gas. Sweating is one of the early symptoms of infection. Since the bacterium is most commonly found in soil, Gattefossé’s rolling in the grass might have precipitated the infection.  While the incident did not initiate his study of aromatherapy, it was certainly a strong hint – a definite push in a direction he was already headed. Subsequently he collaborated with a number of doctors who treated French soldiers for war wounds using lavender and other essential oils. The accounts of these cases constitute a large part of his tests.

PERSONAL

We have been very busy with getting our plants in the ground this summer, all 2000!! But somehow we managed to have some fun too. Below we have posted some pictures of our "fun."

Thanks for following us and please let us know of any ideas or information you have about lavender!! We know that the best way to learn about all of this stuff is from those with personal experiences. So please email us with any stories you know of or things you would like to see us do with this new business!!

A few pictures now for fun from our summer. Hope yours was as fun as ours!!

BILL and ELLEN HIKING THE BEACH AT MORA NEAR FORKS

OUR SIX KIDS THIS SUMMER...WILL THEY BE ABLE TO DO THIS IN 10 YEARS?

PEACEFUL SETTING VERY NEAR OUR LAVENDER FARM

THE DAVIS BUNCH IN OUR BACKYARD THIS SUMMER FOR OUR REUNION

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.........

"You are much more than you have become"

Lion King

OUR NEW ADVENTURE!!

What is Grandma Davis doing on an ATV with some of her grands? Well we are glad you asked!

Grandpa Davis has a story for you. You realize of course that our last post on this blog was last February. It was then that we decided that we would become farmers! See, we have had this beautiful home and 5 acres of pasture and the pasture has been vacant for the 16 years that we have lived here. We did not feel like good stewards of what we were blessed with. So we started the search for something that we could develop into a "cash crop." During months and months of continuous research and visiting other small farms and ruling out many things like berries and animals including Alpacas we found lavender!

Lavender seems to have quite a large demand world wide. In fact in some countries like New Zealand it is one of the major crops. Here in the USA there isn't yet even a national organization to represent lavender. It is not on the list as a major crop here and not even listed by some as a crop grown here. But what is cool is that most everyone loves it!! As far as the actual projected gross income per acre and all the other pertinent business concerns I will address those issues in an upcoming blog.

We decided to move ahead with our venture of developing a lavender farm and we have been so busy establishing our lavender fields The next few pictures will make it look like it was no big deal but believe me it was hard work and took days and alot of time on our 63 year old knees.



We mowed 1 acre very close to the ground

Then we plowed with the old Troy Built.

And then covered it with commercial ground cover and thousands of staples all put in one by one by hand!

The with compassionate friends and family we planted the first 1200 Grosso Plants.

 This is the beginning of our journey with lavender and we hope next summer our field will look like this.

We sure hope that our many followers of our journey to Malaysia from 2009 to 2010 will follow this new journey. One of our major goals of this new business is to provide the means whereby we can serve again. We would be so excited to do so but first have to make this happen!

We would invite you to visit our brand new and just up and operating web site:

http://castlerocklavender.com/

When you do will you please join our email newsletter ?

FIRST WINTER AT HOME IN A LONG TIME

A few pictures of our February Snow here in the Pacific Northwest.

I have been studying photography. Please critique for me if you would like.

EPILOGUE

OUR LAST TIME IN SINGAPORE

We are home---back in the United States.  When we got to the Seattle airport we were very lost as we usually fly out of Portland Oregon and the airports are quite different. We claimed our bags in one place and then checked them in again only to pick  them up at another place. As we moved up the escalator wondering where to get our bags we got to the top we heard alot of screaming and there was most of our family. What a nice surprise and how wonderful to finally be with them again. We found our bags and got in our car with Jason driving and headed out into traffic of course on the improper side of the road. It was very unnerving for me as I had been driving on the 'proper' side for so long. I am still needing to concentrate when entering a parking lot, "stay right, stay right."

SEATTLE AIRPORT

SOME OF OUR FAMILY AT SEATTLE AIRPORT

We were welcomed home by all of our family. Our two daughters and their entire families from Utah came up for the week. Everyone helped get our place ready for us. They worked hard and spent their own money stocking our refer and cupboards with good food, some of which we had not seen for the last 18 months.

JOSHUA & TANNER & JADEN PLAYING

ALEX LEARNING TO DRIVE GRANDPA'S TRACTOR

We had pretty good weather and enjoyed being outside and having fun together for a few days. It was everything and every feeling we imagined it would be all the time we were gone. We missed our ward's church that next Sunday as we were on our way to a funeral. We were to speak but were preempted by the changing of the Bishop and his counselors and of course our need to go to the funeral.  It was good to be able to finally go to our ward after a couple of weeks and we were warmly received by all. We have very good friends there and missed all of them very much. The first week we were home and after our family left we were without a schedule of visiting and appointments and meetings. So we called a few of the members up and took our pictures and talked about our mission with them. We would be happy to continue doing that and are waiting for invitations.

