Elder and Sister Mangan April 2013 - October 2014

John and I arrived at Camp Alpine the end of March 2013.  The Caldwell's and the Correy's made us feel so welcomed and put us right to work.  Michelle started right away training Becky in the office in the morning, while John and Eldon and Ray and Danita started clearing the brush away in the west meadow.  Michelle and Becky joined them in the afternoon.  We cut away all of the dead slash and opened up a lot of overgrown area.  At that time we made all of the reservations for those wanting to come to the camp and took all the money.  There was a lot of paperwork and reports that had to be completed.  The next big effort was removing the overgrowth from many of the campsites and planting grass. It was better than mud when the rains came.

We fenced off an area for a garden.  Then we prepared the ground and planted.  The garden provided us with many fresh vegetables during the summer.  We were never idle--there was always something to do. The brethren worked together to figure out how to turn the water on to the campsites following the winter months. There were always trees to trim and trees to cut up that fell down.  Then the wood had to be split. Following our especially hard winter in 2013, there was lots of slash to gather and haul to the burn piles. Our first big event was a District Boy Scout Camporee with about 300 scouts attending plus leaders.  The East Meadow was completely full of tents. It was such a success that it made us all excited for summer with the Young Women and other groups. It was always inspiring to see the leaders arrive early and prepare the activities for their youth.

Every group of Young Women that came to the camp during the two summers that we were there was so uplifting and blessed our lives forever.  The girls each summer had the same theme, but each group came up with a different way of presenting it.  Each was unique!  Every week was marvelous, we loved it, and we were so grateful for every experience that we had with them.  The summer of 2014 brought the largest event that we had at the camp.  The Oregon City Stake held their Youth Conference at Camp Alpine. They brought in extra porta potties and wash stations to accommodate their youth.  They set up two kitchens--one was for regular food and the other was for those with allergies and other specialties. We even had eight extra travel trailers in the camp to accommodate the leaders. Their theme was "The Journey--Are You In It?"  They followed the pattern of Lehi's travels in the wilderness.  They built King Benjamin's tower, a replica of the ship that Nephi built, and they built a miniature copy of the Portland Temple in the west meadow amidst the trees.  They were all put into families with a Mom and Dad, and all the activities reflected their journey here on earth toward the temple. The leaders had gone to so much work and we were so impressed.  

We completed our mission in September 2014.  Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley once said,  "Life is never a failure until we call it such.  There are so many who need your helping hands, your loving smile, your tender thoughtfulness."  While we served at Camp Alpine we felt like it was a pleasure to help others, smile at those coming to camp and to try always to be thoughtful.  Therefore, we feel like our mission was a success.  We know that it blessed our lives.