Beginnings - 31 August-14 Sept 2014

After much work and anxiety concerning our Australian visas, two days before we were to leave for the Provo MTC (office training), official word was received that we were in the system and good to go!! Sunday morning, August 31st, our stake President, Craig Astle, set each of us apart as missionaries. He blessed us with clear minds (much needed because we aren't as young as we used to be!). Blessings of health, strength and abilities for us and for our families.  After being set apart, Arlo pulled out of his pocket missionary badges from our previous missions and it felt so good as we clipped them on.  President Astle indicated this was a first for him, which it would be since a missionary doesn't usually receive the badge until entering the MTC!

Beginning the morning of September 1st until the afternoon of the 4th, there was intensive office training at the MTC for us at the request of our mission president.  We shared the computer lab with 4 other couples who were going to England, California and Australia.  Our teachers are all BYU students who for the most part had served in mission offices and they were wonderful.  Laughter on the part of the couples came when we learned that one teacher had never seen a typewriter, typewriter ribbons or carbon paper.  Heavenly Father has brought about inventions necessary to help with the "Hastening of the Work" very quickly.  During our time at the MTC, we spent lunches with old friends from Ridgecrest who now live in Provo (Roberts, Bullock's, Wilkins and Jo Lish) and So. African missionary friends the Knudsen's.  Dinner one evening was spent with our nieces and families. When we finished our training, a quick trip was made to St. George to gather all of our belongings and to do the final close-up of our home.  Then back to Lehi and onto Logan to spend Sunday with Sandy's mother.  Monday (8th) was relax a little and ready ourselves for the 16+ hours of airplane travel to Brisbane.  Jared, Stephanie and her family were at the SLC Airport to send us off.

After crossing the dateline, our feet touched Australian soil on Wednesday (10th) and along with 20 young elders and sisters, we were all greeted by President and Sister Henderson.

These wonderful, excited and somewhat anxious missionaries come from many parts of the world - South Africa, Australia, United States, Japan, Fiji, and Singapore.  It was great fun to be part of them receiving companions and watching them head out into the Brisbane areas.  The president doesn't send them too far away for the first assignment.

The mission home shown above is lovely and so well suited for its function.  We stayed here three nights as we acclimated to the time change.  The Henderson's were wonderful hosts, and it was nice to visit over meals about St. George and people we know in common.

The Brisbane skyline taken at a lookout up the street from the mission home.  A hazy morning, but wasn't always like this for the days we were there.

For those of you who remember our South African blog, we always included some of the different road signs and anything else humorous we came across.  Road trains are large trucks with several trailers that travel across the outback of Australia.  The trip from Brisbane to Emerald required 11+ hours in our new Toyota Corolla and provided lots of practice time for driving on the "other" side of the road.  On Saturday we drove for seven hours north along the coast and stayed with a missionary couple, the Millers, in Gladstone.  After attending church with them on Sunday we drove four hours west to Emerald.  We were encouraged to get there before dust to avoid kangaroos on the road - we saw plenty of roadkill.

This is our temporary flat, which had previously housed young sisters.  There are two vehicles because one belonged to the sisters who were flown to their new proselyting area - distances between areas are huge! At the moment, we are looking for a new flat more suitable for a couple since the contract is up in October.  The mission office is trying to figure out how to retrieve the car since we will be the only missionaries here for the time being.

The Emerald Branch building was in its previous life a corner store, which was bought by the church and remodeled into a very nice building which meets the needs of this branch very well at the current time.  The membership is about 150, with about 40-50 attending each Sunday.  Our hope is to learn lots more when we attend this Sunday.  As we came into town and met the 2nd Counselor, who had the keys to the flat, he concluded our visit with a "by-the-way" comment.  Arlo would be speaking on the 21st and Sandy would be speaking on the 28th and these were to be the "long" talks!!

The Australia Brisbane Mission is where we know that we are to be serving at this time and are blessed with our testimonies and the support of our family and friends.