15 - 24 September

Howdigo (how is it going) mate - This is the greeting Arlo gets sometimes on his morning walk.  We have found the citizens of Emerald very friendly and helpful.

The first signboard that officially greeted us as we made our way into the little community of Emerald.  There is one on both ends of town and we have been made to feel welcome by the branch members and the merchants we have come into contact with - our realty office has been really helpful and kind.  One can read on the bottom of the signboard that Emerald has won 1st prize for a tidy town several years and to us these awards are well deserved.  The yellow dashed line represents the Tropic of Capricorn which should give you a feel for the climate here.

Sunday morning dawned with overcast skies which were a welcome change from the very warm sun, which isn't as hot as it will become as we inch forward towards summer!  There are four seasons here in this part of Australia and we have arrived during spring - popcorn is popping on many of the beautiful flowering trees and flowers are blooming.

Our meetings begin at 9 am and because of the school holidays, many of the branch members were vacationing in other parts of Australia, including the one pianist.  Seems like no matter where we are called to serve a mission Sandy's piano skills are put to use.  After a brief hello that day, the next words were, "Can either of you play the piano?" Arlo found it very interesting that the 10 branch members in his Priesthood Meeting introduced themselves and were from 7 different countries - Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, So. Korea, Tonga, Japan and United States.  During the last hour of our block meeting on Sunday, it became so noisy in the building that we were having difficulty hearing our soft spoken Relief Society leader/ teacher and soon discovered why. Most homes and buildings have metal roofs, much like we see in the snow country, and rain was pouring down from the skies. The rains didn't let up for 36 hours and no one was complaining because there still is drought in the country.  Monday morning was an 8 year old baptism for Tereiha-Eve (named after her auntie and Mother Eve as in Adam and Eve. The first part of the program was held at the chapel and then we adjourned to the "baptismal font".  Since the building has no baptismal font, the branch uses the swimming pool of a family, which happens to be the home of Tereiha-Eve.  The rain was still being unrelenting as it came down and so became a first for us - baptism in a swimming pool during a rain storm.  There were only smiles on the faces of father and daughter as they entered into the water. After the baptism, we returned to the chapel to finish the services and then had refreshments provided by the family and friends.  It is our hope to get some pictures from the family soon, to share.  This family is from New Zealand and several family members traveled from there to help with the program and be a support. 

As we were sitting in our lounge (living room) having some study time, the front door was open and we could hear noise coming and soon discovered that this was the mail delivery service for Emerald. Seems very efficient!

Each morning we are awakened by the sounds of many birds, mostly pleasant sounds.  This is the Sulpher-crested Cockatoo, probably Australia's best known parrot and it has a distinctive raucous call which can be very loud.  Arlo walks each morning along the racecourse (track) close by our flat and these birds are constantly flying in and out of the trees.   The colored crest closes as the bird flies and when they perch, it fans out showing a beautiful pale yellow color which is also on the underside of the wings.

Much of our time during the last week has been spent in trying to secure a new flat and trying to match names on the branch list with faces.  We spent time on Sunday with the ward clerk and the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency going over the branch list and identifying members we need to find or just needing a visit.  We were able to find several families the past couple of days.  We had a second visit with an investigator we are teaching.  As we made a plan for a return visit, he indicated he would "ring" us up if he had a "clash" - a little vocabulary lesson for the week!

Life is good and we are happy to be serving here in Emerald.  Our testimonies are strong of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our love goes out to each of one of you our friends and family.

Beginnings - 31 August-14 Sept 2014

After much work and anxiety concerning our Australian visas, two days before we were to leave for the Provo MTC (office training), official word was received that we were in the system and good to go!! Sunday morning, August 31st, our stake President, Craig Astle, set each of us apart as missionaries. He blessed us with clear minds (much needed because we aren't as young as we used to be!). Blessings of health, strength and abilities for us and for our families.  After being set apart, Arlo pulled out of his pocket missionary badges from our previous missions and it felt so good as we clipped them on.  President Astle indicated this was a first for him, which it would be since a missionary doesn't usually receive the badge until entering the MTC!

Beginning the morning of September 1st until the afternoon of the 4th, there was intensive office training at the MTC for us at the request of our mission president.  We shared the computer lab with 4 other couples who were going to England, California and Australia.  Our teachers are all BYU students who for the most part had served in mission offices and they were wonderful.  Laughter on the part of the couples came when we learned that one teacher had never seen a typewriter, typewriter ribbons or carbon paper.  Heavenly Father has brought about inventions necessary to help with the "Hastening of the Work" very quickly.  During our time at the MTC, we spent lunches with old friends from Ridgecrest who now live in Provo (Roberts, Bullock's, Wilkins and Jo Lish) and So. African missionary friends the Knudsen's.  Dinner one evening was spent with our nieces and families. When we finished our training, a quick trip was made to St. George to gather all of our belongings and to do the final close-up of our home.  Then back to Lehi and onto Logan to spend Sunday with Sandy's mother.  Monday (8th) was relax a little and ready ourselves for the 16+ hours of airplane travel to Brisbane.  Jared, Stephanie and her family were at the SLC Airport to send us off.

After crossing the dateline, our feet touched Australian soil on Wednesday (10th) and along with 20 young elders and sisters, we were all greeted by President and Sister Henderson.

These wonderful, excited and somewhat anxious missionaries come from many parts of the world - South Africa, Australia, United States, Japan, Fiji, and Singapore.  It was great fun to be part of them receiving companions and watching them head out into the Brisbane areas.  The president doesn't send them too far away for the first assignment.

The mission home shown above is lovely and so well suited for its function.  We stayed here three nights as we acclimated to the time change.  The Henderson's were wonderful hosts, and it was nice to visit over meals about St. George and people we know in common.

The Brisbane skyline taken at a lookout up the street from the mission home.  A hazy morning, but wasn't always like this for the days we were there.

For those of you who remember our South African blog, we always included some of the different road signs and anything else humorous we came across.  Road trains are large trucks with several trailers that travel across the outback of Australia.  The trip from Brisbane to Emerald required 11+ hours in our new Toyota Corolla and provided lots of practice time for driving on the "other" side of the road.  On Saturday we drove for seven hours north along the coast and stayed with a missionary couple, the Millers, in Gladstone.  After attending church with them on Sunday we drove four hours west to Emerald.  We were encouraged to get there before dust to avoid kangaroos on the road - we saw plenty of roadkill.

This is our temporary flat, which had previously housed young sisters.  There are two vehicles because one belonged to the sisters who were flown to their new proselyting area - distances between areas are huge! At the moment, we are looking for a new flat more suitable for a couple since the contract is up in October.  The mission office is trying to figure out how to retrieve the car since we will be the only missionaries here for the time being.

The Emerald Branch building was in its previous life a corner store, which was bought by the church and remodeled into a very nice building which meets the needs of this branch very well at the current time.  The membership is about 150, with about 40-50 attending each Sunday.  Our hope is to learn lots more when we attend this Sunday.  As we came into town and met the 2nd Counselor, who had the keys to the flat, he concluded our visit with a "by-the-way" comment.  Arlo would be speaking on the 21st and Sandy would be speaking on the 28th and these were to be the "long" talks!!

The Australia Brisbane Mission is where we know that we are to be serving at this time and are blessed with our testimonies and the support of our family and friends.