October 2015

September 22nd, 2015

This month has flown by so fast! We literally don't know where it's going!

We went to Melbourne to train a Public Affairs counsel and it was just a great experience. One of those times when you set at a table and listen to others and what is being done and absolutely know what you could say to add a little enthusiasm to their callings! That may sound like bragging, but it isn't.  The perfect examples of PA ideas (that were given to us in February 2014 in SLC ) just came to mind, clear as if we'd been given them yesterday!  That kind of recollection just doesn't happen to us at this age. But the spirit was there and it helped fill up all of our gaps, of which there are many!

Melbourne is having the 'Book of Mormon Musical' come to town in January of 2017. This is the perfect time to begin preparation for what is called 'The Book of Mormon Musical Opportunity" for the Church.  Which it surely has been in other cities and states and will be again!  So fun to be just a little bit involved in that process and get a look at the wonderful things the Church has done, right along side the musical, with absolutely no harshness.

Melbourne Temple 

Melbourne Public Affairs Council

Down Town Melbourne

Then we flew to Tasmania (or Tassie as they say here).  What a beautiful place! We had been told by another couple not to expect much in the way of scenery, but we thought it was amazing! So much farmland and so much green and so many sheep and cows that no one would believe it, unless they saw it.  To visit the two stakes we went from one end of the island to the other. So, lots to see.

Beautiful Tasmania

The Tassie Mountains were great

Tassie Pastures

A duck for Elder Allen

Much more important were the visits about PA with these two Stake Presidents. President Smith was the first one in Hobart.  A very tall, very nice man who is a firefighter by profession. He is very keen and knowledgeable in Public Affairs and does a lot of it himself. Although that's a tough thing to fit into his schedule. He's going to call a Director of Public Affairs for the Stake and things will go so much better.  We were able to suggest a couple of things that he seemed interested in trying and made a plea for more news for Newsroom from Tasmania. Once again there was sweet help from the spirit.  It made us be more useful than we would have on our own. Good meeting in a PA sense.

David Cray and Pres Smith

President Smith of Hobart and us

The second Stake was in Devonport with President Walters and his new Director of Public Affairs, Sam Horsman. They hadn't done much Public Affairs work and it was nice to be able to answer their questions and give advice. Again, that wonderful help came to us and to them.  We really think the meeting will make a huge difference to their Stake and for the Church in general.

President Walter's at Stake Conference

Devonport Stake Conference

Everyone had lunch on Church lawn after conference

Devonport members

The more the news gets out about the true nature of the Church and the good they're doing, the better off the Church will be when another chapel needs to be built or another temple built, or when religious freedom gets really tested, as we know it will. The more people understand the Gospel and that we follow Jesus Christ, the more other Church's will let us join their efforts, or they join ours. If we want to preserve marriage and family and the right to worship as we please, Christians must unite! OK, so we're a little over zealous! 

 PA quote from L. Tom Perry:

"We are all part of a global team in this great work and I am grateful for your faith and dedication.  The Church is coming out of obscurity in many parts of the world.  Media is noticing, leaders of other faiths are noticing as well as government officials and other key opinion leaders."

Elder Perry

Elder David A. Bednar:

"May our small individual efforts produce a rainfall of righteousness and truth that gradually swells a multitude of rivers and streams -- and ultimately becomes a flood that sweeps the Earth."

Elder Bednar

It is wonderful to have been even a small insignificant part of this work!  We believe in it with all of our hearts and not really sure how we will operate without this calling in our lives.  It has been an incredible blessing to us, we will never be the same!

We went to the city yesterday for the last time.  Saw all the beautiful areas we love the most and took yet more pictures. We walked across the bridge one last time (we think that's our 6th time) and enjoyed it completely.

Sydney Harbour

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Skyline

As we sat on a bench on Sydney Harbor and we listened to the music of a man who played and sang some awesome songs. That and the scenery and the memories from our time here just made a very sweet 30 minutes or so.  We have never loved a foreign city so much but then we haven't lived in one for 18 months either.  I don't think people exaggerate when they say it's one of the most beautiful cities in the world!!! It is AMAZINGLY distinct! We were grateful for the half of day and hope to keep it in our hearts some how. A very good day.

Elder and Sister Allen say goodbye to Sydney

Coff's Harbor and our last time to speak at a branch.  6 hour drive and so worth it! It was a congregation of 57 people or more, one of the largest branches we've seen here.  Wonderful people and a great spirit to them. We are so glad we went. enjoyed it immensely! On Saturday, we spent the day and evening with Gary Stokes and his wife Jennifer who are from Brisbane.  They drove down to see us before we left and it was such a wonderful day with great friends from Australia.  They showed us some parts of Coff's Habour we may not have seen and took us on a hike up to a high point above the Harbour, where you can literally see forever. Absolutely breath taking! It was a cold day, but worth the effort of the hike, just to see it!

Port Macquire

Garry and Jenny Stokes - Brisbane

The last dinner

One of our favorite signs

Coffs Harbour building

Coffs Harbour from the hill

Elder Allen and Garry Stokes

Coffs Harbour members before Sacrament Meeting

The Browns (our replacements) will be here this morning and it will be 5 days of passing off tasks and responsibilities that we've done for 18 months.  It's so good to actually have some time with them, as often that doesn't happen and one picks it up on one's own.  We hope and pray
this will be a bit easier for them. They have been and are and will continue to be in our prayers! It's a tough couple of months but that first week is just a brain fog that we will always remember!!!

