18 November 2011

We’ve been having a good week.  We met with some members who were not active and got them to come to Institute and to church!

We are a bit concerned about the young adults in our branch, however.  Several aren’t married, and don’t seem interested in anyone.   It’s so hard for them when they live in such an isolated area.  The youth are planning to go to EFY soon.  But what can the single adults do to meet people they can date?  We have one young woman who had an emotional breakdown this week, so we’re trying to help her.  Some of them have just been slacking off a little bit on their attendance, and we’re trying to come up with some ideas to put a fire under them.  We are going to try to encourage them to get ready for a temple trip to Perth, even if some can only do baptisms.  We’re going to ask them all for their input this next Sunday when they come over to our flat for CES Fireside.

Yesterday we gave a Book of Mormon discussion to a man with whom we have been meeting since we first came.  He is known by many of the members as “Brother Love,” which he likes to call himself, but though he is polite and “tolerant,” he claims to believe only in himself.  He reads a lot, and claims to be studying Buddism now, so that he doesn’t have time to really study with us.   He always welcomes us though, as he did the other missionaries before us, and I think he seems to enjoy keeping us on his dancing string, never really getting anywhere.  Yesterday I was bold, and surprised even my husband when I said, “Brother Dodds, we could stay and visit all day and enjoy ourselves, but we are missionaries, and we have come a long way at our own expense to tell you something important!” 

We had challenged him the week before to read Alma 32, and he did, so we had a short discussion about faith, and then told him all about how we got the B of M and how it is evidence that Joseph Smith is a prophet.  He wasn’t very receptive, but invited us back again.  He said lots of things about how “God isn’t a very nice god, is he, since he killed a lot of people in your Old Testament,” and “He lets innocent people suffer,” etc.  You can see he has a long way to go.  But at least he read, and that’s progress!

Today we gave another lesson to Jill Jonsson and Carol Hardy.  And we challenged Jill to be baptized if she gets an answer to her prayers, and she accepted!  We set the baptism for the 22^nd of December.  Won’t that be a nice Christmas?  She’s a sweet lady, probably in her sixties, who does charitable work for others, doesn’t smoke (or drink, that I know of), and has a close relationship with her family.  We’re pretty excited about it.  Thanks for your prayers, and please keep it up!  We are still hoping for 2 families.

Service--We still help out at one of the primary schools here in Albany on Thursdays for “Breakfast Club,” which means we help feed breakfast to kids who don’t get it at home.  This week and last, I helped one morning in the Family History Center, although I don’t know much about what I’m doing.  I did help one lady find her family on Ancestry.com, which was fun.  I also went to Relief Society last night for a Christmas preparation night, and I did some service by volunteering to stay and help clean up.  And today I fed the missionaries.  Does that count?

We received some nice email letters from some of our kids. And today we got a letter for October, and one for November from President Bevan.  Thank you.  We love that.  How is our home ward doing?  We haven’t heard any news for 2 months.  I would enjoy getting a note from some of them.  How are Tyson and Caitlyn doing in our home?  Is it cold there?

We often tell people here about our grandchildren praying for us every day back home.  And we know many of the rest of you are, and we really appreciate it.  I am spending the most time I ever have in my life with that person, Ray Ashby, and I find I like it!  We haven’t had any problems being with each other so far, but it really is strange to be with him this much.  He has always been on the move, you know what I mean, and now he has to bring me along!  I have to admit, a few tears rolled down my cheeks when he was called up to the stand to take his place in the branch presidency last week.  I was sitting all alone on my row again!  But it’s really okay.  It isn’t going to be much time he’s required to be gone anyway.  I’ve been doing this since I was 24—you’d think I’d be used to it by now.