16 - 22 February

There are signs that summer is starting to wind down, like some of the leaves changing and temperatures dropping a little.  Summer hasn't been as bad as many made it out to be, which we are grateful for.

Monday mornings are usually reserved for a staff meeting, but this week it was certainly different. Due to a scheduling conflict, President and Sister Henderson plus two assistants needed to be on the road at the appointed hour, but our meeting went as scheduled just at two sites - the office conference room and the backseat of a car, through the miracle of modern technology.

Serving in the office brings many opportunities to interact with our young missionaries, in person and on the phone.  It is always fun to meet and put a face to a name, especially our "Goldens" whose names we have been seeing and wondering about for several months on the list of upcoming missionaries.

Thursday evening, we were invited to share dinner with these "Goldens," the new missionaries who arrived last week.  It was decided that there is more memory retention if no teaching occurs immediately after 15-20 hours of airplane travel and so they are assigned a trainer and go to their new areas.  They return the following week on Thursday afternoon and evening, for review and practice of missionary work.  There is lots of excitement on their parts as they talk about their first week in the field.  One sister made the comment, "I didn't know missionary work was going to be so hard, but is so worth it!" They spend the night and are up at 6:30 am the next morning for Snap Gravity (exercise), breakfast and then more teaching until lunch.  Our dinner that night was at the Northern Thai restaurant where we really enjoyed sampling five different dishes, served family style.  When we were finished, President asked the waitresses (two) and the cook to come out and we sang, "As I Have Loved You" to them.  It took a few minutes for them to come from the kitchen, and we wondered if they thought we were going to complain about the meal.  These new Goldens are from the Philippines, Kiribati, Australia, and China and the sisters are seated on the left side of the table. At the top of the table are the two new elders, along with the office elders and two Assistants.

Earthquakes, a hurricane and now a cyclone are forces of nature that we have experienced in our lives.  When warnings were posted for Cyclone Marcia, we weren't even sure what that was until we did some research.  A cyclone is formed in the Indian and South Pacific Oceans and is the same as a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean.  Thursday, Friday and Saturday we experienced unbelievable amounts of rainfall and some wind in Brisbane, but there didn't seem to be too many problems. We don't know how much rain we got, but up to 300 mm (about 12 inches) was predicted.  President's mission office ceiling had a couple of leaks, but we were lucky.  Unfortunately to the north of us in Rockhampton there was severe flooding, trees blown over and power knocked out which might not be restored for a week or two.  Our young elders had their flat flooded and will need to move, but were insistent on staying in the community to help their investigators and members do whatever might be needed to help get life back to normal.  If was difficult to maintain contact with the elders, because their phone battery was dying and they couldn't find their car charger to use since there was no power in their flat. 

Even though these surfers and others were warned to stay out of the water, they didn't heed the warnings and experienced quite the rides.  We borrowed these pictures from a website. This is the Gold Coast, where we spent Christmas Day, which is about an hour drive south of us and the cyclone did most of its damage north of us several hundred Km's.

Saturday, Sandy was finally able to find a new "stylist" (Kristie) for her hair and added some new terms to our Australian vocabulary.  As the hair cut was proceeding, Sandy warned not to cut her bangs too short.  Kristie indicated she would just shape up the "fringe" and finish by "tidying up the neck!"  Another bit of terminology comes from the Sydney Service Center Fleet Coordinator for all of Australia who also helps with the visas - two very big jobs.  When he has some piece of email information to send and is speaking with Arlo or Sandy on the phone, he tell us that he is "flicking" the mail over.

So we will close for this week and "flick" our letter on over to many parts of the world.  Thank you for the love, support and strength that we feel from each of you.

9 - 15 February

The weeks events included adding six new missionaries to our mission,  having 17 missionaries depart for their homelands and going through 45 assignment changes at transfer meeting.  The group of missionaries who departed are beginning to represent the first groups of missionaries who arrived when President and Sister Henderson began their mission in July, 2013.   Our car knows the way to the airport very well, after making three trips on three different days, taking a senior couple so they could return to Cairns, picking up a new arriving elder and checking on a sister returning from the New Zealand Mission on her return trip to Cairns.  Elder and Sister Johnson were in Brisbane to attend the temple marriage of their daughter from Utah.  The couple decided to come here for their wedding and then are honeymooning in New Zealand!

