Elder Duane and Sister Tami Nelson Mission Blog

Australia Brisbane Mission – May 2025-November 2026

We invite you to share our experiences serving as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Brisbane, Australia. We have the privilege of serving as Area Medical Advisor and Assistant for all of the missions in Australia and Papua New Guinea. From May 2025 to November 2026, we will share our fun experiences, growth, challenges, and the joy of serving our Savior.

Author: nelsoneyes

  • My Birthday

    My birthday was sooo very fun and will be one that I will always fondly remember! Duane’s birthday treat to me was to take me to swim / snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef!

    Elder Nelson made all the arrangements, booked a resort to stay at about four and a half hours north of Brisbane in a darling resort town called Bargara, on the edge of a town called Bundaberg. Bundaberg is home to a bottler of ginger beer and other soft drinks. Elder Nelson chose to take me to that area because right off the coast is the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef! We spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday having a great time. Our resort was right on the beach and our room had an ocean view. Sooo cool!

    We arrived around 3:00 pm on Saturday, checked in and once we were settled, we decided to walk along the beach and watched the sunset.

    As we walked along, we noticed hundreds of intricate, unique patterns in the sand, which we thought had to be made from crabs. Elder Nelson actually googled it and found that these very cool patterns were made by crabs called “Sand Bubbler Crabs.” (It said these crabs create intricate, radiating patterns on the beach by feeding on microscopic organisms in the sand. They sift through the sand, eat the nutrients and then discard the waste sand in the form of tiny balls, arranging them in distinctive patterns around their burrows. These patterns are a testament to the crab’s feeding activity and can be quite fascinating to observe.) And yes, it was very intriguing to walk along and see hundreds of these sand ball designs everywhere covering the beach! I don’t recall ever seeing anything like these sand ball designs before our walk that night. On Sunday afternoon, when we spent the afternoon on the beach in lounge chairs, we saw more sand ball designs. No two designs are ever the same! These designs are amazing to walk along the beach and look at!

    As we walked along, we also came upon these words that someone had spelled in the sand, “Jesus Loves You.”

    Sunday, we went to church, and I got to meet a wonderful lady named Sister Greville. She has a granddaughter the same age as my granddaughter Elouise, and as we talked with each other, we started thinking of how much fun it would be for our two granddaughters to be pen pals! We exchanged pictures, addresses and information about our granddaughters and we are now hoping these two cute girls will have a fun time receiving letters from each other!

    On Monday, July 28th, we had to be up early and out the door by 6:00 a.m. so we could be at the marina at 6:30 a.m. to catch our 7:00 a.m. chartered boat tour to “Lady Musgrave Island.” The boat tour also included snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. That morning, right as we left our room, the sun was rising and it was very beautiful, full of red, orange, pink and purple colors. The sun rise followed us along the coastal highway that we were on, lit our car up with colors and oh, my, it took our breath away! As we drove along, Duane and I kept commenting on how gorgeous the sunrise was and what amazing things the Lord has given us to thrill us and bring us joy…especially when we take the time to notice, appreciate and accept His gift of daily miraculous creation and joy!

    Through that day on our boat and on the Great Barrier Reef, both Duane and I were just amazed we were actually there having that experience! Everything about that day was awesome and so very pleasant! The chartered boat was huge and very comfortable! The seats were soft and reclining. The tour provided lunch and several snacks for us. They told us that during the summer months, their boat takes around 200 people out to Lady Musgrave Island to snorkel. On our tour we had about 30 people.

    The day out to Lady Musgrave Island was sunny, clear blue skies and just perfect! It was a two-hour boat ride to get to the island. The ocean was calm. The people who worked on the boat mentioned several times that it was a great day to snorkel and look at coral, fish, and turtles. On our way out to the island, we saw whales breaching…sooo amazing… and dolphins leaping in the air. So very cool!

    When we got to the island, we secured our tour boat to a pontoon boat. Once we were on the pontoon boat, they then loaded all of us onto a glass bottom boat and we sailed around the small coral island looking at turtles, coral and fish. It was so much fun!

    The glass bottom boat anchored off Lady Musgrave Island and we waded in the ocean to walk onto the island. Our island guide was Bella, a Marine Biologist, who was very nice. She took us on a 45 minute walk around the entire island, telling us all kinds of fun facts like how the huge tree roots have grown down and hooked themselves onto the coral below and over thousands of years, created this little island we were on! Wow! The island was beautiful but the color of the ocean water was a spectacular light turquoise blue! I kept saying to Duane that I couldn’t believe that we were there having a great time on the Great Barrier Reef!

    After our walk around the island, we got back in the glass bottom boat and went back to the pontoon boat. We got in our swimsuits, got on our snorkel gear and flippers, for it was now time to snorkel! The water was very cold, but Elder Nelson didn’t seem to mind it as much. I had my flippers, mask, and snorkel tube on and stepped on the first step down in the water and stopped. To me, it was freezing, since it was July, which is wintertime for this time of year. Duane kept signalling me to get all the way in the water, but I kept shaking my head no. I stood in the water up to my knees and was shivering. I finally took another step down onto the next step and stood there. Again, he waved me to come in. With my snorkel in my mouth, I shook my head no again. I went to step down on the next step down, and somehow in the process, my flipper somewhat slipped and suddenly I was all the way in! Yes! Oh yes, it was freezing, but after a few shocking moments of swimming around, it felt a tad bit warmer to me. It was amazing and peaceful swimming and snorkelling around and just enjoying the moment. It was very fun and relaxing. Both Duane and I loved it! So beautiful out there!

    They gave us two hours to swim and snorkel, which was awesome! The two hours passed quickly and soon it was 3:00 pm and was time to leave, get back on our tour boat and make our way the two hours back to the Bargara shore. It was sad to have this beautiful, perfect day end! If the water had been about 15 or maybe 20 degrees warmer, that would have made it truly a perfect day! Duane and I purchased T-shirts on our tour boat to remind us of this great experience!

    Tuesday, we got up, packed, and drove the four and half hours back home to Brisbane. As we drove we passed a hill that had about 13 kangaroo’s sitting on the hill. How fun to take these incredible memories home with us!

    Thank you so very much Duane for an amazing birthday gift!


    I REALLY LOVED MY WEEKEND SO MUCH!

    WEDNESDAY…

    Wednesday was my actual birthday.

    I received so many birthday wishes from my children, grandchildren and other family members. It was so sweet for me to read their kind expressions of love! My mom called and that was so fun to visit with her!

    When Amy Facetimed, she had Olive and Elsie show me the birthday cards they made for me…absolutely adorable! Love how they made my cards special just for me! Elsie’s card made me cry my heart out! I will post it here…so very tender and from her heart!

    I am so incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful, amazing family! So grateful that they are mine forever! LOVE my children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, Duane’s wonderful family, and all our extended family! I also received a lot of texts and Facebook posts from dear friends and our sweet, wonderful missionaries! How did I ever get to be so blessed and so loved?!

    Right after I Facetimed with Amy and her kiddos, President and Sister Gomez called me and sang the “Birthday Song” to me over the phone and then spent several minutes wishing me a wonderful day! I thanked them several times and told them how much that meant to me! It really did mean so much to me that they would take the time to call me…let alone even remember that today was my birthday! They are so very awesome and Duane and I LOVE them so very much! How very grateful we are that we get to serve with them for the next sixteen months! I know without a doubt that we are supposed to have our mission journey together with them! Love, Love the Gomez’s!!

    Duane and I had a flat inspection of the house we are living in. The lady came at 10:15 am and was very nice. We talked about the gas stove top that needs to be replaced. She said the owners were aware that the stove / burners is not working. We always keep the gas turned off until we want to use the stove, then Duane reaches down under it and turns the gas back on. After we are finished cooking, he turns that gas back off. We also showed her the bathroom in the hallway and how it has a really bad smell in it. We told her how Duane had purchased a drain / pipe cleaner from Bunnings, and it helped for about four days and then the stink returned. When she opened the door, she grimaced and quickly closed the door and said they would try to get someone out to help us with that smell problem. We had a nice visit and then she left.

