Giving service down under

It's the 27th of March but my computer says that it is 5:20 AM on the 28th.  It's a bit confused, and so am I, because I'm sitting at my desk, here in Wyoming.  It was just yesterday, literally that we were in Australia. We began our Thursday morning by meeting Elder and Sister Stoker at 4 in the morning to be driven to the Sydney airport.  They dropped us off at the International terminal and we said our farewells.  When we entered the building we realized we were at the wrong terminal, which is not accessible to the domestic side so we took a cab over to the other side.  We watched people buying tickets for the few flights that were scheduled.  We checked our bags and then met a fellow who has spent the last six months in Tasmania, as an ecologist.  He has really long, blonde hair and a beard and a smile a mile wide.  Come to find out, he's actually from Utah and a member of our faith.  Although he's been apart from the church for many ye...

I'm writing this, in the pre-dawn of a Sydney, Australia morning.  We've stayed the past two nights with Elder and Sister Blackham.  President Runia called at 9 pm Sunday and told us to leave Canberra the next morning.  We were on the road at 8:45AM with our car packed up. Evelyn left the flat looking perfect.  Everything was washed and cleaned.  Refrigerator was empty except for a bottle of Hershey's syrup.  The pantry is well stocked and even toilet paper.  (If someone is reading this  blog in a few years they won't understand that joke) It was announced, last evening,  that all missionaries in Australia and New Zealand are being transferred to their home nation.  That means 27 countries will be receiving missionaries that used to be serving in the Australia Sydney Mission. We're supposed to fly out tomorrow,  the 26th of March.   It looks like the  flight arrangements will take nearly 40 hours before we land in...

So fast. Everything is happening so fast.  As I sit here and write, five of the young missionaries are standing on our driveway, visiting, after we just said goodbye, from a distance.  Evelyn just handed them bags of food that she's divided up, from our kitchen.  You see, we've determined, in conversations with our Priesthood leaders, that it's time to head back to the states.  Hopefully, this upside down world will be turned back and we'll be able to return.  The missionary travel department is working on our travel and we don't know when we'll leave but I would imagine that it will be in the next few days.  We've contacted our children and my mom and told President Stuart but it doesn't feel real.  My mind is going 100 mph but my heart is calm.  We're putting things in order but I keep thinking about the invitations, in the scriptures, and from Prophets, to be calm in the storm.  The Lord never promises for the storms to be removed, he prom...

Good morning from down under!  I wake up earlier than "normal" and this morning I felt impressed to reach for my phone, rather than a quiet time of study and pondering.  As my phone screen lit up it was with a picture of the angel Moroni, on the Salt Lake Temple, without his trumpet.  My first thought was that somebody was pranking and had photoshopped it out.  Nope, the trumpet fell out when the Salt Lake area suffered an earthquake.  From what I'm reading now, there are no injuries, however, there are several damaged buildings and the airport had to shut down due to a water line break and there will be other discoveries, I'm certain.  Margie, sent me an email and said that she'd been sent home from the Church Administration building at 9am.  There have been several conversations, between our boys, on Marco Polo.  I'm grateful they have the friendship, and companionship, to help them in these interesting times. Last night was our first virtual,...

It's Monday afternoon and it's not that I don't have anything to report, rather it's that things are changing so quickly I'm not sure what to record.  At this moment, we're still assigned here in Canberra, however, we've been asked to basically, avoid contact and to not gather in groups.  The Institute classes will be held online, hopefully, and we're going to have a virtual FHE tonight.  Joseph Stubbs is coming over in a little while and will try to help us use Zoom to contact the students.  I had a session this morning with Sister Manning and I have a very thin understanding of  how the app works. Yesterday was a bit weird because we stayed here at the flat.  We weren't authorized to have the sacrament so we just stayed in, read and Evelyn took a walk in the evening.  The missionaries came by for a few minutes but they stood on the porch rather than coming inside.  This afternoon we found out that Elder Leishman is being transferred to Orange ...

