Here we are at the Provo MTC. We spent two weeks there. The first week we learned all about "Preach My Gospel" and practiced teaching some volunteer investigators. Since our call is to work in the mission office, our second week was spent learning all about the administrative side of missionary service. We met some great senior missionaries that are serving everywhere from California, to Ghana, to France, to Poland. The single sister in the middle of the picture below is even going to Hawaii to sew costumes for the Polynesian Cultural Center. At least in this group, we were the only ones going to Australia. We did meet a number of elders and sisters that were going to one of the five Australian Missions.
Our first real adventure came as we left the MTC and began a journey that lasted 25 hours in the air and a stop at airports in Los Angeles, Sydney, and Perth. We were picked up by another senior missionary couple and stayed with them for a few days. We met our mission president, President Walter Fife and his wife, Dana on Friday and received our first assignment. While our mission call specified us as "Office Specialists", it also said that the mission president may use you as needed. We will first serve in Albany, WA, which is a small town just about as far south as you can go. The next land mass south of Albany is Antarctica. Here is a picture of Albany from our neighborhood. Pretty well every place in town is on a hill or in a valley.
We live in a very nice flat and serve a branch with about 50 active members with a set of elders. In October, we will have another set of elders. The area presidency, the mission presidency, our stake presidency, and our branch presidency anticipate significant growth in Western Australia, including Albany. There is a lot of missionary work to do here and there are a number of members who, for various reasons, choose to be less active. Here is a picture of us with Elder Arrieta, from the Philippines, and Elder Ellsworth, from St. George.
We go for walks each morning and found a vacant lot in our neighborhood that is home to three kangaroos. Each morning, they are in a little different place eating the vegetation
Another thing that fun are the various mail boxes used by the residents here. The following are some of those we have seen including the last one, which is the most unique. We do know that it works. It is used by a member of the branch that lives in the country. She wasn't home when we went to visit, so we left a note in the microwave. The next morning, she came to visit us.
We had an opportunity to serve as volunteers at a place called Discovery Bay on the Queen's birthday. Admission was free for the day and we had the opportunity to serve in the animal exhibit. It was a great day and we got to see animals including this wombat and red kangaroo (they look like a white or albino kangaroo but are called red due to the red undercoloring around their neck). We also, got to see the Indian Ocean for the first time. The town of Albany is on a large bay and on the other side of the bay, where Discovery Bay is located, is the peninsula which has the ocean on the other side.
October, 2015
Here it is, October, 2015. We did get another set of elders here in Albany. Elder Afereti-Asiata joined us from Perth. He has been out for 6 months and is from Riverside, California. His family is Samoan, so when people ask where he is from, it is fun to hear him say, "California", His companion is Elder Santo-Tomas from the Philippines and he has been out 3 months. He was up north so had culture shock when he felt the temperature here about 30 degrees cooler than he was used to. Here is a picture of the whole Albany district. This was taken on Elder Ellsworth's birthday, so that is why he is smiling extra wide and no, that isn't a golf club Elder Arrieta is holding. It is a selfie stick.
In our effort to show a little about the culture here, here are a couple of things you see here nearly every day. The first is a cart return at a grocery store. Here, they are called trolleys. Next is the elusive postman. They ride these little Honda Trail 90's and ride right up on your lawn or to you door, depending on where your mailbox is. They don't seem to like to be photographed, so these are a couple of stealth photos. We also found another mailbox worth capturing.
Here is a photo of the Albany chapel. Since we got here two months ago, the average Sacrament Meeting attendance has increased by more than 15. The Lord really wants this area to grow (thus the need for additional missionaries). The missionaries have a lady getting baptized later this month (the first in over a year) and are getting others ready. We are concentrating on getting the less actives to return and Sister Halbert's cinnamon rolls have been a hit in bribing them a little. Also, included is their basketball court. They play all of their games outside.
We had an opportunity to go with Elder Arrieta and Elder Ellsworth to the Valley of the Giants, which is about 100 kilometers (70 miles) west of Albany. Here are a few pictures from that adventure. One of the neat things is a sky walk that is built using suspension technology that peaks about 40 meters (130 feet) above the forest floor. While not quite as big as the giant redwoods in California, these tingle trees grow very large, as you can see in some of the pictures. It was a great outing
We finished the month with two very special occasions. We got to drive the 5 hours to Perth to participate in a conference for all of the senior missionaries serving in the Australia, Perth Mission. We were able to meet 3 of the couples that we hadn't met before and renew acquaintances with those that we had met. We had a barbecue Friday night at King's Park, which is one of the oldest and largest parks in Perth. The picture below is President Fife and me cooking steaks and Elder Moss cooking sausages (hot dogs). Elder and Sister Escher are there talking with us.
On Saturday, we had some instruction and then got to attend a session at the Perth temple. It was so great going to the temple again. We miss not having the temple just a few miles from our home.
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| Front Row: Elder and Sister Moss, Elder and Sister Eggbert, Elder and Sister Esher, and President and Sister Fife, Second Row, Elder and Sister Maher, Elder and Sister Halbert, Eldetr and Sister Emery Third row: Elder and Sister Coombs |
On Saturday night, we had dinner at a restaurant called Brett Walker's Restaurant (we have a nephew with that name, so it was fun to eat there). This picture is taken from just outside the restaurant looking across the bay to the Perth skyline.
On Sunday, we had a Sacrament meeting at the mission home and then each had an opportunity to bear our testimonies. Sister Fife made sure that we were well fed throughout the conference. It was so fun being all together to create some great memories.
We ended the month with the one of the best occasions available. Heather Bateman, who had been a referral from her former mother-in-law was baptized and confirmed. It was the first convert baptism in nearly two years and was the first following promises of growth in Albany by the mission president, President Fife, the stake president, President Pemberton, and the branch president, President Bailey. We had already seen the return of some less active members and again, now a baptism. Many branch members and friends and family attended the baptism on Saturday and confirmation on Sunday, including her two sons, Issac, a 16 year old, and Nathaniel, a 5 year old. Also, her mother attended from Perth and felt the love and support that the branch gave her daughter. This is a picture of us with Heather, her youngest son, and Megan Bailey, a branch member, who went with the full time elders to help teach Heather.
What a great way to end a month
November, 2015
The month started off by us visiting with a member who lives about 20 miles out of Albany, on a farm. About 3 years ago, a little joey kangaroo was saved from his mother's pouch after she was killed on the highway. The joey was raised and then turned loose in the bush (forest). This particular bush was not to far from this farm, so the now 3 year old kangaroo sometimes comes to visit. The neighbors named him Manny. We went to the back of their property and yelled "here, Manny", etc. A short time later, he came bounding out of the bush and came right up to us for some banana's. Here are some pictures with our feeding and petting Manny. We were told that he didn't like males, but he came right up to me. I must smell like his mom.
We had an opportunity to do some volunteer work at the Albany Museum in downtown Albany. These were a couple of pictures of a gnarly tree that was by the museum. It was amazing how many roots were exposed.
Our next adventure came as we went to visit members in Denmark, which is about 35 miles west of Albany. There were a number of people we visited, but one lived fairly close to the ocean, so we decided to drive to Ocean Beach, which is just south of Denmark. It was a very cold and windy day, but there were a couple of wind surfers so we took some pictures. Sometimes, the wind was blowing so hard that they would go way up into the air and then land back in the surf. It was fun watching them and I know that they were having fun.
On the way back into town, we saw these statues in someone's front yard. It was so unique that we had to stop and take a picture of that too.
We then went to the other side of Denmark to a place called Mount Shadforth. One of our members is the manager of a resort there. Here is a picture from their resort with Denmark and then the ocean in the distance.
We also found another couple of mail boxes worth capturing. Here is what they look like.
Another adventure we had was with the missionaries. One of the branch members works at Fletcher's International and they said we could come take a tour. We didn't know what to expect, but found that it was a sheep/lamb processing plant. We got to see everything from the sheep before entering the plant to the end product, packaged for the store and all of the steps in between. The pictures below were us before going into the plant (we had to wear boots and a cover and we got plenty of stuff on them both). The other picture is the sheep waiting to go in. It reminded us of the scripture about the lambs going to the slaughter. They didn't at all know what was up the ramp they went on and were really calm on the way. Little did they know their real fate. They process over 5,000 sheep per day
The next adventure involved Elder Arrieta. His mom had moved to Canada and wanted him to come there when he gets through with his mission next June. In order to get approved for Canadian citizenship, his application had to be completed by the first week in December. The process involved going to Perth to the Philippines Consulate and getting some approvals from them. We took Elder Arrieta to Perth and had to wait a day to get it all done. We stayed the night with Elder and Sister Escher and he stayed with the zone leaders. All went well and we made it home the next day after being able to attend a zone conference in person.. Much better than the broadcasts, which don't seem to work.
Of course, they don't have Thanksgiving in Australia, but we decided to have our own Thanksgiving meal. Turkeys cost between $40 and $60 here, so we decided to have a couple of big chickens, but still had all of the trimmings including mashed potatoes, Candied Yams, Stuffing, Mom/s homemade rolls and some "pumpkin" pie. They really don't have what we call pumpkin, but do have Kent pumpkins, which is really a squash. We invited a couple of single men from the branch. On the left is Brother Bishop and on the right, is Brother Duffield.
December, 2015
One of our volunteering activities each week is to work as a "walking school bus" for Albany Primary school. Since the school is next to the high school and very crowded in the morning and afternoon, a few parents let their children off at a park about 1/2 mile from the school and we walk with them from there to the school each Tuesday morning and afternoon, We found this through the Albany Volunteer Bureau and early in December, we had a "tea" to recognize all of the various volunteers in the Albany area. There were about 130 people there and this is the picture taken of us that was published in the electronic copy of the weekly newspaper called the "Great Southern Weekender".
Here are a couple of pictures taken from downtown Albany looking down toward the bay. The pictures can't do the scene justice. It is a really beautiful setting.
