I can't believe that it has been so many days since we last posted on the blog, so I will try and bring it up to date a bit. After we got to Brisbane we were met by President and Sister Langeland and taken to the mission office to take care of signing our "blue card" application and a few other details. When we finished, President returned in our car and had Enoch drive back to the mission home and he must have passed the driving test because that was the extent of our driving lessons on the left hand side of the road. That night we had dinner at the mission home with the Langleland's and a friend, who when he learned we were from Idaho Falls, asked if that was near Roberts. How did someone in Brisbane know Roberts? He and his family were baptized by a missionary from Roberts in the 1960's. How's that for a small world! (Also met someone at church baptized by a missionary from Shelley) We were able to attend a baptism that evening for a wonderful man who spoke at his own baptism, he had been introduced to the gospel by a co-worker and after 7 months of studying was being baptized. The chapel was 3/4 filled and the service lasted 1 1/2 hours!
We were supposed to leave Brisbane the next afternoon after attending zone council but the President woke twice in the night with the impression that we needed to get on the road sooner to enable us to reach a town called Gladstone where we have a senior couple serving and we could spend the night with them. We were able to get a brief view of the Brisbane temple, and then were on the road by 9:00. The road is a two way road with quite a drab landscape, reminded us of going to Casper beyond Dubois with a few more trees, with lots of stopping due to construction, all in all very tedious driving on the left hand side of the road!
When we arrived at Gladstone, we were greeted by the Hales from Huntington, UT who are serving their 4th mission, plus they have made 10 trips to Mali where he did cataract surgery on people. We were awed by them and enjoyed having pizza with them for thanksgiving! We bid them farwell that night as we knew our body clocks had not reset and we would rise early. We were on the road again shortly after 6 and decided to spend Friday night in a resort area called Aerlie Beach. We had some trouble finding a room as the schoolies had just graduated and were there to celebrate, they were joined by the "toolies" (those who graduated the year before and show up to cause trouble for the schoolies). It was a town filled to the brim with noise and celebration, however we were able to find a nice accomodation and rest for the final day of driving.
We made it to Townsville in the early afternoon, so we were able to get somewhat settled and get a few groceries before Sunday. We have a quite nice 4 bedroom house with everything we needed except that 3 of the bedrooms were furnished with queen beds only. We gave that a try Saturday night and that lasted about 2 hours until I moved to another room - then we got creative- and moved two queens into the master beroom and now have a hotel like room which is working well.
We then attended our first Sunday at the Branch and were amazed at the size and quality of the branch and kind of wondered why we were here - then we got the list of those who are not currently attending church- which is a list of about 400 names and learned that we are here to "reach and rescue" so we have our work cut out for us finding and inviting them to come back to church.
We attended meetings and activities almost every night last week culminating with the Branch Christmas party last night. We had a potluck meal in the courtyard at the church, followed by a nativity activity for the children and then a visit from Santa. Santa thought he may have lost a few kilos in the hot suit in the 90 degree temperature.
So here we are again at Sunday - attended church and then taught a temple prep class to a man preparing to attend the temple on the 21st. We will spend next week on a Branch temple trip, we are going to the Sydney Temple instead of Brisbane because they have housing at Sydney and so it is cheaper to attend there, we will catch a plane in the morning and return Saturday.
The only kangaroo sightings have been 4 dead ones along the roadside - so no kangaroo tales!
Til next time!
Enoch and LaRue
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