Winter in Australia

July 15, 2015

The days and weeks are just flying by.  I cannot believe it has been two months since I posted anything to the blog. I was in the Juneau Airport when I posted my last blog.  I flew to Seattle, rented a car and drove to Poulsbo to see Brett, Meredith and Paige.  It was a very short visit as I left Seattle the afternoon of May 14th, flew to Los Angles to catch the 11:15 flight on New Zealand air for the 13 hour flight to Aukland, New Zealand.  I had a 2 hour lay over before catching a flight to Brisbane.  I can now say I have been to New Zealand although all I saw was the airport.   I arrived in Brisbane on Saturday, May 16 at 11:15 AM. 

Sister Parsons picked me up at the airport.  The Assistants to the President had told her they needed to talk with me about transfers because they were returning home on Monday and new Assistants would be called to work with the Mission President.   We went to the Mission Office so they could update me on flats that would be vacated and new flats that would be needed.

I had thought the transfers had happened while I was in Alaska but they were the week I returned to the Mission Office.  So I did not miss the fun of welcoming the new missionaries into the Australia Brisbane Mission. 

Lamb on the Barbee

May 23, 2015 Sister Parsons and I went to the Paniyiri Greek Festival held at Musgrave Park. It was the 39th year for the festival.  There were many food booths sponsored by a number of Greek churchs throughout the Brisbane area.  There were a number of activities: food, dance, wine, music, cultural lectures, eating competitions, plate smashing, church displays, Zorba traditional Greek cooking demos, fireworks and more.  We attended several cooking demos and then bought our lunch of Greek food at one of the many booths selling food.  The picture is of a lamb being roasted at one of the booths.  When we first arrived there were a lot of people roaming around the park but when we came out of the food demos the park was a sea of people.  It was hard to move from one place to another.  It is a very popular festival.  I had not idea there were so many people of Greek heritage in Brisbane.

 



 Here are two pictures of the beautiful sunsets we get here in Brisbane.  I thought the clouds were very Interesting in the one to the left.













This one is a bit dark but it was a beautiful sunset.









On May 30th we took another trip to Bribie Island to check out things for my family to do when they come this month.  Bribie is the only island that has a bridge to it.  We found a company that has kayaks, stand up paddle boards, segways, and bikes for hire.  We drove across the island to have a picnic lunch and ran across a senior couple who were there with their son and daughter-in-law.  We enjoyed visiting with them, sitting on the beach and reading.  The sky divers were out landing just down the beach from us.  It was a very relaxing afternoon. 

A senior couple from St. George are serving here in Brisbane.  They sing in the Southern Heritage Choir in St. George.  They proposed beginning a choir here in Brisbane.  It was approved by the Stake Presidents so Sister Gill went to the US to talk with the choir and learn just how it functioned.  She returned and began soliciting singers from the church and community.  This began in April and in June they performed on two weekend and gave amazing performances.  They are called the Voices of Brisbane.  They are scheduled to perfom again in October.  Sister Gill is the conductor and has an amazing ability to pull the best out of each choir member.  You can see the love she has for music as she conducts.  Watching her and listening to the choir is a joy. 

June 23rd was the beginning of the Australia Brisbane Mission Tour by Elder Pearson, President of the Asia Pacific Area.  All the missionaries from Northern Queensland were flown to Brisbane for the Tuesday meeting.  The Senior Missionaries had dinner with Elder Pearson and his wife at the Mission home.  The seniors in Brisbane prepared soup, salad and desert for the meal.  Everyone had a great time and enjoyed getting to know Elder Pearson and his wife.  Ten years  ago Elder Pearson was the Mission President for the Washington Federal Way Mission and was over the missionaries in Poulsbo, Wa.  It was great to talk with them about Washington.  They loved it there but now they are living in Auckland, New Zealand. 

3rd Zone Meeting

Elder Pearson and his wife spoke at two more meetings with the missionaries here in Brisbane.  He and his wife are very motivational and knowledgeable speakers.  They know the Gospel, love the Lord and care about all of our Heavenly Father’s children.  They had great council for all the missionaries.  The pictures are of all those who attended each of the three meetings.   President and Sister Henderson are in he center of each picture and Elder and Sister Pearson are to the right of them as you look at the picture.





