May 23, 2010 Sunday
This morning we visited Margaret Carruthers. We had talked to her last Sunday and she said we could come back and teach her today. She’s forgotten so much of what she knew about the church. We taught her a brief 1st lesson and then asked her what she’d like to learn more about. She asked to learn more about the Holy Ghost. We talked about Christ promising his apostles a Comforter. We also taught her about the promise in the Book of Mormon and how the Holy Ghost would teach her the truth of all things. She agreed to read a couple of chapters in 3rd Nephi before we return next week.
Manoz came to church today and seemed to enjoy it. The whole sacrament meeting was about the Aaronic Priesthood, and all the young boys spoke. During Sunday School, we sat with him and read the Book of Mormon. He’d had a tough time getting started at the beginning. He’d thumb through it and read here and there. He told us he and Aaron had talked until 11 pm last night. Aaron told us that Manoz told him that he was feeling closer to Christ as he read the things.
Tonight we had dinner with the Timson family. Brother Timson was Bishop of the Melville Ward for 3 years before it was dissolved. He and his wife are very young and had a little girl, Zaria, with naturally curly blonde hair, who is 2 ½. Sister Timson is inactive which made it really hard for the bishop. Bishop Palm wanted us to visit them. Orson called them a week ago to see if we could drop by in an evening, and Brother Timson invited us for dinner. It was so nice—we had roast lamb with mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli, carrots, corn, and rolls. Then for dessert, Rebecca mixed some kind of caramel and served it with vanilla ice cream with “hard shell” drizzled over it and 4 squares of Cadbury chocolate served with it. If all the chocolate gives me a headache, it will certainly be worth it! Rebecca served a mission at Temple Square. She had some fascinating stories to tell about being there during 9/11, stalkers, security codes for the sisters, etc. She was also called to learn American Sign Language after she’d been there a couple of months and attended many different wards to help along with translating for “The Testament,” temple sessions, baptisms for the dead. She said that there are 3 deaf wards there in the Salt Lake area and that the people in them feel very isolated because so few people know how to communicate with them. She also did Temple Square tours for the deaf. There were also sisters called to learn signing in French and Italian. What’s sad is that she can’t use it over here: Australian sign language is different from American sign language. Mark joined the church in her ward while she was on her mission. They said the whole ward almost had them “betrothed” before she even returned from her mission. Good thing it worked out.
Tonight as we were getting out of our car, I noticed a young woman walking past our place with a cell phone texting on it. I said “Hi,” and she walked up and started talking to us. She is from India as is her husband. They live 4 units down. She asked what we are doing here so Orson explained and asked if she’d like to learn about our message. She agreed, and we have an appointment with them on Thursday morning before her husband goes to work on the afternoon shift.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Manoz
May 22, 2010 Saturday Afternoon
Tonight is the ward “get-acquainted” party. I wasn’t feeling good this morning, so we stayed home while I slept. Orson spent a couple of hours calling inactives on the list telling them about the party, then I did it for an hour and a half. We’ve arranged a ride for one of them. Orson found one who accepted a visit and I talked to several who were quite friendly.
This afternoon we are going to teach Manoz again. We’ve seen him everyday since Wednesday. Thursday, he didn’t seem as receptive because he didn’t see a need for the Book of Mormon. He’d read the 4 chapters in 3rd Nephi and it seemed the same as the Bible. So he wondered why we needed it and wouldn’t commit to baptism because he saw miracles in his own state of India. We weren’t as happy as we were leaving his place the first day. On Friday, Orson was inspired to have him read with us the verses in 2nd Nephi about the Bible and how things were taken out of it by evil people. Manoz then opened up about the wickedness of the Catholic priests in his home state and also how the Muslims did many miraculous seeming things but how they were done through the power of Satan. He began to see more fully the need for a restoration and was willing again to pray to have that confirmed and about reading the Bible. It was good. He’s planning to come to church (he learned to say “ch” in English with his tongue too far forward in his upper palate so “church” sounds like “turts” when he says it. He’s talking to his friend in Brisbane about everything we are teaching him and the friend is very interested to learn all about it. Today we will try to get his friends address and phone # so elders can be sent to him also. His friend is still working in Brisbane and sending Manoz money until Manoz finds a job. Then Manoz will send money to his friend so he can come to Perth and they can live together. What a neat thing for friends to do for each other!
He gave us his friend’s name and phone # in Brisbane. The lesson went well. He struggles with the “King James English” that the Book of Mormon is written in. Tonight he came to the ward party. We had a member, Aaron Martin, pick him up. The bishop showed him the chapel when we first got there. The dinner was organized so we sat at a different table for each course. Manoz found a woman who was born in India, so he sat at her table. From then on, he seemed to do okay on his own. When we left, he was busy talking to our new DL, Elder Shurtz. It’s been cool and rainy all day. It doesn’t rain for long at a time, but we’ve probably had an inch and a half today judging by the ice cream “bucket” out in back.
