Janet: Part of my contribution to a portion of my mom and dad's large posterity.
LEARNING LIFE LESSONS PLAYING TENNIS WITH THE MISSIONARIES in the early morning of November 1. What a special time! They also sang happy birthday to our granddaughter, Abigail (Oct. 31 in America)
On the night of November 1, I (Janet) flew home to the U.S. to attend my mother's funeral. Sweet Tony gave me a beautiful blessing and I was so blessed to have 4 seats both ways on the flight from Melbourne to San Fransico so I could lay down. It was still hard, but so much better than our flight when we first came. He held down the fort while I was gone for 10 days.
Dad and Mom's 7 gorgeous children (ha ha) We do all love each other heaps!
Here’s the 5-generation picture that we hoped to get before Grandma Glauser passed into the spirit world – a little bit different than planned. But maybe grandma and Janill’s little girl are being blessed with a few months together before she comes to earth. That is, if the spirit world people mingle with the pre-mortal world people.
A highlight for me was to see my 2 new grandsons. Hyrum in the front and Ezekiel in the back. Spending time with all the kiddos was heavenly. If was so fun to play basketball at the church, and have deep talks, and eat fabulous food, and fast and pray together. We missed some of the Johnsons, Meagan and kids, and Tony.
It was fun to see the new Tooele temple coming to completion
DEPARTING MISSION SEMINAR
While I was at Mom’s funeral, Tony was conducting our departing missionary seminar
Some great Emotional Resilience training Groups:
November 6, 2023 Elder Kahmann's 2 groups by himself
Nov. 13, North Coast and Yanship (forgot to take picture) boohoo
Heathridge and Joondalup Districts (November 13, 2023) Front row: Sister Larsen, Sister West, Sister Gillins, Sister Willis, Elder Bradford, Elder Tehaamonana (DL): Back row: Elder Tupaa, Elder Batiri (pronounced Basiri- from Kiribati pronounced Kirabis) Elder Steers, Elder McDowell, Elder Guillermo, Elder Jensen (DL)
Ballajura and Bellevue Districts (November 20, 2023) Elders: Williams, Platt, Payne, Arbutante, Wilding, Smith, Laulu, Wright; Sisters: Whitney, Burke, Thorton, and Ambrose
Dianella District (November 20, 2023) Elders: Linder, Kennedy, Manning, Whiting (AP), Mapa(AP), Sister Ariitai David, Sister Wasden (from our ward in Pleasant View), Elder Johnson, Elder Anderson
Emotional Resilience Training (November 27, 2023)
Elders: Wright, President Hinkley’s great grandson who is in our mission.
Today, the Elders and sisters were going around the table taking turns reading from the adjusting to missionary life and it landed on Elder Wright when we came to President Hinkley’s story about his mission. The whole group was super excited about this coincidence and we decided to video him reading his great grandfather’s story. What a sweet memory!
November 27, 2023 Armadale district: Elders Hutchins and Swenson (ZL's), Sister Heap, Sister Bramwell, Elders: Hittle, Chin Kouin Cheng, Tanag, and Allen
November 29, 2023 Pilbara, Wheatbelt, Geraldton
Elders: Saipa'ia (DL), Putnam, Deinert, Neumann (DL), Wolfgramm, Vaka, Tafiti, Tuilimu (DL)
Sisters: Frey, Manakofua, Singh, Grant, Biribo, Smith
NOVEMBER 14, 2023: BYU Hawaii Devotional
In Perth, we sponsored and helped with 2 devotionals for all Pacific area missionaries and YSA
They gave Elder Kahmann this cool yellow tie and me some Hawaiian chocolates. The devotionals turned out successful. We were so relieved.
November 23, 2023 Celebrating Thanksgiving with the Stones and Senior Couples close to mission home
Thanksgiving at President and Sister Stone’s mission home with some of the senior couples. From Left, Tony and I, Peter, President Stone’s twin brother, Sister and President Stone, the Hadfields, the Grinceri’s (front), Smith’s (back), the MacDonald’s, and the Jose’s. The dinner was fabulous. We took bacon and broccoli salad and a dairy free Jello salad. (Both were a hit) My highlight was President Stone’s picture activity. He had a big stack of random pictures and we had to relate the picture to something we were thankful for. There was a picture of lipstick. I got to tell the story of mom wearing lipstick every Monday night for Family Home Evening, showing her children how important they were to her, as told by Vicki at mom's funeral.
Our Friend Daniel Ogborn. A very brilliant man getting his PhD, but struggles with people with low IQ's. We are honored to be his friends.
Saturday, November 25, 2023. Andrew and Kara, some friends who are dating each other. Enjoyed the temple and lunch with them.
Sunday, November 26, 2023
This is a cute couple, Brother and Sister Kemp, we met in Merriwa ward. We thought it was cool how we were couples who matched each other. They had 4 little kids standing around, and their names were Elijah, Benjamin, Sam, and Daniel. Matching names with our grandkids. LOVED IT!!!! We trained the Merriwa ward in ward council and spoke in sacrament meeting. I also got to give the YW and YM some tips on dealing with anxiety in school during their classes. That was fun.
The Smith's from Melbourne, our WSR cohorts, came to visit us. They showed up at Merriwa ward and joined us for Sunday dinner and a fun walk in the Pinaroo cemetary to visit the kangaroos.
This spider was on my neck when I woke up one Monday morning. It's was horrible. Thankfully, I was ok. We had to do ER training the whole day.
On Tuesday, November 28, we had the most wonderful P-Day with the Smiths. We rented E-bikes and biked all along the coast. The guy at the bike shop told us the safest and best beach to swim at was Cottesloe (because they have a shark net). So off we went. Super fun! A week later, someone told us that Cottlesloe is where they have had the most shark attacks .
