4-9 November

G-Day Mates,

Some of our week was spent traveling to Blackwater to search for members who we have not met, and in some cases, not sure they are still in the area, and for a visit to the Relief Society and Sunday School presidents and their two children.  He has lost his job and searching very hard for another one, but it appears that they will have to leave the area in order to find employment.  This will be hard for our little Emerald Branch.  Enjoyed sharing a lunch and conversation as we tried to learn more about the people in the area.  Tuesday evening we went to "tea" (dinner) with another family at their home - these are great stalwarts in the area who originally came from New Zealand.  Wednesday brought District Meeting and Institute.  The Mickelsen's were asked to share some training on the Hastening of the Work with the missionaries.  All of our regulars were in attendance at Institute and one brought Domino's Pizza for the refreshments.  It was nothing like the American Domino's but everyone loves pizza so it was a hit - the carrot sticks/ranch dressing are a necessary part of the refreshments again.  The pizza doesn't have our normal red sauce, but we decided that we could have it for a quick meal sometime. The mission patriarch and his wife (Elder and Sister Miller) finished up a 2 1/2 week circuit through the northern zone of the mission giving numerous blessings to very grateful people.  It was great to have them spend the weekend with us and two young people in the branch received their blessings on Sunday.  Sandy was able to help the Primary prepare for their yearly program, by playing the piano/keyboard, which is always fun to do.

This map is at one entrance to the Emerald Botanic Gardens which is about a mile walk from our house.  Arlo walks to here most mornings and picks up another mile or two in the gardens depending on the route he takes.  The following pictures are of the East Garden which is mostly natural landscape with planted areas of different tree varieties.  We will send some photos of the West Garden next week which has irrigated and maintained lawn areas.

The Southern Cross Windmill was built in 1931 and was used for irrigation on the "Marathon", one of the early pioneer farms near Emerald.  After restoration, it was moved to the Botanic Gardens and is used to pump water into the lagoon in the gardens.

This monument was built in 2001 to celebrate the federation of Australia.  The murals on the federation pillars are intended to reflect the Australian identity with special emphasis on the Emerald Shire.  There are ten pillars and each one represents one decade since federation.  The center seating area is called the yarn pit.

The rainforest is watered heavily during the night about five times a week and is several acres in size with paths through it.  Below are fruit bats (or flying foxes) which are hanging in the rain forest by the hundreds if not thousands.  They are huge for a bat - the head and body length is about 10 inches and they have a wing span of three plus feet.

Another week and it is amazing how the time is going.  There are many blessings that come from serving a mission together and we are most thankful for them all.

28 October - 3 November

Our week is pretty much the same routine, with a few variations here and there.  Tuesday or Wednesday mornings find us at the church for District Meeting.  Our District Leader, introduced us to his new companion who is from China.  He was called to speak Mandarin Chinese, which he already knew, as a missionary, but a little later was asked to learn English.  So six weeks later he is in Rockhampton and is doing an amazing job with his English skills.  He shared with us that he was converted in China and against his families wishes joined the Church and went to Hong Kong to be baptized. There had to be a little bit of interpretation by his companion, but we could pretty much understand the bits and pieces.  It was discovered during our meeting that seven of the sixteen in attendance were converts as young adults.   The Institute class was a little sparse on Wednesday, due to illness and other factors, but we had a great lesson and they always love refreshments, especially those carrots and ranch dressing!  Thursday evening, we were found at the Neighbourhood Centre helping with the meal and clean-up.   The remainder of our time has been filled with trying to locate members whose addresses are not so great (some only the town is indicated and others have just PO boxes) and meet other members who do have a real address.  Friday was Halloween and yes, they do celebrate this day a little bit in Australia. In the shops, you might find a shelf or two with candy and a few costumes.  If a family was going to have "lollies" (candy) for children, they were to put a balloon or some Halloween decoration on their mailbox and it would indicate stop by.  There was a house down the street from us that put white spider webs all over and bloody red handprints on the garage door, but didn't notice any other signs of participation. 

