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

Where has the time gone

We are still here working away.  Things are settling down a bit as the huge growth rate is slowing now that we have 252 missionaries.  We have transfers on Wednesday with 9 going home and only 5 coming in.  Still lots of visa issues, we have 8 missionaries serving in other missions including a senior couple.  One of the missionaries going home is Elder Hopoate who gave up a million dollar footie (rugby) contract to serve a mission.  He has been an inspiration to many people.  He will surely be missed.  You can learn more about him on Mormon.org.

We haven't had any exciting p days for a while, we have found we simply needed some rest and relaxation. We should get another office couple the middle of December and we are looking forward to that.

Getting ready for a stake activity this afternoon.  There is a baking contest - I think I can win with Snickerdoodles.  American cookies have a lot more sugar than Australian biscuits.

Will write more tomorrow.

One of the recent converts in our ward

Three weeks ago a young man from India was baptized by the missionaries serving in our ward.

GVD, the name he goes by because no one can say his real name, came to Brisbane several months ago to further his education.  He had been a Hindu but had not found much meaning in his life from Hinduism and had been attending Christian churches with his friends in India.  After he arrived in Brisbane, he found work at a convenience type store and started classes.  It is very rare in Australia for anyone to have a gun as it is illegal to own one - however, when GVD was at work an armed robber held up the store. GVD was not injured but very traumatized by the incident and had to quit his job and school and seek counseling.  In one if his counseling sessions he asked his therapist if she knew of a church that he could attend - she is a member of the ward and was more than happy to bring him to church and introduce him to the missionaries.  He was at a low point in his life, had no money, no job, no friends.  As the missionaries taught him, he was able to recognize truth and be baptized. I wish you could all see him and hear his testimony.  He is so happy, he just glows - he has been able to find a new much better job that he starts on Wednesday.  He has found many new friends as we have a large group of young single adults in the ward, several of them are also recent converts.  We will share more stories another day.