November 9 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia November 9, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, this is the last letter from Australia.  Hard to believe that we have been here 17 months.  We must say it has been a wonderful adventure in every way, except being away from family.

This week has been interesting, with no cards to do we have been indexing at the office and Dad has spent some time organizing his pictures.

Monday night was Family Home Evening, our last one.  That was sad.  Sister Archibald decorated for the November birthdays, Elder Allen on the 4^th, mine on the 7^th, and Sister Killebrew on the 19^th.  Rashika and Sister Archibald fixed the dinner, taco salad and fruit, and Rashika made a delicious chocolate cake and had ice cream.  The Smith’s had the program and decided to honor us with 2 agriculture quizzes.  The first one was easy, the 2^nd one was pretty hard.  She got the questions from the American Agriculture sight.  We did pretty well, and it was fun.  Then they gave us some going away gifts.  Rashika and Devmini gave us a woven bag and a beautiful wooden jewelry box from Sri Lanka.  The other missionaries gave us a plate with the Opera House and Bridge on it, a Christmas Tray, a tea towel with Kookaburra’s on it, a deck of cards to play fish on the long plane ride home.  They are all so wonderful and we are really going to miss them all.  Dad took a final group picture.  It was strange not having the Feil’s there.

Tuesday morning Elder Killebrew came in and asked Dad if he would like to go with him for the morning and they would be back for lunch.  They went out to a Sister’s flat to fix a washer that had something caught around the ringer.  They couldn’t get it out so stopped on the way back to the office to get another tool.  Elder Killebrew had never fixed a washer so he was glad Dad was there.  He would have just replaced it.  They went and bought one just in case.  The 6 of us went across the street to lunch, the Smylie’s came also.  Before Dad left again I had him run me home because Sister Archibald said she would trim my hair.  She trimmed about an inch and it feels so much better.  Dad and Elder Killebrew got back about 5, too late to go to the Temple.  He said they had to go get an extender for the tool he had bought and they got a blouse off the ringer and put it back together again.  Just after dinner a knock came at the door and it was the Killebrew’s with a going away gift.  They had gotten a pewter cheese slicer with a Kangaroo on the end, and a little pewter spoon with a kangaroo on it, when we went to Paddington market.  She said she was trying to get me to pick out what I liked, but I liked them all.   That was so nice.  When I got back from getting my hair trimmed I cleaned out the pantry. 

Wednesday the Smylie’s and us decided to go to lunch at North Rocks for a change.  We had a delicious lunch outside and the Smylie’s paid for ours.  Everyone is so wonderful here!  That night as we were doing some indexing a loud knock came on the door so I knew it was Sister Moore.  They have a son and daughter-in-law here from Salt Lake for the week and Rashika had cooked them dinner and made two desserts so she was getting all the missionaries to share.  It was a chocolate cheesecake and a pineapple upside down cake, yummy as usual.  Fun to visit also.  We got back about 9.

Thursday morning Sister Archibald called and invited us to dinner that night.  She fixed a pasta dish that was delicious, a salad, watermelon, rolls, and apple crisp with ice cream for dessert.    Before we came home from the office Sister Smith called and asked if we would teach her how to index so we went over to their office for a couple of hours. 

Friday morning at 7:15 there was a knock on the door and it was Rashika and Devmini with a birthday cake for me and Devmini had drawn a beautiful picture of a horse for me.  The cake was in the shape of a Christmas Tree because she knows how much I love Christmas.  She had rolled out icing and wrote on a little banner at the top of the cake, “Happy Birthday Darling Sister Ruth”.  She had also come over about 5:30am and decorated our door with a banner.  After they left we decided to invite all the Sr. couples to come for cake and ice cream.  When we got to the office a little after 7:30 we couldn’t get into our computers so Dad went over to Buckland House and Martin called Salt Lake to find out what was going on.  Someone turned them off without reading the profile that said we were not leaving until November 28^th.  He got them back on but everything was gone, all the emails and contacts, etc.  What a mess, we were waiting for the last audit to put the last cards away.  We have decided it must have passed so we will put them away tomorrow.  I called Vaun to wish him a Happy Birthday.  It was good to talk to him for a few minutes.  He was still at work.  A couple of weeks ago Elder Dick invited us to the city to the Hyde Park Chapel to speak at the Friday Forum for the full-time missionaries, new converts, and investigators.  The Sr. couples fix lunch, rice with gravy, vegetables, jello salad, bread and butter, and cookies.    We rode the rivercat down and got a taxi to the Chapel.  We talked about our project and the importance of keeping journals and doing family history to connect your families so you know who they are and where you came from.  They asked lots of questions.  There were about 20 missionaries and 7 others.  Elder Nolan, one of the Sr. missionaries there has been in the hospital for 3 weeks, Sister Nolan said he was doing better and hopefully would come home the first of the week.  They are from St Louis.