Our parking area outside of the office building that the mission shares with five other businesses has spaces defined for each business.  After going many months, without an occupant across the hall from the office, Loud Events has moved in and this is their sign designating their parking space. Never have we seen one quite so "clear" about the consequences of parking where one shouldn't be parked! 

Tuesday was transfer day meeting after the departing missionaries were dropped at the airport.  The elder on the left came in a day earlier than the regular arrivals, so we had the privilege of retrieving him from the airport, since the Henderson's were involved with transfers.  Our elder is 26, the only member of the church in his family, comes from Kiribati and required 1 1/2 hours to get through customs.  After one hour, we started to panic a little, but with prayers and patience, he finally walked through the entry doors.  This elder was one of our visa waiters and has spent five months serving in another mission, until the paperwork was approved.  He comes from humble circumstances and on Saturday, we were blessed with the assignment to get him properly outfitted for missionary work, which he is anxious to get going on again.  Whitsunday and Bowen, in the northern zone, will be his first assignment, something very, very unusual for a brand new elder to the mission.  President Henderson commented about this, but said that it was confirmed to him that this elder should be in Whitsunday.

This is at transfer meeting and these two elders are going different directions.  Elder Goddard (gray suit) has been training Elder Parker, who comes from Tahiti and has made great progress learning English.  We are amazed at how many missionaries we have in this mission who are serving a foreign language mission learning english.  Elder Goddard's father died two weeks ago, but continues to serve so diligently.  Each mission car is outfitted with a bike rack, because every missionary has a bike and it goes with them wherever they might be assigned.  Although many have use of one of the 90 cars we have in the mission, they are till expected to use their bike when they can conserving Ks on the cars.  The parking lots was so full of laughter and happiness, as missionaries spent time with past companions and just enjoying being together.

The Brisbane Ward which we attend, held a baptism on Saturday evening.  Much to our surprise it was for a sister in the Gospel Principles class whom we had figured was a member and maybe just gaining further understanding of the gospel.  Elder Goddard (above) had taught her and was given permission to come from his new area to attend the baptism.  Her son baptized her and other children spoke, gave a prayer and presented a musical item for the program.

Monday evening before the departing missionaries leave on Tuesday, there are interviews, dinner and a testimony meeting held at the mission home.  We have the opportunity to attend the dinner sitting at one table with missionaries and there is another table even fuller than this one with the Henderson's. We are there to collect their mission support credit cards and Aetna insurance cards from them and go over travel itineraries with each missionary.  There is lots of enthusiasm as they see each other,  but some sadness as most will not ever be together again.  One of the two sisters in this picture is from the Philippines, but will be studying nursing at UVU in Utah Valley.

Well, another busy week has flown by taking care of routine office business but always dealing with many unique and challenging issues as we assist these 270 wonderful missionaries.  We feel greatly blessed each day to be part of this work.

Hope you each had a Happy Valentine's Day!!

2 - 8 February

Howsitgoin mates?  Things are "goin" just fine here.  This past week has been our Deliberation Week, in preparation for Transfer Week!  Monday through Thursday were spent praying and poring over the companionships and areas in the mission by the assistants and the Henderson's.  The seniors in the office (two sisters and the Mickelsen's) took turns preparing a lunch to be shared together with the deliberators. This week Sandy made chicken salad to fill croissants, along side chips, veggies and fruit.  On Friday, they all go fasting to the temple  to confirm the decisions and changes that have been made during the week.  This transfer was more difficult, due to the fact that 17 missionaries are returning home and we are only adding six. There are twelve visa waiters on our mission rolls right now, and it was hoped that some would receive their visas in time to come now, instead of later.  All are serving temporary missions in the United States.  President shared with us at our weekly staff meeting, that the mission would be downsizing over time to no more than 200 missionaries, which will be a standard for all the missions in the church.

The four assistants to the president - three from the US and one New Zealander.  Because of the size of our mission President Henderson has decided to have four instead of the normal two assistants. They will all return to their homes in the next three months, three in one transfer.

