The day will come when they will rise up and call you blessed...

My job in the mission office is several parts. Ordering mission supplies, pamphlets, Books of Mormon, all in different languages, etc. You should see the wall of copies of The Book of Mormon stacked in their respective country's language! I was amazed how many we had, and we don't even have all of the languages. I also enter baptisms and call missionaries to get their paperwork to me after the baptism happens. Most of the time I get the records a few days after the baptisms, but sometimes, it takes weeks to get the missionaries to bring them in or send them. I have about mastered the baptism entry and record keeping.

This week has been full of learning the ins and outs of how to record and send referrals of new investigators to the missionaries and order mission materials for the missionaries to be able to hand out to their investigators. Then I make sure the stuff that is now being shipped in is the complete order, then I count it and then those records are filed or handed to the right people. The sister that is teaching me (Sister Horne) has the patience of Job! She is very kind and tells me I am doing okay. I feel very inadequate on the computer.

When I am caught up with the things I do, or Sister Horne is not there for more lessons, I fill in where there are needs. I help the secretary (Sister Hyde) go through files and shred old ones, or we make up "quit smoking" booklets for the missionaries' investigators who want to quit smoking, and I help Elder Gray with filing his car reports. I have gone with him to drop cars at the dealer to get repaired or pick them up. We went and picked up a car an hour and a half away on Thursday and I drove our car home and Brent drove the other car. I followed him home. We have been here three weeks and I had driven TWICE before! TWICE!! On the wrong side of the car, and the wrong side of the road! THAT was a new experience! I got stuck at a light once and in finding Brent again, got honked at once and a finger flew up once, well, that I saw, but I made it home with no scratches or dents ... to the car anyway.

We went to a beautiful park for a picnic on Saturday evening with our new friends, the Hydes. They had been there before and saw kangaroos and thought we would enjoy seeing them. There was a lake and picnic tables under trees. We had a nice dinner and visited and then walked around the park on some paths and a bridge on the side of the lake, and then we saw our first two kangaroos of the evening, a little one and another just a bit bigger. As we walked on we saw a couple of really big 'roos with smaller ones in some trees. Like deer, they come out in the evening to graze on the grass when it gets cooler. They didn't seem to care that we were there unless we got a little too close. It was really fun to see them hop. They hold their massive tails up and off they go effortlessly! We came back to our flat and topped our evening off with a bowl of ice cream and a game of cards. We have taught them how to play "Up the River Down the River", our family's favorite!

When we got to Australia two days before Christmas, there was a Christmas party the night we arrived and we received a little gift from President Vidmar and his wife. It was a pin for Brent and a necklace for me with the mission "Coat of Arms." With them we got a quote that is amongst a collage of pictures of our family, soon to hang on our wall. I love that it is mixed in with the pictures of our kids and grandkids because I believe it to be true. It says: "Your absence is the most powerful testimony you will ever bear to your posterity. The day will come when they will rise up and call you blessed because you were gone for a season. Those grandchildren (and children) will never pray as hard for you as they do while you are serving a mission." ﹘ David A. Bednar

I remember praying for my children who served missions to be strong and faithful and obedient. It is hard to be away from everyone, missions are hard, but I am grateful for all this modern technology (even if I do struggle with it) because I get to see my family often. And I do feel your prayers, and I am grateful to be here with my eternal companion and grateful for his love and patience. I am not grateful to cook dinner every night or make lunches every day, but I can do it! I love you all!

Mission Life – Part 3 – Our Core Purpose

The third and most important aspect of Mission Life for us relates to our purpose for being here. The defined missionary purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost,  and enduring to the end." Even though we are not out actively proselyting or teaching, this is still our purpose, too.

Every mission has certain "administrative" requirements. The office staff varies according to the needs of the specific mission, but usually includes a finance secretary, a mission secretary, and in many cases, individuals to oversee transportation, housing and other activities. Missionary work requires the efforts of a lot of people! Our service in the office allows the full-time missionaries to focus on their proselyting activities and not worry about paying bills, finding a place to live or getting around.

When I think of missionary work and the reason Trish and I are here, I am reminded of a story Elder M. Russell Ballard told in General Conference a few years ago. He told the story of a seven-year-old girl showing her grandfather a small tomato plant she had started from a single seed as part of a second-grade school project. She explained that from one tiny seed would come a plant and if the plant were cared for, it would grow many tomatoes that would each have many seeds. Elder Holland continued:

She said, “...if all of those seeds were planted and grew more tomatoes, and you planted all of those seeds, in a few seasons you would have millions of tomatoes.” 