On Saturday, one of our Institute friends and Emerald's YW President took us out to the gemfields, which included the communities of Sapphire, Rubyvale and Anakie, with two purposes in mind -- (1) To see the area and (2) To try to locate some members.  We saw the area, but were unsuccessful in our attempts to find 3 different families.  The huge sapphire ring draws people inside what looks like a shanty of some sort, but is not.  You come into a large showroom of many pieces of jewelry made from stones that had been mined in the area.  We were surprised to discover that all sapphires are not blue, but come in a variety of beautiful colors!  As we continued through the showroom, we found ourselves in a outdoor restaurant with a nice menu.  In another area you pay $20 for a bucket of dirt and then pour it out on a sifting table.  Then with some large tweezers or your hands, you carefully go through the pile.  Over to the side, we watched two groups of people intently sorting through their dirt piles, in hopes of finding a raw sapphire.

One of the sapphire mines - people just come out to the area and put up a dwelling of sorts and start to mine for sapphires in hopes of striking it rich!

This is one of the amazing copper colored metal signs that announce what town you are coming to and what goes on or has gone on there.  This sign would work for two or three communities by just changing the name, Anakie, Sapphire, Rubyvale, because they are all gemfields (as you can tell by the cut stones at the top).

Notice the marker on the side of the road. Since the highways are subject to flooding, these markers are placed to show you how deep the flood water is above the road level.  This marker is for a bridge over the Nogoa River about a mile away from our flat.  The highest mark is 6 meters, which would be about 19.5 feet deep.  On the open highways the markers are usually 1 meter high.

This is an ariel photo of Emerald during the flood of 2010, but it also flooded in 2011 and 2012.  Our hope is not to experience this while here.  Residents are encouraged to "plan ahead" and be ready for a flood.  We were told to have 2 weeks supply of food and water because of the remoteness of this area, replenishing of shelves in the stores would not happen very rapidly.  This also explains why many SUV and trucks have air snorkels so they can traverse the flooded roads.

This is the amazing Queensland bottle tree.  It is a native of the state we are in.  The function of the large trunk is primarily for water storage making it drought resistant.  They are found throughout the area and are different in sizes, but always really fun to look at and can grow 4-30 meters tall.

Sunday was Fast Sunday and the Pacific Area presidency asked that all wards and branches have a special fast to guide us in identifying new opportunities to "hasten the work."  On November 30th there will be a Sacrament Meeting focused on the Savior, which the members are asked to invite friends and family as they feel prompted.  It will be good for the branch to have this occasion to work together - invitations, information packets and deciding on speakers - to make the day a memorable one for all in attendance.

We are thankful for the opportunity to serve together sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ and to become friends with the wonderful members of the Emerald Branch.  They have been so kind and we are enjoying sharing a meal or two with different families.  So always remember, if you have a chance feed the missionaries!

20 - 27 October

G'day Mates!!

Summer has arrived for real the past day or so - when we left church yesterday it was 37 degrees celsius which translates to 98.6!  No worries -- we have air con in each room.  The season is just upon us, so will be interesting to see how high we go!  Our time has been divided between different assignments-Sandy spoke in Sacrament Meeting, working on the membership records, Institute class, trying to make contact with some less active families and we have even found a service opportunity. Each Thursday we will help the local Neighbourhood Centre serve and clean-up dinner that is offered to those in need.  Saturday morning, we ventured over to the Clermont (110 km away) and Capella (53 km away) areas of the branch.  One of the branch members lost his employment at the mine, so they were having a yard sale before moving back to the United States, St. George to be specific.  

