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
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Thursday, February 14, 2013
Happy Valentine's Day
Stores are full today with men picking up flowers, candy, perfume and the like so they can get in the house tonight. We thought about a night out, but are preparing to help with a funeral tomorrow for a member's aunt. We love this sister and are pleased to help her in any way we can.
As we have been contacting the "lost sheep" of the branch, we have had some amazing moments, surprises and in retrospect a few laughs. We all have excuses for not being active or rationalize why skipping church is okay. Here's the top reasons we've heard lately for not going to church:
10. I outgrew that years ago
9. Somebody told me that since I am divorced and remarried that I can't go back
8. I didn't think I was a member anymore, I've had 2 children out of wedlock.
7. I only got baptized because my parents made me and they're not in charge now
6. Church was a phase I was going through
5. I'm too lazy
4. I've forgiven those folks who offended me and I know they're gone, but that's still the
reason I'm not going back (really?, you've forgiven them?)
3. I still have a testimony but I enjoy being inactive (strong testimony?)
2. The buses are really slow on Sundays.
1. Just when you think you've heard it all, "I'm too "damn" fat to go to church"
We are getting better at Aussie speak all the time, but just today the following occurred. Allow me to write this as "I" heard it.
After finding no one home at a house, we're walking toward the car when I see the neighbor from across the street coming out with his kids.
Me: "Do you know if so and so lives in that house?"
Him: "No, I'm sorry I don't know her name,......she's married."
Me: "Really" (since I'm looking for a single woman with two kids I'm thinking they've moved),
"so you've seen the husband?"
Him: "No, (but)..... she's married."
Me: "Married?"
Him: "yeh, maeoree (Maori), you know, an indigenous New Zealander"
Me: "yeaaaaahhhhh, I get it, thanks (mate)"
It's all in the ears....
As we have been contacting the "lost sheep" of the branch, we have had some amazing moments, surprises and in retrospect a few laughs. We all have excuses for not being active or rationalize why skipping church is okay. Here's the top reasons we've heard lately for not going to church:
10. I outgrew that years ago
9. Somebody told me that since I am divorced and remarried that I can't go back
8. I didn't think I was a member anymore, I've had 2 children out of wedlock.
7. I only got baptized because my parents made me and they're not in charge now
6. Church was a phase I was going through
5. I'm too lazy
4. I've forgiven those folks who offended me and I know they're gone, but that's still the
reason I'm not going back (really?, you've forgiven them?)
3. I still have a testimony but I enjoy being inactive (strong testimony?)
2. The buses are really slow on Sundays.
1. Just when you think you've heard it all, "I'm too "damn" fat to go to church"
We are getting better at Aussie speak all the time, but just today the following occurred. Allow me to write this as "I" heard it.
After finding no one home at a house, we're walking toward the car when I see the neighbor from across the street coming out with his kids.
Me: "Do you know if so and so lives in that house?"
Him: "No, I'm sorry I don't know her name,......she's married."
Me: "Really" (since I'm looking for a single woman with two kids I'm thinking they've moved),
"so you've seen the husband?"
Him: "No, (but)..... she's married."
Me: "Married?"
Him: "yeh, maeoree (Maori), you know, an indigenous New Zealander"
Me: "yeaaaaahhhhh, I get it, thanks (mate)"
It's all in the ears....
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Early morning visitor
The back door would not open the other morning and this guy lying in the track is why
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
It's Hot
It is hard for us to believe that it is January as we go around sweating. It has gotten very hot here this week. We thought that the rainy season had come last week as we had two days of fairly hard rainfall that put down about 12 inches in two days but we found out that it was the result of a tropical storm that has hit along the north coast of Australia. The rainy season is from the monsoons that everyone assures us will come. The flooding and foaming that you may be seeing on the news is about 600-800 miles south of us but is from the same storm. We know that only 2 missionary apartments have been flooded.
