Sunday 28 Jul 2013

Australia 28 Jul 2013

Dear Family:

Another busy week is gone and it was busy and wonderful.  It was so good to talk to you and see you on Monday morning on google plus.  We really look forward to those chats.  Tues night we went to the Temple and came home and got the food ready for the 24^th of July barbecue at the Mission Presidents home Wednesday.  We just stayed at the office after work and walked up to their home.  There was 6 Sr. Missionary couples, the Mission Pres and his wife, and the Temple Pres and his wife.  It was a planned pot luck and I took potato salad and peanut butter fingers.  Had to make the fingers in two pans because even if I could find a large cookie sheet it would not even fit in the oven.  I have one that won’t fit now.  One of the Sisters brought a quiz about the pioneers and it was fun to answer, they were pretty hard.

We experienced the tender mercies of the Lord this week.  Tues night my glasses broke, really broke and we knew they couldn’t be fixed.  We are thinking probably 10 days to get new ones like at home.  Wed afternoon Sister Williams and I went across the street to the mall, and while she was doing some grocery shopping, I went in search of eye shops.  There were 3 and so I just picked one and went in with a prayer that something could be done today.  The man that helped me said if I could find a frame that the lens would fit in they would be ready in 5 min.  In shock I asked if he was kidding and he said they are the only store with a shop on site.  He helped me find a pair and by the time Sister Williams found me I was paying for them.  They are probably not the ones I would chosen at home, but they will work.  I am really feeling blessed to have glasses.

Friday morning we sent over 14,000 images to S L, and we got the reports back on the first 2 shuttles we sent and everything passed, no failures.  We felt really good because no one has started photographing a project without failures the first few times.  Mark was very excited as well as Danny Chin.

Friday the Williams and us and 2 people from the HR dept at the offices were in charge of the monthly birthday lunch.  Normally they have a tea but this month they decided to have a lunch.  We went over to Buckland House at 9:30 to set up the table and chairs, and then began heating up the spaghetti sauces, the alfredo, add chicken to that.  We had all brought our crockpots.  A couple of new words, hamburger is called mince, and the garbage cans are called bins.  They added the browned mince, onions and some kidney beans to the red sauce.  We then made a green salad, warmed garlic bread, cooked pasta. One of the employees made a punch that was to die for, ginger ale, cranberry lemonade, sprite, something I have never heard of for a sweetener, a liquid, and then she put orange chunks, pineapple chunks, and frozen berries in orange juice concentrate for about an hour before then added them to the pitchers of punch and topped it off with lemon and orange slices.  Not only was it good, it looked so pretty.  For dessert we had a contest that anyone could enter.  We had about 15 entries from cheesecake, puddings, trifle, cake, chocolate, date and nut balls, banana split dessert, etc.  The judges judged on presentation, taste, and the audience judged people’s choice after eating them. It was lots of fun. By the time we had cleaned up we got back to the office at 2:30.  Not much work accomplished but it was a good change.

Yesterday we left with the Williams at 9am to go on another adventure.  We went out in the country where we saw lots of cows and horses, a few crops, grain, hay and lettuce.  We went through small towns and narrow 2 lane roads.  We went to a large river, Hawkesbury, where we could go across on the ferry.  As we waited for the ferry to come we talked to a local, who told us to turn left off the ferry and we would probably see some kangaroos.  It was a dead end at a resort.  Boy did we see them, at least 35.  We walked down to where they were and they got up and just watched us.  We walked over to another group where a joey jumped into the mothers pouch, head first and the legs were hanging out.  Another mother had one in her pouch and the head was sticking out and they were both eating grass.  We stayed and watched them and took pictures for about a half hour.  That was super fun.

We then drove down a very windy road that followed the river, with lots of trees and brush, to Wisemans Ferry where we ate lunch at” Convict Road Kiosk”.  We got a hamburger, a real hamburger not just pressed meat, and fries.  It really tasted good.  We then took off again in the car and just drove, road another ferry to get on the right side of the river to come home.  We stopped at Ebenezer’s Church, which is the oldest Church in Australia, and it is still being used for Church services on Sunday and for Weddings.  There also used to be a school, and the building is still standing.  The graveyard is very old and we walked around it reading the stones, evidently we don’t get enough of that at work.  We were standing there talking when the loudest racket started in one of the trees, birds that sounded like they were laughing, the kookaburras.  It was great fun to hear them, they flew to other trees and started in again.  They are very small, about the size of a robin.  We then came home after a wonderful day and lots of pictures.

We are anxious to hear how Eli and Brielle are doing,   we are sure they are growing and changing fast.  We are still waiting for emails and letters. 

Today we went to Cessnock, about 2 hours away to speak in Church at the ward there.  Thank goodness for GPS.  We went through fog most of the way there, not too thick but you couldn’t see anything.  The Ward was so friendly.  The street sign a couple of blocks from the Church said Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with the arrow pointing up the street, and below it the name of the street.  Made it easy to find.  I had not prepared anything because the Bishop told Dix 2 weeks ago to just take a couple of minutes to explain our assignment here, but when we went in I was asked to introduce ourselves and our family.  After the block they had a luncheon so that made it nice, we could eat and visit for a little while.  We got home about 5.  The drive was beautiful coming home after the fog burned off.  Lots of valleys and rivers and of course trees.  Makes us realize what a desert we really do live in.

This next week is going to be busy with Family Home Evening tomorrow night, Temple Tuesday, and we are feeding a couple of Elders Wed night.  They have about 6 new elders coming in Wed, that have been visa delays, so all the Sr. missionaries are taking a couple of them, a new one and their trainer home for dinner, and then we will take them back to the mission home.  We are excited to do this.  That will definitely be a crockpot day.

We Love you All and Pray each day for you.    Love, Mum and Dad