21 - 27 September

Life is starting to look up for the Mickelsen's!  Arlo spent at at least half day in the office Monday through Friday this past week and did very well for the hectic days that happen during Transfer Week. This time we received 14 new elders and sisters (United States, Thailand, South Korea, China, Samoa, Australia) and said good-bye to the 11 valiant missionaries below (United States, China, Australia, Vanuatu and New Zealand).  The number of missionaries in the Brisbane Mission has been slowly dwindling down in the past six months.  With this transfer, we are at 236.

After the special session which the temple presidency does just for the departing missionaries. The temple isn't open on Monday, but a few workers give of their time to make the session happen.

The departing dinner is always held at the Mission Home on the Monday evening before the missionaries fly away the next day. The past two transfers the sisters have decided to fold the napkins in the shape of a white dress shirt, and that was fun, but it was kicked up a notch this week. Currently, Australia is in late spring/early summer and fresh peas are plentiful.  President Henderson loves them and a new order had just been delivered by our office cleaner when he came from Gympie that morning.  So as the missionaries were snacking on the peas, one of them had the idea to use a pea pod for the tie and President was delighted.

Our arriving missionaries came in two groups on Wednesday - ten from the Provo MTC and three from the New Zealand MTC.  This enthusiastic Samoan elder arrived bearing treats around his neck - there were two strings when he walked through the door, but one was immediately eaten by many in the office.  

For the past two months, we have noticed these hanging banners everywhere in the city and we weren't quite sure what it meant.  After doing some research, we found that the Brisbane Festival is an international arts festival held for three weeks in September, with dance, music, and drama.

It has been interesting and fun to pick up new phrases in Australia during our time here.  This particular one is referring to the number of days until something happens, as in the signage above.  It was really fun at Christmas to see advertising in the stores and newspapers counting down the "sleeps" until Christmas.

The finale of the three week Festival is called Sunsuper Riverfire.  More than 9,000 individual fireworks were released in a 22-minute display between two major bridges on the Brisbane River, several barges and some rooftops of high-rise buildings in the city.  There were also flyovers of military aircraft including F-18 Hornets.  Riverfire usually draws a half million spectators, and we considered going before Arlo's back incident.  But we opted to watch it on the television and had the best seat in the house!  The fireworks were truly spectacular, and this year two new colors were added - lime green and pink. Our favorite was a display of white fireworks that were continuously cascading down from the bridge below.  It looked like a waterfall, just wish we could have found a picture of it. These pictures were "borrowed" and we appreciate being able to capture them.

Our hearts are full of love and thanks to our Father in Heaven for his watchful hand over Arlo as he heals, and for the continued prayers of our missionaries, family and friends.

1 - 20 September

Our regular blog entries have gone to nil, since Arlo has been basically restricted to the couch and short walks to the bathroom and Sandy is at the office, there are no pictures of any preparation day activities to share!  But we need to give a report of what has happened in the last few weeks.

Tuesday the 8th, was the day for the second neurosurgeon's visit to review the MRI which showed a severely ruptured disk which has spread in two directions - up and out.  She wants to give it 6 - 8 weeks to see if it will heal enough naturally to eliminate the pain, which she gives a 30% chance. So the need to "lay low” for at least another two weeks, which he has been great at doing.  The doctor also gave us the option for a nerve block injection, if needed. We discussed the surgery option for later which would not be a sure thing fix.  Not exactly what we wanted to hear, but still ok.  Time has passed since seeing the doctor,  and good progress has been made.  So Arlo is hoping to be back into the office, at least part-time, this coming week, the time for arriving and departing missionaries.

Arlo has been privileged to receive the sacrament from two of the assistants and their temporary companions. After administering the sacrament on the first Sunday, Elders Dunlop and Iakopo shared a good gospel discussion.  The next Sunday Elder Greening and Iakopo came.  This has been a blessing for Arlo, because as he shared with these young men, seldom in his life has he not been able to attend a church service and partake of the Sacrament.  Our senior missionaries here in the Brisbane area, along with President and Sister Henderson have paid many visits to our flat which have been so appreciated.  It is so good that Arlo has access to all the mission office applications through the internet, plus cell phones, so we really have a mobile mission office.  This is being his saving grace! In our weekly Office Staff Meeting, Sandy commented on being part of an amazing blessing to have 230+ missionaries, plus friends and family in which prayers are being offered in Arlo's behalf. Several temples in the world also have his name on the prayer rolls, another blessing.

One Saturday morning, Elder Greening and his companion called on the phone and asked if they could come over and have us help with a situation by using Facebook.  That morning they had been at Kangaroo Point, where they had found a wallet.  The owner's name was discovered and so we searched for the name on Facebook and found there were about 10-12 pictures all with the same name.  Sandy opened the wallet and found a driver's license with a picture on it.  Sure enough, as we followed down the list of names on the Facebook page, a picture matched the license.  Then Sandy wondered how we were going to make contact because there was no phone number anywhere, but these missionaries know how Facebook works and showed Sandy how to send a message, giving a contact number for the woman to call.  Shortly a message came back and arrangements were made for these elders to come to her home that night to return the wallet.