We did our first traveling for Enoch to fulfuill his calling as a district councilman to a town called Bowen.It is about a two hour drive. We found a very small Branch there with about 10 people attending church. They are Tongan and have many struggles to keep the Branch going. The Tongans came to Australia as migrant workers and many continue to do that but the Branch President is studying to become a diseal mechanic so that he will not have to move his family around. He was called as the Branch President when he was single so he went back to Tonga for Christmas about 4 years ago and asked a girl to marry him and come to Australia with him to help him in his calling. They had only met once before this proposal and she was not to sure about it but she said she would go if her parents said yes. The young man is a returned missionary and seemed okay to the parents and so they said yes and marraige plans were made and the couple were married the next week in the Tongan Temple and they moved to Bowen.They have 2 beautiful little girls 1 and 2 and will have a new baby next month. The 1 year old was born premature and only weighed 2 lbs but was found healthy by the doctors and sent home 2 days later and she has thrived. Where this woman lived in Tonga the church is very large, almost all the people on the island are church members (she went to Liahona high school) she said the first Sunday she just assumed everyone was late getting to church but said when she turned around and realized that was it, she started to cry. She said they will not give up though. Bowen is a beautiful small town on the ocean and has the Whitsunday islands in that area. Many wealthy people live there as there a couple of mining towns about an hour away. This Branch will swell to about 60 people April - November when the migrant workers return but for some reason there records don't ever come - no one really knows how to get them we think is the problem.
President Langland visited on Thursday and we made lunch for him before the business he came to take care of. It was nice to see him and visit with him. 35 new missionaries arriving in March, we don't know if we will get more up here or not. The work here is hard as we visit less actives and invite them back, we haven't had many yeses, some have joined other churches. When we get discouraged we have to think about Jesus and the fact that he didn't have much success either!
Enoch was in charge of "man making" this week and it was quite successful about 20 attended. They learned barbecuing tips and ate their samples. Enoch took baked beans to share and they were a big hit. The men all made bean sandwiches!
We are off to help clean the church.
We did our first traveling for Enoch to fulfuill his calling as a district councilman to a town called Bowen.It is about a two hour drive. We found a very small Branch there with about 10 people attending church. They are Tongan and have many struggles to keep the Branch going. The Tongans came to Australia as migrant workers and many continue to do that but the Branch President is studying to become a diseal mechanic so that he will not have to move his family around. He was called as the Branch President when he was single so he went back to Tonga for Christmas about 4 years ago and asked a girl to marry him and come to Australia with him to help him in his calling. They had only met once before this proposal and she was not to sure about it but she said she would go if her parents said yes. The young man is a returned missionary and seemed okay to the parents and so they said yes and marraige plans were made and the couple were married the next week in the Tongan Temple and they moved to Bowen.They have 2 beautiful little girls 1 and 2 and will have a new baby next month. The 1 year old was born premature and only weighed 2 lbs but was found healthy by the doctors and sent home 2 days later and she has thrived. Where this woman lived in Tonga the church is very large, almost all the people on the island are church members (she went to Liahona high school) she said the first Sunday she just assumed everyone was late getting to church but said when she turned around and realized that was it, she started to cry. She said they will not give up though. Bowen is a beautiful small town on the ocean and has the Whitsunday islands in that area. Many wealthy people live there as there a couple of mining towns about an hour away. This Branch will swell to about 60 people April - November when the migrant workers return but for some reason there records don't ever come - no one really knows how to get them we think is the problem.
President Langland visited on Thursday and we made lunch for him before the business he came to take care of. It was nice to see him and visit with him. 35 new missionaries arriving in March, we don't know if we will get more up here or not. The work here is hard as we visit less actives and invite them back, we haven't had many yeses, some have joined other churches. When we get discouraged we have to think about Jesus and the fact that he didn't have much success either!
Enoch was in charge of "man making" this week and it was quite successful about 20 attended. They learned barbecuing tips and ate their samples. Enoch took baked beans to share and they were a big hit. The men all made bean sandwiches!
We are off to help clean the church.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Just another week
We had a few different things happen the last week or so. Last Sunday, Jan 13th, we went to a town called Ingam, it is called the sugar bowl as they grow lots of sugar cane in that area. It was settled by Italian immigrants and the houses all have an Italian flare to them with arches. etc. They have an Italian Festival in May which we will plan to attend. The reason that we went there was to hold a Sacrament meeting. It takes about 1 hour to get there and they have about 8 church members there and are a dependent branch and only have meetings once a month when someone from Townsville travels there. So any of you that want to be considered fully active but only have to go to church once a month we have found the place for you! Unfortunately when we were there four people were sick and one lady is due to have a baby any day so only 2 people attended but it was a great experience and well worth the trip. We took occassion to drive to the highest water fall in Queensland but it was not too great with the lack of rainfall, was not more than a trickle.
