Transfer #4

April 13 – 19th

I can’t believe this is already our 4th transfer! A “transfer” is 6 weeks long. Every 6 weeks the mission leaders prayerfully determine if companionships should stay together or be moved to another location, with a different companion! I can only imagine the pondering and prayers that go into transfers – with about 250 missionaries! The whole mission anxiously awaits for the Saturday night before transfers, when the AP’s and some zone leaders share the transfer news via Zoom. Previous to our mission, I didn’t realize how hard transfers could be! Eric and I fall in love with the missionaries in our district (and zone, too!) so it’s hard to say “good bye” to the elders and sisters we have grown close to as they leave for different parts of the mission. Some transfer to one of the 6 zones we teach for Preventative Mental Health (Emotional Literacy), so we know we’ll still see them at the training and at mission zone conferences where multiple zones meet together.. Some transfer far away in the mission so we may not ever see them again. Some missionaries “die” in our district, meaning they complete their mission and go home. That also is bittersweet – we’re super happy for them to complete their mission and return home to their families, but we know we’ll miss them and HOPE they’ll come see us in Arizona later (or we go visit them)! We’re expecting a lot of marriage invites in the next few years!. Of course, I’m sure there are companionships who are EXCITED for transfers – to see a new area, have a new companion, and love/teach/serve new people! Fortunately, senior missionaries rarely get “transferred” and if they WERE needed somewhere else in the mission, it wouldn’t come as a “Saturday night Zoom surprise” as it does for the junior missionaries. I’m sure President and Sister Doane would talk to the senior couple about any change, which would most likely be to fulfill a specific need in an area. Well, that’s what we hope…!

Here’s what the week looked like:

Monday

Usually we write our “letter” for the blog but we have fallen behind on this lately! We talked to our kids/grandkids, checked in with our family regarding my step dad, Dave’s, recovery process and prepared for the week. This week he is being transferred to a skilled nursing facility in Goodyear, AZ (they have a second home there). There were no available facilities in his area in NM that could take him! So, he’ll have to be driven via van from Santa Fe to Goodyear – about an 8 hour car ride – in his physically fragile condition. We pray that the trip will not be unbearable for him. My mom will fly from Albuquerque to Phoenix and meet his at the nursing facility. He’ll be there a couple weeks to continue to recover and receive physical therapy. We did have one last district council with our transferring missionaries. We held it earlier than usual because we had a special zone FHE with President and Sister Doane – which included dinner and games!

Tuesday

Transfer Day – This morning we took missionary luggage to the Balkham Hills church building (where transfers are), and picked up the luggage of our two new sisters – SIster Lui and SIster Rowe. We then headed for lunch at our favorite cafe close to the temple – Clover Cafe. Next we dropped off the sister’s luggage at their new apartment, then helped two of our elders move to our “sister” district, Summer Hill ward. After all the back and forth, we headed BACK to the temple area (Carlingford) to take a new senior couple out to eat. When a new senior couple flies in, the missionaries in the city area sign up to take them out to eat for their meals the first two days. It’s been fun to take a few couples out as soon as they arrive and get to know them! We take them to the same spot the Delpais took us on our first night here in Australia – Betty’s Burgers – which is pretty much like an American hamburger with fries and the option for a soda or a “thick” shake. Don’t let the advertising fool you – there is NO SUCH THING as a thick shake in Sydney! More like chocolate milk…

Wednesday

Today Eric and I headed BACK to Carlingford (can be 40 minutes to 1 hour drive) to attend a “Leavers” Career Coach panel. Once a transfer, the missionaries who are going home go to the mission office for a couple days before their flight to attend the temple and have some “next adventure” coaching, including career planning. This actually takes place up to 6 months before the missionary leaves to help them apply for college, training, etc. Eric and I are just starting to be career coaches so we’ll be assigned to missionaries who we will check in regularly and help them with paperwork, etc. I’m excited to receive more training on this!

For this “leavers” training, I was invited to share my career path story along with 3 other seniors – a doctor, a lawyer and an international businessman. One of the missionaries leaving, Elder McCarthy (who was our awesome Assistant to the President – AP – when we first arrived) told me that he was planning a similar career path as me, but wanted to eventually be a state superintendent of schools. We agreed to stay in touch so I could provide any support and assistance needed. He’s an incredible elder and I know he will be greatly missed. Interestingly enough, his original mission assignment was to Spain, but his visa didn’t come through. If it doesn’t come through within X amount of time, the missionary is reassigned to another mission, usually the one they’re already serving in. Elder McCarthy was already serving here, visa waiting, so he was officially reassigned to the Australian Sydney Mission. What a blessing for the ASM!

