January - February - March 2009 - Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been extremely busy these past three months, with many assignments and tasks that we have been doing as Public Affairs missionaries for our Church. We have said goodbyes to fellow senior missionaries going home and hello to new ones coming to take their places. We had Clint's 87 year old father come in February to visit along with brother Alan and wife Lorianne. We have been involved with our Australia Scout activities which we have throughly enjoyed. Our work continues every week with members of our assigned LDS Ward, the Fairfield 3rd in the Paramatta Stake. The recent tragic bush fires in Victoria kept us busy with some Public Affairs tasks. So, we have just kept our "shoulder to the wheel, moving the work along."

We have been anticipating some replacements for us and held off making plans to come home in June. However, no word yet for those to come after us so we have started to determine when and what we should do about coming back to Utah....

December 2008 - Christmas Again Down Under

This was our second Christmas season in Australia. We were involved with many activities and events that kept us very busy. We were also still moving our offices at the Buckland House, the new home of LDS Public Affairs in Sydney. There were activities with our Cub Scouts, leaders and parents which also included a trip to the Temple to see the Christmas Lights and Nativity Display. We had many events with other senior missionaries as well as with our ward members and Australian relatives. We even took time to show some of our new senior missionaries the beautiful country south of Sydney, both inland and along the coast. We received numerous cards and packages from home which made Christmas special for us. We are again reminded of the importance of the birth of Christ and what that meaningful event has in our lives.

October - November 2008 Activities

This is our second spring in Australia and its just as beautiful and lovely as last year though perhaps a little cooler. We spent the first weekend in October in Forster-Tuncurry, about four hours north of Sydney on the coast. We attended activities associated with the showing of the "Emma" movie at a film festival there, a film about the wife of Joseph Smith, the first prophet of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

We also made a trip west to visit with some other senior missionaries, the Cases in Orange, stopped at the famous "Dish", a radio telescope that was featured in the movie, "The Dish." Then south to the Church Farm near Griffith.

There was also a move of our office to another building on Church Administrative campus which took a lot of time and effort. We are still in the process of getting settled into our offices. We also had a visit from the Presiding Bishop of the Church, Bishop David H. Burton who wife is a Matheson descendant, the same as Clint.

Additional activities with our Scout group which keeps us very busy as well.

We are looking forward to Christmas and the joy this brings to many especially remembering the birth of Jesus Christ and what that means for mankind.

September - Visiting Newcastle, Perth and Wollengong

September down under brings on Spring with warmer temperatures, longer days and more beautiful flowers. We look forward now to this second change of season, though backwards it may be from what we are used to back in the United States.

In early September, we were privileged to travel north from Sydney to Cessnock and Newcastle. We stayed with another missionary couple, Elder Larry and Sharlene Jenson at their rented home. Clint spoke at the Newcastle Stake Conference about his Warby ancestors joining the LDS Church nearby. On one of the back roads in the area, we also had the experience of hitting a large unseen pothole with the left front tire, which bent the rim, requiring a change with a spare.

We also went south one Saturday to Wollongong, to a Scout Shop and then stopped at various scout camps on the way back to Sydney. We bought several items at the shop and enjoyed the camps which varied in climate with a rain-forest environment at Mt. Kiera and less vegation at Camp Cataract which will host the 2010 National Jamboree.

Mid-month, we spend some days far across the country in the Perth region, doing training, attending the Perth Temple and meeting and talking with Church leaders and members. We enjoyed our stay, though the weather there was somewhat cold and windy. We got to see the Indian Ocean which really looks like any other kind of ocean.

We find ourselves now on the downhill side of our two year mission, wanting to increase our efforts in what we can contribute and do....

Busy August - Spring is Coming

Another installment in the remarkable journey we are taking here in Australia as public affairs missionaries. In this past month, we have experienced the high levels of government, then meeting the humblest of people from Papua New Guinea, teaching Cub Scouts how to make S'mores and helping with their camp, and traveling to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney to speak in Church.

We also were happy to have Clint's brother Lanor, his wife Kathleen, their son Robert along with Kathleen's mother and father, sister, brother and brother-in-law all come to Sydney. Kathleen's mother is a native Australian and wanted to showed them her homeland. We were also able to show the Warby roots in Australia as well, visiting ancestral lands near Newcastle including St. James Church in Morpeth where great, great grandfather James Warby Jr. and Mary Blanch were married in 1846, later joining the LDS Church and coming to America.

It is now officially spring in Australia and we look forward to warmer weather and more beautiful flowers. It was just reported on the television news that this was the coldest winter in 68 years. Still didn't get below freezing but we still had to dress warmly and snuggle on occasion.....

Important Events

The month of July has been filled with lots of activities and events. Most of our work has been "behind the scenes" but we have enjoyed supporting some major events such as our Church representatives attending Final Mass as part of World Youth Day in Sydney. One of those is Hyde Park Stake President Trevor Jones who also has an important security position with Qantas and flew with the Pope back to Rome (see picture).

We also helped with presentation to the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of his family history prepared by our Church. The presentation was made by Elder Terry Vinson here in Sydney.

We have also involved with our Aussie Scouts with Sister Warby making some tablecloths and aprons in the color of the 1st Ermington Scout Group.

We have had some fun times with our fellow missionaries as well with dinners and learning to lawn bowl.

We look forward to warmer temperatures this coming spring. We love being near our Sydney Temple and took a photo at Sunrise.....

Keeping Busy

The month of June has been a very busy time for us with a variety of activities and events keeping us looking at our calendars to remind us what and where we should be. All this, along with our normal public affairs work for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here in Australia as well as missionary work.

We have been involved a great deal with the Scouting program here in Australia, learning how the Aussies do such activities with lots of training and attendance at various Scout events. We have also been to some interesting places in the area including the Targona Zoo in the Sydney Harbor as well as attending the Katoomba Winter Festival in the Blue Mountains west of the city. It is now winter with the days short, the nights long and the temperatures cool but not freezing like home in Utah.

We are nearing the half way mark of our mission here in Australia and look forward to many more exciting experiences and adventures....