June 1- June 7
I can’t believe it’s already transfer #5! As of June 1, we’ve been on a mission for 6 months! June 10 will be 6 months living in Australia! Some months feel like 6 months and some weeks it FLIES by! 🙂Here’s what our week looked like:
Monday –
Because the weekend was SOOOO busy, we decided that we would make Elder Latu’s last dinner at district council. Before a missionary from our area goes home – or in this case, leaves for a different mission, we make them a special dinner before they go. Elder Latu has been with us the whole time we’ve been on the mission! We came out as “goldens” together. He was “visa waiting” to serve in Zimbabwe but after about 5 months, he thought he’d probably just be staying in the ASM for the duration of his mission. About a month ago he found out his visa finally cleared so he’d be going to Zimbabwe after all. We love all the awesome missionaries we serve with but I will say, serving with Elder Latu for over 6 months made him extra special! Definitely a special “son” missionary we will miss and never forget! 🙂I know, I sound like Helaman – but I get him loving his “sons.” And we love our missionary daughters, too! We are TRULY blessed!
For the dinner, we ended up taking all the food, bowls and tools to the church building to make dinner for two districts (we both use the chapel for district council). Elder Latu had told us his favorite meal his mom makes him is butter chicken. I had previously looked up some recipes in anticipation of making it for him, but I also found it in the deli at Costco…! So, 4 big buckets of Butter Chicken later – along with rice, salad, nan bread, hummus and dessert – we fed about 20 people! We also brought gifts for all the missionaries from both districts who would be transferred – a pair of Aussie missionary socks and a $10 gift card to Yo-Chi gift card – their favorite frozen yogurt chain (OK, we did buy Elder Latu a Sydney Roosters jersey as a going away gift…). After district council and mega meal clean up, Eric and I headed to the mission office in Carlingford to pick up a van for transfers (we’ll be helping move A LOT of luggage this time!).
Tuesday –
Today was transfer day! I usually go with Eric to the transfer building – for the drive and to say hello to all the junior missionaries and our senior couple friends from the office. Today Eric was driving a cargo van that only had two seats. Since he had to pick up an elder from the church building to bring him back our way, I had to stay home. On the way to the church, Eric picked up luggage from 2 different flats to take to transfers. Once at the church, the AP’s completely FILLED UP the cargo van with luggage and Elder Latu. The plan was that Eric would come back to Haymarket, park the van at the church parking lot, and both he and I would drive Elder Latu to the airport in our car. While waiting for Eric I ordered myself lunch and walked over to the World Market (the mall/grocery store closest to us) to pick it up. I made sure I had my keys, badge and elevator card before I left the house (I’ve been through this before, I’m no dummy!). However, upon returning, I realized Eric had separated his keys so I only had the keys to the car and NOT the keys to the apartment (I did have a set in my purse…which I left in the apartment). So, instead of eating in the lobby or in the 6th floor basement dungeon, I got in my car, drove to the closest parking lot I knew of where I could just sit and eat my lunch and enjoyed my meal overlooking Bondi Beach. Unfortunately, Eric also arrived when I was away and was in a hurry so I missed driving to the airport with he and Elder Latu. I did get to say good-bye to him on the phone!
After the emotional airport drop off (yes, Eric got teary eyed), Eric started the laborious job of dropping off the “new” missionary’s luggage at 4 different flats. He didn’t finish until about 8:30 PM! Whew – what a day!
This is close to Eric day.
Wednesday –
This morning I drove myself to Parramatta for my hair appointment. Eric was going out with the missionaries for a lesson so I went by myself to the Parramatta Fairfield mall, where my Aussie hair place is. As soon as I headed out I realized I hadn’t driven that far without someone else helping me navigate. I’ve driven to the temple – so I know the tricks around the road construction on the freeway, but this was a route I hadn’t driven solo. Because of the MANY long tunnels in town (and some dead zones!) GPS often goes out as you’re driving about. That’s never good when you’re in a tunnel with forks and exits every which way and you really DON’T know where you’re going!!! After my 3 hour hair appointment – color, cut and blow dry (I don’t know WHY it takes so long – I may need to find a new hair place!!) I picked up lunch in the mall and took it to the car to eat. I think the anxiety had gotten the best of me – from the drive and sitting in the chair SO LONG! By the time I got home (safely, thank goodness!) I decided NOT to drive through tunnels without a passenger navigator again! 🙂 It also made me grateful for Eric’s awesome driving around (and out of!) the city!
Thursday –
I’m catching up on a MONTH of late posts so frankly, we can’t remember what happened this day! Ha ha!
Friday –
Today was Eric’s birthday! Woo Hoo! His last year in his 50’s! In the morning I picked up the sister missionaries to visit Ruiyi at the hospital. Her dad was back in town and joined us for the lesson. After the lesson, I picked up Eric for a Costco run in preparation for our company coming in tomorrow and for the weekend. On the way, we stopped at an Outback Steakhouse in the Bakehouse quarter – which was a cute part of town. Eric was craving an “awesome blossom” but upon entering the restaurant, we were the only ones in there! We couldn’t even find the hostess – ha ha! It was a super cute restaurant – with NO Outback Steakhouse signage. I got the feeling the restaurant was breaking ties with Outback because the menu had the same items but with different names. Obviously, the restaurant wasn’t a favorite in the area (as no one else was there!) but we still enjoyed a delicious lunch! After Costco, we rented a carpet cleaner from the famous Bunnings “Hammer Barn.” When we moved in, the carpet in this apartment didn’t look great – stains and loose in many places, but it seems to have gotten dirtier so Eric kindly cleaned the carpets as the finale for his birthday celebration!
Saturday –
Today our friends, Julie and Leonard Pineda, flew in from Phoenix to visit us for a week before they head to Argentina next month for their 23 month senior mission as well! 🙂 Julie is my “longest” friend (at our age, saying “oldest” means something totally different – ha ha!). We were inseparable besties back in 6th and 7th grade! In junior high we actually DID call each other to ask what the other person was wearing and tried to coordinate as possible! Those were the days that we also walked about a mile to school wearing wooden high heels! Those were the best of times! 🙂
After dropping their luggage off at home, we took them on a “walk about” of the area – Paddy’s Market, Darling Harbour, Ferry ride to Circular Quay (under the bridge and the beautiful view of the Opera house), lunch overlooking the harbor then walked back on George street past the QVB, town hall and China town. Considering they had flown for more than 15 hours, we just relaxed and caught up before an early bedtime for all of us!
Sunday –
Today was church – I taught YW, Eric taught Primary and Julie and Leonard went to Sunday School. After church, Julie drove with me to take Ella home (one of my amazing YW) and she was able to see the craziness of driving around downtown Sydney’s NARROW, winding streets. I did miss a street a couple times but Julie worked hard as the navigator in residence. It was nice to have extra help as we made dinner and got ready for the missionaries. We were celebrating Eric’s birthday so Julie and Leonard were kind enough to “decorate” for us. We had bow tie pasta, salad, and garlic bread for Eric’s bday dinner – with a yummy biscotti cheese cake from Costco! 😉 After dinner the Pineda’s joined us for our Sunday ASM devotional – this is their pre-MTC training! 🙂
The Helland's Down Under 