January 25 – 31

This week was our second “transfer” since we’ve been here (we had only been in Sydney a  week or so for the first “transfer”). A “transfer” is 6 weeks long, then, after seeking the Lord’s will through prayer, the mission leadership creates new companionships throughout the mission. Some people stay in the same place and some could move up to 13 hours away (our mission covers almost the whole state of New South Wales)! As you can guess, everyone anxiously awaits to find out if they’re staying, going and if so, where and with who?

We absolutely LOVED this first group we served with – the elders from the Hyde Park Group and the sisters from the Summer Hill ward (which our group is connected to). Last week Sister Hansen and Elder Weng completed their missions and went home. Then this week many of our missionaries got transferred to new locations – Elder Spencer, Elder Moyes, Elder Curtis, and Sister Moncrief. We will miss those awesome friends but hope we can keep in touch and see them as mission wide events!

We got a few new additions to our area as well. Elder Daure and Latu (who stayed) got a 3rd in their companionship – Elder McLaren (the new district leader from Canada) and we got two new sisters in our district – Sister Thompson (from Utah) and Sister Leslie (a golden from England). In the Summer Hill ward we now have 5 sisters – Sister Rowe stayed and is with Sister Allred (a golden from Utah) and Sister Eteru stayed and is with Sister Page (from Arizona) and Sister Larisma (from the Philippines). We can already tell our district +Summer Hill are super motivated as we had about 10 visiting friends today at church! We’re excited to attend lessons with them and support them in any way needed!

Here’s what our week looked like:

Monday – Our Group Beach BBQ Party for Australia Day 

• Eric and two elders (Moyes and Spencer) went to Maroubra beach at 6:30 AM to save a spot for our congregation and friends. It was Australian Day, which is a national holiday and apparently all the beaches get very packed.
• The sister missionaries were going to pick me up (I did not want to leave that early so I stayed back to finish making picnic food. Well, I was in a hurry and cut a big chunk on my pinky finger, including half my finger nail. I called Eric to tell him so he drove home from the beach to take me to urgent care (it was a big cut and wouldn’t stop bleeding). No stitches were needed, they just wrapped it so the flap would stay down and hopefully heal…!
• After urgent care – we joined the group at the beach for yummy food, gorgeous views and the best ever company! The little girls in Eric’s primary class LOVE him – they call him grandpa and love him to play with them! He’s a primary super star!
• At 6:00 pm we had the elders over for dinner and District Council. Elder Moyes gave a wonderful lesson on the power, importance and BLESSINGS that come from obeying God’s commandments and following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. It made us remember that God didn’t give us commandments to make life “hard” for us – He gives us commandments because He loves us, He wants us to travel the path of mortality safely, to learn what we need to learn and to have JOY and PEACE in our lives. It seems so easy – why wouldn’t we WANT to follow all His commandments, follow the path the Savior set for us, draw close to the Savior and act as He would act – in thoughts, words, and actions? God is omnipotent – He knows all – the past, present and future – why wouldn’t we want to follow HIM – in all things, each day –  and not try to forge our own way, relying on “the arm of flesh” – or our own intellect and desires? I want to have more faith in and trust the God of the universe, our Heavenly Father – the Father of our Spirits, who loves each one of us more than we can fathom – and His Son, Jesus Christ – who came into mortality to show us the perfect example, to suffer and die for us, then be resurrected so we can ALL live again. I do have a testimony that as we make even just an effort to follow our Savior Jesus Christ, we will be GREATLY blessed with guidance in our lives, comfort, peace, understanding, love and JOY! We WILL still have trials, hardships, disappointments and loss – but as we follow Him – we will be guided, comforted, and healed. His way is ALWAYS the BEST way – truly, the ONLY way!

Tuesday – Transfer Day

• Eric and I were asked to pick up some luggage at the flat of two elders in our zone who were being transferred. We couldn’t believe that it took us 45 minutes to get to their flat – we must have a large zone area! Then we drove to a chapel, another hour away to drop off the elders’ luggage and pick up the luggage for two sister missionaries in our zone. It took a good chunk of the day to drive around, pick up and drop off luggage at various flats.I’m so happy that we finally reconciled with ourselves that helping, supporting, and feeding the missionaries IS missionary work – as is preparing for our Sunday lessons, weekly activities, and zone mental health trainings. Loving and serving the people in our congregation, the friends we meet from the community and those who need extra TLC is also missionary work! Realizing that – and letting it settle in – made all the difference for both of us – we already loved our mission but now we LOVE the work even more! We feel extremely blessed every day to be here in this beautiful city, with amazing and beautifully diverse people – all God’s children – learn about and from different cultures, and be able to love and serve FULL TIME! As my former teammate, Cody used to say, “Who’s got it better than us?!?!” This is definitely where God wants us to be and where we want to be at this time! 

