This week has been amazing! We've done all sorts of things this week. It's actually been pretty different from a normal proselytizing week. We taught seminary, took a road trip to Port Hedland, and helped make a hangi, which is a traditional Maori meal which can feed heaps of people. I'll get back to that though.
Tuesday morning we had to teach seminary which was actually a pretty neat experience. The seminary class consists of 2 kids, and only one of them came. The one that came actually had no choice really because seminary is held at his house. Teaching seminary was a lot different from the kind of teaching that I'm used to. For one thing, it's very early, and not only do you have to teach while you're still trying to wake up, but you have to teach students who aren't awake themselves. I really feel for my seminary teachers I had growing up now. That's a tough job. Hopefully it wasn't practice for future callings haha. It was a good experience though, and I'm glad I got to do that. Not many missionaries can say that their first and last lessons of the day were 13 hours apart. There's a lot of small things like that that we get to do in a small branch when somebody has to go out of town. More blessings for us!
So that was on Tuesday and between that and Friday, the week seemed to go really slow, because we were really excited to go to Port Hedland on Friday. On Wednesday we did have a great experience that was a big testimony builder for me. We had planned to go visit this less active couple at 11 am, which was odd because we know that they both work 10-12 hour shifts 6-7 days a week. But we just felt inspired to plan for them at that time. So when we rocked up at about 11:30 (we were running a bit late), we knocked on the caravan door and Faith comes to the door. Ironic name, aye? She told us that she had just quit her job last night and she had just finished crying that morning because she didn't really want to quit, but she had to. She told us that every time things seem to be going wrong in their lives, the Elders rock up. She has a lot of respect for elders as well because she served a mission and she knows what it's like sometimes. We sat down outside and had a chat with her for about an hour and a half. She knows she needs to go to church, but her husband (also an RM) had a bad experience with the members up here, so that's what's holding them back. She even gave us her phone number and asked us not to give it to anybody in the branch, but we could call anytime and come over for a feed and also to bring the spirit into their caravan that they live in. It would be tough to be in their situation. I know she has a testimony, don't know about him since I haven't met him, but she does, and she wants to go to church, but she can't just go to a different ward up here, it's Karratha Branch or nothing. Hopefully we can work with them and help them see past whatever happened. They would be a great help to this branch.
Funny story from this week. We were teaching an investigator outside her house on Thursday and the cops rocked up and took her away, in the middle of the lesson. that was definitely a first on the mission, and quite unexpected. We saw her again yesterday though and she said that it was all good and they got everything sorted down at the station that day.
So our trip to Port Hedland. It was great. On friday before heading up, we stopped in Roebourne about 40 kms from Karratha to help set up for a Naidoc day celebration which is like an Aboriginal equality celebration thing. It was run by a bunch of Maoris so of course we got roped into it by Sister Clarke. We helped set up this fence around a field and also clean up the rubbish on the field and set up some tents and that. That's where the preparing a hangi comes in as well. They made something like 300-400 hangis, which is a heck of a lot of food. They're cooked in foil, but not by coals, but by steam in kegs. They're delicious. but we didn't get to stick around to eat one, because we had to shoot off to Hedland. Port Hedland is about 232 kms from Karratha. Because it was the beginning of the month we decided to use the kms on the car and then we can bike as much as we need to the rest of the month. It's one of the beauties of being a district leader up here. My district spans nearly 1000 kilometres. So we went up so that I could go on exchange with the elders up there and also so that we could have a district meeting. It was a great weekend. On Friday I spent a few hours with Elder Cummings, who was in my district down in Rockingham as well, so we had a good time together. And since we have a car and they don't, they wanted to go visit some of the people in their branch, less-actives and that, that lived 15-20 kms away in Port Hedland (they live in South Hedland). So that's what we spent most of the time doing with them. On Saturday we had district meeting and I gave training on receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon and how we should use it in our teaching more often. Then I went on exchange with Elder Robertson. He's been on his mission for 6 months and has never served down in Perth. He's from Meridian Idaho. I really enjoyed getting to know him and seeing how great a missionary he already is after only 6 months. It seems like this new generation of missionaries coming in nowadays are so much more prepared. I think they must be making changes in the MTC or maybe it's because the older missionaries are training them so well ;) haha. All in all though, the trip was great. We had to rush back for an FHE at our branch mission leaders house that we had an investigator at. We actually didn't end up leaving until about 3:45 because we got held up in a lesson. So we were a bit late for the FHE, but it was worth it for the trip. It was great just to see other missionaries again.
This branch is really great. We attended Branch council yesterday and everyone is really keen to help us grow the branch. President Pilkington is going to give our investigator, Carlo, a calling, because he's pretty much active. I didn't know that nonmembers could have callings until I came on my mission, but then I learned about how much it can help people feel important when they come to church. They'll probably call him as an usher. It's pretty exciting.
Well gotta run. Hope yous enjoy your week! Love you all!
Elder Tanner
ps. "BROTHER, I'M COMMITTED"
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