Wedding Bells are Ringing
Wedding
Bells are Ringing
The past few months have been eventful! A lot of great things have happened, so we'll update you in two separate blogs. Here goes the first of it…..
We had the opportunity to join in the celebration of the wedding of Max and Lola Malsungai. What a blessing it was that first day Max, Lola, and little Vaaliyha walked in to join us at our little branch in Albany, Australia all the way from Vanuatu. The next week, on my birthday, Dave had the opportunity to bless Vaaliyha. The Malsungai’s bring such happiness and joy into our lives. It was an honor to be invited to witness their wedding, which is such a meaningful milestone in their journey together. They hold a special place in our hearts, and we are excited to see them achieve great things in the future.
The weather in August was still quite chilly and wet. Many evenings were spent huddling under blankets.
One Sunday rain was coming down in buckets just as we arrived at church. I grabbed an umbrella for the dash into the church so I would not get my hair wet. That was a mistake! As soon as I stepped out of the car, the wind took the umbrella and turned it inside out. I screamed and ran for the door to the church but was blinded by all the rain on my glasses. As I finally entered the building, Dave was there laughing his head off. He said that was the funniest thing he has ever seen and wished he had a video of it. Needless to say, I was wet and looked a mess for church. When we showed our granddaughter Remi a picture, she said “Grandma looks scary”. Out of the mouth of babes.
Most of the p-days were spent indoors playing cards. We did, however, get out to visit a few local sites. We took Elder Clowers and Elder Mehlhaff to see the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) memorial and enjoy the view from on top of Mount Clarence.
We also took a drive down Bridges Street in Albany which is the curviest and steepest road we have ever driven on. It was a blast.
One thing they do in Australia on roads to control speed is to put speed barriers across the road. The speed barriers take the road down to one lane and you have to wind your way down the street, giving way to the cars coming in the other direction. We finished off the day with ice cream.
I had my first try at being a beautician. Elder Clowers needed a hair cut and hair cuts in town are expensive, so he convinced me to give it a try. We pulled out the craft scissors and went to town. It didn’t turn out too bad, but we have noticed that we have not been asked to cut his hair again.
One day on the way home from member visits, we took a detour and visited the Chainsaw Sculpture drive that locals have been telling us about. It was amazing to see the talent this artist has. There are over 130 chainsaw carved jarrah sculptures along a drive-thru windy path. Here are some of our favorites. We have a broken off tree at the cabin and wish we had him back home to carve a bear in that tree with a honey pot hanging out. Maybe Dave can give it a try.
Elder Fosita (from New Zealand) and Elder Gustafson (from Utah), our zone leaders, visited Albany for a couple days to work with our missionaries and give them help and support. We love having extra missionaries. It was great to have Elder Fosita back and to get to know Elder Gustafson more. They're fun, and we hope to see them again. We started out with breakfast for all the missionaries then the Elders all went out saving souls and bringing joy to the people of Albany.
When night came the extra mattresses were at our flat, so they loaded them in the car and transferred them to the Elders flat. That was an adventure!
It was Elder Fosita’s birthday the next day so for Branch Family Home Evening we threw a birthday party and played games. Everyone had a great time.
Verse 2
Every Wednesday at our flat we host Branch Family Home Evening. It has become one of our favorite nights. We started out with between 1 and 3 people attending but as the word has gotten out, we now have about 20 at our flat every week enjoying an up-lifting thought, games and goodies. We play jeopardy, family feud, wheel of fortune, minute to win it games, and everyone’s favorite….. “fishbowl”. We always spend the first part of the night with get-to-know-you questions. It is really fun to hear the answers and get an inside peak into the lives of our branch members. We have learned many things like one demonstrated in Trafalgar Square, another’s dream is to jump off a cliff in a squirrel suit, one “wagged” (sluffed) school often, and many, many other fun and interesting things that make each one of us unique.
This ties in perfectly with what we learned at Zone
Conference about our true identity. We each are a Child of God. We were meant
to be great!! As we act great, serve great, love great we BECOME GREAT! We are
capable of amazing things. Comparing ourselves to others can diminish our own happiness
and prevent us from appreciating our lives. Comparison is the thief of joy!
Each one of us is unique and important and each one of us contributes different
things to make a complete whole. Trials can weaken or strengthen us. The good
news is……you get to CHOOSE! We love attending Zone Conference. It is so
uplifting and extra fun to get to be with all the missionaries.
The Elders Quorum had a party and had a great time. They had great food provided by Sister Chinery with help from Judy and they played games.
Once again, our least favorite time of the mission came------Transfers. Once again, we lost one of our missionaries. Elder Mehlhaff will be leaving us for Craigie, Western Australia to serve as a district leader. We are sad to lose him but excited for his next adventure. Elder Mehlhaff has a calm sense about him and is very encouraging to those around him. He will be a great district leader. It is fun to see how these missionaries grow and what great young men they become. We will miss him, but he promised to come visit us in St. George when he gets home from his mission.
Our new missionary is Elder Orth all the way from Brisbane, Australia. He looks just like our grandsons Carter and Chip. He could easily be their big brother. It is fun to have a little bit of home with us. Elder Orth is super smart and oversees all the phones in the mission. If anyone has problems with their phone, he is the guy they call to get things all straightened out. We are excited to have him in Albany.
We have found that Australia eats a ton of lamb. Western Australia has 12.5 million sheep. The sheep industry is big here. Where at home we usually see cows in pastures (called paddocks here), here it's sheep—everywhere. A wonderful branch member (Helen) gave us a Lamb Roast this week, and Dave has been so excited to cook it. Tonight was the night.
We are loving our time here in Albany serving God and the
people in this wonderful little branch. We have met many wonderful people that
we love dearly. We have had many incredible faith building experiences that we
will cherish for the rest of our lives. It is hard to believe that we only have
12 weeks left. We are grateful for the
memories we’ve created and look forward to many more. Sending our love to you all. Stay tuned for update #2 in a few weeks...we know the suspense is killing you. Patience is a virtue.😂😘
You are having too much fun! Love you two and are grateful for your efforts to serve and help. What great pictures! You might need to extend. One year is not enough. Have a great day!
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