We got back to the office about 3:30 and packed things up and went to the store to get ice cream.  We ate leftovers for dinner and everyone came at 7.  Rashika had put a couple of candles on the cake that wouldn’t blow out so everyone was laughing.  I let her cut the cake.  The Smylie’s brought me a darling calendar from a famous Australian Artist and Author.  I am going to look up his books tomorrow when we get to the office.  After everyone left about 9, we were cleaning up when a knock came on the door, and our little Chinese neighbor couple that just had the new baby handed me a birthday bag.  In it was two CD’s, one the music from Frozen and a Country Western with various artists.  That was a big surprise, and so sweet of them.

A few weeks ago Dad was asked to take wedding pictures of a Chinese couple that were getting married in the Temple yesterday.  We were there about 11 and they came out a little to noon.  He was raised in Australia, and she came over about 3 years ago for school and joined the Church.  She is 24 and just got her 2^nd Masters degree in finance.  She also just got a job at the Service Center in finance to take Graham’s place this week.  She is going to be great working there, she is so cute.  He is in the Bishopric of the Chinese ward, and she is the Relief Society President.  They had a little reception and luncheon on the courtyard of Buckland House so Dad took a few pictures of them cutting the cake and dancing, then we went with Smylie’s to the mall for lunch, then came back.  The bride and groom were ready to go to the Temple grounds for more pictures.  He got some really cute shots.  He is going to put the pictures on a thumb drive for them tomorrow.

Today we went to Church at Blacktown Ward, and the Bishop announced that the Doonside Ward that is in our building, actually it is their building, was divided today so on the 23^rd of November the Blacktown Ward will begin meeting in another building.  Next week meetings will be the same.  The Moore’s are assigned to the Doonside Ward.  We are so going to miss the people!

Tomorrow is our last day in the office and Mark is having lunch for my Birthday and a farewell.  We are going to pack up all the equipment and clean out our desks, etc.  I have already sorted the things I am going to take home, our personal papers etc.  I just have to put all the accessories in the cupboard.  The tables and desks will be taken out after we leave.  Tuesday and Wednesday we are going to pack and finish cleaning.  I cleaned the utility room yesterday and Dad cleaned off the deck.  Now we are hoping we can get everything in the suitcases and not be overweight.  We will take them to the mission office to be weighed.  We will also have a couple of trips to Vinny’s to donate clothes.

Tuesday night Dad is going to take pictures of our neighbors and the new baby.  We are really excited.  They were really happy we will do this for them. 

We are really looking forward to going to the airport Thursday morning to pick up Tina and Bob, Loren and Tami, and Onalie and Mike. We are going to ride the limo that the Church is getting to take the Moore’s and Archibald’s to the airport at 5:15am.  They are going to a conference.  We are going to have so much fun showing them this beautiful country.  We just wish all the kids could have come but we totally understand as the cost is so much.  They will have to enjoy it through pictures.  We are excited to go to New Zealand and see some of that beautiful country, and the most exciting of all is to be home in two weeks from today!!!

Love you all and you are in our daily prayers!

Mum and Dad

November 2 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday November 2, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Where did October go?  We will be home in 3 weeks.  So excited to come home but a little sad at the same time.  This has been another really busy week, we are sure that is why the time is going so fast.  Tuesday morning the Service Center had a morning tea to meet the Social Services group from New Zealand that are here for a conference for the week.  At the end of the tea they (Social Services) sang a thank you song in Maori.  It was beautiful.  There were 6 women and 2 men.      

Tuesday night at 5 President and Sister Howes hosted the leavers dinner with the Feil’s.  We had a delicious dinner of salad, (President said it represented the leafers dinner), meat, roasted vegetables, and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Sister Howes said it was nice not to have any meetings so she could fix the dinner.  We enjoyed visiting and took some pictures afterward.  Great memories are made in everything we do.  When we first got here and started photographing Sister Howes came in and asked us to look for her maiden name of BrownJohn.  We found about 8 cards and made copies for her about a year ago.  One of them was her grandparents that were killed in a car accident when she was about 8, and no one knows where they are buried.   When Sister Rogers was here last week I showed her the cards and asked her what T C met on the bottom of the card and she said Toowamba Chronicle, the newspaper there.  We took the cards over to Sister Howes to keep, and I told her that was what it met and she was so excited.  She said she had never thought of looking there because although they were both born there they hadn’t lived there for many years.  It was no accident that I asked Sister Rogers what it met, it was the hand of the Lord putting it all together for us.  A card we found today, and the last I will report on was, William McLeod, Killed fall of earth, 16-2-1894 – Tableland, Boyne R.

