26 November 2011

Thursday we drove the 2 ½ hour trip up to Bridgetown—a beautiful drive, and the hottest day we’ve had so far.  We stopped in Manjimup for lunch, which was especially good.  (We splurged, in a way, because it was Thanksgiving Day to us.)

We were delighted when we saw Bridgetown.  Its main street is in the bottom of a little valley which rises steeply on both sides.  The streets are very narrow, and the shops colorful.  It seems very much like a resort town, which it is, I guess, twice a year when they have the Garden Shows and then when they have the Blues Festival.  During the first, it’s sort of like the Parade of Homes in Utah, only for gardens.  During the second, blues players from all over Australia descend on this tiny shire to make music together, and I am told the population swells by thousands!

Our home away from our home away from home--Bridgetown

The little town has grown to include several little valleys, all small and very close together.  So the roads of Bridgetown are up and down, up and down.  The vegetation is colorful and thick, and in many places there’s a canopy of trees overhead.  At every bend in the road or crested hill, we are gasping with surprise.

Our place is a charming little cottage with everything we need, plus a kids’ room with three beds, so if you want to come for a visit while we’re here, we can accommodate you.  (We have to reserve it for the five days each month, but three months ahead.)  It is very clean and neat and has a beautiful view from the back yard of the neighboring valley and the hill across the way.  There’s a lemon tree, a fig tree, and an enormous locust I think, that shades almost the whole back yard.  Flowering shrubs and other flowers line the sides so that it’s quite secluded.  We feel like we’ve gone on a little holiday.   Is this really a dream?

We have tried to keep busy, though, so as not to waste the little time we have here.  We had a long and very good visit with President and Sister Ellefson, the Branch President, on Thursday afternoon to find out all we could about the members here.  It seems that the branch takes in Manjimup (about ½ hour away) and several of the little outlying villages.  We bought a few groceries on Main Street, barely in time before they closed, and fixed our dinner here in the cottage.  Then we made some calls to some of the members in Bridgetown, which are very few.  The Relief Society President and one of the families are in Utah right now, so it leaves a big hole in the meetings, they said.  Well, tomorrow we’ll find out.

Anyway, Friday we tried to make some contacts with inactive members and met a few nonmembers as well, trying to set up some appointments.  No luck with that, though we did have a few interesting discussions as we looked for addresses.  One was with a woman who was sitting out on her porch smoking as we walked past.  I felt we should go back and talk to her, so we did.  She said she wasn’t interested, and that she didn’t believe in God anymore because if there was a God, she wouldn’t be living the life she’s living now.  We found out that her husband had been killed in a car accident and she was raising three kids alone, and apparently not doing so well.  We tried to tell her a little about what is happening to her husband on the other side, and she listened politely, but insisted it wasn’t for her.  I felt so sorry for her, but thought how doubly sad because the God she claims doesn’t care had sent us to help, and she wouldn’t have it!  The Holy Priesthood of God was right there on her porch, and she wouldn’t accept it.  We are going to try to find a way to keep going by to see if we can help her when we come to Bridgetown each month.

So today was Saturday.  We had several interesting appointments.  One was with a member man who had been raised as a child in the church, but without a father, which is so often the case here.  He had left the church, married, had 2 children, divorced, then lived with another woman and had 2 more children, but three years ago his partner, whom he loved very much, had suddenly died in his arms.  He had a 4-year-old boy who saw his mother die from under the kitchen table, and a one-year-old girl.  He was so shocked, he couldn’t work, and lost his job and his home, and in a matter of weeks went from making $200,000/year to nothing.  He started selling things to feed them, but he has had such a hard time with depression, he couldn’t function.  He came back to Bridgetown where he grew up, and the Branch President found him and helped him get a little place, and has been trying to help him get up on his feet again.  We showed Finding Faith in Christ  to him and the two kids, and he was visibly moved.  So we gave him the DVD, and he said he would like to get some more things like that to help his kids understand so that they can have the Gospel in their lives.  There sits this man, tattoos all over him, with this tiny little girl, raggedy and dirty, and a sweet little boy of seven, who have had so much hurt in their lives, and I just wanted so much to take care of them somehow!  He is humbled now, asking questions about Jesus as the film went along, and wanting to believe that his Yolanda is being taught the Gospel too.  It was heartbreaking.  But because of this good Branch President, he wants to change his life.  He promised they would be to church tomorrow.

One of the other meetings we had today was with a former stake president who was excommunicated during his presidency!  He lives alone, in a very sequestered place, hard to find, and has a terminal disease.  He has been rebaptized, but has not had his Priesthood blessings restored.  This is a wonderful man, in my opinion, who has a strong faith in God, even though he has been misunderstood and has misunderstood the Priesthood leaders who have dealt with him and tried to help him.  One of the problems is that he is going deaf, so he hears things incorrectly and has taken offence where none was meant.  He is a personal friend of President Monson and has letters from him.  But he has been denied the restoration of his blessings for so long, he has lost patience with the local leaders.  We asked him to tell us some of his experiences, during which he cried, but he won’t come back to church.  I don’t know the whole story, but I know that he has a lot of faith still in the Gospel, believes that he has done all that the church has asked, but doesn’t understand why he has been denied his blessings.  So sad.

We had dinner tonight with the Evans family.  They are very glad we are here, but had hoped we would be staying here full time.  They said that Pres. Cahoon promised them!

I’m sorry this entry has been so long.  Hope you read it in segments.  We tried very hard to get through on the internet on Thanksgiving to talk to our family, even getting up at 5:00 a.m. our time on Friday, but even the connection at the church wouldn’t let us contact you.  We love you all. 

Could somebody please contact Wendy Heder and see if she’s okay?  I thought she would have written or commented by now.  We’re praying for our friends at home.  So sorry to hear about Bryce Foulon.  Thank you, Betty.