The Browns in Sydney, Australia: December 2019

Kangaroo with baby

After one beneficial week at the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah, we left on Monday, the 19^th of November, from the Salt Lake City Airport with a stop in Los Angeles. We arrived in Sydney, Australia on Wednesday, the 20^th still struggling with the fact that we lost Tuesday…and had spent 15 sleepless hours in our luxurious exit row seats.

After arriving in Sydney and viewing some iconic sites, we drove off to Armidale, which is about 6 hours north of Sydney. Anything not in a major city is considered the bush…that’s where we are. The outback is the more remote areas…central Australia. It’s a slight exaggeration to say we hike with the kangaroos in the mornings, but only slight. There are more kangaroos in Australia than people and they are everywhere in the bush. The architecture in Armidale, like many towns in New South Wales, is very interesting and dates back to the early 1800’s. We love driving into these quaint towns.

Elwood is the branch president and so is responsible for Armidale and the group in Inverell. When we drive to Inverell each Sunday for sacrament meeting we have to make sure we are back before dark. This will be a challenge in the winter, but now it is light until around eight. We want to travel while it is still light because unfortunately, on this journey we see many dead kangaroos by the side of the road who have been hit at night. As our daughter said, it doesn’t seem like good karma to hit a kangaroo. We recently discovered that the couple who was here before us totaled two cars for that very reason. The branch has been very welcoming and we are enjoying getting to know everyone. There are many less active members and we are attempting to visit as many as possible. This last Sunday three less active members that we had visited came to church. Hurray!

On the 10^th of December we drove into Sydney for an all mission Christmas celebration, which we enjoyed very much especially seeing all the young missionaries as there are none near us. The next day all the senior missionary couples attended the Sydney temple and then partied. It was the first time meeting many of them. To top off our Sydney experience we found and shopped at Costco…even eating a hot dog.

Two weeks ago we had district conference in Coff’s Harbor, which is about 3 hours away. Surprisingly, a number from our branch and group attended. Imagine driving 3 hours to attend stake conference…they are so faithful. Coff’s Harbor is a beautiful beach community and we took advantage by taking a nice long walk on the beach. Our hotel, which turned out to be a dump, was right across the street from the beach. We only had to kill one cockroach! Driving both ways we encountered evidence of the terrible destruction from the bush fires and choking smoke is still prevalent throughout the area.

The branch Christmas party was a great success. It was held at a home in Gilgai which is close to Inverell. (The husband is the one that arranged for the use of the musical school building in Inverell where we hold church meetings. He is not a member, but has been attending regularly.) There was singing, talking, laughing and eating. The hamburgers and hot dogs were a hit and eaten in huge quantities. Elwood did all the grilling.

On our last Preparation Day we went koala hunting in the town of Gunnedah, where we heard there were large numbers. Wrong! Unfortunately, we were not able to see any, but we will keep trying. So many were killed during the fires.

In an effort to get better acquainted with the people of Armidale and to be of service to the community we have volunteered to assist refugees with English and to help them acclimate to western society. We also have agreed to serve in helping people after the bush fires. So many homes have been destroyed and they need assistance. We are registered with the town volunteer service organization so we may be asked to do other assignments.