IT'S PARADISE!

Beautiful family ...

I'M IN AUSTRALIA!!!! HOW DO I EVEN BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW INCREDIBLE IT IS TO BE HERE?

I just can't believe it. The flight ... wow. Well yes, it was long! I didn't sleep while I was still in the US, but was able to sleep a little while on our way over here. I was so excited I couldn't sleep much though. I'll never forget my first sight of water -  I couldn’t sit still! I flew over with 4 other missionaries and then we met up with about 12 more once we got to the airport; they were from the NZ MTC. 

How to describe everything ... well I didn't stop crying because I was so overwhelmed. But it is SO MUCH BETTER than I could have ever imagined. It's paradise. The water and the sky are so blue and everything else is lush and beautiful. I am sitting here in awe of the sights- everything is deep green, fragrant and flowering, our chapel is right across the hill from our flat. The smells of honey and the sounds of birds and animals coming to life were amazing this morning!

Surrounded by Water!

That’s another thing, Australia is pretty noisy with the sounds of spring! There are lots of bugs and birds and it usually rains each morning. It's beautiful. We went running this morning and I just can't believe how beautiful it is here even more beautiful than I ever dreamed it would be. I have been dreaming of OZ since January!!! And I am here! I AM HERE and I am so emotional and grateful.  

OKAY. I “found” a ginormous spider yesterday! To say I flipped is an understatement. Also, I can’t understand anything people are saying … yet! Everyone who said I would be learning a “foreign” language was right!

Ginormous Spider on our Car!

We committed 2 people to baptism in the last couple of days!!!! Y will be baptized next week! The Elders who previously served here were working with her.

Here are some thoughts from my BOM reading in Helaman 11:

I am shocked while reading of how quickly the Lamanites forgot what had happened and hardened their hearts. Earlier in the chapter, the Lord wants to destroy them, but because Nephi pleads with the Lord to spare them and cause a famine in the land so that they will be humble enough to repent. The people repent and turn again to the prophet and the Lord. I found vs 15 interesting because of all the famine and death and pestilence we know that they are truly repentant. It makes me think of the part in DNTG where Pres. Eyring stressed to the missionaries that when teaching, to impart that repentance, true repentance, hurts. It was never easy for the Savior, so why would it or should it be easy for us? It makes me so sad that even after the drought, then the robbers came into their land and they turned to the Lord for help- after ALL they had been through, in just ONE CHAPTER, they forget the Lord! By the end they had returned to wickedness. 

A few things that I have noticed in the last couple of days:

The food here is sooo wonderful – fresh and natural.

Milo is delish! It tastes like less-sweet hot chocolate.

The signs are so different on the road!! Look ‘em up.

I keep getting in the wrong side of the car hahahaha!

brekky= breakfast

tea = dinner

key words - heaps, keen

phone ring is different

light switches and power are different

No roos yet!

My core experience with God this week took place traveling across the country and across the world! I met someone in the BR airport and had the chance to bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and give him my copy. I am continually humbled by the miracles and tender mercies that Heavenly Father gives me every single day, and to have that experience to remind me that the Lord is aware of all of His children and that if I am righteous and obedient, the Lord will place people who are prepared in my/our path. I am so humbled with how prepared that person was to listen to the message of the Gospel! My testimony was strengthened with the knowledge that things happen in the Lord’s time.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Read Moses 2 and 3 this week as a family and remember to give thanks to God for everything He has given us!

I love you to the moon, the Opera House and back!

sister lloyd

Sisters