Month: September 2025

Many of you have asked what the house is like that we are living in. We live in a nice area called Forest Lake, a suburb 35 to 45 minutes (depending on traffic) southwest from downtown Brisbane. About two or three minutes from our house is the beautiful Forest Lake, which has a shaded covered concrete courtyard, benches, bridges, lookout areas, a dragon fountain and tons of beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers.

The lake attracts lots of families…has a play ground for children…also attracts friendly people…many from all over the world and many of them walking their dogs. As we walk around the lake, Elder Nelson and I have talked with quite a few people. They are so fun to talk to! We love to hear their accents and talk with them about their cute dogs. We have met “Oliver” an adorable little brown dog with a fan tail and “Winston” a fluffy white dog, who was enjoying his afternoon in a doggie stroller, covered in a soft blanket.

We love to walk around Forest Lake several times a week to get some exercise and soak up the sun. It is a relaxing walk and as we walk, we can watch the pelicans and black swans swimming around and also enjoy lots of different variety of birds that are often noisy.

Side Note: So many of the Brisbane suburbs are so pretty! We love driving around and exploring! Some of the suburbs have really fun names like “Indooroopilly,” “Sinnamon Park,” “Kangaroo Point” (where the Brisbane Temple is located) or “Woolloongabba,’ which are remembering and honoring their Indigenous ! Oh! I want to mention, that not far from Forest Lake, maybe ten or fifteen minutes, is the Mount Gravatt Lookout that has a breathtaking view of Brisbane!

Our Forest Lake house is located at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac on Stanford Place. We are not sure when the house was built, my guess would possibly be the mid 1970’s or so. The high school football rugby / field is right next to the curve of the cul-de-sac. Like I said, it is quiet and not a lot of traffic. Actually, I should mention, we do have noise…we enjoy very noisy, loud birds that love to sing, chirp and whistle…all day long!

The house has a nice front and back yard with several tropical palm trees out front. It also has a two-car garage with a curved driveway.

We have tried to make the house more homey by purchasing a small white Christus, two Ikea chairs that bounce, a futon couch, two posters, a new picture of our Savior smiling and we now have a large family picture displayed. We also purchased new duvet bedding and sheets for the master bedroom and new duvet bedding and sheets for the other bedroom that has a queen size bed in it. It is feeling much more like home and we feel so, so very grateful to be here!

When we first moved in the house on June 6th, the kitchen ceiling had a large mold spot, but Elder Nelson was able to get it cleaned up.

After three months of being here, the owner was kind enough to replace the old stovetop that was leaking gas, plus some of the back burners would turn on when the front burner was used and then wouldn’t turn off when the front burner was turned off. So last week, we got the new stovetop installed and it is so nice to have! The extra bathroom “smelly” issue coming from the drain in the floor has now been taken care of by a plumber, so YES, it is now feeling more homey…and again, we are grateful to live in a nice, beautiful suburb of Brisbane!

The furnished house has four bedrooms…a Master bedroom, a second bedroom with twin beds, a back bedroom with a Queen bed and a very small bedroom that has no beds and is only used for storage. The master bedroom has windows covering one wall that allows a view of the front yard. Each window has a hand crank system that lowers or raises a metal blind on the outside of the house for privacy. The house also has a family room (with a flat screen TV) off the kitchen, an office area and a covered patio. There is a second bath with a mini tub plus a shower…and the toilet is on the other side of the wall next to the laundry room.

We have a washer inside the house and the dryer is outside the house on the patio. We have a dishwasher but instead of using it, we hand wash our dishes. We also have two refrigerators, which we love and they come in handy all the time.

We are fully stocked with kitchen towels, bath towels, pots, pans, bakeware, silverware, knives, mixing bowls, plates, cereal bowls, large drink glasses and small juice glasses, tons of small appliances like an air fryer, rice cooker, toaster, hand mixer and we purchased a new blender.

We absolutely LOVE Brisbane…it is a stunning city! And we also absolutely LOVE Australia! Such a beautiful country with gorgeous beaches, cities and countryside! We feel so incredibly blessed to be here! We express our gratitude every day to our Heavenly Father and our Savior that we are here serving, working hard and enjoying this beautiful part of the world!

The Brisbane mission has Transfers every six…and on occasion, around Christmas, seven weeks, always on a Monday morning. A Transfer is when missionaries receive notice on Saturday night that they may possibly be moving to a new flat, a new city, the same city but a new District and possibly be given a new companion to work with.

Transfers are often exciting, nerve racking and a lot of work for those missionaries who are moving. Transfers are a time to gather, to see lots of friends, hugs, excitement and meet new people. And yes, it’s common to be nervous around Transfer time. Our Transfers take place in the underground parking lot underneath the Brisbane Temple located at Kangaroo Point.

In fact, we had a Transfer this morning, August 31, 2025. Elder Nelson and I were up early to help with picking up missionaries and helping transport their suitcases. Out of our District of twelve missionaries, half of them were transferred. It was very hard to see so many of our wonderful District move on to another area. Elder Nelson and I just LOVE them and we have grown with them and have shared so many wonderful, fun experiences together. They will most certainly be missed! But the amazing thing that happens, as soon as we meet our six new missionaries, we love them also!

This morning, at 7:45, we picked up Elder Brady (from Georgia) and Elder West (from Utah) and drove to another flat, picked up more luggage plus a guitar, and then drove 45 minutes to the Brisbane Temple. We had our little white car loaded down, haha.

We gather at the temple parking lot at 9:00 am for about two hours. It is just as fun for us Senior missionaries to see many of the young missionaries, who were once in our District and to visit with them for a few minutes. It is so fun to watch the young missionaries interact with each during these two hours…the Elders ran up to each other and hug, laugh, take pictures and get caught up with friends…the young Sisters do the same hug, laugh, take pictures and get caught up! It is such a fun, joyful experience to watch!