We arrived in Brisbane, Australia on April 27, 2011. We are half way around the world, 18 hours ahead, and the next day.We were met at the airport by President and Sister Langeland.
It was great to see their familiar, smiling faces after a very long flight.
We spent the first night very gratefully in the mission home, but hit the road the next day. Elder Adams got behind the wheel of our drive on the left car
and we went to our flat on Kangaroo Point. We are only three blocks below the Brisbane Temple. We have a lounge, kitchen, dining, two bedrooms and
two baths. We sit on top of our garage which is where the washer and now a dryer are located. But like most Aussies, we still hang most of the wash on the line outside because the weather is sooo beautiful. It is still hard to remember that is winter here. Everything is still green and lush and many of the flowers are still blooming. But it does get dark about
5:30 pm and it is cold at night. It gets down to below 30 F (9 C) at night and into the low 60's (20 C) in the daytime.
But thanks to our Mission President, we were able to find a little bit of summer on the Gold Coast on "P" day.
Our assignment is to conduct Chapel and Garden Tours at the Brisbane Temple on Wednesday through Saturday. We turn the chapel foyer into a mini visitors center every morning and put a sign on the sidewalk that lets people know there are tours. The temple site on Kangaroo Point is across the street from the city bus tours city overlook site. We get a few tourists and some people just out for a walk, but we are hoping for more as the weather warms up. There are 90 palm trees (three different varieties) on the temple grounds. It is a very beautiful and peaceful place.
Brisbane is a very beautiful city. It is paradise with two and a half million
people. Parking in the city is very expensive. It can run $10 an hour. So we
have a "Go" pass and we ride the water taxi into town. It is great fun!
We have yet to see a kangaroo or a koala but we have grown quite fond of the Ibis that roam the parks and paths. We have been warned that if we decide to eat fish and chips in the park they just might steal our chips!