    Elder Nelson had some emails to return and paperwork to complete and also phone calls to make. He finished all his work around 2:00 p.m. and then surprised me with more birthday surprises. He said he wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday and had made reservations at a water front French restaurant called “La Vue” which is in downtown Brisbane, right on the Brisbane River. The restaurant has an amazing view of the Brisbane River, the Story Bridge and of pedestrians walking along the riverside sidewalk. I was so excited to go to dinner downtown along the Brisbane river! We changed our clothes and then drove over to the Guyatt Park station where we caught the City Cat. As I have mentioned before, it is only .50 cents for each person to ride the City Cat in one direction and then another .50 cents to ride it back. It was so much fun floating down the river and taking in the beautiful downtown Brisbane scene once again!

    We got off the City Cat at the Riverside stop and walked the short distance to the “La Vue” restaurant. They opened their doors at 5:00 pm, so we sat on a park bench and waited for about ten minutes. Our reservation was for 5:00 p.m. Anything later was already reserved for that night.

    The restaurant was wonderful! They seated us at a large window location with a view of the Story Bridge right in front of us with nothing blocking our view! On our table was a card wishing me a happy birthday!

    Not long after we were seated, the sun set and it was stunning to sit and watch the sun go down and watch the gorgeous lights of the city come on in bright whites and colors, bringing the city to life! The Story Bridge was so very pretty! We held hands…so romantic…as we sat and watched cars drive across the Story Bridge and families and pedestrians walk on the sidewalk in front of us.

    I ordered Beef Filet and Duane ordered Pork Medallions. Both entrees were excellent. When they brought my dessert out to me, it had a lit sparkler, which brought a LOT of smiles and joy to me! So very sweet of them! There was also a rectangle piece of chocolate with gold lettering on the chocolate that said “Happy Birthday!” I looked at Duane and told him how much I love him…and how much tonight and the past weekend meant to me! He is such a gift to me! LOVE my handsome guy!

    Wow! Oh wow!

    We walked back to the City Cat holding hands and continued to hold hands as we floated down the river.

    We had only been home about ten minutes when four of our wonderful young Elders came to our house with a birthday cake and “Double Coat Chocolate Tim Tam’s”…my favorite!

    I LOVE those Elders! They are awesome! So fun and thoughtful of them to come by!

    Thank you so much to everyone who made my birthday incredible! I will never forget it…ever!

    Such. a. wonderful. night!

    Such. a. wonderful. day!

    Such. a. wonderful. weekend!

  • Our Weekly Routine

    Several have asked what our typical week is like. In short, we don’t have a “typical week”! Every day and every week is so very different and we have learned we need to be very “fluid” because things suddenly come up and change…constantly! Elder Nelson laughs and has mentioned about a saying he learned while serving in the US Navy…”Be fluid…flexible is too rigid!” But we can honestly say, we LOVE, LOVE all the amazing things that keep us busy each day!

    What has been fun is that we get to serve others in lots of different ways and almost every day we seem to stay busy with lots of different things!


    One consistent part of Elder Nelson’s primary responsibilities is to review missionary applications from prospective missionaries from Australia and Papua New Guinea, young men and young women who are wanting to serve either full-time missions or service missions. Elder Nelson reviews their medical history, summarizes it, and then types up his recommendations. I get to help him with this process, and I enjoy it! It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for each missionary application, and he receives anywhere from one to five (or more) applications per day.

    img_6986
    Elder Nelson reviewing a missionary application who is from Brisbane.


    Starting on Monday, August 11th, we are going to be trained in an eight-lesson mental health/emotional literacy course over the next eight weeks. Once we are trained, we will then teach this course to our missionaries in two nearby zones in a group setting in their weekly District Council Meetings. I’m sure that will keep us very busy, but it is so needed!

    A Zoom training picture of 14 different emotions and how those emotions affect your body.

    Elder Nelson stays very busy working with the seven missions of Australia and Papua New Guinea, advising and helping the mission leaders with all the various medical situations that occur in their missions.

    Elder Nelson talking with the Sydney Mission president about one of his missionaries. Elder Nelson gets these kinds of calls all the time and is so happy to help with medical advice and suggestions.

    Part of our assignment is to tour different hospitals and dental offices to see their facilities, as well as meet with doctors and other providers to establish good relationships and ensure quality medical and dental care for our missionaries. As part of this responsibility, we are privileged to be able to travel throughout Australia and Papua New Guinea.

    A little girl coming into the Rainbow Dental Clinic (an old shipping container converted into a dental clinic) in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
    Elder Alan Colledge with Elder Nelson at the privately owned “2K Medical Center”, one of the better medical facilities in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. It is open 24 hours a day.
    Here is a picture of an open ward, Internal Medicine Ward at the Port Moresby Genral Hospital, a government run hospital.


    Two weeks after we had arrived in Brisbane, our home base, we flew to Papua New Guinea on June 12th, and Elder Nelson and I were able to meet Elder and Sister Colledge. They are currently serving in PNG as Mission Health Adviser and assistant, and were our hosts for a week. Together, we worked for hours performing physicals on Saturday June 14th. Over 400 young men and young women in Papua New Guinea are hoping to serve missions and one of the limiting factors is getting a physical examination.

    Elder Nelson pausing for a quick picture while in the middle of giving dozens of physical exams to young men and young women wanting to submit their mission papers. We were at Popondetta, a large jungle village in Papua New Guinea – PNG.

    Healthcare in PNG is very primitive by our standards and is very difficult to obtain. I was tasked with using the blood pressure cuff. It was a lot of fun for me to measure their blood pressure and their pulse.

    https://videopress.com/v/TBU44kZF?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
    Sister Nelson helping with the medical exams by taking blood pressure and pulse on dozens of young men and young women waiting for their physicals by Elder Nelson and Elder Colledge. These young people want to serve missions for their Savior.

    After I had finished, I looked over and noticed that several little children were gathering around me, hoping they could also have this “cool gadget” put on their wrist for a few seconds. I had a great time with the blood pressure cuff and about ten little children having a fun time getting to use the cuff for the first time.

    This is one of the darling children whose blood pressure I took.

    In July, we were able to travel to Melbourne with the Area Mental Health Adviser, Sister Keil and her husband. Sister Keil presented some training to the new mission leaders, The Andersons, on the eight-week program that helps with mental health management. This is the same eight-week mental health/emotional literacy course that we will be trained in. While in Melbourne, we attended two Zone Conferences which were wonderful and also were able to see a “Penguin Parade,” which was magical to watch! We’ll post further about that. While in Melbourne, Elder Nelson was kept very busy helping medically on several Zoom calls with situations in the other missions.

    Sister at the Melbourne Airport getting ready to fly back to Brisbane.

    On August 15th, we will travel to Adelaide, probably Perth in October and in November we travel to Sydney. We are excited about these upcoming trips.


    To give you an example of how Elder Nelson helps medically, a young Elder missionary tripped and broke off his two front teeth and needed to be seen right away by a dentist. Elder Nelson had to make all the arrangements for that missionary to be seen. This is just one example of many dozens that we have helped with.


    We actually spend quite a bit of time in various Zoom meetings and calls. We have occasional meetings with the Area Presidency, with Mission Leaders, Mission Health Advisors, LDS Family Services, Mental Health Advisors, missionaries, occasionally parents of missionaries, insurance people, public health officials, other doctors and providers, and even with people at church headquarters in Salt Lake.

    One of our many daily Zoom meetings.

    There are also lots and lots of emails, phone calls, and weekly reports to prepare. Never a dull moment!
    We also help with Zone Conference lunches, missionary flat (apartment) inspections, flat repairs…lots of repairs and restocking flat items that are broken or missing. We kind of function as property managers for several flats and end up doing a lot of handyman tasks and repairs.