As the mission secretary,  Sandy has to make calls to stake presidents with whom President Henderson needs to speak.  This past week, a call was needed to be made to Johannesburg, South Africa, where Sandy found that she was very familiar with this particular stake president. He had been our "boss" in the PEF program while we served in Durban, South Africa.  It was an enjoyable short conversation recalling our time of service together.

In the mail this week was a note from some sweet sisters who attend the Brisbane Ward as we do. They both are from China and we love to see them each week.  The number of missionaries serving in this mission who speak multiple languages is amazing.  There are many times when we get a bit frustrated because of the difficulty in communicating with these fantastic missionaries, but we take our hats off to them because we don't know two languages!

These two sisters will not be companions anymore, as each are being given a brand new missionary to train and they will be wonderful teachers and examples. The picture below was taken at a recent Chinese Missionary Training Meeting, held every six weeks.  Our letter writers are on the front row of sisters,  2nd and 3rd from the left.  The Chinese members are growing by leaps and bounds here in Brisbane!

The photo below is the current mission presidency and their wives.  The big news this past week was the announcement of a new temple president for the Brisbane Temple.  Robert and Jenny Cowan (the couple on the left) will begin their service on 1 November as the new temple president and matron.  President Henderson will now have to reorganize the mission presidency. The other counselor and his wife on the right are Robert and Rose Gordon.

17 - 31 August

Our last couple weeks have definitely been different for these two missionaries.  Our weather is still beautiful, had a "heat wave" as the weather forecaster called it, but now back to normal temperatures of 65-75 degrees, but not much rain which is always needed. 

If anyone serving in the office has a birthday during the current month, we have a little celebration, singing happy birthday and enjoying a some treats together. The August birthdays include President, Elder Dunlop, one of our assistants, and Sister Arseneau. The Henderson's had just returned from a road trip along the coast, and shared some macadamia nuts, plain and chocolate covered with us. Sandy brought in some Costco enormous muffins, which were quickly grabbed up and Sister Parsons added a fruit plate.  President was a really good sport to wear one of the birthday crowns, but everyone has to a sport to put those crowns on their heads!

Every so often, Arlo tweaks his back, but after trying to pick up and move a rather large, heavy duty paper shredder, he went down to his knees in pain.  One of the senior couples helped get him home in our car.  Later that evening, after some meetings, President came to the flat with two of his assistants to give Arlo a priesthood blessing.  Elder Pu anointed and Elder Greening pronounced the blessing. This was a great experience for us to be part of a learning process for Elder Pu and to see the humble, but powerful blessing come from our Maori elder.  The next morning (Friday), our kind and so compassionate, but very firm mission doctor came to the flat and after examining Arlo, strongly recommended that we all head to the emergency room.  A CT scan confirmed a herniated disc and we left with some pain meds, an appointment with a neurosurgeon the next week, and instructions to be flat down.  This wonderful doctor and his wife helped get us to the medical office for the appointment and then they came again for the requested MRI.  It has been great to have Elder/Doctor Madsen at our side to explain or clarify some of what the doctors have told us.  On 8 September, we will go in for another consultation with the neurosurgeon about the MRI results and to make a plan for the future.  During this past week, Arlo has come to know our lounge couch very well while trying to lay low.  Despite being in a horizontal position he is able to be a regular player in the running of the mission office.  Before the accident, Arlo had been able to get all of the web based office applications running on our laptop.  So between the mobile (cell) phone and our computer, the mission now has it's own satellite office! 

Sandy has not needed or wanted to drive here in Australia, and appreciates the fact that the office is two blocks from the flat, a grocery store is across the street and the chemist is down another block. The chemist knows Sandy's face when she comes in to refill prescriptions for meds and is always concerned with how the progress of her husband is coming.Brisbane has a great public transportation system, which if needed, would get her anywhere else she might need to go. 

Now Sandy walks back and forth to the mission office and home three times each day and passed this sporty guy, complete with his own goggles, waiting patiently in the side car of a motorcycle.  The owner was headed into a popular restaurant called Grill'd which serves the best chips (french fries) sprinkled with coarse salt and dried rosemary and burgers that are to big to get your mouth around!

Signs of spring are showing up everywhere.  Trees with new blooms and lots of flowering plants are beginning to be seen around the city. This geranium on our patio has looked half dead for months and suddenly flowers have popped out all over, with more on the way.  The temple grounds are beautiful with the flower beds overflowing with red, pink and white geraniums, plus golden marigolds.

Arlo is making progress and prayers have been felt from our family and the missionaries.  As phone calls come into the office, and Sandy answers, the first question most of the time is "how is Elder Mickelsen doing?"  Hopefully there will be heaps of progress by the next blog entry.