The second session of our Book of Mormon Institute class, with a new member,  missing one of the original and waiting for another potential to show up. They are a great group and we have good gospel discussions and fun together.  This week Arlo covered 1st Nephi 1-5.  The young man on the right is from Tonga and his native name translates into Moroni, which for us is perfect because we can pronounce that one.  He works at one of the farms on the outskirts of Emerald and has to work Sundays.  Institute will help him stay in contact with the church - he wants to serve a mission and that might be why he is here earning the big bucks (really!) at the farm.  Notice if you can, he is wearing the traditional tupenu (term for the wrapped Tongan piece of clothing which covers from the waist to the knees and this one was made from suit material).  Each week Sandy brings refreshments because that is always a "requirement" and these kids really enjoy the socializing afterwards.  Since rice krispie treats are always a hit in the United States, we thought we would try them here.  Looking down the cereal aisle, we found Kellogg's Rice Bubbles, which look exactly like krispies.  Then it was over to the sweets aisle to find marshmallows, which we did locate, but just not what we are used to.  The package is very small and has white and pink marshmallows, in between the minis and regulars at home.  Not only are the pink ones colored, but they are raspberry flavored. This was an experiment and it worked out fine, but only wish we could have had a picture of the looks on the kids faces when Sandy put the treats on the table - what are those?????  They were sampled, but the only one who really enjoyed them was Moroni, who ate 3.  Potato chips and carrots with ranch dressing are usually the biggest hits.  The carrots around here are so sweet and we eat some everyday because they are just fantastic!

This picture is for our Loveridge granddaughters who are so into horses right now.  Many of the horses we see wear coats like the one pictured and we aren't exactly sure why.  One possible explanation was that the animal is a race horse and his natural coat is being protected.

This is the time of year for jacaranda trees to blossom and fill the air with sweet fragrances and beautiful flowers.  In South Africa, these trees were in greater abundance than we have found here and we loved to drive along the jacaranda tree lined streets.  As they drop their flowers, the ground becomes a purple carpet.

This picture should give you a feel for the landscape in this area, which is called the Central Highlands.  It is mostly grassland with scattered trees.  The grass is brown and dry in the winter, but should green up with the summer rains.

There are large farms in the area and this is a field just north of town, but not sure what the crop is. Cotton, grapes, citrus and grain are the major crops for Emerald.  We have driven through the citrus orchards and there were "heaps" of trees for miles and miles on either side of the road. (Heaps is a term we hear used so much meaning many, lots,  multiples, etc.)

If you are having a tough day, all you have to do is open a carton of our very expensive eggs (these were $3.00 for the 6) and you can't help but laugh and smile,  even though you want to cry at the cost!  

Another week has gone by quickly and we continue to give thanks for the blessings of serving together.  Sandy really appreciates that our young district leader refers to us senior missionaries as "wiser" missionaries.  After transfers last week, our district became the largest in size for the entire mission - 4 couples, 2 sets of elders and 2 sets of sisters.  Our weekly district meetings, usually provide us with insightful training,  many times by our amazing younger associates.  

Take care and know how much we love and appreciate all of you.

11 - 19 October

G'Day Mates!

The week started with our General Conference weekend, which is a week behind the "real" Conference weekend.  Downloads from our computer were shown on Saturday and Sunday to a few members and us in the branch building.  Many of the branch were able to view the sessions on their own since they have access to the internet.  So enjoyed all of the sessions and the counsel we were given.  At our District Meeting Tuesday morning, our leader asked each of us to share our favorite talk with the group.  It was interesting to see the variety of what words touched whom, but there were a couple of repeats. Monday afternoon brought the Miller's to our home and they became our first houseguests.  Elder Miller is the Mission Patriarch and had made a loop to give a couple of blessings and came through our area because it was a shorter way back to their flat in Gladstone.  It has been said that he may be the only mission patriarch in the church.  In the Northern Zone, there are only districts, so no called patriarch.  A great need for blessings to be given, so President Henderson worked to get the approval of Church Headquarters to use Elder Miller, who is a patriarch from Burley, Idaho.  It was fun to share a meal, lots of conversation about missionary experiences and then attend District Meeting (via Skype as usual) together before they left for home.

