SOME MORE PHOTOS

Jacob 5 ;o)
BMBB=Busy Missionary & Beautiful bush
Broken sea shells and broken old missionary on 80 Mile Beach.
Roebuck Bay from the patio of the Mangrove Hotel.
Orson says they used to call these "Christmas Trees" on his first mission because they bloomed around Christmas in South Australia. They are some kind of locust tree.
Closer
Closest!

SAMANTHA

November 16-18, 2010 Tuesday-Thursday

Tuesday morning, while we were out someone left a message on our home answering machine. But we couldn’t understand what the person (couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman for sure) was saying. “It” left a phone number, but we couldn’t understand the first 4 numbers. Raphy (I found out I’ve been spelling his name wrong in previous writings) stopped by and we asked him to listen. He couldn’t tell who it was either.
After scripture class with Raphy and Dale that night the phone rang. I answered and a voice said very clearly, “Sister Porter, I called you earlier today.” I couldn’t recognize the voice so I asked who it was and she said she was Samantha. (Background: Samantha is an inactive aboriginal woman about 40 who has 4 children. All but one are grown and have kids of their own. We didn’t even meet her for a long time. Whenever we went to her house, her kids would say she was sleeping or not home although it was evident that she was there and telling them what to say. We finally met her when she was sitting out on her front porch smoking and talking on the phone. The small table she was sitting by had numerous alcohol cans and bottles. She seemed okay, but after that, we never knew if we would be greeted nicely or not. I think it depended on the amount of alcohol she’d had. She finally told us that she was moving to a new house because her neighbors were “racists” and complained about the noise when “her people” got together. She wouldn’t give us her address. I wrote about her a couple of weeks ago when she called to say she didn’t have any food and asked if we would bring her some bread when we did the “bread run.” We’d quit stopping there because she hadn’t acted like she even wanted any.)
So I apologized for not returning her call and explained why I hadn’t called back. She said she had been so upset in the morning and was going to “hurt herself” when she called because she wanted to talk to someone. Evidently, back in 2004 and 2005 she had been really good friends with the wives of the senior missionaries who were here. I offered to go over to see her and she said she was better because several friends had showed up but she wanted to see us Wednesday night after the bread run.
Last night we went over and sat on her back patio while she explained what a mess she’d made of her life over the past 5 years. She’d had an ectopic pregnancy in 2005 and started drinking and smoking after that. She’s gained a lot of weight, lost her driver’s license for 10 years, lost the respect of her children, hasn’t held down a job, stays in her house and feels like a failure. She told us she realizes what a mess she’s made and wants to change. We talked to her about needing to start doing things for others and praying. The day she’d been so down, she’d also had 3 phone calls from places where she’d put in job applications. We told her she needed to be the best employee she could be and do more than was asked. Evidently, before she’d started drinking, she’d been respected in the community and was active talking to women about spousal abuse, something she’d overcome. She asked us to be her mentors through all this and asked for a blessing from Orson. The blessing was incredible but laid it on the line that it was ALL up to her to make the changes. She was encouraged to pray, read the scriptures and serve others. You could tell the blessing made a big difference to her. We told her to get a paper and write down everything she could remember about it and that we’d be back today. I really had mixed feelings going into that meeting, but I left humbled by the love I felt for her after listening to her.
So we went back to see her this morning with 3 old Ensigns (she’d asked if we had some), a Book of Mormon (she hadn’t found hers since she moved), the steps of prayer, a card with Mosiah 2:17 written on it and a couple of other things. She told us a lady had been over earlier in the morning to get her registered for a course to become a Physician’s Assistant. She’d been in it when she had her ectopic pregnancy and then dropped out. It’s a special program offered to aborigines and only takes 18 months. It will be perfect for her to do; it doesn’t start until February. We assured her we would be in contact with her every day. She brought out the notebook where she’d written stuff about the blessing. Then she’d written a page about a bad choice she’d made later last night. She’d called her sister and asked her to take her to buy some cigarettes. The sister then stopped at someone’s house where a bunch of people were along with alcohol. She was given a drink, took 2 sips and then put it down and asked for water. (Hurray!) Her daughter was also there and Samantha heard her make a snide remark. She walked outside and waited until her sister came out and asked to be taken home. She was totally focusing on the bad decision she’d made. We helped her to see the good ones like not finishing her drink and then leaving rather than stay in the hostile environment. We talked about a lot of stuff and encouraged her to come to church Sunday. She felt she was too bad to come. We told her that “Church isn’t a rest home for Saints, but a hospital for sinners.” She’d never thought of it that way before. We assured her she could call us any time for help in avoiding temptations. Who knew we would be counseling too?
I love the YW! Three came tonight. In the opening prayer, Carolyn asked that we’d do a lot of Personal Progress. And we did. They were very content to work on it the whole time. We had promised them a game of Chickenfoot, so we played one game before we took them home. They are good girls; they just need someone to encourage along the way because they don’t get it at home or school. We were talking about qualities it takes to be a good mother. One asked, “Do you have to be married?” That led to some frank comments about the necessity of marriage and the goal of a temple marriage!