Wednesday – Change of Plans

• Today we decided we needed to get some work done on the bathrooms that we’ve been putting off. After a trip to Bunnings (Hammerbarn for those Bluey lovers out there), Eric spent a few hours cleaning up some old mold in the caulking and grout in the bathrooms. Ewww – it’s been grossing me out to look at it in the showers! THANK YOU, Eric!!! ♥️You definitely know how to win a girl’s heart!
• While Eric was working, I was able to reach out to all the people who were baptized last year from our group and from the Summer Hill ward. I also create a spreadsheet trying to identify the people in our group (since we are a group – there’s really no specific boundaries or list of who “should” be attending. We’ve been wanting to create this so we know who is missing, who we haven’t seen in awhile, who our new friends are – so we can minister, help and support them in their various needs, and make sure everyone is has what they need to make the next step on the covenant path. President Doane (our mission President) said the goal was to make Hyde Park a branch (or a ward!) so creating a record of the “who” felt like a good place to start! 

Thursday – Young Women’s 

• We went to the mission office this morning to have Elder Sumko – the mission doctor – rewrap my pinky. The bandage from urgent care was super bulky and not water proof. When he took off the bandage, my big cut was still wide open so he put some steri strips on to try to hold the flap in place. It’s always nice to be at the Mission office and say hello to our other senior missionary friends who work there. We were able to see some of our transferred missionaries, too! 
• While we were out we bought the supplies we needed for our Young Women activity and had lunch at one of our fave spots (thank you Elder and SIster Putnam for introducing it to us), the Clover Cafe. It’s not very exciting – but I do love their open face sourdough, avocado smash with grilled chicken sandwich (ok, so it’s not very Australian! 😂).
• For the Young Women’s activity tonight we read a scripture and some quotes about how important the Book of Mormon, along with the Bible, is for us to study and help us draw closer to the Savior. We read the prophet Moroni’s beautiful promise at the end of the Book of Mormon, where he said, “
  • “Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.  And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”
•  After everyone received a brand new copy of the Book of Mormon we all painted the book covers – stealing an idea I saw my Tucson granddaughters do! They turned out so nice!I love getting to know the two amazing young women, their moms and the assistant I serve with. They are all very kind and dear daughters of God! I am soooo blessed to work with them! 

Friday – More baggage!

• Eric helped out again with baggage pick up and delivery. The new missionaries coming in (our goldens) had flight delays and cancellations so they all trickled in this week after being stranded at LAX or in Hawaii! They normally all fly in together with a welcome meeting and a whole first day experience. Not this week..! We’re just glad they all finally made it here safe and sound (but very tired!).
• While Eric was on baggage duty, I stayed back at the flat to prepare for our next Preventative Mental Health lessons we’ll start delivering next week to our 6 zones. This round we won’t need to drive to Coff’s Harbor – they’ll come to Sydney, but we do get to drive back to New Castle (only 2 hours away). The name of this lesson is “Plan Your Change.” Each lesson starts with teaching a mindfulness strategy – helping missionaries find ways to regulate their emotions and reboot their brains. Then we will learn about 1 or more emotions – learning the definitions, “family words” that we also use for that emotion, and how those emotions feel in/affect our bodies – actually drawing and labeling a figure. For this lesson we’ll teach about our emotional baseline (usually based on our personal outlook on life – but can change over time by life experiences, mood, etc.) and emotional limit (changes based on our current mood – are we energetic, is it in the morning or evening, are we tired, hungry, stressed, etc.). The space in between is called our “emotional resilience.” We will learn strategies to help when we’re getting close to our limit (or even going over). Finally, we will give the class time and resources to create plans to change something in their life that will help them draw closer to the Savior – this can be starting or stopping something. The selected change can be in any area – starting a daily exercise program, going to bed on time, lessening stress when talking to strangers, communicating openly, learning the mission language, learning to pray meaningfully, etc. I love how the lesson also talks about how “repentance” is just making a change to draw closer to the Savior – it can be to benefit our physical bodies, our mental health, our intellect or our spiritual selves. You can probably guess what my 1st plans for change are…Start going to bed by 10:30 PM, getting out of bed at 6:30 AM, making sure I have some kind of exercise (walking counts!) for 45 minutes a day and STOP eating after 6:30 pm so I don’t continue to have acid reflux issues! ☹️Oh, don’t worry – there are MANY more changes I plan to make but these are the 4 I’m going to start with! I know that how I feel physically affects my relationship with my Savior and my capacity to love and serve His children each day. I’m excited to go through this planning process with the junior missionaries- recording my progress, monitoring and adjusting my plan, and having accountability – with either God and myself or with my missionary companion (I’m sure Eric will be thrilled! 😉). Now, any readers of our blog can also be my accountability partners – ha ha! I look forward to the difference the progress will make!
• Game Night – We don’t always make it to the weekly community game night, but tonight we made sure we were there so we could meet/get to know the new missionaries in our area. It was awesome to see so many people from the community coming together!

