Transfers, Costco Field Trip and Elder Meurs (wk ending 23 Nov 2014).

Mildura, Alice Springs, and Darwin transferred missionaries showed up in the office Monday afternoon from the airport and bus station with Lee and Elder White. Since there was practice at the church for the Christmas program we had extra missionary traffic in the office all day. We LOVE these wonderful young people!

After Monday's Christmas program practice...Sister Moss on far right is in charge. Sisters Teauli, Bailey, Condie, Javate, Moss with Elders Hobbs back left and  K Taylor photo bomb middle.

Sister Hannan gave the spiritual thought on following the Prophet. Excellent counsel from the scriptures, written text, and comments.

Lee returned from the airport in time to meet the new bike delivery at 6:00 pm. I was home making lemon jello cake and chocolate cake as dessert for the leavers dinner Tuesday night.

Both were a huge hit!

Family night was reviewing the Saturday afternoon conference talk by Jorg Klebingat entitled 

"Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence." We loved this talk! Listen to it HERE.

Tuesday I put 4 roasts in the crockpots early. We arrived in the office by 8:30 and there wasn't a quiet moment for the rest of the day. With14 leavers, there were piles of luggage everywhere! The scales were in constant demand and I heard repeated expressions of frustration as they realized their bags were STILL over weight, even after adjustments. Imagine 14 leavers times 3-4 bags each in the office, then imagine Elder Sheffield getting them all to the right place in the airport at the right time with the right person! He is amazing!

Friends and supporters of the leavers early morning departure...and on the way to the airport 

(first load).

Transfer meeting was beautiful! I know I've mentioned that it is one of my favorite things about the mission. Each missionary shared ONE thing they learned, then bore their beautiful individual testimonies. The office was wild after transfer meeting but settled down around 2:00 so I slipped home to put my feet up for 10 minutes, grab a bite, and check the roasts.

November leavers...my largest group ever.

That was after I had a call from a missionary driving back to Mt Gambier that he'd forgotten his overnight bag in the church. How does that happen? Sunglasses found in a car were brought in to give to their owner, now in another area, plus a wallet was left in a car door pocket and that missionary has gone home, and a USB was found. I am amazed at the 'lost' items during and after transfers but we always manage to connect owners with their belongings. It only took 2 transfers to 'find' an Elders glasses but they surfaced eventually!

I am very thankful for our flat being in close proximity to the office since Lee is often gone with the van. I can walk home at the end of the day, or to lunch, or dash home or to the office for a forgotten item. They say location, location, location is everything and it couldn't be more accurate in this case. We consider it a huge tender mercy to live where we do.

The leaver dinner turned out great. When I got home at 5, I made Sister Finau's chocolate frosting recipe. Seriously, it's famous in the mission and when I mentioned that it was her recipe, everyone groaned with pleasure. (1 milk choc 220 kg Cadbury bar and 1/2 dark chocolate 220 kg bar, melted, add a small bottle of thickened cream, stir until smooth and pour over Elisa Ludwig's wonderful Bundt choc cake....ok never mind, who needs the cake? The frosting is THAT good! )

Leavers were: Ataga, Dardon, Heywood, Van den Bron, Villierme-Puputauki, Likiliki, Mejia, Molisi, Pulalasi, Palmer, Mortenson, Watson, Vaiula, and Farr.

7 sister leavers

We served roast beef, baked potatoes with sour cream and chives, green salad, carrot salad, beet roots (canned pickled beets), rolls and butter. We started eating at 7:10 when President was on his last interview of 14, and they joined us shortly after. Testimony meeting was beautiful but long since there were so many. I love observing their spiritual growth. We got home at 10 tired, but happy.

Because there were 14 leavers and 5 transfers to Darwin and Alice, Lee left with the first load to the airport at 5:45 am Wednesday morning. Elder White took a second van load at 8:30 am. Later on, the Carters met the 3 arrivers flights in the silver van and President called saying there was no NZ flight number listed on the arrival/departure board. I called Church travel in New Zealand and was quoted the same flight number as we had listed on her itinerary, but they told me that the flight was run by Virgin airlines and sure enough the Carters finally found Sister Siale on a Virgin flight along with Elders Mooney from the USA and Pemberton from Perth on QANTAS. 

One of the missionaries mentioned they had talked to 3 other Adelaide bound missionaries in Melbourne and President called me again to inquire if others were coming in? I told him "no worries" and assured him that according to my information, everyone else was delayed until next transfer.

Once the Carters got back to the office, after pictures, we began orientation about the same time that the phone rang. Yep, you guessed it! SURPRISE! There were three USA missionaries waiting for Lee (on his second airport trip) in baggage claim but the mission had not been notified from church travel in Salt Lake! That put President Carter and the assistants in a tail spin since we were having dinner in 2 hours and they needed 3 more trainers from 3 different areas and to get the three new trainers to the mission home in time for dinner, and all of this was to occur by inspiration, not perspiration.

