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.
I'm so glad Arlo is seeing some improvement on his own. That's encouraging. Those fireworks would have been amazing to see in real life. I love fireworks (you know that, though, don't you?). Those napkins folded into little shirts are adorable and the pea pod tie is definitely a winner. I wondered if we would see a significant decline in missionaries once the age change cycled through, but it still sounds like you've got a large force, which is good. May God bless you in your efforts.
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