We're Barreling Toward the Finish Line!!

Happy Holidays and a Blessed New Year to our Wonderful Family and Friends Afar,

Christmas came and went with nary a sign of brumal (wintry) trappings outdoors this year! But inside, you'll note as per the photo on the right, that our 2' mini-tree with family pics o'er head and Christmas songs ringing through our flat are all we need to make the season come alive with JOY!  Lush green and HEAT abound and never stop unless you're a eucalyptus tree and it's time to shed your tired bark skin.  Even while shedding, they hold their leafy heads high with full foliage.  But Jolly Old St. Nicholas must need to shed his arctic outer coat when he heads out to deliver his presents in the land "down under." And did you know he uses six white boomers ( rare, white, old  kangaroos) to guide his sleigh here because his reindeer can't take the terrible heat! It's true, so check it out on youtube!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98fMRw1LuiU.  The Aussie children have a ball with their  Christmas songs, many of which are delightfully new to us. Truly, we have been surrounded by loving saints and sharing friends who made Christmas meaningful and memorable.  Christmas Day the 18 Senior Missionaries who aren't local (The locals have family around.) got together with the Mission President and his wife and six "orphaned" Elders for a royal Christmas dinner supplied by all of us pitching in.  We ate for hours, laughed, and felt so grateful to be a part of the Australia Brisbane mission which is seeing such success in the work. 

Talk about a HUGE GOAL: last December the Mission unitedly set a goal for 500 baptisms for the ABM---a large leap from last year's 364 baptisms!  That was the amazing outcome for 2016's efforts.  So here we are looking the year's end in the face and we have 491 baptisms so far with several more scheduled for the next few days!!  Regardless, these missionaries are THE BEST and most dedicated young men and young women we've ever had the privilege of working with. Attending baptisms and supporting our young Elders and Sisters punctuates our weeks with happy celebrations. Each new member has a story to tell of their conversion which humbles us!  How beautiful to consider we are all equal in the sight of our Heavenly Father and He desires only the very best for us---returning to His presence!   Dressed in their new dresses above are the sweet young African girls 💕, converts, who have just been baptized!   Pictured just above are 4 Mandarin-speaking Elders from one of our two Chinese Branches.  Their thumbs up indicate a great Christmas dinner has filled them up well!  We fed a crowd---18 seniors and 6 juniors celebrated!    
Such fine people we have the privilege of working with side by side.  As mentioned above, this is the "American portion" of all the current Senior missionaries.

Food for Thought: A student provided "snacks"
for one of our PathwayConnect gatherings and
decorated the table with this quote and oodles of
healthy and not-so-healthy yummy treats.

Our fantastic hardworking evening PathwayConnect class!

Yes, it's part of the same spread after 27 people have gone through
the line to enjoy the fare.  We  finished our first semester with our
two new BYU-Worldwide PathwayConnect classes.  We teach
a morning and an evening class each Thursday.  Every one has
registered for 2nd Semester---35 students!  They are making such
strides forward in their lives. We all need to be life-long learners!
Below is pictured our smaller morning class and above are our 25 evening
students.  Next Semester begins Jan. 11th, and we have 2 new classes
beginning with about 18 students each!  How inspiring!  

More holiday spirit and fun experiences help us feel the reason for the season---the goodness of our Heavenly Father's gift to us of His Beloved Son.  We know His humble birth signaled ultimate redemption for us all if we set our feet upon the path back into His presence and steadfastly take advantage of the precious opportunities to seek and follow our Savior's example.  Thus, we've applied often on our mission Nephi's admonition to us in 2 Nephi 25:26---"We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."  Did you know that you prophesy of Christ every time you bear your testimony? And when you keep a journal which includes your spiritual experiences, you are writing according to your prophecies!  Talk often with all children of God---our own, and all whom we have interaction with, about the hope that is in us because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It truly is the "Good News" of all time and eternity.  

At University of Queensland's Performing Arts Center we attended a remarkable Christmas festival of beautiful sacred and secular songs, "The Spirit of Christmas."  It certainly brought the true Spirit of Christmas to our hearts!  Rivaling the Conference center in SLC, there was a 250 voice choir, a world class pipe organ that rattled our seats,  an amazing orchestra, a children's choir, impeccable bell choir, and famous Australian classical soloists including the likes of Simon Gleeson who just returned from a 3 year tour singing Jean Valjean in London and beyond! Our Christmas hearts were open and filled to overflowing!  Below is Elder Yates at our Logan Ward Christmas Party making ready to present the High Priests' Musical Item, "Six White Boomers!"  'Twas a funny karaoke rendition!   