ANOTHER FAMILY!!!

November 14, 2010 Sunday

Today in church, both Brigham & Gaelene Dennison spoke. They grew up in New Zealand in large Polynesian families. They both spoke about the dedication of their parents in making sure that they attended church every Sunday. Brigham served a mission in New Zealand. After they married, they moved to Australia so they’ve lived here longer than they lived in New Zealand. He was working in Perth and was “deployed” north on an assignment. When he discovered how warm and beautiful it is up here, he decided the north is where he wanted to work. He enjoys working with and in the Aboriginal communities. They lived in Turkey Creek and loved it, but were then transferred to Port Hedland. He will soon be transferred back to Turkey Creek. She’s been back in Turkey Creek for 6 months while he’s been finishing up his work in Port Hedland. Since she is the only member of the church in Turkey Creek (a 10 hour drive from here, but in our branch) she said church has been reading the sacrament prayers, studying the scriptures, listening and singing along to the children’s songs and the hymns. They are just simply good people, the kind you want to spend time with. We enjoyed our “Ice Cream Sunday” afterward and visited some more with them. The Dennison’s make the total number of complete (meaning husband and wife), active member families in the branch now two—them and the Robinsons. (We don’t count.)

WALK AROUND BROOME

Two old pearl luggers. Actually, a pearl lugger is the name of the old sailing boats used in the early history of Broome to collect the Pinctada oysters.
Mural by the Roebuck Hotel
First hotel in Broome-The Roebuck
November 13, 2010 Saturday

This morning we met some of the branch members at 7 am at the town Visitors’ Centre for a “Walk Around Historic Broome.” It was early so we could enjoy it before it got very hot. Karen and Kevin Wylde organized it. We had a map and a page with directions and some “Fill in the Blank” questions that we answered as we walked. It was fun and the kids had a ball running way ahead because there was no one on the streets that early. Kevin is quite the history “buff” and provided lots of details about little known things of Broome. I took a couple of shortcuts since I’m not the best walker in the world anymore. We all ended up at McDonalds for breakfast. I had a “Brekkie Tomato McMuffin” that was really good. It was McHappy Day today. A certain percentage of the profits went to the Ronald McDonald House Foundation.
Tonight President Robinson brought pizzas over and we watched the priesthood session of conference. It was really powerful. Simone came and also Brigham Dennison, a new branch member who is moving into a small town on the other side of our proselyting area (10 hours away). He’s in his late 40’s and is from New Zealand. He’s a cop. They lived at Turkey Creek a few years ago then moved to Port Hedland. They really missed Turkey Creek so she moved back about 6 months ago and runs the Shire (county) office. He just recently got a job in a nearby town, so they are finally getting back together. They have a married son who is living up there also. It’s a town of about 500 people. We aren’t too sure that we will ever get up there even though it would be fun to see that area.

CLOSE THE WINDOWS!

November 12, 2010 Friday

Tonight we dropped by Brother Davis’ house. He’s a part aborigine who is a doctor. He’s also an RM but married to a non-member Indonesian lady. We’ve been wanting to meet her but haven’t ever been able to connect. She’s not really happy to hang out with Mormons. Anyway, we drove by and his car was there, so we stopped. He was alone. She’d taken the kids over to visit a friend. He was making spaghetti sauce. In my entire life, I’ve never seen so many garlic cloves put in anything! We had a good chat with him. He didn’t do much in his early schooling so when he decided he wanted to be a doctor he couldn’t get into a medical school. So he became a nurse and then was accepted into med school. This country wants aborigine professionals so badly, he probably had his entire schooling paid for. He still has to sit for three tests before he’s a full-fledged doctor, but he’s been working for 5 years. Kind of interesting.
Then we stopped to see Karen Arkeveld, an inactive single 40 year old. (She has 2 kids.) Her house had been broken into a couple of nights ago. She’d just returned from a visit to an orphanage in Thailand that she helps out. The thieves took her purse which had her money, passport, camera with photos, computer and since they had her car keys, they took her car too! She has a dog that sleeps with her who didn’t wake up either since the AC in the bedroom was on which dulled any noise she might have heard. There’s a Thai family staying with her, and none of them woke up either. They lost passports and money also. However, she did admit that she had left a window open because of the “lovely breeze” that was blowing Wednesday evening. (Our house has locks with keys on every window.) We only open sliding doors when we want fresh air.

