Meanwhile, Back at Home Part 2

Brinley and Preston sang and Jalen accompanied them on the piano in sacrament

meeting.  Send us a video kids!!  Can't wait to hear it!

Brinley just had her 7 year old birthday party.  She had a Halloween party

and I'll bet her big sister did her nails?  Happy Birthday Brinley. We are so

excited you will be reading the Book of Mormon this year before you turn 8

and are baptized!  Love you Brinley.

And this is Brighton Keller who is almost 2!  His mom, our daughter Jaimie,

is lucky she has such a big helper.  Brighton is all boy and never stops.  He 

is learning to talk and I'm pretty sure he was saying where's grandma last

time we skyped!!  Love you so much Brighton!

Kellers at Disneyland!  Have a churro for us!  

Our daughter Kimberly and her husband Craig as they sent Elder and Sister 

Farrer off to the MTC.  Love you Craig and Kimber.  Thanks for all of the

packages.  Kimber and Craig are my go to people when we need something 

sent from the states.  We are so grateful for all of our family who sacrifice

and support us while we are in Australia.  Love and miss you all.  We know

you are being watched over and blessed. 

Meanwhile, Back at Home!

Meanwhile back in the States, our grandchildren just get cuter every day.  This is

our youngest granddaughter, Halle Parker.  I miss kissing those sweet cheeks!!

This is Charlotte, Halle's sister who will turn 4 on Nov. 4th.  She's our dancer!

This is McKenna.  Halle's other sister.  McKenna is 4 years old and knows all

13 Articles of Faith.  She attends preschool and is a wonderful cook and big sister. 

Cameron and Emily have 3 beautiful daughters.  They all live in Boston and 

we miss them every day.  We love you so much.

For Halloween the girls are a Russian nesting doll.  Adorable idea!!  

It's great being a daddy of 3 beautiful daughters!

Our youngest son, Brandon and his amazing wife, Alex surprised us with this

great photo of them with our dear friend, Elder Craig Zwick of the Quorum of

the Seventy.  He was presiding at their Stake Conference in Los Angeles. 

Back in Las Vegas, Nevada, this is our oldest granddaughter, Jalen, who just won

the Duel in the Desert Tennis Tournament in her age group.  Jalen is 12 and is

the Beehive President in her class.  She is in 7th grade and plays the piano

beautifully. We are so happy you are developing your talents and living 

righteously, Jalen.

This is Preston, who is 9 years old.  Preston loves being a cub scout and just 

earned his wolf.  Preston is in 3rd grade, sings, and plays the cello.  He is also 

a great swimmer and won many ribbons this summer.  We miss you Preston.  

Can't wait for you to come and visit us in Australia and see all the great

wildlife here. You will love it!

Preston's 9th birthday party.  They showed an outdoor movie and this is the 

snack stand they created.

This is our granddaughter, Brinley, walking to school in the rain.  Brinley loves 

pink and girly things. Can you tell?  

Interviews

Looks like stripling warriors to me!  President Parker is always smiling when he

gets to interview and counsel with these great missionaries.  We are in awe of

each one of them.  Elder Anton, Elder Barnes, Elder Beard, Elder Hamilton, Elder 

Fuhriman, and Elder Paeu.

President Parker and Elder Hamilton talk about their fathers and uncles who

are in the dentistry field.  It's so fun to get to know about each of these

wonderful missionaries and their great families who have taught them. 

Interviews

On Monday, Oct. 26th, we traveled up to Mildura so President could do interviews.  

It is such a beautiful drive and I saw kangaroos again.  Woohoo!  They are so 

awesome!  We arrived late Monday night, attended district meeting and then

began interviews.  By the end of the day everyone was hungry so we ate dinner

at Fasta Pasta.  Here is the whole Mildura Zone of incredible missionaries!

Great place, great food, and especially great missionaries.  We love hearing about

all those they are teaching and of their great service here in Mildura.  We love

each one of these missionaries so much.

This is Elder and Sister Jurgens who are two of the hardest working people you'll

ever meet.  They lovingly watch over our missionaries here in the Mildura Zone

and bless the members here in so many ways.  I'm pretty sure they do the 

work of about 3 senior couples.  We are so grateful for you Elder and Sister

 Jurgens. 

Nothing more fun then being with these great missionaries!!

Elder Kata, Elder Boyd, Elder Fuhriman, and Elder Barnes.  Eating a good meal

so they can go serve with all they have!

