Week 4

We have been here a month!  Today!  Training and learning goes on daily, then we come the next day and have to learn part of it all over again.  We are old for sure!  We are in a bit of a hurry as our boss leaves for a week next Momday, and two weeks after that, he's on vacation till past the middle of September, so it would be SO good if we can do a fair bit ourselves. We love Australia's idea of vacation time here.

Last Wednesday we went to a suburb here and helped serve the missionaries for Zone Conference.  It was a fun experience and a great change from the office.  Those young missionaries come with such enthusiasm and spirit and also great appetites!  They are AWESOME!  Now may be a good time to correct a mistake I made when we blogged about Stake Conference.  We said the missionaries were almost totally islanders.  As it turns out, the missionary choir was chosen specifically for our stake, because our stake is mostly islanders.  The missionary force here is about half and half and absolutely wonderful!

Last Monday night we had another family home evening with the senior couples and Elder Halack from the area presidency spoke and his wife. It was really wonderful, the spirit was strong and we felt privileged just to be there..We sat there thinking how lucky we are to be on a mission.!  So inspite of very long learning days and , a bit of a bad back and unfamiliar grocery items and the like, there is always such sweet assurance that we belong here for now.  We are grateful for that.  We think those assurances come so often to us because we still, really, really need them, and because family and friends are still praying for us!  THANK YOU!

We will include a group shot here soon from that evening. the couple on our right in the photo (pink shirt) are the Moores who are in the same office building as us.The couple on the other side are the Halacks.  The couple second from the left are the Achibalds, the legal couple.  They and the Moores are the people who took us to Manly Beach when we were first here!  (That is all such a blurr now). The couple to the left are the Barrs, the temple President and Matron.  We love them!  The mission presidents wife is the one with the rust bottom on her skirt and the President behind her.

Just wanting you to be able to picture (pun intended) the people we talk about from time to time. We love you all and miss your faces and our relationships with you.