“How did it get so late so soon?” ― Dr. Seuss

"Time doth fly", said the poet, and so it has. Another month in the mission field has flown by ... and so much has happened. Another transfer has come and gone, including saying goodbye to some amazing missionaries. And we've welcome 17 new ones to the mission.

Mission President's office on transfer day

The Book of Mormon play is still all the rage in Melbourne and the missionaries have handed out hundreds and hundreds of copies of the real Book of Mormon in many languages. We've heard some incredible stories of lessons taught, miracles that have transpired, and lives that are changing. The blessings of the gospel—and this work—are evident at every turn.

And the more temporal aspects of Senior Missionary work also continue. We've closed down a few flats in some outlying areas and are in the process of looking for new ones in growth areas. I've (unfortunately) had to deal with more than a few wrecked cars recently and have had to process a couple of speeding tickets as well. At our Zone Conferences last week I had the opportunity to spend some time with the missionaries teaching them about responsibility and stewardship, and how to take care of their cars (and not wreck them). The principle of obedience—along with the consequences of disobedience—were mentioned often. Indeed, the work goes on.

This past week many of our missionaries had the opportunity to do some service and help clean the temple, inside and out. One after another they came into the office after 4 hours of pretty intense physical labor with huge smiles on their faces, so happy to have had the privilege to clean the House of the Lord. A few lucky Elders even got to clean the Angel Moroni, which was no easy task!

          

As office workers in the mission, we put in many hours each and every weekday; there's just a lot of work to do. But Saturday is our P-Day and a couple of weeks ago we took a little "side trip" about an hour north and visited the famous Yarra Valley Chocolaterie. It was a pretty incredible place ... and a chocolate lover's dream! It was fun to watch their talented European Chocolatiers at work and browse through the amazing showroom filled with over 250 different chocolate products. Until next time, enjoy a few photos of what Chocolate Heaven looks like!

How Australia is Different Than Home

I decided that I wanted to write a little bit about the differences between Australia and home. The biggest thing for me was learning to drive on the "wrong side" of the road. I took this picture driving home from the office. I was scared to take these two pictures because you can get a ticket here for even looking like you are touching your phone in the car!

I had to learn to drive pretty fast because Brent manages the car fleet for the missionaries and there is a lot of taking them back and forth to different dealerships for ding repairs and maintenance, and he needs me to follow him to give him a ride back to the office. The Australians all drive the speed limit...mostly, and never run the yellow/red lights, because if you mess up, these cameras in the intersection take your picture and you get an "Infringement" notice in the mail and they start at about $194.00 for speeding and $379 for running the red light. The speed cameras are EVERYWHERE! You can see the little white things on top of the light poles here, and there are actual bigger ones to tag you on the freeways and highways and even a main drag like 13th East at home. It is so weird to be all going the same speed and no one weaving thru traffic or having a road rage fit because someone is going slow in the fast lane.


They have these teeny tiny dryers here that don't vent to the outdoors, so I fluff our laundry for about 20 minutes, or as long as it takes the washer to run its cycle, then take the stuff out of the dryer and hang it out on the clothes line outside. Then fill up the washer again. I have actually come to like how fresh and aired out the sheets and towels are. Also, you can't find dryer sheets of any kind in any of the stores we have looked in! NONE! We know people who have had friends come to visit and bring dryer sheets from the states! Well, look what I found yesterday at Costco! These are like gold! Yay!

We have these little square buildings all over the neighborhoods, every few blocks right in the middle of the neighborhood. They are called "Milk Bars." This one we can walk to just down and around the corner. We have gone there a few times for milk, cheese or bread. It only has a couple of choices of things like cheese or milk, but candy and ice cream bars are plentiful. So it's easier than running to the grocery store that is about 8 minutes from home, but we try not to use it too often because it is a little more expensive than the store.

OK, this thing is out of the dark ages and now I will quote Robby...in a letter from Portugal... "There are no heaters or air conditioners here. What? Don't these people believe in heating their homes?" This little mini unit is an air conditioner or heater that is in the family room and goes about as far as the kitchen. When its been too hot, we have a fan that sits in the door to the kitchen to blow down the hall to the bedroom. Barely does anything until about 4 in the morning when we pull up a sheet.

We have this other invaluable little guy (and one more like it) to heat the bathroom, bedroom and office. It will be interesting when it gets cold outside.