Random Photos

Under the rainbow at Cable Beach
Map of our area--a 12 hour drive from one end to the other.
By Cable Beach, waiting for the sunset

CATHOLICS, ODD GARBAGE, AND YW

November 11, 2010 Thursday

Orson was tracting today and knocked on a door where the man greeted him and said they were Catholic missionaries. They invited us in. What a neat family! They have 8 children and she’s expecting another. The oldest looked to be 16 or so. There was play-doh on the kitchen table and a rolling pin the 3 year old was playing with. The 12 year old daughter was busy making cupcakes for her younger brother to take to school tomorrow for his birthday. The 15 year old son was on the computer. They were great to visit with and they even gave us ice water. The temperature was 95 this morning at 10 am and is still there at 4 pm. The house gets up to 88 or so when we leave and turn the AC off.
Anyway, the man had been on the “wild side” until he had a spiritual experience that brought him to the Catholic Church. She, too, had been spiritually converted and they wanted to “pay back” the Lord so they offered themselves as missionaries to their parish in Melbourne where they were living. They were sent to Broome 18 months ago. He is the “Father” at the Notre Dame University campus here in Broome and that pays for their expenses. They are basically here to be a good example to the many Catholics here in Broome and to help out where they can. Orson explained a tiny bit about the restoration to him while his wife and I compared “large family” stories. It was great.
We live on a corner. The owner planted bushes all around the outside perimeter of the house because it’s on the way to the Mini-Mart IGA down the street. There is a constant stream of people walking by. Without the bushes, they’d be cutting the corner through the yard making a new path. So instead of cutting through the yard, they just throw the wrappers, cans, bottles, bags, fry containers, etc., into the bushes on their way home. It gets pretty trashy looking so once a month or so, I take a bag and clean it up. About a week ago just after I’d cleaned up, I noticed what looked like a couple of white bags in the bushes. I finally went out today to get them and throw them away and guess what? They weren’t bags—they were a couple of pieces of my underwear! We don’t have a dryer so we hang all our clothes out to dry. Our clothes line is visible down our driveway from the street. I guess somebody was curious about what I’d hung out. Crazy people! I was glad to get them back anyway.

CHURCH HISTORY

November 10, 2010 Wednesday

I’ve been reading the Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt. I recommend it to anyone to read. Anyway, tonight I was reading about the mission the 12 apostles made to England around 1841. They held a conference in Manchester on April 6 and conducted a lot of business including the calling of presidents of several small conferences (branches?) within their Manchester Conference. The last of the presidents called was William Kay for the Froome Hill Conference.
That name rang a bell—my paternal great grandmother came from England, and I have several ordination certificates and “member in good standing” certificates of that family from when they immigrated to Utah. So I opened up my family history program and there he was, my great-great-great grandfather, William Kay, born in Preston, England in 1778 and died in Ogden, Utah in 1848. I wasn’t aware that he’d been a conference president. My grandmother had written short life histories of her parents and grandparents, but there wasn’t anything about the next generation. See the blessings that come from reading church history books?

