The Browns in Sydney, Australia: December!

In September our mission president notified us of a probability of a transfer. Back in June a family of five moved into Armidale and after a few months it became evident that the husband was worthy and capable of serving as the branch president. Therefore our services were no longer needed as it is church policy that when a permanent resident can serve in leadership positions that they do so. Before we left Armidale we were able to see Christopher Ugochukwu, who we baptized in February, be ordained as an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was a pleasure to see him assist in the blessing of his baby Emmanuel.

Our new assignment, starting in October, finds us in a suburb of Canberra (Belconnen) ACT, which is the capital of Australia. We were excited about the move but hated leaving our good friends in Armidale and Inverell. Our work here is under the direction of the stake president and involves working with Young Single Adults (YSA) and Single Adults (SA) in the stake. Family Home Evenings are held on Monday nights with the YSA and we also assist them in planning their activities. We are just getting the SA organized trying to develop leadership and determine interests. Visiting less active and homebound members along with speaking frequently in sacrament meetings are also part of how we spend our time. Zoom meetings are a frequent occurrence as well. For example, Penny has enjoyed and benefitted meeting by Zoom with the other senior sisters to discuss inspiring talks from the last General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

One of the challenges in this area is the lack of interest in any religion so bringing people back into activity or introducing the gospel is very difficult.

Canberra is a beautiful city with many suburbs separated by open tracts of land. It was a carefully planned city and includes many lakes, walking/bike paths, forested areas, and parks. We walk around Lake Ginninderra, which is close to where we live, most mornings observing many beautiful species of birds including some amazing black swans. We visited Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve observing koalas in their natural habitat, platypuses, wallabies and kangaroos.

While in Sydney for our Christmas missionary conference and get together with the other senior missionaries we were able to go to “Van Gogh Alive”. It is a multi-media presentation of his work and was spectacular.

Part of the Canberra Stake is a small branch about three hours from away on the south coast of Australia in Merimbula. We met members of the Church there and also visited the camp site where the YSA’s will be holding their super activity at the end of January. The coastline is rocky and rugged with sandy bays and inlets…quite beautiful and remarkable.

Christmas was special this year in that we were able to have two sets of missionaries and three single adults join us for dinner, read the story of the first Christmas in Luke, play games and enjoy conversations.

In this part of Australia Covid is practically non-existent and we appreciate the safety that we enjoy.

We love Australia and the wonderful people we have met here. We are so privileged to have this opportunity to bear testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and of His atoning sacrifice.

We have attached pictures below that show some of our experiences and hope you enjoy seeing them.

We love you all and wish you a Happy New Year!

Love, Elder and Sister Brown (Elwood and Penny)

Members in Armidale and Inverell