    Elders eating lunch at the Brisbane North / Ipswich Zone Conference. August 7th, 2025

    Last week Elder Nelson replaced a broken kitchen faucet with a new one and we also spent about three hours trying to find a replacement garage door opener that had fallen out of a missionary’s shirt pocket. We finally found the remote and actually had a tender mercy that instead of paying the $71 dollars to replace it with a new manufacturer opener, the lady said she just happened to have an after-market opener for that garage door, and it was only $20 dollars! Yay! We help advise and oversee a district of about twelve missionaries and attend their weekly District Council Meetings on Tuesdays.

    A really wonderful District Council Meeting (DCM) at the home where Elder Nelson and I live. Our missionaries are so wonderful and dedicated and we had a great time at this DCM! Pizza, watermelon and cookies were served afterwards.


    We have also been asked to help teach some of the missionaries English, which will be a great benefit for them. We have missionaries from all over the world, and for many of them, English is a second language.

    Between all of this, we try to exercise several times a week by either walking around Forest Lake, which is a beautiful lake about a mile from our home. Or we work out at home to a YouTube video where we march, kick, slide and pop up for a two mile workout. Haha. We also find moments to relax and have fun. One of our very favorite things to do is to ride Brisbane’s river “City Cat,” an inexpensive water catamaran taxi system that only costs .50 cents to ride down the hour long river cruise and then .50 cents to ride the hour back. We especially love riding the City Cat at night! The lit up view of Brisbane’s skyscrapers and her nine bridges that the City Cat goes under…especially the 85 year old Story Bridge and the Kangaroo Point Bridge, that are also lit up, it is just a gorgeous, breath taking scene! We could ride the City Cat a thousand times up and down the Brisbane River and it would never disappoint or grow old!

    We also enjoy the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary and “Eat Street”, which is a huge collection of food “trucks” made out of old shipping containers. Every kind of food you can imagine, live music, and a really fun vibe!
    We LOVE Brisbane, we LOVE the people here and love our mission, and feel so very blessed to be here serving our Savior, Jesus Christ!

  • Arrival in Brisbane

    Our flights to Brisbane were uneventful, but very LONG. We first flew to San Francisco where we had a six-hour layover. We did have the chance to meet a wonderful member of the church, who is currently serving as a Bishop of a Tongan ward in Salt Lake. He was traveling to New Zealand to visit family. He had befriended a young man who was attending school in the US on a soccer scholarship and was travelling home to New Zealand for the school holiday. He was not a member of the church, and we were able to have a brief gospel discussion and explain our work as missionaries as we shared a meal with them in the airport in San Francisco. Our flight from San Francisco to Brisbane was fortunately non-stop.


    We arrived in Brisbane on the morning of May 27, 2025. We gathered all our suitcases and then waited about an hour. We were told that someone from the Mission office would be at the airport to greet us and take us to the Mission Office. After about an hour, we called the office and surprised them. They thought we were arriving the next day.


    We were able to meet Sister Widman, the mission office secretary. She picked us up and drove us to the mission office, where we got to meet several other Senior missionaries. We were able to see the Hill’s again. Elder Hill is serving as the vehicle coordinator for the Brisbane Mission. We met them back in December, in Orem, when we went to dinner with Frank and Kathy Edmunds and Dean and Kathy Hill. The Hills are awesome, and we are so to be here with them and to serve with them!


    We had been in the mission office less than five minutes when another couple, Elder and Sister Keil, asked if we wanted to go with them to their District Council Meeting (DCM) in Ipswich and meet their missionaries that they work with. I opened my suitcase right there in the office and grabbed out a dress and closed-toed shoes, since I had just been told that whenever we are in the mission office, we must wear a dress and closed-toed shoes. So, no problem, I grabbed some other clothes out of my suitcase, changed into them in the bathroom and off we went to our very first District Council Meeting.


    Elder Nelson and I LOVED meeting those missionaries for the first time and being with them. Elder Keil taught a lesson on anger as part of their meeting. We did not meet our mission leaders, President and Sister Vongsawad, on our first day because they were up in the northern part of our mission doing interviews with missionaries up there. President wanted to interview his missionaries before his time as a mission president comes to an end, which is the end of June. We finally met them a couple of days later when they took us out to dinner. They are wonderful and we grew to love them in the short time we served with them.

    Our new mission leaders will be President Leo and Sister Kendel Gomez, who are from Liverpool, a suburb of Sydney.


    Our first impressions of Brisbane? We absolutely LOVE Brisbane and feel so very humbled and full of gratitude that we have this mission opportunity! It felt so surreal that we were actually here…driving around…and loving looking at everything as we went along. Even though May is the start of their wintertime, the weather has been deliciously perfect. Mid to high 70’s during the day and mid 50’s at night. Elder Nelson and I keep commenting on how the weather, homes on hillsides and the landscape, trees and flowers remind us so very much of San Diego, or even parts of Florida. It really is beautiful here and the people are so friendly. They love listening to our accent as much as we love listening to theirs! We love how Brisbane is green, lots of tropical trees and flowers everywhere, so yes, we have already fallen in love with this wonderful, vibrant, multi-cultural, beautiful city! Downtown Brisbane is gorgeous and is built along the Brisbane River.


    Our first night several of the Senior missionaries took us to the “City Cat,” a water taxi catamaran that runs up and down the Brisbane River. It costs .50 cents to ride one way all down the river for two hours and then .50 cents to ride it back again. I was hardly prepared for how gorgeous Brisbane city is all lit up at night! The skyscrapers all along the river’s edge and the stunning Story Bridge all lit up, take your breath away! I don’t have words to describe it, and pictures can’t capture everything like being there in person. You’ll just have to believe me that downtown Brisbane at night is stunning! We were even able to see the beautiful Brisbane Temple which sits on a bluff overlooking a bend of the Brisbane River.


    We could not get into our (flat) house for eleven days after we arrived. The Israelsens, whom we would be replacing, had their son visiting and would be gone for most of those eleven days and would not vacate the house they have, which is in Forest Lake, until the morning of June 6th, when their mission ended and they flew home to Chicago.

    We stayed with Elder and Sister Hill in their flat for those first eleven days and we loved it. They are wonderful and were perfect hosts. Those days were filled with lots of orientation and training, some jet lag, and some limited sight-seeing in and around Brisbane. We are loving it so far!

  • Trip to Papua New Guinea (AKA The Waters of Popondetta)

    Heads up…long post ahead…(This post is a little out of order but was such an incredible experience, we did not want to delay in sharing it! We’ll get caught up…slowly)

    We had the privilege of flying from Brisbane to Port Moresby Papua New Guinea! We met with President and Sister Burgess, of the Port Moresby Mission, President and Sister Hosea, of the Lae Mission, and Elder and Sister Colledge. The purpose of our visit was to meet these wonderful mission leaders and the Colledges. Elder Colledge has been serving as the mission health advisor for both missions in Papua New Guinea and will be returning home in August, almost certainly with a gap before his replacement arrives due to visa challenges. Therefore, it was thought advisable that we get a ‘boots on the ground’ orientation as to the challenges and realities of medical care in PNG. Our visit coincided with the creation of the Oro stake in Popondetta.

    We traveled to PNG on Thursday, 12 June 2025 around 11:40 a.m., after a flight delay, and arrived in Port Moresby midafternoon there. While at the airport, we met two members of the church that were also flying to Port Moresby. One was a young elder, who had been in Auckland, New Zealand’s MTC and was flying to Port Moresby to start his mission. The other was a gentleman, Paul Bender, who is from Melbourne but will be moving his family to Auckland in about two months for his work in Public Affairs in the Area office. We found out he is serving as Bishop right now in his ward in Melbourne.