Tonight is the ward “get-acquainted” party. I wasn’t feeling good this morning, so we stayed home while I slept. Orson spent a couple of hours calling inactives on the list telling them about the party, then I did it for an hour and a half. We’ve arranged a ride for one of them. Orson found one who accepted a visit and I talked to several who were quite friendly.
This afternoon we are going to teach Manoz again. We’ve seen him everyday since Wednesday. Thursday, he didn’t seem as receptive because he didn’t see a need for the Book of Mormon. He’d read the 4 chapters in 3rd Nephi and it seemed the same as the Bible. So he wondered why we needed it and wouldn’t commit to baptism because he saw miracles in his own state of India. We weren’t as happy as we were leaving his place the first day. On Friday, Orson was inspired to have him read with us the verses in 2nd Nephi about the Bible and how things were taken out of it by evil people. Manoz then opened up about the wickedness of the Catholic priests in his home state and also how the Muslims did many miraculous seeming things but how they were done through the power of Satan. He began to see more fully the need for a restoration and was willing again to pray to have that confirmed and about reading the Bible. It was good. He’s planning to come to church (he learned to say “ch” in English with his tongue too far forward in his upper palate so “church” sounds like “turts” when he says it. He’s talking to his friend in Brisbane about everything we are teaching him and the friend is very interested to learn all about it. Today we will try to get his friends address and phone # so elders can be sent to him also. His friend is still working in Brisbane and sending Manoz money until Manoz finds a job. Then Manoz will send money to his friend so he can come to Perth and they can live together. What a neat thing for friends to do for each other!
He gave us his friend’s name and phone # in Brisbane. The lesson went well. He struggles with the “King James English” that the Book of Mormon is written in. Tonight he came to the ward party. We had a member, Aaron Martin, pick him up. The bishop showed him the chapel when we first got there. The dinner was organized so we sat at a different table for each course. Manoz found a woman who was born in India, so he sat at her table. From then on, he seemed to do okay on his own. When we left, he was busy talking to our new DL, Elder Shurtz. It’s been cool and rainy all day. It doesn’t rain for long at a time, but we’ve probably had an inch and a half today judging by the ice cream “bucket” out in back.
Anyone want a puppy?
May 18, 2010 Tuesday
Today we had a great visit with an inactive. Her name is Marion Green. She’s the administrator of a hospital in the city, but she’d taken a couple of weeks off to attend to the birth of some puppies. She lives in a “kennel area.” Evidently, if you have more than two dogs you have to move to one of these areas. As you drive down her street (it’s in a rural area), you see signs at almost every house that you can either buy or board your cat or dog. Marion breeds her dogs as a hobby, but she takes it very seriously. She has a room in her house called the “whelping room” with a special box for the dogs and a cot for her to sleep on so she can be close to the dogs. You couldn’t smell dog even in that room. She took us in to see her newest pups which were 3 weeks old. We aren’t sure what the breed is; she talks very fast. They are about the size of a pit bull but not as muscular. Chloe, the mother dog, was the color of Baka. She’d had 11 puppies; one had died. The rest were all of various colors and markings from white to grey to brown. Some had tails that were tipped with white. Poor Chloe, as soon as she entered the box, they started grabbing on. Of course, there were always two trying to knock the others off so they could nurse. Chloe sat there very patiently for a while; then Marion helped her lie down making sure there weren’t any puppies under her. Marion sat right down in the box and held and loved the puppies. She explained that her pups are in high demand; most are sold before they are even born. She sells all over Australia and even internationally. She has 4 females and one male. Her family is into showing dogs also. Her son is the championship ratings of “handlers” in Australia. With all her dog stuff and her son’s sports stuff, she doesn’t have time for church. She was in the church as a youth and married a member. They had two kids and then she found out her husband was playing around. They divorced, and the 2nd time, she “did it right.” She’s very happily married, but her husband isn’t a member. They love to have missionaries drop by, but don’t want home or visiting teachers. We hope to drop by once in a while just to watch the pups grow and let her know she’s still loved. Her best friend growing up is now the stake president of another stake in Perth, and she turns to him when she has a spiritual need. It’s so frustrating to see these good people who are so busy with the things of the world that they forget the things of the eternal world.
