Not only did I finally see a kookaburra in the old gum tree, but . . . . . . . . . . .
I saw two! We can moan about all our problems in life, or we can sing or laugh or just be still, like these beautiful birds.
This month, I just had to get something off my chest. It was a mole. Hopefully, I made you laugh. I wanted to take it off with blood root or a banana peel, but Elder Kahmann insisted that I let a doctor take care of it. I'm pretty sure this is the most stressful thing that I have had to deal with on the mission. About 7 or 8 stinging shots, and then the doctor sliced it off. The sting was similar to the nasty bee sting I got in the pool months ago (times 7 or 8).
2. Just a few weeks before this, I was having severe neck and shoulder pain. After North Coast's Saturday night session of stake conference, some special young elder's helped Elder Kahmann give me a blessing of healing. An Elder from Kiribati, (pronounced Keerabus) named Elder Batiri (pronounced Baseri) sealed the annointing with a beautiful blessing of healing. My pain completely left.
Elder Itimaata Batiri
It was so special to have Elder Batiri from Kiribati give me a blessing, I chose him, because our visiting general authority seventy was Elder Tune (pronounced Tunay) from Kiribati. This was the very first blessing he has ever given. That made it more special.
And 3. I experienced another mission mishap that is actually kind of funny in retrospect, but it wasn't funny at the time. I was reciting my doctrinal points on a walk one morning. It was a little later than I usually walk, because it's fall here and starting to get colder. It was around the time that the kids were going to school in the neighborhood. I was on the doctrinal point about "the fall of Adam and Eve." All of a sudden, a little 4 or 5 year old kid rammed into my body from the back riding his bike at full speed on the sidewalk I was walking on. It knocked him over and knocked me over on top of him. It was horrible. He started screaming and crying and I wanted to cry. It hurt bad. Soon his mother caught up as we were sprawled out in a tangle. She profusely apologized. We comforted her son and everything was ok. But boy, do I have major bruises all up and down on my right leg. We could have both been hurt bad. I am go thankful and GLAD that we were not. But it makes for a good story that occurred while I was reciting my doctrinal point about "the fall". My quick witted friend (Cindy) asked me if the little boy's name that ran into me was Adam.
Pretty UGLY, I know!
Going back to March 1, here's the second day of our amazing zone conference with Elder and Sister Meurs.
We got to do some "real plays" with Elder and Sister Meurs about the new ministering initiative for one-on-ones. We also got to listen to Elder and Sister Meurs in three sessions of stake conference in Rockingham Stake the weekend before zone conference. He talked about the need to have more of a focus on temple covenants. The Church is now allowing young adults to receive their endowments, if they are ready, at age 18 and graduated from high school.
Our North Coast Stake Presidency with Elder Tune from Kiribati.
Julia remembered him, and sent us a picture of her when she was teaching at Moroni High, and in the picture was a boy who is now his son-in-law. He also remembered Grandpa and Grandma Glauser. When President Hinkley flew into Fiji, he was the translator for him. We love all our Stake Conferences that we get to attend.
Departing - our dear friends, the Poulsen's. They spoke in stake conference. What an amazing, inspirational couple they are. They served all 18 months in the Geraldton Branch; they were key to some amazing growth while they were there; in 2023 they had 29 baptisms!
DEPARTING MISSIONARY SEMINAR (8 beautiful sisters)
What a beautiful and powerful group of sisters returning home to take the next step in their eternal progression.
Sister Paletu'a
Our departing sisters with Sister and President Stone
Our fabulous couples departing! It is sad to see them go. They have been part of miracles where they have served.
Elder Poulsen served as the Branch President in Geraldton. With the help of the fabulous young elders and sisters, they were able to grow this branch. They worked with many from the Aboriginal population. They loved it there so much.
The Davenports had an experience of taking the young missionaries to breakfast at a cafe one morning. A gentleman noticed them and watched them without their knowing. He was looking for something that was missing in his life. He saw something in theirs that he wanted. He saw their tags and found the church and showed up the next day. He kept coming and soon took the lessons and was baptized. What an example of how our examples can really have an impact on people.