Wednesday we were working away when Elder Smylie came in and said there were 2 birds in the tree outside the office called Rosella Parakeet’s.  Dad grabbed his camera and we went out.  They were the most colorful birds ever and he got some great pictures.  We knew when we left that night that we would finish all the cards on Thursday.  We were pretty excited. 

Thursday morning around 10 when we went for our walk, we decided to walk through the kitchen to  what Rashika and Sister Archibald were cooking for the Family Services.  They were just putting morning tea out, homemade crepes, with strawberries, chocolate, lime syrup and warm smashed banana’s with honey and brown sugar.  She was making the crepes at the table with a crepe maker that her grandmother gave to her 25 years ago.  Dad took some pictures as the table looked beautiful.  They also had a big tray of fresh fruit.  The people said they were really spoiled with the meals they were putting on.  The Social Services asked Dad if he would take pictures as soon as everyone was there so he said to just call and we would come back.  We had a crepe and some punch she had made.  We know when to pop in to say hi, good timing!

The Smylies took our car to take the Feils to the airport Thursday morning about 11.  It was hard to tell them goodbye but we will see them again.  They are touring Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania and are not getting home until Dec 2^nd.

We finished the cards at 3:30, what a relief!!  Sister Smylie took pictures and we sent emails out to Mark

and Danny.  Mark is in P and G for the week.  They were both excited.  Now we just have to wait for the audit that will be back Wednesday or Thursday, then we can pack up the camera and equipment.   The rest of the time we are going to sort and clean out the desks, etc.  Dad told Elder Killebrew he would be available to go with him and help him so he said he would probably call him.

Thursday night we went over to Rashika’s and put the pictures of the baptism on her computer.  We have been trying to make connections since then but our schedules have been so we couldn’t do it.  Devmini was working on an art project and needed some pictures of furniture.  We didn’t have anything so we went to the Archibald’s and all they had was Ensign and New Era, so we went to Killebrew’s and she had a couple of Better Homes and Garden’s she had brought over from the States, and she said she did not want them back so we took them up to Devmini and she was really excited.  Rashika told us to sit down and she served us some pumpkin soup and a yummy chocolate dessert.  That was nice that I didn’t have to fix dinner.  I told Dad I was through cooking after I made a casserole last night.  Now we just eat leftovers or sandwiches.   

Friday morning we didn’t go to the office until 8:30.  That is the first time the Smylie’s have been there before us since they came.  Sister Smylie asked why we came in and we said it was Birthday Moring Tea and we never passed up good food.  Legal and Public Affairs were in charge so that was the Archibald’s and Moore’s, the Allen’s are out of town.  It was really good.  We also had to transfer the folders from Thursday to the Hard Drive and get it in the mail.

After the tea Sister Smylie and I decided to go to the mall and have a pedicure.  Summer has arrived with it in the 80’s the first of the week, and the 90’s Friday and Saturday.  Today it was 68 when we left for Church at noon, and 75 when we came home.  Crazy weather!  It wouldbe nice to have 70-80 for a couple of weeks.  It was really hot yesterday when we were out.  Then late yesterday afternoon we got thunder showers and it rained really hard for about 10 minutes.

Yesterday morning we cleaned, deep cleaned the bathroom, and I was going to do the laundry room but we decided to go for a ride.  It will be the last Saturday to do that.  We found a really nice and good Chinese Restaurant in North Richmond, then came home and went to the store.  I am trying to get another afghan finished, and I should be done tomorrow night after Family Home Evening, our last one.  We are going to try and get some pictures posted on the blog tomorrow afternoon.  We haven’t done that for a long time. 

Church was so good today, we are really going to miss the wonderful people in Blacktown Ward.  There was no wifi at all in the building and the counselor in the Bishopbric said they have had problems for a couple of weeks and are trying to get it sorted out.  Sister Marcara that took us out to lunch a few weeks ago fell in her rock garden pulling weeds and has stitches in her head, and her arm is taped up, she has a big bruise on her forhead, and two black eyes.  She is in her late 80’s.  She is such a sweetheart, and she said she wouldn’t think of missing Church.