This little thing is our "ice maker." You fill up the teeny trays, freeze them and then turn the knobs in front and the tiny ice cubes fall into the tray underneath, about enough to fill 2 glasses. So we try to fill it more often so we have enough for a little extra.


Lastly for tonight's blog, we found out that Easter is the biggest time of year for chocolate in Australia. Cadbury chocolate is super abundant here, you see it EVERYWHERE!! We found these giant Easter eggs at the store yesterday. They claim to be filled with little prizes. Big chocolate bunnies everywhere too. I hope the Easter Bunny remembers I love chocolate and brings me something for Easter!

Sacrifice Brings Forth the Blessings of Heaven

After almost two months in the mission field, I am finally beginning to grasp just how complex — and how many "moving parts" there are — in a successfully operated mission.

At last count, we have 188 young missionaries and 33 "older" missionaries serving in the Australia Melbourne Mission. Every 6 weeks we have what is called "Transfers" and many of the missionaries are moved to new geographic locations (called areas) to work with new companions. At the same time, a dozen or so of them conclude their missions and go back home, and a similar number arrive to begin their missions. Next month we will have a "net gain" of 7 or 8 new Elders and Sisters. Transfer time is a very busy time for everyone, including especially the office staff.

Some of our incredible departing missionaries (We'll miss them!)

Coordinating the activity of all of those missionaries is a massive undertaking. In addition to transfers every 6 weeks, there is housing to arrange and manage, hundreds of bills to pay and other missionary-related finances to tend to. There is the fleet of 85 vehicles and the related maintenance and repair tasks associated with all those cars, not to mention the all-too-frequent traffic accident or speeding ticket (called infringements here) to deal with.

There are baptismal records to record, referrals to manage and distribute, supplies to order and medical issues to address. And, of course, there are other administrative tasks related to things such as answering phones, coordinating travel, planning Zone Conferences, missionary phones, public transportation, and dozens more that have to be attended to every month.

A few of the cars in our fleet

Our missionary force is like the United Nations of missions. Currently, we have Elders and Sisters from 29 different countries serving in the mission!!! (In a few months it will be up to 32!) There are areas within the mission itself where the missionaries have been specifically called to teach the gospel in Chinese, Vietnamese, Samoan and, of course, English.

Similarly, Melbourne is a bit of a melting pot of cultural diversity as well. Its citizens come from many, many different countries. This is evident by (what we call) the Book of Mormon Wall in the Mission Office. We stock copies of The Book of Mormon is 77 languages!!!

Our Book of Mormon Wall

Yes, it takes a lot of resources, manpower and time (and a lot of money) to operate a mission. And the Australia Melbourne Mission is just one of 418 missions in operation throughout the world today. Last time I checked, those missions had 74,079 missionaries. And in case you didn't know, missionary work is voluntary. Missionaries fund their own missions — except for their transportation to and from their field of labor — and are not paid for their services. That's a lot of volunteer service.

For some, it may beg the question, "Why? Why would 74,079 people, young and old, take 18 months to 2 years out of their lives do this?" The answer is two-fold:

First, because Christ's church has always been and always will be a missionary church. The missionary effort is based on the New Testament pattern of missionaries serving in pairs, teaching the gospel and baptizing believers in the name of Jesus Christ. The work of Peter and John found in the book of Acts are great biblical examples of missionary work. Of course one of the greatest New Testament missionaries was Paul. (If you don't know who Paul is, take the time to read up about his conversion story. It's pretty amazing.)

The second reason tens of thousands of us serve is because we sincerely believe that the messages of the restoration, eternal families, and God's plan of happiness are worth sharing. So, we follow the example of the Savior's disciples and we share the gospel, literally, throughout the world.

Sister Gray and I are loving serving. We are forever grateful to anyone and everyone who played a part in some way to make it possible for us to serve. And while we may not be out actually teaching like most of the other missionaries, our efforts with a few of those many "moving parts" helps them do the most important work: Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

The Mormons Are Coming!

You've probably heard of the play called 'The Book of Mormon - Musical'. It is a religious satire musical that pokes fun at the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The lyrics and music were written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park. It's been a big hit, winning 9 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Reviewers have praised it for its music and originality, but also point out the play’s blasphemous and offensive themes and language. I'm not going to see it and I don't recommend you do either.

BUT...

