20 - 26 April

The 25th of April marked the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) Centenary and although it is a traditional holiday for Australia and New Zealand, the events scheduled for this year were on a grand scale. "The Spirit of ANZAC was born in the predawn darkness of Sunday 25 April 1915, when, at 4:28 am, the first ANZACs leapt ashore at Gallipoli in Turkey. The soldiers faced a formidable task - to seize the Gallipoli Peninsula and suppress the Ottoman defenses guarding the Dardanelles.  Heavy casualties were suffered that morning and a stalemate developed.  In the months (8) that followed, their comradeship, courage, sacrifice and loyalty to their mates were admired by all observers."   (Taken from the Dawn Service of Remembrance program)  There were parades, wreath layings, speeches and singing of the National Anthem (Advance Australia Fair).  Our thought had been to be a part of the festivities at King George Square, but the early hour and uncertainty of where exactly we needed to park, etc, kept us in the flat, watching some of it on the television.

This is a war memorial honouring those men and women from the Hamilton suburb, where we live. 

A souvenir newspaper that we picked up, which helped us to better understand the significant holiday.  The movie, The Water Diviner, with Russell Crowe, was based on the troops landing at Gallipoli and the effects felt by one family.  Blockbuster was letting people rent it for free, so we took advantage of the deal and re-watched it.  

ANZAC biscuits are a national tradition, which was developed by the wives and girlfriends of the soldiers. It is a sweet biscuit made of rolled oats, coconut and held together with golden syrup (eggs were scarce during the war).  They were sent to the soldiers as a bread substitute and traveled well. Sandy's parents served a mission in Adelaide, Australia, loved these biscuits (cookies) and bought home the recipe and golden syrup, but we didn't understand the meaning behind the name.  It is fun to now know and we have come to regard these as real treats! 

Even Goggle marked the special anniversary day with their page identifier.  It certainly embraces everything about the event - the battle began shortly before dawn, the traditional Aussie hat, rosemary sprigs and poppies.  Traditionally sprigs of rosemary are worn on Anzac Day along with poppies. The poppies are exactly like the ones we wear on November 11th.  Rosemary has particular significance for Australians, as it is found growing wild on the Gallipoli peninsula.  There were several bouquets of rosemary laying at the memorial shown above. 

At Christmas, the missionaries were each given a tie or a scarf from the Henderson's.  These gifts came from the orphanage in Cambodia where our Elder San grew up and was converted to the gospel. He was born to an unwed mother who left him to die under a tree.  The grandmother found this out, went to find the baby, who was barely alive.   She took him in and raised him until she could not financially manage and then placed him in an orphanage.  In this place he learned the gospel because the woman who keeps the orphanage is L.D.S., but he had to wait until he was 18 to be baptized.  There are 34 children who are benefiting from the sale of these items - $3 each! We just received our Christmas because the original order was short and so the seniors and some of the local young missionaries waited to get theirs, so that what was available could go to the farthest areas of the mission.

One morning as we were returning from the airport, this Aussie Pooch Mobile turned out from a side street in front of us.  Looks like a great idea for those who would rather not leave home to have their canine family members groomed!

One of Arlo's walking routes takes him along the Brisbane River bank on the left side of the picture to a point and then he returns to the tall buildings, which mark the street where he turns to come back to the flat.  It was along this river where the ANZAC Memorial for our neighborhood shown above was located.

Another week full of missionary interaction, both positive and negative, but we love being a part of this "hastening of the work" here in the mighty Australian Brisbane Mission.

13- 19 April

Our weeks from Monday to Friday seem to be a blur of regular office work, but truly no day is the same as the one before.  Our wonderful missionaries are able to present different challenges, both large and small, that work to keep us on our toes.  Two sisters had minor accidents, but it sure shook their confidence in driving on the "wrong" side of the road.  One of our elders had the ATM eat his support card and now "what was he going to do?"

Thursday, the Angel Moroni was replaced on the temple spire due to extensive hail damage last November.  This happened before we arrived in Brisbane and these are the hailstones borrowed from a missionary blog.  Several of the mission cars have hail damage to the roof.  It was shared with us that there is a spare Moroni in the basement shared with the other four Australian temples because damage from birds or weather often take a toll on the statues.

The week had some sadness because one of our sisters decided to return home after being here three months.  She is 36 and had wanted to serve a mission, after joining the church a few years ago, but found that she couldn't make the adjustment to missionary life.  

Saturday morning, we accompanied the senior office sisters up north to Maleny and the Glass House Mountains, almost an hour and a half drive north of Brisbane.  The mountains were named by explorer Captain James Cook in 1770, who said the mountains reminded him of the glass making furnaces back in his native England.  It is thought that the peaks were formed from some volcanic activity in the area.

