Each time we receive notification from the Missionary Department that a missionary is due to arrive in the Australia Brisbane Mission their names are added to our Arriving Missionary spreadsheet. So we have before us constantly these prospective missionaries and our hopes and prayers is that they will come on the designated date and not be held up with visa problems. Our newest group of "goldens" arrived this week and we were so excited to meet all of them. Some of their names are easy to say, others very challenging, so we anxiously wait for their arrival and to hear the correct pronunciation. One elder is from Arkansas, but is a Hawaiian descent and his first, middle and last names comprise 40 letters. Sandy asked him if when he is not a missionary did he shorten the letters in his first name at all and his answer was yes - down to 7 letters! This group is from Thailand, South Korea, Samoa, Australia, Taiwan and the United States. Two of the American elders and two sisters in this group were assigned to the Mandarin Chinese program and only one is a native speaker.
After attending the orientation meeting at the mission home, the trainers arrive to gather up their golden companion, bedding (trash bags), bikes, luggage and off they go out to work hard becoming the great missionaries we know they can be. The missionaries love to make faces whenever a camera comes close - how we love them all.
This is the means of transport for all of the luggage of our incoming missionaries from the airport. The trailer is emptied at the garage of the mission and then claimed by the missionaries and their companions.
On the 3rd of October, Arlo felt like it was time for a little excursion out into Brisbane, after being at home and in the office part time. Our senior office sisters wanted to go to the Caboolture Historical Village and so we joined them. There are over 70 buildings, all with historic backgrounds, decorated and preserved as close to original as possible. Many of the buildings were moved onto the grounds from their original site and others are replicas.
The Caboolture Historical Village is extremely busy during the week with school groups, but on Saturday and Sunday, there are not many visitors so we almost had the place to ourselves. Caboolture is a word from one of the Aboriginal dialects meaning "place of the carpet snake". A great many of the city names in and around Brisbane are taken from the Aboriginal culture.
This train takes riders around the village and the engineer was kind enough to let us have a picture. A little boy on the ride with us called out that he was going on Thomas the Train and the engine does look rather similar.
The wallpaper showed the thriftiness of the people, by using old newspapers and trimmed up doilies for the shelf coverings. It must have been quite a project to cover all the walls and studs so carefully.
No office birthdays were to be had in September, so the young elders were so happy that one of the assistants, Elder Greening, had a birthday in October. It wasn't the fact that he had a birthday, but that there would be treats brought into our staff meeting for all to enjoy at the conclusion!!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, something we are very aware of because for some it has touched our lives personally. What a surprise when we came out of our flat one morning to see that Racecourse Road had been "pink'd" - decorated in ribbons and lanterns. Trees are sponsored by different business establishments on the street and the money charged, goes to fight breast cancer in Brisbane. Some of the employees were very creative with their ribbon designs, as seen below. It was so spectacular to see all the ribbons blowing in the breeze one day as we looked down the street. Many of the shops and restaurants are having specials during the month. St. Augustine's Anglican church, down a few blocks from our flat, held a special blessing of pets on the 11th, asking the owners to bring dressed in pink and there would be prizes! We have loved living right off of Racecourse Road, the atmosphere is fantastic!
This weekend (10 and 11 October) was our General Conference broadcasts. It was interesting to us that there was no announcement in our Sacrament Meetings on the 4th of the calls of the three new apostles. It was as if everything was put on hold until the sessions would be shown here the week later because of the time differences. How we look forward to these meetings twice a year where we receive so much exceptional instruction from our leaders. The Saturday morning session we watched at our ward building while downloading the other sessions, to be watched from our flat. Sunday sessions were shared with the office sisters and we had lunch together between the morning and afternoon sessions. It was hard to watch President Monson's body begin to falter while delivering his powerful remarks but we are thankful for a prophet who guides and directs us, and for all those who stand side by side with him. What a great experience to watch three humble men, Elders Rasband, Stevenson and Renlund, take upon themselves the calling to be apostles of our Savior, Jesus Christ and grateful we are to be members of the church.
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