Lightning Ridge, NSW, Australia

Australia does not celebrate Thanksgiving, so we spent the Day hunting for lost in-active members.    Lightning Ridge is 6 hrs North of Orange if you make not stops. 

There are supposedly members there on the Dubbo, and Narrabri Branch membership lists.   How could that be?   One town and assigned to 2 different Branches.   We went there to find them all.   Narrabri is only 2 1/2 hrs away for them instead of 4 hrs to Dubbo.  We are hoping to be able to get all their memberships sent to Narrabri.      But the first thing we need to do is see if they still live there.  

Lightning Ridge is a come and go town.   Or is it a villiage?    It really reminded us of Bluewater, New Mexico.   A lot of people live outside of the town in camps.  But to live there you get no city Utilities.   So the city does not keep track of them.   You can come here and get lost.  

The President of the Narrabri Branch told us that there were some new active members that had just moved there.   They are going to his branch in Narrabri.     We contacted the Bro. S to see if we could come and visit.    Brother S. said he would come and pick us up at the motel we were staying at because it would be hard to describe where they live.   He came and we went with him to his house and met his wife.    He lives in one of these camps. 

Brother S is retired and he likes to buy old houses, fix them up and sell them.   This is looking at the end of his current home.    He has moved around a lot.    He came to Lightning Ridge and fell in love with it.    He bought this really worn down  shack and fixed it up.    It is all really nice and modern inside even though it does not look it on the outside.     It all runs on solar power, generators and tank water.    You can see the big tanks by the house that collects rain water which runs off the roof into the tanks.   It has been raining for 5 days straight.   He says that his tanks are almost full.    The refrigerator, stove and hotwater heater all run on gas.     He showed us his solar power setup with batteries all lined up to store the power.    They say they love it there in the country and the peace and quiet.   They have enjoyed the challenge of this new way of life.   Notice the 2 kangaroos just roaming free enjoying it too.     

People in camps buy a plot of land and then mine it for Opals.  That is what all the mounds of dirt are.   So the camps are built among these mounds because they live on their plots.   Just be careful of where you walk.   You might just find yourself down a deep hole.   Brother & Sister S. said they did not care to mine their plot, they jsut wanted to live there.    They had 2 daughters move their families there too.  

You can live like this,

Or this.

Take your pick.  There are both levels of living and anything in between. 

Lightning Ridge is known for it's Black Opals.  The only place in the world that has Black Opals.   We went into this store that looks like a cave.    In fact it is called the Opal Cave

It has a dirt floor.   It is an Opal jewelery store.   I asked what a Black Opal was and the receptionist invited us to step into her office (at the end of the counter).   She then explained it all to us and you will have to take my word for it that there are Black Opals, because it was a loooong explanation and I can't repeat it so you would understand.    All I know is that the Opals are very expensive.   

This has water running down it.  It shimmered and looked a lot better in real life than in this picture.

We stayed at the Black Opal Motel  in room 5.

Hey, look, there I am in the mirror.   This was a nice compact little room for $75 a night.

As for non-members, we found one lady out of 5 families that we went hunting for.   At one address, the house was empty and being gutted out for remodeling.     Brother S. is very active and has been a Branch President twice so we gave him the list and he said he will try to find them.  Between us, him and the mission President we will try to get there membership records to the Narrabri Branch.   

On the way to Lightning Ridge in Walgett, we had the membership record for a 7 year old boy.   No parents.   We stopped at the address and found that his mother is a member.  She is from an active member family from the Phillipians.    It would be an all day outing to go to Dubbo to church so she was glad to hear that we could change her records to Narrabri.    She has a three year old son that she wants blessed and her 7 year old son to get baptized next August.    Her husband is a Anglican but inactive.   He says he is very supportive of her going to what ever church she wants.    I think she will start going.    We will get the blessing information to her soon.  

So we did have some success along with having a good vacation.   

Brother & Sister S., along with their 45 yr old daughter,  took us to lunch at the bowling club there in Lightning Ridge.    It was a really nice meal.   Good enough to be a Thanksgiving dinner.   