So this brings us up to the 4th of July.  Elder & Sister Mickelsen, Sister Parsons and myself wanted to do something for the 4th of July.  We invited all the other seniors in Brisbane to join us if they liked.  They all were happy to join us.  We decided to go to a small island just off the coast called Coochiemudlo Island.  It is a small island with a little over 400 homes and under a thousand residents.  There are no schools on the island.  The children take the ferry to Brisbane (Victory Point) every day to school at no cost.  Many residents keep a car on the Brisbane side instead of paying for it everyday.  The island is small enough you can walk around it.  Lt. Mathew Flinder RN was the first European to set foot on Coochiemudlo Island. He landed his sloop, the Norfolk, on the 19th of July 1799. It had been known to generations of Aborginal families as Kuych Mudlo, the place where they obtained red ochre stones used as body decoration and as red pigment for shields and skin.   Every year they celebrate Flinders Day with a parade and craft fair that is well attended by mainlanders.

Seniors on Coochiemudlo Island

Walk thru Wetlands

Seniors as we gathered on Choociemudlo Island on the 4th of July.














Some of you will recognize this name as a company in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Flower along trail

                                                                                                       



                              
 A beautiful flower along the trail.  It seems to us that flowers  bloom here every month of the year.   Sister Parsons has been affected by allergies since we arrived.  We are very observant of any new bloom.                                                                                        
  

Believe this is a tribute to a Aboriginal

We came across this memorial on our walk in the wetlands.

Strange Fungus on TreE

We had lunch at the Red Rock café then walked part-way around the island.  On our walk we met a local resident who gave us a lot of history and was very interesting.  She was on her way to crash a beach picnic.  The island has some very interesting trees, flowers and a nice beach all the way around.

We arrived home after dark so Elder and Sister Mickelsen, Sister Parsons and I lit off sparklers to celebrate our countries birthday.  It was a perfect end of the 4th of July. 

4th of July Seniors in Brisbane, QLD, Australia

From left to right: Elder & Sister Mickelsen, Elder & Sister Madsen, Elder & Sister Johnson, Elder & Sister Richins, Elder & Sister Mizakawa, and Sister Parsons.

Mackay Family heading for Church

Father with Tripletts

I had to share these pictures of a family in Mackay.  We should have no excuse for not getting to church.  This family is a great example for all of us.  All children are six and under.

























My family arrives in 14 days.  I am so excited to have them here.  We are going to have a great time.  You will see and hear about the time together in the next blog.

I hope you enjoy the journey in this blog...... 

Suprises of Life.....

May 4, 2015

So much has happened since my last post......  We have had new missionaries come into the mission, we have taken a trip up to the Sunshine Coast Hinterlands with Elder and Sister Mickelsen and I am currently in Alaska helping my daughter who had major back surgery for a herniated disk.  I will be returning to Australia in another week or so.....

Moolooaba Beach

The last comment on the previous blog was about the trip to inspect a couple of flats the mission was closing.  One was about an hour north of our residence.  After we inspected it we drove over to Moolooaba on the coast.  There we found a beautiful long beach.  We took a long walk in and out of the water.

 

Beach Dancers

Along the way we came across a group of people dancing on the beach.  They appeared to be having a great time.  I was tempted to join in.  Then we came across a sand Giant taking a nap on the beach.  The beach also has a wonderful boardwalk with many restaurants, clothing shops, souvenior shops, ice cream shops, etc.  It was too late to do much shopping as everything closes down at 5 or 5:30 on Saturdays except the restaurants who open at 5:30 or six.  It was an amazing beach that we want to revisit.  Much more family friendly than the Gold Coast Strip to the South.

Giant Sand Man

No Spring in My Legs

Amazing Companion

 On April 18th Sister Parsons and I took Elder and Sister Mickelson to the Sunshine Coast Hinterlands.  They had never been up to see the Glass Mountains, or Mary Cairnscross Reserve (rain forest).  We drove to Melany first and toured the Botanical Garden (Sister Parsons and I had not visited it before) We saw some amazing plants and flowers plus a beautiful view of the Glass Mountains.  The big purple chair is supposedly the largest chair in Australia and they are in the process of building an even bigger chair.  This garden is privately owned and operated and they have done an amazing job.