Much of our month was getting ready for Christmas. We spent a lot of time visiting families and inviting them to our Branch Christmas Party, which was a great success. We had more than 100 people there including 17 non-members and 24 less active members. We enjoyed a dinner with roasted chicken, ham, numerous salads, and some great desserts. Sister Halbert made 150 of her now world famous rolls to go along with the meal. We also have 10 families assigned to us as Home Teachers that we spent time visiting.
In the middle of the month, we decided to take a break from all of the Christmas activities and visit an Alpaca farm just west of Denmark. Alpacas are related to the llamas from Central and South America. Someone brought them to Australia a few years ago and started this farm, which includes all kinds of animals. In addition to the alpacas, they had llamas, koala bears, kangaroos, sheep, goats, a camel, horses, cattle, foxes, turkeys, rabbits, homing pigeons and a bunch of other birds. We got to feed some of the animals and took a few pictures that are below. The first is a koala bear that was sleeping in a most uncomfortable looking position, Then, here is Sister Halbert feeding a goat, a kangaroo (notice his paws holding her hand to make sure he got all the food), and a joey (baby kangaroo). Then, since it was a visit to an alpaca farm, there is a picture of some of them.
I got some pictures of a motorcycle rally that was held to provide toys for needy children. Albany is only 30k population, but over 500 motorcycles joined the rally including the elusive post office workers. I finally caught them all together.
We had some personal preparations for Christmas. Below are pictures of a kangaroo nativity that we found and set up, our little Christmas tree that we bought from a second hand store, and our Christmas stockings that were filled to the brim on Christmas morning.
The highlight of our Christmas season occurred for us on the morning of the 21st. The family gathered in Jared and Candice's home and we were able to watch them through Skype open the presents that we had left for them. Each of the grandchildren got a handmade pillow, a bible story book, and a stuffed animal in keeping with our traditional practical, spiritual, and fun gifts. It was so great seeing all of them and the excitement of the season. Tamara took a picture of us sitting in the chair with the family watching them and put it on her Facebook page..
That afternoon, we drove to Bridgetown, which is just under 3 hours northwest of Albany. Elder Afereti-Asiata's family had sent him a package to the mission office that would have cost a small fortune and not gotten there before Christmas, so Elder and Sister Maher drove it half way and we met them and delivered the package.
On the Tuesday before Christmas, we and both sets of elders went to Denmark to carol to some of the members there. With Elder Afereti-Asiata on the ukulele, and Elder Arrieta on the guitar, we visited a number of members and caroled to them. Some mentioned that they had never had anyone come and sing to them before. It wasn't very good, but was a lot of fun.
The next news we got wasn't good at all. Sister Halbert's mom, Lujean Christensen had a stroke and was in intensive care through the holidays As of the end of the month, she is doing somewhat better. She still is in the ICU, but finally woke up after a few days and is able to understand when you talk to her. She is still not out of the woods, but we, as a family, are encouraged.
On Christmas Eve, we were invited to one of the member's home (Marlaine Coutts) for a dinner. As you can see below, it was more of a feast than a dinner. We had a variety of salads and meats to choose from. She had made a number of desserts. The one below is called pavlova and is very popular as a holiday dessert here There was us, Elders Arrieta and Ellsworth, another couple, and our host. We ate and laughed all through the meal. She had received a new piano, so we then moved into the living room for sharing of musical talents. All ended up at one time or the other sitting at the piano and playing Christmas music while the rest sang.
After leaving her home, we went to ours for our traditional Christmas Eve celebration. We played our two traditional family games and read the Christmas Story from Luke 2. Then we allowed them each to open one present. Here are the elders with their Christmas Eve gifts on. They couldn't wait until that night to try them on.
Sister Halbert had contacted the parents of each of the four missionaries to see what food traditions were for Christmas. On Christmas morning, we had the Ellsworth family tradition of a large breakfast with pancakes, eggs, bacon, and orange juice. We also would have had chocolate milk, but the chocolate milk here, we are told, isn't at all like what we are used to. Below is also a different look to bacon. It tastes the same, but as you can see, it is cut a little differently.
That afternoon, we went with Elders Arrieta nd Ellsworth to Mount Barker to have a Christmas lunch with the branch president's family. We all had a great time and it was fun being with their four small children so we had just a glimpse of what being a grandparent is all about on Christmas. The next day was Boxing Day, which is celebrated here. We were invited to another dinner that night with Elders Afereti-Asiata and Santo-Tomas. We are grateful to have had a family fast the next day for Mom Christensen. We actually needed to stop eating for a while.
On the Sunday after Christmas, we had the elders over for more of their traditional meals. Sister Arrieta had provided information about Chicken Adobo and we had that for dinner. Elder Afereti-Asiata's mom said that he especially liked stuffing for Christmas dinner so we had that and some ham and Elder Ellsworth's mom reported that she had some homemade rolls that Sister Halbert tried to duplicate. Next week, we will have a different recipe for chicken adobo that Elder Santo-Tomas' mom provided. We also found out that day that Elders Arrieta and Afereti-Asiata were being transferred up to the Perth area and that Elders Santo-Tomas and Ellsworth would be training new missionaries here. We took all four of them to the bus station for their trip to Perth and expect them back on January 1st with their new companions.
January, 2016
Here it is the first of January of the new year. We got to pick up the elders at the bus station. We now have two just off the plane elders. Elder Smith, from Ashton, Idaho, will be serving with Elder Ellsworth in East Albany and Elder Noble, from the Philippines, will be serving with Elder Santo-Tomas in West Albany. Elder Santo-Tomas was made the district leader. When we first saw Elder Noble's name, we thought that maybe he was one of the many Noble's from Arizona, but he pronounces it "Noblay".
Our next adventure involved President and Sister Fife and some of their family members. President called on Saturday and said that he would be arriving later that day with Sister Fife and their two youngest sons, who had come for the holidays. We gathered the elders all up and joined the Fife's for a great meal at Rustler's Steakhouse here in Albany. The food was great, but the time together was even better. One of the sons, Peter had recently graduated from BYU and the other, John, was starting dental school.
On Sunday, they joined our little branch for Fast and Testimony meeting and then, while Peter and John split up with the missionaries and went for some finding activities, the Fifes visited our flat. We had a great time visiting with them and we discovered all kinds of similarities between our families. We already knew about their seven children like us, but found all kinds of other things too. We hated to see them leave.
We had three of the branch young women who signed up for For the Strength of Youth (FSY - Similar to EFY). This was the first time that the young people had been involved in any stake or regional activities for some time. To cover the cost of the trip, including the girl's fees and transportation, we had a bake sale. We should have had pictures, but the young women came to our house for a day to make cheesecakes, cinnamon rolls, and to wrap candy and cookies. They ended up making enough to cover all of their costs. We were really proud of them and their desire to get involved in these good activities. They all three reported that their lives had changed. It has been fun watching them grow. When we first got here, there was only one young woman coming. Last Sunday, there were 6 and most come to mutual.
We also got a call from Brother Phillip Baker, who serves as President Fife's Executive Secretary and as the Church's PR Director in Australia. He and his wife, Trish were going to visit Albany and asked if we could get together. We spent a lovely day with them including a visit to the Anglican Church that had been built in Albany in the late 1800's. Among other things within the church was this portable podium, which was used by a pastor who carried it with him throughout World War I. It allowed preaching, the offering of communion, and comfort for numerous soldiers. It is pictured below. The man at the right was John, who was our tour guide through the church.
We then went to the ANZAC center, which stands for Australia. New Zealand Army Corps. During World War I, 41,000+ soldiers entered ships in Albany and headed to various places to support the allied's efforts during the war. More than 1/3 of the soldiers never returned and this is a tribute to those who served. It was a really fun, multi-media approach including each receiving a card representing one of the soldiers who served. When you placed your card on readers throughout the center, you got more information about your particular soldier. They also had portable speakers that were activated at various stations that told about various battles, about the actual ships that left, and about many of the results. Below is a picture of the ANZAC center. It is located on Mount Melville and the other picture below is Albany from the top of Mount Melville.
We then went back to the Tree Top Walk in Walpole, WA. Three of the elders had not been there before, so we took them. After a nice lunch, we went on the walk and enjoyed the Tingle trees again. On the way back, we stopped at a Dinosaur and Reptile Museum. Here are some of the animals that were there. The last is a rainbow parrot, for obvious reasons.
Our next adventure involved the branch. On January 26th, they celebrated Australia Day with a barbecue at the park. The pictures below are some of the branch members and some of the cooking that went on. They served eggs, bacon, sausage, and beans. Some actually combined them all into a sandwich with ketchup or barbecue sauce. The first picture is President and Sister Bailey cooking bacon with Brothers Duffield and James in the back cooking eggs. The other picture is with some of the members. The four elders are in the background. It was a cold and rainy Summer day.
The park was not to far from Emu Point and wandering around the park was a wild Emu, who liked eating the yellow flowers. The kids enjoyed chasing them around.
Later that night, the Young Men and Young Women had a combined activity and went fishing at Emu Point. They just fished off of the pier and almost everyone caught multiple fish. Here are a few pictures of the activity with the first being the whole group fishing, the second with President Bailey and one of his, and the last one being the one heading home after the activity was over.
about
We had a great January serving here in Albany. The little branch is growing, the members are getting more involved in home and visiting teaching, the young people are doing things that young people had not really done before, and we hope to get many branch members next month to attend Stake Conference and the temple. More about that next month.
February, 2016
This is the last month of the Summer here in Australia. We had the opportunity in February to see some more of the country, meet some new people, and learn a lot. We may have mentioned, that our branch covers about 120 miles West, North, and East. Of course, south is the ocean, and we don't have any members on any islands; at least that know. Someone had told us that we should see Kattanning, while we are here. It was historically a center of activity in the sheep trade. We picked the first Monday of the month, which happened to be the hottest day of the Summer, here in southern Australia It was 108 degrees the day we went to Kattanning,which already made it pretty miserable. When we got there, we did see old, but didn't catch the "charm" that we had heard about. We couldn't even find a museum with the town's history. We did find a nice place for lunch and then headed back South. We did try to see one of the branch member families, who live right by there, but couldn't connect with them. We took a different way back to Albany and found this lone tree in a large pasture It reminded me of the movie, "The Lion King" and the trees there. They are actually quite prevalent, but it was the first one we saw on its own.