Other information about Lightning Ridge.    We were told by a couple of people that there are more Millionaires living there per capita, than anywhere else in the world.   So if we were to see a scruffy dirty looking person, don't shun them for they may be a millionaire.   Many of them live in the camps and don't look like millionaires at all.    It was an over all fun, educational, succesfull trip.  

Matthew's Park in Orange

In Matthew's Park there are miniature trains that come out for the public to ride.   Only on the second Saturdays does this great event happen and Elder Tietjen tried to figure out a good reason to be there.    Since Norman Aukland is such a train lover still, Elder Tietjen decided that Bro Aukland would love to to see them.    We invited him and he was very excited.   So Saturday Nov. 12, 2011 we picked him up at 1:00 pm and found a nice shady spot under a tree.   We set up our chairs and enjoyed the ride.   At least we enjoyed watching all the others ride.
  

I think these train fans are jealous. What do you think?

Doesn't he look like a jolly fella?

Hop right on, the train is waiting.

Yay, Thomas the Train is ahead

Obvious differences between Australia and America

November 14, 2011

Susan asked me a while back if we could understand the people here in Australia.

Most Auzzie born people we can understand quite well. It is those Tongans and other Islanders that have their heavy accent that we have trouble with.

Interesting facts about Australia.

1. The dirt is bright orange (we feel like we are in New Mexico) come on down and visit us.

2. Americans that we have met here have all told us that Australia is about 30 years behind time, except for computers. Just look at their roads.

3. 30 yrs ago, Thongs were what you call Flip Flops today in America. They still use the word Thongs like they did in the 70's. A real Aussie told us this one. "The reason that the Aussie's wear Thongs is because they don't have the IQ to be able to tie shoes."

4. The crows and magpies sit along the side of the road waiting for their road kill. When they see a car coming they just walk slowly off the side of the road. Very few get up and fly. They are probably too fat and heavy from all that meat they eat. (Kangaroos, fox, what ever)

5. Police cars are either white, blue or yellow with checkered pattern on them.

6. There are a lot of Taxi's running around town. Every block, just about, you will see a Taxi or more.

7. When getting gas you pump and then go in the store and pay. No swiping of the card outside the gas station.

　

Obvious language differences from Americans.

1. Ute= flat bed pickup. (Utility truck).

2. If a word ends with an "R" they don't pronounce the "R".

3. They pronounce an "A" as "R"

4. Example: Mazda (you know the car?) They say (pronounce the "ma" as you would in "mad"

add the "z" sound and put an R on the end. Stephanie Collins from Utah laughs her head off when she hears them say it that way.

5. Petrol = gas

6. Timber = lumber

7. Ring me or give them a ring = call on the phone

8. Lollies = candy of any sort.

9. when you go to McDonald's they ask "ate hey or go?" = eat here or go? Remember they don't pronounce a lot of their "R"s It took us a few times to figure that one out. (We've only been a few times)

9. If you say Thank you to some one, they say "No worries" back to you.

10. Noows = Nurse

11. You don't sit around and visit with someone, you sit and "chat" with them.

12. A "road train" = A semi truck.

13. The letter "Z" is pronounced "Zed".

14. The letter "H" is pronounced "Hach" with the "a" being the long sound as in hate.

15. Teen numbers are pronounced with a deen on the ends. Like Eighdeen, thirdeen.

16.. "Dear" = expensive. Ex. The bananas are sure dear. Now say it without saying the "R". It sound like they are always saying Deee.

17. Push bike = bicycle

Foods

1. Sultanas = raisons

2. Semoina = cream of wheat.

3. The Mayonnaise pours out of the bottle and is sweeter than Miracle Whip. Susan would hate it.

4. Sour cream pours out of the container too.

5. Potato Nuggets = Tator Tots

6. No loose hash browns at all

7. No Pistachio pudding, only chocolate and vanilla

8. Glucose syrup = corn syrup

9. Haven't found Enchilada sauce yet.

10. Tasty cheese = Cheddar cheese

11. No cinnamon flavored candies

12. Yay, I found some Worther's.

13. Ice block = ice cream bar on a stick.

14. Chick peas = garbanzo beans

15. No Catalina Dressing

15. No curly chips to make the Catalina dressing salad.

16. Sweet & sour Cucumbers = sweet pickles

17. Dill cucumbers = dill pickles

Additional information:

1. Lots of different animals: kangaroo, Emu, brown snake, lots of Llama,

2. Power poles are straight from the tree, whether it has a curve in it or not.

Stores

1.. McDonald's in just about every little town you go to. Like Stephanie Collins puts it. "There are as many McDonald's here as there are Temples in the Salt Lake Valley." I will add "as many LDS chapels as in Rexburg". You never lack for food.