Saturday – P-Day!

• Today Eric and I walked down to the Sydney Opera House area (also called the CIrcular Quay – pronounced “key”) to catch our Big Bus tours. The first tour was called the “city tour” and the second one was the “Bondi” tour. Even though we’ve been here for almost 2 months, it was great to hear a bit of history and see some sights we hadn’t seen yet! We definitely want to go back to visit the museums, the huge Sydney library and the NEW Fish Market (it looks incredible from the outside!). OK, I took WAY too many pictures – I drained my phone’s battery and almost killed Eric’s too! I promise we won’t post them all!!!
• We have already been to Bondi beach once but it was great to hear more about the area and surrounding sites. WOW! Bondi beach had SOOOO many people on it – on the grassy areas, on the sand AND in the water. I took some pictures but I’m sure they won’t do it justice! When I go back, I’m going on a weekday! We can also find some less “known” beaches to visit, since Australia has more than 10,000 beaches and almost 1000 right here in New South Wales! The water is so clear, the colors look like they are from a postcard and the white sandy beaches have fine, soft sand which are mostly without seaweed or branches. I don’t know how I’ll feel returning to San Diego beaches after being spoiled here with these gorgeous beaches – haha!

Sunday – The Sabbath

• Today we had a beautiful service! First of all a group of 5 people took a chapel tour before Sacrament meeting, with our new Hyde Park sister missionaries. A couple and a single man actually met the sisters on the sidewalk and wanted to join the tour as well! We almost had more friends and visitors today than permanent members of the congregation! Transfers were only this week but the Hyde Park and Summer Hill missionaries jumped into action, visiting people and inviting them to church!

• On the first Sunday of the month (Fast and Testimony meeting), members of the congregation have time to go to the pulpit and share their testimony related to the Savior, Jesus Christ. I felt the spirit so strong as old and young people – as well as a visitor – shared inspiring and beautiful testimonies! I was so excited to hear the testimonies of the two young women I am privileged to work with. They are both very shy so it was such a beautiful surprise to see their courage in sharing what means so much to them!
• Also on the first Sunday, we and the Westovers provide lunch for the missionaries after church. That means waiting until everyone else goes home. We have a very loving and friendly group – so each Sunday people stay after to visit, catch up, take pictures, etc. I even saw Eric playing with hula hoops with two littles in the foyer! Because of this, lunch might not start until an hour after church ends! Ha ha! We love working with Elder and Sister Westover. Even though they have full time jobs at the mission office, they diligently support Hyde Park group. Elder Westover takes care of ALL the mission cars – issuing them, making sure everyone gets their Australian drivers license, maintenance and the dreaded phone calls about a fender bender or worse! Sister Westover makes sure all the missionaries have their bedding packets – pillows, sheets, blankets, quilts, towels, etc. (which she had to go out and purchase monthly!). She’s also in charge of putting together all the “welcome” materials for new missionaries who come in every 6 weeks, the mail, and a myriad of other duties! Yet, after all this, they still come to our church building each Sunday (an hour early to help set up) then teach classes! They bring food and treats to every ward event and never miss a Hyde Park baptism! They are amazing human beings and disciples of Christ! What great role models they are to the group, the young missionaries and us!
• We had a couple of changes with dinner plans this weekend. In the end we went back to our Monday night dinner and district council plan. We realized that the new missionaries to our area might not have any food for Sunday dinner, since they had been planning on eating with us! We reached out to them and let them know that they were welcome to come over for sandwiches, chips (actually called “crisps” here – they call french fries “chips”), and lemonade. We were excited that the two new sisters – Sis Thompson and Sis Leslie took us up on it and came over at 8:00 for dinner and to watch the ASM (Australia Sydney MIssion) bi-monthly devotional with us. I can’t wait to get to know each one better! They invited us to many lessons this week so we will have that opportunity to learn about them and their love for Jesus Christ – woo hoo! As always, the devotional was inspiring and brought the Spirit to teach and testify to me! It seems that everything I’ve been learning this week is all connected! Not a coincidence – God works in mysterious and INCREDIBLE ways as we humble ourselves and turn to Him!

Some things I’ve learned this week:

1. I think I’ve included all my awesome learning/reminders in the stories above! Ha ha!

2. Another thing that I’ve noticed is that Eric and I are really a great team! I’m sooooo glad that we were able to get through the retirement/being together 24/7 transition before our mission (YES, it was a legit transition!)! What a blessing from God! Because of that, we have learned to work better together – planning, studying, communicating and growing! We still have SO MUCH more to learn and change (yes, we still get on each other’s nerves now and then) but I’m very happy to have the best missionary companion a girl could ask for! 

Eric’s Australian Findings

This week, more fun foods at Costco.