Saturday evening we were invited to the home of the YW President and her husband - Peter and Martine.  Peter is from South Korea and Martine served her mission there.  She met Peter here in Australia a couple years after her mission at a YSA activity.  They had just spent the school holiday in Thailand, so our dinner was a fantastic mixture of South Korean and Thai foods.  They don't like the desserts from those countries, so we had berry tarts served with country cream.  Later in the week, Martine called and indicated her parents were up visiting/camping from the Brisbane area. She extended an invitation to us to come up to Lake Maraboon for a bar-b-que with her parents and brother.  This is their tent caravan and was parked in a caravan park close by the dam.

As we were preparing the dinner of flathead fish, the smells seem to bring birds from everywhere. This is a kookaburra (a terrestrial tree kingfisher native to Australia and New Guinea).  When we talked with our grandson Logan about the bird, he immediately sang out of the words of the Australian nursery rhyme - kookaburra sits in the old gum tree.  Even Sandy remembered those words, but can't figure out why we would know them.  These birds have a very distinctive sound, which our host recognized immediately before even seeing the actual bird - it makes a laughing sound.

Several lorikeets (small parrots with brightly colored plumage) flew in and landed on the rocks near the chairs.  Martine's mother broke off some bread and lured the Lories closer and closer,  finally they would come onto her hand.  A second piece of bread was needed to break up a fight over the bread!

Lake Maraboon, meaning "where the black ducks fly" is more than 3 times the size of Sydney Harbor.  People come to catch the red claw crayfish, so they launch their boats and spend the day trying to fill the nets.  A pelican was flying in and out of the water a good distance from the shoreline where we were, but never came close enough to snap a picture.  Note the water marks in the first picture indicating the lake is several feet lower than it has been in wetter years.  The boat was bringing water skiers back to shore.  The sunset picture was borrowed from the Lake Maraboon website, since we were not quick enough to get one of our own.

Lake Maraboon is about 16km (10 miles) from Emerald and an area that we hadn't checked out until the invitation to come to the bar-b-que.  Our concern was that we would be traveling back to our flat after dark and what about the kangaroos.  This Ute (word for truck) has a roo bar out front and can be found on most utes and suvs.  Since our Corolla isn't equipped with one, we were cautioned to drive down the middle of the road, with our headlights on bright!  It is not uncommon to hit a kangaroo driving the highways after dark in this area.  The roo bars minimize the damage.  Note the snorkel air intake, which is common, allowing one to drive through flood water.

As we were leaving our housing track, we came upon these two motorcycle riders.  Didn't think anything of them, until we were closer and one had stalled so we could read the words on the vests. It was a driving school - green vest has a L for learner and the orange vest has the word assessor (teacher).  We have seen cars with L signs in the rear window and know that means the driver is learning and has to have a licensed driver in the car.  Sometimes we see a P sign and were told that means they have a permit which allows them to drive by themselves during the day.  This picture also shows the "Give Way" sign which are everywhere - there are very few Stop signs in Emerald.  Lots of rotaries (roundabouts) which are very efficient.

Our teaching pool came to an abrupt end when we were told they were no longer interested in learning about the gospel.  Our time has been filled with trying to locate members and make preparations for our Book of Mormon Institute class - hope to get a picture to include next week.  We have six active young adults in the branch (two of them recently baptized) and five of them were at our first class - the sixth would have been there but had to work.  Sandy was asked to teach Relief Society and it was a different experience because of the size of the class.  Four sisters and two small children, who couldn't sit still, so finally their mother left, leaving three!  

It is our privilege to be missionaries and serve our Heavenly Father is whatever way is needed. Again, so thankful for General Conference and all the great reading and listening material we are blessed with.  Our love to you all.

2 - 10 October

G'Day Mates!

The Australia Brisbane Mission Seniors Conference has just passed and we will try to share the highlights with you all.

Our garage does not have two cars any longer!  This car was sorely needed by young missionaries on the coast, so on Sunday (3rd) we drove it along with the extra bikes, down to Gladstone as the first leg on our way to Brisbane.  Elder and Sister Miller were our gracious hosts again that evening and then on Monday, together we drove to the mission home in their car.