“All,” she said in amazement, “from one little seed.” 

But then she said, “I almost killed my plant. I left it in a dark room and forgot to water it. When I remembered the plant, it was all wilted and dead looking. I cried because I thought of all of those millions of tomatoes that would never grow.” 

She was then excited to tell her grandfather about the “miracle” that happened.
She explained, “Momma said maybe the plant wasn’t dead. Maybe all it needed was some water and some light to bring life back. 

“And she was right. I gave the plant some water, and I put it in the window for light. And guess what?” she asked. “It came back to life, and now it’s going to grow millions of tomatoes!” 

Her small tomato plant, so full of potential but so weakened and wilted from unintentional neglect, was strengthened and revived through the simple ministration of water and light by the little girl’s loving and caring hands.

Heavenly Father's work and his glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). We know we are where the Lord wants us to be, doing the work that the Lord wants us to do. We know that the Lord is in charge of and directs His work. Our mission president, President Vidmar, works under direct inspiration and revelation from God, and the missionaries, including those of us called to work in the mission office, seek to also have that same spirit of inspiration and revelation and to help provide the "water and the light" so needed in the lives of others.

Working together with the incredible full-time missionaries, I know we will accomplish the missionary goal of bringing others to Christ, so that they may enjoy all of the blessings of the gospel.

Mission Life – Part 2 – Day-to-Day Responsibilities

Everybody wants to know what we actually do most of the time here as missionaries. So, in Part 2 of Mission Life, I'll explain our day-to-day responsibilities.

When most people think of missionary work, they think of 18-21 year old young men and young women out knocking on doors, street contacting, and, as often as possible, sharing the message of the restored gospel with others. We don't do that, exactly, instead, we make it possible for those young missionaries to do just that.

Operating a mission with 180+ missionaries is complicated stuff, with lots of moving parts. (Unbelievably LOTS of moving parts!) There are finances to manage, an automobile fleet to coordinate, housing needs to oversee, and hundreds of communications and records and files to manage. It is truly a major undertaking, not so dissimilar to running a business with 200 employees.

Sister Gray (aka Trish) is in charge of recording baptisms, coordinating incoming and outgoing referrals, ordering supplies and generally assisting the Mission Secretary with the thousand other things that are constantly going on in the office. It's a big job and it keeps her busy all day every day.

I am currently the Vehicle Coordinator and manage the mission's fleet of 90 or so cars, which by the way, are about 95% white Toyota Corollas. (When we arrived, the mission president said we could choose any color of car we wanted as long as it was white.) As I've quickly learned, managing this large fleet of cars (and the "teenagers" who drive them) is a pretty daunting task. In addition to constantly assigning (and reassigning) cars to the missionaries, there are maintenance and repair issues, fuel cards to issue and track, lots of reports, and unfortunately, accidents and moving violations, all of which have to be tracked and managed. I'm doing my best, but am still learning.

We (generally) work in the mission office Monday through Friday from about 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 or 6:00 p.m, but we are essentially "on call" for anything that could happen in the mission at anytime.

Those are some of our typical day-to-day responsibilities. Surprised? Some people wonder why we are even called "missionaries" if we just work in the office. To understand that and learn more about our Mission Life here in Australia, read Part 3 – Our Core Purpose.

Mission Life – Part 1 – Life in Australia

Warning! This is going to be a long, 3-part post! But I thought I would take some time to tell, in a little more detail, what life is like for us here in Australia. I'm writing it in three separate "parts" because there are three different aspects of serving here, each worth mentioning.

First, life in Australia. This has been an adventure so far, for sure! From learning to drive on the left side of the road (with a driver's seat on the other side of the car) to understanding the nuances of the language, to using the metric system of kilometers instead of miles, to understanding the currency exchange rate, it's been a couple of weeks of learning and adjusting. And of course the seasons are the opposite, so it's summer here now, and hot!

Speaking of the weather, Melbourne weather is about as unpredictable as it gets. The high can reach 95 degrees one day and only get to 60 the next! That's a huge range and the local weather forecast doesn't really seem to help much. And we always keep an umbrella in the car because even on nice sunny days, thunderstorms seem to come out of nowhere. And then disappear as fast as they came. But it's not all that humid, so even the hot days aren't too bad.