J-DUBS, BIKINIS & BEER

November 9, 2010 Tuesday

This morning as we walked out of Bran Nue Dae, the care center, we heard a voice say, “Hello, there!” Turning around, we saw Tony standing there. We had talked to him over the weekend and mentioned that Tuesday morning we would be there until 11:00 am. Tony’s sister works in the kitchen there, and he stops there occasionally to grab a bite. As we asked how he was, he began to squirm a little and then began to talk about the reason he hadn’t been to church over the years is because he felt his relationship with Christ is personal and in his heart. When we asked how his reading was coming, he said he’d been reading Psalms and Proverbs (not the BoM). Orson had felt there had been a change in him lately. We must have talked to him for an hour or so about how Satan would try to get him to wander away from what he’d been doing with the church. We told him he would be tried and that if he would just hang in there during this period that things would improve. We ended with Orson and him giving each other a huge hug and both of them in tears. We sure hope he continues with us. Pray for him, Tony Connelly.
This afternoon we went to visit Ally, the J-dub we’d talked to about a month ago. She had a lot of questions about what we believed. We had hoped to teach her and her husband, but he’s not interested at all. So we went back and asked her to explain the big “hang-up” they have about the name “Jehovah.” We were having a great conversation with her when her friend, another J-dub dropped in. She was very friendly too and commented that some of the younger witnesses had told her about running into us. They said they changed areas and found out we’d been there ahead of them too :o)
Anyway, we didn’t get back into the doctrinal conversation but she told us to drop by next week and we’d talk some more. She gave us a Watchtower with an article about the name, “Jehovah.” Also, she’d printed off 3 articles that had been published in past Watchtowers about Mormonism. She asked us to read them and see if we agree with what was printed. I read through the shortest one and it was pretty accurate.
We then taught a quick 1st lesson to Fay, a young married (we hope) who is 6 months pregnant. She told us that she let us in because we seemed like such nice people. How about that! She feels like she doesn’t have time to read much right now. She’s contented with thinking that there are a lot of different ways to God. We will try her again after her baby is born and see if she wants to talk. (Whatever happened to “strait is the gate and narrow is the way” that Christ preached?)
Orson hit a few houses tracting and then motioned for me to come with him. He’d come on a house where there were 4 young adults out on the patio and in the pool. They invited us in to talk. Both girls were in bikinis and in the pool. The two guys were sitting at the table which was covered with liquor bottles and cans. One of the guys was smoking. They invited us to sit down at the table with them. The girls got out and came over to visit with us. What a picture that would have made! They proceeded to ask us all kinds of questions about us, our mission, our life and what we hoped to accomplish by going around knocking on doors. Then one of the girls starting asking if we thought she was a bad person because she was doing all these bad things. She said she would probably change as she got older. The other one got into a big thing about abortion and then started onto how many girls get pregnant and raise their babies on their own and it’s “no big deal” now. We finally gave them a couple of pass-along cards and invited them to check out the church on the internet. It was a riot! We laughed a lot as we drove away.

80 MILE BEACH

Caravan park at 80 Mile Beach
Looking north on 80 Mile Beach
Looking south on 80 Mile Beach
November 6, 2010 Saturday

The trip back to Broome was uneventful except that we took the time to drive the dirt road that pointed to “80 Mile Beach.” As we drove down the road, there was a section on both sides of the road where every tree (they were the relatively small “bush” trees) had been uprooted. It looked like someone was planning to build there and had gone through with a bulldozer to take down all the vegetation. Then we remembered we had heard that last year a category 5 cyclone had hit 80 mile beach and just “camped” over it for two or three days. The palm trees down the road were in good shape.
At the end of the road was a pretty little RV/campers park and big tall sand dunes. We walked thru the gap in the dunes and were just amazed at the beautiful sight. The sky was cloudless so the ocean was at its best blue. The white beach stretched as far as we could see on both sides of us. The biggest surprise came as we looked down. Instead of sand, the beach was covered with sea shells, broken sea shells, and more sea shells! It was just amazing! Of course you can’t walk on a beach and not pick up sea shells, so we have a bunch on our counter. The hard part is figuring out how to send them home to the grandkids without breaking. Every grandchild should be thrilled with a sea shell from the Indian Ocean, right?
We talked to an old guy who was sitting in the life guards’ tent. He lives in the trailer park and has a quad runner he uses to run up and down the beach. He said if you walked up or down the beach 15 kilometers you’d be able to find big sea shells like you see in peoples’ gardens around Broome. There aren’t any by the park because all the tourists get them. It was fun to talk to him. He said he’d lived all over the world and 80 Mile Beach was the best place to live. His skin gave evidence of where he lives—he was a beautiful shade of brown although he is Caucasian.