Thursday

After struggling with our Australian I-phone we bought when we first arrived (we couldn’t figure out the Android the mission gave us right away, and as everything was NEW, so we gave back the Android and purchased a used Iphone from a store in the mall, thinking it would be easier for us to communicate with everyone – ha ha! Thankfully the used phone had a year warranty! After 4 months of off and on service, not being able to receive calls, and not being able to use the GPS on it, we finally took the phone to the Apple Store and found out that it did have a “connectivity” issue (we’d already had the tech elders work with it a few times and deemed the problem wasn’t with the SIM card). We took the Apple store diagnostic report and returned it to the store. They gave us a “new” phone, which is actually working great (it did take 3 hours of us waiting around to transfer the data from one phone to the other – ugh!)! I DO NOT KNOW why we waited so long but at least it’s done – and now our “new” phone has another 1 year warranty!

After our lengthy stay at the mall, we headed to the mission office to pick up our two new “golden’s” suitcases – Elder Suico (from the Phillipines) and Sister Nichols (from St. George, Utah). Both were actually visa waiting, serving in the Philippines and in Los Angeles, so they had already been missionaries for 3 months (so not TRUE “goldens”). We were excited to meet them and have them join our AMAZING district!

Friday

The past two weeks the kids have had off school for their Easter break! Today was the last day of the break so we planned a ½ day Young Women’s outing. We first went to circular quay to start our adventure off with Yo-Chi (everyone’s favorite frozen yogurt!), then we took the ferry to Manly Beach. We tried to play a couple “get to know you” games on the ferry but sometimes it’s just fun to look out and see the passing sailboats, tiny islands, and the gorgeous houses on the shore! Once there we enjoyed the beautiful weather, the sights and sounds of the beach and I even convinced the girls to get their feet wet! The YW advisor who was to accompany us had to back out at the last minute so Eric got to be my YW advisor for the day. Fortunately, the girls love Elder Helland and were happy to have him join us! Next we let the girls pick where they wanted lunch – kebabs on the Manly Beach Promenade. Eric and the girls ended up getting Kebab “Snack Packs” – which is just the Kebab innards on top of a bed of french fries (chips). Both girls are very quiet but it was nice to see them talking and laughing with each other on the ferry ride home! 🙂 That night we made treats – chocolate/peanut butter no-bakes and rice krispy treats – for our senior outing the next day.

Saturday

Once a month we have a group senior missionary outing. This month was our month to plan the outing! We had previously seen an outdoor play in the botanical gardens by this Australian Shakespeare group – which was super entertaining, engaging and whimsical, so we thought we’d go see another play – Alice in Wonderland. This one seemed to be even more geared to young children (there was a HUGE crowd on the grass) but it was still enjoyable! I had worn a sweater as the weather was supposed to be in the mid 60’s but as we sat in the direct sun, we all started heating up during the play! Eventually I had to move to the shade, which was PERFECT! Eric and I got to be impromptu “card” characters in the play (as were many of our other senior friends), marching around and letting all the kids (who were supposed to be caterpillars” crawl through our legs). The children seemed to thoroughly enjoy the play! I hope one by the same group is playing when our own grandchildren come to visit!

After the play we had a picnic lunch together in the gorgeous botanical gardens only to have a kookaburra bird dive bomb Eric and I. First, he flew between our heads and tried to snatch Eric’s hamburger. These are pretty big/fat birds so it was shocking to have it dive between us. The bird then retreated to the tree we were sitting under. Before we knew it, he dove toward my head, trying to get my salad I was eating! After this happened one more time, I picked up my food and went to sit away from the trees! The bird actually swiped my forehead both times. It really freaked me out! Note to self – do not eat food close to birds – especially kookaburras. Funny thing, this was the first kookaburra we had seen on the mission. We heard one squawking one night. It was SO LOUD and seriously sounded like a monkey in the jungle. Sadly, this kookaburra made no sound – just attempted to steal our food! After the outing, we went home for a NAP! Eric went to Costco later while I worked on hemming a dress.

Sunday

Typical Sabbath day – prepare for church, attend/teach at church, Linger Longer (snacks and mingling after church), then dinner with the missionaries! 🤩

I know that my Redeemer lives! What comfort that sweet sentence gives!