KALGOORLIE!!!

Hey there!

Well this has been one heck of a week.  On Monday last week we had lunch as a Zone in celebration of our baptisms from the last month.  It was fun to find out where everyone was being transferred.  Well we knew that Sister Terry, the Ellenbrook Sisters and I all needed to be dropping me off at the train station at 2:45 in order to catch my train that leaves at 3:15.  Well at about 2:17 Sister Bailey asks me when we need to leave.  I told her about 5 minutes and then we would be off.  Sister Terry said we could stay for probably 10 and I said fine but then we would need to leave for sure.  Well Sister Bailey needed to pick up her bike from the bike shop at 2:30.  So in a quick minute or less Sister Terry and Sister Bailey had devised a plan of how to get me to the train and Sister Bailey her bike.  Those two work at a million miles an hour and no on  else can keep up with them.  So all of a sudden Sister Terry and Sister Bailey are running out of the building.  I stand up because my companion has just left the building.  I look around and see Sister Suzuki sitting by herself.  I ask her what is going on and she just shrugs being just as confused as I was.   At 2:40 I call the sisters.  They have just left the bike shop and are on their way to pick us up.  2:45 I call again and ask where they are.  They say, "We are at the lights by President's house."  I asked why the heck they are all the way down there.  They say not to worry and that I'll make the train.  I knew at that moment that I wasn't going to make my train to Kalgoorlie.  They called me straight back and they asked where we were.  We told them that we were still at lunch.  Sister Terry goes, "Oh heck we were heading to the chapel!  We are turning around right now!  Why don't you just drive to the station and we will meet you there?"  I said, "That's a great plan but I would have done that 20 minutes ago had the keys not been in the purse around your neck."  There was silence on the other side of the phone and then I just hear keys being pulled out of her bag.  "Oh no!!! It's okay we will make your train!"  We weren't going to make it.  They pulled up and we sauced out cars and took off towards the train station.  I was going in and out of traffic and Sister Bailey starts to offer a prayer that we will make it safe, that Sister Beckstrand won't get pulled over, and that she will make her train.  3:07pm Sister Bailey tells Sister Suzuki to say a prayer because her prayers are better than Sister Baileys.  Sister Suzuki starts praying and I just started to cry.  I knew I wasn't going to make it.  We pulled in to the station at 3:14.  I took off running to stop the train while Sister Terry and Sister Bailey brought my bags from the car.  As I'm running to the ticket station I see my train pull out of the station.  I got to the ticket man and asked if that was the train leaving for Kalgoorlie.  I just sat down and tried not to cry or yell at anyone.  Sister Terry and Bailey came running down the station with my bags.  They saw me and knew we had missed it.  I made them sauce out my ticket and how I was going to get to Kalgoorlie.  It was a long process and a lot of phone calls but they got my ticket switched to the morning train and everything was going to be fine.  We went back to Alexander Heights and finished out our day.  The next morning we were off nice and early with plenty of time to catch my train :)  I did indeed make that train at 7:10am and pulled in to Kalgoorlie at 2pm. 

My new companion is Sister Sheryl Joyce Vaiula.  She is straight from Samoa.  She has been out for a transfer less than I have.  She is half Samoan, half American.  She has never met her biological dad.  She was adopted and raised by her mum's parents in Samoa from when she was very young.  She was baptized when she was 8 but was less-active for the 11-12 years following.  She decided that she needed to go back to church last year just before the age was lowered for the missionaries to serve.  She decided to serve a mission and worked with her Bishop to get her out on a mission.  She had to visa wait for a transfer back in Samoa so we get along really well.  She has been in Kal or 7 weeks now so I rely on her a lot to help me know where to drive.  I got to talk to Sister Donaldson (the last sister out here) just after I arrived.  She said that she had told President that if she leaves Kal that a strong sister needs to come in her place.  I was honoured that I had been trusted to be that strong sister to help in the work out here.  There is heaps of work out here.  A big chuck comes from part member families and reactivation of less-active members.  I'm so excited to see what we can do with this area.  Sister Vaiula sticks to the rules, has a desire to do work, and is ready and determined to work hard.  It's going to be great!

My first night here we went to a Relief Society Christmas Party.  It was a quick way to get to know a lot of the ladies in the ward.  I met the Bishops wife.  They are from Utah!  Their surname is Rowe.  They are super nice and were excited to have someone else from Utah in the ward.  There are about 3 or 4 American families in the ward.  I met them all at church yesterday. 

One family that I was beyond excitement to see was Brother and Sister Kaa.   I knew Sister Kaa back in the good ol' Washington YSA ward!  I knew her as Nykell Graff.  She is Mrs. Graff from Washington Elementary School's daughter.  Her little sister is Morgan Graff who I went to school with.  She graduated back in May.  Crazy right?!  She met her husband on her mission and they moved here about a year ago.  She is pregnant with twins.  It's their first kids and they are both boys.  Brother Kaa is really excited.  She isn't due until the new year but she is so small that her doctor has just told her to be on bed rest and see how long she can go.  She reckons she will have Christmas babies.  I can't believe that she is here.  We had dinner with them the other day and I loved having someone to talk to about home. 

