Springtime here in Australia is beautiful and especially here in Cairns.  The temperature has been absolutely perfect.  It is about 75-80 degrees and the humidity stays around 70%.   The evenings get down to about 65 degrees and it is delightful.  The summer is coming and we understand that the temperature gets hotter, and the humidity is even higher. We can endure this, as we had high temperatures and high humidity in South Africa and know what it is like.

The summer is  also the rainy season and even the season of potential Cyclones (Hurricanes back home).  Because we are on the coast,  Some Cyclones have hit this area in the past.  Some of the church members (who live in the beaches cities and have their homes in low elevation areas) have been evacuated in the past.  We live in a higher elevation area and should not have any problem if any of these tropical storms hit. Although it may be kind of fun and unique to experience one of these Cylcones.  Below is an awesome sunrise one morning!

Many of the homes here are built above the ground and seem to be elevated like on stilts. (from a foot to many feet above the ground elevation).  We always thought this was prevent water from getting into the home, but recently found out that people build their homes above the ground to get air flow under the home.   It makes it much cooler when the air can flow underneath the home and less expensive to run air conditioning or fans.  Here are some of the homes that show this.

We work with all the branches in the district. (Thursday Island, Innisfail, Atherton and 2 here in Cairns).  Because we are here in Cairns most of the time, we attend both Cairns Branch church services, council meetings, missionary correlation meetings and as many of their activities as time permits. Cairns 1 Branch had their annual Brisbane Temple trip this past month.  We have been actively helping them ready themselves to attend the Temple.  Many of the new converts were able to attend and had researched many of their ancestors in the Family History Center here in Cairns.  They were so excited to go and do some of this vicarious work for their family members that have passed on.  Tears of joy attended them as this work was completed.

92 Branch members got on a bus to travel for 20 hours to Brisbane and attend the Temple. 20 new members, who had joined the Church within the last year, had the opportunity of doing baptisms for their ancestors.  Several Young Men and Young Women also attended with the group.   Over 800 baptisms were performed and 300 confirmations.   Debbie and I had the opportunity to teach a family  the Temple Preparation Classes and prepare them to go through for their own Endowments and have their 4 small children sealed to them.  What a great joy it was to be with them in the Temple and watch them receive these Sacred Ordinances. (especially tender when the 4 small children were sealed to their mom and dad).   Along with the baptisms and confirmations there were 6 new Endowments, 2 family Sealings performed and 17 Patriarchal Blessings given.  Because we belong to a District, we do not have a Stake Patriarch.   Arrangements were made, and 5 Stake Patriarchs from Brisbane were at the Chapel next to the Temple to give these blessings to 17 of our Cairns 1st Branch members. It was an amazing experience.

One of the new converts to attend the Temple was John Manatan.  A convert of about 6 months, a  rough Australian Torres Strait indigenous man.   He has had a rough life and the gospel of Jesus Christ has completely changed him.  The Holy Ghost touches and changes the internal spirits of these unique people, but their exterior appearance sometimes does not change.  John told us he had not had a a haircut in over 30 years.   We prayed as to how to approach John and what to say to him as to not offend or cause him to rebel.   We used Elder Oaks talk on BYU grooming standards and expressed the importance of how your physical tidiness and cleanliness in appearance can effect your spiritual growth and well being. We shared how Sacred the Temple is and you naturally would want to feel and look the very best you can before you enter.   The conversation was incredible and he was so willing to change and prepare both spiritually and physically to enter the Temple and do the work for his ancestors.  Below are pictures of John before and after.

Our work here is so varied, we seem to do everything.  We even have a home teaching assignments in both Cairns Branches.  One of the families we home teach is a single mom who has 10 boys (8 of them still living at home and the oldest is 22 and the youngest is 3)  We recently had a family home evening with them and Debbie dressed all the boys to appear as Lehi's family in the wilderness and told the story of when Nephi was commanded to build the boat to travel to the America's.  The pictures show the event.  We had a wonderful evening.

Please continue to pray for the missionaries who are serving throughout the world. Our work is so critical and important and we need all your support and prayers.  Thank you so much.  We love and miss you will write again.

Ren and Debbie
                                        Here are some streets and businesses named after us!!

September 7, 2015

Okay so its  time to write again about our extra ordinary mission adventure.  Today is September 7th 2015.  Labor Day back home, but just another Monday here in Cairns, Australia.  Its our P day today and we usually take a couple of hours in the afternoon, so we decided to blog again. 