A lady in our ward, named Sister Ferster passed away. We met her husband at stake conference and decided to go to her funeral that week. During the funeral we learned that the Ferster's are good friends with this famous singer in Ireland, named Daniel O'Donnell (pictured above). He had a concert in Perth the night before the funeral and ended up staying an extra day so that he could attend. They acknowledged that he was in the audience, and he happened to be sitting right behind us. As part of the funeral, time was given for anyone to get up and share their thoughts about Heidi. I turned around and whispered to Daniel O'Donnell that he should go up and sing for us. He did. He sang a beautiful song in tribute to Heidi. Knowing we had to leave right after the closing prayer, I quickly wrote a note on a pass-along card telling him how beautiful his song was, and tucked it into the little Book of Mormon I carry in my purse, and gave it to him. He whispered "thank you so much!" A few days later, we made some delicious split pea and ham soup and decided to take some to Brother Ferster. We had a delightful evening learning all about him and his wife. We also sang some hymns together. And, Brother Ferster sang some country songs for us playing the guitar. It was so sweet. He and his wife did an addiction recovery mission for about 14 years. He is still a resource for that. He was a recovering alcoholic and turned his life around. Very inspiring story.
EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE TRAINING
March 4, 2024 Como (Southern River) Elder Steers, Mahaffey, Sisters Gillins, Talbot, Elders Valdez (DL) and Stabler
What a spiritual feast this session was! March 18, 2024 9:30
North Coast and Yanchep Districts: Sisters Robbins, Biribo, Royer-Tepa, Johns, Toala, and Call. Elders: Tanag (ZL), Masima (ZL) (DL), Robison(DL) and Staley
March 18, 2024 11:30 Heathridge Joondalup Districts: Elders: Nuemann, Arbutante, Hill (DL), Tuilimu ((DL), Hu'ihahau, Laulu, Johnson, Tauhalaliku, Sisters: Ballantyne, Curtis
March 25, 2024 9:30 Ballajura, Bellevue (Dianella District) Sisters: Burke(STL), Britton, Eders: Hill, Smith (DL) Sisters: Zinck, Speelmon, Elders: Steers, Vaka (DL), Tehaamoana, Platt and standing: Elder Deinert and Wolfgramm in front of him.
March 25: Dianella District: Sisters: Lutui, Grant (STL's) Elders: Chin Koun Cheng (DL), Bingham, Moala, Wright, Sisters: Ariitai-David and Willis.
A beautiful lone duck standing in the park one morning.
Off to the big city for a fabulous dinner gifted to us by Keith and Cherie Kahmann!
Thanks you guys! It was fabulous!
Steak and potatoes, broccolini grilled with cashews, and Kangaroo loin; all to die for.
We had a lot of fun on this adventure! It's pretty crazy trying to park in downtown Perth. We laughed our heads off trying to find a parking spot, and not miss our reservation. After dinner, we went down this "path" that had some really fun shops.
Check out this cool rubbish bin decorated with beautiful Aboriginal artwork
March 17: A very full Sunday. We spoke at Armadale Ward and did a 2nd hour presentation, then trained Thornlie Ward leaders on some self-reliance principles and practices.
Geoffrey Holloways' birthday, on St. Patrick's Day
The second hour we did in Armadale ward on March 17, proved to be particularly incredible. We have been teaching a lot of 2nd hours on Family Councils with wards and branches since July or August of 2023. And we really love doing them. Our goal is to motivate families to have good family councils on a regular basis, as taught by President Ballard several years ago. He teaches about the four types:
We try to have either a couple or a parent and youth stand in front of the group and demonstrate as we teach about a three step process of healthy communication in a family council, which encourages sincerely listening, no judgment, feeling safe, speaking respectfully, etc. In this particular ward, we had a father and his two sons who were in the audience come up. The first step is to talk about what is going right in the relationships. The second is to express appreciations for each other. The third step is to work on what we can improve on in our family. When the father's two sons expressed their appreciations for their dad, he began to cry. The spirit was palpable. We looked out over a chapel full of people who had tears in their eyes. It was such a demonstration of what expressions of appreciations can do for people in a family. We felt an outpouring of the spirit and appreciated people expressing the desire to make more of an effort to have regular family councils.
Bishop and Sister Nicomedes invited us over for dinner after our training in Thornlie ward. What a great afternoon, learning all about their lives. He is from the Philippines. She is Asian, but born and raised on Christmas Island (legally part of Australia). He trained for seven years to be a dentist in the Philippines and practiced for three years. He then moved to Australia. He would have had to start all over on his education to practice dentistry here, so he started doing other things. He is an amazing entrepreneur. For the past 16 years he has built a very successful business providing immigration services that benefit both the government and employers in Australia.