Lilly Tomlin Double

Pond

Amazing Plant

Ginny Hens

 Next we went to find the Melany creamery which was suppose to have wonderful soft serve ice cream.  They did have ice cream in cups which was really expensive but no cones which is what we were looking for.  Our next stop was the Cheese factory where we were able to taste a number of unusual cheeses.  I found one I really liked called Tuscan.  It is really delicious hope it is still good when I get back.  There menu said they had milk shakes so we ordered four milk shakes to our amazement they were flavored milk which had been beaten in a blender.  Could not identify any ice cream in any of them.  Great disappointment.....

Elder & Sister Mickelsen

 Our next stop was the Mary Cairscross Reserve.  It was my third visit and each one gets better.  Part of the trail was closed because the huge fig tree is in danger of falling and they are trying to figure out a way to protect it and keep it upright.  It will be a shame if they cannot save it because it is hundreds of years old.  Because of this we walked a different part of the path than I had before.  We met some people on the trail who told us there were a number of Pattimelons up the trail.  They are a part of the kangaroo family.  The smallest and have red ears.  We were on the lookout and saw several along the trail and next to the trail.  As we rounded a corner I saw one standing in the middle of the trail and there was a baby beside it.  Mom took off and it took a minute for the baby to follow.  We almost got a picture of it but not quite.  He stopped just off the trail so we got to see him up close but he did not stick around.  He hopped over and climbed into Mom’s pouch.  How amazing was that to watch...... We were really disappointed we did not get his picture.  I was able to get a couple of pictures of one along the side of the trail.  He is really hard to see but he is in the center of the picture.  He is looking to the right......

Patemelon

 The Monday following Easter Sunday is called Smyngus Dingus in Poland.  We decided to bring a little of Poland to Australia and surprise our Office Missionaries.  In Poland it means water day.  You never know when someone might come after you with water in any container.  We forgot to buy balloons so used sandwich baggies filled with water.  Our intention was not to hit them but just throw water in their direction.  They were surprised and some joined in as missionaries came to the office.  Senior missionaries can have fun.......

Smyngus Dingus - a bit of Poland in Australia

Denise hurt her back in March and the last week in April had surgery for a herniated disk.  The surgery went well and she is recovering but I was not staying in Australia while my daughter had major surgery.  I left Brisbane at 10:50 AM on Saturday April 25th arriving at Los Angeles at 6:30 AM on Saturday April 25th.  Denise had arranged a flight from LAX to Juneau for me.  I had about a 5 hour layover in Los Angeles.  I had frozen the whole flight so was hoping to warm up in Los Angeles but no such luck.  It was a cloudy cold day.  I arrived in Seattle in time to get a bowl of Ivar’s Clam Chowder before the flight to Juneau.  It was soooooo good and helped warm me up.

My granddaughter, Kiera was coming home from BYU and we flew to Juneau on the same flight.  It was great to catch up with her.

Classic Queenslander

I have wanted to share the Queenslander homes with you for some time.  This distinctive tradition originated with rough timber huts of early settlement and developed into the multi-gabled bungalows of the 1930s. Buildings continued until, and were adapted after, the Second World War.  The most typical early twentieth century Queensland house is characterised by:

    timber construction with corrugated-iron roof;
    highset on timber stumps;
    single-skin cladding for partitions and sometimes external walls;
    verandahs front and/or back, and sometimes the sides;
    decorative features to screen the sun or ventilate the interior; and
    a garden setting with a picket fence, palm trees and tropical fruit trees.

There are many styles of the famous 'Queenslander', but they share a distinct construction style, internal spaces, furnishing, and gardens. They are now valued as a key element of Queensland heritage and conservation and renovation of Queenslanders is widespread.  I understand they were originally built up off the ground to help keep them cool with the air circulation under the house.  There are so many examples of the Queenslander in and around Brisbane as well as throughout Queensland.  I love the looks of them and the iron work is beautiful around the windows and porches. 

Australia Landscape

While I have been gone I understand Queensland has had some terrible rain with flash floods.   I am glad I missed it but am sorry for those who have been affected by the bad weather.

To close out this blog here are three pictures of Alaska:  the Mendenhall Glacier with the Mendenhall Lake in the foreground,  Mendenhall Lake with icebergs from the glacier, and a creek that runs into Mendenhall Lake.  The beaver have damed the creek so it has backed up and killed the trees.

Mendenhall Glacier

Mendenhall Lake Icebergs

Duck Creek 

I will be forever grateful to the Area Presidency, my Mission President and the Lord for the opportunity to come to Alaska and help my daughter.  I know the Lord loves me, my family and all his children and he does bless us everyday.