We love the work and have jumped in with all 4 of our feet. (Ren's size 13's keep us more stable).  Let us give you a little semblance of what we are doing.   Our responsibilities with the young missionaries are not quite as time consuming as they were with the Elders in South Africa.  We support 6 Elders and 4 Sisters in our Cairns District.  We try to help them as much as we can with any issues that arise. Example, the Sisters had, in their flat, a real cockroach problem. These critters being the size of small rodents. (we thought they were big in South Africa,  but these are like 3"long. We couldn't get their pictures, as they move too fast). We also attend and participate in their district meetings, zone meetings and all trainings.  We are very far away from the mission office (1100 miles), so much of the training is done through conference calls and conference video.  We also teach and fellowship with the Elders and Sisters in our district.  This is very rewarding.  They work very hard and are obedient with exactness and thus they have incredible success.

This is a sister we taught with the Elders here in Cairns. Elder Pitts and Elder Murdock (Elder Murdock is from St. George) Her name is Ansile and she is from Rwanda. She and her 2 children are refugees from that country and escaped the turmoil that existed there.  All her family were killed by the terrible conflict.  She is wonderful and so loving and sweet.

                                   .

We teach Temple Preparation classes to those who are preparing themselves to go to the Temple.  We also teach post Baptism lessons to those new converts who have recently joined the church.  We also minister to many members who are less active and or struggle with life and it's challenges.


         We have found it very helpful to have a card with our info on it for all the people we meet. 
                                               We used one in South Africa as well.  

                                  
 The weekend of August 28-30, starting on Friday, we had our  Cairns District conference.  We started with a dinner/dance on Friday night at the church.  It is such a beautiful setting. This photo was taken inside the courtyard looking above the roof of part of the chapel.  The trees are in the front yard of the chapel and in the courtyard.  This was a few minutes after sunset.   The rainforest covered mountains are in the background.
                                    See how beautiful it is!!!  Don't you just feel so sorry of us!!

































                                        
This photo is Olga.  She is a member but seldom comes out of her home except on some Sundays.  She lived with her parents till they died, she was 34 at the time.  She now lives alone and has since her parents died.  She has 2 brothers and a sister but has not seen them for years.  She has no idea where they even are.  We suspect she last saw them when her parents died.

                   As we took her home she said, "That was the best and only party I have ever been to,
                               I will remember that the rest of my life!"  We had talk and persuade
                                                      to even get her to go with us.

                               Young Single Adults with Elder Leota after a Fireside on Sunday night.
                                 Elder Leota of the Seventy, was our visiting General Authority.

Ren serves in the Cairns District Presidency.  This district has 5 branches (2 in Cairns, 1 each in Atherton, Innisfail and Thursday Island).  We travel quite often to each of these branches to assist, speak and support.  Atherton is about 2 hours to the west, and Innisfail is about 2 hours to the south. Thursday Island is a 2 hour plane ride north of Cairns at the very tip of the horn of the Australian Continent.  It is an small island that is 3 1/2 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide.  It is inhabited by about 2600 people most of them being indigenous Torres Strait natives.  Thursday Island is only about 40 miles from New Guinea. (If you get a chance look up Thursday Island online and research it.  Very interesting).  This little branch has about 30 active members, but could grow immensely.
Debbie serves in the District Young Women's Presidency. Most of the work done in our church callings is served with the Cairns 1st Branch and Cairns 2nd Branch.  We meet with their Branch Councils each week and their Missionary Correlation Council each week. We train, support, visit and minister to their members.  We also home teach a couple of families.

Last week we had an assignment to fly to Thursday Island and visit and support this small branch. We left on Thursday and returned to Cairns on Sunday evening.  What an incredible time we had up there getting acquainted with all the members and trying to help them with their needs.  We visited and invited many.  One adventure we had was visiting a family on Hammond Island.  This is an even smaller island than Thursday Island.  The Branch President loaded us in his little dingy (small boat) and we traveled about 10 minutes and met the Petero family. We had a wonderful experience with them and after our visit, the Branch President picked us up at the dock and returned us to Thursday Island.  Below are some pictures of our journey.

                               

                                       This is the plane we took from Cairns to Horn Island.

                       Leaving the mainland of Australia and approaching the Torres Strait Islands.

Getting on the ferry to Thursday Island.

On the dingy going over to Hammond Island.

