WOMBAT STEW

Elder Ron and Sister Elise Christensen

Australia Sydney Mission

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

25 Feb 2019

Wombat Stew is one of our Favorite Children’s Stories!  We love reading the story of the unfortunate Wombat who ends up in the billy can of a hungry Dingo.  Fortunately for the Wombat, his friends come to his rescue. They trick the Dingo and he runs off into the bush.

We do not plan to trick any Dingo’s or save any Wombats, but we do plan to help the members and leaders of the Cowra Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ. We are so excited to be counted worthy to be part of this great movement of Gathering Israel.  President Nelson has said "The Lord is hastening His work to gather Israel. That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today.    Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty. And if you choose to, if you want to, you can be a big part of it. You can be a big part of something big, something grand, something majestic!"  

This is where we want to be, right now - gathering Israel and strengthening the church in Australia!

Elder Ron and Sister Elise Christensen 
Senior Missionaries in the Australia Sydney Mission
Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-Day Saints

13 July 2019 - Sydney Temple with Zephania (Zeph) Bowman

Friday night we drove to Sydney and early Saturday morning we went to the Sydney Temple with the youth to do Baptisms and to attend an endowment session with Zeph, whom we have been teaching temple preparation lessons. 

5 July 2019 (In Australia - 4th of July in USA) - Sparklers and Revenge of the Uno game

The evening 5 July we gathered with the Bohman family at their home and the Keaanina Family.  Matt Bohman is from Morgan, Utah and Adam Keaanina is from Hawaii.  Both families have lived in the United States for a period of time and now both families live in Cowra.  We all celebrated the 4th with a huge bonfire in the back yard, hot dogs and hamburgers, salads dips and all other kinds of American Summer picnic food.  Remember it's winter here - HA HA HA!

 We had Sparklers!

Revenge of the Uno Game.  The young girl in Red and the young girl in blue are mean Uno players.  On separate Friday night game nights at our flat they each totally destroyed Ron!  They were ruthless in the cards they played on him.  So, on this night we were all together and Ron had his assigned seat between the 2 of them.  It was a rather high spirited game.  We all had a good laugh.

4 july 2019 Weddin National Park and the Bush Rangers Hideout

After we hiked Conimbla, we decided to head to Weddin National Park.  That became our favourite hike for the day.  We are definitely going to return to this hike in the Spring - that is September. This National Park features numerous varieties of wild flowers in the Spring.

Ben Halls, an Australian Bush Ranger had his hideout in the hills of the Weddin National Park.  Bush Rangers in Australia were like our western outlaws, such as Butch Cassidy! 

The Sign above tells his sad tail and the picture below shows the entrance to his cave.

4 July 2019 -Conimbla National Park

Winter and the 4th of July in New South Wales Australia! We have a tradition of hiking in the Mountains for Ron's birthday. This year was a bit different! We went bushwalking on mountain tracks in the Winter. Many of the trees are without their leaves the native trees of Australia do not loose their leaves in the Fall and winter.  When you see a tree at that time of year without their leaves it is either an imported variety of tree or it is a dead Australian Tree.

Thankfully it was a nice day - not to cold. We walked tracks  in Conimbla National Park, ate a picnic lunch and then went on to Weddin - see next post.

2 July 2019 - Darby Falls and little lamb

Darby Falls - God's Heaven on earth - according to our friends that live there. It's lambing season. I fed a baby lamb. Cheeky little guy. We miss doing farm chores. We helped them on their farm that day.

 The mama sheep laying down in this picture was named Giant.  She passed away the next day.  Her little lamb follows Dee Williams all over the farm, where ever she goes, her little lamb goes.

29 June 2019 - Japanese Gardens in Cowra

Winter in the Japanese Gardens in Cowra.  Elder and Sister Adams joined us this weekend.  We walked around the Gardens.  Like the Gardens of Thanksgiving Point, there is something to see in every season.  The premier season for the Japanese Garden is the spring - September - the Cherry Blossoms adorn the Garden.

I am still trying to wrap my brain around spring flowers and September!  No worries, I am looking forward to Spring Flowers.