KEITH & PATTY'S WELCOME HOME PARTY FOR US

 It has been almost 2 months now since we arrived home. I have cut the grass way more than it needed. We have slowly moved things out of the storage room into the home. We went to Aunt Evelyn's funeral the first weekend we were home and to a wedding the next weekend and helped Jason move into their new home in Vancouver the next week. We had less than two weeks to finish getting settled and we moved Ellen's mom in with us. We have spoken in our ward and gave a presentation in Longview Second ward and gave a fireside in our ward.

CASTLE ROCK FIRESIDE

We miss our mission and the wonderful people. I really feel that some of them are the lucky ones to not have so much to distract them from relationships which are what is really important anyway.  They live beyond what we would think of as a simple life. It is the most basic life anyone could imagine and then some. As a result, what they have is each other and the gospel, the most important things. Consequently they care for each other and the gospel and give their time and energy to each other and the church. We hope that as we move forward in this life that we can reduce our distractions and focus our energies on relationships and the gospel. We know from our limited experiences in this life so far that when we have been the happiest and have felt the most real joy it was from being centered on these critical elements.

SOME OF THE KK MEMBERS & MISSIONARIES SEEING US OFF

Friends in KK at the airport

Many have asked us if we will go again. Our answer is this: We plan on keeping ourselves worthy and physically able to go when the Lord calls. We want to stay focused on the essentials and reduce our distractions which is not easy. There is such a short window of opportunity for seniors to serve and we hope that we can stay in that window of time for as long as the Lord needs us.

Sunset from Tanjung Aru

I bear my testimony that the Lord Jesus Christ lives and has a plan for our true happiness. I have found that as I turn my life over to him and his direction that he does a far better job with my life than I could ever do myself. I am so thankful that we were able to serve. I am thankful that we are both healthy and worthy. We have been blessed beyond any sacrifice that we may have felt we were making at the time. Our families were also blessed and we grew closer to them and our relationship bonds are stronger because of our service in Malaysia. We love those people. We learned so much about dedication, respect, sharing and sacrifice. There is not a single experience in our lives that can or will substitute for what we have just experienced as missionaries in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

WHERE TO NEXT??

Thanks for sharing part of this time with us. Please include us in your correspondence or journals or blogs if you ever take off on a journey such as we did.

May the Lord Bless you and your families.

Love from

Bill & Ellen

Our friends in Kota Kinabalu Branch

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Sisters Audrey and Kate with us at the KK airport as we are leaving

ELDER DAVIS & CICIE

 It is nice to be home.  Everything looks so big to me.  My kitchen countertops are so high!  Our car is so big!  Our tap water is so cold!  All is well here.  Jason and Christine took such good care of our home.  They are preparing to move and have been very busy with that and getting their 3 oldest started in school an hour's drive away.   They were thoughtful enough to leave some yard work for us.  It will be good to do that.  We are having really nice warm weather so if that lasts the work will be done.

AT THE KOTA KINABALU AIRPORT

DAVID, PRES LING, Ellen & Bill, PRES FAUSTO AND BRO. CHUAH

FAMILY AT THE SEATTLE AIRPORT

 It does seem like a dream that we were in Malaysia just a short time ago.  It was so hard to leave our friends there.  But it is nice to be with our children and grand-children here now.  All our kids except for Matthew who was sick with pneumonia, met us at the airport in Seattle.  It was sure exciting to see them all waving and cheering.  A lot of other people around us had big grins on their faces, too.

JASON, LYNN, & DAD AT LAURALEE'S HOME

OUR RIDE HOME AS WE LEAVE SINGAPORE

FAMILY PARTY AT KEITH AND PATTY'S HOME

 The evening after we got home we received a phone call letting us know that my Aunt Evelyn had passed away.  She was 88 years old and beloved by all our family.  We were able to go to her funeral on Monday the 27th, driving all day to Idaho Falls, Idaho, to be there in time.  It was good to see all my cousins and extended family.  It was a quick trip and we were home Tuesday afternoon. 

.

PLAYING GIANT CROQUET

EATING PIZZA ALL TOGETHER

Our two daughters who live in Utah, came with their families to be with us.  What a fun reunion.  And then later in the week we were ALL together when Matt and Heidi came.  Must be what it will be like when we die and greet all our family.

AT LAURALEE'S HOME

AT KEITH AND PATTY'S HOME

WATCHING THE KIDS PLAY AT KEITH & PATTY'S HOME

We are also preparing for my almost-92-year-old mother to live with us again.  She is much more fragile and much less independent that she was 18 months ago.  I will have to have some help with her care.

