June 16th 2014

This last week has been so very fast.  We don't know where it went, but we have been busy! Such delightful stuff.  We have 4 articles ready to put up now, all ones we have written, and already posted 3.

We really are getting the hang of it, and enjoying the process. What a huge blessing!  I don't think we would go back over the last two months for anything, but it sure is worth it to be here at this end. Just like anything else in life . . . gets easier as we do it. And do it!!!  And do it again!!! A metaphor for sure.

We went to lunch last Monday, with the Country Public affairs directors for the church in Australia. Steve and Rosalee Webster. They are just wonderful people.they are the head of the natures sunshine conglomerate, so very well to do.  But very passionate about public affairs and anything that surrounds it.

We are doing a story on Patrice Tipoki Arkins, who is very famous here.  She has a "why I believe "video on LDS.org and and a I'm a Mormon video on the same site.  You should listen to her.  She is playing Fantiene in Les Miserbles in Brisbane.  We got to get some quotes from her and write Up the article for news room.  Great fun, it came together in what we hope is a nice way!

We had a meeting Sunday Evening at the Service Center with all stake and ward and State PA people and it was interesting.  So much talk about the article in the tribune about the women wanting the priesthood and two of them possibly being up for excommunication.  What a mine field.  They were all so worried there would be a zillion calls Monday morning from reporters about this situation and WHY the women can't have the priesthood.  The calls were to all be forwarded to us and the Moores, with very specific guidelines of what to say to them.  But guess what!  No one called.  Not one!  I was glad for many reasons.  I mostly wanted to believe it wouldn't be that big a deal over here, so far from Salt Lake.and it wasn't !

Ray and I had a long talk about this tonight.  He was asking how women felt and how we got to this point of pushing the church, etc.  I told him I thought it probably started out as a good thing, or I hope it did.  Just women wanting more of a voice in correlation meeting, young men young women meetings and the like?  And like every-discontent in these days, it's blown into this huge public spectacle. And saddest of all has gotten angry instead of helpful.

I don 't know about all women, but I wouldn't trade those quiet blessings women are given, for the more visible ones men are given.  For example, child bearing and rearing and being the person to pick them up and haul them around and be their after school and tuck them in bed at night, and listen to their tough times. I can't imagine trading that so I could work all day and shine in a career and hold the priesthood, and give blessings etc.  not me!  Maybe I lack something, but I think I've done the thing I was most suited for when I came here, and I refuse to want more because someone else does,  How often a as mother have we given our own kind of blessing to our kids when they didn't get in the musical or needed stitches, or lost the girlfriend, or didn't make the team.  They weren't preiethood blessings, no.  But it blesses our kids at the time anyway.and it's our own kind of healing using our own God given compassion.

To hold the priesthood?  Nope, it wasn't the plan. I don't understand it, but I will someday, and I can wait.  The Lord loves me as a woman, and appreciates my role, and so do I.  Some answers we won't get in this life.  Sometimes Faith that he loves us, has to be enough.  For men and women.  But I am lifted up by the way Christ treated women when he was on the earth.  There is a lesson there.  Are we listening? Are we learning from that?

We read President Monson's SUNDAY morning, "Love the Essence of the Gospel".talk tonight. Our new favorite conference talk.  40 quotes worthy of Pinterest and to be used as life long words of wisdom.  Here is our current prophet telling us things about TODAY.  Certainly some things in there to apply to the purple pant ladies and the priesthood.  End of soap Box.    

Bless you all, for keeping in touch and praying for us.  We are having a really fine experience.  Sometimes it almost hurts to be so far away from everyone, but that comes and goes, thank goodness!!

Pictures

Vivid Sydney! A light show against the opera house we went to see

More of the Light Show

A flower that grows on a tree outside our office entrance. So amazing, a perfect reminder of who we're working for

The sight that marks our corner as we drive home

June 6, 2014

This week has flown by!  We have put 2 new stories in for approval and have another one in Draft.  That is amazing for one week if you use our past weeks as a measuring stick.  Our boss has been gone now for 2 weeks so we send everything to New Zealand before it can go to the Area President for approval.  Somehow it just works.  We will be without a superior until September 19th.  Talk about the blind leading the blind here, but if we wonder about anything, we just call New Zealand or Salt Lake and there are always quick answers.

We are finding it necessary to say a prayer before we try to do anything important or daunting on the computer.  It works every time!  We are still learning!  This morning we had a web seminar with Salt Lake Public Affairs People.  New computer program to learn!  It was great instruction though and one of us (that being Ray), will be doing great on it by next week.  

The longer we're here in the office, the more we get a real feel for the scope of social media in the Church.  It's so exciting to hear Elder Perry's voice talk about social media and the role of Public Affairs.  Not what we're doing, as we are such a tiny little spec here.  But what the Church is doing world wide with 'Mormon Messages' and 'I'm a Morman' and Bible Videos and Newsroom and Facebook and Twitter etc.  It just takes a few days of going through those things on the websites and seeing new stuff that comes in every week, some times every day from Church Headquarters, not to mention the material that comes to us from Stake and Ward Public Affair Directors.  They are all so busy getting the word out about the Church!  The TRUE word, to dispell all the false ones. Talk about out of obscurity!  It's just very exciting.  Who knew you could feel the spirit of the gospel just sitting at a desk day after day, but we do!

