Cassie Kennedy, who along with her husband Barry, recently arrived in the mission, got a wild hair and decided to "make" lunch for all of the missionaries at Zone Conference (instead of just buying it.) After a last minute run to Costco, she then proceeded to de-bone 21 chickens all by herself. She's either crazy or really loves the missionaries!
Since the Kennedys are new here, Trish and I took them to Healesville Sanctuary on our P-Day to introduce them to some of the native species.
Sister Aalto (Finland), Sister Cehajic (Austria), and Sister Hsieh (Taiwan) proudly pointing out that they changed a flat tire on their car all by themselves. (First time for all three of them!) Way to go, Sisters, you rock!
The Senior Missionaries get together once every few months and take a little excursion to someplace fun and interesting. This time it was the gold mining town of Ballarat. This photo of our amazing Senior Sisters was taken at the famous Creswick Woollen Mills in Creswick, Victoria.
These five claim they did NOT plan it to be an "all stripes" day, but I'm not so sure. ;-)
As we head out on the Aussie open road, we often see reminders like these. WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA! Home of more deadly animals than anywhere else!
One of our favorite stops was the Ballarat Bird World.
This is Paul, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday. He's been in the bird "business" for over 60 years and knows his stuff. He showed us around and was a funny, charming old bloke!
A bird on the head is worth two in the bush!
Breakfast in Ballarat at Cafe Lekker. (I normally don't take pictures of food, but this breakfast was SO good, I just had to memorialize it!) Smoked salmon and poached eggs on wood-fired Turkish bread with lemon and red onion cream cheese. Mmmm! Trish's pancake stack with freshly poached berries and cream wasn't bad either!
We ate dinner at the local Ballarat RSL. (RSL stands for Returned Soldiers’ Association; it's similar to our Veterans' Associations in the U.S.) My buddy Elder Ferris gets our large group in because he is a member; works out great for a large number of people. President and Sister Vidmar drove up from Wantirna South and joined us for dinner, which is always a delight. (We love being with President and Sister Vidmar.)
At some point during the meal, President Vidmar said something about these kinds of chairs being perfect for hand stands. Well, that was that, he wasn't getting out of it after that! (We did have a private room, so this wasn't a show for the entire restaurant!) LOL!
Trish found a new friend in one of the shops.
Who said it's the young people that have their noses in their phones too much?
Sister Vidmar came through for Thanksgiving and made sure we had a "turkey" for our Senior Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner. (You can't get a big turkey here like you can in the states, but the rest of the food was fabulous!)
Just in case you didn't notice, there are a lot of smiles on the faces of all of these people. Australia is a fun place to be, and we couldn't be among better "mates" than these amazing people, but I can assure you, those smiles come mostly from a lasting, peaceful satisfaction that we Senior Missionaries are here doing the Lord's work. It's a wonderful thing to serve others.
"The blessings of discipleship are readily available to all who are willing to pay the price. Discipleship brings purpose to our lives so that rather than wandering aimlessly, we walk steadily on that strait and narrow way that leads us back to our Heavenly Father. Discipleship brings us comfort in times of sorrow, peace of conscience, and joy in service--all of which help us to be more like Jesus." – James E. Faust
