Unremarkable Hobbit

On this Sunday afternoon I find myself thinking about Bilbo Baggins and his grand adventure, as was paraphrased by Elder Uchtdorf in this last general conference.  We left our comfortable, and easy circumstances, although our garden never really grew well in Wyoming, to embark on a grand adventure.  I'm sure some people will question why we did it and others will surmise that we did it only to get away from the Wyoming winters.  I don't know if I'll every be able to explain the feelings of our heart in submitting our names for a full time mission but today I was reminded that we're in the right place, at the right time, to be of service to our brothers and sisters.  One fellow, back in Wyoming actually said, "I heard you had to finagle your way into that call".  Which is true if you mean that we had to challenge the missionary medical department when they said we needed to stay close to my cardiologist because of having heart surgery 8 years ago.  After we explained that there was no "cardiologist" and three different cardiologists had given me full clearance to serve, they allowed our papers to be presented to the brethren, where they approved our request to serve here.

Anyhow, back to today.  We were at the Lyneham chapel for six hours and we met so many wonderful saints.  We started with the Black Mountain Ward and three of the young sister missionaries were there with us.  Sister Diaz, from Peru, was one of the speakers and she was incredible.  It was the first talk she'd ever given in English and she did such a good job.  The chapel was full and it was amazing the evidence of diversity.  There were members who have come from Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Canada, China, Indonesia, the US and others.  The second ward to meet there is the Yerrabi Ward and Elders Lee and Palmer joined us.  They asked Evelyn to lead the music and then asked us to each take five minutes and share our testimony.  We were invited to a breakfast "Barbie" on Saturday morning and we're going to meet Cindy in Guilburn for tea at 10:00 on Friday as we head to Sydney.  She wants to take us to a care center to visit with Liz.  We found out that FHE will be at our place tomorrow evening at 7:00 and we met several YSA who we invited to join us.

We're now back at the flat and enjoying a lunch made with all sorts of wonderful flavors that Evelyn put together from our trip to the COOP on Thursday.  She's so amazing, not only for her great skills in the kitchen but I was able to watch her interacting with the sisters and young women today and I marvel at her goodness.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prayers work!

When we arrived in Canberra,  on Tuesday afternoon, it was so awesome to finally be in our assignment.  The winds practically blew our car off the road and we dodged kangaroo carcasses all along the 3.5 hour drive.  We found our flat, unloaded our car and went across town to the Costco.  We brought our purchases back, had dinner and then went a few kilometers to a local mall for groceries.  As we were getting lost trying to find where we'd parked our white car (most cars here are white) a fellow ran up to us with a big  grin. He introduced himself as the Stake executive secretary.  We had just prayed that our first priority was to meet the Stake President.  Brett was so kind and immediately put us in touch with President Stuart.  He even shared a cookie with us as he directed us toward the parking.  So, last night,  Wednesday,  we drove over to the Stake center in Garran and had the best meeting ever. President Stuart was just called as President two weeks ago.  They realigned all
Read more

We've arrived and our hearts are full

I will do my best to put into words, the last two days. We are so excited! We departed from Salt  Lake on Monday evening. The flights were all on time. We were able to travel with Elder Nam who is from South Korea and a recent convert to the church. He is learning English and was very grateful to have us on those flights.  We didn't have access to our boarding passes for the flight to Sydney until we arrived in Los Angeles where we discovered our seats were not together,  on a very full Boeing 777. A flight attendant was helpful, and a kind gentleman moved so we were together.  (Fourth row from the back) Evelyn didn't even put on her seat belt before she introduced herself to the young man (19) who was returning to Australia after working the farming season Canada.  For the next fifteen hours, minus a few moments of sleeping, Evelyn taught the gospel.  Before we landed we had shared our contact information and a promise to continue our friendship.  Just 15 minutes ago we we
Read more

plans that don't materialize

It was a good weekend and there was much to be grateful for but it's one of those reports where I have to admit that the results were different than desired.  Saturday morning we went over to the Lyneham church and helped with the setup for collecting items to be distributed to those who were suffering from the bush fires.  It was a relatively easy time and several people were there to help.  At one point, I walked across the street and introduced myself to an older fellow who was trimming his bushes.  His name is Alan and he's a widower who has lived in that home since they built it over 60 years ago.  He practiced law and they raised three children in the home.  He spoke of his wife and children with great affection.  His wife planted every tree and shrub on the property.  Alan referred to his home as a "sort of Eden" and I agreed. We attended church, at 9:00 in the Black Mountain Ward in the hopes that Sam, our friend from the lake, would attend.  It was an excel
Read more