I think this mission is our most challenging of all we have experienced, but we are having some amazing experiences such as teaching a young couple from Nigeria who are from the area where we served a previous mission. They are new to the country and are expecting their first baby. They have come to church and we have taught them several lessons. There is an aboriginal couple that is less active and who we try to visit weekly. Most Australians are good, caring people but seem to have little interest in religion.
We have loved meeting many people from various Pacific islands who are part of the group in Inverell, a group associated with our branch. Once a month they come to Armidale and we have a potluck and social time. Other weeks we travel 1 ½ hours to Inverell after church here and hold sacrament meeting there.
Christmas eve and Christmas day was spent at the Uniting Church here in Armidale preparing lunch and serving Christmas lunch to those who were needy, alone, or people who just wanted to be there to celebrate. There were over 200 that attended and that is where we met the Nigerian couple.
We spend much of our time trying to meet the less active people in our branch. Most are friendly, but not interested. We met a PTSD afflicted Vietnam veteran who is certain the government is conspiring against him and who said he could be a very wealthy artist if he weren’t afraid of people coming after him and his money. We constantly remind ourselves that our Heavenly Father loves each of His children and wants them back with Him. Another couple is working to prepare to go to the temple but the husband has health issues associated with smoking. Some of the people we visit are just lonely and happy to have any company…and we are pleased to provide that service.
We visited Port Macquarie to see the koala hospital and to see if we could provide service. They are doing a marvelous work rescuing and helping these gentle creatures heal. They have people on call 24/7 to pick up any injured koala who will then be brought to this facility. There are some koalas who are permanent residents because of permanent disabilities, but they hope to return most to the wild. They don’t allow any of the animals to be held because they want don’t want them to become used to human contact.
The beach picture below is in Port Macquarie. The beaches in eastern Australia are sublime…especially when the smoke has cleared!
For the past couple of weeks the rains have come. We are grateful for the prayers of people around the world. Fires are still raging but most are extinguished. Australia has changed from brown barren fields to green lawns, fields and other foliage. Lawn mowers are actually in evidence now where previously it was so dry nothing was growing.
We had our orientation for assisting refugees from northern Iraq. Their tribe and religion is called Yazidi. We were told that it is older than Christianity, Judaism and Muslim. You cannot convert to this religion, you have to be born into it.
Found out another random, but interesting, fact. There are between 200-400 aboriginal states (groups) in Australia. For an aboriginal person to go from one area to another he must have permission from the tribal chief.
We never tire of seeing the beautiful kangaroos that we see when we drive or go on our morning walk. We love Australia!
The social after Armidale and Inverell meet
Uniting church
Very friendly area for biking
Flowers beginning to blossom after the rain
Example of fire damage we see everywhere we go
Koala hospital
Port Macquarie