2. Kentucy Fried Chicken are usually found right next to a McDonald's.

3. Subways are usually close by too.

4. K-Mart

5. Target

6. Woolworth's

7. Cosco ( in Sydney only) I hear they have some American foods that we can't get out in our little towns.

8. IGA only they are called Supa IGA. Might as well, they don't pronounce their r's on the end of words anyway.

9. Police cars are either Blue, Yellow or white with checker board pattern on them.

10. Rubbish bin = trash can

Sunday November 13-what a day

Sunday November, 13, 2011                 
Because of the shinny silvery little Saran wrap looking stings across our living room floor, I drank lots of water last night so I would wake up often to catch the culprit. The Slug Ball has got to come to an end. This is the third one now. I am sure that the other 2 that got thrown out told the Slugville that we had the best Ballroom in town. The word has spread.
So this morning I was out to catch another one, or many. So my Sunday started our with me first waking at 12 midnight. Now isn't that a fitting time to start a Ball? Or is the time to end a ball? Cinderella had to LEAVE the ball at 12 midnight. Maybe the fairy princesses at the ball turned into slugs at midnight. I put on my shoes this time. Quickly turned on the light to catch them in the act and ............No one, nothing, not even ONE Slug . Ok, so they start later. I drank some more water so I would wake up again and I went back to bed.
2:00 am I awoke again. I went through the same process and still no slugs to be found.
Ok, more water, I am going to get those slimy slithering slugs if I have to wake every hour.
Oh, dear I did not wake until 5:00 am. Still no sign of the shimmering Ball across our floor.
Just before going to bed last night (out in the living room) I told Elder Tietjen my plans. I am sure they must have heard me talking. Because there was not a sign of them this morning. Not even their silvery little trails they leave behind

