27 May 2012 But when I first began writing this it
was the 20th of April 2012 so we know the reason that my companion
is doing almost all of the blog writing,
don’t we?
It may
not seem like winter in Utah, but it is beginning to feel like it here in
Aussieland. The gas heater is back on in the old mission flat. Our mission friends who live in Esperence
left us today to go back to their area.
Elder and Sis. Lane are from Eastern Australia, a place called KingORoy. They use the typical Aussie terminology and
they are as comfortable as an old pair of sneakers when it comes to
conversations and enjoying the things that we enjoy. We still have to ask them to give explanations
of common terms, but we love laughing with them and just enjoying their easy
ways. By the way, Esperence is a 6 hour
drive along the coast. They came here
to go to the bank.
Last
night 29 April, we had a small Young Adult’s fireside and almost all of those
who attended, gave talks. We had 6
young adults attend. They spoke about
different Christ-like qualities as mentioned in Preach My Gospel book. It was very impressive to see that each of
them has their own Preach My Gospel book. I thought how very powerful this
piece of doctrine really can be for all of us. Even though these young people are struggling
with different problems, including not attending Sacrament meeting regularly,
they spoke with conviction and feelings of repentance. We came away from the meeting with the
spirit in our hearts. I just think that
the Savior is honestly looking after these people in the little branches of the
church in more ways than we can we understand.
They have so many influences working against them to discredit or
discourage them but they hold together when the chips are down.
Well, we
just lost our two new Elder missionaries to a transfer. We were very surprised to see them go
because they haven’t been here long and they were doing such a good job. Teresa began to cry when we heard over the
phone that they were being transferred. They were Elders Gilkes and Ariki. We now
have two Sister Missionaries’ Sister Myers is from Sandy, Utah and Sis
Salanoa is from Sydney. My companion
has already mentioned them but I just wanted to add some facts. It is now may 27th and I have
not entered this blog portion.
OK, so
it is now 27 May 2012 for reals. Sister
Ashby is asleep and I am reminiscing over the last week and over this day,
which is Sunday. We are here in
beautiful Bridgetown right now. It is
4pm in the afternoon and It’s interesting to me that today was the first time
that I have actually been asked to speak in Sacrament meeting since we arrived
in Australia. I spoke once in Albany
when all three of the Branch Presidency were scheduled to speak about our goal
for the branch to read the Book of Mormon by Christmas. The branch president now usually assigns me
to conduct about 2 minutes before the meeting begins and today was no
exception.
Right
after our block we had an appointment to meet with the Stuart family so we left
and went to prepare for our lesson. We
have been meeting with Brother Stuart now for a number of months and the spirit
has been helping us but he seems now to have his mind made up that he will stay
with his Pentecostal beliefs even though he says that he believes that Joseph
Smith was a prophet. We prayed to know
if we should continue teaching him and spending our valuable time with
him. We know that we were meant to work
with this family, but when we went to the appointment, he and his wife were
gone off somewhere without leaving any word. That’s missionary work.
We also
had our last appointment with a lady in Manjamup who owns a motel there. She has been very nice to listen to our
message for about 10 minutes each time.
Two weeks ago we went and she had forgotten and asked if we would
forgive her. So this time we set a specific
appointment and she came late and she left us three different times for her
work and we could tell that she wasn’t really listening. Sister Ashby gave her a Joseph Smith
pamphlet with our phone # and I committed her to read it in the next 7 days and
we asked her to call us if she was really interested. That’s missionary work again. But we love this most important work.
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