18 October 2011

The weather here is so changeable. We are right now both hovering over our little gas heater in the middle of the day. It has been raining a lot over the past few days, yet sometimes it’s about 84 degrees Fahrenheit! Sometimes my nose and toes are really cold in the night. My health is better in some ways, however. But there’s always my back…
Today we went to visit the Dohertys (pronounced Dockertys), an older, seemingly quiet couple in the branch who live very close to us. I think I mentioned them before. (She has a rather low voice and sounds exactly like Mrs. Doubtfire!) They seemed so different when we got better acquainted. By the time we left their home, we had listened to almost 3 hours of their story, had laughed and cried together, and felt so akin to them, I would have liked to just wrap them up and brought them both home with us. Also, we felt humbled by their amazing faith.

They came to Australia in 1966 from Ireland, after being in the church for 5 years, all of those years filled with persecution and bitterness. They were disowned by their family, cast out by their countrymen, fired by their employer, even denied service by local businessmen who had formerly been their friends, all because they had joined “those heathen Mormons.”

Brother Doherty had argued with the missionaries every night for six months about the church after letting them in out of “good manners.” She had had a bad experience giving birth to twins some time before that, and had a very severe reaction to the medications she was given. Her face was covered with a scab 1/2 inch thick caused by this eczema from the allergic reaction. Each night she would cover her pillow with a piece of linen because her scabs would weep, and she’d have to peel the linen off her face in the morning. Anyway, the time came that Elder Mark E. Peterson was coming to Belfast for a conference, and the Elders wanted them to go so they could meet an Apostle of the Lord. No, she said, she could never go out in public in the condition she was in. The missionaries taught them about the Priesthood, and asked if she would like them to give her a blessing. She said she would be willing to give it a try, for she had tried everything else. The Elders asked if they could come back the next night to give the blessing. I imagine they spent the next 24 hours in fasting and mighty prayer because the morning after she received the blessing, which was on Wednesday, was the first day in many months that the linen was dry when she woke in the morning. By Sunday morning, her skin was smooth and fair, and she went to the conference and met Elder Peterson. She accepted the challenge for baptism there, and her husband joined her. Her voice choked in telling us about it, these 50 years later. But it was only the beginning of their troubles. Their girls have broken their hearts in rejecting the Gospel; they suffer poor health; they have lived out their lives away from the home and family they loved, yet they are ever faithful in coming to church each week and doing their best to keep the commandments.

Of course, there’s much more to the story, but you couldn’t stop them from talking, they were so glad to tell it, especially the husband. We finally had to excuse ourselves, promising to come back another time to hear more.

We were so disappointed on Monday morning when we couldn’t get connected with the internet so that we could see our kids on Google+. We spent about 3 hours trying to solve the problem, but it seems that the WiFi at the church is not reliable either. Sometimes it seems that nothing goes smoothly for us here. We still haven’t figured out how to get our money from the good ol’ credit union! We’re running poor Erin ragged! Maybe someone doesn’t want us to stay! Anyway, happy birthday Dawn on that day.