13 April 2012

G’Day!

Did I tell you that we get world news in several languages here?  It seems so unusual to see an Arab dressed in his best kafia (sp?) giving the news.  Of course, we listen in English, or Australian, but it’s nice to hear the news in comparatively unedited reports, unlike in America.  You get the feeling that you’re hearing truth as it happened.

We don’t get the chance to watch a lot of TV, obviously, but tonight I was changing the channel, trying to find something worth watching (It is hardly ever something out of America, sadly).  Suddenly, I’m hearing a lot of talk from a panel of newsmen about Mormons, and specifically what Utah is like—how it is so little known among Americans, but how Mormons are everywhere now, not just in Utah.  The main subject, as you can guess, was the religion of the top candidate of the Republican party for the U.S. Presidency, and how his religion is liable to hinder his election capability, or not.  I wish I could have heard more than just the tail end of the discussion, but I have to say, it seemed rather positive than negative.  They went out with what they called “a stunning rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!”  As it played, showing the American flag proudly waving and Miss Liberty lifting her lamp beside the Golden Door, I felt a chill run through me and a tiny glimmer of hope.  Could this election come down to a fight about religion?  From now on, the people of the earth are really going to know who we are, whether positive, or negative!

 We are in Bridgetown again.  We went to the local IGA store this afternoon, and happened to run into the manager of the produce department, who recognized our badges, and admitted to being a member!  He was surprised that the Church has missionaries in this very remote corner of the world!  I think he has been hiding because his records didn’t follow him here.  We invited him to our showing of the first session of Conference this Sunday.  He introduced us to his son in the meat department, who agreed to come, even though I had to tell him that there are no young adults in the branch.  The wife, apparently, is not keen on their coming to church, but we assured them that we are nice people, and nearly always hungry, so if they would have us over to dinner, we might be able to get her to agree to listen to the lessons!  They were very friendly, so we are hopeful that something will come of that. 

Both of the appointments we had with investigators here fell through.  Bridgetown needs help.  We are praying for help, and trying to be faithful by doing all we can.  We have appointments for the next three nights with members for dinner, so we are preparing lessons for them so that they will be willing to give us names.  We went by on one today, but she was not willing to listen. 

Tomorrow, I think it is, our dinner appt. is with a part-member family.  The husband is a smoker who has agreed to have the stop-smoking lessons.  We’ll try to set that up then.  We have another lady with an appt. for that too when we go home to Albany.  We’d better get serious about learning the program!  We’ve never done it before.

We had a CES (Church Education System) man from Perth staying with us Wednesday night.  He came down to check out Elder Ashby’s class.  It was Brother Grant, who is over all of WA.  We didn’t have much time to get acquainted because he only arrived in time for dinner, went to Institute with us, went to bed,  and left early Thursday morning.  I asked him if it was worth driving all that way, and he said that it is worth it to the students, who surprisingly get a lot out of knowing that the Lord cares about them enough to have someone come to check on them!  Isn’t it wonderful to belong to the true church?  We are the only church who really keeps track of every member, or tries to!