    Sister Nelson and I were sitting in the waiting area by our gate when I saw Elder Yanguak walking towards our waiting area.

    img_0720

    As we stood up to greet him, Sister Nelson had a very strong impression, “He’s hungry” were the words that came to her. Elder Yanguak, who was just arriving from the missionary training center in New Zealand, and traveling to his mission in PNG, went to talk to the lady at the gate desk. And again “He’s hungry” came very strongly to Sister Nelson. She mentioned it to me and I pulled some money out of my wallet and slipped it to her. Sister Nelson then quietly went up to him and asked, “Are you hungry?” He stared at her briefly and then whispered yes. We gave him a few Australian dollars to grab a bite to eat and he was very grateful.

    img_0725

    Elder and Sister Colledge met us at the airport, and it was so very nice to meet them and spend six days with them! They are awesome people, and we really enjoyed our time with them. They actually own and operate Wadley Farms in Lindon. They were wonderful hosts and thoroughly oriented us as to the challenges faced by the missionaries and saints in Papua New Guinea. They drove us through Port Moresby showing us a few of the sites on our way to the Range View Condo where we would be staying while in Port Moresby. We were able to meet President and Sister Burgess for dinner that evening at the Stanley Hotel. Coincidentally, while we were eating, we met President Wakolo and Elder Ormsby, along with President and Sister Hosea. It was lovely to meet all of them. President Wakolo and Elder Ormsby were there to organize the Oro Stake from the Oro District in Popondetta that weekend. On Friday, 13 June, we were able to drive around with Elder and Sister Colledge and visit many of the local medical and dental facilities in Port Moresby, including the Gerehu medical clinic, the Ela medical clinic, the Pacific International outpatient medical clinic, and Rainbow Dental Clinic, which was in a dark, metal, shipping container.

    All these facilities were quite primitive by US standards, significantly lacking in basic equipment such as IV pumps, suction machines, and heart monitors. I was impressed that they were generally clean, and the staff seemed very competent and caring. We were also able to drive out to Nine Mile and visit President and Sister Franks of the Nine Mile branch. Sister Franks is the lead in the Mums preschool program, and they have built a beautiful school adjacent to their home in Nine Mile. The Franks have a darling ten-year-old son named Thomas, who came right up to Sister Nelson and gave her a huge hug.

    img_3910

    We also were able to visit their newly remodeled branch building, which took three years, and has just been completed. We ate lunch at a beautiful nature/wildlife park there in Port Moresby and had the opportunity to meet Elder and Sister Maybe, who are serving at the Port Moresby Temple construction site.

    That evening we had a potluck dinner in the apartment of Elder and Sister Huston along with the Colledges, the Maybes, and Elder and Sister Dandoy, other senior missionaries serving there in Port Moresby. After dinner we traveled to the Gerehu Chapel for an enrichment fireside for Young Single Adults and youth featuring Sister Sulley, who is an Australian lawyer who is currently serving on the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea. It was a wonderful and enjoyable experience.

    On Saturday, June 14th, we awoke very early and flew to Popondetta, along with the Colledges, the Hustons, the Dandoys, and Bishop Bender.

    img_0765

    We were greeted at the airport by a group of beautiful Young Women from the Oro District, who had made yarn leis for us and draped them around our necks.

    We were driven by Alex, one of President Hosea’s faithful mission clerks, to our lodging, the Birdwing Butterfly Lodge, to drop off our luggage and get checked in.

    We met up with President Wakolo and Elder Ormsby, and the Hoseas, and we all left to travel to the 10 acre secured compound owned by the District President Salaiau. We were all greeted by a wonderful large group of saints, including 20 or so dancers dressed in native cultural costumes who performed a native dance for us.

    img_0787

    After a few photos, a baptismal service began in the open-air chapel there, presided over by President Wakolo. We soon discovered that 107 individuals were scheduled to be baptized there that morning! In total, 87 were baptized that morning and another 20, who had arrived a bit late, were baptized a couple of hours later.

    img_1034-1

    After a couple of talks, we all walked the short distance down a grassy, tree lined trail to the river for the actual baptismal ordinances. It was so awesome and inspiring to see so many wonderful people dressed in white!

    img_1030-1

    The baptisms soon began in the river in a pool that had been made deep enough by damming the river with rocks and banana leaves. It was surrounded by dense tropical forest, and the setting was breathtaking!

    img_1033-1
    img_1029-1

    Initially, two elders began to baptize, one by one, as the names of the individuals were called out. Witnesses surrounded the man-made pool, and attendants were on hand with dry towels to assist those who had been baptized. Many family members, friends and others, including a few missionaries, Elder Huston and my dear wife, Sister Nelson, waded into the cool, clean river for a better view. Eventually, due to the number of individuals being baptized, two more elders were asked to help baptize, making four baptizing simultaneously in the river!

    img_1025-1
    img_1027-1

    Incidentally, one of those performing the baptisms was the young 15-year-old grandson of President and Sister Hosea, who had only days before arrived in Papua New Guinea from Utah with his father for a visit, and “mini mission.” He had only been ordained a priest one week before and was privileged to exercise his priesthood and baptize dozens of new converts in a river halfway around the world! Those were the last baptisms performed for the Oro District, since the next day they were made a stake and were no longer a district. What a life changing experience for young “Elder” Hosea! I’m sure it is an experience that he will never forget. So inspiring for each one of us who were privileged to be there and experience this once in a lifetime event!

    Words are very inadequate to express the incredible spirit present as so many sons and daughters of God covenanted to follow the Savior! It was a scene unlike any other that we have ever experienced, and we will never forget it, or the feelings of joy it brought! It was very reminiscent of the scene we imagine at the Waters of Mormon described in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 18. It was incredible, amazing, unbelievable, and life changing!

    A few of those scheduled to be baptized apparently arrived late, and an additional baptismal session was held in the river that afternoon, for a total of 107 individuals, young and old, ages 8-80! There was even an article in the Church News about it, and in one of the photos of the meetings, the backs of our heads are visible, under red awnings! Here’s the link:

    https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2025/06/25/papua-new-guinea-temple-focused-many-baptized-new-stake/

    After the baptisms and a brief lunch back at the lodging, we traveled to the District Chapel compound for additional leadership meetings and had the wonderful opportunity to meet and mingle with many more of the loving PNG saints. They were so warm and welcoming and happy, and so excited to finally become a Stake! In fact, they even had a banner printed and hung across the main road announcing the Oro Stake creation!

    T-shirts with the same logo were seen everywhere. It was a scene of great joy and excitement.

    That afternoon, Elder Colledge and I, assisted by Sisters Colledge and Nelson, were able to perform missionary physicals on 26 prospective missionaries. Through out all of Papua New Guinea, there are about 400 young women and young men that need physicals, and are waiting to submit their mission papers. Apparently physical exams are very difficult to get due to the extremely limited availability of medical facilities.

    After a wonderful dinner back at the Birdwing Butterfly Lodge with President Wakolo, Elder Ormsby, the Hoseas, other church employees, and all of the senior missionary couples, we all traveled back to the Salaiau compound for a large, well-attended dance. There were probably 800 or more individuals in attendance, and we “spared not”, dancing our hearts out, to the delight of everyone. Sister Nelson was absolutely in her element, dancing, hugging and reveling in the amazing social atmosphere. It was a lot of fun.

    On Sunday, June 15th, we attended a wonderful morning session of the stake conference for YSAs, followed by the general session at 10:00am, presided over by President Tanielo Wakolo, assisted by Elder Jared Ormsby, Area Seventy.

    img_0844

    The Oro District was dissolved, and the Oro Stake created, with President Salaiau as its first stake president. Wards were created from branches, Bishops and new stake leaders called, and the work of the Lord continues to roll forth. The conference was very well attended, both in person and remotely via Zoom, with attendance locally estimated at nearly 1000!

    fullsizerender-3

    Despite the light rain, and standing room only conditions, spirits were high, and joy filled the air. We lingered for quite a while, loving and fellowshipping with the saints and feeling their magnificent spirit. Sister Nelson loved walking around and through the people, who were sitting outside on chairs and blankets, visiting with them and giving as many as she could (maybe close to 400 hugs) hugs and smiles. They hugged her back and loved talking with all of us. They were so sweet and friendly!

    The rest of the day provided an opportunity for us to rest, study, and recharge as new leaders were set apart and trained.

