Chermside and Potlucks

All of the senior missionaries in the mission office are in the Chermside Ward, Brisbane Stake.  Chermside is one of the suburbs here in Brisbane and is north of us and the mission office in Ascot.  It's a small ward by Utah standards and is primarily Polynesians from all over the Pacific.  This is both new and exciting for us!  The pews in the chapel are not tied down and so they move if you squirm too much!  As senior missionaries we don't have access to Tools for our ward because our memberships are not transferred--they stay in our home ward.  I asked the ward clerk to print me up a roster of the ward so I could learn everyone's names.  It's working really great and Tim and I go around and shake hands and meet everyone before church starts.  The first person who befriended me is named Inga.  She does not look like an "Inga"--she's Tongan but her grandfather is Danish! She is the bishop's wife and she's great.

For Ward Conference we had a potluck lunch.  It was a great time to visit and get to know everybody.  I met a Persian woman named Ella.  She's 40 years old and says everyone thinks she's Hispanic and speaks to her in Spanish.  She is beautiful!  She has a 10-year-old son named Oliver who plays soccer.  I told her I have a 10-year-old grandson named Oliver who plays soccer and showed her of picture of him.

Tim made green chile enchiladas which were a great hit at the potluck and which disappeared in no time!  They were delicious.  Cooking continues to be a challenge here because we can't find ingredients.  There are no green chiles here so Tim used a green chile salsa that they have here.

We've started inviting people over to eat now that we've figured out a few things.  The oven is alien to us. I had to look up the owner's manual online to figure out what all the symbols mean.  President Pittman, of the mission presidency, and his wife gave us a little Australia 101 class and we all asked her about the ovens and she told us which setting to use.  Phew!

I love how they rate avocados here!  Eat today, Ready in 1 day, Ready in 2 days!  Yum! I can never find an avocado I can eat the same day in the States!