PetersonAustraliaMission

  Week 8 Highlights This is the Brisbane North District that we  work with.  The district Leader, Elder Addi, is the tallest guy in the picture.  We love these young missionaries and learn from their  examples of faith and dedication to the Lord. They are guileless and their spirits shine forth in their countenances.  I'm not sure they realize how powerful and sweet their spirits are. If anyone they meet listens to them for a few minutes, they would know there is something special about each of them.  It is undeniable.   We have amazing sunrises(and sunsets) in Brisbane.   We performed 3 musical numbers for the Pacific Coordinating Council (PCC) this week.  I was pianist for the choir.  The PCC is the Mission Presidents in the Pacific Area, along with 4 general authorities, from left, Elder Meurs, Elder Nattress, Elder Nash  (Executive Director of the Missionary Department), and Elder Wakolo.  All the Mission Presidents and their wives from the Pacific Area were at the Brisbane Mar

The Garden of Eden Australia never fails to amaze us with the colorful and often unusual flora (and fauna).  This is in our neighborhood.  Those flower bracts are really unusual! Brisbane Botanical Garden is amazing!  We loved walking through just a bit of it.  We had to hike down Mt. Coot-tha to get there.  We hiked 7 miles that day!  How do you like Elder Peterson's Aussie hat?! It's a jungle out here!  Saturdays are our prep day and it is nice to be able to wear casual clothing😁 The flowers and the foliage!! We saw this beauty on the hiking trail to the botanical gardens.  He was about 3 feet long. The highlight of the day was seeing these two King parrots, male and female!  They were above us in the trees.  Beautiful colors, not very chatty, though.  Maybe cause we were there! Above is the district of missionaries we serve with;  Brisbane North District!  We love them and learn from them many lessons of love and devotion to the Lord.  As we celebrate Easter, our hearts are

  Week 6 Since our area of responsibility covers 5 stakes and 1 district, we spend a lot of time on the road.  In six weeks we have put 4000km on our brand new mission car.  I navigate, Dale drives (on the left hand side of the road). Brisbane sunset from Joey's restaurant.  Idyllic! Wallaby on the church grounds! Sis. Aukosa (one of 14 missionaries in our district) returns to Auckland, NZ this week.  We will miss her sweet spirit, leadership, and example!  She is on the right of Elder Peterson.  Sis. Unasa will stay and get a new companion this week. How many Aussie insects can you find? Easy to imagine Tarzan just out of frame!  Jungle typical of Australia Oh,  but I am mistaken--here is Tarzan walking on the jungle floor....!   We love serving here in Australia!  The people are kind, loving, and good.  Miracles are happening daily in our mission.  The Lord's hand is in this work, this is our testimony.

  Week 5-Groundhog's Day This is across the street from our flat (that's Aussie for apartment).  Many types of birds live here or stop by.  We've seen the ever popular crows, Australian magpies, kookaburas, lorakeets, cockatoos, and many others we haven't identified yet.  They begin singing very early in the morning, before 5 am because it begins to lighten up before then.    Mt. Coot-tha is the highest point in the city of Brisbane.  If you look closely you can see the Brisbane River that winds through this beautiful city.  There are around 2.6 million people here!  Those from Sydney and Melbourne think Brisbane is country.  PEople from Brisbane think Sydney and MElbourne are way too big as far as cities,  and rude to boot.  We will get a chance to see what Sydney is like since there will be a Welfare and Self-Reliance MEeting there in May.  We are excited to see a bit of Sydney and are sure it will be too short of a visit.  As WSR Missionaries, part of our assignment

  Exciting week This week was Senior MIssionary Conference here in Brisbane.  Missionary couples hosted other missionary couples for the few days of the conference.  We hosted the Smiths who are from Townsville, one of the districts north of us ( 3 days drive) along the eastern coast.  The Smiths treated us to dinner at the Lighthouse restauarant.  We are looking at a crustacean called a "bug".  We had to sample it.  Kind of looked like a horseshoe crab.  We were all unfamiliar with this seafood beauty.  It tasted better than it looked. Here is my friend, Janet, also a WSR missionary, eating the fabulous food prepared for us by another Senior Missionary couple for all the senior missionaries in the mission!  Honestly, we could not have had a more delicious meal anywhere else in the whole of Brisbane!!  Beautiful home, live piano music, wonderful company, a truly great way to kick off the conference. Our Mission President on the far right, Pres. Vongsawad, with Elder Bond (nex

  Week 3 Brisbane We're settled in now and are starting to explore this beautiful part of Australia in which we are serving.  This is from the last week or two, but it was a shot of the city from our mass transit catamaran at night.  The bridges light up and have a wardrobe of colors they can dawn.  Plus, if the buildings want to become part of the night time light show, they can pay a fee and do so.  The rumor is that the bridges and buildings try to coordinate.  Not sure if that is true  or not--it was beautiful this night for sure! After sunset at Pine River.  In the very top of the river you can see a bridge..That is the M1--a major motorway (freeway) into the city.  The tide is out right now. So many flowers here and they all bloom freely.  It's the end of summer and they are all flowering profusely.  There are frangipani, too, which are plumeria in the southwest USA.  They smell heavenly.  The flowers pictured above are not frangipani, but some other popular bush.  Bougai