Today we had a great visit with an inactive. Her name is Marion Green. She’s the administrator of a hospital in the city, but she’d taken a couple of weeks off to attend to the birth of some puppies. She lives in a “kennel area.” Evidently, if you have more than two dogs you have to move to one of these areas. As you drive down her street (it’s in a rural area), you see signs at almost every house that you can either buy or board your cat or dog. Marion breeds her dogs as a hobby, but she takes it very seriously. She has a room in her house called the “whelping room” with a special box for the dogs and a cot for her to sleep on so she can be close to the dogs. You couldn’t smell dog even in that room. She took us in to see her newest pups which were 3 weeks old. We aren’t sure what the breed is; she talks very fast. They are about the size of a pit bull but not as muscular. Chloe, the mother dog, was the color of Baka. She’d had 11 puppies; one had died. The rest were all of various colors and markings from white to grey to brown. Some had tails that were tipped with white. Poor Chloe, as soon as she entered the box, they started grabbing on. Of course, there were always two trying to knock the others off so they could nurse. Chloe sat there very patiently for a while; then Marion helped her lie down making sure there weren’t any puppies under her. Marion sat right down in the box and held and loved the puppies. She explained that her pups are in high demand; most are sold before they are even born. She sells all over Australia and even internationally. She has 4 females and one male. Her family is into showing dogs also. Her son is the championship ratings of “handlers” in Australia. With all her dog stuff and her son’s sports stuff, she doesn’t have time for church. She was in the church as a youth and married a member. They had two kids and then she found out her husband was playing around. They divorced, and the 2nd time, she “did it right.” She’s very happily married, but her husband isn’t a member. They love to have missionaries drop by, but don’t want home or visiting teachers. We hope to drop by once in a while just to watch the pups grow and let her know she’s still loved. Her best friend growing up is now the stake president of another stake in Perth, and she turns to him when she has a spiritual need. It’s so frustrating to see these good people who are so busy with the things of the world that they forget the things of the eternal world.
Jehovah Witnesses
May 15, 2010 Saturday
We spent all of today trying to find the people that the bishop has asked us to visit first. It was strange because last week we found tons of people home on Saturday, but today we only had the chance to visit with one person.
Her name is Ada. She’s originally from Poland and has been a really strong member, but recently she’s quit coming to church. She’s divorced and has 3 grown children. So we went there around 5:30. She met us at the gate and you could tell she wasn’t too happy to see us. She said she had company from the states and they were leaving tonight at midnight. She went back into the house and soon a cute young girl came out who was very excited to meet us. Turns out she was Ada’s daughter-in-law. Ada’s son, Mick, had gone to BYU and was just finishing up his Masters Degree in Accounting. He had served a mission in Poland, and his wife, Brook, had served in Chile. They met after their missions and have one cute little boy, a three year old with blond hair long enough that everyone thinks he’s a girl. So Mick and his mom ran to do some shopping, and we had a great visit with Brook. She’s very animated and fun to talk to. She’s worried about Ada because when they were here 2 years ago, they went to church and the temple with her. This time Ada didn’t want to do any of that. Brook is from a strong LDS family in California, and Mick has a job down there starting in October working for KPMG. We plan to go back to see Ada another time when things aren’t so hectic for her. The bishop is really concerned about her.
Tonight about 8:30, I heard a bunch of car doors slamming out front. Pretty soon someone knocked on the door and called, “Jehovah Witnesses.” It was 4 Zone Leaders who had been out city contacting tonight and were dropping by to give us the new referrals. They were so cute. One had lived in this apartment before and wanted to see what we’d done with it. His comment was, “Wow, it looks so comfy.”
We spent all of today trying to find the people that the bishop has asked us to visit first. It was strange because last week we found tons of people home on Saturday, but today we only had the chance to visit with one person.
Her name is Ada. She’s originally from Poland and has been a really strong member, but recently she’s quit coming to church. She’s divorced and has 3 grown children. So we went there around 5:30. She met us at the gate and you could tell she wasn’t too happy to see us. She said she had company from the states and they were leaving tonight at midnight. She went back into the house and soon a cute young girl came out who was very excited to meet us. Turns out she was Ada’s daughter-in-law. Ada’s son, Mick, had gone to BYU and was just finishing up his Masters Degree in Accounting. He had served a mission in Poland, and his wife, Brook, had served in Chile. They met after their missions and have one cute little boy, a three year old with blond hair long enough that everyone thinks he’s a girl. So Mick and his mom ran to do some shopping, and we had a great visit with Brook. She’s very animated and fun to talk to. She’s worried about Ada because when they were here 2 years ago, they went to church and the temple with her. This time Ada didn’t want to do any of that. Brook is from a strong LDS family in California, and Mick has a job down there starting in October working for KPMG. We plan to go back to see Ada another time when things aren’t so hectic for her. The bishop is really concerned about her.