But this was the most marvelous swim. I'm glad we thought it was safe with the shark nets and didn't worry.
Sister Smith - a true kindred spirit!
We ate the most delicious lunch. Just a sample view.
ZONE CONFERENCE (November 30 and December 1)
Sister Smith asked Tony and I to sing a Christmas song with President and Sister Stone. We chose "Guard Him, Joseph" It was so fun! The day that we were singing this beautiful song, we had just become great grandparents to this beautiful little girl.
Elder Smith, our housing guy. This was so fun! His presentations are always delightful.
Our food was spectacular!
This QR Code below shows what doctrinal point testing is like at zone conference. In the past conferences everyone is tested. But in this one, only 12 people were picked out of big bowl of raffle tickets from 120 YOUNG missionaries. They didn't know the raffle drawing was to be tested. They thought it was for some prize. I was the only senior missionary. Pretty scary for everyone that gets picked. It was pitiful how my mind went blank. But I totally felt the love and support of those young missionaries, and of Heavenly Father that day. I was glad that Elder Kahmann recorded this, as memorizing the doctrinal points with the young missionaries has been such a highlight of the mission for me.
UPDATES ON OUR FRIENDS IN INDIA
Amit:
We have stayed in touch periodically with Amit. He’s remained faithful in attending his branch sacrament meetings (via Zoom). He was excited to receive an invitation to speak in his sacrament meeting, which he did on a recent Sunday. His topic was Prayer. He sent us a copy of his talk. He was quite proud of it, and we were delighted to see how his understandings of prayer and his relationships with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are increasing. He also watched General Conference!
In a recent discussion we gained an insight from him on marriage traditions in India, and how most parents pretty much control the selection of spouses for their children. As children attain marriageable age, their parents draft resumes, or more accurately, pedigrees (for lack of a better term) for each child. It includes not only the educational and work accomplishments of their child, but also much detail on parents and both sets of grandparents; a true pedigree, inclusive of all their accomplishments. While that was fascinating to learn, what was more interesting (and complicating for those who leave the Hindu faith) is that if/when the parents and grandparents leave Hinduism, as has occurred with Amit joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his new religion can be viewed as a major black mark on their children’s resume/pedigree, particularly in Amit’s case as his children are Hindu and have no interest at present in the Church. Although Amit considered the pros and cons before he joined the Church, his wife, Het, does not want to do anything that would spoil “matches” for their children, and thus has no interest in seriously considering the gospel until after her children are successfully married.
Arvind:
We have enjoyed our serendipitous friendship with “Arvind” (just sharing his first name), who also lives in India. We became acquainted with him as he is Amit’s Minister in their Elders Quorum. Arvind lives about 1,000km away (in Punjab), so his contacts with Amit are either via phone or email. Nonetheless, Arvind is a very faithful member of the Church, a convert within the last 2-3 years, and also the only member in his city. He is a teacher in a government-funded elementary school and struggles with the low wages. He’s prayerfully decided to resign from his job and focus his energies on preparing for and passing an education certification exam, which when accomplished will enable him to teach in college/university, with both government and private institutions, and at higher salary. He and his wife have great faith. His parents have gifted them some financial assets that have helped Arvind and his family to get started in their marriage and family; his father also had and used some influence to get Arvind his current job. Such parental help, however, has also been given with some strings attached; i.e. his parents want to be counselled with, and give their approval, on any and all decisions Arvind and his wife make with the assets they’ve been gifted. Apparently this is not uncommon in India, but is creating problems for Arvind as he seeks to be self-reliant and use the “gift” as he understood it to be independent of parental control or compulsion. This has given us an interesting view into Indian society and the dynamics of family relationships and some of the challenges that new members have in joining the Church there. We talk to him about once a month, and we have been honored and humbled to be both listeners and counselors as he has asked for advice. He, like Amit, is truly a pioneer in his city and community.
Here is a recent update on Arvind and his family. To become and remain self-reliant and independent from his parents, he and his wife, Raman, prayerfully decided to move from Punjab to Delhi to pursue better work opportunities as well as his continuing education/certification. They arrived in Delhi last week, and Arvind checked in by phone to provide an update and counsel with us on a few issues. The branch in India they had been attending remotely via Zoom is located in Delhi; in fact, their meetinghouse is just a few blocks from their apartment. They are thrilled with their new ability to attend church in-person and to be so close. We are so excited for Arvind’s future and the contributions he will be able to make for his family and the growth of the Church in India.
It is truly marvelous to see the Lord’s hand in bringing people together; we are so blessed to be a part of both Amit’s and Arvind’s lives in faraway India. We never imagined that our mission in Australia would lead us to these two wonderful members.
FAMILY NEWS!!!
Welcome to mortality, absolutely adorable, precious, life changing, little Luna! So happy for you Devin and Janill, and for everyone of us!
Baby girl came 3 weeks early and we couldn’t be more happy!! We love her so much! God know what’s best and I didn’t have this in mind but everyday He shows me that this is how it was supposed to happen! Gods plan is amazing and I’m so glad I get to be sealed to my cute little family for eternity! I’m grateful for the gift and responsibility I have to be a mom. This is what I’ve always wanted to be and I can’t believe it’s happening already! Thanks for all the prayers, love and support!
Also happy anniversary Devin Lott you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me and it’s been such an amazing year!! Watching you become a dad has been the sweetest thing ever. You are so good to me and our sweet little girl! I love you so much and can’t wait for all the adventures we’re going to have!!! (Janill)
Congratulations cute new grandma Wardle
AHHHH!!!! That makes us GREAT GRANDPARENTS! How fun is that!!!!
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