Heading South Again

Last week, we headed down to California to visit Disneyland and some more Bethels. On our last visit, we had told Bethel 129 Jennifer could help with an initiation on our way down, but it took longer to get out of town than we had hoped, and we arrived in San Jose too late. We met up with another member of our Bethel, and continued down to Southern California, to spend a few days at the Disneyland resort. Both parks were decorated for Halloween. 

We hopped between the two parks, enjoying attractions and meet8ng characters. In Disneyland, we checked out Tom Sawyer’s Island, which had recently been enhanced with Pirate stuff. While there, we ran into Jack Sparrow. 

We also experienced the Submarine attraction, which had reopened after almost 10 years with Finding Nemo elements added.

Grand Bethel Tea

This weekend, we drove four Bethel 11 daughters over to Forest Grove for the annual Grand Bethel Tea at our state's Masonic and Eastern Star Home. During the year, we send letters to some of the residents of the home, and after the tea, we visited with them.

Then we went out to dinner with Bethel 67, and spent the rest of the night hanging out at Washingon Masonic Center in Portland.

Bryan meanwhile with camping with his Boy Scout Troop. It was their annual Webelos Woods event, at which the Boy Scouts show the Webelos Scouts some of what they will be doing in Boy Scouts.

Shadow Night & Miss Job's Daughter Pageant

This week Bethel 11 had a "shadow" meeting, where the Masons from our Lodge follow the Daughters around and try to mimic their actions.

On Sunday we drove over the mountains to the pageant to determine Oregon's next Miss Job's Daughter. This year we had three contestants, and one of them asked Susan to be her coach for the pageant.

We were very excited when she ended up winning! She will represent our order at all the Masonic family events for the next year, as well as competing at Supreme Session next summer.

Leadership Camp

The first weekend of October, Susan and the Bethel Guardian Secretary took six Daughters from Bethel 11 to Leadership Camp.

While there, they played games and learned more about Job's Daughters.

Jennifer was one of two Bethel 11 girls chosen to compete in a "Jeopardy" game - testing their knowledge of Job's Daughters. Her team won.

Bethels 14 & 277

Monday night we visited Bethel No 14 in Pleasanton, home of the Grand Bethel Honored Queen. Unfortunately she was unable to make it to the meeting, but she sent Jennifer a nice present. Pleasanton does not currently have a Marshal, so Jennifer was able to robe down with the other Daughters. Pleasanton is also home to two Supreme Bethel Officers, the Representatives to Missouri and Wyoming, who are sisters and the Jr and Sr Princesses of Bethel 14. Jennifer also won the coin march prize.

We made visiting Pleasanton a priority, because we lived there until Jennifer was 5, and Bethel 14 would have been her bethel if we had not moved to Oregon. One of the Daughters was a former neighbor of ours. After the meeting, we had a nice long conversation with the Bethel Guardian. It ended up being longer than expected, because Jennifer locked the keys in the RV when she went to change, and we had to wait for a tow truck to open the door.

Our last stop was Stockton, where we attended a non-regalia meeting of Bethel 277, and Jennifer visited with the Grand Bethel Representative to Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The Guardian gave us a tour of the Masonic Temple, which is in downtown Stockton and has several Lodge rooms.

Grand Receptions

Saturday evening we attended the Reception for the Associate Grand Guardian of California, which was hosted by Hayward Bethel 261. Many of the California Grand Bethel officers were there.

Jennifer was able to sit with and was introduced with the California Grand Bethel Girls.

Jennifer with the AGG, Miss California Job's Daughters, and the Grand Bethel Rep to Oregon, Idaho, and Washington.

Today we attended the reception for the Grand Bethel officer from Bethel 129 San Jose. She is the Representative to Brazil, North Carolina, and Ohio. The reception was held at the Santa Clara Lodge, and was hosted by Bethel 129, who did a great job. Jennifer did the Ohio Flag Tribute during the ceremony and again had fun spending time with the California Grand Bethel girls. The theme of the reception was Jungle Fun and they sang Jungle songs and had a scavenger hunt.

More Bethel Visits

On Thursday, we drove northeast on I-8O to Auburn, for the official visit of California's Grand Guardian and Associate Grand Guardian to Bethel 148 of Auburn and 102 of Grass Valley. A Member of Honor Ceremony was done during the Meeting to make both the GG and AGG MOH's of both participating Bethels. The GG and AGG gave bracelets to all of the girls that had signed a petition for a new member and praised the girls on a nice meeting. Jennifer will treasure her bracelet and it will forever remind her of this meeting with the GG.

Before the Offical Visit we had dinner in the dining room where we met many people. Following dinner and clean-up, the GG and AGG met alone with all of the girls and had a friendly question and answer session. Some of the questions were: What is your favorite state besides CA, what is your favorite ice cream, and which historic person would you most like to meet? The GG had not thought of her answer yet, when Jennifer said Ethel T Wead Mick. That was definitely the answer she was looking for. 

Jennifer was 5th Messenger at the Official Visit and afterwards she was interviewed and photographed for the California Job's Daughter Newspaper. We will be waiting to see her in print in the next issue. The evening closed with make your own sundaes and a presentation to the HQ's and GG from Jennifer.

We also met the CA Grand Bethel 2nd Messenger, and the Grass Valley HQ who was the Supreme Rep to Colorado. 

This morning we attended a meeting of Bethel 129 in San Jose. It was a non-regalia meeting, followed by a practice for the reception of their Grand Bethel Representative.