Tonight about 8:30, I heard a bunch of car doors slamming out front. Pretty soon someone knocked on the door and called, “Jehovah Witnesses.” It was 4 Zone Leaders who had been out city contacting tonight and were dropping by to give us the new referrals. They were so cute. One had lived in this apartment before and wanted to see what we’d done with it. His comment was, “Wow, it looks so comfy.”
Our first Sunday
MAY 2, 2010 Sunday
Yay! We both got a good night’s sleep last night. Jet lag is for the birds. This morning I thought I’d start a crockpot dinner for us, but discovered the old crockpot here in the flat doesn’t work. So I just cooked some chicken so we could have a salad after church. Another great news thing is that our ward meets at 1 pm. I love it!
We started a companion study session this morning. We read about five minutes out of Preach My Gospel about contacting people. That led to a discussion of what we would take with us when we meet people, and we ended up spending the rest of the morning organizing the 2 bookshelves full of pamphlets, pass along cards, media, and Books of Mormon in at least 5 different languages.
Church was wonderful. We are assigned to work in the Jandakot Ward. It’s a new ward, created just a month ago, by combining 2 small wards. Testimony meeting was awesome. The people here are truly converted, at least the ones who come to church and bear testimony. And that leads us to our assignment here. Bishop Palm called us to his office, gave us a binder with the ward list and a bunch of “Contact Follow-up Forms.” He wants us to contact the 400 or so inactives in the ward and report back to him at Ward Council.
I really enjoyed Relief Society. The President taught and did a wonderful job. She teaches at the “uni.” A bunch of people greeted us and welcomed us to the ward. We came home, ate dinner, and just hung out here. Orson wasn’t feeling good.
Yay! We both got a good night’s sleep last night. Jet lag is for the birds. This morning I thought I’d start a crockpot dinner for us, but discovered the old crockpot here in the flat doesn’t work. So I just cooked some chicken so we could have a salad after church. Another great news thing is that our ward meets at 1 pm. I love it!
We started a companion study session this morning. We read about five minutes out of Preach My Gospel about contacting people. That led to a discussion of what we would take with us when we meet people, and we ended up spending the rest of the morning organizing the 2 bookshelves full of pamphlets, pass along cards, media, and Books of Mormon in at least 5 different languages.
Church was wonderful. We are assigned to work in the Jandakot Ward. It’s a new ward, created just a month ago, by combining 2 small wards. Testimony meeting was awesome. The people here are truly converted, at least the ones who come to church and bear testimony. And that leads us to our assignment here. Bishop Palm called us to his office, gave us a binder with the ward list and a bunch of “Contact Follow-up Forms.” He wants us to contact the 400 or so inactives in the ward and report back to him at Ward Council.
I really enjoyed Relief Society. The President taught and did a wonderful job. She teaches at the “uni.” A bunch of people greeted us and welcomed us to the ward. We came home, ate dinner, and just hung out here. Orson wasn’t feeling good.
Elders keep nasty kitchens
MAY 1, 2010 Saturday
Hurray, the flat is livable! (And we are both beat.) I started out in the kitchen. The fridge reeked every time it was opened. I had started taking food out of the pantry and tossing everything that had been opened last night. Fingerprints were on and around every light switch. Orson started by vacuuming the front room and rearranging the furniture to work for us. The elders had had a big long table right in front of the living room window. We moved it to the dining area and moved the little dining table into the spare bedroom where all the drying racks are. We don’t have a clothes dryer, so we will dry our clothes there when the weather is bad. I did a load of wash. It sure brought back memories of living on Brinker Street when I was a little girl. There I was hanging clothes on clotheslines just like we did back then before clothes dryers became common in homes.
I finished the pantry and started emptying out the fridge. There were all kinds of things with mold on them. A half inch of ice on the bottom of the freezer had trapped an old meat pie and some frozen corn. I threw away 2 unopened containers of oysters that had been there for who knows how long. Someone had given the elders a gallon ice cream container full of soup that was greasy and had some kind of green leaves floating on it in addition to the mold on the sides of the container. That was quickly flushed down the toilet. (No garbage disposal for us, no siree!)
We left to meet some elders to give them a sleeping bag and a pair of shoes that had been left in the back of the car that was given to us to drive. It is a white Toyota Camry. It even has a radio and CD player in it. I remember when missionaries didn’t have those blessings in cars. Before leaving the flat, we turned off the fridge and opened the doors so we could defrost the freezer.
We met the elders in town (which is maybe about a 20 minute drive from where we live.) Then we headed to the shopping center. Guess what? All the grocery stores are inside a mall. Each mall has either a K-mart or Target in it. You cannot enter those stores from the outside; you have to go in through the mall to get to them. It’s a great way to keep the malls viable but a real pain for shoppers who don’t want to deal with mall shopping. Some malls are really big, and others are smaller. We live near a small one, and there is a huge one a little farther away in the opposite direction. We bought a few things at Target and then headed to Coles, the grocery store. (Target didn’t carry hair products or cleaning or laundry items, but Coles did.) We’d been warned about the sticker shock in the grocery store. We paid $295 for groceries that would have run about $150 at home. Ouch!