Saturday we were able to have our first real p-day! at Emundi Market, located about 1 1/2 hours from our flat heading north up the coast.  Our companions for the day were Elder and Sister Johnson (from Jordan, Utah), who are serving with the Self-Reliance program in Queensland.  Quoting from the brochure, "Every Saturday and Wednesday this otherwise sleep hinterland town springs to life in the early hours of the morning, transforming into a vibrant mecca for shoppers looking for something different.  A plethora of most things locally handmade, the market sells everything from delicately constructed craft to organically grown produce, living up to the them at the bottom of the sign."  The market has over 500 booths, all excellent presentations.  We are trying our best to follow the locals example and always wear a hat when out in the very hot sunshine, to help combat skin cancer.

Shared the walkways with heaps and heaps of people!

Lots of local talent were entertaining throughout the market with a wide variety of music.

The first shop,  as we entered the market, had these intriguing little bottles of pickled onions with an interesting name. 

Heaps of people have told us that we needed to indulge in a cronut at least once during our stay here. In case you are wondering what in the world this is, we will tell you.  This is a deep fried cross between a doughnut and a croissant.  Our choice to share was one drizzled heavily with white chocolate, and raspberry jelly filled!

This portable ATM was being well used in the short time we stood by it, visiting with the owner.  He has 45 in Australia and takes them all over to many outdoor venues.  His profit comes from the $3.00 service fee.

Sandy walked into one of the stalls, which was featuring African goods.  What a surprise to come upon this display and see the Ngwenya Glass signage which has come from Swaziland, the small kingdom that borders South Africa.  The glass animals are all hand blown and made from recycled glass that people collect from "every corner of the country."  During one of PEF trips to Swaziland, we were able to visit the glass blowing facility and see first hand how the pieces were made. While looking at the pieces, fond memories of good times had in Swaziland filled our minds.

Even though we were tired from all the exploring at Emundi Market, we couldn't come so close to Coscto and not stop.  Looks just the same on the outside, except for the spelling difference on the side of the building.  So many words are spelled just a little differently than we are used to.  Our computer in the office spells correctly for Australia, but sometimes throws us Americans off!  We couldn't believe all the people lined up for a rotisserie chicken to come out of the ovens - it is a real deal.  The chickens are about the same size as the U.S. and sell for $6.99, as compared to $12-13 for a smaller chicken in the local grocery stores.  One thing that is different about Australian rotisseries (except Costco) and ours, is that they are filled with stuffing.

The set up in the store is similar enough to any we have been in the States and even the food court signage is the same, just a few different menu items.  As we entered the parking lot and store, one would have thought it was Christmas by the massive amounts of people.  There are rumors that because of the success of this store there are plans to build a second one on the opposite side of Brisbane.  

We are busier than we have been for many years and the days are long with a new challenge every hour, it seems.  But we are enjoying every minute of it and appreciate the opportunity to serve as missionaries in this part of the world.

26 January - 1 February

It is a beautiful day in Oz, with temperatures around 29-31 C.  The weather is warm during the day, but cools down nicely around dusk and through the night, making things very pleasant.  Arlo walks each morning and added a new route by the Brisbane River, where he commented that it was very cool, almost cold as he walked.

The 26th of January is official national day of Australia.  It marks the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove, New South Wales by its commander Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788.  In Sacrament Meeting the Sunday before, we stood together and sang their beautiful official national anthem, Advance Australia Fair,  Hymn #342, which is added in the Australian LDS hymnbooks.  

Australians all let us rejoice, for we are young and free;  
We've golden soil and wealth for toil, our home is girt by sea.  
Our land abounds in nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare;                                     
In history's page, let every stage Advance Australia fair.  
Beneath our radiant Southern Cross we'll toil with hearts and hands.                                                 
To make this commonwealth of ours renowned of all the lands.  
For those who've come across the seas we've boundless plains to share, 
with courage let us all combine to Advance Australia Fair.  

Chorus:  In joyful strains then let us sing, "Advance Australia Fair."

This special day was the last official day of the school holiday and everyone made the most of it.     Our missionaries had their P-Day switched to later in the week so they could take advantage of people being home celebrating, much like we would do on the 4th of July. 

During one of our outings to the store looking for office supplies, we found a few more signs for our mission sign collection!