Visiting and eating lunch with the Peteros.

                                This is under their home, quiet a typical setting for company.

Here's a peaceful end to our busy month. This a video of a sunrise on northeast coast of Cairns, August 27th, 2015 at 6:40 in the morning.  The ocean is lapping on the sand and the birds are singing in the trees behind me.  We miss and love you all, but we'll stick it out it here if we have to!!

Our most love goes to Luke, Richie, Landon, Mia, Brock, Georgia, Annie, Ivy and Kate!!!!!

Gadday mates,
Elder and Sister Boyce

We really were in Anaheim California, here we are with the President and Sister Taggart, president  of the California Anaheim Mission.

                    We were there for two weeks being part of the rescue and teaching with the Sisters.

There is so much need, even here in the states!

NOW.....

We are finally in Brisbane, Australia!  We have hit the tarmac running!  Literally!  We have had Specialized Training with 10 zones of Elders and Sisters all day Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, . . . we think, we met 90% of  the Elder and Sisters in the mission!  It's all a BLUR!

We also had Member Missionary Training on Thursday night and Friday night and a meeting to confirm training for another Member Missionary Training that we did Sunday morning.  These Member Missionary Training meetings are with President and Sister Henderson, us and 3 other couples.  We, of course, had no idea it was going to be this intense with President and Sister Henderson!  (HAHA!)

Part of this Mission are Elders and Sisters from Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Mainland China, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, and several other Island Countries.  Many languages are being spoken in the Mission.  A Chinese missionary will learn and speak English and an English speaking missionary will learn Chinese and teach the Chinese.  Same for the Samoan and Tongans.  It is so incredible how the Lord assists these missionaries with the language.

We have visited the Brisbane Temple grounds a couple of times and experienced the beauty around the Temple.
This is a photo of the sunset Friday night July 24th, as we came out of a baptism in the chapel next door to the Temple.  We saw this as we looked across the street and across the Brisbane River.

 In front of the Brisbane Temple.  Looking across the Brisbane River.

In front of the Brisbane Temple.

Looking across the Brisbane River, as we were tanding in front of the Brisbane Temple.

This is Cleveland Point Park.  We went here after church today with the Hendersons.

We found out tonight, we are on our way to Cairns (pronounced Cans) on Tuesday. (Cairns is 1100 miles north of Brisbane).  We will assist with 5 branches in the Cairns District. (Cairns Branch 1, Cairns Branch 2, Innisfail, Atherton and Thursday Island).  Innisfail and Atherton are about 90 minutes opposite directions from Cairns).  Thursday Island is a 500 miles north of Cairns and close to New Guinea.   Fellow shipping, training, assisting the Elders and Sisters, Missionary Proselyting and doing every thing we deem necessary to assist the members there.  We think this experience will be similar to what we did in South Africa, which we will love and are looking forward to this new adventure.  We will driving our car from Brisbane to Cairns,  filled to the hilt!

On our long drive to Cairns (about a 20 hour drive), We stopped at the Billabong Animal Sanctuary outside of Townsville.   Here we saw some of what Australia is famous for.  The Crocodiles, Kangaroos and the Koala Bears.  They are amazing animals.

We completed our mission to South Africa in June of 2014.   It's hard to believe that a whole year has gone by!  We both got right back into work and life with the kids and grandkids.

It quickly seemed like the 18 months we spent in South Africa was a blur. We yearned for the same feelings we had when we were in South Africa. About the same time we were called to South Africa President Lon Henderson was called to serve as a Mission President in Brisbane Australia.  We were thinking about the possibility of serving another mission and we made contact with President and
Sister Henderson.   His immediate response was, "Yes, we would love to have you come and help us."
We fasted and prayed about leaving so quickly, and talked to our kids and 9 little grandkids.  We also talked to our business partners about leaving and they said, "Go, we received more blessings when you were gone serving".   So receiving love and encouragement from our kids and grandkids, we're on our way again.