We also got to see the Stirling Mountain Range, which reminded us a lot of the mountains just out of Palm Springs, California. They were quite majestic and are just about 13k feet above sea level. We'll come back some time to do some hiking. When we got back, we had a dinner with our friend, Marlaine Coutts. She brought us this bouquet, from the many flowers in her garden.
Our next adventure involved a lot of flexibility. The Young Men and Young Women were invited to attend a "Multi-Stake Beach Party" up near Perth. It was to be held Friday and we had two drivers and extra passengers all arranged to go. As they were leaving, one of the passengers wasn't able to go, so they needed someone, or one of the car loads of kids wouldn't be able to go. Since Sister Halbert is acting as their leader, she chose to go, rather than have the kids miss out. She took about 10 minutes to get ready and go. They already had places to stay Friday night. It was so nice that she was able to pull it off. The kids really enjoyed themselves and came back with increased understand of the Church programs available to the youth. Sometimes, it is really hard being 5 hours away from any stake activities.
While Sister Halbert was in Perth, I took the elders and covered a volunteer opportunity we had signed up for. This was the 40th anniversary of the "Snake Run", a 1,500 foot skate boarding park in Albany. It was one of the first parks of its kind and was the pattern for many in the States. There were people of all ages participating in the day long activity. More than 1,000 people showed up, while we were there. I didn't get pictures of the fun that day, but here are a couple of pictures of the run itself. Our job was to ensure that the the little parking lot they had was organized and only those authorized, parked there.
In the middle of the month, we had Stake Conference in Perth. We had arranged for rides and a place to stay and for doing Baptisms for the Dead at the temple. We went up on Friday night and stayed with our friends, the Eschers, where we stayed when we first arrived in Australia. We met at the temple Saturday morning and with two of the young women, Heather, the new convert, and some other branch members, and were able to do a couple of hundred baptisms, which was really fun. We had the baptistry to ourselves. We then went with the Albany elders to an endowment session. Here is a picture of us after the session
The next morning was our Sunday Session of Conference. Our General Authority was Elder Andrew O'Reardon, one of the Seventy, who lives in Australia. His job is mainly to attend Stake Conferences nearly each week somewhere in the Pacific area. He was great and so down to earth. We had 26 members from our little Albany Branch, which was 20 more than they have traditionally gotten to make the 5 hour journey. We had arranged rides and places to stay. What a great weekend we had.
We had one of the first sunny days since we came to Albany, so we went to Middleton Beach and walked along the beach for a while. We found a few shells, but, since it was afternoon, most of the good ones were gone. Here are some pictures from our visit to the beach.
We have begun spending a lot of time with some of our less active friends. We even had one, whose husband is not a member, ask us to begin teaching them. She hasn't been involved in Church for many years and he isn't a member. They had the missionary lessons, but they were so fast, that they really didn't learn much. We will begin teaching them again, at a much slower pace. We are excited to be part of their learning process.
March, 2016
We didn't really do much traveling in March. We have mentioned to some, but we have 13 families that we Home/Visiting Teach and much of each month is spent visiting each of them. We did spend a lot of time with one particular member that really needed some extra attention this month. It also rained much of the month, so below are some of the sights that we see every day here in Albany.
We've never really talked about our living arrangements. This is a picture of the flat we live in. It is actually a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, that is one of four houses built behind two larger houses. You will also notice the mission car, a white Toyota Corolla. When we did get up to Perth for one of the mission conferences, it was amazing to see 35 white Toyota Corollas lined up at the chapel.
We started out the month hosting the branch's Fast Breaker. This is a dinner that is held each Fast Sunday in the late afternoon. It is a potluck with members bringing a main course and desert. We normally have 15 or so people, but for this one, there were 26 so we even had to set up an extra table to be able to get everyone fed. It was a great time.
We saw these two signs here in Albany. The first was by one of the bays and was the first I had ever seen warning people to stay away, The next one is a hill that is between the Elder's flat and the church building. We have seen angles of 8% in Colorado and even one of 12% traveling from Bulldog Landing in Lake Powell back to Arizona, but I had never seen 20% before. It is so steep that when you are at the top of the hill, you can't see over the front of your car.
We did get to go to a movie with Sister Coutts on one of our P-Days. We saw the movie, "Risen", which is about the Savior's resurrection. While not completely aligned with the scriptures, it did parallel them pretty well and did cause you to think about the importance of the resurrection and the love the Savior had for his Apostles and for all of us. The filming and settings were great.
The week before Easter, we had President and Sister Fife down for some specialized training. We should have taken a picture of the Albany Regional Airport as they flew in. It is a one gate terminal which is not much bigger than our flat. We enjoyed spending the day with them and learning about the Gospel from President's perspective. He was an Institute instructor and is fascinating to listen to. He also told us that Elders Ellsworth and Noble were going to transfer the next week to the Perth area and that Elders Santo-Tomas and Smith would be staying as the new companionship here. We also had lunch with them and Sister Halbert made a dessert called pavlova, which is very prevalent here. She did a great job for her first time and everyone wanted more.
On Easter Sunday, we had an American/Australian traditional Easter dinner. We invited the elders and Sister Coutts over for ham, chicken, yams, funeral potatoes, vegetables, and homemade rolls. For dessert, we had coconut cream pie and multi-level jello (they call it jelly here). Here is a picture of all of us and then the transferring elders.
We are trying to help the branch be ready for the growth that is promised to this area. They had 35 who were on the branch list that had moved with no forwarding address. We are working through the steps necessary to get them in the correct units. We also took a couple of pictures of things that are pretty common here, but not that common in the US. The first is a little van. They have them all over the place here, but having it parked in front of a mini van gives perspective about how small they are. The next is an SUV that is very common here. It has the roo bar up front and a snorkel to allow the exhaust to escape when going through rivers and other water. Again, both are very common.
Last is something that we find pretty unique. A neighbor of ours collects stuffed animals and then places them on a little bench in front of their home. People are able to come by and take then for their own use. We are so entertained to watch when they put them out, which ones are taken first, and when the last one will be taken. It is a tradition that we may want to figure out how to do in our own neighborhood.
April, 2016
Another fun month that went far too fast. We continued to teach Paul Nash, an investigator who is slowly learning more about himself as a son of God. We have combined teaching lessons from Preach My Gospel with ones from the Gospel Principles class to help him slowly understand more about the Gospel Plan.
We really enjoyed General Conference, With both the Women's Conference and General Conference, we held them a week after they were done live. While we had heard a lot on social media about the talks, to listen to them in person was really a treat.
During the month, we had Elder and Sister Maher, who are the senior missionaries assigned to managing the flats, come down to Albany to help us close up the one flat and consolidate it with the other one. There were things we kept, things we donated, and things that we threw away. When we found the shed at the original flat, it had been used as a storage "dump" for years of missionary service. We took two full trailer loads to the dump. We did get the flat that we closed all clean and turned in the keys at the end of the month.
April was birthday month and we celebrated it a number of ways. First, we traveled to Perth to attend a Zone Conference. Since 3 of the senior couples were leaving soon (one left while we were there), and there were three new couples that we hadn't met, we all decided to spend a day before the conference together as senior missionaries. We met on Monday night for a dinner in downtown Perth, which was an adventure for us little Albany people. In Albany, you can get from one end of the town to the other in about 10 minutes. In Perth, we planned on an hour from the edge of Perth to downtown to give us plenty of time and it took 1 1/2 hours. With the traffic lights, traffic, a couple of accidents, and downtown traffic, we were pretty frazzled by the time we got to the restaurant. It was Tony Romas, so all of the food was fantastic.
The next day, we took a little boat tour of the Swan River. It took about thee hours and involved a luncheon buffet, some great scenery, watching dolphins, and some entertainment by one of the servers. Below are pictures of a black swan, which is fairly unique, and a new 80,000 seat football stadium that they are building. It was a great time and we really enjoyed ourselves. In the last picture, the server was singing directly to Elder Escher and he turned all kinds of red. The Escher's finished their mission the next day. While in Perth, we stayed with Elder and Sister Moses from Manti, Utah and enjoyed getting to know them.
We spent the next day with Elder Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy, who is also in the Pacific Area Presidency. I had to go out at lunch time and take a picture of all of the white Toyota Corollas there in a line.
It was fun learning from Elder Nielsen, but the most fun was in the evening, where he and Sister Nielsen met with the senior missionaries at the mission home for dinner and an evening together. He shared some very intimate experiences he had with various Apostles and with the First Presidency. We also got to spend some one on one time with them. Sister Nielsen had gone to the same Junior High School in Provo as Sister Halbert and claimed to remember her. Elder Nielsen and I played basketball nearly every day for a couple of years and he and I talked about some of those experiences. Again, it was great fun. Here is a picture of us with the Nielsens,
While in Perth, we visited one of the branch members who had been flown to Perth with a heart attack. He seemed to be doing fairly well, but suddenly had a massive stroke. We spent time in the hospital with his wife, but he was too weak to see us. He passed away a couple of days later. Since we were their home teachers, we helped where we could to prepare for his funeral and to be there for his wife. We also went to the temple. It was really fun because both of us had done Family History and found names we could take. I was able to baptize and confirm Sister Halbert for one of her ancestors and I was baptized and confirmed for one of mine. We then did the initiatory work and we will do more the next time we are there.
When we got back to Albany we decided to keep up the birthday celebration. We went to dinner on Saturday night at Dylans, which was a great old restaurant in downtown Albany and then walked to the Albany Entertainment Center and attended a concert with a tribute to Frankie Valli and his music. The group was great and brought back many memories of great music. We also attended the baptism of Breanna Bailey, who turned eight. During our home teaching visit to them, we taught her some lessons about baptism and it was great to be a part of it.
May, 2016
We have mentioned before the service we do each week. This is a picture of the footpath through the bush that we take to walk 12 - 20 elementary school aged kids from a parking lot at a park to the school. We do this each Tuesday morning and afternoon and have enjoyed getting to know the kids and their families.