Guess we will close for another week, talk to you tomorrow!  We send our Love and Prayers to all!

                                        Sister Rogers and her son Lester, and Dix and Ruth

                                                Dave, Rashika, and Devmini's baptism

                                Leavers dinner with President and Sister Howes and the Feil's

                                      Malcolm and Helen Arvidson at their home in Toukley

                                        Dix next to a seam of coal on the beach near Toukley

                                                           Dix and Ruth near Toukley

               Top picture we met the Finch's and Smylie's at Nelson Bay and had dinner.

                                                 Typical New South Wales farm ground

October 26 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday October 26, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

What an amazing week we have just finished.  We are so blessed to be here in this Beautiful Country and especially the marvelous people here.  We have really been spiritually fed with all that has happened.

Monday night was Family Home Evening and we served the dinner of barbecue chicken sandwiches, it cooked in the slow cooker all day, and sweet potato salad that was made Sunday night.  Can’t get much easier than that.  It was very good and we had very little left so it was a hit with everyone.  It was Elder Feil’s birthday so Sister Archibald had the table decorated.  They had cake and ice cream for dessert.  After all was cleared away they put us in a circle and had a soccer ball with questions on it that Kailee had made up for an activity while she was here.  It was thrown to each person who read the question and answered it.  They were all about yourself.  Lots of fun.  The Feil’s leave the mission this Thursday and they are really going to be missed.  The Williams are going to do great to take their place, and will be very happy to move into the house.

Tuesday morning Dad and I left to pick up the plaques and grabbed a sandwich while out.  The plaques turned out so good.  When we got back to the office Elder Smylie and Dad left for the airport to pick up Sister Rogers and her son Lester and take them to the hotel in Parametta.  They got back to the office and we all worked for about an hour, and then left to go to the hotel to have dinner with the Rogers.  The restaurant in the hotel looked good so we just stayed there.  It was a lot of fun getting to know them, especially for the Smylie’s.  The dinner was good and we visited for a couple of hours.  We told them we would pick them up about 11 the next morning and spend the rest of the day with us at the office.  Wednesday morning we ran across the street to get chips, tarts and juice for lunch, they have taken Subway out where it was and moved it down closer to the food court and they aren’t open yet so I ordered the sandwiches from a Subway over on North Rocks Road.  We ran over and got them, came back to the office and put them in the refrigerator, and went to the hotel.  We got back to the office and showed them how we do the photographing, and let them do about 200 cards.  She kept saying that by writing on the back of some of them it created more work for us.  We told her we have a system so it doesn’t take much more time.  We had lunch and Elder and Sister Allen joined us.  They are the ones that wrote the article for Mormon Newsroom Australia.    After lunch Mark presented Sister Rogers with the plaque and she was very pleased, and especially that we were able to find a picture of her husband.  They stayed at the office visiting until about 5 when we all left to go to dinner in Parametta at the317 restaurant.  It was very good, then we walked down to the corner, across the street, and then back to the cars.  Sister Rogers wanted to attend the temple Thursday morning so we told her we would pick her up a little before 9 for the 10 session.  Lester stayed in the office with us for about an hour, then went over to the mall to walk around.  When Sister Rogers came back from the Temple, we got in the car and went over to the mall for lunch.  We drove because the men need to leave for the airport.  We ate a quick lunch and they left, and Sister Smylie and I ran back across the street to the office.  It was such a great experience having them here.  We now have 2/3 of a box to finish the entire project, we are hoping to be done by Wednesday night.

Friday we took the day off to do some more traveling.  We left around 9 went up the coast towards Salt Ash.  We got off the motor way as soon as possible and took the back roads.  We found the Lakehouse café at Murray’s Beach for lunch.  We had delicious fish and chips outside.  We then found Stockton Beach and walked along it and found two bags full of shells.  We then watched a huge tanker filled with coal being towed out to the ocean from Newcastle port.  There were 3 tugboats pulling and pushing it out.  We just happened to be there at the right time.  Several other cars in the lot watched it and then left.  It must be a big thing, we really enjoyed it.  We then left and went to the hotel I had reserved for the night and got there about 5, it was the Sir Francis Drake Comfort Inn in Heatherbrae.  It was beautiful, really nice room with a jetted tub, and a wonderful restaurant.  We were tired of being in the car so we just stayed there to eat.  We walked around the beautiful grounds before going to our room.

