Times in Tamworth 24

Another week's flown by!

Some really great things have happened this week. Every month we get a certain number of km's we can drive in our area. Being the end of the month, we had quite a bit of km's left over and so this week Elder Tavalea and I decided to do some road-tripping to visit the members that live far away from Tamworth. It was a lot of driving, but we had some great experiences!

The first town we went to is called Werris Creek, and we have a number of less-active members living there. It's a tiny town of maybe 200 people, but we managed to stay busy the whole day! We met some interesting less-actives, including a group of them who apostatized and formed their own church down in Werris. I think the membership of that church is 5.. haha. They were very nice to us, but had some interesting spins on certain doctrines. 

We also went tracting and knocked into an ex-communicated member. At first he didn't let on that he used to be a member, and so we were amazed when he knew all this stuff about the church. He finally introduced himself as the ex-branch president of Tamworth. I was pretty amazed- he had grown up in the church, served a mission, been in just about every leadership position, etc etc, but when his marriage broke up, him, his ex-wife, and all 8 children left the church. It was heart-wrenching for us to think about such a good family becoming so totally lost. Nevertheless it's certainly not every day you run into people like that. He was very nice, though, and even invited us back for a barbeque. Who knows, maybe his time to return is coming!

Another town we went and visited was Manilla, which is a little bit bigger than Werris Creek- maybe 500 or 600 people- and we met up with a less-active American. His accent sure sounded foreign to me, haha. Anyhow when I first saw his name on the record list, I was confused; his priesthood level indicated "Seventy". Only later have I found out that ages and ages ago, they used to have "Seventies" as they called them in every ward and stake. It was sort of like the level above High Priest, but they got rid of them and instituted High Councils or something instead (at least from what a member has told me). Anyhow we met with him and had a nice lesson. It's interesting to me, he says he is still obeying all the commandments, from Word of Wisdom to praying everyday- but had some issues with the church organization and chose just to "do his own thing instead". It blows me away how tricky satan can be in leading the hearts of people away. 

Some brighter news, however, is that we found out Matt's daughter had her baby this weekend! Which was really exciting! Matt was very happy and proud, and he said he'll let us come by this week to see the baby boy. His daughter chose a pretty great name for the boy as well- Matthew. Haha :)

Chris is continuing to do awesome, as she came to church again and even participated in the combined priesthood/relief society lesson. Goodness, it just makes me so happy to see how she is progressing so quickly in the gospel. Patrick, her son, wants to come to church a few times before he is baptized, but slept in again yesterday. I think this week Elder Tavalea and I are going to go hide alarm clocks in his bedroom so he'll have to wake up. Hehe. We'll see how that goes!

One miracle I'd like to share~ on Saturday Elder Tavalea and I were at the chapel cleaning up the English class when we saw some young boys playing footy in the car park. We just walked up and started playing with them, and then at the end got their contact details and scheduled to go visit them this week. I feel really good about them for some reason, they were just good boys- and the best part is they live right across the street from the chapel. Pray that this family is ready for the gospel! 

All-in-all, an unusual and interesting week. I really enjoy being up here in Tamworth, it strays a little bit from ordinary missionary work, which makes it enjoyable. We do have transfers coming up next week, and I honestly have no idea which way it'll go. We are also going up to Coffs Harbour this weekend which will tie it all together quite nicely. I guess next week you'll find out where I'm at! 

As for an Aussieism: "I'm puffed" or "All puffed out" is what all the Aussies say when tired after a full game of sport. I guess it makes sense, it just sounded funny to me at first!

Well, love you all heaps and hope you have a great week. Congrats again to Katie and Irving for tying the knot! What an exciting adventure they're just beginning. 

Cheers!

Elder Easton