The Boys

Scott and Antonio came after Christmas. President gave us the week off to explore and explore we did. First we went to the sky walk at Tamborine Mountain. It is steel supported bridges through trees as tall as sky scrapers.

The next day we went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where they were able to get up close

and personal with a koala.

Thanks to Scott's techno-savy, my phone now sounds like a kookaburra.

The tassies were pretty creepy.

2012 came in with a bang - fireworks

on the river.

We enjoyed the botanical gardens at Tambroine, but the ones at Mt. Coot-tha were even better.

The next journey was to the Glass House Mountains. We saw our first kangaroo in the wild at the overlook.

The week ended at Shelly Beach on the Sunshine coast. At first I thought the name was wrong because there weren't many shell. But as we looked closer, there were many beautiful little shells. The volcanic rocks were interesting with their strange patterns.

Thanks guys for a wonderful week!

Missionary Christmas

Early in December, we had a "celebrity" elder join the Brisbane Mission. Elder Will Hopoate is a rugby player and has left his professional team to be a full time missionary. He is a humble young man and will be a great missionary.

The temple was a special place at Christmas. There was a beautiful nativity out front. The elders came caroling one evening.

We had a very small tree in our flat that the

Abeles were kind enough to give us.

Christmas Eve was spent at the Karawatha Chapel with 133 missionaries. Each district did a talent and cheer. The Abeles read a missionary Dr. Seuss. We decorated a tree and had lunch. Then we watched "The Best Two Years". They all left with armloads of boxes from home and homemade Christmas cookies.

Christmas Down Under

In late November the poinciana trees start to
bloom. Their green leaves and red blossoms signal to Australians that Christmas is coming.

In the English tradition, the Brisbane Stake put on a Christmas Pantomime. The story line was Al and the Genie - with our Manly elders as the shepherds in the nativity.

The week before Christmas there was a parade down Queen's Street every night. Mary and Joseph were followed by the three Wise Men, the Night Before Christmas and Santa. The big (fake) tree is in St. George Square.