DISTRICT CONFERENCE

"And Joseph shall be a fruitful vine spilling over the wall."
November 5, 2010 Friday

What a good day! We picked up the Cahoons at the airport this morning. I went into the airport while Orson stayed with the car. The parking lot is closed for reworking so someone had to stay at the car on the strip immediately in front of the airport. They were some of the last ones off; all the passengers were men, many in their work clothes, except for Sister Cahoon and one other lady. This is certainly a mining town. We learned today that there are several big natural gas platforms off the coast here and lots of the shift workers are lifted out there by the many helicopters here at the airport.
We met the elders here and from Port Hedland; they are all new since the last conference three months ago. The two here in Karratha are from Tonga and the Portland Elders are Elder Richards, the DL from New Zealand, and Elder Rodrigues from Spain. I love his accent. He really speaks English very well after being here for 14 months.
President Cahoon talked about why it’s important that we get people to come to church. It’s amazing. We read from D&C 59 where it begins, “and to keep yourselves unspotted from the world…” all the way through verse 21. There are some awesome promises in there that I really hadn’t paid attention to besides “keeping ourselves unspotted from the world.” We then had training on committing people to come to church. The new Preach My Gospel DVD’s are very good in showing exactly how to do that. For those who aren’t familiar with the PMG DVD’s, the church actually filmed a district (of carefully selected missionaries, I’m sure) actually teaching real investigators. These have been used since PMG came out. They have now produced new ones after general authorities interviewed missionaries and new converts around the world to find out how effective the missionaries’ teaching has been. They are teaching these improved teaching methods in all missions right now, and the MTC’s will begin training this way beginning in January of next year. We then spent an hour modeling (practicing) what we just learned on each other. We worked in 2 groups of 4 missionaries, and the Cahoons listened in, made suggestions and we “modeled” again. It was very cool and a good way to learn.
Lunch was provided by the RS president and a counselor in the Primary who is the wife of the branch president, President Pilkington. She brought her two little boys with her—one is 14 months and almost ready to walk, Tyler, and Mikey is a very cute 3 year old. He wears glasses and has done since he was 10 months old. We had met the RS president’s daughter, Cassie, at breakfast. She cleared our dishes and made a comment that made us ask if she were LDS. Her reply was, “Last I heard, my mother was the RS president.” We asked her what she did and she replied that her life “had taken a different path.” We offered to help get her back on the right path but she didn’t take us up on the offer. Her mother was quite shocked when I asked her after lunch if she was Cassie’s mother. I then explained we’d met her at breakfast and her comment was, “Let’s see if she waits on you tomorrow morning.”
In the afternoon we did another PMG session on how to get a lesson started. President Cahoon said that Elder Packer told the mission presidents that one night he woke up in the middle of the night and received the section in PMG on getting a discussion started word for word as it is printed in PMG. Wow! We again watched a DVD from The District 2 and then modeled it. President Cahoon gave me a temple recommend interview during the modeling. It was amazing how strong the spirit was during that interview.
We then waited for him to finish missionary interviews and then took them to the Pilkington’s house because the branch president needed to talk to President Cahoon. It was so fun for the rest of us to just sit and visit with Sister Pilkington and to watch Mikey build a train track. She is so delighted to be a full time mom, and it was very evident from watching Mikey that she has given him everything that he needs to be just a cute little boy. Also, Tyler finally let me hold him for a few minutes which really topped off the day. We dropped the Cahoons at the airport, ate dinner and returned to the hotel after a very fulfilling day. It was well worth all the driving to get here. (We just have to remember that tomorrow on the drive back to Broome.)

KARRATHA

Whalebone chair in prison museum
Roadside near Karratha
Old Prisoner
Inside prison--notice rings low on the wall. Prisoners' chains were hooked to them.
Extra "Wide Load"
We shortened the drive a bit ;o)
November 4, 2010 Thursday
That’s where we are tonight. Tomorrow is district conference. We drove south and then west to get here. The city is located on a beautiful bay and looks like it’s larger than Broome. It’s a mining town and there’s a port not too far away from here. It has a good sized shopping center with 2 grocery stores, Target, K-mart and a big selection of other stores in it. It was a 9 or 9 ½ hour drive. We left at 6:30 this morning and had a nice drive down. As we drove, the road-kill got bigger. There are kangaroos here, not just the small wallabies that we have up north. There were billboards with a picture of a kangaroo that said, “Killer roos are waiting are waiting for you! Buckle up!”
We are in a Best Western hotel—and you thought “Western” referred to the US’s West, but perhaps it started here in Western Australia. Our dinners and breakfasts are included. They don’t have a dining room here, but there are 3 different places in town where we can eat: two are restaurants and one is another hotel with a dining room. Because there are so many men who work here 3 weeks on and 2 weeks off and then fly back to Perth on their off weeks, providing food is a big part of the hotel industry here just like in Port Hedland. We drove around until we spotted the steeple of our chapel so we know where to go tomorrow and then found the airport. We are picking up President and Sister Cahoon at the airport in the morning and then getting them back there later for a 6:30 flight back to Perth. Tomorrow should be a good day. There is an improved way of teaching that is being presented. We are excited to learn about it.