Here we are with the Miller's filling our plates with cedar plank salmon, ribs, a variety of salads, and pavlova (a type of meringue dessert) with fresh mango puree.  Pavlova is a popular dish, since we ate it twice this week and is mostly eaten in the summer time.

 All of the senior couples in the mission outside of the Brisbane Temple grounds, which was closed for cleaning, so we could not participate in an endowment session.  Another couple arrived from the MTC and St. George on Wednesday, bringing the senior roll up to 14 couples.

Our training on Tuesday was held at the Kangaroo Point chapel, which is adjacent to the Temple.  It was a day full of inspirational guidance from our president, his wife, the assistants to the president and our fellow missionaries.  One of our couples participated in some real play as investigators being taught by the assistants.  Both Elder and Sister Madsen felt the spirit so much that tears flowed freely as they were challenged to be accept what they were taught.

Our musical item (not number as we know it) for the day was this superb group of Samoan elders. Only wish we could share the beautiful harmonies they shared with us - just amazing.  All of us sitting in our seats being filled with lots of thoughts, ideas and challenges.

Wayne and Rhea Shute (from our Sunset Stake) hosted us at their home in Forest Lake and made us feel so welcome.  This is the 7th mission for Elder Shute and he has much experience in different missions with the Samoan people and this is their particular assignment in Brisbane.  Below is the Shute's very nice and comfortable house. 

One morning Arlo and the Shutes walked around Forest Lake in their neighborhood and snapped a photo of these two black swans.  At one point they were hunted to extinction, but have made a comeback.  They encountered many varieties of birds.  The Shute's are putting together a book and have found 31 varieties in their community.

Tuesday evening our group attended a dinner/show at the Australian Outback Spectacular, titled the "Spirit of the Horse."  As we entered through the main door, these wide-brimmed hats were plopped on our heads. The place had an indoor rodeo type grandstand and grounds with a giant movie wall that covered the one end of the arena.  We were served dinner during the program.  The focus was on the history of the horse in Australia, including its history in development of ranching in the outback.  Poetry from The Man From Snowy River was heard and we learned the history of their famous race horse, Phar Lap, who is to the Australian's as Seabiscuit, is to the United States.  Phar Lap's many wins raised the spirits of a down hearted Australia during the Great Depression.

This ride was at the conclusion of the performance and made our hearts race as we saw the country flag and thought of our own American flag in similar events at home. As a result of our missions, we have come to love three flags, American, South African and Australian!

Wednesday afternoon, we made our way to Tamborine Mountain, a resort community and the home of Laurel and Les Orth (our car fleet and bike specialist missionary).  These great people are the parents of our branch president here in Emerald. Their home backs up to a avocado orchard and all of us were treated to bags of avos (this is what they are called-the name is not spelled out fully) to take back to our respective areas with us.  It is a real treat because a single avo can cost upwards of $2-3.

Wednesday afternoon many of us went on a hike to Curtis Falls, which was basically a walk through a rain forest.  It is amazing how tall the trees were and that during the entire walk, we were out of the sunshine because of the foliage.

Always on the lookout for animals, on the walk to Curtis Falls Arlo came across this guy, a Echidna (a spiny anteater).  As we were traveling to Gladstone, Sandy spied her first three kangaroos, plus four camels.

This is our group at sunset at a spectacular viewpoint looking over the great dividing range.  The wind was blowing and the temperatures were lots cooler than most of us were prepared for!  Shortly, we made our way down to Georges Paragon Restaurant for dinner and more getting to know each other.  The concluding session was held Thursday morning at the mission home, where we quickly went through all the points of our training, heard testimonies from several couples who will go home before our next senior conference, and had lots of hugs and good-byes.  Some interesting statistics were shared as we all were thanked for our selfless service to our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.  Between the couples and 2 single sisters, we have left 97 children, 270 grandchildren and 24 great grands to come and share our talents and testimonies. 