The Sunshine Coast Hinterland or the coastal range inland from the Sunshine Coast.

This chair was built for the Maleny Botanic Gardens and we were told it had set a record for being the largest in Australia.  All of us were reminded of Lily Tomlin and her huge  rocking chair on the TV show Laugh-In. It was so new that the paint was still a little tacky and we were afraid of taking away a purple souvenir on our backsides!

"Maleny Botanic Gardens cover more than ten acres.  They are a panorama of waterfalls, ponds, colourful plantings and manicured lawns.  Over six kilometres of walking paths meander through thousands of different plants, ranging from roses, azaleas, orchids, annuals and perennials to some of the rarest cycads in the world." (Taken from their brochure)   The flowers and plants are so beautiful in this part of the world and we are taking lots of pictures, maybe one day we will make a  Brisbane collage of the flora in the area.

Entering the subtropical rain forest in the Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve.  Our entry fee was a "gold coin," dropped in a box at the door.  Both the one and two dollar pieces are gold in colour, so we guess it didn't matter which one we used and gave them two dollar coins, small cost for entry into "the natural jewel of the Sunshine Coast."

Tall, tall trees with unbelievable root systems and trunks.  Some type of small animal was digging out a home inside one of the sections at the base of this tree, piles of dirt but didn't see the occupant.

As we walked the trail, we were alerted by a passer-by that there was a pademelon ahead.  He was found in the brush, but we couldn't get a clear picture, then just a short distance a baby was sitting in the middle of the trail.  Even though we were quiet, he quickly hopped over into the brush and there was mom, so he popped into her pouch.  A new experience to watch that happen!  Pademelon comes from the Aboriginal name for a rainforest wallaby.  Pandemelons, wallabies, and kangaroos are very alike in body structure, and the names just refer to the three different size groups.  Multiple attempts to get a picture in the dark rain forest, made it necessary to borrow from Goggle one of a mom and her joey.

A Queensland home near Maleny. This one was up for sale and we might have taken a tour if our time hadn't been so short in the area.  The architecture of this type of home is becoming very intriguing to us as we drive past many in the Brisbane area.

This is the week in which our new Golden missionaries come back for training from their local areas, now that they are more alert and the jet lag is gone.  We are invited to have dinner with them in the evening and enjoyed watching and hearing them interact with each other.

At our Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, we heard from two missionaries - one from the Brisbane Mission and the other is a local going to the Portugal Lisbon Mission.  The soon-to-be missionary was baptized 18 months ago and very excited to be able to serve.  Most of the missionaries from Australia usually serve in this country or New Zealand, so his call is a little unique.  Our local missionary, who happens to be the Zone Leader, was assigned to speak on the topic of raising children.  He commented on how he thought it was strange item for a single person to talk about, but shared experiences in his home that have made him who he is now.  His parents would have loved to hear his talk!

"God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability."  Neal A. Maxwell.  This was on our Sunday program and is our testimony, because without Him we couldn't even begin to do all that is needed each day.

6 - 12 April

There is no rest for the office missionaries, and this is what is called Week One of the six week transfer cycle, which means really no rest. But it was decided that a large dose of levity was needed and so the the two senior sisters who serve with us in the office introduced anyone coming in to Easter Monday celebrated Polish style!  They first met in the Poland Warsaw Mission and decided to serve as companions again and we are blessed to associate on a daily basis with their enthusiasm!

"The holiday called Smigus-dyngus (shming-oos-ding-oos) (wet Monday) is a wonderful day of  fun.  It was traditionally the day when boys tried to drench girls with buckets of water.  The more a girl is sprayed with water, the higher her chances are that she will get married.  The girls get their chance for revenge the next day.  Now Wet Monday is a free-for-all good old fashioned water fight and NO ONE is immune." (from a Google search)

Not being able to find balloons to fill with water to throw, the sisters filled small zip-lock sandwich bags, took aim and threw them at the missionaries - these are part of our departing missionary group, but we were able to involve (get wet!) at least 10-12 elders in separate incidents.  It was so fun to watch and listen to jumping and shrieking young people and see their big smiles.  Sandy was involved with the throwing and thinks that no one thought these senior missionaries would even try anything like this! 

The rest of Monday, we are preparing the departing missionary packets with passports, itineraries and every other piece of documentation of their work that was in their file folders.  They spend a wonderful morning together in the temple, have their final interviews with President Henderson and work on getting their luggage to meet the weight requirements for the flights home.  At dinnertime, we show up at the mission home to deliver the packets, gather support cards, insurance cards and any owed money from the missionaries.  It was fun to see 15 excited, but yet apprehensive young people, interacting with each other.