Sister Tamana and her companion, Sister Asera.  Two angel sister missionaries 

working hard.  Elder Soli and his companion, Elder Kelese, one of the zone 

leaders here.  We love you all!

Elder Beard, Elder Paeu, Elder Hamilton, Elder Anton, and Elder Punou worked

up an appetite at training all day.  Love these elders!

President Parker, Elder Matekohi, Elder Kata, and Elder Boyd, the other 

zone leader of this Mildura Zone.  Love these elders also!!

Arrivers Training!

Sister Toufa with her new trainer, Sister Lee-Lo and Sister Freitas with her 

new trainer, Sister Fa'alogo at their first training session.  They've had a good

night's sleep and are ready for their first whole day in the wonderful Australia

Adelaide Mission.  We love you sisters!!

Elder Leutele with his new trainer and companion, Elder U-Fa.  These two 

have a lot in common and will no doubt work miracles as they work hard together. 

The assistants, Elder Pitcher and Elder Matekohi, did some great training today. 

These are prepared missionaries and we are so grateful to have them in this

wonderful mission.

Elder and Sister Larkin trained today on staying healthy and taking great care 

of our cars and bicycles.  What would we do without our senior couples?!?!

Elder and Sister Farrer as new trainees here in the mission.  They are ready

to take on Darwin!  Enjoying a great lunch provided by our senior couples.

Senior!

The Australia Adelaide office couples sadly say goodbye to Elder and Sister 

Gray.  We are happy for them to return to be with their wonderful family

again but this mission won't be the same without them.  We keep telling them

we would love to have them return!!  We love you so much.

President with Elder and Sister Farrer as they leave for their assignment in Darwin.

We keep finding out more and more relatives who have either served in Darwin

or have some connection there.  The Lord's hand is definitely in the Farrers'

service up north.  We will miss you but rejoice in the great work we know you 

will do.  Love you to the moon and back!

So blessed to serve a mission with my sister.  See you at zone conference Sister

Farrer :)

Senior Couples!

Since we were in Sydney when our dear friends, Elder and Sister Larkin

arrived, we didn't take the traditional picture by the mission office.  So,

we officially welcome the Larkins to the Australia Adelaide Mission.  We love

you.

And here are Elder and Sister Farrer who have been in Adelaide 3 weeks. 

We stop for a picture before they are off on their assignment in Darwin. 

Love you Elder and Sister Farrer.  Welcome to the best mission on the planet.

It's always a great day when we take these pictures.  That means we have new

missionaries ready to go share the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We welcome you all.

The welcome dinner at the mission home for our new arrivers.  Here a few

of our senior couples enjoy gathering together to celebrate new missionaries.

Sister Freitas and Sister Taufa wondering who their new trainers will be???

I love this picture!  Elder Matekohi and Elder Pitcher, 2 of our wonderful

assistants sit on either side of Elder U-Fa and Elder Leutele, who are now 

new companions!!  These elders are ready to get to work!  We love you.

New Missionaries!

It's always a great day when new missionaries arrive!  Introducing Sister Freitas

from Guaruja, Brazil.  She is the first Portuguese-speaking missionary we have

had serve.  Her English is superb!  We are thrilled to have you in this mission.  

We love you!  

Welcome Sister Taufa from Doonside, Australia!  Love that smile.  We love you 

already and can't wait to see all the good works ahead for you.  

Meet Elder Leutele from Napier, New Zealand.  Welcome to the best mission

ever!  We are so excited to have you serve and know you will see miracles

as you serve with all of your heart, might, mind, and strength.  We love you.

Three great new missionaries here to invite others to come unto Christ.       

After some training by the office staff, we stop for pictures.  This is just 

outside the mission office.  Welcome Sister Freitas.  

     

Welcome Sister Taufa!  Great things are ahead.     

Welcome Elder Leutele!  We feel your excitement and love welcoming you to

the Australia Adelaide Mission. 

More Tie Cutting

The great missionary, Elder Litster is leaving his tie with us.  It will hang on the

tie board in the mission home with honor.  You have been a great blessing to this

mission, Elder Litster.  We love you.

The great missionary Elder Hobbs is also leaving us his tie.  We will miss all

of these wonderful missionaries.  They have served with all of their heart, might,

mind and soul.  We honor you and love you so much.  

I think President Parker is having way too much fun cutting Elder Gray's tie!  Elder 

and Sister Gray will be missed terribly.  We love you so much.

And there you have it!  The tie cutting is complete!

We love these valiant sisters.

One last photo before this wonderful day ends.  We love everything about this

mission except the goodbyes.