Saturday morning we left around 9 and drove to small towns in the country.  We found a little café around 11 for brunch and ordered sausage and onion rolls.  They were so good.  We ate outside where they had lots of fun signs hanging.  One was “No we do not have Wi-Fi, talk to each other.”  I found some onion jam I am bringing home and maybe Deven can recreate it if it is good.  We then took off again to the country and saw beautiful ground.  Around 5 we got to Gosford where we had reservations for the night.  We walked down to town and got chicken sandwiches for dinner.  We like eating only 2 meals when we are in the car so much.

This morning we left around 7:30 for the Toukley Ward.  They have a beautiful building and had about 50 people in attendance.  The Bishop has been a member about 10 years and has been Bishop for 6 years and they all just love him.  His oldest child is 8.  All the meetings were wonderful, the lady that led the music in Sacrament Meeting taught the Sunday School lesson and the Relief Society lesson.  There are 2 sets of sister missionaries there, and one of them was in the Blacktown Ward with us for about 6 months.  It was so good to see her again. 

After the meetings we followed Malcolm and Helen Arvidson to their home.  He retired from the service center a couple of months ago, and went back to Toukley where they had a home.  It is such a nice home and they have and are doing a lot of work on it.  We ate a delicious dinner of Barbecue chicken on the grill with pineapple and asparagus on the grill, and 3 salads.  Malcolm then showed us a book that Helen had made for him for his 6oth birthday.  It is of a lot of the pictures he has taken when they have traveled.  It was beautiful.  They then gave us a book to take home “Landscapes of Australia” and it has beautiful pictures.  We had taken a crystal nativity set for them.  We then got in their car and they showed us a lot of the country for a couple of hours, beautiful beaches, a lighthouse, and some forested area.  What a fun day.  We are going to miss them.  We got home about 6:30, got unpacked and had a sandwich, I wrote a spiritual thought for meeting in the morning.

We love you all and appreciate the love and support from each of you.

Mum and Dad

October 19 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia October 19, 2014          

Dear Family and Friends,

What another busy week this has been.  Last week while talking to you we were bragging about the weather, telling you how it had gone from winter to summer with no spring temps.  That was probably a mistake with the weather we had at the beginning of this week.  Monday afternoon the clouds came in and that evening it started thundering and lightening and rain.  Tuesday was just cloudy and about 60 degree’s.  Tuesday night around 7 it started with thunder and lightning and wind and rain all night long.  Wednesday night while watching the weather they said it was the perfect storm of the century, with cyclone force winds and heavy rain. They had flooding in parts of Sydney, large trees blown over, power outages that were still out for some on Thursday.  In the Blue Mountains they got snow that shut down the buses, trains, and closed roads and school, and a lot of power outages.  The news showed the kids building snow men.  Just a year ago they were fighting bush fires and this year an early snow storm.  Crazy weather!  The rest of the week was in the 60’s and some clouds but no more rain.  Yesterday it was cloudy in the morning in the 60’s, sunny in the afternoon in the 70’s, and today was 85.  There is rain predicted for a couple days this week.

Last Sunday the new mission office couple came in to replace the Feil’s.  They are the Williams from Brisbane.  They have been married 16 years, both 2^nd marriages.  He is from England and she from Brisbane.  They are going to be a lot of fun.  They are staying in Temple Housing until the Feil’s leave on the 30^th.

Monday Mark talked to us about having Sister Rogers come down next week.  Sister Smylie made the airplane reservations for Tuesday afternoon and they will leave Thursday afternoon.  Mark made Hotel reservations in Parametta for them and we will be responsible for taking them to dinner Tuesday night, and Wednesday night, and getting them to the office on Wednesday.  Elder Smylie and Dad are going to get them from the airport and take them back.  Dad told Mark he thought it would be nice to make a plaque up to present to her with her two family cards that she had typed up and put in the boxes.  He had pulled them out and Mark thought that was a good idea.  Dad got pictures out and the Smylies helped us design it.  We went across the street for lunch to see if there was a framing shop but there wasn’t.  There was a place to get pictures printed and we decided we needed them 5x7.  There is a picture of Sister Rogers with her husband, and one of Dad and I working on the cards.  We liked it so much that I typed up our information on cards and we are going to get one made for us.  We were so late at the mall getting the pictures printed that we missed going to the Temple.  Wednesday morning we got the final design done and left to go to a framing place I found over by Castle Hills Mall.  They will be done on Tuesday.  Mark said to go about $150.00 and we are getting it done for $122.00.  I think he will like it.  He was out the rest of the week for his father-in-laws funeral and will be back tomorrow.   We finished another box of cards and now we have just one to do.  We don’t know how much we will get done this week but we would like to get a good start on it.  We are taking Friday off to go up the coast to a couple of beaches we haven’t seen and then we speak in Toukley on Sunday.  Malcolm and Helen have invited us for lunch after Church.  That is our last speaking assignment and we are feeling kind of sad.  It has been fun to visit the branches and meet the members.