After we got back home, we finished up some of the cleaning, had dinner, played Michigan Rummy for an hour to keep Orson awake so he wouldn’t go to bed too early and then wake up at 11 pm. He beat me again. I got the fridge reorganized and clean and then washed the worst of the fingerprints off the wall. It looks so much better in here! It feels good to be here now in spite of the olive green love seat, and one pink and one brown overstuffed chair. Also, we have 2 round end tables each covered with a square of burgundy & tan striped material. Color coordination evidently isn’t of much importance in missionary flats. We did get matching sheets and pillowcases though, so everything is good. We were both really, really tired so going to bed felt very good.
Hurray, the flat is livable! (And we are both beat.) I started out in the kitchen. The fridge reeked every time it was opened. I had started taking food out of the pantry and tossing everything that had been opened last night. Fingerprints were on and around every light switch. Orson started by vacuuming the front room and rearranging the furniture to work for us. The elders had had a big long table right in front of the living room window. We moved it to the dining area and moved the little dining table into the spare bedroom where all the drying racks are. We don’t have a clothes dryer, so we will dry our clothes there when the weather is bad. I did a load of wash. It sure brought back memories of living on Brinker Street when I was a little girl. There I was hanging clothes on clotheslines just like we did back then before clothes dryers became common in homes.
I finished the pantry and started emptying out the fridge. There were all kinds of things with mold on them. A half inch of ice on the bottom of the freezer had trapped an old meat pie and some frozen corn. I threw away 2 unopened containers of oysters that had been there for who knows how long. Someone had given the elders a gallon ice cream container full of soup that was greasy and had some kind of green leaves floating on it in addition to the mold on the sides of the container. That was quickly flushed down the toilet. (No garbage disposal for us, no siree!)
We left to meet some elders to give them a sleeping bag and a pair of shoes that had been left in the back of the car that was given to us to drive. It is a white Toyota Camry. It even has a radio and CD player in it. I remember when missionaries didn’t have those blessings in cars. Before leaving the flat, we turned off the fridge and opened the doors so we could defrost the freezer.
We met the elders in town (which is maybe about a 20 minute drive from where we live.) Then we headed to the shopping center. Guess what? All the grocery stores are inside a mall. Each mall has either a K-mart or Target in it. You cannot enter those stores from the outside; you have to go in through the mall to get to them. It’s a great way to keep the malls viable but a real pain for shoppers who don’t want to deal with mall shopping. Some malls are really big, and others are smaller. We live near a small one, and there is a huge one a little farther away in the opposite direction. We bought a few things at Target and then headed to Coles, the grocery store. (Target didn’t carry hair products or cleaning or laundry items, but Coles did.) We’d been warned about the sticker shock in the grocery store. We paid $295 for groceries that would have run about $150 at home. Ouch!
After we got back home, we finished up some of the cleaning, had dinner, played Michigan Rummy for an hour to keep Orson awake so he wouldn’t go to bed too early and then wake up at 11 pm. He beat me again. I got the fridge reorganized and clean and then washed the worst of the fingerprints off the wall. It looks so much better in here! It feels good to be here now in spite of the olive green love seat, and one pink and one brown overstuffed chair. Also, we have 2 round end tables each covered with a square of burgundy & tan striped material. Color coordination evidently isn’t of much importance in missionary flats. We did get matching sheets and pillowcases though, so everything is good. We were both really, really tired so going to bed felt very good.
Getting settled
April 30, 2010 Friday
What a tiring day! President & Sister Maurer had a zone conference down in Bunberry today, so they asked us to help in getting their boys where they needed to be this morning. Orson picked up Nicholas from seminary at 7 am while I worked on getting stuff into the suitcases. The president had given us his wife’s GPS to use over the weekend, but it was set so the screen was very faint and the sound was so low (perhaps our age has something to do with it?) it didn’t do him much good in the early morning. Nicholas fixed it on our way to dropping him and Liam off at school. After a flurry of busy-ness, we got them dropped off and set about our activities of the day.
First off was to find a “petrol” station. Seems like in the states there are gas stations every few blocks even on corners out in residential areas. Not here. Our gas light was on and we couldn’t find a station. We finally found a place on the Tomtom and let it lead us there. The trouble with that thing is that it’s just behind where you really are and it doesn’t tell you the name of the street we are to turn on. So typically it’s still telling us to turn a little way after we’ve passed the street. So we made a lot of “eraser marks” today. The petrol station was in the same shopping area where the License Center was, but we drove right past it because we didn’t know what we were looking for. We asked a fellow walking down the street, and he pointed us back where we’d come from. We finally found it—Woolworths. We old folks remember Woolworths as the precursor of K-mart only much smaller. Here, it’s a gas station. Go figure.