HUNGRY PEOPLE

November 3, 2010 Wednesday


November 3, 2010 Wednesday
Yesterday afternoon just before we left the house, an inactive member, Samantha Reynolds, called to say she didn’t have any food and that her son was coming to stay with her for a week or two. I told her we didn’t have anything to do with that and she should call President Robinson. She’d moved a couple of months ago and hadn’t given us her address. She knew we did the bread run, so she was willing now to give it to us.
This morning while we were waiting to get our car back, Raffy called to tell us to call President Robinson and tell him he didn’t have any food. So I called President Robinson. He said for us to buy them each about $50 worth of food even though Samantha hadn’t called him. So today during the bread run we asked Raffy what he needed: rice, meat, cereal, eggs, a pumpkin, milk. When we took bread to Samantha, she was very grateful for the bread but said she was doing okay because her sister was wiring her some money and her daughter had brought over a chicken. She’d been too embarrassed to call President Robinson. So we didn’t buy food for her, but we did buy for Raffy. When we got to his house, nobody was home even though we’d told him we’d be back with food. We brought it home. President Robinson will stop by to pick it up and take it to Raffy tomorrow.
We also did Bran Nue Dae this afternoon instead of yesterday since we’d had a lesson scheduled (which fell through). So we took some cards thinking we’d try that instead of word games which the aborigine folks didn’t know the meaning of. We gathered about 6 together and most of them said they wanted to do the word games anyway. Go figure! So all we had was the same crossword puzzle we’d worked on for 2 weeks. It wasn’t too bad; we’re beginning to remember some of the answers! When we finished, one lady asked if we were going to do the cards now. So we will bring them back next week and one of us will play cards with Ida. The guy who helped us today, Bruce, even said they have card holders so it’s easier for them to hold the cards. We’d worried about that because a couple of the ladies have had strokes.

CARLESS

Shots from Mangrove Hotel in Broome which overlooks Roebuck Bay


November 2, 2010 Tuesday

The battery died this afternoon. We were tracting a little way from our house. Orson finished a long cul-de-sac and got back into the car. I tried to start the car and it wasn’t happy. We’ve been doing a lot of tracting close by home lately with lots of starts and stops. Also, we have the AC on all the time. I guess the poor battery thought it was being picked on and decided to go on strike. So we called Simon, one of our good aboriginal members. He has an old truck so we figured he might have some jumper cables. He didn’t, but he found someone who did and showed up in about 20 minutes. We went to Broome Toyota where they told us they needed to keep the car overnight to charge it. We cancelled scripture study tonight since we pick up 2 of the 3 folks who generally come.

