We Are Here Finally!

View from our patio

Our apartment is called a flat.  We're on the first floor.

Our first Zone Conference.

Brisbane from Kangaroo Point.  The temple is across the street!

Brisbane Australia Temple will be 20 years old this June.  It is the newest temple in Australia.

Sorry I didn't post last Sunday but I was pretty overwhelmed with a new country and continent! Still battling jetlag!  Everyone says it takes about two weeks to shake off the jetlag.  We were sitting either on the plane or in airport for 20 hours!

It's beautiful here and everything is new and different from the light switches to driving on the left side of the road.  I got a little dizzy the first few times in the car and I was just a passenger!  A Senior Couple was assigned to give us driving lessons.  Tim was awesome since he drove on the left side in Africa.  I was a bit more challenged but did better than I thought I would.  We drove around in neighborhoods to be safe.  I think I'm ready to drive to work which is only a few blocks away but the motorway (highway, interstate) will have to wait!

  

Everyone in the mission office is great and so understanding of being new.  The Grangers are the couple we will be replacing April 6 and we've been assigned just housing instead of housing AND vehicles.  Another couple arrived this last week to take over the vehicles.  That is a big relief.  Everyone at the MTC said one couple doing both is next to impossible.  

Shopping at the grocery store has been different.  We get a lot of strange looks when we ask for things like powdered lemonade mix or spaghetti sauce powder mix.  Tomato sauce is ketchup here which surprised us when Tim made enchiladas with it!  They have a lot of Old El Paso and Mission products here and they even have El Pato--our favorite chili sauce!!!  They have gluten-free tortillas but not the Mission brand I love.

Our apartment is very nice:  two bedrooms and two bathrooms or toilets as they say here.  We're just starting to get settled now and have found a place for almost everything.  The malls here are crazy--they even include grocery stores.  The second largest mall in the southern hemisphere is here in Brisbane.  We have only been to the "fringes" of this mall and haven't dived in to the nitty gritty.  Target, Costco, Kmart, KFC, and McDonalds are all alive and well in Australia.  And...no plastic bags here.  You have to either buy reusable bags or bring your own each time you go to a store.  We keep them in the car but still forget to take them into the stores!

We were given a large Kia Staria to drive.  It's a van and apparently we will need it to haul furniture and beds around.  We are expecting 19 new missionaries the first part of April!  We have 70 housing units.  It's going to be a big job and I hope Elder Bond and I can learn the ropes fast!

Love to all!