OPPOSITES

JUNE 15, 2010 THURSDAY

While we were still in Jandakot after we’d told people we were moving to Broome, Angela Margraf gave us 2 people to look up after we got up here. Today we did it.
First were the Shirleys, Camalee and Chey. They own an optical shop up here and have 3 children. Angela told us that they were children of a good friend of hers in Canberra. She said they were inactive. They weren’t on the ward list, so that let us know that they were “hiding” from the church up here. It’s very easy to do when you aren’t in one of the population centers like, Utah or Idaho. So we dropped by their shop today. Chey, (pronounced Shay), greeted us as if he had no clue who we were even though our dress and name tags are a dead giveaway. We told him that Angela had told us about them, and he acknowledged that he knew who she was. We chatted a bit about how long they’d been in Broome, how many kids, where they’d been before Broome, etc. Finally, I just flat out asked him if he was a member. His wife, Camalee, had come to the front of the shop by then but was also playing innocent. He admitted that he was. Orson asked him something that made him admit he’d even served a mission, but that their falling away had been “somewhat of a journey.” He wouldn’t explain that. Most of his family is active in the church, and he gets encouragement from his mum to return. He pretty much told us that we would be wasting our time with them. Something came up about Orson’s earlier mission, and it turned out that Camalee’s mum had served in the same mission at the same time as Orson. He couldn’t remember her, Sister Fielding. When we left, we left it that we wouldn’t “bother” them, but that we would drop by once in a while just to make sure that they were okay. They agreed to that. I mentioned that we were starting a Family Home Evening next week, but he declined to bring his kids. I kind of think the whole inactivity thing is more his idea than hers.
The other person Angela knows is Julia Eastland. She’s an older sister who lived in the Jandakot Ward. She moved up here 8 months ago because her daughter was having problems with depression, and she wanted to help her. She, too, wasn’t on the ward roster or in the phone book. We called Angela who got Julia’s phone # for us. Orson called her tonight, and she was thrilled to hear from someone in the church up here. There is really nothing publicity wise that would make it easy for someone to find the church up here. The phone for our house is listed under the church in one phone book but not in the other. There’s a list of Christian churches at the Visitor Information Center, but, of course, our church isn’t included in that. We are planning to make our own little flyer and see if we can post it in a few places around town. Anyway, Julia talked for a long time. She lives with her daughter and her daughter’s “partner,” which is a nice way of saying her “live-in” boyfriend. Julia doesn’t want to be a bother to anyone so she hasn’t tried to get them to help her find the church. Other than a triangular cardboard sign we put on the corner where you turn in to church on Sunday, there isn’t any way she could have found it without directions; and she’d have had to drive by during the 2 hours that is out to have seen it. She’s planning to come to church on Sunday.
We also delivered some more bread that we picked up yesterday to some more members, then we drove down to Cable Beach and gave some to folks who looked like they were traveling through. We met some interesting folks who were very appreciative of the bread.
I got on the branch computer to try to get the visiting teaching and RS records tonight. Obviously, no one has used it that knew how to do much on the MLS program. There is one visiting teaching district with 14 sisters on it with two different sisters listed as visiting teachers. One sister had 4 to visit and the other had 10. There are twenty RS sisters in the ward, and 4 YW. Four of the RS sisters live in Derby which is a town about 2 hours away. Another lives in a town about 8 hours away—we may not visit her. Orson and I will visit the ones in Derby. I’ll talk to Karen and Renee about their visiting teaching assignments and see what gives. I know the president (me, now) is partner to both of them. We’ll see how it goes.