Not surprising, we were officially called to serve in Brisbane, Australia to leave on June 29th.   To get an Australian Visa is quite a process.   Australian immigration was naturally concerned about our time spent in South Africa.   We were required to obtain a police clearance from South Africa and special medical clearances.    We finally received the needed documents.   We waited and waited.  We could see the 29th of June coming and not having our visas, so we asked for a temporary assignment until our visa's arrived.  We were called to serve in the California, Anaheim mission.  We are serving in Disneyland. How great is that?  We have been here in Anaheim, for the past 2 weeks.  We were assigned to the Anaheim 1st Ward and have been visiting the lost sheep and actually teaching investigators.  We have been with the Elders and Sisters here and have thoroughly enjoyed what we have been doing.  We have learned on Friday the 10th that our visas have been approved.   We will be on our way to Brisbane this week. Leaving from St. George on Sunday evening the 19th of July and arriving in Brisbane on Tuesday morning the 21st of July.  We can hardly wait to get there and start our adventure.

We are continuing the same blog we set up when we were in South Africa.  Some of you may want to look at what we did there.  We also will have an Instagram account for those who would like to  follow our blog, and also see the pictures we post on Instagram.   To get Instagram you have to download the application and search for Debbieboyce9.  It will then send us a request and we can accept you to follow our Instagram.

                Here's our amazingly supportive kids and grand kids!!!  Aren't they all the cutest!

We've had the opportunity to attend the Newport Temple twice this week.  Once for a session with our Zone and once with the ward to help with baptisms.  What a beautiful temple!

 

 Fireworks over Anaheim Angels Stadium on JULY 4TH!  The stadium is right next to our apartment complex!

Signing off till we get down under next week!!
Love,
Elder and Sister Boyce

We knew this time would come, but its now difficult to accept and as we wind down on our Mission experience we reflect on all these treasures that will be forever burned in our memories.  We have absolutely loved every minute of this adventure.  We love this beautiful country, it's people and the feelings we have of being in the service of our Savior.  Our knowledge and testimonies have grown and we are even more convinced of the truth and its blessings. 

Let us share just a couple of pictures and experiences we have enjoyed in this last month. 

Attached is a picture of Elder and Sister Boyce with our little 91 year old Sister Peggy from East London 3rd Ward.  Sister Peggy has been a member since 1952 and from the onset of her membership she has been hosting and feeding the missionaries here in East London.  She has them over to her home each Monday evening for food and a Family Home Evening.  She has been doing this each week for 62 years. Needless to say, she has seen her fair share of missionaries as they serve in this area.  She is so sweet and charming and so kind and gracious to all those who pass within the walls of her home.  Besides feeding the missionaries, she also sews and takes care of all there split out pants, rips in their shirts, holes in their socks and everything they wear that needs to be altered.  She even takes their pants in when they have lost weight, but more often lets them out when they gain weight. We are sure her eternal reward is pretty well guaranteed.

We enjoyed our 2nd Mothers Day with the Elders.  We had about 20 Elders to our home and they had the opportunity to call or Skype their mothers and families.  Each Elder had about 40 minutes to talk.  We had 4 devices so they could talk to their families.   It was quite a challenge to find private locations for each of the Elders to talk to their families. Our flat only has 2 bedrooms, a great room, bathroom and garage.  We used each of these stations to make sure the Elders were able to talk privately to their moms and families.   The Elders loved being together, eating (naturally) and talking to families back home.  At nights end we were exhausted!  Here are some photos of the fun day!

The above picture is of Elder Steele.  He is from Nephi and is a great Elder.  In the past 6 months we have had 3 Elders who have been bitten by spiders.  The African Sac Spider that usually will bite in the evening while they are sleeping.  The venom of this spider is similar to that of the Brown Recluse (called the Violin Spider over here)  as it will deteriorate the flesh. (But on a much smaller scale). Elder Steele was one of these elders and was bitten between two of his toes.   The morning after he was bitten he woke up and couldn't even walk. The infection went up his leg.   He didn't know what was happening to him and noticed all the swelling and infection around his toe.  He said he had a hole where he was bitten that was large enough to put a Q-tip swab end entirely in it.  He immediately started putting some anti-biotic cream on the bite (some that he had brought from the States).  The wound began to heal.  After about two weeks, he decided to tell his family about his experience.  We went to see him about this time and he showed us the scare and how it was healing.    We could tell by the size of the healing wound that the hole was substantial!  We have bug and spider spray that needs to be applied in their flats very often to eliminate these spiders, fleas, bed bugs, roaches, flies and mosquito's.
Elder 2 was bitten on his arm and  it left a huge hole in his arm that needed 3 weeks to heal.  Elder 3 was bitten on his elbow, but we were able to treat him quickly and the infection only lasted a couple of weeks. 

Elder Maciver from Yorkshire, England.  Below Elder Kaufusi (sitting in the bathroom).  He's from Salt Lake.