J-DUBS

November 1, 2010 Monday

This morning while tracting, we pulled around a corner and stopped just across from a house where a couple of young men were standing on the porch talking. Orson got out to go to a house on our side of the road, and I noticed these two guys leave the porch and walk around the opposite corner into a cul-de-sac. I commented to Orson when he came back that I thought they might be Jehovah Witnesses. One of them had a bag slung over his shoulder and the other had a small pouch in his hand. We went on down the street and saw a couple of young women in dresses walking toward us from a cul-de-sac. At some point, Orson and the girls came face to face so he stopped them and, sure enough, they were J-Dubs. So he asked them why they were so “hung up” on the name Jehovah when Christ address the “most high God” as “Father.” Their explanation was that Christ is so familiar with God (Jehovah in their minds) that he could call him “father.” Anyway, being the good missionary that he is, he proceeded to tell them about the Council in Carthage in 397 AD when a bunch of “church” leaders got together and proceeded to decide which of all the books of ancient writings should be put together into a bible. They had no clue about that. This led to telling them that John’s statement in Revelation wasn’t meant to say there must be no more scripture. Then he read to them 1 Nephi 29 which tells them that God is the God of the whole world and he can talk to any of His people anytime He wants and it can be recorded and considered scripture. The young men had come back at this point and joined the conversation (lesson). And I looked for our camera because I wanted to record this historic moment—it was in the house, drat it! How often does a Mormon missionary get to preach to Jehovah Witnesses? They must have talked for 40 minutes or so. We sure would like to go to their Wednesday night “missionary” meeting and hear what is reported ;0)
Tonight we went back to Jhun and Evangeline’s ready to teach the plan of salvation. We had gone there last Monday but not been able to really teach anything because Jhun was so wound up and had to expound his beliefs that he’s gleaned from the Bible. Many are right, but there are also many where he’s taken a left turn on something and needs to be turned around. So the last couple of visits have consisted of him giving us his “take” on various Gospel issues and us reading scriptures to him from modern revelation to straighten him out. It’s become evident that he’s not really reading and praying about the Book of Mormon even though he accepts the Joseph Smith story as being plausible. So we started of with the pre-mortal life. He asked some questions about it that brought up the plan that Jesus Christ would come to earth to atone for the sins of all mankind. Then he said, “I cannot accept that Jesus had to die on the cross. He could have done so much more to help all mankind if He had lived and was able to teach people for a long time.” It was all downhill from there. We tried to read 2 Nephi Chapter 2 with him, but then he didn’t like the explanation of the Fall in the Garden of Eden. It didn’t jive with his. Then he complained that we weren’t giving him definite answers and details on everything (but he wasn’t giving us time because he kept interrupting). Finally, he gathered up the Books of Mormon and pamphlets and very politely thanked us for our time and said he hoped we could continue as friends but that we would not discuss religion anymore with him. It’s so sad—he had the dream that was clearly linked to the restoration and a second book of scriptures; but he’s become a law unto himself and is not willing to consider that ALL of what he has figured out from the Bible is not accurate. It just kind of shows you why there are so many “Christian” churches out there. We just hope that someday he will come back to studying Mormonism with an open mind to modern revelation.

HALLOWEEN IN BROOME

Member girls and little brothers

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

October 31, 2010 Sunday

And they do celebrate it here, but not nearly like the crazy masses in the US. We only saw a couple of stores that had costumes or decorations. They were the shops similar to dollar stores in the states. The Halloween stuff only appeared 2 weeks ago. Nobody decorates their house. It’s 7:20 and we’ve only had 3 groups of kids. Actually, a single kid came who comes to FHE. He was heading out to find his friends. Then the Shires kids came with their friend Jessi. She had put black liquid eyeliner across her dogs back and said he was a “Tasmanian Tiger.” And one other small bunch of teenagers and that’s it so far. We are handing out popsicles (after all it was 100 degrees in the shade today). Actually they are like Otter Pops in the states. All the kids need to do is take them home, pop them in the freezer, and enjoy. However, Michael Shires did drink his “punch” while they were here. Then they all asked for drinks before they left. Quite a change from the cold trick-or-treating the kids do in the states.
I gave a talk today in Sacrament meeting today and Orson taught the Sunday School lesson. President Robinson brought a map over today he’d gotten from the Map Department of the church. It is of our branch’s area which makes it our proselyting area. For us to drive in a straight line from one end of it to the other would take about 15 hours. He told us that an LDS family has moved into the furthermost city of our area. They used to live in Broome, moved away, and have now returned to the northwest. He wants us to visit them. They are a very sharp family and are the only Mormons there as far as we know.

SLOW WEEK

October 28, 2010 Thursday


A couple of days ago in the late afternoon, we ran into Clive. He is just a very friendly guy who loves to talk to folks. He’s in his late 50’s and teaches school down in South Australia. He now works in a program where they take boys out into the bush for a month long campout to teach them “how to be men.” He and his wife live up here because she has a job up here working with different aboriginal communities. He was very admiring of the US and hopes to visit Utah someday because he also paints scenery. He loves history and is very well read in it. He’s an atheist and just goes by what he can study and see. It was an interesting conversation, and then we got to politics. He described the difference between Australia and the US: we were founded on the idea of the liberty of the individual and everything over here is judged by how it meets the “greater good.” He finally called it socialism and then eventually admitted that it is very close to communism. He thinks of medical care as a “right” and that the rich should give a who lot of their money back to the community or government. He even gave us a cold drink of mineral water! (Yech!)
We went to the care center on Wednesday this week because they had someone coming to sing on Tuesday. Alas, Janet, the great activity director was on holiday. Nothing was organized. The guy taking her place didn’t know what we usually did. So we found the puzzles, while he and another gal went to get the patients. We started with a word search this time. Other than Henning, the fellow from Denmark, the others were all aboriginals. A couple had had strokes, so they couldn’t even draw the lines! Orson, Bruce, and I ended up doing all the work. We think we are going to take some cards and see if we can play cards with them. The aboriginal people just don’t have the same basis for vocabulary games.
Tonight we had Young Women. Just Tammy and Dale came. They made thank you notes for the people who were so good to them at Youth Conference in Perth. I made Peanut Butter Chews while they did that. BUT, they don’t have corn syrup here. So I used honey. The mixture ended up being dry and crumbly so I added some water—too much. So then I mixed in some more powdered sugar and powered milk. I finally just dumped it on a tray and put it in the fridge. (You are supposed to roll the mixture into bite-sized balls.) It tasted okay, but I learned that honey and Karo syrup on not interchangeable.

