Goodbyes are Hard

May 15, 2025

We celebrated our first ANZAC day here in Australia. ANZAC day is the National Day of Remembrance (equivalent to our Memorial Day) which commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served". Observed on the 25^th of April each year, Anzac Day was originally devised to honor the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli campaign, their first engagement in the First World War. Thousands gathered along York Street as the parade of soldiers marched past ending at ANZAC Peace Park for a commemorative service. It was super cool to see the respect and support Australia showed to its service men and women.

Because it is a holiday the Australian police had their DUI check points set up and this time, I was ready with the camera. Once again…...Dave passed.

We survived another round of missionary transfers and are lucky to keep our fantastic missionaries Elder Bingham and Elder Smith, another 7 weeks. They are working hard teaching lessons, finding new friends, and rendering service to members of the branch. They are such an example to us. It has been fun to serve with them and enjoy p-days exploring and playing cards with them. We love them like our own boys. They are great missionaries.

We love it here in Albany and are always amazed at the beauty around us. One week on our drive to Branch Family Home Evening at the Winter’s home in Denmark we witnessed the most amazing cotton candy sky which then turned into an amazing sunset.

Another time driving home from church we saw a rainbow stretching across the city.

An interesting thing we have been able to watch is the construction of the Southern Ocean Surf Reef at Middleton Beach. The Reef aims to create a consistent surfable wave central to Albany, delivering benefits for tourism, recreation, and economic development while helping to retain younger residents in the region. We have watched the backhoe dredge as it digs and places rocks creating the reef. The reef is supposed to be a game-changer for the local surf community creating a more consistent wave and allowing them to host high-quality surfing events. The mayor said,
“The Southern Ocean Surf Reef will enhance Albany’s reputation as an adventure and recreation destination, attract more visitors during the winter season, and contribute to the ongoing revitalization of the Middleton Beach precinct.” The project will cost $ 11,750,000. Who knew it was even possible to create a surfing wave reef.

Last week was Zone Conference so we made the 5-hour drive to Perth. The drive is long, but we love attending Zone Conference and being able to spend time with all the missionaries and the other Senior missionaries.

South Zone

North Zone

We stayed at an Airbnb with the Darton’s (from Leeds), the Fredrickson’s (from Idaho), and the Speirs (from Northern Utah). It was really great to visit with them and hear about the experience they are having on their missions. We also enjoyed lots of food and even a game of “Hand and Foot”.

This Zone Conference we said goodbye to the Speirs and the Hadfields. We will miss them. We also said goodbye to one of our firsts missionaries, Elder Jones.

When Elder Jones would come over to the house and we would ask him “what do you know today” his response was always…... “the Church is true, and the Book is blue”. Elder Jones and Elder Taylor “trained us”. They likely spent several evenings discussing the humorous actions of their “Senior Missionaries” that day. Elder Jones taught us a wise quote from Elder Lorn “shoot for the stars----land on the moon”.

We have lots of great memories from all the missionaries we have met on this adventure and have developed lifelong friendships with them and can’t wait to meet up with them again when we finish our mission.

This Zone Conference we had a mission sponsored Senior Missionary activity. We all piled into 2 large vans and headed to Mandurah to find the Mandurah Giants. The magical world of internationally renowned artist Thomas Dambo was waiting for us to explore! The Giants of Mandurah are a series of larger-than-life wooden sculptures that have taken up residence in picturesque secret locations throughout Mandurah.

Thomas creates larger-than-life sculptures from recycled wood, and places them all over the world. This is the first time his Giants have appeared in Australia though! They were amazing.

We also saw pelicans, dolphins, a black swan, and other Australian critters on our adventure. We had such a fun day.

After our adventure finding giants, we gathered for the Hadfield’s going away party at Italians. It has been so much fun the past 5 months staying with them when we came to Zone Conferences. They are the best hosts and have shown us many of the sights of Perth. We can’t wait to get together with them when we get home.