Then last Monday we drove to Cairns for a mission conference. Because the elders car is still not fixed we had to transport 2 of them with us so we did not do much sight seeing. Elder Watson of the Seventy was there and it was all good but a long drive in a Corolla with back seat passengers It took us between 4-5 hours each way. We were quite disappointed at Cairns because all of the photos make it look so inviting - but I think all the photos are taken of Beaches out on the Great Barrier Reef as the beaches in the town were non existent - the tide was low and so it was just a lot of mud out to the water - no sandy areas at all. The boardwalk was filled with tourists, many Asians and Europeans, they have a lot of big hotels and restaurants, some of the restaurants only had chinese menus, no english. We concluded that Townsville actually has a nicer beach area with two netted swimming areas (to keep out the jellyfish) and is very family friendly with a splash park, play grounds etc. We took occassion to stop at a town named Cardwell where we have about 4 members, found two of them and got a forwarding address for 1. The two there were not missing the chuch too much.
Enoch has been trying to get the work moving forward on getting the elders car fixed - the first 4 weeks was because of the holidays and now it is that the insurance did not get the bid from the body shop - the body shop maintained they sent it but has since discovered that their e-mail is not working. They promised to get the bid off last Wednesday - so we are trying to wait patiently. It really affects the missionary work because some of the areas are really far away from the elders apartments. It may actually take more patience living in Australia than Africa. People are either layed back or agro!
Next Sunday we will travel to Bowen where Enoch will be the speaker in his assignment as a District Councilman. That will be a 1 day trip about 3-4 hours each way, church starts at 11:00, but it sounds like a long day.
The long promised rains still have not come, only an occassional shower, so for the most part it is hot days. We always get asked how we like the weather - to which we always say we like it better than the cold. Today is cloudy with 50 % chance of rain. It is the first day without the air conditioner, however, I can feel the sweat trickling down my back.
Well need to get going. want to make a visit to the hospital so see a Branch member.
Til next time,
Enoch and LaRue
Then last Monday we drove to Cairns for a mission conference. Because the elders car is still not fixed we had to transport 2 of them with us so we did not do much sight seeing. Elder Watson of the Seventy was there and it was all good but a long drive in a Corolla with back seat passengers It took us between 4-5 hours each way. We were quite disappointed at Cairns because all of the photos make it look so inviting - but I think all the photos are taken of Beaches out on the Great Barrier Reef as the beaches in the town were non existent - the tide was low and so it was just a lot of mud out to the water - no sandy areas at all. The boardwalk was filled with tourists, many Asians and Europeans, they have a lot of big hotels and restaurants, some of the restaurants only had chinese menus, no english. We concluded that Townsville actually has a nicer beach area with two netted swimming areas (to keep out the jellyfish) and is very family friendly with a splash park, play grounds etc. We took occassion to stop at a town named Cardwell where we have about 4 members, found two of them and got a forwarding address for 1. The two there were not missing the chuch too much.
Enoch has been trying to get the work moving forward on getting the elders car fixed - the first 4 weeks was because of the holidays and now it is that the insurance did not get the bid from the body shop - the body shop maintained they sent it but has since discovered that their e-mail is not working. They promised to get the bid off last Wednesday - so we are trying to wait patiently. It really affects the missionary work because some of the areas are really far away from the elders apartments. It may actually take more patience living in Australia than Africa. People are either layed back or agro!
Next Sunday we will travel to Bowen where Enoch will be the speaker in his assignment as a District Councilman. That will be a 1 day trip about 3-4 hours each way, church starts at 11:00, but it sounds like a long day.
The long promised rains still have not come, only an occassional shower, so for the most part it is hot days. We always get asked how we like the weather - to which we always say we like it better than the cold. Today is cloudy with 50 % chance of rain. It is the first day without the air conditioner, however, I can feel the sweat trickling down my back.
Well need to get going. want to make a visit to the hospital so see a Branch member.
Til next time,
Enoch and LaRue
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)