16 - 22 March

Our week has been made up of arrivals, departures, two Zone Conferences, Brisbane Stake Conference and a whole range of emotions to accompany the events.   All of the departures we knew had to come at some point, because that is part of missionary life, but they are still hard.  Two assistants and one office elder have moved on, their replacements have been assigned and we look forward to getting better acquainted.  Our 45th wedding anniversary happened on the 20th and what better way to spend it, than together as missionaries!

The office has a little birthday celebration after our Staff Meeting once each month, so Elders Mickelsen and Campbell had their celebration this last Monday.  The birthday boys each had a "special crown" to wear for pictures!  These lucky guys also were sung to at each of the five Zone Conferences, held in the past two weeks, since they go to all of them!  

Guess that it is time for another plug for senior missionary service because our ranks are beginning to deplete.  Elder and Sister Miller at the airport as they make their way home to Idaho on Tuesday and there is no one to replace them now.  This great couple have been our hosts in Gladstone as we traveled through the community as we have gone back and forth between Brisbane and Emerald before we came into the office. Elder Miller is a patriarch and has served the mission in this capacity for the past eight months and was able to give 115 blessings in the northern areas of the mission. Two blessings were given to a couple in their mid-eighties and who never thought they would see the day to receive this special opportunity.

Our mission is made up a  276 missionaries at the moment, with many different languages, sizes and shapes.  Sister Henderson has been waiting for this elder and sister to be in the same zone, so she could capture this picture and the day finally arrived.  He is 7' and she is barely 5'!!  Our elder is from the United States and played volleyball and our sister is from the Philippines.  Thursday and Friday, the Zone Conferences went well, we inspected 26 cars and ran the Preach My Gospel Jeopardy game. The humidity on Friday was the worst we have encountered since coming on mission, but there was good cloud cover to help make being outside a little more bearable.

Sandy received a request from one of our Chinese missionaries for a letter that he needed in order to obtain a visa to visit the United States.  The request was filled, even though it took a second try to remember to add the attached letter.  What a surprise when this came back from his family!  At Zone Conference, we showed the reply to him and asked him to read it for us. Guess what, he read it back to us in Chinese and we all laughed, then he translated it.  Sandy was afraid that the parents needed something more, but all was well.  He finishes his mission in a few weeks and returns to China, a country from which our mission is receiving several new missionaries in the coming months.

This weekend was Brisbane Stake Conference, which holds the Sunday morning session at City Hall. Both of the sessions we attended were inspiring and gave us much food for thought.  Also we heard a new way to indicate a quote in a talk by the speaker saying, "I'll just read it out to you" and then proceed by reading the particular quote.  It was mentioned in the stake statistics that there are 16 missionaries serving from the stake, mostly in the Pacific Area, but several are in the United States and one in Portugal.  Since Saturday afternoon, rain has been pounding the city, so we were unable to take our own picture and borrowed one from the city website.  Built in 1930, it is a beautiful building inside and out. The main auditorium can seat up to 2,500 people with a beautiful glass dome over the top of the room. Parking was under the King George Square in front of City Hall and we parked at least six levels below the street level.  Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, a member of the Pacific Area Presidency was our visiting authority and we had the opportunity to visit with him at the airport while waiting for a member of the stake presidency to arrive and pick him up.  Elder Nielsen had brought with him a piece of luggage that Sister Henderson had left in Auckland during their recent Mission Presidents Seminar and we were given the errand to retrieve it.  He reminded us in both of his talks that there is a war going on in the world, and we can't allow or let Satan to win the battle - We have to Be Strong!!

Our week was closed by participating in a mission-wide conference call with President Henderson. Technology is such a wonderful blessing and is so appreciated where our mission is spread far and wide.  The mission is moving forward with great strength and we feel privileged to be part of the Lord's work here in Brisbane, Australia.