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.

Getting ready for next intake

As if last week wasn't busy enough, next week is transfer week and we'll have 30 new arrivals plus a new senior couple which puts the total over 250.  Missionaries going home leave Wednesday, and the new incoming missionaries arrive starting Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  And we don't have enough flats for all of them!

In anticipation of never seeing the sun next week we went on a drive to Mount Tamborine yesterday.  Up the mountain the tropical rainforest meets the more typical vegetation so there's quite a mixture of tropical and semi tropical flowers and trees.  We strolled through the botanical gardens, listened to the laughing kookaburras and took a few pictures, notably of the camilia tree blossoms since we have a daughter in law by the name of Camille.  We then drove to the Gold Coast which has Queensland's best surfing waters and because this is "Labour Day" weekend in Australia and the first holiday of summer, the Gold Coast was a big traffic jam with no vacancies galore.  It felt like Southern California.

Here in Brisbane the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom and the blossoms emit a wonderful scent.  They are scattered all over the city, with some right on the street where we live.  We took pictures of some in the neighborhood and also on the University of Queensland campus.  The saying at UQ is that if the Jacarandas are in blossom it's too late to redeem yourself for not studying up to this point in the semester because finals are near!  (See Matthew 24: 32-33)

New Experience

Today we had a new experience.  We have a missionary whose visa expires 3 months before his mission should end and we are starting the process of getting him a new visa so that he can stay to the end of his mission.  It entailed us meeting him and his companion at the temple and taking a ferry to downtown to get a physical.  It took us over 4 hours in travel time and waiting time at the appointment. We asked what he would do after his mission, he said "I have no education, I did not go to grammar school or high school so I will just get a job. He is from the Philippines, and he shared his touching story with us.  His mother passed away 7 years ago and his father has lost his sight. After Elder P's older siblings left home - he became the father and mother to his younger siblings.  He did not attend school but gave all his time to his siblings.  About 4 years ago, a friend asked him if he wanted to come and listen to the missionaries that were coming to his house to teach them. Elder P went, listened, learned and received an answer that the church was true and was baptized. He was able to share the gospel with his siblings and baptize them.  He decided he could leave his family to serve a mission as they had all gotten a little older and could care for themselves.  They do all attend school and he will finish his mission in time to go to some of their graduations.  He told us how he always wanted to be a rich man, but now he doesn't care because he is rich in the things of God. He could barely read when he got to the mission but he has now read the Book of Mormon 4 times, he says I now understand what I read.  He said "I am glad that I was not educated because I am very prideful and maybe I would not have accepted the gospel if I had education".  He is the first missionary from his ward to serve outside of the Philippines. When he got his call he said "I cannot go to another country, I am not educated" - then when he was visa delayed, he said "maybe I should just serve here. He was helped by a senior couple to work through the whole process and finally obtained a visa and got here after learning English. "He says I am now an educated man, I have been to another country, I can speak English, and I can read".  He is a happy man. It was our privilege to help him today - we hope and pray he is granted a new visa so he can finish his mission in Brisbane.

A different view of Brisbane

Sunday night we were invited to dinner by a young couple in the Ward who live on the 32nd floor Casino Towers downtown Brisbane.  They had also invited a family that had recently moved here from Singapore, they are Christian and he is even serving as a minister in his church.  We told them some about the church and hope to be able to share more.

The view from their apartment was a little different from any other we'd see.

It would scare us to live up there.

This young couple met at institute at Queensland University - there are 2 classes with about 8 in each class. Tasha should have finished her course work and be off doing residency somewhere else, but she was nearly kidnapped, an experience that caused her so much trauma that she flunked her classes, resulting in her being on campus one more semester allowing her to meet her future husband at institute.  They were married 3 months ago in the temple.  Her husband has been accepted into medical school at same University.  They are a great couple.

Off hours

 Here's a few pictures taken in the off hours, which there are few, but by taking advantage of Saturday's there are things that are close enough that in a few hours you can have a mini-holiday.  We've visited botanical gardens with all types of vegetation and flowers.