No where could we find any additional signage that would tell us if we might qualify for this parking spot!

Sign designating crosswalk ahead - very self-explanatory!

A popular place in Fortitude Valley on a hot summer day.  This building was constructed in 1925, maybe accounting for the name.  As we drive past, there are always patrons in the "bath", even early in the morning.

The senior missionaries are currently trying to get all 110 mission flats inspected in the next three weeks.  This was our first one of the day, with a threesome from the United States, Tonga and Tahiti as the occupants. This very old and dusty plastic model of the Titanic was sitting on top of a wardrobe and we suggested they add it to the "rubbish bin".

These are sweet sister missionaries from China and Taiwan and their flat was spotless.  They are serving in the ward that we attend and always are looking for hugs when we arrive.  They are assigned as Chinese speaking missionaries, but are expected to master English while here.

Two current companions who knew each other during their high school days at Olympus High in Salt Lake City.  They received their calls (both to learn Mandarin Chinese) within a month of each other and were surprised to be going to the same mission.  Now they are enjoying serving together, never thinking it would be possible!

Technology never ceases to amaze us.  This week we had a mission-wide phone conference call, that also included the the Pacific Area President in New Zealand.  He was praising the missionaries in our mission for the fantastic work that occurred this past year.  Our week seems to be a blur as we think back over it, but we are grateful to be a part of keeping things going in the Brisbane Mission.

19 - 25 January

Howsitgoin mates!  It has been a week of gray skies and heaps of rain at times and other days have been bright and beautiful.  On Saturday we ventured out to the local Office Works (Australia's version of Office Max/Depot) and found it over-run with school kids and parents buying all the necessary supplies for school to start on the 27th.   There were lists posted for various schools in the area.  Our office responsibilities keep us on our toes and no day is ever the same, as least so far.  At Sacrament Meeting today, it was announced that the ward was now going to hear the testimonies of the new elders and the senior couple.  It looked like the first speaker didn't show up!  It is always a wonderful opportunity for us to share our feelings about what we are doing and our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In a previous blog, we posted a picture of the Story Bridge.  Driving across one day this past week, we noticed that there were people standing on the top of the bridge looking out over the city.  Upon doing some research, we found that for $99 you can book a spot with the Story Bridge Adventure Climb.  The advertising says anyone can do it, even if you are afraid of heights - the top is 80 meters above sea level.  Sandy decided that even though this is one of only three bridge climbs in the world, she wouldn't be enjoying the views. The participants have to take a breath-alcohol test before beginning, because the advertising says "you can't drink and climb!"

Friday evening, we were invited to a special showing of "Meet The Mormons" at Kangaroo Point Chapel.  This movie has not been released to the general public here, but things are in the works to book several movie venues in March to show it.  Priesthood leaders and other stake leaders of the 10 stakes in the Brisbane area are being invited to four different evenings where the movie is shown in the Cultural Centre.  We were impressed with and highly recommend the film - loved the stories shared, especially the family sending their son off to the South Africa Durban Mission and seeing a few familiar local spots.  All the stories are filmed on location.  There is a "meet and mingle" time before hand and the mission has provided the refreshments.  Sister Hansen, who in her former life was the head of BYU Catering, has put together beautiful tables with fantastic food. Sandy and the two office senior sisters (the sister serving from the punch bowl is Sister Parsons) have been helping with the food prep and these little burgers were Sandy's assignment - just thought they were so cute plus being very tasty.  The slider burgers along with the infamous cream puffs all came from Costco.

This apartment building is our new home.  The driveway on the left leads to our underground parking.

These are views of the living area of our flat.  The Montagues, the missionary couple that lived here before us, have done a wonderful job of making it very comfortable and pleasant.

Our flat is located just off of Racecourse Road, which is a beautiful tree lined street.  The street runs from the local racecourse down to the Brisbane River (about five blocks or so long).  There is a sign posted on the sidewalk, which details the shops and such on the street and it lists 28 cafes, restaurants and catering sites. There is also a Coles grocery store directly across the street from our flat. Refrigerators in missionary flats are not large, but we were told that we shouldn't worry because the other refrigerator is right out the front door!  This should be our last move until we return to the United States, and never in our married live have we made so many moves in such a short period of time!