Are we changing anything?  Probably not, but we're involved in our own small way and it just makes us happy to feel part of something great, and true and do it every day!  So different than being out there in the world every day. We are lucky!  Sometimes we think it's the perfect job for us. . . Other times we wonder if we will ever, ever get it all straight in our little tiny minds.

We miss everyone, all the time.  Sometimes we just miss being able to drive on auto-pilot like we all do. We watch very little TV, ever.  There is just nothing to see. We do watch their news pretty regularly because we're suppose to. Not much different than news at home.  Same accidents and killings and missing children and sports stories, just different people their happening to.

We love our family!  No one could ask for better support than they give us in every possible way.  Friends are so loyal, we just hope you all remember us in 16 months!  Love to you all.

WEEK 5

We have been here 5weeks yesterday!  It's a bit hard to believe.  We have learned SO much and of course have much left to learn.  The computer is still a bit daunting, but Ray is going like crazy on it and has his part about down!  No one is surprised, I know.  There are still new levels and parts of the website to conquer, but we will!

 Last Saturday, May 17th, we drove about 90 minutes to see tha kangaroos!  It was our celebration for being here a month and was the first Saturday we hadn't gone into the office. It was such fun!  We went alone and it was like an ordinary outing on an ordinary Saturday and we enjoyed the whole day!  

They were so great, lined up along the road on both sides like a welcoming committee!  You just have to love them!

We noticed along the way that their are few American food chains here.  The only ones we've seen are McDonalds ( which seem more plentiful than back home) KFC, Dominoes and Outback.  We may find others, but that's pretty small compared to what you all have.  There are others of course, but they aren't recognizable and have a bit of a strange taste to some things.  Don't worry though, we eat anything but lamb, pretty much.  You know us!

Last Monday night we went to a real rugby game and sat in a box.  A lady from down in the service center had offered tickets to the couple missionaries and we all snapped them right up!  It was such fun! We went with 4 other couples and one brother, whose wife was in Utah.  Those players are SO fierce with each other and no helmets or pads.  It's like they go after the necks.  But it turned out to be one of those games where the home team came from way behind and won in the last quarter.  We got lots of food in the box that was catered.  Lamb Curry.  (Only in Australia.)  I had some and it wasn't bad actually. Just not JAZZ food.

I read a conference talk from April Conference this morning.  It's called 'Your Four Minutes' by Bishop Stevenson.  I remember hearing it, in April and liking it, but we weren't in Australia then and our mission hadn't started.  It took on new meaning to me here.  We have less than 17 months out of 18 left and that is amazing.  Want to just get out there and make it count!  

We love you all, and love each other. This work is awesome.  Their are public affairs people all over this country trying to get the word out through social media of what the Church really stands for.  Which in a nut shell means, "We Follow Jesus Christ".  We know that, but the world doesn't.  We are sending a letter out to a reporter this week to correct her misconceptions about the Mormons being exactly like Big Love. She honestly believes we are the polygamists and they are us!  Oh, there is so much misinformation!  Send out those LDS articles and videos on twitter and Facebook and the like.  It's the TIME for that.  Who knows how many we could touch! I have a twitter account.  Now I just need to use it.  Stay safe everyone, and keep in touch!

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.

Weeks 2 and 3

We went to church today, May 4th,  at our new ward for the first time. Our block time starts at 11:00a.m. We are members of the Ropers Cross Ward, about 40 minutes from our house. Many of the people are from Samoa. One of the brothers bore his testimony in his own language, and we couldn't understand a word, but it was still beautiful. There is also a Samoa Gospel Doctrine class and an English speaking one. We are both at opposite ends of the cultural hall, and I'd like to say that the Samoa class seemed to sound a lot more lively than ours!

It's great to sit in a chapel across the world and feel the very same spirit and sing the same songs. I know other people have experienced this, it's nothing new, but it's still pretty amazing.

Have to tell you about a Testimony in Relief Society. A YSA bore her testimony and told of an experience when she was 18. She worked with a girl who was Catholic. The catholic girl gave her a cross necklace for her 18th birthday. She graciously said thank you and thought OK! So when it was the Catholic girls birthday, she gave her a Book of Mormon, thinking it was a fair trade. Eight months later, when they were no longer working together, the girl called her and asked her if she would come to her baptism. She was very surprised. So she attended. A few weeks later, the (past)Catholic girl came to see her had brought HER a new Book of Mormon. She said, "this book changed my life. I wonder if you have read it." The Mormon girl was chagrined to say that she really hadn't. The girl said, "I sensed when I saw you at my baptism that you were different and needing something". So she took the book and bore her testimony today that she was reading it all the way through for the first time, and working her way back to being completely active again, as she had started to slide away after she graduated from high school! I thought that was an amazing sort of double conversion story. I didn't see the end coming. She was sitting with other YSA's during the lesson so I thought she was probably a VERY active member who had been a good missionary. I loved it!

We've had a good week. Busy and a little stressful work wise, but a good one. Fall is coming here and the temps are dropping a bit. Glad we came when we did, it was nice to enjoy those beautiful days while we were just beginning the adjustment.

Standing in front of our Ward building Sunday May 4th