Australia zoo

We had a great senior conference this week. There are seven full time mission couples in this mission. All of them came in for the seniors conference. Many had to fly in because they are far in the north, a two days drive from us here in Brisbane. One of the activities for the three day conference was a trip to the Steve Irwin Austalia Zoo. The highlights for us were seeing and petting the koala bears and seeing and feeding the kangaroos. One of the kangaroos nipped me but it didn't break the skin-just a bruise. The senior conference was wonderful, so many great and loving couples doing the Lord's work. We were inspired by each other and President and Sister Henderson, who are fantastic. We also attended the Brisbane Temple, which is lovely and in a beautiful location by the river. It was three full days, so thankful we got here for the conference. They were so nice to postpone it a week in the hopes we would make it.

Farmers Market Fun

Because it is summer going into fall here there are several farmers markets around Brisbane, we have now been to two of them, a different one for each Saturday we have been here. Lots of fruits and vegetables. We bought a just picked mango and ate it for lunch a day last week, delicious! We have been with Elder and Sister Miles who are training us to take their place in the office. They are from Idaho Falls. It is a small world because their grandson Marcus is In the same class as our grandson Jonathan at the charter school they both attend. Also this week, we had new missionary orientation. In this mission newbies are not called greenies, but goldens. We celebrated our forty fourth wedding anniversary during the training. Sister Henderson made brownies for all twenty two goldens to help us celebrate. We consider ourselves the golden oldies!

We are finally in Australia!

We have finally arrived in Australia! Some probably thought we would never get here, but here we are. We either developed a lot of patience or we have none left. Rebecca's finger prints took three rounds with the FBI, and five months, but we now know that she doesn't have a criminal background. After two flights, the first to LA, then a 14 hour flight to Brisbane, we arrived bedraggled, but happy to be here. We were met by President and Sister Henderson. We then dropped off our luggage at our flat, went to lunch, checked in at the office and went shopping for towels, pillows, etc. We are already in the office, trying to learn. Our old brains don't make it easy, but we have faith we can muddle through. We do believe The Lord qualifies those who he calls, in fact we are counting on it. We will be posting more adventures, next time we will let you know how the driving is coming.