Then that night, the RELIEF SOCIETY ANNIVERSARY (MARCH 17, 2024)
Jose, Anouck, Janine, Sister Hussey and her beautiful daughters, Bethany and Sarah, Deb, me and Sister Van Der Linden. As Sisters in Zion, we all work together
Our dear friend and her family: KJ Gasper, her mother, her son Declan. In the back, her daughter, Remi and her son in law, Dylan, and her daughter, Paige. They invited us to their Family Home Evening for dinner and invited us to give them a Come Follow Me lesson.
The infamous Easter Bunny with the Hadfield's
The MISSION OFFICE
I see you in there Cindy!
Sister Burt and Sister Larkin
We invited the Holloway's (Cindy's family) to attend the Ward Easter breakfast that Cindy had volunteered to be the Easter Bunny for. We told them we would pick them up and they happily accepted. They had a great time. The seemed to warm up to all the members and the members loved them. They have agreed to teach line dancing for a ward activity. They are really good at it and have won some awards for their dancing. We were so thrilled. We love them. (Cindy actually did this for two wards that morning! She was HOT!) Everyone loved it.
Sister Ballantyne and Sister Ika
We enjoyed a wonderful temple session, where we like to spend time in the celestial room, each time we go to the temple, praying specifically for each of our children and grandchildren by name. With our combined 16 children, 42 grandchildren, + a spouse to our oldest granddaughter (Devin), + Luna our great granddaughter, it takes us a bit of time. We are so thankful to Heavenly Father for how much he is blessing our family.
We had the Smiths over for dinner this month and the Stones, on different nights (dang, we forgot to take pictures). But we had such great talks! The evenings were wonderful together with such incredible people.
We prepared a wonderful Easter dinner - a lamb roast, mashed combined white and sweet
potatoes and lentil gravy. We invited Sister Harvey and Albert and Gail Griniceri to our home for dinner. (Ahhh, we forgot to take pictures, again. Too busy with the food)
Elder Kahmann and I also played two sets of tennis every Saturday morning in March! 5 Saturdays in a row! He won (beat) the two sets for 3 of the Saturdays. I won (beat) the two sets for 2 of the Saturdays. I'm trying hard to stay equally yoked with him. It is soooo hard. But I have learned so much about tennis and am almost ready to give a church talk about how it is about life. A guy we met on the court taught us how we needed to make an adjustment in our forehand grip. It's a game changer for me.
This is where we spend a few minutes each day! We love this mat! Below is my new back and neck message system that hits me a full force, while filling the pool at the same time.
The Area Mental Health Advisor in Brisbane has started having each mental health advisor from the different missions report the number of missionaries we serve each month. I attend a mission health council with our mission and one with Salt Lake each month as well. Lots of work.
Elder Kahmann is working with all the outgoing missionaries beginning 6 months before they leave in helping them discuss and plan for the education and careers they are thinking about for after the mission. Also contacting any returning missionaries coming home to Perth. Lots of work.
We are still training ward leaders on using the WSR plan form for welfare needs in their wards.
An epilogue Tony's Missionary Escort story from last July
Sister Kahmann mentioned her periodic Zoom meetings with the mental health associates at Church headquarters. During this last one, in March, an update was given on the status of the project to establish a new, "best practice" for escorting missionaries home who suffer from mental health conditions. True to their commitment, Salt Lake has developed a new protocol which requires two escorts (rather than one), and of the two, one must be a medical professional. This project was triggered by my rather challenging experience last July, in which I served as a solo escort to a young elder who suffered from severe mental health issues. A letter written by my daughter, Julia, coupled with our recounting of the extraordinary events, motivated the senior mental health staff to develop what should soon be a uniform, world-wide policy.
Update on Careers Pacific Initiative
A year ago (March 2023) we received some initial training on the roll-out of the Careers Pacific initiative, which focuses on providing 1:1 support for YA and YSA in their planning for education and career. The plan development was given by the Area Presidency to the Pacific Area Welfare Self-Reliance management team, and we as missionaries became involved when they chose to launch it. The roll-out has had a few unexpected bumps and turns, but we've reached a point where we feel like we're finally seeing some tangible benefits in the lives of our YSA and YA, and especially missionaries who have either returned to Western Australia from their areas of service, or those serving in WA that are returning home. With our departing missionaries, we are now reaching out to them as much as six months prior to their release dates, to inquire about their education/career planning and offer assistance. We also make additional contacts with them at three, two and one month intervals before they leave. Prior to this new protocol we were engaging with each departing missionary only at the beginning of their last transfer (six weeks prior to departure), so these additional milestones give us much more time to work with and support them with their goals.
Love you all!
Comments