Bill Here

We are home and at times we are still in culture shock. Sometimes it feels like we never left. Other times we can close our eyes and be in KK with our good friends for a minute. We have memories and stories that only we will really understand and feel and remember and unfortunately they are amongst the best. We feel that we have a much larger family now and we will be with them again some day.

Leaving Malaysia

SOUVENIRS FROM THE BRANCH

WE WERE FED NOODLES DURING THE BREAK BETWEEN MEETINGS...WRAPPED IN PLASTIC

It has been a whirlwind week of preparing to leave and preparing things for the next couple to take over smoothly.  We had our usual visits and meetings for part of the week.  I have been cleaning the apartment and packing.  We finally decided we would have to have one additional suitcase so purchased a cheap one hoping it holds together for the trip.  Thursday evening our branch had a 'farewell' party for us which was very well attended and fun.  We started with a program which was singing, dancing and testimonies.  Then lots of food and the whole thing ended with fireworks.

PARTICIPATING IN A TRADITIONAL DANCE

Dancing with the branch members

The party was also for Kelven who would leave in the morning to serve his mission even though the place was changed from London, England to Singapore because he couldn't get a visa to UK.  So he was set apart after the party and caught an early morning flight to Manila to the MTC.

Friday was our last wheelchair handover to Cheshire Homes here in KK.  The VIP was the Minister of Community Development and Consumer Affairs.  We have met her before.  She praised LDS Charities very highly and admonished others to be so generous.  News articles praised LDSC and also mentioned that we would be returning to our home in UK this next week.  We always give out a 'press release' so the press will have the facts but sometimes it just doesn't matter.

After the handover, we caught the last couple of hours of zone conference, and then a baptism that evening.  Saturday afternoon was district auxiliary training which I was involved with and district conference evening meeting and continued on today.  Our KK branch choir sang "If You Could Hie To Kolob" a capella and without even getting a pitch to begin. Elder Subandryo from Jakarta, our visiting area authority, said it sounded like angels singing.  He is very kind.

KK CHOIR PRACTICING..."If You Could Hie To Kolob" WHICH IS ONE OF BILL'S FAVORITE HYMNS

There were many members who made the long (12 to 16 hours) bus trip from Tawau and not quite so long (8 hours) trip from Sandakan.  I am grateful that we were able to fly to those places doing our work.  The members from out of town stay in hostels and are fed at the church between meetings; noodles and rice.

ELLEN'S TESTIMONY with SISTER MARY ANN TRANSLATING

BILL'S TESTIMONY

HARUN AND FAMILY and a few others

JULIET AND OCELIZA AND THEIR KIDS

SISTERS ZAFAR AND HOWARD

SISTER JULIET AND CHILDREN

So we fly tomorrow.  The reality has not yet hit us.  Perhaps somewhere over the Pacific it will occur to us that we will, in all likelihood, never see our friends in Malaysia again. At the farewell party we knew we would see our friends again on Sunday.  Today we know we will see many tomorrow at the airport before we leave. 

Bill Here: It has hit me at times. It is so hard to even think about leaving. We certainly have missed home and wanted badly to be there especially when we were needed by family or friends. But we have never really wanted it to be over. And now it is. We sit here this evening writing this blog with nothing on our calendar for us to do with the responsibilities we have had for 18 months.

ALICE...BEEN A MEMBER ONLY ONE YEAR
RS SEC AND ALWAYS THERE WITH HER THREE KIDS...ALWAYS BY BUS

OLDEST MEMBER, SISTER ERNI,
 SINGING A TRADITIONAL FAREWELL SONG TO US

We are being taken to dinner this evening by the IPP (immediate past president) of one of the Rotary clubs here that was our main contact and only contact when we first came to KK. That will really help for us to get out and have something to do tonight instead of waiting around for bed time trying not to think about leaving. We will certainly leave a part of our heart here. It is hard to describe our feelings. Our children who all served know something of what we are feeling but again they did not stay in one spot like we have. It is different. We have had the time of our life here. We have enough stories to last the rest of our lives. Every day has been a story. We have only shared a minuscule portion of our experience here and somehow none of it  really tells the whole story.

We leave this apartment that has been our home for 13 months at 9:30 am. We will fly out at noon Monday and be in Singapore around 2:30 pm. We then will spend the night there and hopefully fly out to Taipae at 1pm. However we just heard on the news that a typhoon had hit there today. Oh well we will get home eventually.

We will post again when we return to the US with pictures from that side of the world. But this is our last post from "THE LAND BELOW THE WIND."

JUMPA LAGI