The End Is Near

 

The End Is Near

We took a trip up to Mt. Barker to visit the Entwistles (Kath & Paul). They are such a fun family and love to travel as much as we do. Hopefully they will come over to visit us in the United States after we get home. They took us up to the Mt. Barker lookout to show us the view. It was spectacular and seemed to go on forever! This part of the world will always hold a special place in our hearts. We cherish our Branch family in Albany and have experienced many of the area's stunning natural wonders. At the moment, there are lots of butterflies around.

 We had a visit from the Zone Leaders Elder Bushi (Albania) and Elder Lewis (Monticello, Utah). They went on splits with the missionaries and Elder Orth and Elder Bushi joined us at Branch Family Home Evening while Elder Clowers and Elder Lewis went to the Young Men's activity. It was great having them visit. We always love extra missionaries. 

Elder Orth, Elder Clowers, Elder Lewis, Elder Bushi

Another beautiful place we saw this month was Misery Beach. The water glimmers with a stunning turquoise hue, while the sand is brilliantly white and exquisitely soft. We were even joined by a new friend… Stanley the Seagull. In 2022 Misery Beach was voted the best beach in Australia. However, it has not always been this beautiful tranquil slice of heaven. Misery Beach is named after the area's history of whaling. The beach was stained red with blood and whale offal from the nearby whaling station.  The beach was not good for swimming due to whale blood and fat in the water (not to mention all the sharks). They would also dump all the whales' teeth here and you could walk on the beach and see piles and piles of whales’ teeth. I am glad we got to see it now in all its beauty instead of back then. Again, maybe when it starts to warm up, we will actually get in the water. All our friends here tease us that it has been an unusually cold, long winter and it probably will not get warm until the day after we leave.

The Darton’s came to visit us and see the sights in the south part of the mission on their way home. We gave them a whirl-wind tour and had a great time showing them our home away from home. It is a stark contrast in weather from where they have been serving in Karratha. While they were here it rained every day and was cold. Karratha is hot like Las Vegas with a high of 118*F and never gets below 60*F. Despite the cold and rain, we had a great time, and they were amazed by the beauty here. We even saw our first snake in the mission. First and last I hope!!! 

The Gap & Natural Bridge

Little Beach

Wind Farm Lookout

Whaling Station snake

Aboard the Cheynes IV Whaling Ship

The Cheyne IV Whaling ship

Our favorite place for lunch--WA Chinese

They joined us for Branch family home evening where we were celebrating a few of the members birthdays and played lots of games. Dave entertained everyone with his juggling skills, and we introduced them to my favorite cake…..Ube cake. Ube cake is a Filipino dessert that I adore. I even ordered some ube flavoring and had it shipped home, and I'm bringing ube jam in my suitcase so I can make the cake myself when I get back. The Darton’s are headed home via New Zealand and I’m glad we don’t have to say goodbye forever because they live 15 minutes from us at home so we will see them often.

Elder & Sister Corry, Sister & Elder Darton, Chris & Dave Paisley, Alvin Villanueva, Helen Cope, David Cameron, Richard Duffield

Chris & Dave Paisley party horn pong

Alvin Villanueva & Helen Cope party horn pong

David Cameron & Chris Paisley party horn pong

Balancing balloon

Alvin cookie face

Richard Duffield cookie face

Helen Cope cookie face

David Cameron cookie face

Elder Darton cookie face

Chris Paisley cookie face meditation 😇

Ube Cake 

The dreaded transfer day came……we are heartbroken! Elder Clowers and Elder Orth are both getting transferred and they are not bringing in any new missionaries in Albany for a bit. We have loved serving with Elder Clowers and Elder Orth. Elder Clowers has spent the last 4 months with us and has become like one of our own kids. He will be going to Nollamara to serve the people there. Elder Clowers is a great teacher and will do great things in Nollamara. Elder Orth is a technology wiz. He will be going to the Success area in Jandakot and serve as the district leader there. Great things are coming his way. We have loved serving with these awesome missionaries and wish them the best. Many sad goodbyes were rendered.

We will miss our card games on p-day

It is finally getting warm in Albany and the weather is beautiful. Summer is finally here and we LOVE it!! The flowers are blooming and there are lots of butterflies in the air.

Thanksgiving is not an Australian holiday but we are lucky to have our Branch President as an American, so he invited us over to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family and friends. We had a great time. As usual there was lots and lots of great food and we ate too much. I was finally able to get a picture of our new (since August) Branch Presidency.

President Mat Thorn, Matt Winter, Alvin Villanueva

Today we watched our last cruise ship come into port before we go home. It is one of my favorite things to do. It always amazes me how massive they are going through the passage into port. Dave always makes fun of me wanting to watch it AGAIN, but he is great about humoring me to go watch it. We will miss living on the ocean and getting to see all these amazing sites.

The Elders flat sold and the new people are moving in so we have no missionary housing available in Albany. We cleaned the flat and loaded all their furniture into their living room and then the Assistants to the President came down and helped us move all their furniture into our garage until we can find a new flat. Hopefully we will find new housing soon so we can bring missionaries back in. It is sad and lonely without young missionaries. It was a huge job and we are glad to have it behind us. Unfortunately, it is probably practice for what we have ahead of us when we get home. We sure appreciated the muscles of Elder Mecham (Idano) and Elder Starr (Sacramento, California)!

Elder Starr and Elder Mecham

Our next blog will wind up our time here in Western Australia, our farewell Zone Conference, the long 38-hour trip home (wish us luck), and the welcome reception by our family and friends……We love you all, see you on the other side of the world.