As this elder from Fiji pulled out his passport from his white envelope, Sandy couldn't help but notice how well he did color coordinating his tie and passport!  There were four elders at this table all comparing passport photos and how much some had changed.  The matching elder has added a large number of kilograms since the passport picture was taken, in which the others thought he looked way too thin.

There are two tables which hold the departing missionaries, the Henderson's and the Mickelsen's. The sisters like to have a little friendly competition with the elders for the best table decor.  Note the napkin folding to look like a white shirt!

At the conclusion of the Departing Testimony meeting, these smiles tell us they are ready to go back and conquer the world in their homelands.  Two are from China, other countries represented are New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, England, Samoa, Philippines and just two from the United States. Many of these missionaries are the only members of the church in their families and have joined the church in the last three or four years.

President Henderson was so delighted to have a new senior couple join the mission this transfer. They had been serving in the Texas Dallas Mission for almost a year, when Elder Donaldson started having some health concerns and needed to return to the Brisbane area (home).  With every concern now met, these wonderful missionaries are finishing their last six months in Mt. Isa.  

Tuesday morning, we were privileged to attend an entire Transfer Meeting, usually we are there only to take care of cars and mobile phones.  This was the largest so far with the Henderson's - there were only 15 companionships not involved.  The majority of the chapel was filled elders and three front rows with sisters - the feelings of strength, love of the gospel and our Savior Jesus Christ were so strong.  As they sang the hymns, the music was choir quality.  In our previous missions, we were not invited to Transfer Meeting, since we didn't really transfer.  It was so fun to watch the missionaries stand as their names were announced as a new companionship - many jumped straight up to check out the new companion and others acknowledged the changes with big smiles and waves.  An amazing day and so great to be a part of it. 

Wednesday morning, 14 (6 sisters and 8 elders) golden missionaries filled the mission office with enthusiasm and wanting to get right out teaching.  There is lots of necessary paperwork, which was taken care of in short order and they were gone to the mission home for training and an assignment of a trainer.  This group is different than most.  Only one sister was new to missionary work, the others have been on temporary missions because of a lack of visas, in different places throughout the world - Michigan, Maryland, Arizona, New Mexico and Tonga.

Saturday and Sunday were filled with sessions of General Conference for us. It is the practice to have Conference weekend, be the second week of April in the Brisbane area and is shown at many of the church buildings.   Each session filled our hearts and minds with so much to ponder on.  We are thankful for a prophet and all of our leaders who help us in our challenges each day by teaching correct principles in amazing ways. We are glad to be able to have conference downloaded to watch again and again!

Autumn is truly here and we are loving the weather changes.  There has been no need to turn on the air con as we return to our flat each evening because of cool breezes blowing outside.  The averages for the past week have been 19/26 C which translates into 66/78.8.  The humidity is still ever present, but with cooler temperatures, but is just great!

We are thankful this week to be serving in this beautiful country with 271 missionaries.

23 March - 5 April

The dates of this blog entry cover a time frame that was so incredibly busy that we are still trying to catch up with the regular day to day mission business, since the Senior Couples Conference and pressing matters took precedence over "normal."  Each day this past week has also been transfer deliberation and the results have produced the largest transfer on record for the mission, so we have lots to look forward to next week!

Our sweet, kind, humble Assistant from New Zealand left on the 23rd, but even with all he had to do to prepare to leave, he came into the office after we had all gone and wrote similar notes to all in the office and hung them from the computer screens.  Tears and hugs were shared by everyone, especially Elder Talaia, as he headed off to the airport.

Since coming to Australia we have noticed both in Emerald and now in Brisbane that the school children, no matter the age, all wear uniforms which includes a hat!  As we were walking to dinner, we passed these two and asked if we could have a picture.  At first they were a little hesitant, but when we explained that we came from the United States and most of our schools don't have uniforms, they were happy to have their picture snapped.

The following photos represent some of the activities of our semi-annual senior conference which began Monday (23rd) afternoon as we all met at the mission home.  We retrieved six couples from the airport who flew in because of the distances their areas of service are from Brisbane.  The rest of the couples drove in and for four days we enjoyed group dinners, training sessions, a temple session, a theatre performance and sightseeing excursions around the city.  The couples serving in Brisbane hosted the out of town couples in our flats.

Tuesday, afternoon of our senior conference, all of us took our places either upstairs or down on the City Explorer and did a two hour whirlwind tour of Brisbane.  It was a great way for the northern couples to see the city sights.