Driving has really been interesting. It only took a couple of days to get used to driving on the left side of the road, but there are several other things that are different than in the states. First, there are very few stop signs, which is nothing short of brilliant! Instead, there are lots of yield signs and round-abouts. Yield signs, which actually don't say "Yield" at all, but say "Give Way" instead, make every corner much easier to navigate. They even have Give Way signs (for left turns) on the busiest highways. I love it! And round-abouts, even on fairly busy streets, keep the traffic moving a lot better than stop signs or lights. We see round-abouts on many of the main streets and even in many neighborhoods, not just for the occasional intersection, but for many of them. Once you get used to them, they work great.

Another big difference between driving in Australia and back home is speed limits, or rather, speed control. Here, they have traffic cameras EVERYWHERE! If you speed, you get your picture taken. And the penalty for just 7-10 KPH over the limit is about $200! A red light is more than $300! The bottom line is that unless you're rich, you simply don't speed here. Cars, even on major freeways and highways all go pretty-much the same speed, so there's very little passing between one car and another. (From what I hear, the death rate from traffic accidents is way lower here, so the system must be working.)

Saturday is our P-Day, or Preparation Day. (We work in the mission office M-F, but more on that in the next part — Day-to-Day Responsibilities.) On P-Day we take care of personal needs like grocery shopping, cleaning our flat, laundry and writing letters home. We are also able to do some fun things like play tennis or travel around and see the sights. For example, yesterday we went to the Healesville Sanctuary, which is sort of like a zoo, but in a more natural habitat, and saw the native animals, birds, reptiles and plants. It was a lot of fun. (And for those of you that are wondering, no, I have not yet played tennis, just haven't had time, but I do plan on doing that soon.)

We live in small two-bedroom twin home in Bayswater, which is about 40 minutes east of Melbourne. (The assistants to the mission president live in the flat next door, which is a nice bonus. We love those missionaries!) Our flat isn't anything special, but it's comfortable and works just fine for our needs. The only drawback is that the air conditioner is not central air like we have back home, it's a wall-mounted unit that is located in our family room on the opposite end of the flat from our bedroom. That's made for some warm nights. Our home is located in a typical residential neighborhood. Just about every neighborhood has a "Milk Bar" right down the street, which is basically a little neighborhood grocery store, with the emphasis on "little." We don't do our regular grocery shopping there, but it's nice when you need a liter of milk or a loaf of bread.

So, there you go, a little bit about life Down Under. Scroll up to read Part 2 – Day-to-Day Responsibilities.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Down Under!

We have had a very busy week! It was transfer week this week and therefore we had missionaries in and out of the office all week. Lots of pizza, salads and cookies during orientation and training. We are still learning what we are responsible for and how to do it. Brent has been learning all about the car fleet, taking the new missionary drivers out for little test drives and getting his white shirts dirty faster, and I am entering new convert baptisms, writing welcome letters and a score of other things that they ask of me.

The weather here is very unpredictable every day. We have learned to look at the temperature throughout the day before we get ready in the morning to see if we should dress warmer or cooler. I have had a couple of days where I was too cold because it started out beautiful and cooled off. The rainstorm we got a couple of days ago was a major storm that flooded the chapel and foyer of the church where the mission office is located, and later we ended up driving thru some deep water on our way home that night.

We had a chance to get out over the weekend, and went for a Friday night date night with our new friends the Hydes and President and Sister Vidmar and had a nice dinner at a Thai restaurant. It was fun to wear jeans and sandals and feel relaxed. We stopped at a little Gelato shop for an after-dinner treat and it brought back memories of going to Italy with the Curtis's and getting Gelato where ever we could. On Saturday evening for New Years Eve, we went to a really good hamburger place and had dinner with the Hydes and came back here and played a few card games and taught them how to play "Up and Down the River." We also invited the AP's over (who live in the other side of our flat) for "American-made" shakes. (Ausie's make them too runny!) We had a great New Year's in Australia!

Welcome to the Australia Melbourne Mission ... and Merry Christmas!

