Zone Conference.

Since our Marion Zone South covers too large of an area to drive to (it would be a swim for Kangaroo island Elders :-) we had zone conference via phone from Mt. Barker yesterday. The other 4 Mount Gambier missionaries came to listen at our flat since we have padded chairs around our dining table and I promised chili dogs and chocolate cake for lunch.

We listened to President Carter teach about MMLs (member missionary lessons) and then did role playing in our small groups for 45 minutes before lunch. He is an extremely gifted speaker, one who encourages, uplifts, and motivates. I noticed he laughs often, even when we couldn't quite hear what they were laughing about. By the end of the meeting at 4:00, I found my neck and shoulders were stiff and sore from the very concentrated effort to listen carefully.

HIGHLIGHTS:

-Utilize the Atonement and the sacrament every week. Pres Carter uses the bread and prayer for accountability...how am I doing, where can I improve....He uses the water and prayer for gratitude.

-The biggest threat to Zion is CONTENTION, whether in the home, the ward, the mission, the companionship, etc. Internal apostasy destroyed the church along with the death of the Apostles. The greatest threat to the Nephites were the Nephites, not the Laminates as illustrated in Mosiah 27:13.

-See Alma 13:24..... We may be 'Angels' to someone.

-How do we CHANGE learning/knowing TO doing /becoming? 

Wisdom is taking knowledge and applying it.

-The 'Hastening' is not only increasing the number of missionaries sharing the GOOD NEWS but is also Heavenly Father preparing hearts to receive it!

-Teach members to pray everyday for missionary moments.

The afternoon session focused on working with ward councils, with a ward mission leader from Mt. Barker as the guest speaker. He is a Nethercott related to Nethercotts in Mt. Gambier....maybe one of our Bishop's sons?

It was a good, long day, with teachings to ponder and apply as we go about our work. We feel blessed!

Pictures.

Talk about sticker shock!

John and Jean from our Kingston trip.

High door knobs on the doors, as mentioned before.

Tea with Ben & Kiowa.

We were invited to tea (dinner) and Family Home Evening at Ben and Kiowa's Monday night. Ben made garlic/butter/cream sauce with shrimp over rice, a salad, and garlic toast for dinner, and we had a slightly different version of pavlova for dessert. It was a 10!

After dinner, for family home evening, Kiowa had us all sing Hymn 232, HAVE I DONE ANY GOOD IN THE WORLD TODAY. We looked up and read aloud the scriptural references listed at the bottom of the page and discussed the wonderful daily efforts of family members and how we could all improve our 'doing good.'

Afterward we played some 'Minute To Win It' games as planned by their 9 1/2 year old son. It was great fun and we appreciate being invited!

I didn't remember to take pictures of the pavlova until it was 1/2 eaten.....sorry.  But here's a picture of their family.

Tiri-jai, Tyson, Jaden, Kiowa (Mom), Callum, Ben (Dad) and picture of Winona, who was working.

The Birds, Part 2.

With the road trip and rainy stormy days last week, today was the first chance we've had to walk again since the bird bombing mentioned in a previous post. FYI, Sunday, Monday and today have been beautiful and dry!

Anyway, I asked Lee to forgo wearing his bright orange walking hat this morning just in case the bird brothers were waiting for us outside the front door. IT DIDN'T HELP!.....as soon as we started down toward the first stairs I heard his "voice" (squawk) and he took his first pass! Lee looked at me in shock and said " I guess he really IS after us!"

The crazy bird dove at us 3-4 more times as we ascended to the street level and by now my heart is pounding! The bird must be territorial because once we are down all the stairs and off of the front of the property, he loses interest. But I'm already worrying about our return route.

So we fooled the dumb birds by walking up an alternate roadway which runs between the lake and the back of our building, and crawled under a locked gate, and then snuck in the back door!! We're safe until tomorrow!

Pavlova.

We were invited to Sunday tea with Bec (and extended family) at Phil and Lisa's home,  where we experienced an Australian favorite. It's called Pavlova (I hope I am spelling that correctly).
 