Since we left our "chariot" in Gladstone, we were "required" to fly back to Emerald.  Comparing       1 hour 20 minutes on a plane to 11 hours in a car and being as tired as we were from our fantastic week of learning and socializing with the other couples,  our plane ride was most welcome.

Logan's baptism and family members from both sides (Mickelsen and King)

We send our love and appreciation for each of you and for the support you give to us in so many different ways.  

25 September - 1 October

The big news of the week was our move to a new home in Emerald!  Our Tongan Elders Quorum President organized and sent a Tongan moving crew from amongst his family and work associates. With their muscle and good nature, the move was made quickly.  One afternoon the washer, refrigerator, beds and miscellaneous items were moved to our new house.  Only wish that we could have a picture of the washer being loaded single-handed - it was amazing!  The next afternoon, our great crew returned to load the trailer with everything going to the "tip" (dump).  To give them some refreshment as they traveled to the tip, we gave them some bags of donuts and bottles of ginger beer, which we referred to as our "mormon beer."

Our new home is 3 bedroom/2 bath with a two car garage - "very nice" and we feel extremely blessed to have it as many units that we looked at quickly disappeared from the market.  There is another unit behind/to the side of ours, which we assume is a duplicate.  There is landscaping to be dealt with, which will become our duty!  A shed in the rear yard comes complete with a mower and other necessary yard equipment.

This is the lounge/kitchen and is the area where we spend most of our time when at home, with the dining area off to the left.  On the wall is the split system air conditioning (very efficient), which you also find in all of the other rooms, except the bathrooms.

This is the view of our neighborhood looking down the street from our driveway.

The red bottle brush shrub is everywhere - this is one in front of our neighbor's home.

Tuesday morning was our first Zone Conference by Skype.  We use the branch computer in the Branch President's office as seen below.  This is also how we participate in our District Meeting each week.  The squares on the screen are the other missionaries in Gladstone, McKay, Townsville and Rockhampton, plus the feed from the chapel in Brisbane where the conference was being held.  It began at 9 am, but there were some problems with the connections, so the missionaries in the chapel at Kangaroo Point started at the appointed hour, while our young leaders worked to get the four northern areas working properly.  Throughout the day, because the calls kept dropping, we missed out on portions of the training.  There was a lengthy discussion on Lehi's Dream which we wish we could have heard all of it.  The closing session was a training from President Henderson, and it felt like we were back in St. George being taught so powerfully by our then Stake President Henderson. He wanted us to prepare for the upcoming General Conference and to come with questions in our hearts, then we need to follow the words of our living prophets.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's General Conference talk in October, 2012 closed the meeting and we were grateful that these two sections came through without dropping.

Arlo spoke in Sacrament Meeting about an experience that we had in Florida teaching a young father

about why membership in this church was worth it.  Another speaker was a young man (26), a life long member who had fallen into in-activity, who was found by the sisters before we came.  In his talk, he mentioned that for four years he was the Golden Gloves champion in Queensland and that was part of his back sliding in his gospel commitment.  His remarks were impressive and indicated he had a firm foundation that was bringing him back.  We look forward to helping him.  We had another meeting with our investigator (Gary) and continued to work with a new member who has stopped coming to church.  Our efforts continued searching for less active members, but we have just about exhausted our list for Emerald.  

Besides moving into a new house, our big accomplishment was making a few phone calls and sending some emails resulting in getting approval to teach an Institute class.  We have approval and the go ahead from the CES Coordinator in Brisbane, our Mission President, the District President, and the Branch President of this branch.  We will be teaching Book of Mormon and will start as soon as we can get organized.   

Arlo has been using the Emerald Botanic Gardens near our house for his morning walks.  This morning he saw our first live kangaroo (maybe a wallaby) which looked to be about 5 feet tall. Kangaroos are prevalent in the country side, but not seen often in town.

Hard to believe that we have been serving a month and have been blessed in more ways than can be counted.  The prayers offered for us and all the missionaries serving so valiantly throughout the world are much appreciated.