    Monday morning, June 16th, I accompanied Elder and Sister Dandoy, who are serving as Humanitarian missionaries, to a meeting with the local director of the NID (National Identification Service) to discuss ways that LDS charities could assist with their work throughout the country helping create ID cards and birth certificates, and perhaps assist in rebuilding their local government building which burned down about 8 years ago. It was a productive meeting, and I was so impressed by the skill and knowledge of the Dandoy’s, who I believe are serving their 4th full time humanitarian mission! We then traveled to a scheduled meeting with the Provincial Health Authority, only to find out that the gentleman that we were to meet with was out of the country, even though the meeting had been confirmed just days before. We instead met on the spur of the moment with a very kind woman who serves as the Finance director for the PHA in the Northern Province and explained to her the humanitarian work of the church. We asked her to consider proposing any needed projects in their local PHA/hospital that LDS charities may be able to assist with. Our scheduled visit to the local Popondetta hospital also sadly fell through.

    We hurried off to the small airport for our return flight to Port Moresby, scheduled for 2:00 pm.

    After multiple delays and much uncertainty as to whether our flight would be cancelled, we finally took off about 5:30 pm. As we sat and waited for our plane to arrive, President Hosea’s Assistants kindly brought us boxed lunched of chicken and chips, (french fries) to the airport, as many of us had not eaten at all that day.

    img_4414
    img_0859

    We arrived safely back in Port Moresby and were exhausted from the weekend’s activities. We grabbed a quick bite of dinner at the Rangeview mall shops and collapsed into bed.

    We were picked up in the morning of Tuesday, June 17th by our wonderful hosts, the Colledges, for a trip and tour of Pacific International Hospital, which is clearly the best there is in PNG, and the only location where MRIs can be performed in the country. It was quite nice and appeared to offer state-of-the-art care.

    We returned to the mission home compound to participate in an Area Medical Council via Zoom. We traveled out to Gerica to do a missionary flat (apartment) inspection and see where the Colledges attend church which is just an open air concrete platform under a member’s house, whose house is built up on stilts.

    The road to get there was very rough, slow, and often muddy. The Colledges mentioned that one or both of them speaks in sacrament meeting almost every week, along with teaching various classes. We then travelled to the main public hospital in town, Port Moresby General Hospital, which was not nearly as well kept as PIH. Older and not as well built, it shows its age, though it was clean and the staff we met seemed to be doing their best despite less than perfect facilities and equipment.

    We then traveled out to the new Port Moresby Temple site. The temple is absolutely beautiful, though in a rough part of town. We am certain that it will greatly bless the lives of the saints, and indeed lift and bring light to the entire area and country when completed.

    img_0908

    We briefly stopped at the local stake center nearby, visited with some local members and youth there, and drove along the coast before returning to Central Port Moresby.

    That evening we dined at the Hilton Hotel with the Colledge’s and Dr. Suresh, an oncologist who is a friend to the church and the missionaries. He frequently attends, and participates in class and has even spoken in church though not a member of the church. It was fun to talk to him about all kinds of subjects.

    We were very excited to learn that the mini Missionary Training Center, tentatively slated to be established in Port Moresby, will likely be located at the Hilton Hotel complex, which will be wonderful.

    We had heavy security during our visit to Papua New Guinea! Everywhere we went, we were driven in a four-wheel drive pick-up. We were told never to walk alone at any time of day. Everywhere we went was an area guarded 24/7 by security guards (with guns), secured, barb wired, fenced areas, including church buildings and hospitals. One of the hospitals, in a severely poverty stricken area, was sketchy enough that Sister Nelson and Sister Colledge were asked to stay in the pick-up for their protection and keep the doors locked.

    To give you an idea of how scary PNG can be on a daily basis, on the day before we arrived in Popondetta, three missionaries were driving out on a dirt road to visit a family and they came upon large boulders blocking the road. As they stopped, they were suddenly ambushed and told to get out of the car. As the three missionaries got out of their car, they were surrounded by men (called rascals) with guns and machetes, who put the guns to their heads and the machetes to their throats, and who demanded they hand over everything…money, wallets, car keys, phones. The missionaries gave them everything they had. Thankfully, the rascals did not hurt them, but stole everything and left them stranded in a dangerous area. A day or so later, their car was later found abandoned. A side note, at this time, no young sister missionaries are allowed to serve in PNG.

    Another incident, just a few weeks before we arrived, Elder and Sister Colledge told us that they had just arrived in Popondetta and had just driven through the security gates of the Birdwing Buttery Lodge when they heard lots of gunshots going off. It turned out that several drunk rascals started running toward to lodge gate, as the security guards were trying to hurry and close it. The rascals tried to force their way in and despite several warnings yelled from the guards, one of the rascals kept fighting to get in and eventually was shot and killed, which is so very sad.

    As for us, we felt safe most of the time…only once, near where they are building the Port Moresby Temple, we were forced to drive very slowly through an open air crowded market area, with throngs of crowds walking up near our pick-up truck, did we start to feel quite concerned. Thankfully we were able to drive slowly forward and make our way out of that area. It was after the fact, when we were eating dinner with our doctor friend, Dr. Suresh, who lives near that open air market, that he mentioned three hours before there were lots of gun shots and violence had erupted. Wow!

    Sister Nelson and I got up very early on Wednesday, June 18, for a 6:00 am return flight to Brisbane.

    fullsizerender-4

    Our trip to Papua New Guinea was busy, a few times chaotic, but very enjoyable and enlightening. The Colledges shepherded us around with kindness and great care, and we generally felt safe and secure. We now have a much better feel for and understanding of the medical needs and issues of the people, missionaries, and prospective missionaries from PNG, a perspective that I don’t think we could have fully learned except through an in-person visit. We feel so blessed to be able to help these wonderful people medically and to spread some love, kindness, and hope! Again, we truly are so very blessed to serve them! What an incredible experience to have been able to meet and socialize with the sweet, faithful saints of Papua New Guinea, to feel their powerful commitment to our Savior, Jesus Christ, to feel their loving spirit, and to participate in the incredible, sacred experiences that we did while there.

  • Speaking in Church and SLC MTC

    After completing our week at the Provo MTC, we made a visit to the Scribners whose son, Noah, had been tragically killed in a motorcycle accident earlier that week. We had a wonderful visit and cried with them as we visited. They shared many tender mercies and small miracles that had occurred to reassure them of the love of the Lord and His abiding presence with them. They seemed to be doing amazingly well, and I felt like they were consoling us, instead of the other way around. What a comfort the gospel is in times of trial like this!

    We were also able to attend our granddaughter, Elouise’s dance recital performance of “Peter Pan” Friday evening. She did so well and is so talented! We loved it!

    Saturday was filled with lots of packing and last-minute preparations, including putting the final touches on our talks for Sacrament Meeting the following day. It turns out that because of Mother’s Day, Fast Sunday, Stake Conference, and Easter, the Sunday after we were in the MTC was the only week available for us to speak. We offered to forego speaking, but that didn’t fly with our bishop! Well, it was worth a shot.

    Saturday afternoon, we were very surprised to see that someone was outside in our front yard installing a large “Called to Serve” missionary yard sign. We had briefly considered doing something like that but decided against it. As it turned out, Tam’s mom had arranged and paid for the yard sign installation. We were touched! It was so kind of her to do that, which is perfectly in line with her character and fun, kind, loving personality.

    Sacrament Meeting was filled with many old friends, neighbors, and relatives in addition to our beloved ward members and current neighbors. Two members of our stake presidency were there, and it was really wonderful to see so many dear friends. Many friends who were unable to attend in person were able to participate remotely via Zoom. Both Tam and I had independently decided to speak on the Savior Jesus Christ and how and why to place our trust in Him and His promises. Though we addressed essentially the same topic, we each did so in a different way, and there wasn’t too much overlap. We both felt good about how our talks went and the spirit we felt. Our love for the Savior is an easy thing to talk about, and any talk is better when it is over!

    After the meeting, we had a small brunch open house at our home for family and friends. It was so nice to be able to visit a little longer with our fantastic friends and relatives. We served fruit cones and sweet breads with juice, and we ended up with lots of extra food, which we mostly gave away.

    Saying goodbye to so many dear friends was very difficult and emotional, but we are so excited to serve!