It has the look of a fruit pizza (of course I didn't think to take a picture so you could drool too).
It has a meringue base, with a whipped cream layer, and sliced bananas, kiwi, and strawberries.  Then on the top, was drizzled passion fruit! YUM! Lee liked the dessert but I LOVED IT!

I'd never seen a passion fruit before. It is the size of a kiwi, but has skin like an avocado. The more shriveled the better, or so we were told. You cut the top off, and scrape the orange liquid innards out and it is so tart and good, and the smell is fabulous! (Don't CHEW the little black seeds as they can be bitter, you just swallow them.)

Hopefully we can send a picture soon!

Highs and Lows...Week 7.

Lee's low: Not finding ALL of the 13 families on our road trip.

Lee's high:  Meeting John and Jean in Kingston.

Patty's low:  Dodging the bird (see Tuesdays post)

Patty's high:  Pavlova!! (see next post)

Pictures.

These are some of the people we've gotten to know here in Mount Gambier.

This is the bishop and his wife, Kay

This is Phil and Lisa.  Lisa is the bishop's sister.

This is Bec, along with her kids Georgia and Elijah.  Bec is the niece of Lisa and the bishop.

This is Adam and Eve.  Adam is the son of Phil and Lisa.

Please, Please, Please.

This message is to our beautiful grandchildren AND their parents:

As I walked into ward council last Sunday morning the Bishop asked me " Sister, do you play the piano?" in a hugely hopeful tone. I regrettably answered, " No, I'm sorry, I don't."

This same situation has arisen several times in the last 7 weeks at the MTC, and here in Australia both. How I wish my mom had stood firm when I complained about practicing! How I wish I had just practiced and learned a skill and talent that would serve me and the church so well!

So here's the point of the post:

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PARENTS HELP/REQUIRE YOUR KIDS TO PRACTICE THE PIANO!

KIDS KIDS KIDS PLEASE PRACTICE PIANO, EVEN THOUGH YOU DON'T WANT TO!

Neither of you will be sorry for sticking to it, THIS I PROMISE!

What a wonderful way to be able to contribute to the Spirit of a church meeting by playing hymns of praise to the Savior, no matter where you live or serve and no matter how old you are.

Love, MIMI 

Road Trip.

We've been on a two day road trip. Armed with a list of 13 ward members to locate/confirm/visit and the GPS, we left Wednesday morning and traveled almost 500 k or 312.5 total miles. Of course, the weather was terrible, but the miles and miles and miles of vastness were beautiful, as was the ocean's green color at Beachport. We saw millions of sheep and cattle along the way and a few horses.

I may have mentioned that driving on the right side of the car on the left side of the road has been difficult to master for my chauffeur (Lee does all of the driving- I COULD drive but no need if we are always together), but add in very narrow lanes, rain and windy conditions, oncoming log trucks, in addition to poor or no road signs or house numbers, and  you have a better feel for the adjustment he's made. We were both thankful to get back to Mount Gambier today around 3:00 pm.

Our "finding" success was limited.....we had a couple of very tender mercies though. As we were driving down a long limestone (think miles and miles of packed gravel, not paved ) road out in the middle of nowhere, looking for an address, with no help from GPS, we passed a station wagon pulled to the side of the road. Shortly afterward, we pulled over to check our map and address. Then the same (and only other car we saw) car pulls up beside us and the driver rolls down her window to ask who we are looking for? Turns out she is the mail carrier and told us she could drive us right to it and to follow her. Really? What were the chances we would find the one person who would know where a particular family with only a section number for an address lived, down a very looooooooong, and I mean, LONG desolate road?

As Lee was checking out of the motel Thursday morning in Robe, he was asking questions at the desk about our next stop several kilometers down the road. The guy checked the map for Longbottom Lane. He'd never heard of the road or the family name so then he went into the back office to bring out a local girl who lives out near Longbottom Lane and she drew a map right to it! We were blessed in both instances, for without those two people who were in the right place at the right time, we would STILL be looking for the remote addresses.