It's March 14 in Australia which means it's Evelyn's birthday.  Some people celebrate "pie day" on 3-14 and I wish I were able to bake Evelyn a pie but that would be impossible.  Why impossible?  Because nobody, and I mean nobody, can make a pie to compare to Evelyn's pie.  No, don't message me or text me and tell me how good yours is.  It doesn't stand a chance against hers.  Her crust is magic,  It's just the right amount of flakey, buttery, and the perfect texture.  No, take your hands off of your phones, you won't win! It seems that the world is in a bit of a chaotic state.  The news is in an hourly cycle.  Now, the pandemic is enough that many nations are heavily impacted and it's a global effort to stem the tide.  The church announced that, not only are all meetings cancelled, but the temples are going to be closed for any proxy work.  If someone happens to read this blog that doesn't know what the temples are all about...

Although I've been aware of the word "fortnite" all of my life, I'd never heard it used, on a regular basis or spelled this way.  In fact, my computer wants to correct the spelling.  I've seen many words that are spelled differently in Australian signage but this word caught my attention.  It is a part of conversation here and I love it.  It simply means "two weeks".  I was reminded this morning when I was at the gym that a particular section was going to be closed in a fortnite.  The word is apparently an Old English term meaning simply "fourteen nights". I guess my weird mind has been connecting the origin with the counsel regarding the Coronavirus of isolation for 14 days.  To stay put, or isolate yourself for 14 days sounds a bit like putting yourself into a "fort".  You see, I was raised in the western part of the US where historic sites are often forts.  They were built for safety and protection.  There are hundreds of forts t...

For me, the best way to keep my mind from being "cyclical" in such a way that I just keep returning to a place I've already been, is to write about it, speak about it, or replace it.  Today I'm choosing to write about it.  Maybe I'm doing this because we're staying in the flat but I need to share. I was raised by a father who never stood still.  It wasn't that my dad never took a break or enjoyed a quiet moment, or stopped to smell the roses.  Rather, he always had objectives.  Even after his early retirement at the age of 49 he never stopped.  His heart surgery wasn't successful so that he could return to work and it would have been easy for many people to simply spend their days golfing or even doing something as worthy as temple work.  He did both of those, and more, but, to the point, he always had projects.  In the summers of Wyoming it was a garden and raspberry bushes, helping neighbors and even doing macramé.   I can't imagine how m...

No, the title has nothing to do with Christmas.  It is a question that comes to mind each time I open up my laptop.  Before my screen comes to life, I see my own face.  It's always a quick "tell all" about my day because it shows a smile, or discontent, or sorrow, or happiness.  Most days I smile back at myself.   A few minutes ago I saw that my picture is so much larger than just "me".  Steve Mawer came over to our flat to have a discussion.  He's the 78 year old fellow that joined the church 3 years ago and we meet with him on a regular basis to teach a few principles of the gospel.  He sat on the couch next to Evelyn and I sat on the other side of her.  It was so sweet to watch Evelyn teaching the gospel.  She had planned a lesson from the latest Ensign and used several scripture references. As we were talking, Steve referred to us in the plural several times and I had a bit of an epiphany regarding companionships and particularly Ete...

It's been raining, fairly consistently since yesterday morning.  It's now 10:30 on Thursday morning and it's nice and cool, with clean air.  I loved the feeling of freshly washed air that was a regular part of living in the Northwest.  Seattle was home to so many wonderful memories.  Looking outside our window, here in Canberra and it doesn't take much effort to remember looking out the windows of our home there in Issaquah.  They changed the boundaries of our communities, a few years before we left so it's actually Sammamish but my mind says Issaquah. Last night at Institute was a good experience.  The best part was what I learned after the lesson.  Jordan, who we first met a few months ago here at an FHE has been taking the discussions with the Elders.  They had a lesson, that was supposed to be over before our class began.  When I started the class the missionaries and Jordan were still down the hall in another classroom.  After my ...

