Training in Melbourne

We have had some wonderful experiences in these last three weeks.  We took a Saturday afternoon and drove over to Richmond which is a historic town.  We had been there before but hadn't really looked around too much.  The town is only about 3 blocks long, so this time after going to the wood shop and the ice cream shop, we walked to the park where a famous bridge crosses the river.  This is the first bridge to be build in all of Australia.  It was build by the convicts and is a beautiful work of art.

 

If you look closely you can see the top of the church through the opening of the bridge.  We walked over to the church and found a lovely Catholic Church, the oldest and continuously used church in Australia.

Although we didn't get a picture of it, there was an old cemetery in back of the church.  Some of the grave stones were huge and falling over and if I remember correctly I think the dates were in the 1840s.  It was pretty neat.

Last week we had the opportunity to go to Melbourne and help train two new couples who are doing digitizing there at the PROV (Public Records of Victoria).  We had a great time with them.  Sunday we attended the International Branch, Melbourne 2 Branch.  There were 17 different nationalities there that day.   Most were Asian, many Vietnamese and Chinese, some Spanish, and a few Americans.  President Maxwell and his wife were there and a slew of young missionaries.  About 20 missionaries sang "I will go where you want me to go, dear Lord" in Chinese.  There is a huge university there so most of those missionaries work with the students.   It was a farewell for one of the senior couples who were going back home to Centerville, Utah.  Also, it was the one year anniversary of the branch so after Church we all had a pot luck dinner.

Elder Rust talking with Elder Freeman

 Elder and Sister Freeman from Meadow, Utah (near Fillmore, Utah)

Freemans, Rusts and Dillinghams

Dillinghams are from North Salt Lake.  The church services are held on one floor of an office building right downtown Melbourne.  We took the tram into the city and walked and walked until we finally found the building.  There are over 4 million people who live in Melbourne. It is one busy, busy place.

Marvin going to work at the PROV

   

        We spent three full days in the PROV helping the Freemans and Dillinghams.

On Thursday we all went to the Melbourne Temple, ate left overs at the Mission Office which is across the parking lot from the temple, and then went hunting the American Store.  That week the Tour de Cure, a bicycling group that traveled from Sydney to Hobart to raise money for cancer research, was peddling and we happened to come across them in Melbourne as we were searching for the American Store.  No pictures :(.  We found the store and bought cereal for our missionaries, Crisco for Marvin and Red Vines for me.

As we left the store, a gentleman said he had never seen anyone so excited about buying cereal.  We finished the day having a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in town.
Friday we went into work but decided to let them be on their own for a few hours.  So we went downtown to the Victoria Market.  It was huge.  It reminded me of the Mesa Flea Market but much bigger.

We also went to the Melbourne Museum where we watched an IMAX movie and toured the museum.

Pterodactyl skeletons

Old Parliament building which is now an exhibition hall.

The Dillinghams took us to the airport, but before we left, we toured an apartment which they liked.  They are living on the other side of Melbourne and come into the PROV at 7:00 am to miss the city traffic.  Hopefully they get the apt. which is a few blocks from the PROV.  We stopped in the Royal Park to have a quick lunch.

Back at home, we caught this pansy fighting to live among the concrete sidewalk.

It's amazing!

Kay standing across the street.  The pansy is at the bottom of the traffic light.

Last weekend was General Conference and here we will have it this weekend.  However, we were able to listen to Saturday's sessions during the week as we were working in the archives.  What wonderful talks were given.  We are so glad to be able to serve the people of Tasmania in this way.