There are information centers in most every town and those people were helpful today also.

We stopped for the night by 4:30 (it gets dark by 5:15 and we don't want to drive after dark because although we want to see a kangaroo, we don't want to see it on our windshield :-))

Robe is a beach town and we didn't realize it's mostly closed for winter. We hadn't had lunch and now it was dinner time. Some people (especially me) were starving and getting grumpy and we couldn't find anyplace open to eat...we finally stopped at IGA and bought crackers, ham, and laughing cow cheese and ate it without utensils for dinner and breakfast, along with apples, nuts, and cookies we had in the car. Yum Yum!

Anyway, the highlight of the trip was visiting some members in Kingston. We called ahead to arrange our meeting and they were absolutely wonderful! Their family is long grown and gone, and John and Jean have built their dream home overlooking the ocean. It's remote, and rough, and requires lots of hard work, but they seem happy there. He was kind enough to help us locate another address in the town and he called later in the evening to insure we made it to our stopping point for the day. We invited them to Mount Gambier Ward Conference Sept. 21 and 22 and left invitations at other members homes along the way. From Kingston, it's 97.5 miles to attend church in Mount Gambier. The stake building is in Adelaide approximately 271 miles from here. This information should make it difficult to murmur about minor distances we encounter in the US, huh?

Today, we are back to our regular duties. I can hear the wind and rain howling outside but we must get to it. Until next time......

Are You Serious?!

You won't believe what happened to us today!!!

By 8:00 am this morning it looked like we were going to have some time to walk in between rain showers, so we dressed in our usual walking clothes and headed out the front door of the building. As we started out across the parking lot, I felt/saw/heard a bird dive bombing my way. I screamed, waved my arms (jerked my neck off) and told Lee "that bird just tried to take my head off." Lee looked doubtful, poo-pooed the idea, and laughed, even after the 2nd and 3rd pass just inches from my brain! By that time we were down the two flights of walkway stairs to the street level and the bird just watched us departing the premises. Lee was still laughing! Grrrrrrrrr!

We walked our usual route and 35 minutes later approach our building, but I'm on the lookout. We get to the top of the first level of stairs and I can see that crazy bird AND his brother waiting for us. I pointed them out to the scoffer, and about that time they both head for us again. If anyone was watching they saw a crazy woman running toward the building screaming at two crazy diving birds, and a crazier man still questioning if they were trying to get US??
ARE YOU SERIOUS?

The question is, were they after ME or Lee's orange OSU hat? And, will they be waiting for us tomorrow morning?

Highs and Lows, Week 6.

Lee's High: 

Offering a Priesthood blessing to someone who really needed one and she was SO appreciative afterward!
 

Lee's Low:  

Windy, wet Oregon like weather... Miserable to work in!

 

 

Patty's High:

  The brief sunny patches during the windy, wet Oregon like weather
 

 Patty's Low:  

The observation that the extreme difficulties people face could be alleviated by following the Savior and them NOT realizing that fact.

A Windy and Wet Week.

We are thankful for a beautiful sunny, though terribly windy, day here in Mount Gambier, South Australia! Can you believe we are across the world from you as you sit there reading this post? It boggles my mind too!

Sacrament meeting last Sunday was inspiring. The congregation was small but the Spirit was very strong as we partook of the sacrament and listened to three talks. One sister spoke beautifully on HOPE and though I don't know her well, I know her circumstances are difficult. The message was from the heart as she taught us about "enduring to the end" (following Christ, utilizing the Atonement, obeying the commandments with steadfastness, being charitable etc) with HOPE.

Building on the sure foundation of the Savior, or the ROCK, was the topic of another message, as taken from the conference issue of the Ensign. I appreciated the examples of " blueprints" that we should follow and the reminder to have balance in our lives while trying to accomplish all that is required of us.