Early in the month, we attended a "footy" game where one of the branch young men was playing. Footy is a cross between soccer, rugby, and basketball. It is constantly moving and to score, a person kicks a football through a goal. When a person has the ball, they can dribble while running, hit or kick the ball to a teammate, get tackled, or score. They play on fields quite a lot larger than our American football fields. It was fun watching them play and they won the game, which was a bonus. While driving back from Mount Barker to Albany, we saw this rainbow. It was fun seeing both ends.
Much of May was devoted to the Young Women in the branch. The first meeting to plan the stake girls camp, which will be in September, was held and Sister Halbert attended it through Skype. We hope to have almost all of the girls participate in camp this year. Nobody attended last year. She also coordinated the first ever New Beginnings for the branch. It had the theme of Wizard of Oz with the temple representing the way to get home to our Heavenly Father. The Young Women were also responsible to plan a branch social and Sister Halbert worked with them to put on one of the best socials the little branch has seen. There were 65 people there including 11 less active members and 14 non-members. It was a lot of fun and a real success.
We also got to do a little exploring. We visited a place called "The Gap", which is a gap in the mountain where the waves of the Indian Ocean hit and crawl about 60 feet up the rock face. I don't know if it will work, but here is a video taken there.
Also in the same site is a Natural Bridge, which has been carved through erosion of the ocean hitting the rocks.
We also wanted to share some of the practical things here in Albany/Australia. Here is a school zone sign, Rather than lugging the clunky signs out to the street like they do in Mesa, these signs are established as school warnings. They are solar powered, so don't require any human intervention. In the background is one of the "traffic wardens" or crossing guards. They do have them at each school.
There are also a number of elderly here in Albany. Whenever there is an assisted living or nursing home, these street signs notify motorists to be careful.
One of the most interesting things is electricity. While many homes use solar power for all of their electricity, the balance of electricity is provided by the Albany Wind Farm. Below are some pictures of the wind farm. Each of the turbines is over 100 feet tall and the last picture shows how big they are at the base.
Another practical thing that is really great about Albany is their drainage system. In Albany, it rains an average of 40" per year. Each home has a rain gutter with the rain either moving into a rain barrel for later use, underground and eventually to streams or canals, or from the home to the street and then underground for those living on hills. Below is a picture of our rain gutter. It moves underground as does the drain in our driveway. The last picture is one of our neighbors who live on a hill. Their drain moves from their home, under their driveway, and then out into the street, and then into the underground system. For example. In May, we had one 24 hour period that produced 2 1/2" of rain. In Mesa, roads, parks, and maybe even schools would have closed down waiting for the water to drain. Here, while the ground, of course, was wet, there was no standing water anywhere.
One other thing that is kind of practical is the ability to get rid of garbage (rubbish here). Each June, the city allows an opportunity for residents to get rid of all of their waste. Here is one of our neighbors and their "stack" of rubbish.
Another practical thing they do is add a pattern to sliding glass doors so people don't run into them as easily. Here is the pattern on our sliding glass door.
The last practical thing that we wanted to share is their inspection process. Each apartment (called flats here) is inspected quarterly. There is a thorough inspection of both inside and out to make sure that the renters are taking good care of the home (I wish I would have had these when we had some of the renters we had). During the last inspection, we had some Kikuyu grass (horrible stuff originally from South Africa) in our garden that needed to be killed. We sprayed it with Roundup and then covered it. Hopefully, by the end of the winter, it will be gone. Here is what we did.
June, 2016
It rained nearly every day in the month of June. The residents tell us that it is unusual to have so much cold and rain so early in the Winter. I guess we just lucked out. One of the nights, there was some heavier than normal winds (the wind blows all of the time). During the night, we were awakened by what sounded like metal against metal. I went out to see what was making all of the noise and the wind had blown down a section of our metal fence. Below are some of the pictures. It was sure nice when the pieces were down for a week or so. The wind blew right through.
We spent a lot of time visiting branch members, traveling to Denmark and Mount Barker, as well as all around Albany. We did get news of Elder Smith's transfer to Mandurah. Here is a picture of him the day he was transferred. He has really grown the few months he has been here.
Our next adventure was to travel the other side of Denmark to a place called Elephant Rock and Greens Pool. Elephant Rock is a collection of rocks that roughly looks like an elephant herd. Below are some of the pictures we took. It is a 10 minute hike from the car to the beach and as you descend the stairs between the rocks, all you see is seawater. When the tide goes out, the water recedes and you quickly walk on the beach around the rocks until the next wave comes in. It was kind of fun running to beat the water.
Our next adventure came at the end of the month when we got a new elder, Elder Given from near Long Beach, CA. He is one that waited until he was 19 to come on a mission and went to school at BYU Idaho. It is easy to see his maturity compared to those who come directly from high school. We also got word that the country elders could start attending Zone Conferences instead of waiting a few weeks and watching them later.
We took off on Wednesday and drove the elders to Bunbury. They did splits with their Zone Leaders on Thursday and we attended the morning of the north zone's conference. After lunch, we went to the temple and did endowments for two of our relatives. We also picked up cards from the Albany Branch. While we are small here, there is a lot of family history done. We picked up about 30 cards. We then went back to the zone conference for the balance of the afternoon. That night, we went to dinner at Guzman and Gomez, a great Mexican restaurant there in Perth. Their food reminded us a lot of Chipotle. We stayed with the Moses' from Manti. Here is their picture.
When we found the mission had a sewing machine, we always thought it would be good to go to Zone Conferences and have Sister Halbert repair clothes. We got to practice on Friday morning. While cleaning out flats, a number of pairs of pants, which had holes in them, were found. Sister Halbert fixed a bunch of them. Around noon, we left for Rockingham (about an hour south of Perth) to attend the southern zone's conference. Below is a picture of what the parking lot looked like. Also included is a picture of the elders that do, or have served in Albany. From left to right are Elder Afereti-Acieta, Elder Smith, Elder Noble, Us, Elder Given and Elder Sugataraga. We saw Elders Ellsworth and Santo-Tomas on Thursday but didn't get a picture with them.
We arrived just as they were cleaning up from lunch. President Fife cornered us and let us know that we would be transferred by the end of July. More to come on that next month.
July, 2016
What a whirlwind month July was. When he initially talked with us, President Fife told us that we would be moving to the office in Perth and taking the place of Elder and Sister Moses and that they would come to Albany, he said that it would be at the end of the month. He then called us a few days later and wanted us up there on the 13th. As timing luck would have it, we had lent two of our suitcases to Brooke Bailey for her trip to the United States and she wasn't due back until the 14th. We ended up talking with the Moses' and deciding to go up there on the 16th to give us time to pack, clean, and say goodbye to some of our closest friends.
We decided that before we left, we had to see the whales which migrate along southern Australia from the middle of June through the middle of September. We took a P-Day initially with the elders to go to the Salmon Holes and tried to see them from the shore. We did see some of their blow holes going, but they were 1/2 mile or so off of shore. On the way there, we found another of the unique art forms found in Albany. This old Holden was being used as a flower nursery and the owner had gotten creative with some old rubber fishing boots.
We decided to take one of the local site seeing boats to get a little closer. The next P-Day we did that. As our luck would have it, it was a cold, rainy, and very windy day. The first picture below shows how choppy it was out on the water. The second was of one of the many whales we saw. It is just left of the middle of the picture. It was hard taking their pictures because the boat was tossing to and fro and they were only above surface for a short time, but we did get this one picture.
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We invited Sister Coutts over and watched the movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes". She liked it so much that she went out and bought it. She was a little sneaky and went behind our backs and planned a "good bye" party with members of the branch. She invited us to lunch at one of the best Chinese food restaurants we have been to called Three Plenties and when we got there, about 20 of the branch members were there. Here are some pictures of the occasion. We were completely surprised and it was quite an emotional meal. She also made these cupcakes for dessert.
We had such a great experience in Albany. We did take pictures of the many people we worked with and came to love. If we have time, we will do an addendum to this blog and have an Albany Branch member blog.
When we arrived in Perth, it was raining just like in Albany so we sort of felt at home. We arrived on a Saturday night and went with the Moses' to church the next day. While their flat is in the Dianella Ward, they had been asked to attend the Ellenbrook Ward, which is about 15 minutes away. It was so different being in a ward after serving in a branch for the last year. It was amazing to have an organ player, youth passing the Sacrament, and have classrooms for all of the various classes. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Bishop of the ward was Bishop Anderson, whose wife Kate, had introduced us to our good friend, Natalie Heller and her family in Albany. The Andersons had been to Albany visiting, so when we walked in the ward, it was such fun seeing them there. Here is a picture we took of Natalie and her family before we left.
Here us Brother Duffield talking with David Cameron, Brooke Bailey, looking down at her son, Elias, Sister Renfrey in the background and the Villanueva girls up front
Here is Graham and Fay James with Brian Benesig's back and Brother Villanueva's head poking out. Sister Renfrey is still in the background texting someone.
Next are two of the missionaries who formerly served in Albany. They are certainly a contrast in the size. Elder Afereti-Asieta stands about 6'5 and touches 300 pounds and Elder Noble is closer to 5'5 and 120 pounds. It was fun to see them again.
December flew by for us. So much went on, but it was truly a blur. Here are some of the highlights, We had our ward Christmas party at Whiteman Park, one of the largest parks in Perth. It was a little different for us having a picnic at the park for Christmas. Of course, here, it is the start of the Summer and there were games including frisbee golf, horseshoes, boccie ball, and kids all over with squirt guns, We had an old fashion barbecue with sausages (hot dogs) and the trimmings. It was a fun activity but, again weird doing Summer activities in December.We decided that before we left, we had to see the whales which migrate along southern Australia from the middle of June through the middle of September. We took a P-Day initially with the elders to go to the Salmon Holes and tried to see them from the shore. We did see some of their blow holes going, but they were 1/2 mile or so off of shore. On the way there, we found another of the unique art forms found in Albany. This old Holden was being used as a flower nursery and the owner had gotten creative with some old rubber fishing boots.
