The Moon and Other Observations

The first time we were out at night and I looked at the moon it looked wrong!  It looks like it is reclining.  You scientific types are probably saying, "Well, yeah!  You are viewing it from 'down under'!"  Just another interesting difference down here.  Also, it's hard to think that down south is cold and up north is warm.  Most of the time it doesn't feel any different down here until a kangaroo hops across the road!  Got to see several kangaroos on our trip up north to Kingaroy.  We actually spent the night there so we could be there early in the morning to receive appliances.

This last week, Week 4, we didn't have Zone Conferences as usual because our president was going up north to visit the North Queensland Zone.  It is so far up there, 22-hour drive to 

Cairns (circled), that he and his wife have to fly!  And that's not even the top of the mission.  So we're at the bottom of the mission.  Here's a map of the 5 zones in our mission:  North Queensland, Ipswich, Brisbane, Logan, Gold Coast.  As you can see, the north zone is the largest but the zones on the southeast coast are the most populous.  Our mission is the size of two Texas' and Australia is the same size as the United States!

   

Sadness this week saying goodbye to Sister Patricia Holland.  I attended BYU under both President Dallin H. Oaks and President Jeffrey R. Holland.  Sister Holland was very involved in everything and I will remember her fondly.

Also, a senior missionary couple were in a fatal accident in Vanuatu which really shook me.  They were in a head-on collision and Sister Marina Carver did not survive it.  Elder Richard Carver was flown here to a hospital in Brisbane and then stayed at our mission home until he was well enough to fly home to Riverton, Utah.  Three of his sons flew here immediately and helped take care of him.

                 

A sad week that hit too close to home.  Sister Carver was one of us. 

I'll end with some fun pics I took this week as we travelled around looking at flats.

            

                             

   

                                                            Complicated roundabouts!

                             

                                Look at these lines!  They look like combs!  No passing zone.

                                                                 Trees in roundabouts!