The Bishop's daughter, Erin, was visiting from out of town and in her talk she shared the words of a favorite song...the phrase most referred to was "START WHERE YOU ARE" and her message was encouraging, hopeful, positive, and uplifting! No matter where you are on the path, just make sure you ARE ON the path, turn toward the Savior, and do the best you can every day. Don't measure, or compare, or judge yourself or others harshly. START WHERE YOU ARE to live a life of discipleship. Have faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repent, be baptized or renew baptismal and other covenants, receive the comfort and guidance of the Holy Ghost, and as mentioned above, endure (action word) to the end.

We feel blessed for our attendance every week at Sacrament meeting and count it as one of the most tender mercies.

The day progressed from totally blue sky this morning while on our walk to totally torrential gusty rainy blasts this afternoon. It's miserable and cold, and we especially notice the wind in our apartment building. We are living in one of 28 flats in a renovated nursing home at the southern most edge of Mt Gambier....on a high ridge backed right up to the Valley Lake, which is next to Blue Lake. (you should Google Blue Lake, Mount Gambier, South Australia and read all about it. At this time of year it is a deep turquoise blue and changes color later on.) Anyway, if the wind is blowing at all, it howls on this hill and I hear it all night long! And I thought Riverton was windy!

Close up view of house.  They are built on a slab, instead of a foundation.

View of the same house further away.  We think it makes the houses look shorter.

Palm trees grow here.

We have no idea what this is or what its for, but saw it on our walk.

Its the middle of winter here, and yet this tree is loaded with fruit.

Pictures.

Here is another round of pictures:

Our apartment building.  We are the 3rd row down, on the far left.

 The bathroom.

The dining room.

The kitchen.

The living room.

Sour cream comes in a container like milk.

Washer/dryer.

View from the dining room.

Instead of stop signs, it is mostly Give Way signs.

Australian Footie goal posts.  You get 6 points if you get it in the center of two posts, one point in out set of goal posts or if it hits a post.

Here are some of the different walls (see previous post) that surround homes here:

Observations.

*Please notice there are several new blog posts below.*

Here are some interesting observations about Australia with pictures when possible.

The door handles are much higher on entry doors of homes (approximately shoulder high) than we are accustomed to in America (waist high ). Not sure why yet.

It is common for there to be a solid fence or wall around the front yard of most homes in town.

Electrical plugs and light switches look different...and have different voltage, 220 to our 110.
I fried my flat iron the first day so bought an Australian hair dryer and flat iron as well as hair clippers for cutting Lee's hair.

For those of you with inquiring minds, the toilets flush with water going the opposite direction from what you see in the US.  I can't believe I even noticed such a thing! Also the toilet flushing handles are interesting.

We are Tillamook cheese snobs....it comes from having lived in Oregon all of our lives, near the cheese making factory, and it's the BEST without discussion. Australian Cheddar cheese is whiter with different flavor and consistency. We miss Tillamook cheese!

The mission presidents wife warned us that nothing in the grocery store is what you are used to, and its true. We can find everything we need, but it looks and tastes a bit different. I made our family favorite Lemon Jello Cake and though it was good and pretty close to how it turns out at home, it wasn't exactly the same. Still got rave reviews from the missionaries we had come over for dinner 

 The 6 missionaries serving in Mount Gambier

 The Blue Lake Elders

Elder Woodfield from Texas and Elder Paulo from Samoa

 The Mount Gambier Elders

Elder Reese from Morgan, Utah and Elder Dos Santos from Queensland

Wood burning stoves are more common here than in Utah, much like it is in Oregon. I love smelling the wood smoke from chimneys (weird I know!) and we love warming up by wood stoves in Australian homes. A red hard wood is the best wood to burn and is readily available in outlying areas.

There are lots of Mitsubishi automobiles in Australia as well as Toyota, Hyundai, and Mercedes. Most people drive smaller cars because of fuel costs, but there are smaller SUV types. I see several a day that look like Kacey and Dave's Montero. There aren't many vans here and no Tahoe or Suburban size vehicles that are so common in Utah.

