16 December 2011

Everyone is preparing their back yards and barbeques for the big day.  Many will go surfing, and some of our friends are planning camping trips for Christmas!  Can you believe it?  They usually have cold meats and salads for their Christmas dinner.  But it seems really rather low key.  Not many lights either.

I don’t know yet where we’ll be.  There has been some talk about joining our Elders at the home of two of the young adult women in Albany.  They really didn’t invite us, but the Elders can’t go over there unless we come too.  That’s okay, but what I’m really excited about is the day after, Boxing Day, when we get to go to Perth for a Christmas mission party/transfer day.  We’ll get to see all the missionaries for the first time, and stay with some of the other seniors for a couple of days, and go to the Temple.  Ray needs to buy a new suit, and I will look for a skirt and blouse.  I’m really sad to see our Elder Martin go, though.  We may never see him again!  We love our Elders.  They had us over to their apartment the other night for a little meal—kangaroo steaks!  The meat was really good!

We have already had our branch Christmas dinners in both Albany and Bridgetown.  The one in Albany was especially nice, and lots of people came, including some few non-members.  The next night was our missionary fireside, which was really good, but not very well attended.   I sang my song, “Only a Baby Came.”  They asked me to sing it again on Christmas Day.

We were invited one night to dinner again at the Duffield’s.  We showed a DVD and had a good visit with Sister Duffield about why she has not joined the church or even read the Book of Mormon after all these years.  Her husband is so faithful, and is hoping she will respond to us.  She is actually going out of her way to be good to us, and I am hoping I can personally earn her trust so that I can really talk to her.  I’ve been praying about her. 

We gave the Plan of Salvation to Jill and Carol on Wednesday, and it went like a dream!  They are listening to the Book of Mormon on tape, and are now in 3^rd Nephi.  We answered some of their questions about their reading, and the lesson went smoothly because they had read about many of the doctrines already.  It was so fun.  We felt so happy.

We had to visit some members so that Elder Ashby could make callings and releases.  (He isn’t allowed to go alone.)  Everywhere we went, I sang my song  Then yesterday we drove to Bridgetown again.  There is a Christmas tree already up and a Father Christmas on the table!  We stopped at the grocery and hurried to make chicken and dumplings for the branch party last night. 

We had a wonderful meeting with President and Sister Ellefson today.  In the 60s he was arrested as a young man in Copenhagen for something he didn’t do, and found himself in jail.  He got hold of a Bible, read it, and promised God that if He would help him get out of there, he would become a Priest.  He had nobody to help him, but when he was finally pardoned, he ran for miles and miles, till he found his brother, and together they made their way to Australia to start a new life.  (Australia was very hard to get into in those days, so he had to go to the police to get his record cleared, even though he had never done anything wrong in the first place, or else Australia would not let him in.)  After arriving in Australia, they were robbed on the beach of all of their gear, so they got sent north to a work camp, where they were basically prisoners in terrible conditions until they escaped to WA.  He was 31 when the missionaries knocked on their door and he heard of the Latter-Day Saints for the first time with Maureen, his wife.  After he was baptized, he was immediately ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood, and then he remembered the promise he had made to God on the floor of that jail years before! 

President Jan Ellefson is a man with a vision.  When he was called several years ago he had a distinct answer to his prayers about the branch here that there were 62 people who would join the church eventually.  He has been unrelenting in his efforts to build up Zion, and has served the people in this area with great love and zeal.  He uses every opportunity he can to do things for others, members or not, so that everyone who knows him will also look on the church favorably.  And they do!  He has given us several names already, and we notice his name over and over in the area book.  This is the second time he has been branch president.  (When he was released the first time, after 10 years, people kept coming to him for advice, etc. instead of the new branch president, so he and his wife decided to move to Albany for a while so that the members would learn to trust the new president.)  He is excited to have us here, and fully expects us to start teaching.  He wants another set of full-time missionaries here so that they can do the finding and we can just teach.  President Cahoon had asked Elder Ashby to find out what the situation is, so now we know.  This shows what one man can do in the church.   Of course, it’s up to President Cahoon, but it’s because of his faith and vision that they will even consider sending more missionaries to this tiny town!  What a privilege to be able to work with a man like that!  His wife is recovering from brain surgery for tumors.