As the year 2000 approached I determined a worthy goal for that momentous year would be to read every recorded general conference talk, including the Journal of Discourses.  It was a wonderful experience to expose myself to so many great leaders, and teachings, of the church in this dispensation.  I was rewarded with an experience that was unexpected.  Let me share a few things to set the stage for this experience. 1.)  When I started teaching, full time, for the church in 1978 I began an exposure to various general authorities of the church that was rather unusual.  I became friends to some of the leaders that would allow conversations and experiences that would help direct my choices in my ways.  A few of these leaders were also very "popular" with the church membership.  Men like Bruce R. McConkie, Neal A. Maxwell and Jeffery R. Holland amongst others.  Some of them had such unique vocabularies and speaking styles that it seemed you could "he...

I have a real "love-hate" relationship when it comes to funerals.  I love hearing the gospel taught and the stories of a life well lived, however, I have a very difficult time dealing with farewells.  Yesterday, attending Simon Mamouney's funeral was wonderful, and hard.  Watching his wife and two children listen to the stories while staring at the casket was tough.  Mia, the daughter was brave enough to give one of the talks and I admired her strength.  There were quite a few differences between the services here and some of the traditions back in Wyoming.  I'm grateful to have been allowed to participate. Last night was so much fun here with the Young Single Adults.  There were less than twenty in attendance but it seemed like everyone participated.  Silvia had us sing a hymn for our opening song that she's going to direct as a choir number for the Stake Conference in two weeks.  Evelyn had them play a game where they answered questions f...

Adam and Tiff, with their three children, are visiting Matt and Breanne in Texas.  They posted a Marco Polo while they were playing a game on a Saturday evening.  It was such a joy to watch some of our grown children being together and playing together.  Family is what matters most.  Today we went to both Fast and Testimony meetings in the Lyneham Chapel.  Both meetings were a bit subdued because of Simon Mimouney's death.  The funeral will be tomorrow morning and there were several expressions of love from the pulpit.  I've often reflected on that Sunday morning after Joseph departed this life and wondered how the church meeting went. As I recall, one of the boys attended church but the rest of us stayed home and tried to arrange for things that felt overwhelming.  Sometimes that feels like so long ago that nobody else would remember the day but, for me, it is seared in my memory and heart. Last evening we took a drive out to Sutton.  It i...

I wish it were possible to record my feelings.  Monday evening we had a wonderful FHE here at the flat and the next morning we awakened to the news that Simon Mamouney was killed in an automobile accident Monday evening.  He leaves a sweet wife and two children behind.  He and his wife, Bindi, were the YSA advisors in the Yerrabi Ward.  My heart is heavy with sorrow and it's been difficult to put feelings into words.  Last night at Institute I gave a different lesson than the text I had been preparing.  I just felt it was necessary to talk about Eternal life and the great plan of happiness.  I studied, pondered and prayed but I couldn't put on to paper, an outline that made any sense.  Even as the invocation was being offered, I wasn't sure where to go with the lesson.  After 90 minutes, I'm not sure anything was coherent or "flowing".  I  knew that what I was teaching was true and I knew that the spirit would be the conveyor of tru...

Sunday afternoon in Australia and it's a beautiful sabbath day.  The ACT (Australian Capital Territory) hosts a three day event in downtown Canberra that celebrates the many different cultures of this country.  Yesterday we wandered past the booths from various countries and tried foods from sample trays that were offered to us.  There were pastries, both savory and sweet, from Morocco, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other middle eastern countries.  There were dancers from Poland and the islands of the South Pacific and music from every corner of the globe.  If you stopped to take it in; the smells, colors and sounds could almost overwhelm a person.  We had a massive plate of food that came from a booth from Samoa.  Several members of the church were there and it was such a sweet moment to see their big smiles and feel of their love.  The plate of food they stacked up for us would've fed five people.  They also serve a drink that has watermelon, ...