Today in our Orange Branch they were showing General Conference from video. 10-12 conference, then lunch, then 1-2 conference. Winston said his family was going, so we planned on leaving early to get them there in the 2 shifts.
Because of lunch being served, I made a Chicken pot pie to take. It was in the oven and almost ready.
It was almost time to go when I was shutting down my computer. I all of a sudden thought about going online to find some pictures to print out for Winston and Lee's kids to color. So I opened the internet again and a notice came up saying there was a phone call from my mom, Lodema Wilson. At first I wondered what I had clicked on and wondered if I had called her on accident. But it was wanting me to answer. So I answered. It was mom. She said she was just checking to see if this skype phone really did work. She was as excited to hear my voice as I was to hear her. Uu, oh, I forgot to call her this last Friday. She asked if I was just out of bed, and I told her no just almost out the door. We visited a few minutes.
Winston then called Elder Tietjen and said they had decided not to go to church. So then Elder Tietjen decided that he wanted to rush and head down to Cowra for church. Well, they start at 9:30 am and it takes 1 hr 45 min to get there, so we will miss most of it. Mom said she knew we had to get going so she would let me go. We said good bye and I started to run.
I took the chicken pie out of the oven and stuck it in the freezer. Hope it does not melt everything and I find the freezer door opened from oozing food coming out.
9:35 am Elder Tietjen went over to the Orange Branch to drop off some flyers about Sid Goings fireside that is coming up. Then we headed out to Cowra with a half a tank of gas. I had mentioned getting gas to him last night but Elder Tietjen had planned yesterday to go to Dubbo and get gas tomorrow morning. So now we are going South to Cowra and back to Orange and then up North to Dubbo this evening. No way will we make it, gas wise. We will have to be sinners again and get gas on Sunday.
10:17 am we got to Millthorpe. It is a cloudy day keeping it a little cooler.
10:33 am we stopped to help someone with an over heating car. They had plenty of water from ice melting in a cooler and did not need any help. Elder Tietjen gave them one of our juice bottles that was filled with water and we pulled out onto the road just barely in time to have to pull off again to let an ambulance go by.
11:17 am we got to the Cowra church. We opened the door and the chapel was a tiny room straight ahead with the people looking straight at the door. No sneaking into the back of meetings here. They were in a circle holding Sunday School. There were 9 people. One lady was in the back room having an activity with her own 3 children, since they were the only children there.
The Church building is a house that has been restored into a church. It had 2 class rooms, a kitchen, a small Primary room type Chapel that could be divided into 2 rooms if needed. There was also a room for the Branch Presidents office. The restrooms were outside in an add on building. They were modern and clean but if you sent your kids out to that they probably would end up playing out on the lawn before coming back in. If they did come back in.
In Relief society there were 3 ladies besides me. The teacher did not come nor the Relief Society Pres, so one lady conducted, played the music & gave the lesson. These Branches struggle badly with so many in-actives.
Church was over by 12:30 and then Elder Tietjen and I hung out visiting until 2:25 pm
We need to get up to Dubbo to teach Lu, LILI and Halery tonight at 7:30 pm
3:10 we got to Blayney and stopped to get gas. A lady came out and pumped the gas for us. Elder Tietjen and her had what he said was a good visit. Gas $144.9 cent per liter, which cost $71.86, for 49.591 liters.
3:50 pm home in Orange, eat lunch & pack.
4:45 pm leave for Dubbo. I am determined to get some typing done these trips. I am getting too far behind on my journal.
6:25 we got a beeping sound on the cell phone. It was a message that we had missed a phone call. I looked but did not recognize the phone number. I looked up LiLi's phone number to see if that was hers. It was not the one we had for her. This person had called 3 times. We have a lot of area out and about that we don't get signal on our phone. It is frustrating. So Elder Tietjen stopped to call them back to see who it was. It was LiLi. She was cancelling again tonight. They were going out for the evening and would be home late.
We were almost to Dubbo by now, and decided to go straight to the hospital to see Nancy Taylor.
6:40 pm we got another phone call. We are now about 15 min. from Dubbo. This one came through all right. It was Winston. He said he needed to get to the hospital. I repeated him and Elder Tietjen quickly pulled off the road and stopped. I was sure that Lee was having the babies. But he said that HE needed to get to the hospital. He said that he had collapsed and could not get up. He wanted us to take him to the hospital. We are 1 ½ hr away. I gave the phone to Elder Tietjen to figure out what to do. He asked Winston if he could wait till we got back or if he wanted him to call Pres. James. He said to call Pres James. So he did. Pres James suggested getting an ambulance to get him picked up because no one would be able to lift him he is so big. Pres. James is a little guy compared to Winston. Elder Tietjen asked if he could arrange one for him and we would be coming back. So our appointment is cancelled and we are now on our way back to Orange. Another reason to have a full tank of gas on Saturday night. You never know how your schedules may change.
Just about 15 min after turning around and traveling toward Orange we again had no signal on the phone. I tell you miracles do happen.
Oh, my, if he is in the hospital for awhile, we had better stick close to Orange incase Lee has to get to the hospital to have the twins.
I guess we will be going straight to the hospital after all, but not the one in Dubbo to see Nancy
Taylor
We noticed that there was no signal in Bakers Swamp Neurea, Wellington, or Gurie. Practically the whole trip to Dubbo. We did not realize that we did not have signal every time going to Dubbo.
We got 1 bar signal at Molong just through the highest part of town and then it was gone again. There a message came through from Pres. James saying that they dropped Winston and Lee off at the hospital and it is nothing serious. Winston has the Flu. Oh, thank goodness. I was afraid that he broke his back or something bad like that and Lee is about to have these twins. That would be terrible.
8:15 pm Winston called and asked if we could pick him up at the hospital because they did not have the money to get a taxi. We are about 15 min from the hospital now.
Wow, what a day.
8:30 pm we were at the hospital and picked up Winston and Lee. That is the main reason that he decided not to go to church this morning because he was not feeling well. We took them home and then home ourselves.
Ever feel like you are running around all day and get no where. That is just the way I feel right now. We have driven 280 miles and gotten no where. Elder Tietjen was really glad that we finally got to get to the Cowra Branch and visit with those (few) people there. This was our first time.
Good night all, we shall try for Dubbo tomorrow morning. We told a sister that we would come and mow her lawn.
Church:

