9 April 2012

Yesterday was the most wonderful Easter I have ever had!  It was a glorious, bright day here in Albany, and we had lots of people visiting our branch, so there were 82 people in attendance!  The Elders were the main speakers in Sacrament Meeting.  They both are amazing young men, and bore powerful testimonies.  They had an investigator and her daughter visiting with them too, so I was excited when she came into my new class! 

There were several new members to the class since last week as well, so it made for a lively group with wonderful discussions!  I had just started in the Gospel Principles book, so we basically reviewed the first lesson from last week (for her sake).  I gave everyone a new notebook (we bought them at the stationery shop), and we all wrote down the first few Gospel principles of the book—Is there a God?  Who is He? and How Do I get to know Him, and then talked about some of our favorite scriptures that teach us about each principle.  They wrote their feelings about those scriptures or the things they learned in the notebooks.  I’m excited about this, and I think it’s going to work out well. 

This new lady, Claire, was so open and fun for all of us to get to know.  We had a great time with her in the class because she is so enthusiastic about learning.  The missionaries have only just met her, so she has had no lessons yet.  She just moved into the house next door to the church, so when her daughter met the Elders in the parking lot at the Primary activity a week ago, they went over to meet her mom and ask her if they could teach her.  So she invited them to have dinner with them, and agreed to come to church.  In class, she asked us, “Where do I go to get answers to all my questions?” everyone pointed to the Elders and said, “Right there!”  (Hurrah for Israel!)

We all had a good laugh, and felt the Holy Ghost inspiring the discussion.  So wonderful!  She said, “I’ve had some troubles lately and was telling a friend of mine in Perth about it, so he suggested I look into joining a church when I moved to Albany.  When I moved next to a church, I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll join that church,’ but when I saw it was a Mormon church, I was disappointed.” 

At this point I added, “Because you thought we were a sect!”  She said, “Yeah!” and again everyone laughed. 

She said she is quite excited about this church, and will be back.  It was good for us all to have a reason to have more hope to see our branch grow!  I think that the happy members, not just their testimonies, invites people to join the church. 

I also met a new lady in church, Sharon, who is married to a non-member, but who is down here in Albany once a month.  She also said she would like to come back, and that, "who knows, maybe we could interest her husband in joining her if they move here!"  Wow!

After church we had an appointment with a Filipino family we found during the week.  They were delightful!  We showed them “Finding Faith in Christ” after spending a little time getting to know them.  Another Filipino man lives across the street, and we made an appt. with him too, but he must have forgotten.  We’ll go back.  They come here alone at first, till they save enough money to bring over their families.  The first man just brought his family, but the second man is still saving.  We will meet with the first family again in two weeks. 

After the lesson, we headed over to Carol Hardy’s, who has been in the hospital this last week.  When we were there Saturday, we were helping her clean her kitchen.  She said she was worried about her refrigerator because it kept going on and off, so we pulled in out, vacuumed and mopped behind it, etc., but she called yesterday morning and said it was making a terrible noise, so we helped her arrange for a place to put her food, and spent the afternoon ‘pulling the ox out of the mire’ and cleaning her fridge/freezer.  It was still a great Easter.  She appreciated it so much.

We sped home to freshen up and plan what we would give the Duffields, and then over to have ‘tea’ with Richard and Christine.  She’s still asking questions, even after all that has been said in the past!  Elder Ashby was inspiring, the way he just kept popping off the scriptures to show her in answer to her questions!  When we finished and were driving home, we told each other how wonderfully the Holy Ghost had come to our aid!  We're not giving up on Christine yet!

It’s wonderful to feel the work starting to come alive!  Today my husband is working to help the members help other members to cut and haul away rubbish.  So I have enjoyed a quiet day at home doing the wash, changing sheets, cooking a little bit, etc.

I got a call from our district leaders, whom we have never met or talked to before!  He wanted to know what’s going on down here in Albany.  After I told him of the families we are hoping for, he got excited about it, and said he’d never heard of that many families investigating before, and that my report gave him a lot of hope!  He said that they might be able to come down here with the Assistants to do some splits and check out the work for the President.  I think they are trying to decide where we are most needed, because he said they would also come to Bridgetown with us to meet some of the people we’ve been working with there.  He also wants us to start reporting our numbers, which they have never done before either!  Isn’t there some couple at home who could come and help us out??  Jane and Brent?