Happy New Year
We started out this year with some real excitement.
Sunday January 1, 2012
We went to church in Dubbo with only 7 people (including us) showing up.
After teaching our 3 contacts, all went well Sunday.Monday January 2
We get in our car ready to make our trip down South. The car sounds a little funny. Elder Tietjen says it sounds like a bearing going out on something. Oh, dear. On Something, can't he tell? We leave anyway as if nothing is wrong.
1:37 pm We made it to Forbes ok, and found Doris Palombo sound asleep there at the Assisted Living Center. So we left.
1:45 pm we decided to go visit the Weyer family in Greenthorpe. They live ONLY a half hour out of the way from Cowra where we do have a definite appointment with the Haeata family.
So we travel on our way out farther South into the Bush with narrow windy roads and nothing in between but trees and kangaroos. Well, there's probably a lot of other things but not much civilization.
2:25 pm out in the middle of NOWHERE LAND the air conditioner turns warm. The temperature gauge all of a sudden sky rocketed to HOT. The idler pulley bearing finally broke and the belt came off. Elder Tietjen pulls over to the side of the road and stops.
There were very few cars going by but enough to get help if needs be. The temperature is 93 degrees outside and in the car. How do I know. I have a portable thermometer in the car that shows the temperature in Fahrenheit. We have no phone or internet signal out here. So not being too worried about a broke down car as I have lived with experiences like this my whole life, I was sitting there calmly writing in my journal, while Elder Tietjen was checking on things out under the hood. All of a sudden I hear this load buzzing bug, by my ear. My hands and arms go flying around my head and it quits. I continued doing what I was doing. when I all of a sudden felt a little movement in my blouse. I fussed around with it and the feeling went down my sleeve. I put my hand on my arm and felt a LARGE lump. By this time I am getting frantic and I reached inside my sleeve and was flipping and swooshing like a crazy woman.
All while Elder Tietjen was out working on the car under the hood. He finally closes the hood and said "ok, lets go" Damaged, the BIG bug had fallen on the floor of the car towards the back. I got a card and tried to scoop him up to get him out but he was still alive enough to wiggle off. I told Elder Tietjen "come get him" He asked what it was and I told him.
He laughed that I was so frantic about a big bug getting into the car. I told him that wasn't the half of it and if he knew he would really be laughing. He said, "so what did it do go down your neck?" When I told him "yes", he really laughed.
I got the bug out and took a picture so you could see how big it really was. It was at least 1 inch long. All I can say is "It was a devastating experience." I felt a little soreness on my arm and checked it. There was a little tiny red spot. I kept my eye on it, but it did not do any swelling. I told Elder Tietjen about it and said "if I die, I have a picture of the giant bug so you can show what killed me" He didn't quite laugh so hard that time.
2:50 pm we head down the road without air conditioning. Windows wide opened blowing hot air on us. All in a normal days activity in the life of a Tietjen. I mean, what's new, right? If you know the Tietjen's you will understand. 3:05 pm there was a graveled pull over place so Elder Tietjen pulled over to let the car cool down. We like to find cemeteries on our routes and take photos for my sister to put them onto findagrave.com.
I told him that I had foundon the internet that there was a small grave site at Bogolong and asked where we were.
"Bogolong", he said. With excitment I look around seeing no town anywhere, but told him a grave site was suppose to be along the highway someplace. I looked in every direction and then there it was, just across the street from us. It was a little white picket fenced off area of 4 infants. There was a sign giving their last names. I could not get close to the actual site. There was a barbed wire fence at the edge of the road. The picket fence was out in a field with tall weeds growing up all around it. I could zoom up to it and see the fence only. But I didn't think I would want to trudge through those tall weeds to meet one of the friendly snakes that everyone tells us about and how deadly they are. Their bugs are deadly enough.
I found these websites telling about this little cemetery plot. http://austcemindex.com/cemetery-inscriptions.php?id=694
And to think that Elder Tietjen had mentioned that if we go to see the Weyer's it would only be a half hour longer. So much for that statement. We continued on towards Cowra. Greenthorpe is definitely out of the way and I am sure there are no stores there to speak of. The Weyer's did not know we were coming anyway, so that was ok that we did not get there.