A couple of weeks ago Elder Tietjen wanted to call his brother Bill with the Skype phone. Since it is set up on my computer and he wanted to call him early, he got me up at 4:00 am.
Well, I was too sleepy to think about the Slug Ball going on in the living room. So I walked out half asleep in my bare feet. I stood by my computer where they have their Promenade. All of a sudden as I stepped down I felt something very slimy. Oh, my gosh, I knew right that moment what it was. I had stepped on one of those slimy Slugs. I was now wide awake.
I had an envelope, a ruler and the camera ready to capture the thing on film. I scooped it up onto the envelope. It wasn't moving very much. I don't think I would either if I had just had a giant step on me.
Ooooo, oooo, have you ever tried to wash Slug Slime off of your foot before? It does not want to wash off. Standing in the kitchen with my foot up over the kitchen sink I rubbed and rubbed. It is like trying to wash off soap when you have soft water in your water.

That stuff stuck. I had to scrape it off. If you ever need to glue anything just try some Slug Slime. I bet it would work great.

This one was smaller than the first.

Headstone Hunting

On November 5, 2011, My sister Corinne Carter asked me if I would be able to hunt for some headstone here in the Orange Cemetery.   A lady was requesting on findagrave.com for a photo of a headstone to be placed on her ancestors site that she had created.    Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Scott Valkenburg, supposedly was buried here in the Orange Cemetery.  
Corinne also requested for photos of headstones of Pvt. Timothy Joseph Cutcliffe age 21 killed in Vietnam and Harriet Catt Fuller both to be buried in Orange.   
Elder Tietjen and I took the names to the Cemetery Clerk and she looked them up.    She said that the Pvt. was in the Orange Cemetery and Harriet was in the Byng Cemetery.    But there was no sign of Elizabeth being buried in the area.  

We looked up the Orange Cemetery and found it only 5 minutes from us.    We found Pvt. Timothy's headstone right off with the directions from the Clerk.   His parents were also right next to him.  

We found that the Byng Cemetery was only about 20 min from us so we took a little ride there.  

There  we found this quaint little valley with a church and a very small run down cemetery.

This is the entrance to the Byng Cemetery.    We looked and looked in the tall grasses and many flowering bushes but could not find Harriet Fuller.

We decided to come back the next day more equipted with rake and clipper in hand.   We would use the rake to pull back some of the tall grasses and most of all probe around to scare the snakes.    This is the time of the year for the snakes to come out.    We were very glad we did not see any.

We finally found Harriet Fuller grave on the second time here.   According to the findagrave web site that was submitted, she died on March 7th 1873.   But on the records we got from the Clerk she died on June 7th 1873.   We took photos from many angles to see if we could read it correct.   As we looked Elder Tietjen and I were both positive that it said she had died in June.    Was this really the Harriet Fuller that we wanted?

That evening as we enlarged the photos on the computer  we could see plain as day that she had died in March.   We had found the right Harriet Fuller.    I sent the photos to Corinne and she wrote to the submitter on findagrave and told him that we had found a photo but she was not buried in Orange.    He changed the information and her headstone photo is now entered as being in Byng, NSW, Australia

We took other headstone photos that Corninne will get submitted to findagrave.com
It is so neat how you have such a reverent feeling and a slight connection to these people when you go out amongest their grave sites.   I could spend a whole mission doing this.

Helping Anne find her genealogy

Sunday November 6, 2011 trip to Dubbo
 
2:15 pm– leave Orange for Dubbo

2:25 pm  pick up a hitch hiker, you could smell the tobacco on him. I told Elder Tietjen that if he gets shot in the head, well, then?    He just said "then you know how to get me to the hospital."    

This man was going to Warren. That is past Dubbo farther up NW. His name is Pau. He grew up in Warren and still lives and works there.

He seemed to be quite a nice fella. I am sure he was an Aborigine.

4:10 pm we dropped him off at Dubbo out on the Highway so he could try to get another ride up to Warren. He seemed to really appreciate the ride, especially since it was raining.

