Andrew's been in Australia for a week now,

and he's doing great.

Missionaries telephone home every Christmas and Mother's Day, so Andrew arose at 4:00 a.m. Sydney time to chat with us -- his parents, grandparents, and his older brother (me).

Before receiving his mission call, Andrew dreamed of the ghetto. A family friend of ours served in inner city New Jersey, and Andrew is always riveted by stories of his street adventures in the Lord's service. Today, however, we learned that Andrew has been stationed in Merimbula, a ritzy resort town on Australia's Sapphire Coast.

Check out these stunning snapshots from sapphirecoast.com. It's not exactly ghetto, but Andrew loves serving there.

He and his trainer, who is only four and a half months in the field himself, are being richly blessed in their efforts. In January, one of their investigators will enter the waters of baptism. Because the Merimbula branch meets in an old Pizza Hut building, their investigator will be baptized in the ocean.

Andrew also shared the following miracle:

Missionaries often take the message of the Restoration from door to door. The rejection level in such tracting is high, yet behind the first door Andrew knocked on was a family receptive to the Gospel message. He and his companion are ecstatic to teach them.

As a family, we express our love for Andrew, our gratitude for his diligent service, and add our testimony to his that the fullness of the Gospel has been restored to the earth. We greatly look forward to Andrew's next email.