G'day!
Well this week has been pretty exciting! We
started our week out with a trip to part of our area called Esperance
that we haven't been to. We woke up at about 3:20am to get ready for the day and were on the road by 4:30am. We went that early because we had to be back by 6 because that was the end of p-day. It's
about as far from Kalgoorlie as St.George is to Lehi. We got there
right around 8am. The first thing we did was go to Macca's and get
breakfast. Then we walked down to the jetty. We aren't allowed to swim
but we got as close as we could by walking out on the water as far as
we could. It was so much fun! I learned a fun fact that my Samoan
companion doesn't know how to swim. When questioned how someone from an
island surrounded by water doesn't know how to swim we found out that
although Samoa is an island many people there don't know how to swim.
She is from a farm up in the hills and doesn't go to the beach very
often. The seashore is called the foreshore here. That was my new word
for the day on Monday. After we took pictures on the jetty and enjoyed
the fresh sea breeze we drove up to a look out on the hill. I wasn't
expecting much but when we got up there I saw the most beautiful water I
have in my entire life. I didn't know that water could be so blue. I
don't know what is wrong with the Pacific but it needs to learn from the
Indian ocean on how to look beautiful. I just sat in awe. Well we
took a little hike to get a better view of the water. The closer we got
the prettier the water became. It was definitely worth the early
morning wake up. I only agreed to the trip because I figured I would
probably never have the opportunity to see this town ever again in my
life so we went. We spent a lot of time just looking out over the
water and taking pictures. I took easily over 50 photos of just the
water. The pictures don't do it justice in my opinion. We made a pit
stop at the Library to see if we could use their computers to email
home. The lady was super nice and since we were only there for one day
she said she would let us use the computers for free instead of having
to pay. There were only 3 computers though so she scheduled out 2
computers and gave us each half an hour. We wanted to stay longer to
send better letters home but we didn't'
want to abuse her generosity. After quick emails we grabbed lunch and
made the drive back. It was a great experience and I'm grateful that I
had the opportunity.
The blessing of taking that trip
means that we get to spend more time on our bikes because we used quite a
few k's to get to Esperance and back. I was excited to be out on the
push bikes again. It's a much more effective way to contact people
along your path. People tend to think you are really weird when you
just pull over and jump out of the car to try and talk to them about
Jesus. I've had companions that wanted to try that. Anyway just like a
lot of people have written to me in their Christmas cards yes it is
warm here. It's not just warm, it is hot. It is really really hot. It
has been over 42 degrees Celsius all week long here in Kal. It
wouldn't be so bad if we could go for a swim or get out of the heat more
often but the ozone is thin and the rays are strong here. Instead of
lotion in the mornings I put on sunblock. Instead of coming home for
dinner we come home to take a shower. Instead of a nice cup of Milo at
lunch we bought 2 bags of 24 Zooper Doopers last p-day that are almost
gone. A Zooper Dooper is the Australian equivalent of an Otter Pop.
They are also called ice poles. Why? Because they are a pole of ice.
Australian terms are very simple and often self explanatory. I'm
getting a pretty solid tan. It goes from the middle of my biceps to my
wrist where my watch is. I have a wicked tan line from my watch and
from the straps on my feet from my shoes. One day I must have forgotten
to put sunblock on my face because my nose, forehead, and ears got
burnt and peeled. I learned my lesson that day. Being on bikes in this
weather isn't awful though. There are benefits. While riding around
people see you. They may think you are crazy but when we tract into
them latter they go, "Oh you are the girls that were on the push bikes
the other day." Also as we tract we get the sympathy vote. Some times
people offer us water. They aren't interested but we still get to tell
them something while we drink whatever they give us. It's a pretty good
deal. On Saturday we tracted a street with about 40 houses on it.
Only one kid was really into what we shared. He said we could drop
back by any time this week. Hopefully we can share more with him and
his family. During that tracting it was really hot and only 1 man
offered us a drink. That night I prayed that he and his family would be
blessed for giving us a drink. We took an early dinner so that Sister
Vaiula could get out of the sun. She didn't drink enough water earlier
in the day. I've had to teach her all about how the sun and her body
work this last week. She made a New Year goal to lose weight so I
wrote down simple things she can work on. She stuck it right in the
front of her planner. I've been doing better this transfer. Every
missionary that heard I was coming here said that I would gain weight.