4:15 pm we made a pit stop at our summer cabin and then

4:30 pm we went to visit Anne to give her the genealogy that we found of her family.    (Denise helped me find it on their Ancestry and their many computer monitors.)  

When we got there, Anne was cutting out some photos of her grand daughter to make a couple of scrapbook pages for her.    She was in tears.    She apologized and said that she was emotional from the photos.

She talked for some time before we were able to talk genealogy.    I finally handed her the information that I had found.

She was totally thrilled.    She had never seen so much information in her life on her family.    She is seriously thinking of going to see her Uncle this week  for a 2 week long visit.    Now I feel like that is a miracle on the timing.    Because he will be able to give her more information now that she has as much as she has.    Maybe start gathering records from other family members.   She is very much interested right now to start finding her genealogy. 

Wow, she loved visiting and she talked and talked and talked.

Elder Tietjen got a phone call and he went to answer it.

Finally she got a phone call.   So Elder Tietjen told me that the phone call was LiLi cancelling our visit tonight because she has to go babysit and will not be home.

It was after 6 pm now and I was getting stressed wondering how we were going to get away, she was enjoying talking so much.    But now we did not need too so we just sat back and relaxed and enjoyed the rest of our visit.

She had made a remark that she could not get her new ink cartridges into her printer.    So Elder Tietjen taught her how to do that.     She was so grateful.

I still don't know her whole story.    As far as we know, her husband was a member. But she had found a letter that she showed us from some missionaries and it dated back to 1979.    She just loved the missionaries coming whether they were couples or single Elders.     And they had many through the years.  But as far as we know she is not a member.

As long as she is willing to let us come we will keep coming and hopfully help her into the gospel.     Her husband was paralized for many years before his death, so he probably did not go to church. 

7:50 pm we left Annes home and went back to our apartment

We got dinner of split pea soup, pear, and banana. Mmmm  banana. (the price is down to $5.99 per kilo)

Monday we head to Forbes to see Doris Polambo in the assisted living center. 

Doing genealogy

Just about every week we got to the Doyle's for a genealogy lesson, or search some ancestor.    Brother Doyle thinks I should send this picture to let you know that I will not be able to do genealogy again without this set up.   What do you think?

Teaching Winston

We went to Winston's tonight  Thur. Nov 3, to give them a gosepl lesson. Elder Tietjen said it was teach only.   So we got ourselves some dinner.    We were not very hungry so I just fixed a half of a sandwich for each and the last of the left over fruit salad that we have been having all week.
I then made some popcorn for our snack when we got home.
We went to Winston's to give the family the lesson.    Winston was out in the back yard.    The aroma of steak was in the air.    I looked at Elder Tietjen and said "smells like steaks".
We were welcomed into the house and Winston came in and said he did a barbeque for us. "Oh, no".     Elder Tietjen said "mmm yum".
Winston always stays outside doing the barbeque while we are giving the kids and Lee the lesson.    They seem to be real receptive and have questions. They seem to like what we are telling them. We challenged them to come to church. They said they would. Last Sunday, only Winston came.
After the lesson, again Winston dished up the plates.
On each plate was 1 large steak, 1 lg piece of chicken, 2 long skewers packed with chicken pieces, 2 Prawns, (have attached a picture), and a scoop each of the following: lettuce salad, macaroni salad, pickled beets, and corn. This time while Winston was still dishing up I told Elder Tietjen to quickly take one plate full back and bring an empty plate because we would share. No way was I going to force myself this time. Especially since we had just eaten.
I ate 1 skewer of the chicken (delicious) some macaroni salad, lettuce salad, 1 slice of beet, and a couple bites of corn. I was done. Elder Tietjen tried a Prawn, but no way was I going to be that brave. I was stuffed. Later he said he did not like it.
Winston kept telling me to go get more that there was plenty. No way. Uhg. When Elder Tietjen said he could not eat any more, leaving the steak, chicken and 1 prawn, Winston said he would have to call the police. He was just joking. He is Tongan and Lee says she has never seen any people ever that can eat like those Tongan's.
So much for my snack of popcorn. Tomorrow maybe.