OLGA

September 21, 2011 Wednesday

We drove to Armadale, the southwestern-most suburb of Perth, to get some baptismal clothing for Amy and Brett. Evidently the branch doesn’t have anything worth using. We keep wondering why they don’t buy jumpsuits similar to what is used in the temples. It would certainly simplify keeping the women modest! It was raining when we got up and continued until 2 in the afternoon. We were grateful that most of our time was spent in the car. We saw the same number of road-killed kangaroos as we saw live ones the other night.
We’d been given the name of Olga to contact in the Armadale Ward for baptismal clothing. She turned out to be 80 years old, a widow from South Africa. People who leave South Africa always bring some of it with them. She had paintings of jaguars and elephants and carvings of several African animals. There was also a beautiful copper clock in the shape of Africa with a couple of animals on it. She’s the music director for Relief Society and had some hymns playing when we arrived. She joined the church 18 years ago after she moved over here. Her daughter and son-in-law had joined 30 years ago before they came over here. She always promised them she would join once she came here and she did just 3 months after she arrived. She was sweet to visit with. She’s on chemo-therapy tablets for breast cancer and just as accepting of her trials as she can be. What a sweetheart.