Tuesday evening, 34 senior missionaries all attended the play WICKED at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC).  Most had already seen it at least once, but there were a few of us who had not.  QPAC is the facility to the right of the large ferris wheel located at the downtown resort area known as The South Bank.

Trying to capture us in our theater seats and we didn't realize how many others wanted to be a part of our picture!  Don't know who the young women are behind us, but the elder out front is our famous mission doctor, Elder Madsen.  Since he was part of our picture, the only thing that would have made it better, would have been to have him talking on the phone, which he spends many hours each day doing as he is also temporarily filling in as the area medical advisor. The smile is always a part of him and he is well loved by everyone.

This photo was taken the day the cast arrived from Melbourne - these characters, Elphaba, The Wizard and Glinda, arrived by helicopter, to the delight of a huge group of school children.  (photo borrowed from the web)

The entire performance, the costumes, the music, the lighting and the scenery, was just magical! The evening ended by the group of senior missionaries leaving the theater and climbing into three Maxi Taxis for the return trip to the Kangaroo Point chapel to retrieve our cars.  Car park fees are huge, so it was decided to get the taxis and what a treat it was not to worry about remembering where the cars were all parked! (photo borrowed from the web)

The North's from St. George were our house guests and we loved getting to know them better during the conference.  They are currently serving in Mt. Isa - the furtherest assignment from Brisbane.

The Henderson's pretending to be "senior missionaries" during a real play presentation of a ward council meeting.  They are listed as a part-time senior couple on the official mission roster and that has brought a few laughs - the time and dedication they put into their assignments is unimaginable!!

The conference was not all play as we had several sessions of training by most of the senior couples, as to what they were doing in their respective assignments.  A quintet (all from St. George) provided a musical selection, "I Need Thee Every Hour," during the final session of our conference.  Elder and Sister Mizukawa are members of the Southern Utah Heritage Choir (St. George) and are currently working hard with some very qualified people in the Brisbane area to hopefully form a similar group here in the next few months.

Outside of the mission home for dinner, our hosts took the picture which included one of the mission counselors, President Cowan and his wife located at the left side of the picture.

Another goodbye this go round for our senior missionary zone Leader also known as the Cairns couple.  Almost their entire mission was spent in "paradise" as the missionaries call it.  Cairns is off of the Great Barrier Reef about a thousand miles north of Brisbane and totally tropical in climate.  

This last week has been a physically and emotionally draining week for us.  Sandy discovered that the visa of one of our valiant missionaries had expired in end of February - not a good thing.  No one can figure out why no red flags were raised anywhere in the missionary system before 45 days had passed the expiry date, but it happened.  So wheels started to turn quickly and many hours of filling out forms, collecting pertinent documents, meeting with the Immigration Department and then having a member attorney go beyond the call of duty.  This brother met the elders at the Immigration office and was with them during the interview, then returned to the mission office to spend two+ hours composing question and answer documents from the elder and President Henderson.  Three complete days were spent on this project and it is hard to think how we could ever have accomplished this in a timely manner, without being able to send paperwork back and forth between the Sydney Area Office and the Brisbane Mission Office via the internet.  As of today, our elder has been granted a 28 day stay while his application for a visa extension is being processed and additional paperwork has just been requested.  

The week has also found Sandy calling many different areas of the world, including on Thursday (2nd) a Skype call to Samara, Russia.  Arlo and Sandy spent about 30 minutes speaking through a young missionary interpreter (in that mission office) with a father (spoke very little English), trying to help coordinate travel plans for these parents to come to Brisbane and pick-up their son as he finishes his mission in June.  The father is a counselor to the Russia Samara Mission President and our elder is their only child. It was a fun experience for us all.  This was the email that the Samara Office sent to us, asking if we were ready to Skype!  Здравствуйте, Arlo Mickelsen! Я хочу внести Вас в свой список контактов в Skype.  They quickly sent one in English, apologizing for sending the request in English!

Easter treats from President and Sister Henderson, bought at the local 7-Eleven.  We were totally shocked to see these sitting on our desk Friday morning - didn't even know there was Krispy Kreme in Australia.  Easter is celebrated on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and we are impressed with the closures of most shops, grocery stores and about everything else.  It was rather inconvenient because we didn't anticipate this kind of observance - we sure don't see it in the United States!

As we close the thoughts about the past two weeks, go to mormon.org to watch Because He Lives to help remind you what Easter is.  We add our testimony to these words - "Jesus Christ lived.  He walked the Holy Land working miracles and teaching truth  Then He was crucified.  But His death was not the end.  Because of His Resurrection, we will live again.  Because of His sacrifice, we can rise above sin to experience try joy.  Because He lives, we can find His help and healing every day of our lives."