What an incredible, wonderful, whirlwind-of-a-week our first week after leaving the MTC has been! It has taken this long to find a spare minute to write this first blog post from Down Under. So much has happened in the past five days, I can't possibly include it all, but here are some highlights:

We flew (from the MTC) on Monday, skipped a day (crossing the International Time Zone) and arrived at the Melbourne Airport on Wednesday morning. After a somewhat agonizing passport and customs process, we were finally out of the airport and into the warm Aussie air. President and Sister Vidmar were there to personally welcome us! (Bless their hearts for waiting an hour and half for us to get through customs! As if President Vidmar didn't have anything better to do.)

It was wonderful to shake hands with President Vidmar again and meet Sister Vidmar for the first time. They could not have been more gracious, welcoming and loving. Sister Gray and I knew immediately we are going to thoroughly enjoy working with these two incredible people.

Despite some jet lag, that very evening we gathered at the Mission Home for the Senior Couples Christmas  Party. We were grateful for such an immediate opportunity to meet the 15 or so other couples serving in our mission. What an incredible group of people! We already feel like "best friends" with many of them and know that lifetime friendships are in the making.

We have been especially appreciative of Elder and Sister Hyde, with whom we will be working closely in the office. They literally took us under their wing the first 2-3 days and helped us get "settled" in our flat and showed us how to drive on the "wrong" side of the road. (Elder Hyde was a great teacher and by the third day I was comfortable driving.) Trish and I feel like Elder & Sister Hyde are long lost friends with whom we have been reunited! We can't begin to express what their immediate friendship has meant to us.

We've also settled into our new responsibilities in the mission office. Things could change over time, but for now I am in charge of the mission automobile fleet. (That might come as somewhat of a surprise to those of you who know how much I love cars. Not!) But it's going to be a great opportunity to interact and work with the Elders and Sisters who use these cars to further the work and I'm looking forward to diving in. Sister Gray has been assisting Sister Hyde with a variety of office activities, including inputting new baptism records, updating the files and many other things. WE ARE BUSY! And happy to be!

Yesterday was Christmas Eve and our P-Day (preparation  day) and believe it or not, we were in desperate enough need for basic supplies and groceries, that we went shopping. Costco was an absolute zoo! And the grocery store wasn't much better. (Remind me never to do that again!) After three hours of that I was ready for a nap, but we had two parties that evening that we had to get ready for.

The first was at Elder and Sister Myers' flat, where we and four other senior missionary couples ate and visited and just got to know each other. Good times. New memories. Then we went to the Mission Home where President and Sister Vidmar were hosting a Christmas Eve get-together for the missionaries serving in the zone near the Mission Home. It's so great to be with these amazing Elders and Sisters who are here serving the Lord.

Today is Christmas Day here in Australia and it was a wonderful day to remember the reason we celebrate Christmas. And the reason we are here. Trish and I are here in Australia, not to sweat it out in Costco, drive on the left side of the road, or go to holiday parties. We're not even here to manage car fleets or enter records into a computer. Those may be interesting things to tell you about, and even important tasks for the mission, but we are here because of Him whose birth we celebrated today. We are grateful to be involved, even in a small way, with the sacred work of bringing others unto the Savior, Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate Christmas gift.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Tomorrow we fly!

When I was in the LTM (Language Training Mission) over 41 years ago preparing to serve my first mission to Germany, that's how we missionaries referred to departing the LTM: Flying! It was a time every missionary looked forward to, and Sister Gray and I are are no exception – we are ready!

The MTC has been an amazing and spiritually uplifting experience. As with so many other great experiences in life, I found myself frequently saying, "I wish my kids could have been here for this" or "I wish my son or daughter could have heard that." That's how the good things in life are; when it happens to you, you want those you love to have it too.

That happened again tonight when we went to our usual Sunday evening devotional. To our surprise and joy, the devotional featured The Piano Guys! But this wasn't a typical Piano Guys "concert" as one might imagine, rather it was an evening filled with, yes, music, but also with the testimonies of all four Piano Guys members. Their music is powerful and entertaining, but it was their testimonies of the gospel that uplifted us and filled our souls! It was their words that taught us important principles about life and work and love. We thoroughly enjoyed it and came away even more dedicated to be missionaries worthy of our calling.

The MTC has been a great experience for Trish and me. It hasn't always been easy, but it has been consistently educational, motivating and most importantly, spiritually uplifting. We probably won't miss the food (except the chocolate milk), but we will miss the great people we have met here and the way we have felt being around all of these incredible young men and women who are preparing to serve their Heavenly Father.

But we are ready for Australia and ... tomorrow we fly!

    Click here to find out how!

Missionary Work is Amazing!