PS:  I am sitting in the Juneau Alaska airport awaiting my flight to Seattle.  It is the beginning of the long trek back Down Under.   Denise is doing very well and will recover fully.  She just needs to take it easy for the next four to six weeks, no bending, twisting or picking up heavy items.   How very grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who knows us and our needs....

May the Lord bless each of You........ Until the next Blog from sunny Brisbane......

Fall

March 28, 2015

It is hard to believe fall has arrived.  It has become very apparent in the last week.  The Poincea trees are losing their leaves and others are turning yellow.  It is still warm but most evenings cool off now so it is easier to sleep. 

January was a quiet month.  It was pretty warm so we did not venture far from home.  I did take the opportunity to swim several times a week but found out it was irritating my back and causing me pain so had to give it up.  It has been real hard because I was enjoying the lap pool.

Cyclone Marcia

February 29 Cyclone Marcia came ashore north of Rockhampton at Yeppoon.  The young missionary flat in Rockhampton was flooded.  Power was out for several days but all the missionaries were safe.  They moved their beds into the dining area for two days.  We were blessed with a miracle and able to find them another flat within two days.  It usually takes a week or more but the Lord was watching over the missionaries.   The storm turned south but had weakened considerably and we just got lots and lots of rain.  Here I am soaking it up as it came in under our front door. 

 February 24, 2015      We had a surprise visit from Tonga the 24th of February.  The Office Couple, Elder Garth Hamblin and Sister Sandy Hamblin flew into Brisbane.  Sister Hamblin came for some tests to check out pressure she was feeling in her chest.    The mission was able to provide them with a vacant flat in which to stay until Sister Hamblin was cleared to return to Tonga.  The best part of the visit is they are friends from Alaska.  In fact I was working with Elder Hamblin and the Tonga Mission President (President Tupou) to be called to Tonga.  The Missionary Department had Sister Parsons and me flagged for Tonga but when the call was issued the Lord had a different plan and therefore we are here in the Australia Brisbane Mission.  We had a great weekend together.  Sister Hamblin was released from the hospital on Thursday afternoon.  Friday evening they went to the Brisbane Cultural Arts Center to see Wicked and they loved it.

Summer in Australia

February 14, 2014

Summer is in full bloom.  Summers in southern Queensland is in the 80s and 90s with high humidity.  Summer is also the rainy season.  The storms move really fast.  One minute it is perfectly clear and the next the thunder clouds have come rolling in with thunder, lightning, and rain.  It is not the rain of the northwest (misty); it is like the mid west and east where it comes down in buckets.  You want to have a big umbrella if you need to venture out in the rain.  It is nice when it comes because it cools things off.


I think flowers bloom here year round.  Here is a picture of the seed pods formed by the Poinscea tree that had the beautiful large cluster of blooms in December.  They really grew fast.



The plumera trees are now in full bloom.  There a several colors, white, pink and yellow.  I am accustomed to the white with the yellow center from Hawaii with a beautiful fragrance.  The ones here don’t seem to have much fragrance.  They are still beautiful.









Next came the crepe myrtle with there pink or lavender blooms.












I do not know what this tree is but I love it’s spiky blooms.  The Lorikeet Parrots love the blooms as well.  If you look really close you can see one eating the blooms or whatever it is they like.  They are a very loud bird when they are feeding in the trees.  They are easy to spot if you recognize the sound.






On the 24th of January Sister Parsons and I took the train down to the central station and walked over to the City Hall.  It has a beautiful clock tower that at one time was the highest point in Brisbane.  It is now overpowered by many other buildings.  The highest being the Meriton building.







 This church is next to the City Hall.  It was built in 1929.
View of the Presbyterian Church from the City Hall Clock Tower and street level. 

We took the elevator to the top of the clock tower to a viewing platform where we had a 360 degree view of the city.  Could not see much of the river because of all the buildings.



 There is a museum on the 2nd floor of the city hall which we visited.  It has an amazing display on the Brisbane River.  It relates the history of the river.  First it was the mode of  transporting timber to the coast by floating the logs down river.  Later sugar cane was transported to the sugar mill and wool to the wool mill.  As time passed the city of Brisbane grew up along the river.  The Customs House is also located on the banks of the river.   There is an exhibit of “Costumes from the Golden Age of Hollywood”.  It was an amazing exhibit with costumes from the 1930s through the 1960s which included Lucille Ball - The Long Long Trailer, Elizabeth Taylor - Cleopatra & Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Debbie Reynolds - Tammy, Ester Williams, Cyd Charise, Marlan Brando and many others.  The best part was the film clips from each of the films that were being projected on the wall as you walked through the exhibit.   

