5 - 18 January

Summer is really, really here, plus it has been raining hard, on a regular basis.  So we are constantly walking around feeling like we are in a sauna!  Parts of the country have received so much that their drought conditions have been greatly reduced.  The streets seem to have even more tourists than around Christmas, probably because the schools are still on holiday until February 2nd.  The last two weeks have seemed like a blur as we have been getting on-the-job training non-stop.  Arlo is the Finance Secretary and Sandy is the Mission Secretary.  This mission is blessed to have two senior sisters who help with housing, referrals, baptism records and a multitude of odds and ends.  The office deals with 103 cars, 117 flats and 150 mobile phones along with the everyday care of 280 missionaries.

We are currently assigned to attend the Brisbane Ward and the building is located next to the temple. Our bishop is from the United States and is here with his wife and youngest son for 3 years.  His employer is ConocoPhillips.  As new members of his ward, we were invited to dinner of grilled lamb and enjoyed the view of the Brisbane River and the Story Bridge as seen above from the Bishop's 10the floor apartment balcony.   Before we moved, each day we would cross the Story Bridge, which is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River that carries vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane.  It is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia.  As evening comes, the bridge is outlined in red, green or purple lights, which are rotated by days.  All during the Christmas season the lights were a mixture of colors.  As of Thursday (15th), we moved into a lovely new flat, putting us within walking distance of the Mission Office, so we will not be crossing this bridge on a daily basis, just when we come back over to attend church or the temple.

With the move into the mission office, our lives now revolve around the six week transfer cycle of missionary comings and goings.  This is the workspace of our office elders and we are blessed to have three. The elder in the rear left is one of our computer gurus, but as you learn about him, one wonders how he does what he does.  His mother contracted chicken pox during the first trimester of her pregnancy.  The doctors were concerned he would be born brain damaged, he was not, but had scarring on the back of his eyes and open wounds on his body.  They knew he was blind and the wounds were sewn up so the skin would grow over them.  When he was 14,  it was discovered that a tumor was growing on his spine, causing him to lose feeling in his arms.  After surgery to remove the tumor, he awoke paralyzed.  In a priesthood blessing, he was promised that he would heal.  He is legally blind and walks with a lilt, but he walks.  The blessing he received as a newborn, indicated that despite his physical impairments, someday he would serve a mission and now he is!  A more grateful person would be hard to find and we are thankful for Elder Campbell's gentle spirit and big heart and willingness to use his remarkable computer skills helping us with our computer glitches.  He is able to work with the computer by greatly enlarging the image on the screen and working with his nose almost touching the monitor.   He is from Brisbane, but lives with his companions and is a great missionary. These three elders were in the office when we arrived, but transfers took the Elder in the front from us and sent him out into the field.  Elder Gustafsson (standing) is from Iceland and his favorite Christmas package from his family was whale blubber!  

Our first set of incoming missionaries - 19 in total and we only sent home 11.  This picture is in the mission office, where Elder Mickelsen is part of the orienting group and is making sure that they understand about cars, health insurance and the very important support card.  We had to split into two groups using the conference room and tables set up in the office area   Our mission has missionaries from over 30 countries, who speak 23 different languages as their native tongue.  This particular group has elders and sisters from the United States, Philippines, China, Samoa, New Zealand, Japan, Cambodia and Tahiti.   It is hard for us to see these very tired missionaries come off the plane and many not very comfortable at all with English.  Brings to mind our sons who served in foreign missions going out after some weeks in the MTC or our oldest going to the Philippines with no language training because that country at the time was considered English speaking!

Elder and Sister Montague from Bountiful, Utah tried their best to teach us everything we would need to know to take over their responsibilities in the office.  They have four months left on their mission and are off to Townsville to have a different missionary experience working with a branch.  The local couples have had a dinner or two to help send them on their way.  

Australia has beautiful paper money, much like we had in South Africa. The shapes in the bottom corners are cutouts with a plastic insert and none are the same size. Each side has a different person, famous in the country.  The $50 shows A.B. "Banjo" Paterson, the author of "The Man From Snowy River" and "Waltzing Matilda", the subject of another blog entry.  

The coins from left to right are 5,10, 20 and 50 cents then one dollar and two dollars.  Note the two dollar piece is almost the same size as the five cent piece, just a different color and much thicker and heavier.  The one cent piece was withdrawn from circulation in 1992 making in necessary to round all transactions to the nearest five cents.

This past two weeks have brought emails telling us of the deaths of two sweet sisters in our ward in St. George, and they will be missed so much because of their kind and loving spirits toward everyone.  One thing is certain in this life that we don't know how long we will be allowed to spend on the earth and we need to take advantage of every moment.  Our family means the world to us and we are thankful for their support as we serve this mission, even though it is hard not to be together. The opportunity to feel of the spirits and enthusiasm of these young elders and sisters as they share their testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, strengthens our own testimonies daily and we feel so blessed to be a part of this great work!