We’d decided we wanted to open a bank account, so we drove around the shopping area we were in until we saw an NAB (National Australian Bank). We went in there; the line for the tellers was huge! We got to talk to a customer relations guy and decided to keep looking. Coming out of the bank, we saw that the License Center was just across the street. We’d already heard the horror stories of how long it takes to get an Australian drivers license from President Maurer & Sister Kruger, the office secretary, who’s from England by the way. So we entered & took a number. We hadn’t even been able to turn around to take our seats when our number was called. The woman at the counter explained we needed our passports in addition to the letter of residence Sister Kruger had given us. As we started to leave, another worker there called to us. We went over, and she started out, “I don’t mean to be cheeky, but.…” She wanted to buy some US dollars from us. We agreed to sell her some. She was headed to Bali on vacation and needed them. She then asked another worker if she wanted some too. So I sat there while one ran to the bank across the street and Orson went out to find the passports. We became her best friends at that moment and that ended all the waiting we had to do. She took care of us and was familiar with the elders who came in every three weeks or so as they arrived new in the mission. Our licenses cost us $145 or so.
From the Licensing Centre, we went to the “Post” to apply for our “Working with Children” certification. They, too, needed our passports, letter of residence, and then took our pictures and $20.00 (good thing we had our Australian dollars). Then we found the ANZ (Australian New Zealand) Bank that Shelly, our friend at the Licensing Centre, had recommended. It was much nicer than the NAP we’d checked out earlier. Christopher Davidson (I know his name because we “contacted” him) set us up with a checking account and a debit card. Now we can transfer funds electronically from our account in the states.
Yesterday, we’d received a mobile phone (not “cell” phone here) from Elder Crawford. As today had worn on, we realized we weren’t getting any calls even though we had it on and set on “Loud.” When I’d set up the voice mail in the morning, it had told me I was in New South Wales; and when we’d try to call someone here in Perth, it told us that we weren’t allowed to call the area. Since we were waiting for a call from Elder Crawford to tell us our flat (apartment) was ready and couldn’t return his calls that we’d seen on the phone that had come in, we headed for the mission office. It’s 3:30 by now. We tried following the street map and become confused. The street maps are collection of small area maps bound into a book of 400 pages or so for Perth and its suburbs. So we put it in the Tomtom. It took us on a while goose chase to a different part of Perth to a street with the same name as the MO, Dianella Chapel, and the temple are on. We reset the Tomtom and headed back to near where we’d come from. Once we got in the area, it took us about 20 minutes to realize that the Tomtom was taking us in a large circle around where we needed to be. So we pulled out the street maps and finally arrived at the MO.
They were glad to see us since they’d been trying to call us most of the afternoon. We were given Sister Crawford’s phone and told to follow the Crawfords to a flat where there was garage full of “flat supplies.” (The flat had been flooded in a big storm about a month ago and was being worked on.) They gave us towels, blankets, and a hair dryer. We then followed them a long ways to their flat for sheets. We were finally ready to head to our new flat. We took a leap of faith and programmed the Tomtom to take us there. It was about a 15 km drive. Elders were there waiting for us to give us the keys. We apologized for taking their flat from them. They were cute and told us they were even leaving us food in the fridge.
So, we are in a two bedroom flat with a double bed, small kitchen, living room, bathroom (of course, but the toilet has its own separate room) and a laundry room complete with washer, dryer, and ironing board. But, following elders into a flat leaves a lot to be desired. It needs a lot of cleaning (and I am not a clean-freek)! We made the bed, ate some toast (we’d received some day-old bread at the MO) with peanut butter & jam left by the elders, and fell into bed about 8 pm. We were dead tired. Tomorrow will be a busy, tiring day to get this place into shape.
What a tiring day! President & Sister Maurer had a zone conference down in Bunberry today, so they asked us to help in getting their boys where they needed to be this morning. Orson picked up Nicholas from seminary at 7 am while I worked on getting stuff into the suitcases. The president had given us his wife’s GPS to use over the weekend, but it was set so the screen was very faint and the sound was so low (perhaps our age has something to do with it?) it didn’t do him much good in the early morning. Nicholas fixed it on our way to dropping him and Liam off at school. After a flurry of busy-ness, we got them dropped off and set about our activities of the day.
