Bugs, bugs, bugs

Life goes on

It is much harder to write this blog than it was the last mission because many things happen slower here as far as the gospel is concerned and there are no crazy experiences to report as life is pretty much the same as at home.  We spend most of our time visiting those who have not been to church for a while - we found a man this week in his 40's that had not been to church or had any contact from the church since he was about 13. His house number was wrong and lived a few doors from where people had attempted to find him. We also visited the sweetest aboriginal lady that we fell in love with. They were very active in church about 20 years ago and brought about 30 relatives into the church with them and then the husband went back to their his old ways and all are now no longer attending. She has the sweetest spirit about her and it makes us feel a bit like being in Ghana again. She is very artistic and actually had some aboriginal artwork accepted for display at the church museum. She says we can keep coming to visit -  one son is in juvenile detention and we tried to visit him but haven't been able to get in yet, we may become mentors there.

Everyone at church is returning from holiday and we had a huge turnout on Sunday and one of the best testimony meetings I have ever been too - one of those days when you say, why are we here?  But then others things happen and we see why. The holidays just keep going here as it is also summer vacation and so people who are teachers are still on holiday for another 3 weeks.  We received specific  assignments from the district president, Enoch is a district councilman and that means that once a month we will be traveling either to WhitSunday, Charters Towers, or Ayr. That entails 2-3 hours of travel each way and then we will both speak in church and be prepared to teach whatever class might need teachers.  These are all very small branches that do not have missionaries serving in them - hopefully we'll get more here soon. We are both serving as district welfare specialist with work on family, food storage, budgeting, etc. so we have many things to keep us busy. Enoch is also chairing up a new activity the men are doing called "man making" get it? Homemaking for men - I personally have always thought that should happen. They are teaching home, car repairs, gardening etc, all you women know 

what I'm talking about. That will be fun to watch this unfold.  With the numbers in the branch and with 3 units in Cairns (cans) you really can see a stake not too far away.

I suppose you have all been hearing of the extreme temperatures in Sydney, Tamania, melbourne and others, because these are usually cooler wet places there are massive amount of brush to burn now that it is dry and no rain seems to be coming.  Our temperatures up north are usually hotter but not this year we are only about 33 c, although we have only had 3 rainstorms. Usually there is torrential rain fall at this time of year. All of the houses close to the ocean are built on stilts, we live on the hillside of Mt Louisa and so are high enough to avoid issues if there was heavy rain. The mountain did have a fire that burned off all the underbrush while we were in Sydney. We have several rivers in the area and the locals assure us that we will not have a water issue even if there is no rain. The last two years there have been cyclones hit Townsville, consequently everyone is taught about 72 hour kits, water storage etc.

We are going to Cairns next Monday for a mission conference with Elder Michael Watson and the mission Pesident, it will only be us and the 4 Townsville elders and the 6 serving in Cairns.

We hope you are all enjoying the New Year and wish you happiness and prosperity.

Til next time

Enoch and LaRue

Busy Two Weeks

The past two weeks have gone by pretty fast as we have kept busy baking cookies and taking them around to members of the branch.  We had some pretty amazing experiences as a couple of the people  we had selected to visit really needed us when we arrived.  Most of the cookies turned out really bad as the sugar is not as sweet and I hadn't yet learned what shortening was and the oven is very small and runs hot so my baking efforts have not been great.  Plus, it is not pleasant to run the oven when it is in the 90's.

We are having a good Christmas, there was a neighborhood party Friday night that we attended and were able to meet many nice people that live around us, last night we went to a BBQ at some members house and later today we have two invites, one for nibbles at 4 and a dinner at 6, so we will not lack for food.

We were able to see two nativity's on FaceTime today put on by Craig's family and Jeff's family and then watched Jackie's family open their Christmams eve presents and will talk with Chris's family tomorrow as they were driving home from a family get together when we called them tonight. We talked with Andy and Brekka yesterday, we are so grateful for the technology that allows us to keep in touch from so far away. We can enjoy Christmas with everyone with no cooking or dishes involved!

I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas as both of my front teeth had broken since we arrived here and I was able to find a dentist that did a great job of fixing them - so I got my two front teeth for Christmas so I don' t look like a jack-o-lantern anymore nor whistle when I talk.  I had never realized how two little chips can affect your speech until I had to speak in church and had a hard time trying to  annunciate correctly.

We also attended a big nativity that is put on by all the Christan churches (except us) down by the ocean.  It was a great effort as they put up tents and reenacted the whole city of Jerusalem with many activities going on.  We hope to find some involvement next year.

We hope all of you will have a wonderful Christmams!  May you feel the true spirit of Christmas this day and in the coming year!