This is the building where the mission office is located and it occupies half of the second floor.  It is a short two block walk from our flat.

Our work stations Monday through Friday and sometimes on Saturday and Sunday - the chairs are getting to know our backsides really well!  Part of Arlo's responsibilities have to do with the cars and we have learned a new term used when a driver breaks the law while driving.  The transgressing driver is given an infringement (ticket) and the fines are really healthy.  For instance, driving 7 km (about 4 mph) over the speed limit ran one elder $150 and the missionaries pay all of their own fines.  

Take care and have a fantastic week.  

5 - 18 January

Summer is really, really here, plus it has been raining hard, on a regular basis.  So we are constantly walking around feeling like we are in a sauna!  Parts of the country have received so much that their drought conditions have been greatly reduced.  The streets seem to have even more tourists than around Christmas, probably because the schools are still on holiday until February 2nd.  The last two weeks have seemed like a blur as we have been getting on-the-job training non-stop.  Arlo is the Finance Secretary and Sandy is the Mission Secretary.  This mission is blessed to have two senior sisters who help with housing, referrals, baptism records and a multitude of odds and ends.  The office deals with 103 cars, 117 flats and 150 mobile phones along with the everyday care of 280 missionaries.

We are currently assigned to attend the Brisbane Ward and the building is located next to the temple. Our bishop is from the United States and is here with his wife and youngest son for 3 years.  His employer is ConocoPhillips.  As new members of his ward, we were invited to dinner of grilled lamb and enjoyed the view of the Brisbane River and the Story Bridge as seen above from the Bishop's 10the floor apartment balcony.   Before we moved, each day we would cross the Story Bridge, which is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River that carries vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane.  It is the longest cantilever bridge in Australia.  As evening comes, the bridge is outlined in red, green or purple lights, which are rotated by days.  All during the Christmas season the lights were a mixture of colors.  As of Thursday (15th), we moved into a lovely new flat, putting us within walking distance of the Mission Office, so we will not be crossing this bridge on a daily basis, just when we come back over to attend church or the temple.

With the move into the mission office, our lives now revolve around the six week transfer cycle of missionary comings and goings.  This is the workspace of our office elders and we are blessed to have three. The elder in the rear left is one of our computer gurus, but as you learn about him, one wonders how he does what he does.  His mother contracted chicken pox during the first trimester of her pregnancy.  The doctors were concerned he would be born brain damaged, he was not, but had scarring on the back of his eyes and open wounds on his body.  They knew he was blind and the wounds were sewn up so the skin would grow over them.  When he was 14,  it was discovered that a tumor was growing on his spine, causing him to lose feeling in his arms.  After surgery to remove the tumor, he awoke paralyzed.  In a priesthood blessing, he was promised that he would heal.  He is legally blind and walks with a lilt, but he walks.  The blessing he received as a newborn, indicated that despite his physical impairments, someday he would serve a mission and now he is!  A more grateful person would be hard to find and we are thankful for Elder Campbell's gentle spirit and big heart and willingness to use his remarkable computer skills helping us with our computer glitches.  He is able to work with the computer by greatly enlarging the image on the screen and working with his nose almost touching the monitor.   He is from Brisbane, but lives with his companions and is a great missionary. These three elders were in the office when we arrived, but transfers took the Elder in the front from us and sent him out into the field.  Elder Gustafsson (standing) is from Iceland and his favorite Christmas package from his family was whale blubber!  

Our first set of incoming missionaries - 19 in total and we only sent home 11.  This picture is in the mission office, where Elder Mickelsen is part of the orienting group and is making sure that they understand about cars, health insurance and the very important support card.  We had to split into two groups using the conference room and tables set up in the office area   Our mission has missionaries from over 30 countries, who speak 23 different languages as their native tongue.  This particular group has elders and sisters from the United States, Philippines, China, Samoa, New Zealand, Japan, Cambodia and Tahiti.   It is hard for us to see these very tired missionaries come off the plane and many not very comfortable at all with English.  Brings to mind our sons who served in foreign missions going out after some weeks in the MTC or our oldest going to the Philippines with no language training because that country at the time was considered English speaking!