First off was to find a “petrol” station. Seems like in the states there are gas stations every few blocks even on corners out in residential areas. Not here. Our gas light was on and we couldn’t find a station. We finally found a place on the Tomtom and let it lead us there. The trouble with that thing is that it’s just behind where you really are and it doesn’t tell you the name of the street we are to turn on. So typically it’s still telling us to turn a little way after we’ve passed the street. So we made a lot of “eraser marks” today. The petrol station was in the same shopping area where the License Center was, but we drove right past it because we didn’t know what we were looking for. We asked a fellow walking down the street, and he pointed us back where we’d come from. We finally found it—Woolworths. We old folks remember Woolworths as the precursor of K-mart only much smaller. Here, it’s a gas station. Go figure.
We’d decided we wanted to open a bank account, so we drove around the shopping area we were in until we saw an NAB (National Australian Bank). We went in there; the line for the tellers was huge! We got to talk to a customer relations guy and decided to keep looking. Coming out of the bank, we saw that the License Center was just across the street. We’d already heard the horror stories of how long it takes to get an Australian drivers license from President Maurer & Sister Kruger, the office secretary, who’s from England by the way. So we entered & took a number. We hadn’t even been able to turn around to take our seats when our number was called. The woman at the counter explained we needed our passports in addition to the letter of residence Sister Kruger had given us. As we started to leave, another worker there called to us. We went over, and she started out, “I don’t mean to be cheeky, but.…” She wanted to buy some US dollars from us. We agreed to sell her some. She was headed to Bali on vacation and needed them. She then asked another worker if she wanted some too. So I sat there while one ran to the bank across the street and Orson went out to find the passports. We became her best friends at that moment and that ended all the waiting we had to do. She took care of us and was familiar with the elders who came in every three weeks or so as they arrived new in the mission. Our licenses cost us $145 or so.
From the Licensing Centre, we went to the “Post” to apply for our “Working with Children” certification. They, too, needed our passports, letter of residence, and then took our pictures and $20.00 (good thing we had our Australian dollars). Then we found the ANZ (Australian New Zealand) Bank that Shelly, our friend at the Licensing Centre, had recommended. It was much nicer than the NAP we’d checked out earlier. Christopher Davidson (I know his name because we “contacted” him) set us up with a checking account and a debit card. Now we can transfer funds electronically from our account in the states.
Yesterday, we’d received a mobile phone (not “cell” phone here) from Elder Crawford. As today had worn on, we realized we weren’t getting any calls even though we had it on and set on “Loud.” When I’d set up the voice mail in the morning, it had told me I was in New South Wales; and when we’d try to call someone here in Perth, it told us that we weren’t allowed to call the area. Since we were waiting for a call from Elder Crawford to tell us our flat (apartment) was ready and couldn’t return his calls that we’d seen on the phone that had come in, we headed for the mission office. It’s 3:30 by now. We tried following the street map and become confused. The street maps are collection of small area maps bound into a book of 400 pages or so for Perth and its suburbs. So we put it in the Tomtom. It took us on a while goose chase to a different part of Perth to a street with the same name as the MO, Dianella Chapel, and the temple are on. We reset the Tomtom and headed back to near where we’d come from. Once we got in the area, it took us about 20 minutes to realize that the Tomtom was taking us in a large circle around where we needed to be. So we pulled out the street maps and finally arrived at the MO.
They were glad to see us since they’d been trying to call us most of the afternoon. We were given Sister Crawford’s phone and told to follow the Crawfords to a flat where there was garage full of “flat supplies.” (The flat had been flooded in a big storm about a month ago and was being worked on.) They gave us towels, blankets, and a hair dryer. We then followed them a long ways to their flat for sheets. We were finally ready to head to our new flat. We took a leap of faith and programmed the Tomtom to take us there. It was about a 15 km drive. Elders were there waiting for us to give us the keys. We apologized for taking their flat from them. They were cute and told us they were even leaving us food in the fridge.
So, we are in a two bedroom flat with a double bed, small kitchen, living room, bathroom (of course, but the toilet has its own separate room) and a laundry room complete with washer, dryer, and ironing board. But, following elders into a flat leaves a lot to be desired. It needs a lot of cleaning (and I am not a clean-freek)! We made the bed, ate some toast (we’d received some day-old bread at the MO) with peanut butter & jam left by the elders, and fell into bed about 8 pm. We were dead tired. Tomorrow will be a busy, tiring day to get this place into shape.
The Long Trip
April 26, 2010 Monday
THE LONG TRIP (or What Happened to Tuesday?)