We decided to take one of the local site seeing boats to get a little closer. The next P-Day we did that. As our luck would have it, it was a cold, rainy, and very windy day. The first picture below shows how choppy it was out on the water. The second was of one of the many whales we saw. It is just left of the middle of the picture. It was hard taking their pictures because the boat was tossing to and fro and they were only above surface for a short time, but we did get this one picture.
We invited Sister Coutts over and watched the movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes". She liked it so much that she went out and bought it. She was a little sneaky and went behind our backs and planned a "good bye" party with members of the branch. She invited us to lunch at one of the best Chinese food restaurants we have been to called Three Plenties and when we got there, about 20 of the branch members were there. Here are some pictures of the occasion. We were completely surprised and it was quite an emotional meal. She also made these cupcakes for dessert.
We had such a great experience in Albany. We did take pictures of the many people we worked with and came to love. If we have time, we will do an addendum to this blog and have an Albany Branch member blog.
When we arrived in Perth, it was raining just like in Albany so we sort of felt at home. We arrived on a Saturday night and went with the Moses' to church the next day. While their flat is in the Dianella Ward, they had been asked to attend the Ellenbrook Ward, which is about 15 minutes away. It was so different being in a ward after serving in a branch for the last year. It was amazing to have an organ player, youth passing the Sacrament, and have classrooms for all of the various classes. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the Bishop of the ward was Bishop Anderson, whose wife Kate, had introduced us to our good friend, Natalie Heller and her family in Albany. The Andersons had been to Albany visiting, so when we walked in the ward, it was such fun seeing them there. Here is a picture we took of Natalie and her family before we left.
We spent the next week training with the Moses' in the office. It is an extremely busy place as the missionaries come and go, I hadn't realized how many things we would be involved with. Every six weeks, we have missionaries coming and going and each have numerous tasks relating to them. We have missionaries coming in with phone problems, bike problems, health issues, wanting supplies, wanting to replace lost cards, etc. There is a never ending need for the support of the office staff.
On the weekend, we and the Moses' traveled back to Albany. We traveled on Friday and then spent Saturday introducing them to Albany, including some of the people we worked with. That night, was a social as part of Branch Conference. The Southern River Stake President and his wife had numerous trivia topics that we did as tables. Our table included us, the full time missionaries, some of the branch children, and a couple of parents. We didn't do very well, until they got to the subject of church and we took that section with flying colors. We also did good on a couple of word/logo exercises. It was good having some 8 year old girls to help us identify the Barbie and Mattel logos.
On Sunday, we had a great meeting with President Bailey and the stake president, President Pemberton speaking to us. All three of the meetings were to share the vision of growth the Lord has for the branch. We know that as they have the faith and go out and do the missionary work they need to, that it will someday be a ward.
On the way back to Perth, we stopped to take pictures of the canola fields. They bloom from the end of July through the middle of September. There are miles and miles of them between Albany and Perth.
The last week of the month, we did more training. We did have two senior couples come who were assigned to work with various branches throughout the mission. There will be one more in August. The ward here had a fun activity that involved a clothes "swap". The women each took items of clothing and then picked something new that others had brought. Here are a couple of pictures from that activity.
August, 2016
Here we are in Perth, the largest city in Western Australia. It has just about 2 million people and will be much warmer in Summer, than we had in Albany. As of now, in the middle of the Winter, it is fairly comparable, only it seems to rain less. Here is a picture of the new flat we live in. It is the second of three houses that are part of the complex. It is a very nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath flat that is only about 2 miles from the mission office. Throughout the neighborhood are multiple homes on each lot (block). Most blocks have 3 and some have even 4 houses built. Also, included is a view of downtown Perth from the street in front of our house. This was taken in the early morning when walking the neighborhood, so it is a little darker. We are about 5 miles north of downtown Perth.
Here is a picture of the offices where we work. As you can see from the background, there is not a much better place to be.
Working in the office has been a real change for us. There are a few things that are very different. First, is the schedule. While serving in Albany, we worked our own schedule, based on when we had appointments, our home/visiting teaching schedule, and our Church responsibilities. Here, it is a 9-5 Monday through Friday, with picking up the mail each morning before we come to the office and most of the time, staying way past 5. The second thing is the work itself. Rather than meeting with people, we are on the computer nearly all day and trying to keep track of 120 elders and sisters that are assigned to the Great Australia Perth Mission. One of the biggest things is that there are missionaries, nearly every day, coming and going in the mission office. It certainly isn't anything like what they trained us to do in the MTC. Of course, that was over a year ago anyway, so most of it is lost, but in addition to normal office work, we help coordinate the setting up of meals for the various meetings that are held, and help the other senior missionaries. During transfers, and when new missionaries were arriving, we were putting together bikes with lights, water bottles, locks, and helmets. As a Financial Secretary, my job is to get the money from the new missionaries to pay for the bikes, etc. It was quite an adventure this first month.
One of the things that does happen day and night is helping cover the missionary's costs when they need medical or pharmaceutical assistance. Calls may come in any time for that. Who knew that there were 24 hour pharmacies (Chemists) here in Perth? We also arrange all of their travel while in the mission and Sister Halbert communicates all of the travel plans to outgoing missionaries. She did start a new tradition that has been really fun. She has some chocolates on her desk. As a missionary comes in and shares a missionary experience, they are allowed a chocolate. There have been some really great and touching experiences shared. She also has some suckers there that she gives out when they share any spiritual thought that they may have had, an impression, etc. The missionaries have really seemed to warm up to the candy (they are still 19-20 year olds),
In the middle of the month, we celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary. Who would have thought 41 years ago, that we would be here in Australia having the time of our lives, after spending years and years gaining work, Church, social, family, and just overall fun experience. We had fun going out to dinner, renting a movie, and reflecting on all of the many blessings we have received over the 41 years. Here are some flowers that helped us celebrate:
At the end of the month, the Southern River Stake had their Stake Conference. One of our objectives in Albany was to get the members to come to Stake Conference, In the past, only a handful of members would travel the 4-5 hours to attend, Last time, there were 26 and this time, there were 34. We had an opportunity to have two of the young women join us for a couple of days. Here we are after doing baptisms for the dead. There were many other Albany members who were in the temple performing other ordinances, but these were the ones that basically took over the baptistry. Included in the back row were Brian Beninsig, Alvin Villanueva, and Richard Duffield. In the middle, was Sister Halbert, and on the bottom was Jennifer Villanueva, Caitlyn Dau, Grace Teders, Juliana Villanueva, and Sophia Villanueva. As you can tell, it was a little stormy that day, which is demonstrated by the windblown look.
We really enjoyed having Caitlyn and Grace stay with us. After the temple, we had a movie night and watched a love story, made homemade pizza, and then ended the day with a scary movie. The girls had fun poking each other at particularly tense portions of the movie so we all enjoyed some laughs, On Sunday, we traveled across the river to the Southern River Stake Conference. It was a great meeting. Afterwards, the stake put on a little luncheon for the Albany branch members before they took their long journey home. Here are a few pictures from that luncheon. We even had some of the previous Albany elders there including Elder Afereti-Asiata and Elder Noble.
Here us Brother Duffield talking with David Cameron, Brooke Bailey, looking down at her son, Elias, Sister Renfrey in the background and the Villanueva girls up front
Next are two of the missionaries who formerly served in Albany. They are certainly a contrast in the size. Elder Afereti-Asieta stands about 6'5 and touches 300 pounds and Elder Noble is closer to 5'5 and 120 pounds. It was fun to see them again.
Finally, here are a couple of the branch members, Regina Johnson (eating, rather than holding the baby) on the left and Sharon Baldock on the right,
What fun it was to see all of them again and to be part of this great work. It was a great end to a really great month.
September 2016
September 1st is the first day of Spring. They do things kind of practical here in Australia. The seasons are: Spring, which is September 1st to November 30th, Summer, which is December 1st to the end of February, Fall, which is March 1st to May 31st, with Winter being June 1st to August 31st.
Last month, we described some of the activities we perform in the office. The office staff's responsibilities really don't stay in the office setting. This month, we provided the food for the two Zone Conference luncheons which involved many nights of shopping, picking up chicken here in Perth and down in Rockingham (about an hour south of Perth), setting up for and feeding all of the missionaries, and cleaning up after they got done. Often, leaving missionaries leave clothes and other items and we took a bunch to each Zone Conference to see if anyone needed anything. We then went to a few second hand stores and donated various items, even including a microwave oven, I think that they like all of the donations we give and we spread them around a bit.
Early in the month, we did get to travel to Fremantle on a Saturday for a couple of hours. Fremantle was one of the first ports in Western Australia and where one of the prisons was built. It is only about 10 miles south of Perth, but is south of the river and does take about 1/2 hour to get to. One of the Saturday draws is the Fremantle Market. It reminded me of some of the markets that we visited in Mexico or the Bahamas or like a big indoor park and swap. Here is a picture of one of the fruit and vegetable markets. They also had a booth with a unique ice cream cone. It was an unusual waffle cone with ice cream, toppings, etc. Here is what they look like.
Here is a picture of one of the old hotels in downtown Fremantle and a couple of the streets looking down to the ocean.
One of the things we do in the office is arrange missionary travel. Sister Halbert has to coordinate the missionaries coming and going to and from the mission field. This involves coordinating missionaries coming from three MTC's; Provo, New Zealand, and the Philippines, She has to make sure all of the missionaries get here on the designated day and about the same time so they can all be in orientation together. This some times requiring some major juggling. Then, as they leave, they can be traveling to various countries and she has to be familiar with all of the various places that may be their final destination. For example, some of the islanders (Philippines, Samoans, Tongans, etc.) may live on an island hours from the nearest airport, which may not be an international one, so they have to travel to a big city and possibly get on a little plane for the balance of the trip. She has to let their parents and ward/stake leaders know about their return to make sure that someone is there to pick them up. Many of the elders and sisters are the only members in their family, so it can be a real challenge. My role is much easier, but still pretty complex. Our mission, geographically, is about as large as 1/3 of the United States and when elders need to get to and from Perth, we need to arrange flights, bus, or train rides. This last transfer, we had missionaries flying in and out of Perth and traveling to various country towns by bus and train. It is quite a process to get them all where they are supposed to be and when. We even had one set who had some miscommunication and showed up to the train station when we had arranged a flight. Needless to say, they missed the flight and had to be scheduled later that day. There is an adventure every day.
