Walkabouts & Wallabies

  Breakfast In the Park This week, the Thorn’s were kind enough to host Family Home Evening. It was a beautiful drive out to their house which is about 35 minutes west of Albany. Their home sits on a hill overlooking the bay and the view is breathtaking. It was such a special night as Brother Thorn gave his son the most incredible blessing we have ever heard as he set him apart as a Teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood. We were very blessed to be a part of this special moment. We had a great time eating, playing games, and socializing. We have volunteered to help with the community Breakfast in the Park, which is a service put on by the Albany & Regional Volunteer Services to provide breakfast for those in need in the community. We met at the park at 6:30 a.m. and cooked about 40 “Toasties” (see Australia tidbits at the end to see what a toastie is). It was great to serve and be able to bring blessings into other people’s lives. It was humbling to see how blessed we are. We ar...

  New Missionary & Service Project Week We received our new missionary last week to replace Elder Taylor. Elder Jones picked up Elder Bingham in Perth last week at transfers and brought him to Albany. Elder Bingham is from Montana and has been out about 6 months. He was one of the many missionaries waiting for visas the end of last year and served in Las Vegas for 7 weeks while he was waiting to come to Australia. He has been serving up in the city since arriving in Australia and had never seen a kangaroo before, so it was fun to show him some of the country wildlife. He is a great addition to the Albany branch, and we are excited to get to know him better and serve with him. We found out this week that the Albany Branch is the farthest church unit from church headquarters in the world. This week we started an Albany Branch Family Home evening group. I forgot to take pictures at our activity, but we had a great time getting to know some of the members and building relations...

  Transfer Week This week we joined in on the branch family history class. (We forgot to take pictures) We met some new people and enjoyed lots of laughs. We printed our family names, so they are ready to take to the temple when we go up for zone conference in a few weeks. By researching our ancestors, we can perform sacred temple ordinances allowing our families to be together beyond this life. We always feel a special connection as we read the histories of our ancestors which strengthen our connection to past generations. I read some of my grandpa Cottam’s stories of his mission in Australia 118 years ago. When he was serving in Melbourne, he told of some missionaries traveling by ship from Perth to join him. As Dave and I are serving in the Perth mission that made me feel a special connection to him. Later when he arrived home and married, he named my uncle Melbourne in remembrance of the love he had for the people of Australia and his service there. Elder Taylor and Elder J...