Couple fun

About four weeks ago Enoch called the couple that had come into the mission a short time back that we had not met or talked to before, they lived about 8-10 hours from us in a town called Gladstone and we decided that we would plan a get together and meet somewhere in the middle. The middle was in a town called Mackay and we thought that it might be August before this could happen with the change of President, the car couple bringing a car North and a few other things.   The Fenton's called back the next day and said "why don't we just do this next week?"  We are so glad that we did this as it could not have happened otherwise with our change of assignment. We stayed at a lovely beach and spent a couple of days sight seeing inland a bit.  One of the places we visited was a National Park called Eungella.

 It is one of the places that you might get to a platypus in the wild. They are usually only seen at dawn or dusk, we chose dusk and were able to get a great showing.  One came up right in front of us and we were able to get a few seconds of film.

This town of Mackay was just crazy busy as it a mining town and because shifts continually rotate the malls were full during the weekday. It is also very expensive to live there but there is a small branch of the church and 2 missionaries serve there.

The town the Fenton's serve in is called Gladstone. It also is a mining town, mainly coal where they export 100 million tons of coal a year to China and that should double by years end. They are also building a huge natural gas plant to begin exporting.  The Branch President is an American who is working over there for a couple of years.  They have a Branch of about 35 people and the Fentons are having some success there with activation and some baptisms.

I can't remember if I told you this story before but was so mind boggling to me I'll retell it.  We read an obituary of a man in his 50's that had fallen of his windmill and died from his injuries.  He owned a cattle station that included 800,000 head of cattle and 1 billion acres. He lived in an area that is about 10 hours west of Townsville.  This country is so big and spread out it is hard to wrap your mind around it.

Since the last blog we have received notification of 5 additional missionaries arriving, making the total 27. President has done transfers 3 times. He has several couples arriving soon to help in the work, so more of the small branches will be getting couples.  The office has really been crazy but we are starting to get a small understanding but still much to learn.

We live within walking distance to the Temple and meeting house.  We attend the Brisbane Ward, which we understand was the first one in Brisbane.  The Bishop is an American and we have probably 6-7 other American families in the Ward.  We have the apartment cleaned now and are settling in, only problem is that is about 20 minutes drive to the office.

We have full time internet and Sunday afternoons free now so will probably keep the blog more current.

We are missing the perfect weather in Townsville and are feeling chilly all the time - how will we survive an Idaho winter again?

Take Care, enjoy summer.

Enoch and LaRue