If you thought office work has lightened up at all in the last week and a half....you're wrong! Haha, we've been especially busy this last week+ because not only did we have golden orientation for the new missionaries but we (us and the assistants) had to road trip up to Rockhampton to swap out some cars for the missionaries up there. Plus we did zone conference while we were there.
To start, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday since I last wrote was mostly run-of-the-mill office work. Dropping off supplies and stuff. Tuesday we had to be at a chapel to help with interviews for a few of the zones. We were there from about 9 to 4 or 5. But president shouted us all KFC afterwards so it was alllll goods. Oh yeah, shouting someone means buying them food. Wednesday we were at interviews for a couple other zones.
Thursday was one of the things I look forward to...golden orientation! Where they take all the missionaries that came in this transfer and give them some trainings and experiences GQing and snapping gravity in the morning (snap gravity is just an ABM thing, it's the exercise we do in the morning). Really wish I would be smarter and take pictures, but oh well.
Friday we finished up Golden orientation (no one freaked out about me filming them this time) we helped president with some training he was going to be doing at Rockhampton's district conference over the weekend, and then waited at the mission home to take President and Sister McSwain to the airport for them to fly up there. Then we went to the Chinese branch game night! Luckily we played Uno so I knew what was going on for the most part until someone would play a wild card so I had to ask them to translate the color they were changing it to.
Saturday was one of the greatest weeks for baptisms this year in the mission. We had 17 in one day across the mission! That is INCREDIBLE, especially because the last few weeks we've only had 5 or 6 a week. But before we went to baptisms we visited our investigator family from Burma, the Mahns. 3 of the 5 kids of baptismal age are super ready to get baptized. We are so lucky to be teaching them!
For the rest of Saturday Elder Morris went with Elder Fukofuka and I went with Elder Smoot to go to baptisms. We went to one in Kuraby where I had to conduct last minute. I don't mind conducting but I'm the literal worst at singing. We went to a couple poly baptisms, we got to have a mighty feed after one of them.
That night we started upon our road trip to Rockhampton. We had to drive a total of 4 cars so each of us drove a car (yes, by ourselves, and yes, the mission president was well aware of it). Me and Elder Smoot drove to Hervey Bay, one of his previous areas, and Elder Morris and Fukofuka drove to Bundaberg, one of Elder Fukofuka's previous areas. We started upon our journey 9:45 at night. We had PLANNED to leave at 7 but good old Elder Smoot lost his wallet so we had to find that.
The road trip to Hervey Bay was about as fun as you would expect driving 3 1/2 hours in the middle of the night during pouring rain. It was bad. I had to stay awake by ringing Elder Smoot and drinking-please don't gasp-Coca Cola. It was a necessary sacrifice. We ended up getting to the Hervey Bay elders' flat about 2 am. Slept like a rock. I did get a picture with them so I'll attach it. We went to church in the Hervey Bay ward so Elder Smoot could see old recent converts and members. Then we embarked once more to finish our journey. This time though we left one of the cars in Hervey Bay (since that was one of the ones we were swapping) and just drove in one car up to Rocky. Meanwhile, Elder Fukofuka and Elder Morris went to church in Bundaberg and carpooled the rest of the way.
Actually I forgot, before we went the rest of the way to Rocky me and elder smoot drove to Bundaberg and met the other guys there and had lunch with an eternal investigator there. THEN we drove the rest of the way to Rockhampton which was about 4 or 5 hours. One way it's 616 km, or about 350 mi. That's about the distance from SLC to Las Vegas. The reason it takes so much longer is because
1. It was raining hard-out the entire drive and
2. The top speed limit here is only like 60-65 mi an hour, even on the loneliest highways. And you can't speed because they even go through the courtesy of installing speed cameras in the middle of nowhere.
That night we got to Rocky and met up with the Rockhampton/Gladstone Elders and the Emerald sisters at a setting apart of a missionary that President McSwain was doing. We had dinner there too. I'll attach a picture of us outside.
Monday was zone conference for Rockhampton. I had a bad headache the whole time. Then we swapped cars and headed back out as soon as conference was over. Took from about 3 to 1 in the morning. We split off again on the way down so that Elder Fukofuka and Elder Morris could grab the old Bundaberg car and me and Elder Smoot grabbed the old Hervey Bay car to drive it down. The drive down was actually much better, I drove for 2 1/2 hours of the leg to Hervey Bay and then obviously the full 3 1/2 hours down to Brisbane since I was driving alone. But I didn't get tired at all on the way down so it was cool.
Tuesday we got to go to district meeting for the first time in weeks. We saw the Mahns again to prepare them for their baptism this Saturday. Then Tuesday night we picked up a missionary from the airport who was returning to the field to Perth after spending a few months back home on medical release. He stayed with us over night after we smashed some KFC in the mission home. But also the assistants (Elder Fukofuka and Elder Smoot) and President and Sister McSwain all flew up to Cairns Tuesday morn.
Wednesday was a fun day, because we had three new missionaries come in mid transfer, and since everyone was up in Cairns, it fell on us to do everything! So after seeing Elder Oemcke off to Perth we picked up the new missionaries and took them back to the office for the senior missionaries to orient them on stuff. Then we did heaps of driving taking missionaries to their new areas. Ultimately that's what we spent the whole day doing. All three went to the Chines-speaking program so we went down to Sunnybank, which is basically mini-China in Brisbane, and ate some awesome dumplings.
Thursday (today) we did some hard office work for President's training that he's going to be giving at a mission president's seminar in Fiji in a couple weeks. Then we met with our WML to organize the Mahn's baptism and then went to the Mahn's to teach them the Word of Wisdom and get their parental permission for baptism. Unfortunately the only reason the parents' aren't getting baptized is because they don't speak any English and the Church doesn't really have any materials in their language, and their kids' translation abilities only go so far. But we're still super excited! Found out something cool: while we were filling out the baptismal records, I learned from the Mahn's that in Burma (or Myanmar) they don't have last names, so when they came to Australia they were assigned a last name. Interesting fun fact! That's pretty much catching you all up. I know it's heaps, and I wish I had more pictures, but that's the way the news goes. Cheers!
Elder Cummings
ps I attached a map of our road trip for your convenience. Also, on the way back down we actually had to take a couple detours because roads were closed due to flooding.
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