Road Trip.

I spoke in Sacrament meeting last week on obedience, along with Elder Dos Santos who spoke on Fathers Day, and the Bishop's wife who spoke on personal revelation. Because Father's Day was Sunday, Sept. 1, there were few in attendance at our Sacrament meeting, but as usual, BIG in spirit.

Road trip..........

Besides our normal duties this week, we took a road trip Wednesday and Thursday to Bordertown and Keith, with stops in Nangwarry and Naracoorte. The weather was a bit better this time and we saw miles and miles of vineyards, as well as paddock after paddock of sheep, cows, and a few horses. We also saw field after field of a yellow crop of some sort....here is a picture taken from the car window at 110 (that's kilometers)....I need to ask around and will post later what I am able to find out.

The Bishop gave us a list of 17 or 18 families to find, visit, and invite to our upcoming ward conference. One address was given as lot 26 on a certain road, and one was listed as '3 km out of town on a farm' which is a little difficult to find.  We may have a future in private detective work as we were able to locate and talk to both parties. We found city information centers, and local post offices very helpful in the small towns, and we are not too proud to ask neighbors for information.

As you might expect with ward boundaries this large, people on the extreme outer edges of the ward sometimes get lost. We've also found that some people have that very intention and do not care for further contact from the church. Our job as missionaries is to invite people, and as always, they have their agency to choose their path. Some of the people we meet are welcoming and excited to see us, and some, not so much, as they prefer to STAY lost from fellowship, support, and obligations of membership in the church. When we get discouraged about those people, I remember our Bishop is prone to say, " I believe in agency, Sister." Meaning we can invite, but they get to decide.

We visited one committed Brother who lives 110 k from Mount Gambier and comes to church faithfully every week. He is from the Philippines, here on a 5 year work visa, because he cannot support his wife and two sons on the pay he receives there as a mechanical engineer. He told us that even though the cost of living is much higher in Australia than the Philippines, his pay is 40 TIMES GREATER! That's right, 40 TIMES GREATER. They have been separated ( him working in Australia and she is in the Philippines still) for over a year now and he plans to have enough saved to bring them here in March or April. They are doing all of this for the good of their family. They are able to keep in close contact through the blessing of Skype, and I told him I would DIE without it as we are able to keep in contact with our family too. I consider Skype, FaceTime, and email technology (and that we know how to use them) a wonderful tender mercy!

To explain further about Randy, he works in a meat processing plant where over 800 cattle are processed DAILY and shipped to China and other parts of the world. He stands in a meat cutting line, and when the hanging carcass goes by, there is limited time to get his cuts completed, before the next one comes along. The line waits for no one and you cannot catch up if you get behind. In fact you don't get behind or you will lose the job. This goes on for more than 8 hours a day with limited restroom breaks and a short 20 minute lunch. It is very stressful, hard, manual labor and he feels blessed!

Randy's church 'story' is inspirational and his humble devoted commitment to his family and the church amazing. It caused me to be grateful, not for the first time since being here, for the country of my birth. While the United States may have problems, and some of them very large and concerning, I feel extremely blessed to be an American.

Twice on the drive back to Mount Gambier yesterday, we went under a row of trees that hung over the road from both sides like a canopy and we realized they were eucalyptus trees by the smell. It was really quite unexpected and nice.

We FINALLY saw kangaroos in Bordertown's city center wildlife preserve. There were brown kangaroos as well as more rare white ones, pictured below. They were smaller than we expected and we could see the Joey (baby) wiggling in the pouch, but never did see a head peek out.  We are still on the lookout for Koalas.... I should have looked in the eucalyptus trees we passed under, although they may come out only during specific months or seasons, but this needs further research.

 Our motel accommodation Wednesday night in Bordertown (182 K) was near the main road, which is a major link between Adelaide and Melbourne. In addition, we were about 3 blocks from a truck stop, so it was extremely noisy all night long. Not our best nights rest! We were glad to get back to our own bed and had an early night to catch up!

South Australia doesn't have freeways. Roads between towns are one lane each way with an occasional overtaking lane (passing). In addition, the smaller roads lanes are extremely narrow which makes for white knuckles! In Adelaide, streets have two narrow lanes each direction, so we are thankful Lee could learn to drive out of the city. Heavy fines are levied for speeding and running yellow lights, so most people are careful to obey the laws

Stephanie, the investigator, is progressing nicely and scheduled for baptism Saturday, September 14.
We were planning to be packed to leave for our new assignment in Adelaide on the 13th, but will now leave Sunday the 15th after sacrament meeting so we can attend her baptism. We are excited for Stephanie and her son Tyler, and are grateful to be able to participate in her conversion process these past weeks. Once we are serving in the mission office our duties won't include this aspect of the work.

Saturday is our preparation day for laundry, shopping etc. Be watching for week 9 highs and lows in Sundays post. Did you know it's Friday night here as I write this, but only Thursday to you? Crazy to think about huh..?

Here are a few more pictures from this week:

Clothes line as previously mentioned.

A land rover on top of a pole in a park.

Public restroom sign.