Birthday Wishes

My birthday was this week!  It will be the only birthday I have on our mission. Historically, I have taken my birthday "off" but it landed on the busiest day of the 6 week cycle this year--Week 1, Day 2 = Transfers!  We reported to the Kangaroo Point chapel which shares the lot with the temple. Here's a picture: temple on left, Kangaroo Point chapel on right.  (KP)

 The car park (parking lot) is underground and that is where all the "fun" happens.  So, this was our 6th transfer and they had been taking all day 'til about 4 pm.  The senior missionaries have been trying to improve/shorten the process and it has been better the last two transfers with this one being the most successful!  We were finished by 11:00 am!!!  It was great!  Even the mission president was impressed.  On Day 1 of the transfer, all the new missionaries arrive and on day two it is transfers for the rest of the mission.  The mission president is busy interviewing all of the new missionaries so he doesn't see what goes on downstairs in the garage.  It is a flurry of suitcases, bedding bags, elder and sisters everywhere getting new flat keys, new car keys, and paying traffic infractions (tickets)!  The missionaries get to see missionaries from the entire mission and so it's one big reunion with lots of hugging and talking!  It's very loud. 

One change we made was having them drive up, unload all the luggage and then park.  We have about 6 parking spaces that we reserve for the luggage and bedding bags.  This eliminates them having to go find the person with the car keys so they can get their luggage out.  Also, the northern missionaries coming back would have to go to the mission home, about 5 miles away, to pick up their extra luggage which they had to leave behind because they're only allowed one suitcase when they fly north.  After one transfer where we had to run back and forth to the mission home so missionaries could get their luggage I thought, "This is ridiculous!"  I asked the office elders if we could just transport the northerner's luggage to transfers and put it with all the other luggage.  HUGE improvement and no running around.

This is Elder Brown from Highlands, Utah.  We are second cousins, 4 times removed!  We did a search on Family Tree and ended up being related.  My maiden name was Brown.  We have the same great-grandfather, Captain James Brown!!! He works in the office with us.

After all the craziness of transfers, we went to the Pineapple Hotel, just a block away, for birthday steak lunch!  Later, we went downtown and rode the Brisbane Wheel which I've been wanting to ride since we got here! The views were spectacular!

Also this week, we got trained on the Giving Machine for Christmas! I'm so excited.  Our shift is actually next week!  The charities are all Australian so no chickens, goats, and pigs for other countries like we have in Utah!  Heehee.

We love you and miss you and your sweet families!  Thanks for your prayers.