Our week is pretty much the same routine, with a few variations here and there. Tuesday or Wednesday mornings find us at the church for District Meeting. Our District Leader, introduced us to his new companion who is from China. He was called to speak Mandarin Chinese, which he already knew, as a missionary, but a little later was asked to learn English. So six weeks later he is in Rockhampton and is doing an amazing job with his English skills. He shared with us that he was converted in China and against his families wishes joined the Church and went to Hong Kong to be baptized. There had to be a little bit of interpretation by his companion, but we could pretty much understand the bits and pieces. It was discovered during our meeting that seven of the sixteen in attendance were converts as young adults. The Institute class was a little sparse on Wednesday, due to illness and other factors, but we had a great lesson and they always love refreshments, especially those carrots and ranch dressing! Thursday evening, we were found at the Neighbourhood Centre helping with the meal and clean-up. The remainder of our time has been filled with trying to locate members whose addresses are not so great (some only the town is indicated and others have just PO boxes) and meet other members who do have a real address. Friday was Halloween and yes, they do celebrate this day a little bit in Australia. In the shops, you might find a shelf or two with candy and a few costumes. If a family was going to have "lollies" (candy) for children, they were to put a balloon or some Halloween decoration on their mailbox and it would indicate stop by. There was a house down the street from us that put white spider webs all over and bloody red handprints on the garage door, but didn't notice any other signs of participation.
On Saturday, one of our Institute friends and Emerald's YW President took us out to the gemfields, which included the communities of Sapphire, Rubyvale and Anakie, with two purposes in mind -- (1) To see the area and (2) To try to locate some members. We saw the area, but were unsuccessful in our attempts to find 3 different families. The huge sapphire ring draws people inside what looks like a shanty of some sort, but is not. You come into a large showroom of many pieces of jewelry made from stones that had been mined in the area. We were surprised to discover that all sapphires are not blue, but come in a variety of beautiful colors! As we continued through the showroom, we found ourselves in a outdoor restaurant with a nice menu. In another area you pay $20 for a bucket of dirt and then pour it out on a sifting table. Then with some large tweezers or your hands, you carefully go through the pile. Over to the side, we watched two groups of people intently sorting through their dirt piles, in hopes of finding a raw sapphire.
One of the sapphire mines - people just come out to the area and put up a dwelling of sorts and start to mine for sapphires in hopes of striking it rich!
This is one of the amazing copper colored metal signs that announce what town you are coming to and what goes on or has gone on there. This sign would work for two or three communities by just changing the name, Anakie, Sapphire, Rubyvale, because they are all gemfields (as you can tell by the cut stones at the top).
Notice the marker on the side of the road. Since the highways are subject to flooding, these markers are placed to show you how deep the flood water is above the road level. This marker is for a bridge over the Nogoa River about a mile away from our flat. The highest mark is 6 meters, which would be about 19.5 feet deep. On the open highways the markers are usually 1 meter high.
This is an ariel photo of Emerald during the flood of 2010, but it also flooded in 2011 and 2012. Our hope is not to experience this while here. Residents are encouraged to "plan ahead" and be ready for a flood. We were told to have 2 weeks supply of food and water because of the remoteness of this area, replenishing of shelves in the stores would not happen very rapidly. This also explains why many SUV and trucks have air snorkels so they can traverse the flooded roads.
This is the amazing Queensland bottle tree. It is a native of the state we are in. The function of the large trunk is primarily for water storage making it drought resistant. They are found throughout the area and are different in sizes, but always really fun to look at and can grow 4-30 meters tall.
Sunday was Fast Sunday and the Pacific Area presidency asked that all wards and branches have a special fast to guide us in identifying new opportunities to "hasten the work." On November 30th there will be a Sacrament Meeting focused on the Savior, which the members are asked to invite friends and family as they feel prompted. It will be good for the branch to have this occasion to work together - invitations, information packets and deciding on speakers - to make the day a memorable one for all in attendance.
We are thankful for the opportunity to serve together sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and to become friends with the wonderful members of the Emerald Branch. They have been so kind and we are enjoying sharing a meal or two with different families. So always remember, if you have a chance feed the missionaries!
So both the Mickelsens and the Piers went to gem fields in the same week. Our mine was not in production but it seems yours are. No Halloween here except in the office and among some of the elders who exchanged badges for the day. We are very glad that we have missionaries in our area and another couple just 30 minutes away. It would be hard to be basically alone in the work. But in the early days of the Church the missionaries were far from home and with no other missionaries close by!
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