There are 3 wood mills in Mount Gambier and we see several loaded log trucks every day, reminiscent of the old days living in Molalla.

Instead of saying " How are you doing?" Or " How is it going?" we are greeted with " How are you going?" "No worries" is a common phrase which we have picked up already. As I mentioned previously, "tea" is dinner and " fortnight" is two weeks. Napkins are "serviettes" and we have been offered "ginger beer" which is similar to ginger ale. Pumpkin or squash is used often at dinner...as a side dish and in salads. Roasted potatoes are a staple and taste yummy!

More observations upcoming...........

Highs and Lows, Week 5.

Lee's low:   lamb cakes
Lee's high: tea (dinner) w Bec and family

Patty's low:   lamb cakes
Patty's high: watching Stephanie change as she learns more about following Jesus Christ (it's visible)

It Finally Happened...

Monday was another very rainy, wintery cold day in Mount Gambier. It's so easy to be fooled here...one moment it's sunny with only a slight biting breeze and the next moment it's pouring rain in sheets. We are so thankful to have good raincoats when needed and thankful for the few sun breaks when they occur.

We are trying to walk regularly, but we don't go when it's raining. So with the weather described above, we haven't been very often. Winter will soon give way to spring and hopefully we can increase how often and how far we walk.

Our daily schedule goes like this, with minor adjustments when necessary. We wake, walk, Skype to keep in touch with our beautiful family, eat breakfast, get showered and dressed, read scriptures, study from Preach My Gospel Book or the Blue Missionary Book, plan for the day, and go and find. We come home for lunch and have dinner here too in between everything else. We meet with the other missionary companionships when invited to their appointments teaching investigators. Several families have asked us to "tea" which is dinner.

We enjoy meeting all kinds of people from all kinds of circumstances and never get tired of hearing their personal stories.  Most people so far are native South Australians but we have met New Zealanders, Italians, Dutch, and some are from other Australian states, like Queensland and Victoria.

Everything seems expensive in Australia. Unleaded fuel is 1.56 per liter (or 5.96 per gallon) and the minimum wage is over 18.00 per hour. The exchange rate on the Australian dollar is about the same as the American dollar at this time. We miscalculated and misspoke when discussing the cost of mince or hamburger by the pound...so here is the correct info: 1 pound = .45 kilograms so the 5.00 per kilogram price for hamburger we discussed would be 2.2 pounds of meat for 5.00 which is comparable to the price at home. The meat looks leaner here FYI .

Our first 'food' story happened yesterday. We were served lamb cakes...it was muffin shaped with a sweet firm base of....I have no idea what.....topped with stringy cooked lamb meat. Lee is much less adventuresome food-wise than I am, but I must admit that his horror was totally justified in this instance. It was beyond gross and after one bite, I didn't know what to do with the remaining portion. Thankfully (another beautiful tender mercy) the host's attention was distracted by a repairman at the door so we were able to put the dishes by the sink and the uneaten portions wouldn't be noticed until we were long gone. Thankfully I knew enough to request only a small portion so as not to be wasteful.

Weekly, we have district or zone meetings at the church, where we have training, study, and practice by role playing. Last week district meeting was held at our church building and Kangaroo Island missionaries attended by phone. This week we were on the phone and they held the meeting there.

After zone meeting yesterday, Elder Dos Santos from Queensland and Elder Reese from Morgan, Utah and Lee and I went to meet and teach members in outlying areas. There are various sized villages miles apart with nothing but pastureland, sheep, or cattle in between an occasional house. We drove almost 300k there and back and I was praying the whole way home in the dark that we wouldn't hit a kangaroo. We never saw even one live kangaroo, thankfully.
Another tender mercy for sure as it is common at dusk in the forest for kangaroos to jump onto the highway just as deer do at home.

