Nelson Bay and Medowie Branch

We have been really busy working and today we reviewed to find we have 12 projects to work on. Our "boss" Mark, discovered Dad's computer skills.. I guess they are exceptional for an old guy! We headed off to Nelson Bay on Saturday as we were assigned to speak in Medowie Branch (about 60 people in the branch). We left Saturday so we could see some of the countryside. We spent the night in Nelson Bay and then after speaking on Sunday headed back to Sydney.

                                       Dad at the lookout... lots of coves with private beaches

                                         The sun was setting on this part of the marina

                                                      Caught buying ice-cream

                                          Sun hats for sale... this is winter and quite cold

                                          Lots of families, older people, teens and babies enjoying the bay

Missionaries Eat Pancakes...and brownies... and lot's of other stuff...

This is what senior missionaries look like on Saturday night at 'Pancakes On The Rocks' restaurant. Saturday is 'P' day and most seniors take advantage of that until late in the evening. Mum and I have become social gadflies virtually overnight. We have been to a dinner at someones house, dinner and movie (G rated, we're allowed) with two other couples, dinner at the Pancake and a Family Home evening attended by all you see in the photo above. Previous to these outings I don't think I have eaten in front of anyone my age, at a proper table, for a decade or more!! The mission is getting us out of our shell if nothing else.

A road, a building and a Family Home Evening...

The building in the background houses our office. The grounds are beautiful and make walking pleasant though it's a bit too cold for too much of that. On the right of the photo is a road called Pennant Hills Road. This is one of the busiest streets in the area with four lanes of traffic constantly whizzing by. The traffic includes large tractor/trailer rigs that are 70 feet long and 10 or 11 feet high. The road is not wide at all so the cars drive VERY close to one another making driving a bit of a dare devil sport. The shopping centre where we buy our lunch and get groceries is on the other side of this road and we have crossed it once on foot. No quarter is given to pedestrians and they actually call the traffic islands in the middle of the road "pedestrian safety zones", presumably meaning that you can stand in the middle of the road and the cars won't hit you...talk about sport! We have taken to driving across the road that requires a detour of a mile or two but keeps mum's heart rate some what lower.

At one time the Area Presidents Office was on this campus and about 140 people worked in the four or five building that we now work in. But the Area Presidency moved to Auckland New Zealand about 18 months ago so there are only about 40 people occupying the place now. It makes it very spacious with lots of empty rooms and offices but a bit ghostly.

We attended a Family Home Evening for our group of Senior Missionaries last night. It was held in a large room in the largest building and included a slide presentation by Elder Roberts (a lovely man) of the story of the Mormon Battalion with lengthy explanations. We now know much more about the Mormon Battalion than previously and if you're interested, we can get the 350 slides with commentary and put it on line... just let me know. We ate rice and chili and a trifle without jello (jelly). It was good. The Temple President (President Barr) and Matron (Sister Barr) attended and I must say they were great. Not what you might expect. They are Australian and in their early 70's but look much younger. They are very slim and he was dressed in jeans and boots with a black turtle neck sweater and a well worn jacket. Very relaxed and in stark contrast to our old missionary suits and ties.

We are enjoying our mission so far. Our assignments are a bit nebulous right now and we are not entirely sure of the nuts and bolts of the operation. We don't want to be stuck in the office answering phones, that's for sure. Mum can't take it. She jumps up in the middle of the night (3 o'clock this morning) with cramps in her leg shouting about how she can't be sitting in an office all day! Scary stuff to wake up to at that hour... but with more knowledge and a bit more time we should be able to carve out something effective and enjoyable.

We love and miss all you guys and the little ones. You occupy a great deal of our time, watching little videos and ooohhhing and aaaahhhing at your photos. We love it so keep them coming.

We will write more as it happens but you must know how much we love you and appreciate you for being such good people.

xxxxoooo DAD

Catch up post!

We are awoken most mornings by chirping of birds. The sounds they are make are so different to what we are used to hearing in Florida. We live on 3rd floor apartment and so took a pic of them from our balcony.
We have been here two Sundays and have attended two different wards. Both wards membership is predominantly Polynesian. They actually teach Sunday School classes in Samoan and often you hear the language spoken in the hallways. I guess the more elderly members insist on keeping the language and the younger Polynesians want it all in English. The members are very friendly, come up and greet us and kiss us on the cheek. We may elect to have a ward assignment in the future but the Mission President said we can decide what we want to do. We plan to offer ourselves to teach various little classes on Family History and so may want the flexibility to attend various wards and branches.
Next Sunday we will travel to Salt Ash, just north of Newcastle to speak in Sacrament Mtng there. All senior couples are assigned to speak once a month in an outlying branch or ward. The geography of the mission is quite huge and so some of the branches are actually 8 hours away and require spending a night or two. We will probably spend Saturday or Sunday night in Salt Ash or close by.
We have been getting up to speed on being Family History missionaries and there is quite a bit to learn and also quite a bit of flexibility. We will do an all day training session on Tuesday. Meantime, we have been promoting Family History month in August and Dad has been busy answering all sorts of technical equipment questions from around Australia. We are trying to adjust to being in an office and will probably try to extend ourselves further afield. All in good time, I guess.
Although the work is still not consuming our time, certainly there is an active senior missionary social scene in the evenings! So totally not what we are used to but everyone is so friendly, so we do accept some of the invitations. This past Friday (movies) Saturday night (dinner) Sunday (dinner) Monday (Dinner and a talk).... I think that is more social stuff than we have done outside the family in our whole lives :)
We love you all and so happy to hear from you. It is so much fun... especially when we hear the phone ring at 4:30am. But love seeing the little ones and hearing about their activities.
Family News:
Levi was called to serve as second councillor in Bishopric in Guatemala city last week.
Our prayers and thoughts are with Irie for her surgery on Thursday and Alex who will deliver her baby boy some time in the next few days (or weeks!).

Our signature portrait.

Why Family History???

One morning on my mission...

I didn't feel quite myself, so I took a selfie ... 

but Sister Smylie thought I looked better from the side...

I told her not to make fun of the elderly missionaries!

President and Sister Howes picked us up at the airport...

...and then they took us for photos of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge. 

What's wrong with the cars in this movie... on the other hand?

Elder Smylie Walks onto Aussie Soil.

Landing In Sydney

FamilySearch - 6TH FLR JSB

Our second week of training in the Joseph Smith Building in Salt Lake City was fairly intensive. Five or six one hour long presentations each day for four days was grueling and in the end just too intense. We ended up cutting it short by a whole day when it became clear we had got the picture and were as trained as we were going to be... the glazed eyes and steady weeping were strong indications for bringing things to an end.

Bro and Sister Herrman were great trainers and let us know what we are likely to experience in the field. We thought that their most insightful advice to us was not to come home within the first 90 days..."give it at least 3 months".  They also said that we both can't be depressed at the same time. "If one is down, the other has to be up! It makes us think that this mission thing might not be the bed of roses we were counting on.

Anyway, off to Aussie next monday. Yikes!!!

Dad