Elder and Sister Montague from Bountiful, Utah tried their best to teach us everything we would need to know to take over their responsibilities in the office.  They have four months left on their mission and are off to Townsville to have a different missionary experience working with a branch.  The local couples have had a dinner or two to help send them on their way.  

Australia has beautiful paper money, much like we had in South Africa. The shapes in the bottom corners are cutouts with a plastic insert and none are the same size. Each side has a different person, famous in the country.  The $50 shows A.B. "Banjo" Paterson, the author of "The Man From Snowy River" and "Waltzing Matilda", the subject of another blog entry.  

The coins from left to right are 5,10, 20 and 50 cents then one dollar and two dollars.  Note the two dollar piece is almost the same size as the five cent piece, just a different color and much thicker and heavier.  The one cent piece was withdrawn from circulation in 1992 making in necessary to round all transactions to the nearest five cents.

This past two weeks have brought emails telling us of the deaths of two sweet sisters in our ward in St. George, and they will be missed so much because of their kind and loving spirits toward everyone.  One thing is certain in this life that we don't know how long we will be allowed to spend on the earth and we need to take advantage of every moment.  Our family means the world to us and we are thankful for their support as we serve this mission, even though it is hard not to be together. The opportunity to feel of the spirits and enthusiasm of these young elders and sisters as they share their testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ, strengthens our own testimonies daily and we feel so blessed to be a part of this great work!

29 December 2014 - 4 January 2015

G'Day Mates (friends, in case you didn't know)

Each day we become a little more familiar with the goings on of the mission office.  This has been another busy week as we try to learn our new responsibilities which involves scores of complex and unique processes.  This past week never found us leaving the office until early evening, then had to make dinner upon reaching the flat.  More weekend cooking/freezing has to be added in order to eat at a decent time each night, instead of just before going to bed!  It will all come, we keep telling ourselves!

The mission had a goal for 700 baptisms this year and we could sense the disappointment of the assistants, office elders and president, when December 29th came and it was determined to be 2 or 3 short.  Many hours were spent poring over baptism records in the office the last few days of the year, and talking with the baptismal record department in Salt Lake, trying to find any mistake that could possibly make up the difference but to no avail.  President Henderson held a mission wide conference call on the 31st, telling all the missionaries of the great work that had been done throughout the year and not to be down.  We were reminded to rejoice over the 697 that did enter the waters of baptism throughout 2014 by Elder Montague (half of the couple that we are replacing)!  

New Year's Eve was spent with two other couples having dinner and watching a rented copy of Maleficent.  What we missed were several displays of fireworks going on around the city.  New Year's Day was pretty much a regular office day for us, as it was a working day for the mission.

The suburb where we are currently living is called Kangaroo Point, a small peninsula created by the Brisbane River as it snakes through the metropolitan area, which is directly across the river from the city's major downtown area.  We are a 15 to 40 minute drive from the mission office depending on traffic.  When we move in a couple of weeks we will be about two blocks from the office.  The following photos depict some features of the area we live in.  

The Brisbane temple can be seen looking up our street and is less than a ten minute walk (2 minute drive) away.  

The stake center and meeting house where we go to church is located adjacent to the temple on the same lot.  This is the walk between them with the stake center on the right and the temple on the left.

This is the south side of the stake center as seen from the street.

We are told that the Temple President's residence is on the top floor of this apartment building which is across the street from the temple.

Parking for the complex is an underground garage located beneath the two buildings.

Across the street to the west is a cliff which runs along the river.  There are a couple of places where stairs take you from the street above to the bottom of the cliff where there are separate bike and walk paths along with many other park features.  Arlo walks to the temple, takes the stairs down and walks along the river for his morning walk each day.

The view of the downtown area across the river makes for an enjoyable walk.

Self serve bike rentals are found throughout the city.  This one is on the river walk at Kangaroo Point.

Passenger boats operate along the river with scheduled stops.  The red boat is called the CityHopper and is free, the blue catamaran is called the CityCat and costs to ride.   

About three streets to the south of our flat is a 40 thousand seat stadium which is home to the Brisbane Heat (a professional cricket team) and the Brisbane Lions (a professional soccer team). When our windows are open, we experience the roar of the crowd.

With 2014 come and gone, we are looking forward to what 2015 will hold for us all.  Our hopes are for everything great!!