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.