Some of the greatest experiences we have is actively proselyting the gospel.  Sharing and inviting is truly a blessing.   We have had many experiences teaching people the message of truth.  Generally we find and then turn these great contacts over to the full time missionaries who teach them the lessons.  Often we fellowship and join them as they teach.  Testifying and sharing personal experiences helps touch their hearts and instills a desire for more learning.   One young man, Lamla Mafundityala, is an incredible 18 year old. His brother Luvuyo is a member and currently serving a mission in Ghana.  Before he left on his mission, he tried to get his brother to listen and accept the message of the Restored Gospel.  He was not really interested and did not progress.  Many sets of Elders tried to teach him and nourish the seed, but he did not act.  Luvuyo challenged us to visit him to see what a couple of old people could to do to spark his interest again. We met with him and shared our testimony and message.   We read from the Book of Mormon and committed him to get back on track. The seed started to germinate again and he committed to read, pray and attend church.  A great ending to the story - he was baptized yesterday!!  It was a wonderful, spiritual event as he bore his testimony following his baptism.  He will now prepare himself to receive the Priesthood and start his efforts in preparing himself over the next year to go on a mission like his older brother.  These are some of the treats of serving here and are really the most rewarding things we do.

 

 Recently we concluded all the Mission Branch Conferences.   We as a Mission Presidency, along with our wife's, train the branch leadership on Saturday and Sunday.  These branch conferences are patterned after the Ward Conferences.  We have Priesthood leadership (This usually involves most of the men in the branch) and also relief society, primary and young women leadership training.  Its a special experience and we love the association we have with these wonderful 'hungering and thirsting' members.  This year our conference was based on the scripture in Matthew 11:28-30.  All of us  that labor and are heavy laden, need to take upon ourselves the yoke of the Savior and he will give us rest.   Here in South Africa many are heavy laden with adversity and trials.  We try to help them understand that they can gain rest from their problems as they trust in the Lord and his Atonement.  Besides these trials in there lives (really in all of our lives), these two women are definitely 'heavy laden' with these burdens they carry on their heads.   These bundles weigh about 80lbs.  They must have very strong neck muscles and their balance is incredible.

We wanted to have a final lunch with all the Elders in our zones. (Except the Queenstown zone) So after their zone conference we took them to their favorite Chinese Restaurant here in East London.  We fed 32 young men lunch. Oh, how we love these guys, they are incredible servants of the Savior and we have become close friends with each of them.  Following the lunch they all stood and sang the mission song to us.  It brought some tears and was very special. Here is a short video of their singing. All those in the restaurant listening were pretty impressed.

 

One of the families we talked about in one of our previous blogs is the Gqola family.  They have now been members almost a year and have progressed in their gospel learning and development.  Ayanda is now serving in the Young Men's Presidency and Jackie is teaching Gospel Doctrine.  They are preparing to go to the Temple and be sealed as a forever family.  Siyanda (their 11 year old son) is preparing to receive the Priesthood in December.   Kelly their young daughter is 7 years old and will be baptized on June 14th.  We unfortunately will miss this event, but Jackie requested a picture of the projected upcoming baptism.  Ayanda (who will be baptizing Kelly) and Kelly were dressed in their 'whites' so we could get a picture before we leave.  So these following picture is in anticipation of the upcoming baptism on June 14th.  

We had the opportunity of having Brett and Mindy come to South Africa and visit us last week.  What a great experience is was with them.  They loved with the beauty of this country and meeting these wonderful people.  We saw many sights, animals, and they even attended church with us. (The Bishop invited them to share their testimony in Sacrament meeting)  I think their eyes were opened to how most of the people in the world live and how truly blessed we are.   We were able to go to dinner with Brett and Mindy, Our Bishop Mahlangabesa, President Mangwane (Stake Presidency) and Brother Mahlangabesa (High Council).  We had a wonderful evening.

  What a ride this has been.  We have learned so much and grown so much.  This mission has made us want to be better and strive for more perfection in our lives.  It has brought us closer to our Savior Jesus Christ and His teachings.  We have learned how to be more charitable and to love everyone as we serve them.  It has been amazing.    We will share  our mission experience on June 29th at 11:00 am in the Sunset 8th Ward (On South Dixie Drive next to the fire station in St. George).

We love you all and again appreciate all your kindness, love and especially your prayers.

Ren and Debbie