7 January 2012

It’s a relief to be back in Bridgetown. We came this time by way of Boyup Brook, which is another pretty little town like Bridgetown, and which boasts that it is the country music capital of WA. We visited some members there, having a nice dinner with one family, and found a lady who is less active, but still believes. She was in a bad way physically, and was virtually shaking all over with worry about her 42-year-old son who has just suffered a heart attack. She said that the Lord had sent us, so we listened calmly for a while, which seemed to settle her somewhat, and then Elder Ashby gave her a Priesthood blessing. We’re hoping that she comes to church this Sunday. It’s a bit of a drive, but the other members out there will call her and offer to bring her. As we drove on over to B., we saw no cars on the lonely road again, and we couldn’t help but wonder at the truth of what she said, and the singularity of our being there, in this place, so very remote, but not hidden from the Lord!


Our cute little cabin was waiting for us, all clean and nice. It is rented out to other visitors between times, but it’s like home to us. We made some appointments right away, and yesterday taught a first lesson to the couple we met last time. One of the members in Albany had helped Elder Ashby by making him some wooden blocks which say “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints” and form an arch. The keystone block says “Book of Mormon,” which makes a perfect object lesson, and puts over the point very well. They are reading now, hopefully, and we have another appointment to go back on Monday before we leave for Albany.


Tomorrow we are going to the Stuart family, who are the ones from Zimbabwe to find out if they have been reading their Bk. of M. They have 4 beautiful children. The girls are tall and long-legged and just gorgeous! I want them all to go to BYU! We’re excited to teach them, but I must admit, I am a bit nervous. We spent some good study time this morning reviewing the lesson and modeling it to each other, but my words seemed to get all jumbled up in my mouth, because I know that this is so important to this wonderful family, and I don’t want to boch it! Elder A. says I need to trust that the H.G. will help us, and that we can get the main points across, even if it isn’t done perfectly. We were told in the MTC that senior missionaries tend to over-prepare, but when you break down those beautiful lessons, it seems that none of the parts can be left out!


We did a little bit of tracting today, which I really don’t like, and which is unprofitable. Now my sweetheart/companion is visiting our friend, Bro. Williams by himself. I am locked into the church by myself so that I can work on this while they talk of rather sensitive things. I tried working on the blog directly, but the wind is blowing. Is that the reason that I keep getting disconnected? Who knows… So I will just save this on the desktop and try to upload it later.


We are having mild weather here in the south. It was 40 C. degrees when we went up to Perth, which is, I think, 104 F., making me so very thankful for our assignment to Albany. Bridgetown is sometimes very hot too, but I’m just so thankful not to be in Perth! We have been invited to stay with the Bakers when we go up in February for our stake conference. They asked if we could come early so that they could take us sightseeing at Freemantle and around, so we’ll see. We had so much fun with them last week.


Some of the people here got “budgies” for Christmas pressies. That means parakeets! One family we visited got rats! The 8-year-old daughter brought them to show us, and both she and her mother let the rats climb down in their shirts while we were talking with them!!!! It was very hard not to show disgust!


We went with the young men in Albany to the bowling lanes. We didn’t bowl, but watched them. Also, one of the young adult couples in Albany has enrolled in community indoor beach volleyball. We went over to watch. It was a great idea for a big recreation building. They had half of it filled with about 18 inches of white sand and enclosed with netting. There were two separate courts, and games seemed to be rotating about every 45 minutes. (On the other half of the floor were two more courts for cricket.) Around the outside were bleacher-type seats for spectators, but there were more participants than I ever dreamed! They charge a pretty substantial amount to be on one of the teams, but there were all sorts of people, old and young, and they seemed to be really enjoying themselves. No stiff competition here! Just good exercise, lots of laughing and fun. They have a test, or tournament, sort of like Jr. Jazz or something. There were referees sitting on both sides above the courts judging the games. Wouldn’t that be fun to have added to our community for a fun place to play?