We have just arrived home
from a trip up north. We rented a motel
room in Manjimup on Wednesday night because we had plans to meet with 3
families. We had studied and prepared
well, so we were quite excited about our prospects for the two days we would be
there. Things started to fall apart when
the member, whom we had lined up to accompany us to the first appointment,
called to say she was sick. It was
actually OK that she didn’t come, because the couple wasn’t there when we
arrived. Number two family said, no,
they couldn’t meet with us either. But
we knew we would get to talk with the owner of the motel/restaurant the next
day because we had talked to her on the phone before we left Albany. Well, you guessed it…an emergency had come up
with the construction company doing her landscaping, and she really couldn’t
meet with us either!
That afternoon we made it
into Perth in time to do a little bit of shopping and drop our things at the
Innis’s flat before our interview appointment with President Smibert. After that, we went with the other senior
couples to do a session in the temple.
President and Sister S. had arranged a wonderful weekend for us. After the temple, we all went out for Thai
food at a local restaurant.
We will miss this dynamic
couple. They are both powerful
leaders. He is still technically a
member of the Seventy, but has now received a new call as President of the
Brisbane Temple. They will begin their
new call once this assignment finishes in July.
And we will get our new president, Bruce Lindsay!
Saturday was filled with fun
things, starting with the tree-top walk and the war memorial at the famous
King’s Park. At noon we had lunch at
Subway, then visited an art gallery in Swan Valley featuring a famous
photographer of WA who is a member of the church. He gave us each a calendar of his
photos. Then we went to a wildlife
refuge where we saw rare wildlife of WA up close, and had our pictures taken
with them. That was really fun. Then it was off to the chocolate factory,
where we got free tastes of the best chocolate I’ve tasted in quite a
while. I bought a bar of the dark
chocolate. Finally, we stopped at a real
wine vineyard for a wine tasting session.
The hitch is, this is a member who produces quality non-alcoholic wines
and sells them all over WA! They were
really, really good, and we bought a bottle of the red, and one of the
white. Mmm…
Dinner was at the mission
home, with a talent night following. The
talents were varied and interesting. We
were 18 in number, including Smiberts, his mother, visiting from Brisbane,
Sister Marks, a service missionary who drives about an hour to help in the
mission office three times a week, the Lanes, Neeleys, Innises, Marsdens,
Ropers, and Warracks, also from Brisbane.
The Neeleys are from Sandy, and the Innises are from Canada, near
Vancouver. Everyone else is from
Australia.
Next morning we had a very
special private Sacrament Meeting in the mission home.. A sacred, strong feeling of the Holy Spirit
prevailed as every single one bore his/her testimony. Then we were instructed by the President and
his wife in separate meetings for men and women. They had been to a conference in Samoa for
mission presidents in the South Pacific Area, and brought back training from
the General Boards of the Auxiliaries and from the Priesthood leaders for the
men. We came together again and finished
with the Smiberts giving their gleanings from their conference and general
counsel to us. It was all just
wonderful.
After lunch, we said goodbye to everyone, but we went again to see the Felts, Ray’s friend from Provo, and had dinner with them. Then we stayed one more night so that we could visit a member, Brother Mattys, who used to be in the Temple presidency here, and with whom I had an appointment to learn an alternative medical technique called “Tapping,” or EFT. All the members here know him, and recommend him highly. It’s worth a try.
After lunch, we said goodbye to everyone, but we went again to see the Felts, Ray’s friend from Provo, and had dinner with them. Then we stayed one more night so that we could visit a member, Brother Mattys, who used to be in the Temple presidency here, and with whom I had an appointment to learn an alternative medical technique called “Tapping,” or EFT. All the members here know him, and recommend him highly. It’s worth a try.
2 comments:
Sorry your Appointments fell apart but sounds like you had a wonderful weekend anyway! Wow! I'd like to see those pictures of all that touring!
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