We are finding it so hard to say good-bye to everyone here in the Service Center.  They are the Church employees and we will probably not see them again.  They have been so good to us.  I guess it just has to be hard, and yet. . . we are so excited to go home.

Last FHE tonight.  It's a time when the senior missionaries give a bit of a send off to those leaving. This time, that will be us and I must say, I like being on the other end of it, doing the planning.  It is our turn, and we can do it! There were tears for us this morning as the employees gave us our 18 month plaque.  Tonight will be a challenge.  We love Australia!

September 2015

August has gone by in almost a flash! We had an all day service project (a Helping Hands day) with the Service Center here on August 4th.  We wrote an article about it for the website and it was up by that weekend.  It was a great day of both inspirational talks and the project.  Great time, good memory. 

Elspeth 

Daphne

Many hands

Sarah, an intern from Hawaii

Elder and Sister Willis (our partners)

Pat during her skit

Elder Leota, Area Seventy, suit and HH vest

On August 19th we attended a Senior Couples Missionary Conference with our new Mission President and his wife, the Checketts. It was a good morning with spiritual moments and a game and a few new ideas on how things will look going forward. They are a nice couple and will be wonderful.  Much more layed back than the Howes, so different.

On Saturday the 22nd, we went to downtown Sydney on the River Cat and bought a few souveniers, Everything is so expensive here that we didn't get much of significance. But it was great fun.  Then we took the ferry to Watson Bay and ate at a seafood place right on the beach at sunset. It was my birthday celebration and it was just a great day and evening and wonderful food (the best we have had in Australia) and wonderful, wonderful company.  It was just Ray and I and was the best gift I

We love the tree Trunks

Watson Bay at sunset

View of Sydney from our table

Birthday Girl!!!

Cute lady, weird man

More sunset

Our Birthday Restaurant

could have recieved.  We even took a small container of horseradish with us and added it to their tomato sauce (ketchup) for the shrimp.  Oh so good, we haven't had cocktail sauce in 17 months!  It is a memeory we will want to keep. (not the cocktail sauce but the experience and the view). 

We recieved the itinerary last week for the Browns, who are taking our place, in October.  If the schedule holds, they will arrive here on September 28th in the early a.m.  We have essentially 4 days for training as they will spend most of Monday getting their keys and badges and taking a nap and feeling in a whirl.  So it will be Tuesday - Friday so it will be a bit of a zoo. This all makes it so real!! On Saturday we get on a flight to Maui. Good heavens, how did we get here?

In Septemeber we are scheduled for a trip to Melbourne and then on to Tasmania. From September 9th thru the 14th. We are to train the PA council in Melbourne on media (I know our kids are chuckling) and then speak with 2 Stake Presidents in Tasie.  We'd like to get some articles coming in from them in the future, so hope to infuse them to call some PA people.  Say prayers for us.  This is beyond our ability, (as so many things have been) and we need help!

 On the 24th we head to Coffs Harbor, which is a 6 hour drive, to speak in a branch and meet with a Public Affairs person who hasn't yet been trained in Public Affairs.  So, we hope to do some good. Again, please pray for her and us.

Last night, Monday August 31st, we had a family home evening trivia game, given by the Barrs (the Temple President and his wife) on modern day prophets. We came away with alot of good feelings.  We also noted a quote by Wilford Woodruff. Best quote we've seen in a long time, thought we'd share it. 
     
     "Avoid confessing other people's sins." isn't it awesome?

We took some inventory the other day, just for our records.  To date, we have been involved in 228 articles on the Aussie website since we have been here. About 15%  of those were Salt Lake articles but they still need the posting, which takes Elder Allen some time.  We have about 10 in the pipeline right now.  It helps us know what we have done with our time, and it feels so good to remember some of the experiences those stories represent. We have had so much help, it's awesome!

It would be so hard to define our feelings right now, they're all over the place.  There is so much to do that we just keep going but our minds are a bit of a mess.  I guess, luckily, we don't have time to examine it all very much.

What rises above the confusion is our almost desperate desire to see our family.  No matter how fast the last couple of months have gone, it has been too long since we have seen them and hugged them and we cannot wait!!! So, life is sweet.

We have been so blessed here in so many ways for so many days and weeks and months ,almost continually, that our faith in the Savior and His atoning power has just blossomed. There is no way to share how different we feel in many good and happy ways concerning our spiritual side.  It has been TOTALLY worth it. TOTALLY!!! Our hope and prayers are that we will be able to keep those differences after we are released. 

We know the Church is true to a larger, un-sharable way, than we ever had before.  He is real, He loves us all, no matter what our situation is and He is ever closer than we imagine.

We love you all, thanks for keeping up with our blog/journal.  We hope to do one last post, but time will tell. See you soon.  Our grand-daughter, Reese, pointed out to us just lately that we are arriving home at 10:30 on the 10th day of the month of the 10th month of the year. That will be an easy day to remember in the future.  I think Ray and I will have to have cake each year, or something!