A Jolly 'Down Under' Christmas!

Dec. 27, 2019

Ho, ho, ho to all our family & friends~

These past 30 days have truly been most excellent!! We have been to the Perth Temple twice; once during our Senior missionary conference the end of November & then again last week when we flew back to Perth for a Christmas conference with all the missionaries, young & older. It was fantastic to feel the love & energy of the amazing young elders/sisters that are serving here & working so hard to bring other souls to Christ. They are becoming the Lord's converted disciples who  are dedicated to teaching those prepared to receive the message of the restored Gospel. It is wonderful to feel of their love for the Savior & how that impacts their own testimonies & others. We sure love them! 

At the temple our first evening with the missionaries from our district. This was the first time we had met all of them. Elder Yavala is from Fiji; Elder Poxon is from Birmingham, England; Elder Tate & I; Sister Canon from Salt Lake area; Sister  Lyman from Raleigh, N. Carolina; Elder Gardner from Gilbert, AZ; & Elder Peterson from Payson, UT

Several sisters from one of the wards in the Temple district prepared an amazing luncheon for all of us...about 80 at this day's conference. They did another one two days earlier with about the same number of missionaries serving in the Perth area.

After the luncheon we had some fun activities in a nearby park...the kids played football, soccer, had races & games. Santa made a surprise visit & I decided to give him a big kiss...I shocked our young missionaries more than Santa! 

There were six missionaries who had completed their missions & were leaving to go home late that night, so several missionaries who are from Tonga or Samoa honored them by doing the Ha'ka dance. This is the one where they take a firm stance & stomp while shouting out a blessing. It's pretty impressive, even without being in traditional costume & having their faces being tattooed!



Here is our President Bennallack & his wife (on left) & seven of the twelve couples serving in the great Australia Perth mission. We are so happy to be serving with such wonderful, strong senior couples & know they love the Lord & are here because they desire to serve Him...wherever that may be. 

The afternoon was spent singing Christmas carols at a local mall. This, too, was a wonderful experience. Such a simple tradition that we take so much for granted is not common here. We got lots of strange looks; some people tried to give us money while others whipped out their cameras to video cause they had never seen it done before. We had one Jewish lady & her daughter ask if they could join us...which we gladly let them do. They were so excited to post pictures on their FB account so all the Jewish friends could see them singing Christmas songs with young Christian missionaries. She commented that if all Mormon men were as good looking as these were, she might have to reconsider her faith & join the church! We handed out almost 300 invitations to the Dec. 22 Sacrament services that afternoon. It would be very interesting to find out how many of those invitations were actually accepted & if anything comes from that day's joyful singing.

 




While in Perth we received a very thoughtful early Christmas gift from our son, Josh & his girlfriend, Tara. They sent us a gift certificate for a beautiful restaurant downtown Perth overlooking the city skyline & the waterfront. The restaurant revolves 360* so we could see everything & the food was the best we've had thus far. It was so much fun! 

In many ways it's like Elder Tate & I are courting again! We are going places & doing things together that we had dreamed about for so many years & now here we are! There certainly are challenges, but because we are each serving with our best friend & eternal companion, the desire is to help one another become/do our best. We truly are loving our time serving as full-time missionaries in this part of the Lord's vineyard & are so very grateful for the blessings that have come to us & our family members.

It was so nice & cool while we were in Perth. While others complained of the cold weather, a lovely 75*F, we were loving it! We had an unexpected rain storm one afternoon & our Karratha/Port Hedland elders ran outside to do a celebratory dance since we haven't had rain up north in our areas for over four months. I don't think I had seen them all so happy at the same time! All they need is an umbrella & some music & they could have channelled Gene Kelley & 'Singing in the Rain'. 

After three days in Perth, we returned home to blazing hot Karratha. This week's average temperature has been 105*! There's no way we were ever having a winter wonderland for Christmas! However, thanks to our wonderful Elders & branch members in the great Australia Perth mission, Elder Tate & I had a most excellent Christmas experience! 

Many of the branch members, as well as over half the town, leave for other parts of Australia or New Zealand during the long holiday break. There are lots of Kiwi's here (term used for New Zealanders) who have family there, so they load up the kids & take off for a month or so. They are sorely missed, but we are happy they are able to renew those loving family ties & know how challenging it is to be apart. So we baked 12 dozen cookies  & decorated 6 dozen to deliver in a goodie bag to our friends in Karratha before they took off. 

Elders Poxon & Yavala did a great job decorating & actually left a few for Elder Tate to put in the goodie bags.

Christmas morning we went with the Elders to the Salvation Army's church. They have a wonderful breakfast set out for any homeless or lonely to mingle/visit & not be alone. We had a lovely time meeting a dozen new people & Elder Tate actually made a new friend (shocker, I know!) to go fishing with in a couple weeks. After all, missionary work actually is about fishing. 

A couple hours later we returned home to  have our own Christmas morning breakfast of fruit, egg gravy & biscuits (family tradition) which we shared with the Elders & our friend Anwar (from Iraq).  

We opened gifts from each other...Elder Yavala was pretty overcome w/joy when he received a Utah Jazz jersey of his favorite player. Elder Poxon was almost as excited to receive a couple new really, really white dress shirts & a tie bar. Overall, it was a wonderful morning spent with people we truly love. 

Later that afternoon we went to the Dimitrov's for Christmas dinner with all their family... much like ours, there a quite a few of them! There was sooo much delicious food...I think Elder Tate's favorite was the seafood salad made w/fresh fish/shrimp, etc caught by Caleb the day before. It was very good...& Caleb in turn enjoyed the cherry pie we made. They don't do fresh fruit pies here...very strange cause the fruit here is excellent. Expensive, but worth it. It cost me almost $30 to make the 9x13" pie. We almost always make a big potato salad, too cause it's always a popular hit...we never have any leftovers. But, again...the best mayo is almost $11/jar! Crazy!! But worth every penny when we are sharing it with people we love & who love us right back!

We also taught them one of our favorite family games, which they loved...the name game! It will now be shared at all our branch parties. 

Elder Tate loved his gift from Elder Yavala & is ready to go on another mission to Fiji or New Zealand if he can wear the traditional lavalava. Heaven knows it's much cooler! I love mine, too...but it's much more complicated tying it than one would think!

So...even though our first Christmas in Australia was very different than our snowy, wintery cold Idaho Christmas & we missed time spent with our family in our fun celebrations & traditions, it was the same in every way that truly mattered.  We sang the same joyful songs about the Christ child born so many years ago; we feel the same hope that filled the hearts of shepherds as they heard the message of angels; we still seek the same Messiah that the wise men sought; & we still believe in the testimony of prophets who foretold of His coming. 

We testify that Christ is the only begotten of the Father & He is our Savior & Redeemer. We know He loves us & that this is His restored Church. We know He will return in glory & power & pray that we will be ready to receive Him at that great day. 

We are happiest when we are serving others...We love this work and are privileged to be part of the gathering of Israel.  Elder & Sister Tate +61431579372