May, June, July
You would think that with our COVID-19 restrictions we would
have a lot of time to write, but since our activities have been restricted, we
have not had a lot to comment on. We are conducting most of our work
electronically using ZOOM, email, and texts. We are doing all we can to keep up
the spirits of our members and minister to their needs while contributing to
the Lord’s work in Australia.
So, what have we been doing? Elwood continues to hold
presidency meetings and now that we have recently (as of July 26) been allowed
to hold sacrament meetings have met with the groups in Armidale and Inverell.
It is wonderful to be together again, but we are not supposed to socialize
before or after and there must be social distancing as well. This is a
challenge, especially with the Inverell group who always held a potluck and
social time after church each week. Before the 26th of July we
continued to take the sacrament to various members who did not have a
priesthood holder in their home. We have been instructed not to visit members
or non-members in their homes unless we have an invitation.
Community service has begun again. We are now volunteering
at an animal league thrift store. We are meeting a number of new people and
hope to have the opportunity to teach some of them about the restored gospel.
The work is pretty basic. Elwood has won the praise of the director for his
sorting skills and I am quite talented in pricing items, attaching labels to
donated items and placing them on hangers.
We celebrated our anniversary by taking a trip to the
outback. The Lightning Ridge/Walgett area is known for black opal mining and a
large aboriginal community. We toured an opal mine and viewed small digs
undertaken by individual treasure hunters. Aboriginal centers and museums were
gathering places for members of the local tribes with small sections for
exhibits. We did talk to some interesting “old timers”, who are probably
younger than we are. They recommended we read two books that so far we have not
been able to locate: Goodbye Riverbank by Cilka Zagar and Dark Emu
by Bruce Pascagoula.
Zone meetings have begun again which requires us to drive
the six hours into Sydney and we enjoy the change of pace. The conferences have
been inspiring and we have enjoyed spending time with the young missionaries as
we have none in our area. Mingling with the other senior couples has been
invigorating as we have gone out to dinner together.
We continue hiking in the beautiful areas near where we live
in Armidale observing kangaroos that we imagine cheering us on our way.
Branch Presidency
