29 December 2011

It was so nice to have a few minutes with Rodney’s family on Google+ before our conference.  Sorry we couldn’t stay and talk longer.  The Elders and sisters started arriving early, and we had to go.

Yesterday the whole mission showed up again at the church in Dianella for our first training from President Smiburt, who just arrived from Brisbane after only one week, Christmas week, since receiving a call from the first Presidency to come here.   The missionaries are used to standing up when the president, his wife and the assistants come into the chapel.  That was the first thing President Smiburt changed.  He said it should be done only for the prophet.  Also, at the end of the meeting, when the missionaries automatically stood for their powerful mission song, he sat them right down because he said that the presiding Elder has to request for the congregation to stand!  Somehow, the mission song wasn’t sung with as much gusto as it had been yesterday for President Cahoon.  I guess it will take a little time for these missionaries to warm up to the new ways of doing things.

He spoke with a lot of determination and umph about “sprinting” during these 6 months till another new president arrives.  He speaks “as one having authority” because he is a Seventy, although not one over this area.  He had the zone leaders introduce their zones, and he knew many of the missionaries’ relatives or ecclesiastical leaders.  He asks us to exercise our faith to increase the mission average for baptisms from 12 to 25 or 30 per month.  He quoted President Kimball saying that “obedience leads to righteousness; righteousness leads to faith; faith precedes the miracle.”

Elder Ellingson got a new companion from Guam.  This will be interesting to see them work together.  He is very different from Elder Martin, and we have been asked by the couple over flats and cars to keep an eye on him because he has been known for wrecklessness in other areas.

We had another photo taken with the new president, and then Elder Ashby and I went shopping.  We each bought a new suit!  Then it was back to Dianella to the Temple.  They were expecting us, and called us by name in the Temple.  It was small and very simple, but beautiful, of course.

All the seniors met at the Innis’s flat for dinner, including the new couple, the Neeleys, who just arrived yesterday from Perry, Utah, and the Lanes, who are service missionaries out in Geraldton from somewhere in Australia.  So there were 12 of us, and we had a good time.  We furnished pizza for everyone from Dominoes.  We had to go a bit out of our way to find it, but it was so worth it because it was so much better than Australian pizza.

It was fun to be with the couples, especially our Marsdens.  Elder Marsden is Maori, but white.  He was a stake president before he came here, but so humble and sweet.  We got along just as if we had been siblings.  He cried in the prayer this morning at their flat before we left them.  We really love them both, and hope they will also come to see us one day in America.  We can tell we are going to really enjoy the Neeleys too.  They seem so much like us.  It will be interesting to see what the president gives them as an assignment.  I think they’ll find out today.

Now we’re on our way out of Perth.  I’m writing in the car, which is hard because of the bumpiness, so I’ll quit.  But I wanted to remember this weekend.