I have proved them all wrong so far by maintaining if not dropping a
few pounds. I think it's all just because of the heat but it's all
good.
Last week I mentioned how we had
tracted the majority of our Saturday and only found one person who was
interested at all in what we had to share. Well he has been the biggest
tender mercy from the Lord. His name is Ronney. When we first met him
we were actually trying to find someone else. The guy we were looking
for doesn't live there. We introduced ourselves and asked if we could
share a message with him. He gave us the okay and I shared Alma 38:5
(my favorite scripture) and he said, "Well that's what we all hope for
isn't it?" I just stepped back and said, "You believe in God?!" We
hadn't met very many people that day that believed in anything. He
said, "Of course just look around you! You'd be stupid not to believe
in a God." I told him that I wish we met more people like him. That
statement hasn't been more true. We told him that that scripture
actually comes from the Book of Mormon. He said that he had heard of
the book before. He said, "It's okay that it's from that book, it's all
word from God." I was blown away. We set up a time that we could come
back and teach him more about our church. We went on Thursday with
Sister Prall from the ward to teach him the Restoration. We went inside
and he said, "Alright, where do we start?" Ecstatic we introduced
ourselves a little more, opened with a prayer and dove into the
Restoration. Everything we shared was like gold to him. He loved every
bit and listened intently. He just kept saying, "Yeah." and "Of
course!" When Sister Prall bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon I
couldn't help but feel prompted to invite him to be baptized. I said,
"Ronney when you know that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph
Smith is a true prophet will you be baptized. . . " He cut me off and
said, "Oh yes! I'd love to be baptized. I've never been baptized
before!" We promised blessing, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon
(which he said he was honored to have), invited him to church, set a
return appointment, closed with a prayer and went on our way. We got
in the car and just looked at each other in amazement. We said a prayer
of gratitude and went on our way. He came to church yesterday too!!!
We are excited to go back tomorrow and see what he thought about it.
That's about it for
this week. I hope you are all doing wonderful and are enjoying being
back into your normal routine of things. I pray for you always. Always
know that a Sister in Australia loves you :)
Aroha Nui (Maori for Lots of love),
Sister Shayne
#1 Morning of drive to Esperance
#2 Jetty
#3 Me on the Jetty
View from the hill out look
View from the cliff we hiked down to from the look out. Look how blue!
Me and the blue water :)
LIFE SAVER!
Me and Sister Vaiula
Welcome to Esperance sign that we actually took a picture of on our way out of town haha!
New Year! Midnight in Perth, 9:00am in St. George, time where Jaden is as well as Brashley :)
Phone Jan 1 12:00am
My New Years Eve Party! Journal writing, rubiks cube, water bottle, chips and salsa.
I saw this Christmas cactus on a doorstep that we knocked on and had to take a picture for you :)
The
twins!!! Tiariki is named after Jack's brother. Ps Jacks full name is
Jack Brian Richard Matthew Kaa. I kid you not! He has 4 white first
names! The nurses call Tiariki TK so they don't mispronounce it. He is on
the left. The one on the right is Curtis. Named after Nykells dad.
He is the older of the two. He was sucked out with a vacuum so his
head is shaped funny.
Feeding tubes :( they were about 7 weeks early so even though they were
6lbs each they still can't quite suck on their own. They were doing one
breast feed with two tube feeds when we saw them on Friday.
Curtis was sick of his tube and pulled it out. Nykell wants them out so they can go home.
TK :)
Bikes! My bike out here is ghetto! We don't bring our own bikes to
Kal. They don't really fit on the train so they just keep spare bikes
out here. I have the brakes tied to another part of the bike to keep it
from killing my legs because I need to get it fixed. Not only is it
hot but my bike constantly has it's brakes on.
Fun tan lines from my skirt and shoes :)
Look how long my hair is getting! I didn't color it by the way. It just was drying from my shower that morning.
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