When I look at how long it has been since we wrote on this blog it reminds me that the time really is moving along quickly. We have had a couple of busy weeks. We traveled twice to outlying branches in February. The first one was to Charters Towers - it is a very old town that is supported by both mining and cattle ranching. The church owns a building there, they bought a piece of land with an old house on it in the 1980's with the intent of tearing down the house and building a new church. As they were preparing to do that, the residents decided that this was a historic house as it had been owned by the founder of Charters Towers and so the church was forced to do an extensive remodel, turning the old house into a chapel. It is a lovely building but is showing signs of wear as the remodel was about 1984 - if you google it you can find articles written in the Ensign about this. There were about 40 active members and the mayor of Charters Towers was LDS and serving as the Branch President. Then something went bad and he was excommunicated, taking the entire congregation with him. Unfortunately, all that remains are 6 active members struggle to even be able to talk about the church in the community. Our heart goes out to these people, one woman who is raising a grandson wants desperately to keep in the church and has even driven him to Townsville for YM which is a 1 1/2 hr drive.
The second visit was to Ayr which is about a 1 hr drive. Again we found a house that has been converted into a church and provides a place to worship for about 10 people. This branch was blessed to have a young couple move in from America in October. He is Australian and she American and they met in Guatemalea working for an NGO one summer. She taught him the gospel and he was baptized. She came to Australia and they were married and then they returned to Logan where they have been going to school for 7 years and now have found jobs in Ayr. They have really infused new life there and are a tremendous benefit to the church. The church purchased this house back in the days of building funds and this small group of saints were trying to raise money to pay for their building amidst much opposition. They held a bake sale and had people come eager to purchase cakes, pies, etc and then found out it was to benefit the "mormons" and they would push their purchases back and leave. A senior couple arrived to labor in Ayr (not sure of the year) and when they returned home they contacted the church and paid for the building. We always get to hear the conversion stories of these good people and they are inspiring. I am never complaining again about service in the church when I see how much these people yearn to be in large congregations with all the church programs.
We have also had some of our most rewarding visits and some of the worst (being ordered of the property). But that is part of the work of the gathering, finding those whose hearts have been prepared to hear the gospel message, accept it, be baptized and endure to the end.
North Queensland continues to be unseasonably hot. We are told that is why there is so many cranky people here so we are expecting a whole new attitude here now that Fall is coming. One other interesting fact about North Queensland is that 2 out of 3 people willl have skin cancer at least once by the time they are 70, they have the highest rate of skin cancer of anywhere in the world. Apparently it is not our imagination that the sun really does seem intense here, lots more so than Ghana.
We are looking forward to next Saturday as we will attend a marriage for a sweet young couple in the morning and then attend the brides baptism that afternoon, it has been amazing to watch them change as the gospel has become a part of their lives. It is such events that cause us to reflect on why we are here.
Hope all you in the cold are warming up - we look forward to cooling down and not having to listen to noisy air conditioners all the time.
Til Next Time ------Enoch and LaRue
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