Brisbane from clock tower

After our tour of the museum we walked down Queen Street which is a pedestrian mall close by.  Amazing wall of building on Queen Street.

We visited a couple of shops and then on our way back to the train station we stumbled upon the Memorial to WWI.  Part of it is being renovated but it is a beautiful memorial which has not incorporated WWII. 

World War I Memorial

Barrel Tree 

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The train station is a block from our flat so is very convenient for travel downtown with no worries about parking.  “No worries” is an Australia saying that is used extensively as we would use “no problem”. 

This month all the senior missionaries are helping with flat inspections to determine a baseline for the mission.  We have over 100 flats in the mission and missionaries from 23 different countries some who have never had the convenience they have here.  Some of the missionaries have never had anything but a dirt floor so have no idea how to clean.  Some of the flats have not been maintained by the missionaries and we are trying to remedy this within the mission. 

On January 29, Sister Parsons and I did half of our flat inspections.  Our first inspection was in Stanthorpe, Queensland which is about 331 kilometers south west of Brisbane.  We left at 6:15 to make it there by 11AM Funny thing happened on the way......Our GPS did not recognize the address but did recognize another one so I chose it.  As it turned out it was at the opposite end of Texas road which was over 80 kilometers to the west.  We drove over 200 kilometers farther than we needed to.  We should have gone straight south out of Warwick but instead went the round about way.  We traveled A to B to C to D when we should have gone A to D. 

 




  It was beautiful country that we drove through.  We had hoped to see some wildlife but did not except for a couple of kangaroo laying alongside the road.   Here is a picture of the road we drove .....  We had a 12 hour day.      Saw parts of Australia we normally would not see. 

On 4th we went to the Queensland Performing Arts Centre to see a production “Chin Yan”  by a Chinese dance group.  The group is made up of Chinese from America who are based in New York City.   There are nine companies and they perform all over the world except are prohibited from performing in China.  They do traditional Chinese dance and perform the legends of China.  They were amazing.  Beautiful costumes, incredible jumps, and choreography.  They are all very accomplished dancers.  It was well worth the time and I would go again.  If you get a chance to see them I would recommend the show. 
           




 This is the Story Bridge at night from the City Cat ferry that runs up and down the Brisbane River.  You can climb to the top so I intend to climb it before I leave.  It is 1 in 3 bridges in the world you can climb. 





 
Saturday we went to Nudgee Beach with our lawn chairs, sat in the shade of a tree, watched the ships coming into Moreton Bay and listed to the tide as it went out.  We then took a walk through the mangroves on the boardwalk through the estuary.  Saw a few birds and some crabs....pictured here.

High Tide at Nudgee Beach

The tide was in when we arrived at Nudgee Beach as you can see by the water level on the trees.  Just behind the trees is Moreton Bay which is a very large bay.  The Brisbane river runs into Moreton Bay. 

Mangrove trees at Nudgee Beach

This is a small river or slough that runs into the ocean.  It is lined with mangrove trees.  It is a bird refuge for many birds during the summer.  Some of them fly from as far as Alaska and Russia to feed and store up fat for the long journey back north to nest. 








This is a White Ibis.  He has a very long beak which you can't really see in this picture.  He was sitting on this limb watching the mud flats as the tide went out looking for his dinner.  The mud was full of crab hole and I am sure other critters which we did not see. 


Mud flats & Boardwalk Nudgee Beach

     

Sister Parsons on Boardwalk

The crab came out of his hole while I was very still waiting to get his picture.  He was after the leaf.  After I got the picture he took it into his hole for dinner.  Love his red claws. 

Crab

So today is Valentines Day here in Australia.  May you all have a Happy Valentines Day.  I hope your winter is soon to be gone and a beautiful spring will come.  I am looking forward to fall with a little cooler weather.  I love the warmth but the humidity is hard to deal with.  The Mission is wonderful and I am loving my responsibilities.  I feel I will have done some good by the time I return home.  May the Lord bless each of you everyday.