Sister Gray and I attended a Sunday Devotional tonight with all of the missionaries, both young and old, and were treated to a concert with the BYU Men's Chorus. The music was a combination of Christmas music and hymns and it was incredible!

Perhaps the highlight of the evening, however, was when the choir director asked a young Japanese missionary in the audience to stand. (He happened to be seated on our row just four seats down from us.)

Two young members of the choir then came forward and shared their experience:

They had been missionary companions in Japan four years ago and had met and taught this young Japanese boy the gospel. It took over a year of friendshipping and teaching by a multitude of missionaries, but eventually the young man joined the church. Now he is serving a mission himself.

The choir member (on the right in the photo) then shared his testimony of the experience, which I am paraphrasing. Speaking to to all of the young missionaries in attendance, he said:

"Missions are very hard; if anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying."

Then, pointing to the young Japanese Elder, he continued:

"But if I had to walk ten thousand miles, or knock on a thousand doors, it would have all been worth it to meet that man right there."

It was such an inspirational moment! To see the joy and love they had for each other, and watch their reunion, was an incredible experience we will never forget.

One week down, one week to go!

We have had a very busy week. We have classes every day beginning at 8 a.m. We feel like we just ate breakfast and then it's suddenly time for lunch! Our 20-something instructors are amazing; they are very knowledgeable and have a great spirit of compassion and love. We have continued to be amazed at their teaching abilities. I know they could not do it without the Lord's help. They give us a break about every hour and a half; I guess they are worried about us old folks (of which we are the youngest) falling asleep or needing to use the bathroom.

We were able to go to the Provo Temple yesterday. It felt good to get out and away from the confines of the MTC for a little while. I told Elder Gray I was getting "cabin fever." The temple was spiritually uplifting and a peaceful break from our classroom routine.

On Saturday night we were able to go out to dinner with our good friends Norm and Mel Kester, Rick and Jayne Pugh, and Steve Hard. We had wonderful Italian food and some laughs. It was good for my cabin fever!

We had a wonderful Sunday today. We went to church and in a combined Priesthood and Relief Society meeting, taught a lesson on Elder Bednar's talk on tender mercies. The spirit was so strong.

We feel like we have had many tender mercies from our Heavenly Father that have made it possible for us to serve this mission. Others in our group shared the tender mercies and miracles they have experienced in their lives as well.

We are anxious to get to Australia and glad to be going into our final week. I am NOT a computer wiz and I'm a little worried about the upcoming office and technology training. I will be needing a lot of prayers and guidance from above to master this stuff.

We have a few beautiful outdoor Christmas light displays here at the MTC and that, along with singing Christmas songs in some of our meetings, is helping us feel the Christmas spirit. This morning we watched a special Christmas 'Music and the Spoken Word' with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and it was magnificent! I could listen to the Tabernacle Choir all day, especially when they are singing Christmas music!

I do miss all of my Christmas decorations, trees and the homey feel of the holidays, but love looking at the little "Joy" decoration from my good friend Mel that sits on my night stand and reminds me every day who I am here for. We are truly grateful for this opportunity to serve.

And even after being "confined" here together for a solid week, I am so glad I still love and adore my companion! 😊 💕

Two days down at the MTC!

It's been a very full two days! We arrived yesterday about 10 a.m., and have been going full steam ever since. We have met some incredible people and instructors. We have spent most of our time studying from Preach My Gospel to learn how to best invite others to come unto Christ. We have been so impressed with these young instructors and the spirit they invite.

Australia here we come!

We took the traditional picture of us at the map, and we also learned that we are the largest group of senior missionaries they have had at the MTC! It is so cool we get to be a part of it!!

Last night we watched a Christmas devotional given by Elder David A. Bednar in which he taught us to think outward and focus on others instead of ourselves, and that that is how we become more Christlike. Tonight there was a devotional with all the missionaries and we had Elder Craig C. Christensen from the Presidency of the Seventy speak to us and we learned about "Taking Christ's Yoke Upon Us", and that being yoked together, pulling together and the strength we get from each other is how we can help bring people to Christ.

It's been an incredible two days, the food....not so much!!! Especially breakfast today. I think I'm headed to the cold cereal bar tomorrow.

Brent was made District Leader right off the bat! I had a feeling it was going to be him the second they announced they were choosing them. He's done a great job making everyone feel comfortable. We are loving the spirit we feel here and the people.