This is Redcliff, which has a terrific beach area and is also great for whale watching and is noted for being the hometown of the BeeGees.

 We drove to festival days at Toowoomba, which is due West of Brisbane and much higher elevation and much less humidity.  Festival days were like the Idaho State Fair, a rose parade (sort of) and tours of local gardens.  It was big on floral arranging, quilts, parade and of course food and beverages.

 The quilt work was world class, the women who do this surely work year round to bring their secret handiwork that filled an auditorium.

Meanwhile, the men engage in lawn bowling, which is like big time bocci ball, some very accurate lagging was seenThe parade had something for everybody and we mean every body!



.

 There were lovely flower gardens open for viewing, got some great ideas - to bad so many of the plants will not grow in Idaho

 Saturday was the last day of the Brisbane festival - it had lasted all through the month and featured live entertainment, a light show, craft fair and etc.  We walked through several times during the past weeks.  It was capped off with "River Fire" which is a big fireworks show which we watched near the temple.

 Thousands of people attended the fireworks - from our vantage point we could see them go off from 7 different locations.  It wasn't the 4th of July, but was a pretty good show.

A fast week

Can't hardly believe a week has passed by.  It was very busy as usual.  Monday and Tuesday (26 and 27) were spent preparing for our big arrival of missionaries on Wednesday and saying goodbye to 13 . We attended the farewell dinner and testimony meeting of those going home. Even though we had not known most of those leaving, we were deeply touched as they shared their testimonies and growth they have experienced.  We had a couple who go home to less active families or non members and are terrified of their future as they try to remain faithful to the gospel.  We were deeply touched by a Tongan Elder who had to learn English to come on his mission along with our assistant Elder Caby who is from France and also spoke no English before his mission.  He extended until Oct 4 so we have a few more days before we have to say goodbye.

I started this post last week but will finish it today, we have a bit more time before church as it is stake conference.

After we said goodbye to our 13 missionaries, we started the 28th with our first group arriving on a 5:10 a.m. flight.  We fed the first group breakfast at the mission office and did an orientation and then just had them study for a while.  We had only one hiccup in meeting all the  flights and one Elder that arrived by himself at 7:00 a.m. was forgot, but when the President arrived a bit late to pick him up he was on the sidewalk surrounded by people that he was sharing the gospel with.  The next group arrived at 11:15 from the New Zealand MTC, we had expected 6 on this flight but got 7.  One sisters visa had come through that morning so they just put her on the flight with no advance notice.  We had word that she was going on temporary assignment to American Samoa, where she is from, we quickly made arrangements for one more at the hotel and moved on. This group came to the mission office for lunch and orientation - we started moving the first group to the mission home for lunch there - the last flight was 12:35 with the last group -more lunch and one more orientation.  We received a total of 31 missionaries that day.  It was too big of a group to stay at the mission home so we had to put them in a hotel that is near the temple and owned by a member.  Sister Henderson stayed with the Sisters and the assistants stayed with the elders - the next morning they had exercise by the river and then had a trainer meeting at 9:00 a.m. and left for their areas by noon.  It was a wild and crazy day but actually went quite well - the trainers are chosen early but aren't actually paired up until after the new missionaries are interviewed.

This past week actually went well and we were able to work more normal hours and give us a chance to get some exercise.  We did the 45 minute walk to the city along the river two nights - it is really interesting being down there at night - not a place you would want your young missionaries!

Yesterday we actually got a p-day (only 1 phone call all day).  We went whale watching - it was a beautiful day and were out on the water for about 4 hours.  Always amazed at the beauty of the earth.  It went well the first 2 hours then I got sea sick ----- made me so mad to be having such a grand experience and not able to enjoy it.

It is time to get ready for conference- it is being held at the Brisbane convention center in the city - thinking about walking.

Enoch will post pictures later from the whale watching.