Fiona lives in Dubbo

Fiona 

Is a young girl dating a young man in the Dubbo Branch. His name is Ririwai.   His brother Jordan is also dating a young lady. These two young ladies come to church regularly. Fiona has decided that she wants to be baptized so we have been teaching her the discussions.

The brothers are from New Zealand and are away for the holidays.  She has done this on her own. 

We taught her on Dec 21, 27, 31 and today we taught her after church.    Sister Deana Francis (a return missionary) and young mother of a 1 yr old, wanted to sit in on the discussion.    She is very strong in the gospel and was able to share her a lo of good thoughtst.      

Fiona is what you call a golden contact.   She reads and studies and is so ready to be baptized.    She commited today to be baptized.     

The Branch President and wife are on holiday until Jan 9th and would love to be at the Baptism or she would have agreed to do it sooner.    So as for right now we are aiming for sunday January  15th.    Sunday because everyone has to travel so far that they usually do it on Sundays.    Then they have to wait a week until the next Sunday to be confirmed.    She is so excited and ready.    

Sister Francis asked her if she really wanted this bad enough even if she was to break up with  Ririwai.    She said she really did.    Sister Francis then told her to encourage Ririwai into going on a mission and she will wait for him.     Jordan is a return missionary and Ririwai seems to have a great knowledge of the gospel and would be a great missionary.   

We also talked Family History to Fiona.    She went right home, downloaded rootsmagic.com and got right into putting her family names in.    Asked her father for information and he gave her a book about the Stevenson's.   She is all fired up about genealogy too.  

I will keep you posted on her progress.  

Dubbo chapel

The Dubbo Chapel:

Friday Dec 30 we met Fiona Stevenson (abt 19) at the Dubbo Chapel to teach her the missionary discussions.
The Building consists of 1 hallway. The Chapel itself is a room filled with chairs and a small pulpit like the ones they have in a Primary room.
If there is a party, it is to held in this room being the largest in the building.
The kitchen has folding doors that open up into the Chapel. The custodian room also opens up into the Chapel. Large curtains hang draping the whole back wall and the whole front wall.
There are 5 class rooms, male and female restrooms, a mothers room, Bishops office, & a small foyer. In the back end of the foyer is a small Baptismal font. It is about 4'x8' with steps going up each side to the back of the restrooms.
There is a Family history closet at the end of the Relief Society room. It has a sliding UP door that looks like a Garage door. Lift it up and there is a desk with a computer on it and a shelf up above.
I have noticed the last couple of weeks that we have come, that the Building inside is absolutely filthy. And I mean FILTHY. I have never in my life seen an LDS church building look so sloppy.
I don't think it has been cleaned for months and months. So we set out to clean it today after Fiona had left.
Part of the back walled curtain was falling loose from it's hooks at the top. I re-hooked it and made it hang decent again.
There were dead bugs lining the edge of the hallway and the outside edges of the classrooms. The glass doors were plastered with finger prints.
The mens restroom smelled of Urin. The carpet had black spots all over concentrating in large groups. I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed and they came out pretty good. Elder Tietjen cleaned the restrooms.
The glass of the baptismal font was very fingerprinted and the inside looked kind of like some one splashed mud on the glass. Anyway, it is all nice and shinny now. The church looks a hundred percent better. I wonder if anyone will notice.
They really do need some new carpet. This carpet is so faded and worn. No holes but old looking. When things look old then cleaning sometimes does not help it look clean. Oh, well, we can sure see and feel the difference.
We shined, vacuumed, scrubbed, straightened and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned.
We spent 3 hrs and 45 min (each) We were beat but full of gratitude for all those that share in cleaning the churches.
The main active families that come to the Dubbo Branch live 1 to 3 hrs away from the church. They bring lunches for their children and feed them inside the church immediately after church meetings ends. The parents then get to visit with each other for awhile. (Which I don't blame them at all) Therefore, fingerprints, everywhere. And crumbs. Then leave for their long journey home.
It does not look like they have any kind of a cleaning schedule for this building.
So keep those buildings clean for the spirit of the Lord to dwell in.

Our Christmas Day

Sunday December 25, 2011 Christmas Day

7 am I got up and started to wrap gifts for the Haeata family. Then I got ready for Church.
I am prepared for my talk that I am to give today. "Thou shalt not fear if you are prepared", right? Well, I will have to learn that somehow. I was prepared but still I feared.
9:10 am we headed for church. Winston was having a lot of family coming for a traditional Christmas Hangi dinner today so he did not want to go to church because he said he had to get ready.
I was hoping no one would show up at church today because then I would not fear, right again?. Well, just the opposite happened. There was about 34-36 people there. The majority of them were visitors. Our Branch members mostly were out of town and people visiting family in Orange came to church here. The chapel was fuller than usual today.
But my heart was extra full to see Ken Doyle there. He has not come to church since we have been here. And Josephine Schyveschuurder, (what a name) also inactive, drove all the way from Dubbo to come and listen to us speak. She came with her mother who is not a member. I was so excited to see both Ken and Josephine here. But nervous because I was speaking.
But I felt the Lord had truly blessed me with things that I should say. Gennie Cartmill kept sending things about keeping Jesus in our thoughts this Christmas Season. My talk all came together well. (I thought anyway).
I started out telling of our VIP Party tradition:

When our oldest child was very young there was a song that came out called "I'm a VIP in my family" I got the idea to have a Christmas family dinner with my young children called a VIP party. We set the date to be the Monday before Christmas.
I got the children all excited about the event by telling them that a Very Important Person was coming to dinner. But, I would not say who. I encouraged them to get the house all clean and decorated for the season because a Very Important Person was coming to dinner that special night that we had set. As the days went by they got more and more excited to find out who this very Important person was. I would not tell them.
The day finally arrived and the dishes were brought out and the table set for this special dinner with a Very Important Person. The children started asking when this person would get here. Soon, I would say. They started to make guesses but I would just tell them that it was someone really Important and they would just have to wait and see. I remember once one of the Children asked, "Is it Jesus?"
and then all of a sudden I felt the spirit so strong, I could not talk.  Tears were coming to my eyes.    I started to shudder or shake or something came over me , I thought I was going to faint. I have never had anything like that feeling come over me like that before. It was as if every cell in my body was shaking. I prayed hard for Heavenly Father to bless me to continue. Finally with Heavenly Fathers help, I got my composure together and was able to finish my talk.
I could truly feel Heavenly Father and Jesus' love for me and wished that so many others here in our mission that we visit could also feel their love. I was so filled with their love and what Jesus had done for us that I had no desire to open the gifts that we had received for fear that it would ruin the wonderful special feeling of the knowledge of the gifts Christ gave us all. I hope I can always live up to his expectations of me. This verse of Away In A Manger stuck in my mind.
I love Thee, Lord Jesus
Look down from the sky
And stay by my side,
'Til morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus,
I ask Thee to stay
Close by me forever
And love me I pray
Bless all the dear children
In Thy tender care
And take us to heaven
To live with Thee there
I had been a little resentful knowing that we had to speak on Christmas Day. Plus I did not seem to get much time to spend preparing for it like I wanted. Elder Tietjen kept us traveling so much of the time. He packs our schedule so full and tight that we even overlap sometimes.
But I can now truly say that I am so grateful to have been able to have the opportunity to speak. It brought me so much closer to Christ than I know I would have been if I had not been constantly thinking and searching for my talk.
Elder Tietjen then gave an excellent talk about the Other Wise Man. Then Pres. James spoke.
The chapel was so silent the whole time, you could probably hear a pin drop. And no they were not sleeping, all their eyes were on us. That made me even more nervous. There was only 4 young children in the whole congregation. This is sure a switch from home.
Let us always hold our knowledge of what Jesus did for us in our hearts and lives and always do as he would want us to do.
After church was over there was a visitor from New Zealand that came up to us and asked if we were related to New Zealand Coach Tietjens. We told him that his name has an "s" on the end and ours did not. He said that New Zealand people are strange like that and like to change names and so he is probably related. We had heard about him before, but know not if he is related. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE4FJwM3TBs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Tietjens
There was much visiting, hugging and wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and we all dispersed to go home.

Tasha Haeata

We then went to our home and gathered the gifts that were given to us from the Haeata's and the gifts we had for them. We would open their gift to us while they opened their gifts from us. We traveled to Cowra and got there by 12:30 pm. Tasha has 5 children age 2-13 yrs old. Her husband died sometime in the past 2 yrs.
Kirra (11yrs) was telling me that her brother Jacob (7) had wanted a Matchbox airplane so bad that when he did not get it, he cried and cried. But seeing his 2 other brothers playing happily finally gave up and got in on the happiness and played too.
Elder Tietjen had picked out some small airplanes for their gifts from us. So when Jacob opened it, boy did he jump for joy. He held that airplane the rest of the day.
I also gave them each a little crocheted stocking that I had made and filled with candy. I put a $25 gift card in Tasha's. (The gift card is a story in itself).
Tasha Haeata had also invited the Paki family (very active members). Tane and Katarina Paki have 3 small children and is expecting a baby this week.
Tasha had a lovely luncheon ready for all of us. After we ate Elder Tietjen told them all that a Very Important Person was coming to visit. He would not say who and they started to guess who it might be. One of the boys piped up and asked Is it Jesus?

Again Jesus was there this Christmas Day.

Tasha is being so brave raising her children alone and trying to get activated back into the gospel and do what she knows Jesus and her husband would want her to do.

We had hunted and hunted for little flash lights for the VIP lesson and finally when we found some, I told Elder Tietjen that we should get one for Tasha too. Then I thought, we better get 2 extra incase one stops working. So now we had 8 flashlights. We did not know that the Paki's were coming and so now that we had the extra we had just enough for the children. The flashlights representing the Holy Ghost that guides us like the light through the darkness. Sister Paki especially thanked him for the lesson for her children.
3:40 pm Paki's and us left to go home.
4:35 pm we stopped in Blayney to wish the Samgood's a very Merry Christmas and give them a Christmas Card. Sister Val Samgood is down in bed with bad Arthritis.
5:30 pm we are back in Orange and gathered our gifts that Winston's family had given to us and went to their home. We wanted to open them with them there. Nakita (7) said she could hardly wait to see our faces when we opened them. They gave us a glass Biscuit Jar (cookie jar) full of biscuits (cookies). The twin babies are doing great.
6:00 pm we then went to visit Norman Aukland in the assisted Living Center. He was just finishing his dinner and then we walked up to his room to visit with him.
6:45 pm we wandered over to the Jason and Michelle Matter's home. Our friendly Branch President Policeman had invited us over for refreshments if we had time. So we went. We visited and then played Phase 10, eating off a fruit plate, drinking pop and visiting. We stayed until 9:30 pm and then went home.
Now dark and still Christmas Sunday evening, we sat by our little 4 ft  lit up Christmas tree and opened our other gifts that some of the members had given us. Our hearts truly filled with the Spirit of Christmas.
We then fell asleep on the couches watching "It's a Wonderful Life"    It sure is.

Through rain or shine

Through rain or shine, the mail must get through.

This is the way the mail is delivered whether raining or sunny. 

Looks like Santa even got into the act of delivering this way.     ho ho ho