Speaking of adventures, one of the other things we were able to see is King's Park in downtown Perth. We had a few hours off so decided to go walk around the park. Among other things, there is a botanical garden, and it is Spring, so the flowers were in bloom. Here are some pictures of some of the various flowers available.
The day we went, there were thousands of people there. Here are a couple of things they visited including this great view of downtown Perth, a perpetual flame, and monument honoring those who served in the First World War. The park is enormous and even with that many people, there were plenty of places to just sit and enjoy the day. According to my Fitbit, we walked 4 miles and still didn't see all of the park.
We also had this little raven who wasn't afraid of us at all. They are really noisy and irritating, but this guy just stared at us as we took his picture. Then, when we got home, we took a picture of the flowers outside of our own front door.
We are sure glad to be serving here in the great Australia Perth Mission. We go home so tired each night that we can't remember what "retirement" is like, but every day is a new adventure and we are so glad to be here meeting the great people here and seeing some of the beauty of God's creation. While General Conference was held the last weekend of September, we will see it here in October.
October, 2016
It is hard to believe that October is over and we are nearly at the end of another year. The adage is sure true that "time flies when you are having fun". While this has been the hardest work we have probably ever done, it is also the most fun we have had.
This month included travel adventures, a birthday, a return trip to Albany, a gathering of our peers, and was again, was extremely busy. Originally, Elder Ballard, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, had been scheduled to visit Perth, so transfers were moved a week earlier than normal. This created havoc on the MTC's and on departing missionaries. While we normally just send out everyone on Tuesday night, we had 2 go Tuesday night, one Wednesday morning, one Friday morning because flights don't go every day to his part of the Philippines, and one that had to wait around a week for her parents who had scheduled their visit to correspond with her original release date. The logistics of this were pretty amazing. The Church also has us doing a pilot to give the departing missionaries 1 1/2 days of training right before they go home to prepare them for work and education. That also required a bunch of coordination.
There were also some adventures for those coming in, again because of the change in original plans. We had two coming directly from Tonga, who had been waiting for their visas. They arrived on Tuesday and others arrived on Thursday, but they all didn't arrive when we thought they would. Two from America, missed their flight in Sydney and one from Brisbane, was on a later flight even though we thought was going to be early and came to meet her. One thing we have learned here in Australia, is flexibility. My dad always used to say "stay fluid" and we definitely took that advice throughout October.
On the 20th was Linda/Mom/Sister Halbert's birthday and as her celebration, she wanted to go back and visit our friends in Albany. We left the office early on Friday and drove to Albany. We ate dinner Friday night with Sister Coutts and then got up Saturday morning to go to the Albany Market for some fresh strawberries. We got a whole flat of organic strawberries and will use them up over the next few weeks. We visited with Penny Carpenter, who was one of our favorite people there, and then went back to Sister Coutts and made a loaf of bread. Later that night, we went to dinner at Dylans for a birthday celebration. The next day, we went to Church and saw more of our favorite people. Sister Halbert even volunteered to teach the Young Women again and they all seemed to enjoy that After Church and one more great meal, we headed home. It was a great birthday with a lot of food and a lot of friends. Here are just a couple of pictures we took. The first two were because we just didn't get time to take them before we left Albany and the last was one of the presents given by Sister Coutts. The first was for our grandson, Hudson, the next one is a road train (rather than 18 wheels, this one has 62 - we were told that up in Broome, they have road trains with 96 wheels).
The next adventure was spending a weekend with all of the senior missionaries serving in the Australia Perth Mission, along with the mission presidency. We got together Friday night for a dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant and then met Saturday at the chapel prior to going to the temple. We were taught great truths about the temples by President Fife. The session we went on was that much more special, as we spent the time together and in serving those who have passed on. We alto had David Giovannazi, from the Albany Branch who was there attending for the first time. It was a special time at the temple. After the session, we ate lunch and then enjoyed time together discussing how we can get the Church's name around Western Australia, We then went to a chocolate factory, where we really enjoyed the taste testing part, and ended the evening with a dinner at one of the member's farm. Here is a picture of us after the temple session, one of us having a discussion, and then one of the dinner. From back to front: Elder and Sister Millar, Elder and Sister Burnett, Elder and Sister Sheppard, Elder and Sister Simper, Elder and Sister Passehl, Elder and Sister Egbert, Elder and Sister Roylance, Elder and Sister Maher, Elder and Sister Moses, Us, President and Sister Fife, and Brother and Sister Baker (Mission Executive Secretary).
While we are here in Australia, we are not able to be with our whole family. Here is a picture where they all got together to support each other. For us, it was so nice to be able to see them handle this family gathering while we stayed and concentrated on those things that the Lord needs us to do. They even stood by age: Khyl, Shaun, Tamara, Jared, Brandon, Justin, and Mark
Here is one last picture that was taken in front of the temple. It is so nice to walk out of the office each night and see the temple. We also enjoyed a meal with Elder and Sister Millar and the elders who serve in the area with them. The Millar's are from Brisbane and let us know of some of the possible places we could visit, if we decide to stop there on the way home next year. What a great way to end October.
November, 2016
November came and went so quickly, but we did have a few adventures. Early in the month, we found a store called "Fifty States", which is a store with food mainly from America. They had Cheetos, Hershey's chocolate and many of the cereals that we don't have here. The problem is that with the shipping costs being so high, so is most of the food. We did find green chilies, which was certainly a treat that they don't have available here in Australia. We also had the opportunity to take some pictures of us working in the office. Here are two fairly common pictures. Here, Sister Halbert is sitting at her desk with her friendly smile that the missionaries love and then Elder Halbert with his piles of paper ensuring that all credit card receipts are pasted on blank sheets of paper, etc. Also, here is one with the Assistants, while we were working on a video to show at Zone Conference.
Of course, the elections were held in America. They got a lot of press here in Australia and there was quite a lot of discussions that were held before, during, and after the election. We really like the Church's stand that we will pray for whoever is president and support them in becoming a righteous nation.
The next weekend, we decided to travel a little. One of the young missionaries told us about a town east of Perth about an hour called Toodyay (pronounced Too Jay). We met the Roylances in Northam and traveled the 20 miles or so to Toodyay. It was a fun little town and one of the most unique stores there is called Christmas 360. They are open with Christmas items 360 days per year. We ended up buying a nativity and another mother/portraying Mary and the baby, Jesus. The weather was just about perfect and we really enjoyed our time there. Here are a couple of things we took pictures of at some of the little shops. The little plaque describes our family pretty well.
The next weekend, we decided to visit the Caversham Wildlife Park. Again, the weather was just about perfect. It was set up with animals, birds, and reptiles from each of the parts of Australia. We got to see some normal animals like koala, kangaroos, wombats, dingo dogs, etc. but also saw some fairly unique ones including some small penguins and a barking owl, that really sounded like a dog barking. It was a fun day and here are some of the things we saw there. The last picture is the flying fox, which sleeps a lot, but we did catch this one at least stretching.
We had to take a picture of this sign. At home, there may be a sign that the line forms here, but here s how it is done in Australia,
We ended the month having two great Thanksgiving dinners. Of course, we are really too busy during the week to celebrate Thanksgiving (We did get to go to the temple, which certainly can't be done at any of the temples in America) but did have the sisters who serve in the Dianella Ward come for dinner on Saturday, along with Elder and Sister Sheppard, who work with us in the office and then the elders, who serve in the Dianella Ward, come on Sunday. The Sheppards had found some turkey, so it was pretty traditional meal with turkey, ham, mashed potatoes/gravy, two kinds of candied yams, Sister Halbert's world famous rolls, a jello salad (here it is called jellie) and we finished it off with pumpkin pie and a fruit cobbler that Sister Mortensen, from Sandy, Utah, had made. On Sunday, we had leftovers for the elders, but there was plenty, just like a meal at home. It was a lot of fun.
Next month will be extremely busy with missionaries coming and going, Zone Conferences, training, and Christmas.
December, 2016
Here was how we described one week in the office this month in one of our letters home.. "As mentioned, the rest of the week was a blur as we had the 8 leaving missionaries in training and we provided the meals, we worked with all of them to get on the plane, we made sure that they didn't take anything extra with them (phones, keys, bus cards, etc - it is amazing what gets on planes), then got 11 new missionaries in: 1 from Malaysia, 1 from Mongolia, 2 from Australia, 3 from America, 1 from Indonesia, 2 from Tonga, and one from Cambodia, took pictures of the departing and incoming missionaries, got the new ones all oriented and together with their trainers, made a luncheon for them, got their bikes all purchased and assembled, got them their new bus cards, keys, phones, etc., sent a senior missionary couple home, had a dinner with them, along with 2 other senior couples (we ate at the only good Mexican place we have found), and then cleaned the office after all of that, and, when we had a few minutes each day, actually got our office work done. Again, it was a far more than crazy week, but we loved every minute."
One of the highlights of the month was a trip back to Albany on Christmas day. We took off Friday and had a great time all weekend spending time with friends. Here is a picture of Cozy Corner, a picnic area between Albany and Denmark. We went with Elder and Sister Moses. Sister Halbert had gone there with Sister Coutts but Elder Halbert, nor the Moses' had been there.
SiOn the way there, we saw another mailbox that was kind of unique. Here are a couple of pictures of it.
We ate a lot that weekend. Here is a dinner we had on Christmas Eve. Here are a couple of pictures of the gathering and the famous pavlova made by Sister Coutts.
It was a great trip; We had one of the senior missionary couples staying with us for a couple of days and they downloaded some books on a thumb drive, so we listened to a book for the 10 hour trip to Albany and back. It made the time go more quickly. We had a really nice Christmas day that ended up pretty quiet. We enjoyed talking to each of our family members during the week.
