June already

The month of May really seemed to fly by and now June is one third over. May was an exciting time in Townsville as we saw a husband and 3 children of a member be baptized.  This sister had been less active for many years when she decided to come back to church, she has really become a major part of the branch and is the first to volunteer for every thing that is needed in the branch. We now get to participate with a Branch missionary to teach the new member discussions. It is exciting to watch the changes that come to people as they embrace the gospel.

It was really good to get to see President and Sister Langland when they came to district conference. They will be missed as they will now return home the end of the month. Hats of to all Mission Presidents, three years is a long time to be away from home.

Last week was transfers and we said good bye to a really great elder, Elder Sio. He is from Sydney and did some great work here. His companion, Elder Morrison also had to leave as he had injured his back and had ongoing pain and needed time to heal, he was possibly going home to Melbourne while he healed and then come back to the mission. The President took opportunity of an already white washed area to send us sister missionaries. They have settled into Townsville quickly and said they have never been in such a productive area, so we are looking forward to good things continuing.

Today Enoch decided to ring another couple serving about 8 hours away in Gladstone that we had never met. They are also feeling a bit isolated and so we are planning a get together, possibly each of us driving 4 hours to meet up. They are from Cody, Wy and arrived the end of March. We are excited!

We had another holiday Monday. It was the Queen's birthday, not too many people did much as most consider it way to cold for camping. Most stores were closed though.

The weather does actually get a bit chilly in the evening, we are forced to use a cover at night. Temperatures range from a low of 60 to high of 80, so it is very pleasant.

We took advantage of some of the tourist attractions and went to the Reef Museum, great way to see the reef without getting wet.

 Saying goodbye to President and Sister Langland

                                                   Hammer head sharks

                                                        Sea horses
                                                                

                                     Good bye Elders, welcome Sisters

    

                                   They also run a turtle hospital at the museum

It's About time

I really cannot believe it has been so long since we wrote on this blog. We are really busy these days helping the young missionaries, branch missionaries and our own contacting, plus our assignments with the district.

One of the things we are doing is inviting people that we can friendship to dinner. We are having some great times doing that and so we will continue doing that, plus it makes us feel like we have a social life so it is really working well and we truly are making some great friends.

On April 25th it was another Australian Holiday. It is called ANZAC Day. It is the commemoration of the first time that Australian troops joined with New Zealand troops in going to war. This first occurred in World War 1. It seemed to be a holiday similar to Veterans day and Memorial Day combined. There were parades and other celebrations and almost all businesses were closed even the major grocery stores. They have special cookies, Anzac cookies that are available only at the holiday time. They are basically just an oatmeal cookie with coconut in them. When people were sending goodies to the soliders years ago they found that these were the only cookies that did not arrive moldy or otherwise uneatable and so the traditional Anzac cookies were adopted.

We had training with Elder Oaks this past week, he was in Brisbane so were only able to join in via the internet but that was better than nothing. The technology is a huge blessing in missionary work. The 18th and 19th we have district conference and President and Sister Langland will be here, we are looking forward to that. The one thing that is different is that there has to be meals provided for all the leaders who attend the afternoon training as there is not enough time to return home before the evening session and then on Sunday they serve a lunch for all attendees, mostly potluck but all the Sisters with district callings are bringing a little extra. After conference then President Langeland will spend 2 hours with the missionaries (just the 6 of us).

I may not have mentioned that I am now serving as the district primary president. That has been a great experience as we have an awesome primary in the Townsville Branch and there is only 1 other Branch with a primary of 3 children. The Townsville Presidency have been visiting less active children with great results, now the question is where will we put all these children as there is not enough classroom space. We have also heard that we have 3 active families moving here in the next 2 months that will bring an additional 17 children! We  are all excited though!

The young missionaries are really on fire. We will have 6 baptisms in the month of May - not positive but I think that may be a Townsville record. We love the work and are happy to be a part of it. Especially we are enjoying our work with some recent converts and seeing how the gospel is blessing their lives. This truly is God's plan of happiness.

We send our love and greetings to all. Would love to hear from any of you!

