Combining North & South Mission

Early morning sunrise, so beautiful

It occurred to me that I had not made an entry for January.  So, I thought I better get February's done before the month was gone.  When I opened the blog, I found I had made an entry but forgot to Publish it.  Shoot.

The big news this month is the announcement that the Australia Sydney North and Sydney South mission will be combining in July.  President and Sister Checketts will have finished their 3 year assignment.  President and Sister Bingham from the South mission will have 1 year into their assignment.  The Bingham's will be moving up to the Mission home and taking over responsibility for the newly combined mission.  What a job that will be.  We will have 300+ missionaries.

President Checketts has been really good at keeping the Junior and Senior missionaries informed as to what will take place.  We will be intaking fewer missionaries.  The eventual goal will be to  bring the numbers down at first to 270.  Then over the next year or so down to 180.  Elder Ellison and I will only be involved with the transition for 6-8 weeks.  We are anxious to see how our current assignments will blend with the other Senior couples from the South mission.

Elder Ellison and I attended our northern Zones, "Zone Conference".  About 2 hours from Sydney.  I

love this opportunity to be taught by President and Sister Checketts.  They always have something to help young missionaries do a better job at their calling.  I always feel I learn so much from these Conferences.  President and Sister Checketts are Great teachers.  I love learning from them.

After Zone Conference on Friday Elder Ellison and I drove 3 more hours north to Port Macquarie.  It is along the coast at the northern end of NSW (New South Wales).  It is a BEAUTIFUL Beach community.  We had a comfortable hotel room.  Saturday we drove the coastal beach route that took several hours.  We stopped at a Rain Forrest museum and had a delicious breakfast.  We stopped at several beautiful beaches and a light house.  We drove through small, open spaces with  horses, cows, goats and small populations.  A nice change from the hustle and bustle of Sydney.  I especially like these types of vacations.  They are relaxing and enjoyable to see different scenery.  I know my husband likes to be active and doing physical activities, but he is kind enough to do the things that I like to do that aren't so physical.  It gives us opportunities to talk about life, plans for the future, hypothetical ideas, share our love of the gospel and just renew our relationship.  It is very rejuvenating.   

Sunday we drove back to Sydney making a couple of detours to see some sights of interest.  We enjoyed this time away from the fast pace, non stop work at our office assignment.  So much so Monty suggested we take time once every 2 months to get away and see some more sights

before our mission ends in August.  Sounds like a great idea to me.  We will see if it happens.  So much to do with our assignments at the mission office.

Finally, I am happy to report that we have now had a working A/C for 3 weeks.  I am sleeping better and life is good!