Last night was our third week of Institute and it was pure joy.  To be able to stand in that room, nearly full, with those powerful young people was awesome.  After class, one of the young ladies, Tahi Sekona, said, "I could have listened to you all night".  It wasn't my teaching skills that were being spoken of, but the spirit that was in that room.  I could've spent the whole evening with them! Sisters Heridas and Smith had invited a new investigator to come to class.  Her name is YanYan and she's a graduate student from China.  She arrived, at the building, before the missionaries and walked in the room with such confidence to introduce herself.  She found her own way to a church meeting a few weeks ago and I certainly hope she returns.  I love having investigators in the classroom.  When you're teaching about eternal truths it doesn't matter where you step into the conversation.  Jordan was there again last night and I'm confident ...

Last night was family home evening and we held it at the Lyneham church so they could play games.  And they played the games!  Joseph and Lexi were in charge and there were 36 wonderful young people playing "European handball" and board games.  We stopped at the Woolies and bought ice cream treats and Dani brought a bunch of food.  That "game" was hilarious.  They scatter obstacles, tables, chairs and carpet pieces throughout the gym and then taped a goal on each wall.  They divided into teams and there were about 8 people on each team.  You can't take more than three steps and you have to throw the ball within 5 seconds.  They use a ball that is a little smaller than a volleyball so you can grip it.  It wasn't a full contact sport until later in the evening.  There is a goalie for each team and he has free reign on the court if he wants to leave the goal unattended.  Keep in mind that about 15 of these young people are very strong,...

Yesterday was Valentine's Day here in Australia and the US is just in the midst of theirs.  So what is it like to be sharing that day for the 45th time?  It's sitting in a District Council meeting with 8 young missionaries and feeling the press of her knee against mine, and smiling.  It's having her put her hand on my leg and putting my arm around the back of her chair.  It's holding a tray of homemade red velvet cupcakes, in the car, that she's just baked for the young missionaries, as she places mini M and M's on the top of each cupcake....only the red ones earn the right for the top of the white frosting.  It's being asked if I bought her chocolates and before I can say "no" she says, "yes, he bought me chocolate chips at Costco!"  It's watching her play the piano, at the church, before a broadcast and realizing, for the tenth time today, how beautiful she is.  I still remember the Sunday after our first date when I saw her playing...

After 3 months of living in Australia we are starting to see some greenery.  It had become so brown through the drought and combining that with smoke filled skies it was rather dismal.  Now, with cooler temperatures and rainfall, the hills and bush are showing new life.   We went for a hike around, and up, Black Mountain.  We didn't completely circle the mountain but we went on several trails before ascending to the top.  Quite a view of the area.  Canberra was completely master planned and laid out for communities, roads, mass transit, schools and businesses. The view from the top of Black Mountain really was beautiful.  We're going to have to go up for a dinner in the restaurant that is up in the tower.  There are some similarities with the Space Needle in  Seattle but I will always feel that the Space Needle is one of the most iconic landmarks in the world.  So many memories in the great Northwest. Last night was Institute and there...

Last night there were 36 people in this little flat.  It was the best of times.  Evelyn made cinnamon rolls that everyone was raving about and Dani brought sausages.  I couldn't stop smiling just watching these kids interacting together.  All of the young missionaries were also in attendance and there were a few investigators.  Jordan is a member of the Anglican church and he is actively studying the gospel.  He's planning on attending Institute tomorrow night and there were several others who indicated they would be coming.  George has recently returned from his mission to Hong Kong and he's quite the artist.  We played Pictionary and he was the star of the evening on the white board. I printed out a picture that was taken during the framing of the barn in Star Valley.  I told the young people about the weight bearing capacity of a single 2 X 6 and compared it to the strength that comes when doubling the timbers or even tripling them....