Speaking of home.  Kalgoorlie is St. George just half was around the world.  I'll send a picture.   This picture was taken because I had a flash back of driving from the St. George temple (where I studied in between classes) and DSU.  I fully thought I was driving down like 400 S in St. George.  Just replace the gum trees with the trees we have at home.  There is also red dirt everywhere!!!!  I really feel like they sent me home for Christmas.  Minus the fact that you are all going to have a white Christmas.  Which I'm still trying to wrap my head around.  We hit 100 degrees here in Kalgoorlie the other day :)  Nice, warm,  and dry.  Just the way I like it haha

It's weird as being in the outback.  There are only 4 missionaries out her in Kal.  Our District leader is Elder Quaresima from Italy, his companion is Elder Battye from the Gold Coast of Brisbane, Me the American, and Sister Vaiula from the islands.  We are a pretty divers group but we absolutely love it!  The other day we had Zone Meeting.  Now being in Kal we are a part of the Bunbury Zone.  We are a 7 hour train ride and another 2 hour drive after that away from our zone.  How do we participate in Zone Meeting do you ask?  By phone call of course!  So we got together at the chapel here in Kal and put our phone on speaker and listened in on Zone Meeting.  It was hard to hear some of it and weird to have our phone on mute so we couldn't really be a part of it but that's just part of being in the outback! 

One great story from this week.  We are working with this family.  They are the Tairua Family.  The parents have been less-active for a long time.  They have 3 kids.  2 daughters that have tried to stay active thanks to the amazing youth program out here.  (No joke we dropped by on Thursday to say hi to people at the mutual and they had at least 25 kids at mutual that night and not all of them were there!  This ward is amazing!) Anyway Sister Tairua has a desire to return and the youngest boy Jay turns 9 this Friday and has never been baptized.   The whole family came to church last week and the mum and kids came yesterday as well.  We dropped by on Thursday night for a lesson.  Mum said that she wants Jay to be baptized and Jay wants to be baptized more than anyone else I've ever met.  We taught him the Restoration and gave him his own copy of the Book of Mormon.  Sister Tairua was touched by the lesson and at church yesterday she really opened up in Relief Society.  It was great to hear her concerns and setbacks.  The teacher really showed an increase of love and just told her that she is exactly where she needs to be to find help in regaining her testimony and strengthening it.  It's amazing what kind of effect one simple sentence like that can have on a person.  I'm grateful for all the people in my life that had given me hope and strength with their "one sentence" to me over the years. 

Jay is going to be baptized on the 11th of Jan 2014.  It's going to be great.  His primary teacher just raved about him after church to his mum.  He is a brilliant kid and will make an incredible missionary some day. 

I love teaching little kids.  The next generation is strong. Physically, mentally, and spiritually.  I have a firm testimony that the Lord has saved his strongest souls to come in the hardest of times.  Why?  Because they can handle it.  Not just handle it but they can withstand temptation, understand at a greater level, and have a testimony so deeply rooted in the foundation of the gospel that nothing can or will shake them.  That's how we all need to be.  I know I am learning from Jay just as much as he is learning from me.  It's been such a special blessing to work with these kids.  I love being in Kalgoorlie.  I can't wait to see what else is in store out here.  I love you all!

Sister Shayne

PS.

Dad- I was reading in Jesus the Christ the other day and came across the story from John 9:1-3.  That is when they ask the Lord who has sinned that the child has been born blind.  I automatically thought of you and all of the Sundays before Christmas when we would watch Christmas Mission :)  It made my study a bit brighter. 

Mom-  Your blogs are the best!  Thank you for the one about the Thanksgiving day race.  I got a good laugh out of it.  I've decided to print out pictures from your blog and tape them up on the wall by my bed.  Our room is pretty bare and it would just make it feel a little more like home.   Just getting settled in a new area haha

Sophie-  Your meet updates are awesome!  You and your girls will be smashing my records in no time!  Just don't crush em to much.  haha

Josh-  It doesn't surprise me that you are the one who made the first snowball of winter.  I was telling someone the other day about when we had our last big now storm in St. George and you put a snowball in the deep freeze.  No on found it for ages and then when mom did we all just had a good laugh about it.  I still can't believe how tall you are.  You are taller than mom!  Which means you are taller than me!  Make sure you send me all of the new heights from the height tree this year!

Ben and David-  Good job on your basketball games!  Dad told me all about how you both not only won your games but that you both scored in them as well!  I'm so proud of the great little athletes you are becoming.  Keep running and maybe when I get back I'll run some 5K's with you :) 

I hope you are all being good so that Santa can bring you great presents this year.  Oh yes by the way my mail still gets to me out here in the outback.  They just forward all letters to us.  President is coming up this week and will bring packages and what have yous.  We are well taken care of out here and are definitely not forgotten. 

All my love from the outback! 

Picture #1  After we missed the train on Monday

 

 Picture #2  Sister Bailey's loving apology hug before I got on the train Tuesday morning

 

Picture #3 View from the train out to Kalgoorlie

 

Zone Meeting.  See our phone in the middle of the table?  Sister Vaiula, Elder Quaresima, and Elder Battye on the right.

 

Me and Sister Vaiula :) 

 

Brother Jack Kaa and Sister Nykell Graff Kaa !!! 

 

Our Flat!

 

400 South in St. George.  Really just a street in the suburb of Boulder in Kalgoorlie.

 

Overview picture of Kalgoorlie from a magazine.  It's the closest area I've had to a grid system since Cheney.

 

Sunday Studies.  My study chair broke so I was using my bed.  I think I used every resource I had available during that study haha Can you see where I sat? 

 

People in Kalgoorlie are getting excited about Christmas.  Lights are starting to go up!

 

Sister Vaiula had never washed a car at a car wash until this morning.  I had to document this first time for her.  It's a perk of having a companion from the Islands.  A lot of things are a first.