Dear Family,
The weather has turned nicer, actually sun both days and we were able to remove one of our layers of clothing.
We had a wonderful day yesterday withtwo lovely ladies in the ward, Lee Smibert and her mother Lola Smibert, who is 84 years old. They wanted to take us to see herds of kangaroos. We thought it would be relaxing walk through the countryside. It turned out to be a 7 mile walk, hike is a better word in the mountains. We climbed up and down mountains for 3 hours. Lola stayed with us the whole hike. The country was beautiful. On our web site; cannonsisterscalledtoserve.blogspot.com.au has a number of pictures we took while hiking. We saw about 50-60 kangaroos and every time I tried to snap a picture they jumped away. Some were as big and tall as 7 feet. We saw babies feeding. We took one picture where they were staring at us.
On the drive back we stopped at a little village called Sassafrass. It is a very popular place to visit especially on weekends. They have a quaint eating and tea establishment called Miss Marples, after the show on PBS. There is always a waiting line. We are going to drive back there and arrive when it opens. It has a great yarn store and we took a picture of a scarf/necklace and sent it to Suzette. She wants the pattern. Good reason to go back.
We also saw beautiful flowers which grow wild everywhere. We sent pictures of the camellias and another tree with pink flowers but don't know the name. While we were hiking we came upon several bushes of calla lily flowers that grow wild. They are so expensive in the states and here they consider them weeds.
Sundays are turning into long days. We just got home from the mission president's fireside. We help with food, dishes, cleaning after serving snack food to approximately 150 investigators and missionaries. We will be in charge of the fireside from now on. They are held every fast Sunday. Sister Maxwell talked about journeys. She started with the story of President Uctdorf''s family. They knew they needed to leave East Germany and planned it so they left in different groups. President Uctdorf's father was considered a dissent. He left first on a train going north, the quickest route, two sons went a different direction and crossed the border, his two sisters took a train and convinced the porter to open the door and they jumped to safety. Pres. and his mother were the last to leave. They packed a picnic started walking and thought they had crossed the border. While they were eating on the grass they realized they had not gone far enough. They quickly packed up the lunch and ran. She tied this journey into Lehi's dream of the tree of life. Then said we all have journeys and we must hold onto the iron rod with both hands. Great fireside.
We had a Samoan or Tongan, they don't liked to be mixed up bear his testimony and has only been a member a short time. We have many Samoan, Tongan, Vietnnamese, Chinese(lots) Japanese etc. serving in the mission. We have 73 different languages of the Book of Mormon in our mission office.The young oriental and islander sisters love us and kiss and hug us each time we meet.
In closing I am going to write about Sister Chen. Adrienne wrote this down in her journal and so I am copying it because she was so special to both of us.
"We have gotten to know and love a very sweet young missionary from China, who went home Tuesday night. She has been out only 4-5 months. Her name is Sister Chen. Her mother is very ill. She is the only member in her family. She has a younger sister and feels she needs to be home to help her mother. She is very shy and doesn't speak great English, but she knew we loved her. When she came on her mission she had to come straight to Melbourne because the Chinese government would not let her go anywhere else. She came on a work visa (working for the church). She came with a small carry on and was wearing levi's and a tee shirt. That's all. When she came several people in the office gave her Missionary Prep Classes. They took her shopping and she also received her Patriarchal blessing. She also didn't have a temple recommend. She has since gone to the temple for her endowments. She has been serving in the city where there are Chinese branches. They also have Vietnamese branches. There are so many missionaries here from mainland China. She is about the same size as Isabelle Epperson, tiny. We were so sad to see her leave, but she states she wants to come back. (Pres Maxwell seems to feel she will return) Her life will be forever changed because of what she has learned and how she has grown"
We love you dearly and pray for all of you
Sister Higginson and Sister Cox
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