We did have a couple more adventures. Elder Simper, who was serving in Narrogin with Sister Simper had a back problem and the MRI showed that it was significant enough to be sent home for the surgery. They stayed with us again and we took them to the airport and sent them on their way.
Our family had a little surprise the week after Christmas. Little Carson Mack Halbert joined the Shaun and Brittney Halbert family in Colorado, about a month earlier than planned. All was well with Carson and mom and we are glad to have him.
For New Year's Eve, we were invited to the Sheppards, another senior missionary couple in the office, for dinner. They live in the hills east of Perth and have a view down to the city from their front yard. We had a really nice meal with them and then went for a little trip to one of the sights near their house. In the early 1900's, they had problems getting water to the country towns and an engineer had built a "lake" and a pipeline to a town 200 miles away. While there, we saw these wild kangaroos and this little "train" built out of pipeline parts.
Again, December was full and fast. The months are flying by..
January/February, 2017
The months are beginning to fly by so we are combining information from January and February. We were extremely busy in January, but didn't really do anything that had us taking pictures, so here is some narrative about what happened.
Actually, a lot happened at home that affected us. First of all, our son, Khyl was made a Bishop of the Cooper Ward in Mesa. It was exciting to talk to him and give him some advice on what would be happening. Of course, nobody can prepare for being a bishop. Sister Halbert's dad had an operation to remove some stones that went well, but left him even more disoriented than he already is. We were just glad that the operation went well.
We spent much of the month visiting a sister missionary who was in the hospital. She had planned on leaving in December, but had some issues and ended up staying nearly 6 weeks in the hospital. As senior missionaries, we set up a schedule to visit her each day so we went out 1-2 times each week to Armadale, which is about as far as you can get in southwest Perth (we live in the north east part). She made it home by the end of the month, which was really great.
We had a great experience being able to clean the temple with the ward where we serve. The temple here is one of the smaller ones, so we were in and out in less than an hour, but it was fun being there with nobody else in the temple and be able to still feel the Spirit strongly. We also had transfers and had some of our great missionaries finish and head for their respective homes, some in Australia, some in the Philippines, some to China, and some to America. We also welcomed in a great group of new missionaries, again, from all over the world.
Speaking of new missionaries, one of the highlights for us, as senior missionaries was the addition of another couple. One of the couples had left in December and at the end of January was replaced with the Pittman's a couple from Brisbane, who stayed with us their first weekend in the mission field. We enjoyed getting to know them better.
Here is a street sign that we found in our travels this month to remind us of our little granddaughter, Quinn,
February
We discovered some more of Western Australia in February. Someone had told us that there is a vendor fair in Kalamunda, which is a city west of Perth in the foothills. It reminded me a lot of Payson, Arizona with a forest like feel. We really enjoyed seeing all of the crafts and homemade items for sale. The fair is held the first Saturday of every month and we'll go back again to get some things for the family.
We have a number of missionaries who arrive with basically the shirts on their backs. Many don't have suits or any additional clothing. We helped three of them get suits, pants, white shirts, shoes, underwear and even slippers. It was fun shopping with them and being able to get to know each of them a little better. One had given up a contract to play professional rugby so he could serve a mission. Of course, buying clothes for him was a challenge with him being 6'4" and having legs like tree trunks.
While just a little late, we had some holiday highlights in February. First was a package from Jared and Candice that included many items made for us by our grandchildren, Jaxon, Connor, and Cameron. Jaxon had drawn a world with him on one side in the dark and us on the other side in the light. It was really special. We then got a package from Shaun and Brittney that included a DVD of their family from the time we left to the birth of our latest grandson, Carson, at the end of 2016. Both of those presents, along with all of the things we got earlier, just made the holidays last.
One of the highlights for me this month was to be able to go and watch a team play American football. In Australia, there are three games they call football; soccer, rugby, and Australian Football, which is a combination of football, rugby, soccer, and basketball. This was true, blue American football with pads, etc. and played by teams including players who had played college and high school football and migrated to Australia. It was great fun.
One of the highlights of the month was a trip to Albany with Mark, Michele, Cortney, and Makayla Christensen, Sister Halbert's brother and members of his family from Park City, Utah. They had stopped in Brisbane, New Zealand, and Sydney on their way to Perth. President Fife allowed the Moses' to come up to Perth to take our place for a few days and for us to stay at their flat there in Albany. Even though it was cold and rainy, we did go to Middleton Beach and walked along the beach and out on a pier there. Here are a couple of pictures.
We also went to the Gap and had some real wind/rain. The wind was blowing so hard that it was difficult to even open the car door. Then, we got soaked while getting out of the car. We thought that it was raining, but found that the parking lot was wet, but the 50 yard walk to the Gap was dry. The mist from the Gap was blowing up over the walk and on to the parking lot. We also visited the blow holes and here are a couple of pictures from that adventure.
The next day, we drove all across the southern portion of Western Australia to the Tree Top Walk. Mark and Michele and the girls enjoyed walking on it and visiting the large Tingle trees and we enjoyed going back there for the third time. Here are a couple of pictures from the Tree Top Walk.
On the way back to Albany, we stopped at the Denmark Alpaca Farm just west of Denmark. Here, we spent time with Kangaroos, Camels, Koalas, Sheep, Goats, Horses, Cows, and spent a lot of time with a little kangaroo joey named Darren. Here are some of the pictures from that. One that was especially fun was all of the Alpacas chasing Michele as she had some extra food and they wanted it.
We enjoyed seeing some of our Albany friends and even introduced the Christensen's to some of Sister Coutt's now world famous "pavlova". Much of our last day in Albany was spent on the beach trying to get the girls a tan. They wanted to go back to Park City in the Winter and show that they had gotten a tan while on holiday in Australia. It was a great time. We got back just in time to send a group of missionaries home and welcome 9 new missionaries to the Australia Perth Mission to share the time of their lives for the next 18-24 months.
The other highlight for us and all of Western Australia, was a visit by Elder Dale G. Renlund, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, along with Elder Halstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elders O'Reardon and Nielson, of the Seventy. We, as missionaries, got to spend two full hours with Elder Renlund and the others on Saturday and then we got to go back for more on Sunday with the Dianella Stake Conference. What fun it was to be able to have a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator in this part of the world. It had been 7 years since an Apostle visited Western Australia so it was really special. We took a picture with the whole mission and Elder and Sister Renlund that is included below. Of course, getting the whole mission together and it just looks like a bunch of dots. We made the front row on the right.
Of course, with that many general authorities coming, many here thought that there would be some stake alignments, etc. There are 4 stakes in the Perth area. What Elder Renlund and others did mention was that there was less than 30% activity in those 4 stakes and that if we would just reach out to those who once had a testimony of the Gospel, that we could have 8-10 stakes in the Perth area.
All in all, it was a very special month.
While serving in the mission office, we have so many experiences. We always seem to have adventures around transfer time and March and April were no exceptions. We did have some miracles occur while trying to get one missionary sister to Malaysia. When we got to the counter to check her in, for some reason, her ticket had been cancelled by the Church's travel department. One of the managers took over and contacted the travel agency, arranged for a new ticket to be issued, and even got her on the plane, sitting next to another missionary who was leaving on the same flight The Lord really watches over these missionaries.
We also got to participate with2 missionaries as they left their missions for medical challenges. In one case, we got to be involved with the mother of the missionary, arranging travel, lodging, and car rental for her and making sure that things went well for both of them. In the second case, we had the missionary stay with us and got her to the airport the next morning. While we will miss each of these missionaries, they both served well for the time in the mission.
We also got to talk to the two senior couples who will be joining the mission after we leave. The Marchants, from Kentucky will be Office Specialists and will arrive a few days after we leave and the Arnoldson's from central Utah, who will take over Self Reliance from the Millars after they leave in August. We really enjoyed talking with both couples and sharing some of the things we wish we had known before we came out.
One of our biggest adventures was to visit Rottness Island. Rottness Island got its name because of little animals called Quokkas. They move like kangaroos, but are about the size of a big rat. They are only found on this island and when people first saw them on the island, they said that it looked like a Rat's Nest and that was where the name came from.
Rottness Island is about 25 miles off the coast of Perth/Fremantle and was mainly used as a prison until 1991 for Aboriginals to keep them separated from the whites in the prison at Fremantle. We took a ferry there and spent the day visiting the sights on the island. Below are some of the pictures we took, but there is a real story behind the picture of the lighthouse. On the bus ride to the lighthouse, the bus driver asked if anyone wanted to stop and see the guns used to protect the Perth harbor during the World Wars. We thought that may be interesting, so he let us off in the middle of nowhere and said to just go up the trail. Here is a bunker where the soldiers stayed and a picture of the gun in the distance.
As we went on the trail, we walked for about a mile and then could only see the gun in the fat distance so decided not to go clear across the island to get any closer. As we started back on the trail, there was a sign that said that the lighthouse was 1.8 kilometers (about 1.3 miles) down the trail. Here is a picture of the lighthouse from the trail. We kept walking and walking and finally gave up. While we could see the lighthouse, it seemed we never were getting much closer. We finally found the road and just hiked to the next bus stop and got on.
In another stop, there was a little island where there were a bunch of seals playing in the water. Here are some pictures of them and the gigantic pelican who watches over the island.
When we got back to the main town, we started seeing the Quokkas. They were all over and, even though the tourists were told not to feed them, they were begging for food. When we were sitting eating our dinner on a little picnic table, one crawled on my leg begging for scraps. They would eat a fresh leaf and here is Mom feeding one a leaf. Here are some pictures of them
The day was great weather-wise and we enjoyed our time visiting there.
A big highlight for us was to join Heather Bateman, who had joined the Church in Albany the Halloween we were there, on April Fool's day at the temple. She has this thing about obscure holidays and likes to do things on them. We are glad that we were available. Here are some pictures coming out of the temple. Elder Ellsworth was given permission to travel from Rockingham to share the day with Heather and us. The first picture is the missionaries with Heather and the next one with Brother Duffield and Sister Bailey from Albany Branch.
It is so fun being here and seeing lives change. We had 13 Elders and Sisters go home in early April and it was hard to see them go. They were going to Thailand, Samoa, the Philippines, New Zealand, other states in Australia, and even a couple to the U.S. While we always are sad when they leave, others come in who are just as great.
