The Journey continues....:-)

July 11, 2020...the continuing saga...

Our hearts swelled w/joy as we drove into the Karratha area & back to our sweet little flat. It was lovely to be home after so many miles & busyness. Our priorities were setting up teaching appointments with those we'd befriended, Anwar, Sumo & Riana's family & Bronwyn. We got right to work & started the next day w/Bronwyn that afternoon & dinner w/our sweet family that evening. Over the next two weeks we taught a dozen lessons & had dinner w/Sumo & Riana's family  half dozen times! Some of the best memories we have will be watching as others felt the Spirit testifying of truth as they learned of our Heavenly Father's deep love in providing us with a life plan through Jesus Christ & His restored gospel. 

Our love for dear Anwar doesn't waver, even though he's not yet committed to being baptized. He is a wonderful man & will someday embrace the restored gospel as he comes to better understand the blessings to be received when one truly commits to making & keeping sacred covenants. We know he is surrounded by good friends who love him just as he is...which is enough.

Bronwyn is married to a wonderful member who is less active, but very supportive of her investigating. He is such a hard worker & loves his precocious little three yr. old daughter, Indiana (Indie, for short) & beautiful wife. She has such wonderful friends in the branch who love her & are so very welcoming & inclusive. She is a beautiful young lady & just lights up whenever she gets excited about something she loves, yet is so humble & teachable. We know it will be short time before she is baptized. 

We spent our first Sunday afternoon w/our friends Artie & Catherine Dimitrov & family. Here's a pic of Elder Tate & I getting a grandbaby fix with two of the little ones. This helps us not miss ours quite so much...

Here's some pictures of our branch outing to a place called Millstream, which is an important place for the Aboriginal people. While there several of the 'elders' came to sing & pray over the water to ask for safety for all those who came to swim. This was because many years ago a young boy had drowned. There was a cameraman who filmed everything including several of our members asking questions & interacting w/the men. It was so interesting, strange...but still interesting!

This is Ashley on the right pic holding her little boy...Ashley's family is from Utah. Her husband worked for Kennecott mines there & got a fantastic job in a town named Tom Price, several hours south of Karratha. So they brought their sweet little family over & plan to stay for three more years so they can finish paying off their home in the States & give them enough in savings to do pretty much whatever they want. Doing the hard things now so they won't have to later. Such strong pioneer spirits! They truly love the Lord & are wonderful missionaries in the small community where they live...they're the only members for several hundred miles in any direction!

Randy went on a little walk about w/Anwar & investigated an old 'station'. It was in pretty nice condition...with a little elbow grease & money it could probably be a nice home. I think he'd be happy living in a place like this for the rest of his life...as long as there was good fishing nearby.

Nice table! That would be cool in a cabin.
It was on some lovely grounds near the river, so would have been a beautiful place in its heyday. Anwar was commissioned to pay the exterior of the place...it took him about 40 days to paint & was paid quite well because it's government property. 
               There were lots of kangaroos in this area. Fortunately, no poisonous snakes or deadly spiders, although one of the little boys did not listen to the adults when told to stay away from a certain spot because there were fire ants. He just had to take a look see & sure enough, he was quickly attacked & came away screaming! Dad had to pick him up & nearly throw him into the river to get rid of the ants. 

A cool rusted out machine of some sort. We couldn't figure out what it was used for. It had a belt line on top but there aren't any farm crops in the area...too hot/dry, so perhaps an old mining machine.


More celebrating as our last Monday rolled around & we held FHE at our complex for the last time. An invitation was extended to all our friends/branch family & pretty much everyone came. We had a great time w/delicious food, laughter & lots of fun. We will sure miss these people!!

Jang (in forefront) was our neighbor & a wonderful chef...worked at a restaurant downstairs. She's a returned missionary from Thailand who is less active but being fellowshipped by the members. Across playing pool is Lavinia & LeRoy McKay & Murrell Ta'ala...all RM's & from New Zealand. Great people! Below is  our buddies, Sumo & Riana, whom we are teaching. They have a beautiful family & we are prayerful that someday soon they will get married, Sumo will be baptized & then they will make the trip to Perth to be married in the Temple. 

Below is Bro. & Sister Emery & on the table is our Australian flag our daughter Leslee sent us to have our friends sign to remember them all by. It's been great!    Here's Anwar & Matthew, the oldest Lekias boy.


Lavinia with Ta'ala's little boy, Beau. Lots of fun in the pool...lovely sunsets every night!

Some of our favorite ladies sampling the food! Georgia Baker, Lavinia, Te Whenua, Deanna, & another Lavinia. Not sure who else...









Here's the best sign in Karratha! 
Our last

day at church & final goodbyes....see you later

Artie!! 

After cleaning the flat & packing up the car we waved goodbye to continue our adventure in a new location...another K-town...Kalgoorlie. We made the trip back to Perth & enjoyed some new/different sights along the way. 

This is Pink Lake...literally a pink lake which, depending on the time of day you visit, can be bright pink, salmon, violet, lavender or nearly red. It was in shades of pink when we visited.  A very popular tourist spot & a road well traveled through beautiful green rolling hills, farms & orchards. There were wild watermelons growing all along the roads...unfortunately, none were ripe enough to pick to take for a sweet treat on our drive.  

We met many people touring Western Australia, mostly filled w/newly graduated kids or students from different countries who had taken jobs in order to see a part of the world they most likely wouldn't see otherwise. We met nannies, maids, food servers, & people working at the many different mining operations. 

We struck up a conversation w/these two young men from Germany & I noticed the one on the left's shirt said 'Stuttgart' which is where our German boy, Steffen, lives. So we had to get a picture, which we immediately sent to Steffen, who was happy to see/hear from us. Then he became more excited when he saw the other young man's shirt, which had the name of a non-profit organization Steffen works with. It is sometimes a very small world! 

Then on to our next destination, a place called Pinnacles, which are outcroppings of limestone...a very otherworldly & bizarre few hundred acres, but strangely beautiful. It wouldn't have been too much a stretch of the imagination to see dinosaurs traipsing across the landscape!  

A long post, I know...& we'll end as we began, with the people we love. Our sweet Bronwyn continues to learn about the Gospel & feels her Saviour's love. She has committed to being baptized & will choose a date in the next few days. We are just so sad we will probably not be there when she enters the waters, however, we will be there when she enters the Temple to receive her endowment & make those sacred covenants with God. What an exciting & joyous day that will be! The only thing that could possibly make it any better would be if she & her husband, Matt & little Indie, could be sealed together for eternity. Isn't our Heavenly Father wonderful! He just wants to give us everything.

That is why we do what we do & go where the Lord sends us. To teach of Him, preach repentance, & show others the path back to our Father in Heaven where they can receive exaltation & eternal joy with their families. 

We pray for & love all of you! Thanks for the support & words of encouragement...it is very much appreciated & helps us continue striving to move forward...especially when we don't have a clue what we're doing!! God bless your families & keep you safe in these challenging times. We know His hand is over us all....Love, Elder & Sister Tate