    We also were able to celebrate the 15th birthday of our oldest grandson, Ryder Briggs. His birthday was not actually until Tuesday, May 20th, but we wanted to celebrate with him, as we were uncertain of what our schedule would look like Tuesday. He is such an incredible young man, brilliant, creative, athletic, good-looking, kind, and spiritual – the whole package! We love him so much and are so very proud of him!

    We drove up to Salt Lake Sunday afternoon and checked in to the Residence Inn downtown, which is where our assignment-specific medical training for the next week was held. The hotel was nice, and we had a one-bedroom suite with a kitchenette. It was nice to have a little extra room to spread out. The training began promptly at 7:30 am with wonderful training, assistance, and support from many full-time and service senior missionaries who have previously served in the roles in which we are now serving. There were probably about 20 other missionaries in our training, all of whom are called as Mission Health Advisors, Area Mental Health Advisors, and one other called to serve as an Area Medical Advisor in Ghana, Africa. Most of the training was all together, but there were also a number of breakout sessions specific to our individual assignments. There was a great sense of collegiality and comradery amongst all of the participants, as most of us shared similar backgrounds and had many of the same anxieties about our service.

    The training included both general medical review topics organized by specialties and organ systems, as well as lots of orientation to all the various websites, applications, and online technology resources that we will all be using regularly as medical missionaries. We were oriented to the administrative structure of the missionary medical system and briefed on many of the policies that have carefully developed over many years. We had the opportunity to be taught by several former mission leaders, a former IFR (In-Field Representative), and lots of missionary insurance and medical policy specialists. The seminar utilized a lot of role playing of various interactions with missionaries and mission leaders as we strive to assist and support them in their medical needs. We saw demonstrations of various medical councils that we will lead and participate in.

    It was very informative, and we took lots of notes, but it was a little bit like trying to drink from a fire hydrant. The vast amount of information that we were given in such a short period of time was quite overwhelming, and we were very grateful that we had been diligent with our studies and preparations prior to our mission. I am sure that we have already forgotten a lot of what was presented, but fortunately we were given digital copies of all the presentations to refer back to as needed. Those leading the seminar were wonderful and caring and seemed so eager for our well-being and success.

    Baptisms in Papua New Guinea with “witnesses” watching for crocodiles

    The culmination of the week was an opportunity to meet and hear from Elder William Jackson, General Authority Seventy, who heads up the Missionary Medical Department. He was so inspiring and encouraging, and hearing from him gave us great comfort that we would be able to be successful with our best efforts and the help of the Lord.

    We finished up the seminar Thursday afternoon, May 22, and got checked out and headed home for Orem. We had lots to do to finish packing and make all of our final preparations. While we had originally been told that we would fly from Salt Lake to Brisbane on Monday, May 26, when we actually got our official flight plans, we discovered that we were flying out on Sunday afternoon, May 25. Friday and Saturday were filled with lots of final packing, final yard work, visiting family, and a host of final preparations. Trying to figure out how to fit everything that we thought we might need for 18 months into our limited luggage was challenging to say the least. Sister Nelson especially fretted over what to take and what to leave behind. We packed, weighed, rearranged, weighed, rearranged, weighed again, in what seemed like an endless tedious cycle. After much trial and error, we finally figured out an arrangement in which each of our suitcases was at or near the weight limit and we had what we felt were all the essentials packed! Hurray!

    Saturday morning, we had the wonderful privilege of participating in the baby blessing of our youngest grandson, Bodie. It was a neat experience and Bodie looked so cute in his little blessing outfit. Our son, Tyler, gave him a wonderful blessing. The only sad part was that Robert, Alyse’s dad, could not be there in person, as his flight from Southern California was cancelled the night before after multiple delays. Fortunately, he was still able to watch remotely on FaceTime.

    Saturday evening, we gathered all the family up American Fork canyon above Tibble Fork Reservoir for family pictures. While that sounds like a relatively simple process in principle, in practice, it was anything but simple. Trying to coordinate the schedules and activities of 22 people, find a time that works with the photographer, and get everyone’s color-coordinated outfits arranged was quite a complicated process, and involved rescheduling at least three different times in the end. Saturday evening was our final option and fortunately it worked out. The weather was perfect and pleasant, and the setting was gorgeous. Everyone coordinated well and we just loved being together.

    Saturday was also our oldest granddaughter Riley’s 18th birthday, and she was headed down to Las Vegas with her mom, sister, and others to celebrate. But they graciously delayed their departure until we met for family pictures, which we appreciated so much! We loved seeing everyone and celebrated Riley’s birthday briefly before the pictures. Riley is such a beautiful and special girl, and we love her with all our hearts! She made us grandparents 18 years ago, starting a wonderful chapter in our lives. It is so hard to believe that we have a granddaughter that old, and it makes us feel pretty old!

    The family pictures turned out absolutely beautiful, and we feel so grateful for our dear friend and former ward member, Jensen Fullmer, for her great skills and professionalism. She is wonderful, and a great photographer!

    We took everyone to get a quick bite to eat after pictures and loved visiting with everybody. We love our family so much and are so proud of all of them. We feel very lucky and blessed, and hope that we can always support each other in our various challenges and struggles.

    Saying goodbye to everyone was very difficult, but we know they will be watched over and blessed. And it is very comforting to know that we can communicate with them and them with us any time via FaceTime, WhatsApp, phone, text, and maybe even the occasional snail mail. What amazing technology we have been blessed with! We are really hoping and praying that everyone has the opportunity of coming over to see us sometime during our mission.

    After final hugs and goodbyes on Sunday, our son, Colby, took us down to the MTC in Provo to catch our shuttle up to the airport in Salt Lake. Brisbane, here we come!

  • Provo MTC

    We were set apart on the evening of Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11th at 8:00 pm by our dear Stake President, President Mark Longhurst. He was kind enough to meet with us at our church building despite it being Mother’s Day. It was also our granddaughter Elsie’s 10th birthday! After our Sunday dinner, we had a birthday party for Elsie with presents, ice cream cake and candles. Oh how we love that sweet, kind, gentle empathetic girl! Can’t believe she is now 10 years old!

    After Elsie’s birthday party, then we celebrated both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We decided that since we will be in Australia for Father’s Day, it would be great to celebrate mom’s and dad’s together. Tami’s mom, step dad, two sister’s, Shauna and Jill and brother-in-law Paul, were with us to celebrate Elsie’s birthday plus Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Duane’s mom was not feeling well, which was too bad because she was really looking forward to being with us that Sunday. Our son Logan was not able to make it up from St. George, we missed having him and his family with us.


    We met Pres. Longhurst in the Steeple Chase Relief Society room and had a wonderful visit with him before our setting apart. Tami was set apart first. One of the many blessings she was told was that she would make eternal friendships while on her mission. Both of us were given beautiful, inspiring blessings that gave us great confidence that we would be blessed and supported in our missionary labors. We also received powerful assurance that our family would be greatly blessed through our consecrated service.


    We had been previously instructed to arrive at the Provo MTC (Missionary Training Center) at 9:42 AM on Monday May 12. We were also told not to arrive early and not to be late! The arrival and check-in process at the MTC is a well-oiled machine! We ended up one to two minutes late due to the length of the line to get through the security gate.

    We were escorted into the main MTC building and checked in at what is known as the Senior Expo. This is an opportunity to meet with representatives of all the major departments there. We were given our missionary name tags, and it was exciting and sobering to be able to put them on. To be privileged to wear the name of the Savior every day is a great responsibility and honor.

    After completing the check-in process, we were treated to some simple refreshments. I met one of my former patients there, who is also just beginning her mission. She will be serving as the mission secretary in Auckland New Zealand.


    After lunch we had an orientation with the MTC presidency and their wives, which was wonderful. We then met one of our MTC instructors and the rest of our MTC district. Our district consisted of three couples, all of whom were called to serve as medical missionaries. Elder and Sister Sundberg are from Southern California and are called to serve in Australia Adelaide Mission. Elder and Sister Ballou are from Hurricane, Utah, and are serving in the Adriatic North Mission based in Croatia. They are all wonderful people and we immediately felt a great connection and friendship with them.