Enoch and LaRue

Time IS moving

Whenever I feel like the time is moving slowly I just need to look at this blog and realize how quickly a month has passed by.  The other way that I judge time is that it seems like I always need a hair cut.

We have been pretty busy as well - we are seeing some people that we visit return to  church and that is very rewarding.  We were able to hold a family home evening with one of the families that we are working with last night and 4 of the children were eager to particpate with us.  Two are YSA age and were asking if there were any activities for them and the good news is that an institute and YSA group is just being formed in the branch so they will be a welcome addition to the program.

Elder Pickett from IF that I mentioned in the last blog is now our distrct leader and is such a hard worker that things are really moving forward here and we should soon see some additional baptisms.
We had a sister show up about 3 weeks at church, she had been baptized about 17 years ago in Cairns and moved to Townsville 11 years ago and not attended church in about 15 yrs.(record movement is almost nonexistent here)  She did not know if her return to church would cause her marriage to end, but was resolved to return to activity.  The next Sunday she showed up with her husband, who really enjoyed himself, felt the spirit and announced at the end of the 3 hours of church that he wanted to be baptized.  He has had to travel and so the teaching will begin later this week.  This week she showed up with two of her children that had been nervous about coming. Her 16 year old son soon realized that he knew and was actually friends at school with some of the members.  The girls in the branch were really doing a great job of fellowshipping ! The 11 year old also enjoyed church, only the 13 year old has not attended but the Young Women President has made contact and so we anticpate seeing 4 baptisms soon.  The Sister has also asked for a calling and was sustained as a RS teacher on Sunday. Love it when things fo right!

Another thing that we are doing is working with the Branch missionaries to teach the new member discussions to the last two people baptized and that is really an enjoyable experience being able to have great discussions and answer questions. We are so thankful to be here and be able to share in these great experiences.

For P-day last week we went to Billibong's wild animal sanctuary and so today you finally get the photos you've been waiting for.

 

The weather really is changing able to sleep at night without air conditioning, should have some great months ahead weather wise.

 

One other noticeable thing here was Easter weekend, the place was like a ghost town on Good Friday, everything was closed then on Saturday the shops were packed. Some businesses had a few hours open on Sunday and then Monday was still a holiday so many things closed.  We wondered how many even thought about Christ or were just simply delighted to have a 4 day weekend.

 

We were awake yesterday morning early enough to catch the last session of conference over the radio,( ksl through the ipad) but we will actually watch the whole conference as a branch in two weeks.

 

We love the work, so grateful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and to watch it change lives and bring peace and happiness to those who embrace it.

 

Hope there is a another post before April is over!

 

 

 

 

 

Our great missionaries

New food

I actually ate some of this sea urchin at the wedding. Can't really say what it tastes like as it was more of a swallow than a chew. The New Zealanders consider this a delicacy and it was flown in for the wedding.

Wedding, Baptism and other events

We have had some great experiences over the past week. On Saturday we were able to attend the wedding for our friends H and M. It was a special event put on by her family, President Ferguson performed the ceremony and then there was a full sit down dinner hosted by the brides family. Her aunt is in the catering business and so it was really lovely.

Following the wedding festivities M was baptized which was a great way to finish the day. The couple is just amazing and have made many changes in their lives and are so happy.

It was also a great way for Elder Field to end his service in Townsville as he was transferred on Monday after being here 6 months. We wish him well in his new area, he is a native Australian from Melbourne.

On Monday our new missionary arrived, what are the odds that we would get an elder from the Idaho Falls West Stake? Well we did! Elder Pickett is representing the West Stake well, we only know him a bit but he was quick to want to make goals that will stretch the missionaries in our district meeting. We know Elder Picketts's father as he was a friend of Jackie's from the past. We look forward to good things while he serves here.

The other really good news is that the missionary car was finally put back in service from the wreck that occurred the first week of December. It is not perfect and are still getting some parts to fix a few things but the elders are thrilled to be able to now get to all their areas. This should really help the work move forward.

Really great things happening in the Branch as all the leaders have really gotten on board with the Prophets call to reach and resue. We are helping in those efforts.

The weather is really changing, still have to use air conditioning but much cooler.

We send our love to all.