Last Saturday as we were in the elevator to come home our little Chinese neighbor was with us and said his wife had the baby and that she was jaundiced so they were worried.  We told him that all of ours were and they were fine.  We checked with them on Thursday and she was much better.  She is so little and cute, and her name is Emily.  His mother is here from China for a few weeks to help out and she speaks no English but is so cute and gracious.  We went to the mall Friday at noon to get a few baby things for them, and the Moore’s and us took them over Friday afternoon after work.  They were very pleased.  They baby is 2 weeks old today.  They wanted us to hold her but we told her we would in a couple of weeks, and to knock on our door’s if they need anything.  Friday afternoon the Smith’s called and asked us if they could take us to dinner before we left, and we said anytime, and they said now.  They had not been to Parametta to eat so we went down there.  They had roads blocked off and it was a mess to find a parking spot, but we did about 2 blocks away.  We walked over and looked at all the restaurants and a police man that was on the street said a parade was going to start anytime.  We decided to eat at Criniti’s and we sat outside.  We had pizza and Elder Smith had ribs.  The parade started just after we ordered.  The festival was called parramasala and is a celebration of the many rich and diverse cultures in Sydney.  It was really interesting and fun to see.  After eating we crossed the street and started back to the car and saw a pastry shop so went in and each got something and sat and ate it and visited some more.  The owner came and brought us some samples of other pastries, one with honey and cheese and it was warm.  The other was just a sweet one, all very good.  It was a good thing Dad and I split a pizza.

When we got back to our building we were waiting for the elevator when the Killebrew’s came out of it.  They said to come to their place to visit so we did.  They invited us to go with them and the Williams on Saturday to Paddington Markets in Sydney and then to lunch at PaPa’s, an Italian pastry place.  We said sure so we left around 9, picked up the Williams and drove down to Paddington’s.  This is a little street market we hadn’t been to before.  Everything there has to be made by the vendor so there was wood, metal, clothes, jewelry, tiles, etc.  It was really fun to walk around.  I bought a beautiful scarf out of Australian wool, and while I was paying for it a couple was there and asked where we were from and what we were doing here.  They asked us where we were living and when we told them Carlingford they said we must be Latter Day Saints and asked if saw the Christmas display and the story of Christ in pictures.  We told them we were and had worked at the display.  They said they enjoy it each year and said they live in Epping.  Dad bought some tiles that were painted on.  We had parked at Centennial Park and walked about 3 blocks to the market.  We drove to PaPa’s and it was packed.  Everyone comes there to get Cannoli’s, and Italian pastry that is filled with custard, chocolate custard, or cheese.  They are to die for.  We did eat sandwiches that were very good before Elder Killebrew went and bough the Cannoli’s.  We came home and went to the store to get the food for Family Home Evening tomorrow night.

Today we went to Church at Blacktown and it was interesting how many people said they saw our article in the Newsroom.  We were really pleased with the way the Allen’s wrote it.  We hope you all had a chance to read it.   We came home and fixed dinner, then got the food ready for tomorrow night.  We just made the most delicious sweet potato salad, Tyson save us some sweet potatoes and I will make it when we get home.  We will go early to Buckland House to start the barbecue chicken and take everything in.  I think we have it all ready to go. 

It is getting late so we will close for now.  We are hoping the onion harvest is going well, we enjoyed the video Tyson posted.  The farmers markets are also almost done for another year, and next year we will be there to do ours.  We are looking forward to talking to you tomorrow.

We sang “Teach Me To Walk in the Light” in Sacrament Meeting and in Relief Society so maybe we all need to hear the words.

Teach me to walk in the light of his love;  Teach me to pray to my Father above; Teach me to know of the things that are right; Teach me, Teach me to walk in the light.

Come little child, and together we’ll learn, of his commandments, that we may return, Home to his presence, to live in his sight, Always, always to walk in the light.

Father in Heaven, we thank thee this day, For loving guidance to show us the way.  Grateful, we praise thee with songs of delight! Gladly, gladly, we’ll walk in the light.    

Love you all!      

Mum and Dad