    Over the course of five days, we developed a strong bond and grew to love them. We will have the opportunity to work closely with the Sundbergs during our mission, as Adelaide is one of the missions that we will support. We felt empathy for the Ballous, who were also trying to learn Croatian in addition to everything else! At lunchtime, we hurried down to the County Health department to receive a couple of immunizations that neither of us could find any documentation of.


    Back at the MTC, we were given a short tour by our instructor, Sister Creager, and further oriented as to what to expect in our MTC experience. We were shown all the important locations at the MTC, including the small store where we could purchase ice cream and snacks.

    After some brief lessons and reflections, we finished the day with a meeting with our MTC branch presidency and got to know them and their wives. It was a long but wonderful day. The Spirit at the MTC is palpable and very powerful.


    Because we live within 30 miles of the MTC, we stayed at home during our week there. Shortly after our arrival home Monday evening. we were visited by Sisters Diane Reese and Janae Hakes of the Stake Young Women’s presidency, with heartbreaking news…they told us of the accidental death earlier that afternoon of Noah Scribner, the 18-year-old son of Scott and Jenny Scribner in our stake. Tam had previously served as a counselor to Sister Scribner in the Stake Young Women’s presidency and knew Noah and the Scribners very well. Noah is a great guy and Tami loves him so much! Noah’s passing was really hard to wrap her heart and mind around! So many tears and prayers were given for their sweet family! Noah had been killed in a motorcycle accident in American Fork Canyon just hours before. We were shocked and devastated to learn this horrible news. He was to graduate from high school just 10 days later and was preparing for his own mission, having just received his mission call to Honduras.

    The spiritual high that we felt from our day at the MTC was somewhat tempered by the grief and sadness that we felt, but we were comforted by our knowledge of the great plan of happiness that teaches us of the gift of resurrection and eternal family relationships. We are so eternally grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for His infinite atonement!


    We arrived at the MTC Tuesday morning about 7:50 am and met our other MTC instructor, Sis. Hyatt, who was just as wonderful as Sis. Creager. Our classes each day were with our small district and were facilitated by one instructor in the morning and the other instructor in the afternoon. They were very much focused on the “Preach My Gospel” manual and were very interactive. They were fantastic and, as previously mentioned, the spirit was very strong. We were assigned to meet with another couple of senior missionaries from a different district, and to get to know them. Our couple was Elder and Sister Elkins, from South Texas, who are now serving as Military Relations missionaries in Connecticut.

    We grew to love them and spent quite a bit of time with them over the week. We eventually prepared and taught a lesson to them based on what we perceived their individual needs to be, and they did the same for us. We had a lot in common, and in fact discovered that they know our nephew Spencer Burgon’s new bride, Kennedy, quite well. They had also met Spencer, who served his mission in that area.


    We decided to sing in the MTC choir for the Tuesday evening devotional and ate a quick dinner before hurrying off to choir practice. The General Authority who will speak to the weekly devotional is never announced ahead of time, and everyone always wonders who it will be. They announce who will be speaking just a few minutes before the meeting starts and Sis. Nelson wondered aloud if it would be a member of the Twelve; she even guessed maybe Elder Patrick Kearon. Sure enough, when the announcement came, she was correct, Elder and Sister Kearon were the speakers. We were thrilled! Sister Nelson is always so inspired! We sang our hearts out and were inspired by the messages of both Elder and Sister Kearon. They counselled us not to compare ourselves to others, and to be joyful in our approach to our work. It was such a wonderful devotional to end the day.


    Wednesday was another wonderful spirit-filled day. Our instructors were so outstanding and did such a great job of inviting the spirit into our lessons! Preach My Gospel is such a great inspired book and filled with so much wisdom. Though our mission will not be a teaching or proselyting mission, we will be constant examples and representatives of our precious Savior Jesus Christ in all we do, and will certainly have opportunities to share the gospel with those we interact with in our normal daily activities.

    Wednesday evening, we attended a fireside called the Character of Christ, based upon a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar at the MTC several years before. It was outstanding and we felt so uplifted and inspired to better try to emulate the Savior in all we do. He is truly our perfect example and we are so indebted to Him! We love Him with all our hearts and feel so blessed to serve Him!


    I should briefly mention the food at the MTC. The food in the cafeteria was plentiful and pretty good, though the options were somewhat limited. I’m glad that I don’t eat at a buffet all the time, as my willpower with food is not great! We always tried to sit by a group of young elders and sisters, and it was a lot of fun to talk to them. We met a young missionary, Elder Mandla, from Brisbane, who was called to serve in Japan. We loved getting to know him better as we talked throughout the week.


    Thursday was another long day of classes, but because they were so engaging, inspiring and interactive, the time flew by. We loved all our interactions with our district and really grew to love and appreciate them, as well as our instructors and the Elkins. Thursday evening after class we were able to hurry over to the Orem Temple to do a Sealings session. We love the temple and it was amazing to be there!


    Friday was our last day at the Provo MTC, with a final class session in the morning, and a safety and security seminar in the afternoon. We thoroughly enjoyed our MTC experience and felt so uplifted by the things we learned, the relationships we made, and the spirit we felt. It definitely exceeded my expectations, which were already pretty high. Our limited interactions with the young elders and sisters were amazing, and we were so impressed with their dedication and spirit. We were sad to see our week come to an end. Our prayers continue to be with the Scribner family!

  • Preparing to leave

    Now that we knew where we would be serving, we could get down to business with our specific preparations. First, just a week or so after receiving our mission call, we received an amended call, shortening our length of service down to 18 months. We don’t know the reason for certain, but suspect it is because of the growing length of the waiting list for AMA assignments.

    One of the first orders of business was to apply for our visas, which took a lot of time and gathering of documents and filling out many forms. Criminal background reports from both the state and FBI needed to be applied for, and fingerprinting at the police station needed to be done. We had to send away for a copy of our marriage license which we tried to locate but could not be found. Working on our Visa application took several weeks and was delayed due to a previously planned trip to Paris and subsequent cruise to Spain and Portugal. Tam needed to renew her passport, as it was due to expire before our mission would be over, but we couldn’t send in her passport renewal until after we returned from our vacation in Europe.

    We had been led to believe that Australian visas typically took 4-6 months or longer to be granted after submission, so we submitted everything literally the day the passport came back, which was December 17th. We were praying and crossing our fingers that our visas would not be a problem and delay our departure. We were thrilled and extremely surprised when we got an email 10 days after our Visa application was turned in notifying us that both of our visas had been granted! Miracle or just luck? You be the judge!

    The other big thing was that we needed to decide what to do with our house. Our initial thought was to sell it and find something else on the conclusion of our mission. Though we love our home, neighborhood, ward, and stake, our home is really not practical as our forever home, since it has no bedrooms or full bathrooms on the main floor. But within a week or two, the tentative plan to sell our house just began to feel wrong, and we felt prompted that we should not sell right then but keep the house while we are serving. After lots of brainstorming and a few twists and turns along the way. we finally decided to rent out the basement to some extended family, plus have our son, Colby, stay upstairs with his kids, acting as our on-site property manager. Hopefully that plan works out to be a win for everyone involved.

    Going on a mission as a senior couple is a wonderful thing, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is in a position to go, but I readily admit that it is a LOT more complicated than the decision to serve as a young missionary! Trying to figure out how to put your well-established life on hold for 18 months is complicated and tricky and involves a million little details that I had never really considered before. Things like medical insurance, Medicare, medications, finances, investments, powers of attorney, taxes, and even little details like yard care all must be considered and planned for.

    We also needed to clear most or all of our stuff out of the part of our home that would be lived in by others while we were gone. This was a several month-long process that involved essentially packing up almost everything in the house and moving it to a different spot, mostly to our office, which became designated as our “storage unit.” It also necessitated a lot of clean out, sorting, and dejunking, which was much needed. As our neighbors can attest, we sold or gave away all sorts of stuff that we decided no longer wanted or needed.

