Our Missonary conference held on Friday the 13th

Wow, today is my lucky day. Friday the 13th.    Friday the 13th has always been my lucky day.   Don't ask why, just has.  

9:00 am we headed out to Bathurst on our way to pick up the missionary couple Elder and Sister Tonumaipe'a to take them with us to Sydney for a Special Missionary conference.  

We arrived in Sydney at the Baulkham Hills Church.   We had been told that a general Authority NEVER comes our way so we were all wondering what might be announced.

Well, you might say it turned out to be a really spiritual missionary pep talk.

Elder Quinton L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Keith McMullin of the Presiding Bishopric, James Hamula of the Area Presidency and Kevin W. Pearson of the Area Presidency all came to speak to us.

2:50 pm with all the missionaries standing, the Brethren and their wives all came into the Chapel and then they walked out again. They went out and stood in a line and we were told that everyone of us was going to be able to shake their hands. We were to tell our names and where we were from.
We were told that this way they could feel of our spirits and feel like they knew a little more about the group.

We were told that there are 24 countries represented here as missionaires serving in our mission.    I don't know all the countries but I do know that there seems to be a lot of missionaries from Samoa.    One Chinese or Japanese looking (can't tell them apart) missionary actually came from Salt Lake City.    So you can not look at them and know where they might be from.  

I can't begin to write where they are all from because I don't know.

But to begin with, Charles, we met Troy Parson's brother-in-law, Elder Barnes.    We visited with him for a bit.    He said he was told to watch out for us.     So now he is excited to say that he finally met us.   We found out that he is in our district so we may see him again at District meetings.

And Rob & Douglas. We met Elder Mortenson from Star Valley, Wyoming.   He said his father is Gary Mortenson that lives in Lyman.    Do you happen to know him?

We get to see Elder Larson, that we met in the MTC and got our picture taken with, at these big missionary gatherings. We haven't met Elder Scott yet. (the other Elder we met in the MTC)    We don't know where he went.   

You missionaries might recognize the photo attached.  A whole lot of spiritually fed missionaries ready to go out and share the gospel.

We were told that we are not here by coincidence, that we are where we ought to be.   We are doing what we ought to be doing.

We were told to be witnesses of Jesus Christ for he lives and atoned for our sins and he leads his church today.   The spirit was very strong.   I could stay there all day and listen to the brethren.

We left the church at 5:55 pm, dropped the Tonumaipe'a couple off at 9:30 pm and arrived home in Orange at 10:40 pm.     What a perfectly wonderful day.

In the last picture is sister Moses, Sister Pearce, Sister & Elder Tonumaipe'a and of course, sister & Elder Tietjen.   sister Moses and Sister Pearce have been transferred and Elder & sister Tonumaipe'a is in Bathurst waiting for their Visas to go to Papua New Guinea.   They have gotten into the missionary work full force as if they were assigned there.   They are great.   

You are also missionaries.    Work hard.  

love you all

What's up for the Missionaries?

Looks like some excitement is in the air. Last night we just got an e-mail telling us about a special Missionary (only) Conference to be held this Friday, Jan 13, 2012 at Baulkham Hills Church.

Elder Quinton Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Keith McMullin of the Presiding Bishopric, James Hamula of the Area Presidency and Kevin W. Pearson of the Area Presidency will be coming.
We will let you know what is going on after we get back. So Friday we are off to Sydney again. At least it is not into the city. Just on the Western outskirts.

What a way to start a new year.

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

http://austcemindex.com/cemetery.php?id=694

Elder Tietjen had the hood of the car opened so a lady stopped to ask if we needed help.   He told her what was wrong and that we needed a part and asked if there was a car parts store in Grenfell.     She said nothing would be opened today because of the Holiday yesterday (New Years)

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.

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