It had finally arrived: Departure Day. The morning was a flurry of last minute washing, packing, stressing, fixing a yard drainage problem, etc. Melanie had taken the day off, and we enjoyed some visiting with her as we went about packing. Pat and Nancy showed up about 1:30 to help take our luggage to the airport, and we left a little after 2 pm. We made a quick stop at the credit union to settle a few things there, and then we stopped at ShopKo for another suitcase (silly us—thinking we were going to pack for 2 years in 3 suitcases). Mike came to the airport from work for a quick goodbye and to help the “old folks” in with their 4 large suitcases, 2 carry-ons and one very stuffed purse. Hugs & advice were shared with Melanie, Pat, Nancy & Mike, and we entered the next step of becoming world travelers once again.
At 3 pm in the afternoon, the airport was relatively empty, and we moved right through check-in and security. I did have to be “wanded” because my new knee & hip set off the alarms. I ended up doing this in every security thing we passed through on the trip. I just told them about the artificial parts; they didn’t ask to see the small cards the doctor’s office had sent out. We flew to San Francisco at 5:30 on a 747. The young man who checked us in gave us a side row of 3 seats and blocked the middle seat so we had some room to spread out a bit. I watched most of “Blind Side” on the way down. We had a 4-hour layover there. We asked for a wheelchair when we landed to get me over to the international side, and are we ever glad we did! The kid who pushed me did it at top speed and it was a long trip. Poor Orson who was carrying both our laptops in his backpack had to hustle to keep up. We had a nice leisurely dinner in a grill and then had time to play a few games of our version of gin rummy while waiting to take off.
We flew on Qantas to Australia. After we boarded, we received a little bag with a toothbrush & the smallest tube of toothpaste I’d ever seen. We were on another big plane but were on a side row with just two seats so I only had to climb over Orson to head to the restroom. I took an Ambien (sleeping pill) and fell asleep after dinner. I awakened hours before we landed and entertained myself watching documentaries on the little TV screen on the back of the seat in front of me. We weren’t charged for headsets like happens on some US flights. We landed in Sydney with a 90 minute layover. We don’t recommend that to anyone. Clearing customs, waiting for baggage, moving it to the check-in side for the domestic area, clearing security, riding a bus to the domestic terminal and walking to the far end of that terminal got us there as the “Final Boarding” sign was flashing for our flight.
The trip to Perth seemed long but was really only 4 hours or so. Once again, documentaries kept me entertained since I couldn’t sleep anymore. We flew a total of 21.5 hours. We landed at Perth at noon on April 28th. Where did the 27th go? Into the land of the International Date Line. We will pick up an extra day as we fly back to the US in 2012. We found our suitcases, put them on 2 “trolleys” and went to the main part of the airport. No one was there to meet us. So we stood there a few minutes and then walked outside. Same story: Nobody there. We waited there a while, then Orson went back inside, found someone who would trade him some Australian money for American dollars, and called the mission office. Sister Kruger answered and was dumbfounded that we had come. She had received no information on when we were coming from church travel. The Mission President and AP’s were in a zone conference so she and Sister Hill came over to pick us up. We went to the Mission Office (by now it was 1:30) and waited until someone would be at the Mission Home so we could go there. The Maurer’s have a member who picks up their son after school when they can’t. Sister Kruger took us over around 3 pm. Leah wasn’t there yet but showed up in 20 minutes or so with Liam who is 11. (Did you know that name came from a nickname for “William?)
We were shown to the guest room and told to rest, shower, unpack, or whatever we wanted to do. The Maurer’s came around 5:30. Leah had started dinner, so Sister Maurer finished it, and we sat down to dinner. The president was picking up Nicholas from his guitar lesson, but Liam was starving so we started without them. The Maurers (pronounced Mora in Australian) are a great couple. They have 2 married daughters and brought their 3 young sons with. The oldest, Jayden, is in a technical school studying construction. They were both soooooo embarrassed because they had never left anyone standing at the airport in their entire mission. (The next day Sister Kruger told us she’d e-mailed church travel about it. The woman there said she’d somehow skipped sending out our arrival information.) Dinner was like a taco salad with apple “pie” and ice cream for dessert. We talked for a while and then went to bed around 7:30 or so. I woke up at 3:30, read for a while, lay in bed a while & then it was time to get up.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
NOT WORKING
Sorry, but the blog is going to be just too much work with in addition to writing in the journal. I can't make the blog accept my copy and paste from word. So I will just be e-mailing some of the stuff I've written in my journal. If you'd like to be on that list, e-mail me at mhporter79@yahoo.com and I'll add you to the list.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
FIRST FEW DAYS DOWN UNDER
Blimey!!! I just tried to copy and paste some word documents on here and it didn't work. I'll have to try something else. Sorry about that!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
WE MADE IT!
We've been here five days and are settling in. I've written a couple of long entries for this, but can't post them until we get a land line into our apartment. We are in a tremendous ward and have been asked to work with the inactives. Everyone here is so great. Being on a mission is good--getting over all the jet lag will be better.
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