We grabbed Mackers, which is McDonald's, for dinner when we got back to Mount Gambier, and then rushed to a weekly scripture study class, before falling into bed by 8:45. After the stress and tension of the dark drive home and the long day's schedule, I was asleep before amen to our prayers :-)

When we got home today, I made 'dad's casserole' for dinner and Lee said it was the best meal we've had since we left for the MTC July 8! Even though we enjoy eating with ward members here, the menu cannot be compared to comfort food from home. In case you are wondering...it's pre-boiled potato, carrot, onion, and celery chunks with cooked hamburger ( they call it mince in Australia ) in cream of mushroom soup sauce, baked after assembly. It really hit the spot, hot and flavorful! When young, our kids never cared for the dish, but Lee loved it, so they named it dad's casserole.

What's funny is some of the kids now serve it to their own families.

Life in Mount Gambier.

Our first week in Mount Gambier has been eventful. We've had several appointments with the young missionary companionships, where they are teaching investigators. I'm in awe to hear the missionaries explain the GOOD NEWS of the gospel so beautifully!

We've had some really chilly, but party sunny days and we've also had some pouring down Oregon type rainy days. It's been an adjustment to wear dress clothes all day, every day in such weather.

As is mentioned in last weeks highs and lows, fast and testimony meeting was remarkable! I love the fact that no matter where in the world you attend this meeting, whether in Mesa, Arizona, Bay City, Oregon, Utah or Mt Gambier Australia, the feeling is the same! Members come fasting, and share their testimonies that uplift and inspire. ( another tender mercy!)

Lee's Australian driving is improving :-)

We have been invited to ward members homes for dinner, and have enjoyed pasta bake, roasted potatoes, turkey or chicken and roast beef.  All six of the missionaries (4
Elders and the two of us) were invited to the Bishop's house tonight for dinner and Family Home Evening.

The bishop's wife taught the lesson on the 10 commandments and I'll try to remember its content here. She had each commandment in text printed, mounted, and laminated and asked one of the elders to put them in the correct order. We all had suggestions but even with all of our input, we didn't get it totally correct.Then she showed us colored pictures of:

The number 1  

Meaning one God 

(thou shalt have no other Gods before me)

The number 2

 in the shape of a swan, colored gold 

(thou shalt have no graven images)

The number 3

 tilted left and colored to look like McDonald's arches to remind you that should not swear in public place like McDonald's 

(thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain)

The number 4

 in the shape of a boat with a sail 

(keep the Sabbath day holy)

The number 5 

was a stick person drawing with a woman's head at the top and the round part of the 5 shaped like her pregnant tummy

(honor thy father and mother)

The number 6 

shaped like a cherry bomb 

(thou shalt not kill)

The number 7 

was a tribal boomerang with the explanation that some aboriginal tribes kill adulterers with a boomerang (thou shalt not commit adultery)

The number 8 

was a black Zorro robber type mask 

(thou shalt not steal)

The number 9 

was a Koala crawling up the straight side of the 9, and she said koalas are NOT bears 

(thou shalt not bear false witness)

The number 10 

was a beautiful place setting of dishes, the plate was the zero and a utensil was the one 

( thou shalt not covet)

She then mixed up the text commandments and had us try again as a group to put the commandments in order and we were able to do it pretty easily. Very clever way to help us remember and now you can remember too! I'll try to send pictures if I can.

Highs and Lows, Week 4

 Lee's low was not going to local nature park on p-day as planned because of torrential rain

 (we are dying to see a kangaroo).
His high was being invited to ward members house for dinner and hearing their personal stories.


Patty's low was resisting discouragement with no show appointments or people not being home.
         The high was Mount Gambier ward fast and testimony meeting on Sunday...small in numbers but BIG in Spirit!

Pictures.

Here are some pictures we took this week:

Kangaroo meat at the grocery store.

Leaf lettuce always has the roots on it.

South Australia (one of 5 states) license plate.

The mail carrier rides a bike across lawn to next lawn approximately
6-10 ft from street to deliver mail. Papa would have a heart attack!!