Actually, a lot happened at home that affected us. First of all, our son, Khyl was made a Bishop of the Cooper Ward in Mesa. It was exciting to talk to him and give him some advice on what would be happening. Of course, nobody can prepare for being a bishop. Sister Halbert's dad had an operation to remove some stones that went well, but left him even more disoriented than he already is. We were just glad that the operation went well.
We spent much of the month visiting a sister missionary who was in the hospital. She had planned on leaving in December, but had some issues and ended up staying nearly 6 weeks in the hospital. As senior missionaries, we set up a schedule to visit her each day so we went out 1-2 times each week to Armadale, which is about as far as you can get in southwest Perth (we live in the north east part). She made it home by the end of the month, which was really great.
We had a great experience being able to clean the temple with the ward where we serve. The temple here is one of the smaller ones, so we were in and out in less than an hour, but it was fun being there with nobody else in the temple and be able to still feel the Spirit strongly. We also had transfers and had some of our great missionaries finish and head for their respective homes, some in Australia, some in the Philippines, some to China, and some to America. We also welcomed in a great group of new missionaries, again, from all over the world.
Speaking of new missionaries, one of the highlights for us, as senior missionaries was the addition of another couple. One of the couples had left in December and at the end of January was replaced with the Pittman's a couple from Brisbane, who stayed with us their first weekend in the mission field. We enjoyed getting to know them better.
Here is a street sign that we found in our travels this month to remind us of our little granddaughter, Quinn,
February
We discovered some more of Western Australia in February. Someone had told us that there is a vendor fair in Kalamunda, which is a city west of Perth in the foothills. It reminded me a lot of Payson, Arizona with a forest like feel. We really enjoyed seeing all of the crafts and homemade items for sale. The fair is held the first Saturday of every month and we'll go back again to get some things for the family.
We have a number of missionaries who arrive with basically the shirts on their backs. Many don't have suits or any additional clothing. We helped three of them get suits, pants, white shirts, shoes, underwear and even slippers. It was fun shopping with them and being able to get to know each of them a little better. One had given up a contract to play professional rugby so he could serve a mission. Of course, buying clothes for him was a challenge with him being 6'4" and having legs like tree trunks.
While just a little late, we had some holiday highlights in February. First was a package from Jared and Candice that included many items made for us by our grandchildren, Jaxon, Connor, and Cameron. Jaxon had drawn a world with him on one side in the dark and us on the other side in the light. It was really special. We then got a package from Shaun and Brittney that included a DVD of their family from the time we left to the birth of our latest grandson, Carson, at the end of 2016. Both of those presents, along with all of the things we got earlier, just made the holidays last.
One of the highlights for me this month was to be able to go and watch a team play American football. In Australia, there are three games they call football; soccer, rugby, and Australian Football, which is a combination of football, rugby, soccer, and basketball. This was true, blue American football with pads, etc. and played by teams including players who had played college and high school football and migrated to Australia. It was great fun.
One of the highlights of the month was a trip to Albany with Mark, Michele, Cortney, and Makayla Christensen, Sister Halbert's brother and members of his family from Park City, Utah. They had stopped in Brisbane, New Zealand, and Sydney on their way to Perth. President Fife allowed the Moses' to come up to Perth to take our place for a few days and for us to stay at their flat there in Albany. Even though it was cold and rainy, we did go to Middleton Beach and walked along the beach and out on a pier there. Here are a couple of pictures.
We also went to the Gap and had some real wind/rain. The wind was blowing so hard that it was difficult to even open the car door. Then, we got soaked while getting out of the car. We thought that it was raining, but found that the parking lot was wet, but the 50 yard walk to the Gap was dry. The mist from the Gap was blowing up over the walk and on to the parking lot. We also visited the blow holes and here are a couple of pictures from that adventure.
The next day, we drove all across the southern portion of Western Australia to the Tree Top Walk. Mark and Michele and the girls enjoyed walking on it and visiting the large Tingle trees and we enjoyed going back there for the third time. Here are a couple of pictures from the Tree Top Walk.
On the way back to Albany, we stopped at the Denmark Alpaca Farm just west of Denmark. Here, we spent time with Kangaroos, Camels, Koalas, Sheep, Goats, Horses, Cows, and spent a lot of time with a little kangaroo joey named Darren. Here are some of the pictures from that. One that was especially fun was all of the Alpacas chasing Michele as she had some extra food and they wanted it.
We enjoyed seeing some of our Albany friends and even introduced the Christensen's to some of Sister Coutt's now world famous "pavlova". Much of our last day in Albany was spent on the beach trying to get the girls a tan. They wanted to go back to Park City in the Winter and show that they had gotten a tan while on holiday in Australia. It was a great time. We got back just in time to send a group of missionaries home and welcome 9 new missionaries to the Australia Perth Mission to share the time of their lives for the next 18-24 months.
The other highlight for us and all of Western Australia, was a visit by Elder Dale G. Renlund, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, along with Elder Halstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elders O'Reardon and Nielson, of the Seventy. We, as missionaries, got to spend two full hours with Elder Renlund and the others on Saturday and then we got to go back for more on Sunday with the Dianella Stake Conference. What fun it was to be able to have a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator in this part of the world. It had been 7 years since an Apostle visited Western Australia so it was really special. We took a picture with the whole mission and Elder and Sister Renlund that is included below. Of course, getting the whole mission together and it just looks like a bunch of dots. We made the front row on the right.
Of course, with that many general authorities coming, many here thought that there would be some stake alignments, etc. There are 4 stakes in the Perth area. What Elder Renlund and others did mention was that there was less than 30% activity in those 4 stakes and that if we would just reach out to those who once had a testimony of the Gospel, that we could have 8-10 stakes in the Perth area.
All in all, it was a very special month.
March/April 2017
These months have been so busy that we had to combine them again. The month started off with Elder Cardon, of the area presidency, visiting us. He came to both of our Zone Conferences and taught some basic doctrine about the Savior. He also spent time describing the process used for calling missionaries and assigning them to a particular mission. We know that we were called to the great Australia Perth Mission by God through a living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson and for now, to work in the mission office. We had a lot of fun with the Cardons. They both went to Mesa High and we had fun talking about the people they both knew. They graduated with our good friend, Gary Moody. We had all of the missionaries come to the conference, so the night of Zone Conference, all of the senior missionaries gathered for a dinner to say good-bye to the Maher's and Moses' who would both complete their missions in April. We went to Sizzler and found it much like the ones in America, only more expensive. It was a fun evening.While serving in the mission office, we have so many experiences. We always seem to have adventures around transfer time and March and April were no exceptions. We did have some miracles occur while trying to get one missionary sister to Malaysia. When we got to the counter to check her in, for some reason, her ticket had been cancelled by the Church's travel department. One of the managers took over and contacted the travel agency, arranged for a new ticket to be issued, and even got her on the plane, sitting next to another missionary who was leaving on the same flight The Lord really watches over these missionaries.
We also got to participate with2 missionaries as they left their missions for medical challenges. In one case, we got to be involved with the mother of the missionary, arranging travel, lodging, and car rental for her and making sure that things went well for both of them. In the second case, we had the missionary stay with us and got her to the airport the next morning. While we will miss each of these missionaries, they both served well for the time in the mission.
We also got to talk to the two senior couples who will be joining the mission after we leave. The Marchants, from Kentucky will be Office Specialists and will arrive a few days after we leave and the Arnoldson's from central Utah, who will take over Self Reliance from the Millars after they leave in August. We really enjoyed talking with both couples and sharing some of the things we wish we had known before we came out.
One of our biggest adventures was to visit Rottness Island. Rottness Island got its name because of little animals called Quokkas. They move like kangaroos, but are about the size of a big rat. They are only found on this island and when people first saw them on the island, they said that it looked like a Rat's Nest and that was where the name came from.
Rottness Island is about 25 miles off the coast of Perth/Fremantle and was mainly used as a prison until 1991 for Aboriginals to keep them separated from the whites in the prison at Fremantle. We took a ferry there and spent the day visiting the sights on the island. Below are some of the pictures we took, but there is a real story behind the picture of the lighthouse. On the bus ride to the lighthouse, the bus driver asked if anyone wanted to stop and see the guns used to protect the Perth harbor during the World Wars. We thought that may be interesting, so he let us off in the middle of nowhere and said to just go up the trail. Here is a bunker where the soldiers stayed and a picture of the gun in the distance.
As we went on the trail, we walked for about a mile and then could only see the gun in the fat distance so decided not to go clear across the island to get any closer. As we started back on the trail, there was a sign that said that the lighthouse was 1.8 kilometers (about 1.3 miles) down the trail. Here is a picture of the lighthouse from the trail. We kept walking and walking and finally gave up. While we could see the lighthouse, it seemed we never were getting much closer. We finally found the road and just hiked to the next bus stop and got on.
In another stop, there was a little island where there were a bunch of seals playing in the water. Here are some pictures of them and the gigantic pelican who watches over the island.
When we got back to the main town, we started seeing the Quokkas. They were all over and, even though the tourists were told not to feed them, they were begging for food. When we were sitting eating our dinner on a little picnic table, one crawled on my leg begging for scraps. They would eat a fresh leaf and here is Mom feeding one a leaf. Here are some pictures of them
The day was great weather-wise and we enjoyed our time visiting there.
A big highlight for us was to join Heather Bateman, who had joined the Church in Albany the Halloween we were there, on April Fool's day at the temple. She has this thing about obscure holidays and likes to do things on them. We are glad that we were available. Here are some pictures coming out of the temple. Elder Ellsworth was given permission to travel from Rockingham to share the day with Heather and us. The first picture is the missionaries with Heather and the next one with Brother Duffield and Sister Bailey from Albany Branch.
It is so fun being here and seeing lives change. We had 13 Elders and Sisters go home in early April and it was hard to see them go. They were going to Thailand, Samoa, the Philippines, New Zealand, other states in Australia, and even a couple to the U.S. While we always are sad when they leave, others come in who are just as great.