"Six white boomers, snow white boomers"  rang through the cultural hall as the High Priests entertained us!  You'd be proud to know that Elder Yates was the instigator, organizer, and director of the big production!  More talents are discovered!
 We were invited over to a post-Christmas lunch at the Willoughby's home who are in our Logan Ward.   He's the High Councilor in Logan Stake over Self-Reliance and we love this good family.  They immigrated from Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002 because of the dangerous political situation.  Gangs run rampant there, and no one is safe on the streets nor in their cars.   At red lights gangs, would descend on a car and break out the windows, steal purses, wallets, and more. One horrid story he told of a lady who was ascending the lift (elevator) to her office.  When she got to her floor, she had been robbed and when the perpetrator tried to grab her wedding ring, it was too tight.  Instead, he severed her finger, taking the ring and fleeing. Oh, how awful!! We have nothing to complain about in our neighborhoods compared to the constant fear they lived with.  They love Australia and would never go back to Johannesburg to live.  But their extended family is there, so he went 5 years ago to visit his mother.  He was so saddened to see that the violence and degradation have only increased!  This sad story aside, the lovely lunch turned out to be a full lamb dinner with all the trimmings, topped off by a Willoughby famous waffle for dessert!  It filled a dinner plate alone! Sr. Willoughby had the table beautifully set and even the menu was posted on the table! 

One of our favorite missionary jobs is holding workshops with the soon-to-be-returning missionaries as they prepare to integrate into their new lives post-mission.  We take them through two classes---a goal setting class and a second class to help them recognize and utilize their newly developed skills, attributes and gifts which have prepared them for a successful life ahead.  This precious opportunity allows them to reflect on what is ahead in their lives and to set goals that are in harmony with achieving their full potential.  Oh, they've grown so much spiritually and in all facets of their lives. Now enjoy a quick story about Elder Zhang, the Chinese Elder between Elder and Sister Yates.  He hails from mainland China and heard the gospel from a dear friend.  Elder Zhang was baptized when 17 years old. He shared the gospel with his Buddhist parents, and his father was later converted and Elder Zhang baptized him. Before he left on his mission, his father was made the Branch President of a now-thriving branch in their small town.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

His mother would not leave her religion. Unexpectedly, 4 months after coming on his mission, he got a birthday surprise announcement in the mail. It contained the good news that his mother had joined the church and was thrilled with her newly-found gospel.  She apologized to Elder Zhang that she "could not wait 20 months" until he returned because she desired to have the gospel blessings in her life immediately!  Realize that there are NO MISSIONARIES allowed in China and all religious sites are banned on Chinese internet. No general conferences, no lds.org or mormon.org.  These saints are incredible, and the light of their lives attracts others to the truth.   While in our goal-setting class, Elder Zhang was quietly writing his goals at the culmination of the class.  As he was about to finish, his face lit up and he just beamed, saying, "I KNOW!"  He was overcome with enthusiasm as he remembered, "My patriarchal blessing tells me of my most important goal of all!"    He told us humbly that his patriarchal blessing states, "Heavenly Father desires you to set a goal that points toward exaltation!"  Yes, that is his overarching goal and should be ours as well!  How much we learn from these devout, dedicated GLOWING missionaries!  

We were blessed in December to host a Self-Reliance Training Seminar for Senior couples from 3/4 of Australia.  They flew in for the 3-day conference and our best guest for 2 days was Cory Christensen, Area Supervisor of BYU-Worldwide PathwayConnect for all of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.  He taught us deeply of the divine purposes and implementation of PathwayConnect to bless lives worldwide.  The featured speaker at a Tuesday Devotional for the members in Brisbane, he educated a good crowd as to this exciting program.  Yes, things went so well there and from other efforts that we have formed two new classes to begin Semester 1 on Jan. 11th as mentioned earlier!  Now Priesthood leaders are scrambling to

find teachers because this ONE remaining Self-Reliance couple (The Yates) are already teaching 2 cohorts!  And Elder and Sister Yates are LEAVING TO FLY HOME FROM THEIR MISSION on February 7th. Yikes!  There we've said it!  With such mixed emotions, our time is coming to an end.  That is very sad from this end because the work is so engaging and fulfilling.  But it's very happy on the other end because of what awaits us there----YOU  ALL, our precious family and friends!  We have MILES to go here to finish what we can before we leave our beloved Brisbane home!  And those 18 hours that we lost as we flew into the future to Brisbane in August of 2016?  Gladly, we will reclaim every one of them  as we fly home.  We leave Brisbane and fly nearly 14 hours to LA.  After a 3 hour layover, we fly to SLC, arriving there ONE HOUR LATER than we took off from Brisbane, AU!  Go figure. 😉 To us, it surely won't feel like a 1 hour flight.  Just FYI, we arrive home on Feb. 7th at 1:09 PM on Delta Flight 1414, from Los Angeles.  As the Angel Moroni statue stands guard over the Brisbane temple in this photo, the amazing work of bringing souls unto Christ will continue well and long after we are gone as the work rolls forward!  We are all an invaluable part of this work wherever we reside!  

ATTENTION: Important update to earlier news in this blog:  It has just been announced through the mission that as of yesterday's baptisms (Saturday Dec. 30) the Australia Brisbane Mission has MET and exceeded their goal by about 4 baptisms!!  504 baptisms in the year 2017! Hurrah for all the faith, prayers, and hard work that went into this mighty miracle.  And happiness here and beyond to all those who have been brought into the fold and will experience such marvelous changes in their lives. 

And as the clock rolls forward tonight and we welcome yet another New Year, may 2018 be a faith-filled and beautiful year for you and your dear ones.  Out with the old, and in with the new!  We pray this finds you well and enjoying lots of happy family times together.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

With loads of love and happy wishes coming to you, 💜💛💗💚💙

Elder and Sister Yates

Dad and Mom

Grandpa and Grandma

David and Marsha