Needless to say, President was late getting started on interviews with the 6 new missionaries but it all worked out in the end. We had whole "chooks" (chickens) cut into 8ths, plus tossed green, cole slaw, carrot, and jello salads, and rolls for dinner. Dessert was warm apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.

Lee returned during dinner from his 3rd trip to the Adelaide airport for the day with Elder Villierme-Puputauki returning to Tahiti. The flight didn't leave until 7:45 pm but once they started to board, Lee left. Elder and Sister Hannan transported Sister Van Den Bron to the airport later that evening for her flight home to England via Dubai with a 10:45 pm departure.

There are a million pizza, Italian, and chicken take out places here. We tried the nearest 'charcoal chicken' for the first time and it was okay, but I wouldn't serve it for dinner again. We are already looking ahead to the Christmas menu and zone conference lunch on Boxing Day, when we'll be cooking for 100 each day. No rest for the weary!

Thursday it started to sprinkle as I walked to the office at 8 am. Lee was already gone to the airport with a new missionary being sent to Darwin for his first transfer. I called SLC CDE dept early since I can never seem to catch them during business hours and received the help I needed. Lee brought back two lost luggage items from the airport and the Port Augusta Elders arrived after Lee gave a driving lesson to a new Elder Johnson. Usually missionaries are required to wait at least two transfers for driving privileges, but the new elder's companion doesn't drive, so the exception was necessary for them to drive back to Port Pirie that day.

Elder Gamil came to Adelaide with Mildura missionaries before transfers for the medical part of the visa renewal process. Berri Elders came half way and Elder Hannan went halfway to get Elder Gamil back to Mildura first thing Thursday morning.

With permission, we closed the office for the first time since we've been here for other than a power outage, and loaded the van with senior missionaries for an extended lunch to check out the new Adelaide Costco about a 30 minute drive away. It was raining, crowded inside and outside, and we must have been crazy to think it would be otherwise after just opening two days previous. President and Sister Carter drove separately and were thrilled to experience a piece of home! Sister Carter brought pumpkin pie slices for the office later in the afternoon with thickened cream poured over it.....yum! Lee was in heaven eating the American hotdog served at the Costco food court and I was thankful to have just a few weeks left in Adelaide as motivation NOT to buy everything we saw. We are trying to use whatever is on hand so we resisted, well mostly. Lee had to have a jar of Skippy peanut butter! It was a great field trip although I don't know that the Whites or Hannans, both Australian, were that impressed.

Friday was quiet but I was busy all day. Lee washed President's car but since the forecast was for rain Saturday he didn't do our van. 

Saturday it rained and thundered with lightening, and rained some more! I went food shopping with Lee for supplies for a pasta salad to serve for Sunday lunch and we got drenched getting from the car to the store. It was crowded and busy and wet!

Elder Meurs and the Carters invited the seniors for dinner around the corner at 5:00 pm that night,  but the time and location was changed to downtown Adelaide at 7:30 pm. Parking was a nightmare! We walked two blocks over and 5 blocks down to get back to the van after dinner. The 15 of us had a lovely time eating on an outdoor patio with heaters. The waiter was happy, attentive, and took the complete order without writing down a thing, which I thought was a recipe for disaster. He did return to the table to confirm his memory on paper with only a couple of corrections. He was personable while talking with us about Australia, America, and the church. There is no tipping in Australia so his niceness was genuine and not the result of hoping for a good tip.

Since Sister Carter was a speaker at the quarterly CCM meeting Sunday morning, she asked us to prepare lunch for the 3 stake presidents, 2 district presidents, the area seventy Elder Peter Meurs  (Read all about him HERE) and his wife, and the temple president and his wife, the Carters, and others for a total of 15. The senior sisters made three different salads, along with cold meats, cheese, and rolls. Sister Carter served Costco cheesecake for dessert. We left church after sacrament meeting to assemble, set tables, make drinks, and be ready to serve by noon. Sister Carter came home shortly before and she said we didn't have to come back as planned afterward for clean up.

Sacrament meeting was on the importance of a living Prophet. One talk was specifically about Thomas S Monson. The final speaker was a return missionary sister who served in Taiwan. She was darling and her message powerful by sharing mission experiences related to her testimony. It was very nicely done!

Had a delicious Sunday rest. I finished making cookies to take with our invitations to the special sacrament meeting 30 November and punched and trimmed scripture cards. I'm almost finished with that project, and you've seen the bookmarks completed. And we still have a week left before Dec. It's good to feel ahead of the game!

The weekend went fast! As I mentioned it rained cats and dogs Saturday but was in the mid 80s on Sunday. We made it through another transfer! It's hard to believe, but our number is 1! That means we only have one transfer left in mission lingo.