Party highlights

The previous photo shows the missionaries at their lunch.  It was a full course dinner prepared by a good sister and her family. It has been a tradition of theirs to provide this service, it has never before been so big and this year other friends and ward members stepped up to help. We all enjoyed the meal and then had Skits by each zone, followed by a message from the president.  Four hours later, they were ready to eat again, Dominos helped us out this time by delivering 100 pizzas, which were consumed while we watched "It's a Wonderful Life."

We are now back to work and have transfers this week. Either 9 or 11 arriving, won't know for sure on 2 visas until tomorrow, they have been promised.  The others we expected will receive temporary assignments while they wait for visas. 

We wish you all a Happy New Year.

Christmas Party

Christmas 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Party

We are having the mission Christmas party this Tuesday, with 240 people attending it is quite interesting getting prepared.  Enoch and I are in charge of the evening meal, just imagine how much bottled water that entails, or how many boxes of apples does it take to make 240. It will not all fit in our Corolla! We are having Dominos deliver 100 pizzas - only one other time have we planned a meal this big and that was a family Christmas party back in the old 33rd ward.

You would not believe the number of packages to be delivered. Some missionaries have received 5 or 6, then the sad reality some did not get packages.  It will take two trips with the mission van and trailer to get all the packages to the church.

You may have seen news of the high temperatures in Australia - the great news is that it has been beautiful in Brisbane - haven't even had to run air at night - 

We wish you all the Merriest Christmas ever.  

Enoch and LaRue

Christmas time in Brisbane

IIt is really hard to believe that it is almost Christmas.  The weather here is just beautiful, a bit cooler than usual and very green from recent rain storms.  We are shocked at how long it has been without an actual blog posting ! But that it how long it has even without an actual p- day.  We are surprising ourselves by how much we can sleep when Sat and Sunday come.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we had a dinner with 34 other Americans in the Brisbane ward, it was a wonderful dinner with 12 kids running around so it pretty much felt like home.   

Two days ago we had the ward Christmas party at a park along the river.  It was very nice and relaxing.

The warm weather keeps us from getting homesick.

We are holding right around 250 missionaries in the mission.  We got two new couples that both went north.  One up by Cairns in a branch called Atherton, the other in a branch called Whitsunday Branch.  Both are serving in very beautiful parts of Australia.  They will really be a blessing to the church in these areas.

We continue our work in the office and while it can sometimes seem mundane we receive enough miracles that we remember whose work it is and that it is an important part.

We send our love and Christmas greetings to all.  Without Christmas there would be no reason to be missionaries - Jesus Christ truly did come to the world as a baby and fulfilled his calling as Savior of the world, atoning for our sins so that we could repent and return to live with our Heavenly Father.

That is truly a reason to celebrate. 

Love, Enoch and LaRue