    I wish that I had kept track of how many dump runs and trips to Savers or Deseret Industries we made. It was a lot, including 2400 pounds of expired / rotten food storage from a long-procrastinated cleanout of our food storage room. That could be an interesting post in and of itself, but I will spare you the nasty details. Suffice it to say, that it involved lots of exploded cans, both dead and living rodents, and the stuff of nightmares!

    We also began to participate in a lot of online medical and technology training to get us up to speed on the administrative aspects of the missionary medical system. This involved many hours of practical and mock exercises to help us feel comfortable navigating the various websites and reports we would be using.

    We also began to participate in various Mission Health Councils via Zoom for the missions that we would be supporting. This gave us the wonderful opportunity to meet many of the Mission leaders and people that we will work closely with.

    After going like crazy from dawn until late at night for about three or four months, we were finally at a point that we felt like we had all of the important things done and most of the less important things done as well. It seemed for while that for every item we crossed off our ‘to-do” list, we added about 3 more! We were getting so excited to finally go, not only to begin our missionary labors, but to be done with all of our exhausting prep work! While we know that our mission would involve long days and exhausting work, we were anxious to be in a situation in which our focus could be more singular and consecrated. May 12th, the day we entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo was finally in sight!

  • The Call!

    Now the agonizing process of waiting for our call and wondering were we would be called to serve began. At this point, we had not yet revealed our plans to anyone, and we decided to spill the beans to our family. We had all the kids and grandkids over for Sunday dinner and a birthday celebration for a couple of granddaughters in mid October. We did not want to detract from the birthday celebration so we waited until after presents, birthday cake and ice cream, etc. and then said, “Oh, we forgot, we wanted to show you guys a couple of recent pictures.” We got everyone gathered around the TV in the family room and cast our mission photo up on the TV. Most of the family were somewhat perplexed, until we then cast a screen shot of the first page of our online missionary application with that same photo on it. At this point, everyone quickly caught on and started asking lots of questions about when we would be leaving, whether we already had our call, where we hoped to serve, etc.

    We explained the whole process up to that point in time, that we had just submitted our application, and were intentionally a little vague as to our location preferences, though we admitted that Australia was a possibility. The mood was mostly one of excitement, though with an element of shock, and some expressions of sadness that we would be gone so long, and that we would be greatly missed. We expressed a certainty that we had received an unmistakable witness that this was the will of the Lord, and an assurance that each member of our family would be greatly blessed as a direct result of our missionary service. In fact, we are absolutely convinced that our family will be blessed in ways that could come in no other way because of our mission.

    We also let several in our extended family, as well as a few close friends, know of our application submission. We had heard of calls coming in as few as four days and as long as eight weeks, with most arriving on a Tuesday 2-3 weeks after submission. We waited on pins and needles on Tuesday, October 29 for the much anticipated email, but to our mild disappointment, it did not come. Incidentally, we were in the temple that week performing sealings when Tam felt strongly and repeatedly impressed to tell our Sealer of our impending call. To our surprise, we learned that he was also a retired Ophthalmologist. He knew all about medical missions and in fact, informed us of an ongoing monthly continuing medical education Zoom meeting for medical missionaries and those who are interested in becoming medical missionaries. We were unaware of these meetings , and feel certain that this “random” encounter was in fact another manifestation of the Lord’s love and mindfulness.

    On the morning of Tuesday, November 5, which was also election day in the United States, we were again headed to the temple in Saratoga Springs. As we walked to the temple from the parking lot, Tam asked me to check my phone one more time to see if there were any important emails. To our surprise and delight, we saw the awaited email announcing that our mission call was available! We had a wonderful though somewhat distracted experience in the temple that day.

    Just as soon as we finished up at the temple, we started making calls to our kids, parents, siblings and others who knew of our plans. We set up a Facebook Live event for that evening and anxiously waited for the big reveal. We had quite a few come to our home, and a few others who joined us remotely. We each got separate call letters, so we decided to read Tam’s letter. I tried to play up the suspense by reading slowly, and even made a poor joke that we were assigned to labor in what some might consider a less desirable location. Finally, I read the actual call: we were assigned to labor in the Australia Brisbane Mission as Pacific Area Medical Advisor and Assistant with responsibility for all of the missions of Australia and Papua New Guinea, seven in total. We were to enter the Missionary Training Center in Provo on May 12, 2025, and depart for Brisbane on May 26, 2025, to serve for 23 months. Everyone seemed very excited and happy for us. We were absolutely overjoyed and excited beyond belief, not just to be called to Australia, but to be called to be servants and representatives of the Savior Jesus Christ. Now we could begin our preparations in earnest, knowing when and where we would be serving.

  • Called to Serve!

    Hi there! We’re going on a mission! We are so excited to serve the Lord as full-time missionaries! The whole process began in late August 2024. We have always wanted to serve a mission together as a couple and planned to do so at some undefined future point in time. But as we attended the temple, we both independently received an incredibly strong, undeniable impression that we should go on a mission right away. We initially wondered if the timing was right with a variety of significant family challenges, parents who are getting older, and worries about finances. But as we talked and pondered, we realized that the timing was never going to be perfect; there would always be challenges and reasons not to serve. There were several other spiritual nudges that left us without a doubt that we were to serve a mission as soon as was reasonably possible. We made the commitment to submit to the will of the Lord and prepare ourselves to serve.

    We met with our bishop the following Sunday and began the long process of getting our application ready to submit. At this point, we did not share our plans with anyone except for the bishop. The application process is straightforward but involves a significant time commitment with medical and dental exams, immunizations, gathering records, getting pictures, lots of paperwork to fill out, etc. We were also in communication with Bro. Mark Slight of the Missionary Medical Department who coordinates assignments of senior missionaries who will be serving in a medical capacity. He informed us of two basic types of medical missionary assignments: those providing support and advice in a single mission and those doing the same for an area of multiple missions. Much to our surprise, we learned that there was a waiting list for assignments of the multiple mission type, called Area Medical Advisors. In fact, most of the particularly ‘desirable’ or ‘sought after’ assignment locations were already spoken for or reserved out 10-15 years or more! For example, the Auckland New Zealand Area Medical Advisor assignment is currently ‘reserved’ out until June 2041! We were shocked! We had no idea of this waiting list!

    While mildly disappointed, we were willing to serve wherever or in whatever capacity the Lord saw fit. However, as we prepared our application, we discussed, debated, and agonized over what locations and types of mission assignments to list as preferences when the time came to finally submit our papers. We had what we felt were righteous desires to serve in some sort of medical capacity, and we knew that there was a great need, not only for medical missionaries, but for senior missionaries of all varieties. We felt strongly impressed that we were to serve soon, and trusted that the Lord could use us where we could do the most good.

    Due to challenges in scheduling and completing medical exams and various medical tests needed for clearance, as well as some travel that had been previous booked many months before, it took us until October to have our application ready to submit. There were several testing delays that were very frustrating at the time, but in retrospect, seem to have been part of the Lord’s miraculous plan.

    The Friday before we were scheduled to have our final interviews with our bishop and stake president, we called Bro. Slight back as he had suggested to get an updated listing of all available medical mission assignments. This was important as we needed to know what was available to be able to note any assignment or location preferences on our application. To our astonishment, the Area Medical Advisor assignment in Brisbane Australia, which was previously not available until October 2038, was listed as available in May 2025! It turns out that the senior couple who had been penciled in for that assignment had completed four back to back medical missions, two of which were international. The day before we called back, they had called Bro. Slight and relinquished that assignment, for which they had been reserved for many years, stating that they were worn out and needed a break before serving a fifth mission in the United States.

    We told Bro. Slight that we would love it if he would pencil us in for that assignment, which matched perfectly with our desired timeframe. He did, but cautioned us that if the Lord had orchestrated all of this to allow us to serve there at that time, that would be miraculous and wonderful, but that if the Lord chose to call us to serve elsewhere, that would also be wonderful.

    Our interviews were wonderful and spirit filled, and by the middle of October 2025, our missionary application to serve the Lord as senior missionaries was submitted! Now the wait began!