NET BALL, MOZZIES, & BAGS

October 23, 2010 Saturday

Earlier this week we had invited Tony to bring his family to our place on Friday night for tacos. He thought it was a great idea, but said his daughter (from an earlier partner) was playing net ball, and he was going to coach the team at 6 pm. We told him we’d come and then we could all eat dinner at our house afterwards.
He called yesterday about an hour before the game to tell us that Claudia didn’t want to come for dinner. We’d already cooked the meat and bought a gallon of ice cream. Oh well, we can always use the meat and Orson was excited he didn’t have to share the ice cream after all ;o) So we went to watch the game anyway. Net ball turned out to be basketball. There was another inactive member of the church coaching his daughter’s team in the earlier game. Claudia was pretty cold—I think she’s worried that Tony is spending too much time with us. Perhaps she’s jealous. So I didn’t get to hold the baby :o( But their little boy, Manahki, who will be 3 in December, sure was cute. The basketball courts, 4 of them, are outside. And the mosquitoes, “mozzies,” were hungry. Everybody was spraying themselves with repellent. Luckily we had done that before we left the house since we’d seen a few while out tracting the last couple of days. The girls were 12 & 13 and really played well although they weren’t as aggressive as our granddaughters’ teams are. It was fun to watch.
Today, Karen Wylde came over with her sewing machine and a whole bunch of fabric scraps. The two Rollason girls, Tammy and Dale, came and they made scripture bags. It was fun and the bags turned out really cute. They did a good job on them with a little coaching from Karen and me.

STUFF

October 24, 2010 Sunday

Just a few of notes. Today in church President Robinson asked that we all fast and pray for two active families to move to Broome. He said that he is sure the reason he and his family ended up here is because Elder Fox, a senior missionary who was also the branch president, prayed them here.
Also, my computer crashed last night. I got the “blue screen of death” 3 times when I tried to boot it up. So after church today, my honey and favorite IT guy worked it over and now it works again without any of the problems it had even after Justin, the real IT guy in the branch, had worked on it. My keyboard was even restored! I’m not using that other thing we bought on top of my laptop. It is sooooooo nice.
Another thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned is the alphabet here. It’s the same as in the US; however, “H” is pronounced “haytch” and “Z” is pronounced “zed.”
The other day when we taught the Filipino family, they gave us two packages of frozen “pearl meat.” He works at one of the pearl farms and he said one of the ship’s captains had given it to them. Evangeline said she didn’t know how to cook it, so they were giving it to us. Tonight I called a couple of folks in the branch and ended up talking to Simon, an aboriginal member. He says pearl meat is “really fine” and I can cook it just like any other fish. It’s oyster meat taken from the oysters that aren’t making good pearls anymore, I guess. He said he’d been in one of the pearl shops in town the other day and saw a sign advertising pearl meat for $140/kg! So I suppose we have $250 worth of pearl meat in the freezer. I guess I’ll try cooking it, but at that price, I’m already nervous about it.
This week, as we’ve driven around, we’ve seen all kinds of junk from people’s houses and yards sitting on the curbs. Somebody told us it was “cyclone cleanup.” But that really didn’t make sense since we haven’t had a cyclone. The article in the weekly paper the other day explained that they want everything disposed of that might become “a flying object” during a cyclone. That makes more sense. Today we noticed that all the old appliances have been picked up. I guess they are doing it by recycling categories. We all have a recycle bin that we put out to the curb just like back in the states.