BLACK BROWNIES, ANYONE?

August 7, 2011 Sunday

This afternoon we went tracting. At the last house at the end of the street, we were invited in. It turned out to be a family that had emigrated from South Africa four months ago. The husband, Dieterick, was interested to see why a “man of God” would have knocked on his door. His wife, Madelin, admitted that she’s very skeptical about some religious things. She did most of the talking and had some really good questions that she wanted answered. We gave her little bits and told them we’d like to come back a few times to teach them the whole thing. I think they were both impressed that we assured them up front that it would be up to them to get the answer from God whether what we tell them is true. They’ve been attending a Christian group where there are several other South Africans attending, but they aren’t really attached to it. They have three children. The 10-year old daughter, Diedray, stuck around while we talked. The boys were younger and in and out a lot. It’s a beautiful family. They prayed about the decision to leave their homeland and immigrate to Australia. They feel like their prayers were answered in every way. Dieterick seems to be looking for more than the Christian church is giving him. We hope we can be guided to lead them along in the right way.
Church today was good. It was testimony meeting and almost all the adults bore their testimony. One of the teenage girls did and a couple of little kids did. I got to teach Cheryl in the Gospel Essentials class. She is so happy to have found the church. It’s just fun to be able to explain things to her. Then I taught RS. Sister Moulds, the RS president, had asked me to teach the visiting teaching lesson, “A Society of Holy Women.” That’s an interesting topic. I’d never thought of us as holy women, but Eliza R. Snow said we should all become holy women. Sister Allred, in the message this month, says that as we do the work of Relief Society which is a holy organization we will become holy. So the questions it brings up: 1. What did I do last week to increase my holiness? And 2. What am I going to do next week to increase my holiness?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! We don’t have a timer on the microwave in this flat nor is there one on the stove. So far, I’ve been lucky to have not burned anything beyond recognition. But tonight I made some chocolate chip brownies to take to the ladies in the library who were so kind to us last week. I checked them at 40 minutes and decided to give them 10 more minutes. At 50 minutes I decided to give them 3 more minutes. And I just remembered them after they had been in the oven for an hour and 40 minutes. They don’t smell terribly burned, but the test will be whether we will be able to cut them once they cool down. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.