Giving service down under

It's weird to sit down and write and think about our family back in the states.  The grandkids are probably asleep and the parents are probably slowing down.  I don't know if they even read these blogs so maybe I'll get a comment later that they were just getting revved up on a Saturday night. We went to the Garran church today so we could attend the Red Hill Ward and the Stromlo Ward.  Because their boundaries were all changed a month ago, this was their first fast and testimony meeting together.  The spirit of those two wards was wonderful and we were able to meet several new people.  President Moir met with us between meetings and officially called us to be the Stake Young Single Adult leaders and to be the Institute teacher.  We readily accepted and now we will have access to the computer names and information for all of the Stake. Evelyn is playing the keyboard in the dining area, as I sit here in the living room.  She's been asked to do a mus...

Teaching this good man, Michael, in the public library.  These sisters were amazing!  He always brings them candy.

It's a beautiful Thursday morning here in Canberra, the birds are making crazy loud sounds out the window and Evelyn is cutting out fabric on the floor.  It is a different Thanksgiving day from anything in my previous 65.  Thanksgiving is an American holiday and most of the conversation, that I've heard here in Australia is anything but excited to talk about another country that was overrun by Europeans looking for more land.  Tomorrow morning we will drive up to Sydney to have a big dinner with the other senior missionaries.  Evelyn is making a pecan pie to share. Last night we went to the Institute class that was celebrating their last week together before the summer break.  Sister Moir has been teaching the class and she and her husband provided treats, meat pies and sausage rolls, for the students to enjoy.  There were probably 15 kids that came and we had a good visit.  Before the social we went to the senior center and Evelyn played the piano a...

At a little cafe in Nimmitabel where we stopped for an early lunch with the young sisters.  We had meat pies and some sweets.

It's Tuesday morning and Evelyn and I are getting ready to head out with Sister Ballew and Sister Christensen to Cooma.  It's about 1.5 hours away and  we will spend the day there.  They have a few people that have indicated an interest in the church and there's a member they want to visit.  We just finished reading in the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel.  We were up late last night with the YSA here in our flat so Evelyn didn't go to the gym this morning. I had a short workout on the elliptical and light weights. Last night was wonderful.  We had 24 young people here in our flat, which included 3 sister missionaries and two elders.  Several came that we hadn't met before so it was great fun.  I actually used Marco Polo for a minute so our families back home could see the chaos.  We had an actual family home evening.  One of the Polynesian brothers conducted and we had a rousing opening song and a beautiful prayer.  Evelyn pla...

On this Sunday afternoon I find myself thinking about Bilbo Baggins and his grand adventure, as was paraphrased by Elder Uchtdorf in this last general conference.  We left our comfortable, and easy circumstances, although our garden never really grew well in Wyoming, to embark on a grand adventure.  I'm sure some people will question why we did it and others will surmise that we did it only to get away from the Wyoming winters.  I don't know if I'll every be able to explain the feelings of our heart in submitting our names for a full time mission but today I was reminded that we're in the right place, at the right time, to be of service to our brothers and sisters.  One fellow, back in Wyoming actually said, "I heard you had to finagle your way into that call".  Which is true if you mean that we had to challenge the missionary medical department when they said we needed to stay close to my cardiologist because of having heart surgery 8 years ago.  After we ...