Miracles never cease

Remember me saying that our green car cracked a head.   Well, Elder Tietjen has been having some fun at playing mechanics.   He took the engine apart and "wha, la".

No cracked head. "Miracle".     It had just blown a head gasket.   I guess that is not so bad.    I mean, what do I know about mechanics after living 42 yrs with one.

Elder Tietjen went and ordered the part.    The next week he invited David Field over to help work on it.   David, a member of the Orange Branch, has stopped drinking and is now working at stopping smoking and coming back into the church.

Elder Tietjen finally got the head gasket on, got things back together enough to a point that he could start the engine and "wha la" again.   It runs.   He says it sounds like it is running on all 6.   You of course know what that means right?    Well, if you don’t, go ask a mechanic.

Well, he took it out for a test run and came back and said he got pulled over by a policeman.   I asked if he was speeding?    I mean how else can a mechanic take a car out for a test run?  Right?  (Oh, ye with litte faith)    No, of course he was not speeding, he got pulled over for not having his bonnet on. The police man told him to go home and get his bonnet on it.. You say "are you kidding?" Nope, they call the car’s hood, "the bonnet". The trunk is called "the boot"
So he came right home and got his bonnet on it.

We now have, as Elder Tietjen puts it, his and her cars.   "Her" car gets to stay in the garage until "his" wants to drive her’s because her still does not feel comfortable dring on the wrong side of the road.

I decided to give our cars names so I knew which car we were talking about.   Our first green car is named Greenie. Our second car which is a turquoise color is called Tory. Tory is getting favored because of her electric windows, windshield wiper relay works, she inherited the bull bars and the trunk (boot) hinge springy things that make the trunk lid stay up.   

I guess it is her that gets to go traveling while his stays in the garage. 

I think the shocks are not so stiff either.  It does not seem like we bounce so hard on these bumpy roads.

David enjoyed coming and helping Elder Tietjen work on the car. Also Bro Mills that is inactive loaned him some tools and helped with other things on the car.

So even cars can be a tool to do missionary work.

We have taken Greenie out for a long ride to make sure he is ok, and he is runing great.   But he still gets to stay in the garage most of the time.

Sunday, the 15th

Sunday January 15, 2012 was such a beautiful day. We started out at 9:30 am going to church meetings. Colleen came with us. She is the one that smokes and does not want to quit or even be very religious. (She says) But she asked to go today to see the Baptism.

Since there was a baptism today, every speaker and even the lessons seemed aimed right at Fiona. Talking about keeping covenants and working hard to keep Satan away. After receiving the Holy Ghost we must learn how to listen for advice. The Holy Ghost can be with us as long as we are keeping the commandments, buy he can go away when we do something wrong. All the meetings were so full of excellent advice that I hoped it would touch Colleen's heart.
Jordan, a return missionary, is dating a nonmember girl named Katie. She comes to church with him every week. The meetings were so spiritually touching that I hope her soul was touched as well and she will gain a testimony of the truthfulness. Hopefully for herself and not just for Jordan.
Fiona is dating Ririwai. She asked if he would baptize her so he did. .
Ririwai and Fiona made up the programs and passed them out.
Sister Deanna Francis spoke at the baptism, along with Elder Tietjen.
Deanna had brought some of her Temple clothes that Fiona wore to be baptized in.
Fiona wanted her sister to come but she had to work and could not. She had no family or friends attending, except for her new found friends in the gospel.
Everyone that was at church stayed for the baptism and lunch.
Colleen even said it was such a good day and a lot to think about. I do hope that she will want to finally decide to give up her smoking and come always.
It was such a very beautiful day.

Sunday January 21, 2012
9:30 am in Sacrament meeting, Fiona was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and she received the Holy Ghost. She looked so radiant and happy. Oh, yes. Colleen asked us to give her a ride this Sunday too. She was baptized back in 1977 and she says that she can't remember being confirmed. But she thought that she must have been.
She said she will go again to church the 1^st Sunday of February. That is the Sunday that Elder Tietjen is to bless the twin in the Orange Branch. We need to get these Branches organized to be able to pick up these single sisters that do not have cars. We cannot be at all of the Branches at once.

You are being watched

"You are being watched".    Have you ever been told that before as members of the church?    I was all the time as a youth.

Well, we are still looking for inactives. (There are so many that we still haven't found them all yet).

Elder Tietjen got a new print out of the Dubbo Branch members and found 6 more located in Wellington.    A town a little South of Dubbo.    As we were going to the addresses given, we got some rude remarks and doors slammed in our face, but we kept trudging along.    One lady said she has never been a member and her husband told us to get lost. (In not so kind words)

We had gone to a house looking for Donald Nicholson but got no answer.   So a few days later we went back.    A man came to the door and said he was not interested, then came outside and visited with us.    Elder Tietjen asked if he was Donald, he said "no, I am Ronald" "You are looking for my son Donald".    He then proceeded to give us Donald's address, where he worked and all about him.    Then said that he himself was just his old man the drunk.   He was drinking beer, but he was very pleasant and visited.
He proceeded to tell us that he had seen us on Hunter Street in Dubbo. Well, our apartment is on Hunter St.   He is one of the men that goes along and mows the lawns of the apartment complex that we stay in (our summer cabin).    He used to see the young Elders there and would stop and say hi to them, but he did not want to say hi to us for he was very busy that day.   But he said he knew who we were. 
We told him, that next time he comes around we will stop and say hi to him.

So remember, "You never know who is watching you" OR WHERE!!  

Be a Good Example Always!!!

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.