An interesting thing is happening with this play. Many thought the Church would be upset about it, or that there might even be protests. But as people quickly found out, that's not the LDS Church's way at all. When the musical opened in the U.S., the Church released the following statement: “The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ.”

Well, two weeks ago the play opened here in Melbourne. Advertisements with the message “The Mormons are Coming” have been running for months now. The message is on TV, in the paper, and even on the sides of the trains and buses. Hundreds of people in Melbourne have posted their excitement about the musical on their social media pages. Word is that The Book of Mormon play has been the best selling show in Melbourne's Princess Theatre’s 159-year history. Who would have thought the three words 'Book ... of ... Mormon' could ever be so widely heard and spoken in Melbourne, Australia?!

Of course, as Michael Otterson, the managing director of Public Affairs for the Church pointed out, "Parody isn’t reality ... The danger is not when people laugh, but when they take it seriously [and] leave a theater believing that Mormons really do live in some kind of a surreal world of self-deception and illusion."

Clearly there's a wonderful opportunity here to set the record straight, which comes in the form of increased genuine curiosity about the Church, the missionaries, and the real Book of Mormon. Since the show started its promotional efforts last January, searches on the Internet in the greater Melbourne area about “Mormons” are 10 times greater than before.

Starting about a week ago, and running through most of February, the Church has launched a media initiative in downtown Melbourne that is incredible! Southern Cross train station (which has daily traffic of over 155,000 and is the major railway station and transport hub for Melbourne) is plastered with Book of Mormon-related themes that "set the record straight" about who we are and what's really inside the Book of Mormon.

Here are a bunch of photos taken in Southern Cross Station, but I wish you all could see it in person. It's amazing! (Click on any image to see a larger, more detailed view.)

Needless to say, it's an exciting time to be a missionary in Victoria, Australia! You should go to the Australia Mormon.org site (mormon.org.au) and take a look at some of the videos and how this campaign is being tied to social media. It's really well done.

Common Sticks

This has been an incredible week here in the Australia Melbourne Mission as we have had a General Authority in our midst. Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, along with Sister Nielsen, have been with us the entire week, speaking and teaching in three zone conferences, and spending time with us senior missionaries for dinner on Thursday evening. What a treat!

Singing 'Called to Serve' with Elder & Sister Nielsen at Zone Conference

Elder Nielsen's visit to our mission reminded me of a story Elder Boyd K. Packer related about Karl G. Maeser, who was an early German convert to the church. Over 150 years ago Brother Maeser was leading a party of young missionaries across the Alps. As they reached the summit, he looked back and saw a row of sticks thrust into the snow to mark the one safe path across the otherwise treacherous glacier. Halting the company of missionaries, he gestured toward the sticks and said, “Brethren, there stands the priesthood of God. They are just common sticks like the rest of us, … but the position they hold makes them what they are to us. If we step aside from the path they mark, we are lost.”

That's how I feel about the General Authorities of this Church and it's how I felt in Elder Nielsen's presence this week. He may be just a "common stick", but the position he holds tells me he is a man whose words I can trust ... and follow. He taught for hour after hour without a single note. Sister Gray and I only attended one of the three Zone Conferences, but from what we heard, each Conference was significantly different from the others. Elder Nielsen truly taught by the spirit, which was evident from the experience we had with him.

On Thursday evening, the senior missionaries gathered at the mission home for a much more intimate gathering and dinner. It's difficult to explain how that feels, to be in the presence of a General Authority, who is so committed to serving the Lord. President Vidmar and Elder Nielsen both talked about the missionary work happening in our mission right now. In particular, we discussed the Book of Mormon campaign that the Church has launched in Melbourne, to coincide with the Book of Mormon play. It is truly amazing! (More on that in our next blog post.)

At the end of the Zone Conference we got to see our first handstand competition between President Vidmar and any missionary who is willing to challenge him. (From what we hear, it's a Zone Conference tradition!) On this day, as a General Authority happily looks on, Elder Wiser, who just happens to be a graduate of Trish's and my alma mater, Weber High School, was victorious with a one and a half minute handstand. (Although Elder Wiser claims President Vidmar let him win, I'm not so sure about that. Elder Wiser was rock solid!) It was a good time for all.

Life in the mission field is incredible. I can't really explain it. But being in the service of the Savior's work is truly one of the most satisfying and rewarding things we have ever done.

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.