3:20 pm We made it to Grenfell and the car started making a clattering sound. It would stop clattering and then start again. Then start and stop. Getting scary.
3:25 pm We shall forge onto Cowra. Step on the gas and it clatters. Going 40 mph and it is now 95 degrees in car.
3:30 pm we stop at rest stop. Which is just a graveled pull out. Elder Tietjen checks under the hood again. He decides to go on. Really clattering now at low speed he turns around and goes back to the rest stop.
3:37 pm With hood opened, he holds out the battery cables to let the car coming know that we needed a charge. They whizzed by but quickly stepped on their brakes and turned around and came back. It was a young man and woman and 6 yr old daughter. They were so happy to give us a charge and wait there for it to charge up awhile.
They were so friendly and seemed to enjoy visiting with us. She acted like it was neat that we had come to be missionaries. She said her family was Catholic but the Catholic church was dying in their town so she goes to some other church. She said her daughter is always wanting to pray, so they pray a lot. She said that she likes the feeling of praying and asked her mother why they did not pray more.
We talked about the weather in Idaho and how we usually have cold weather. She said it does not look like I am coping very well with the heat. She really thought that I was about to keel over. I did not fell as bad as I looked. Since I am sunburned (from photographing headstones, and was wearing a red blouse, I looked more miserable than I really was. She gave me a bottle of ice cold water.
3:56 pm They stopped charging the car. She said they would follow us to make sure we get to Cowra. We told them that there would be plenty of traffic on the way and not to bother. They have been traveling for 6 hrs and have about 3 more to go to get home.
But they did stay behind us anyway.
4:04 pm the car ran out of power again. That was not long. The same people stopped and charged us again.
4:20 pm the car finally started, so away we go over hill and over dell and coast down into a valley.
4:30 pm the car just barely made it to a rest stop. This family had offered to take us into Cowra to some friends. So we parked the car and loaded what we could into trunk. They said they had room for a suit case so we took that incase we have to sleep over before getting the car the next day. She also advised us to take our laptops. Not worth taking a chance of losing those in case someone raids our car. We loaded into their nice air conditioned car and headed for Cowra.
4:45 pm We arrived in Cowra and went straight to the Branch Pres. Lazanski's home. Thank goodness he and his wife were home. They loaned us their car for us to go to the Haeata's to give them the lesson we had scheduled for 5:00 pm. Talk about close timing
5:10 pm Tasha Haeata had forgotten but let us come in. We gave just a small lesson discussing the Articles of Faith. Then back to the Lazanski's where they had offered us a room to stay the night. Then Elder Tietjen and Pres. Lazanski went to get the car and got it back here before dark.
Tuesday January 3, 2012
Elder Tietjen got up and walked to a store, got the part he needed and fixed the car. He is so cleaver. We load up ready to go and but the car does not run on all 6 cylinders. Because of driving it so long in it's injured state it now has a cracked engine block. All I know about that is that when a car gets a cracked head, it is pretty much dead. We decided to drive it home to Orange anyway. I absolutely knew it would not make it and we would be stuck again out on these outback country roads to wilt in the heat. But we stopped at every cemetery we could find and as I took pictures the car cooled so more water could be put into the radiator.
We did make it home safe and on the cars own power, little that it had. I do believe in Miracles and thank the Lord everyday for the blessings he gives me.
Wednesday. January. 3, 2012. Miracles and blessings never cease.
Elder Tietjen went car hunting. He found another car similar to ours. This one is Turquoise and 2 years older. But the cheapest around. Plus we will be able to transfer the Bull Bars straight over with no problems. The engine seems good with plenty of power. We bought it and Elder Tetjen spent the day getting it insured and things transferred over from the green car to this Turquoise car. So we are on the road again so quickly to go out and continue serving the Lord.
We thanked the Lord for helping us find a car so quickly that would work best for us.
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