8 March 2020 Arrival Down Under

And so our second mission begins . . .

We left Salt Lake City around 5 in the afternoon on Wednesday, March 4 and landed in Sydney, Australia Friday morning on March 6 having  crossed the International Date Line.  The fifteen hour flight from Los Angeles passed without incident, lots of movies to watch, and trying to get some decent rest.  My super-duper memory foam pillow did its magic since I missed the in-flight snacks and pizza twists in the middle of the night.  We cruised through the expedited customs procedure and were met by another senior missionary couple.  After lugging all 6 pieces of luggage plus carry-ons into a van, we were driven right to the office where we will spend most of our working hours for the next 18 months. Don and I received orientation from many other senior couples regarding phones, transportation, medical, logistics etc.  A wonderful food basket welcomed us to the Office of General Counsel where we met Gordon and Stephanie Low from Providence, Utah.  We are to be their replacements.  Our new little home was not quite ready for us, so we spent the first night in what is referred to as temple patron housing.  I spent some time watching a coed rugby club team practice behind our unit that first night while Don found his workout gym - the same franchise he frequented in Germany.  

Sydney Temple

The next morning we decided to walk to the Low's cottage as they were taking us shopping. We passed some young boys playing in a cricket match and later watched some of a women's match.  The church complex of office buildings is right next to the temple.  Though the temple housing is more than a mile away, we will have less than a 10 minute walk to the office from our permanent home.  Our shopping took us to Costco, Woolworths (Woolies), Aldi, and Target where we acquired the food stuffs, kitchen and household items we think we'll need.  But the one thing every store was out of supply was toilet paper!  With the coronavirus spreading, people are thinking they may be quarantined I guess.  We even asked when new shipments were expected and no one seemed to know.  One school of thought was much of the supply is shipped from China and with the factories closed down there, people seem to be panicking.  Of course, Australia has it's own paper plants too, so I don't know if that's an accurate assessment.  But in any case, we cannot buy toilet paper.  We are hoping the two rolls in our house will last until we get some!!

We took our purchases right to our new home which was now ready for us.  We could not believe our eyes.  A little house originally built as a mother-in-law home (I hope all my children are reading this), has been made available to us.  We are almost, not quite, but somewhat embarrassed by its comfort.  Two bedrooms. two bathrooms, laundry room, dining and living room, and a kitchen with a dishwasher.  We couldn't help but think of our little flat in Germany which we loved too, but this is a palace compared to smallness of that one.

 This is the front door and part of the porch that surrounds
 the house in the front, side and back.

Here is the entrance hallway with bedrooms to the right and left.  The master also has a small walk-in closet and adjoining bathroom.

This is the Master bath which I have claimed and Don took the other which adjoins the laundry room.  The second bedroom has an armoire that we are using for coats and jackets.  The more I think about it though, I should have had Don take that for all his things and then I could use the walk-in totally for me!

Here is our living room. The skylight has a stained glass covering. There are other stained glass windows in parts of the house also.  The missionary in charge of housing, Elder Stoker, will be bringing in a television this week also.  We have a large desk and little bookshelf next to it.  We were able to obtain Internet access rather easily and now have our own hot spot.

This view of the kitchen shows the "cooker," (stove), sinks, dishwasher, and some of the cupboards.  On the opposite wall is a pull-out pantry, more cupboards, oven, microwave and refrigerator.  Our dining table will seat 10 comfortably with the "good" dishes stored in the sideboard.  We cannot believe how lovely this home is and that it was prepared for us.

As we moved in and started unpacking the house security alarm went off.  Yes, Don had been fiddling with it.  The piercing, noise was so loud that some adjacent homeowners came over and said, "You must be the new neighbors!"  I kept hoping the police would not come.  Fortunately, they didn't and eventually Don and Gordon Low were able to call someone who knew the code.  It is now written down where we can find it again if needed.  But all the neighbors now know who we are!  Yesterday, we thought we'd blown a fuse when doing some laundry.  Apparently, we cannot wash and dry at the same time.  So, here we are, adapting to our new beautiful surroundings and looking forward to exploring much of the area.

Don and I are also adapting to driving on the left side of the roads and having a car with the steering on the right.  We keep thinking we are using the blinker when the windshield wipers are turned on.  I was pretty proud when I drove around the neighborhood to take Don in early this morning as it was raining and he hasn't bought an umbrella yet.  He is planning on some practice driving today also as he ventures further and further out.

There doesn't appear that we will be wanting for anything.  But if there is a sacrifice, it is being away from family and friends wishing all were here to enjoy this experience with us.