September 1 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Sep 1, 2013

HAPPY FATHERS DAY, Bob, Deven, Ruston, Loren, Tyson, Mike, Vaun, Andy, Kelvin, Chase, Thomas and soon Ezra!!  I told Dad only special fathers get 2 Fathers day in a year and he definitely is.  Bishop Cox told us on Friday that today was Fathers Day in Australia.  Friday was the Birthday Tea for all employees and missionaries on the Church campus.  It was in the 80’s so it was held on the patio at Buckland House.  They had pastries, cookies, fresh fruit (strawberries, kiwi, mango), and cheese and crackers.  Bishop Cox came and sat by us and asked us if we were going to be traveling next week or in town.  We were supposed to go to Ulla Dulla but they are having a conference so he said that is good for him, but bad for Dad because he wants him to talk about the role of Fathers in the home.  Now he can worry about that all week, but he will do good.  He downloaded some talks on Friday before we left work and has been going through them last night and today.  Church is so awesome on Fast Sunday, there is never anytime between testimonies.  In Relief Society with 3 sets of Sisters the numbers are up because with Primary and Young Women there are only 3 ward members besides the 3 Presidency.  The President is 25 years old and been married just over a year, and is originally from Utah.  She is going home in a couple of weeks to Tooele for her Sisters farewell.  Her Husband is Australian and is the Elders Quorum President.  A great couple.

Last Monday morning we made Cheeseburger soup before going to the office.  The cheese we found most like Velveeta is not as strong so we doubled it but it was really good.  We stopped at the fresh food stand and got salad ingredients, and the bakery for buns (rolls).  It turned out really good and everyone seemed to like the soup.  The Feils had the program and honored the Kohlerts by asking questions about them we had to answer in teams.  They left Thursday to go home to Utah.  Then they played a game about the hymns, stating a 7 word question and we had to guess.  That was hard but really a lot of fun.  If we couldn’t guess she would play the first 7 notes. They had caramel apple cheesecake for dessert.  By the time we cleaned up it was after 9 before we got home.  I had to get copies of the recipe made on Tues.  Did you know there is a Cheeseburger soup recipe from Taste of Home that uses rice instead of potatoes?  Will have to try that sometime, of course potatoes are always better.  At noon on Monday we had Visiting Teaching because Sister Williams would be gone on Wed and Sister Kohlert would not be in the office. I gave the lesson on Personal Revelation and I think it turned out good.  I would have liked to study it more but with the trip last weekend and then having to prepare dinner I ran out of time.  Tuesday night we didn’t get home from the Temple until about 9, thank goodness for frozen leftover dinners on late nights.    Sister Feil announced Mon night that 16 new missionaries were coming in on Wednesday and they needed 4 couples to feed 4 sets.  The Baukland Hills Ward was feeding the other 10 sets.  The 4 couples there said we would.  The Williams left Wed morning for Tasmania to visit Family History sites so they wouldn’t be here.  It has been quiet at the office since they left and we have missed them.  They will be back Tues Morning.  Mark was also out of the office Wed and Thur so it was really quiet.  We got a lot done though, 5,000 images on Wed and 4,000 on Thur.  We even walked over to the mall on Wed for lunch as we needed a couple of things for dinner Wed night.  Dad told Mark we are a 10^th of the way through the cards because there are 70 boxes and we have finished 7.  Friday we sent the shuttle to Salt Lake with over 19,000 images.  A good week.   We need to walk over to the warehouse tomorrow and get 3 more boxes.  Wednesday night we came home to get dinner ready, I put steaks, potatoes and carrots in the crockpot in the morning with an envelope of ranch, Italian, and onion gravy mixes with 2 cups of water.  It was super good and made wonderful gravy.  Elder Jorgensen went and picked up our 2 sets of missionaries and Dad took them home.  I also fixed a green salad and had ice cream and Tim Tams for dessert, seeing as though I was not home to bake anything.  We had 2 sister missionaries from Tonga, one has been out 4 months and the other just new.  They were so cute and really enjoyed dinner.  They gave us a lesson and the new one was worried about her English but she did well.  Half way through the lesson Sister Jorgensen brought their 2 elders over because Elder Jorgensen had a meeting.  They were both from Idaho, Sugar City and Idaho Falls.  The new one was so tired but they were so cute.  We really enjoyed the evening.  Thursday and Friday it was good to come home and get laundry done and relax a little.  We can only do 2 loads in a night because we can only run the washer or dryer at a time, but we get it done.

Yesterday we cleaned the flat, we have to wash the bathroom down with bleach once a month so we don’t get mold, so we did that and vacuumed.  We decided to go for a ride to the country.  Dad looked at the map, we put a town in Matilda (our Garmin) and off we went.  It was just a 2 lane highway so Dad turned off on a small street out in the country and we saw lots of cold frame greenhouses and crops growing in small sections, onions, salad greens, and others.  He got some good pictures we will try to get posted.  We saw one guy in a small garden poking holes in black plastic but we didn’t go back to talk to him.  All of the crops we saw were on raised beds.  We saw a forest of bamboo trees that a guy planted to harvest for furniture but he has never done anything with them.  Dad stopped and talked to a guy at a landscape company.  We saw some beautiful country, lots of cows and horses.  We stopped for lunch at Gray Gum Restaurant and had delicious fish and chips on the patio.   We came home and then walked down to the Good, Bad and Ugly Cemetery that is about 3 blocks east of our flat.  We walked through it and read the headstones that had any writing left on them.  Dad took a lot of pictures.  It was so sad to see them in such disrepair, most of the weeds taller than the stones.  As we were leaving we went out by a brick wall and it had the history of the cemetery on it.  It is really called the “All Saints Cemetery” and the plaque said there are over 2,000 graves there but 1500 are unmarked.  They had the names, dates of death, and ages across the wall, most from the 1850’s – 1900.  A lot of the unmarked graves were from the Asylum, Orphanage, and Women’s Benevolent Society.

Spring is definitely in the air, in the 80’s for 2 days and high 70’s today.  The trees that did lose their leaves are starting to bud out.  Dad has 10 tomato plants up and growing and he puts them outside on the deck during the day.  We have 2 green plants, both from Sister Williams, Dad had to repot the fern and give it a haircut and one like Onalie’s that is growing all over her shelf.  We hope to get some more.  I am trying at least 2-3 new recipes a week and we are enjoying them.  Food is so expensive I will not take the produce we grow and the beef and pork in my freezer for granted.  We are so blessed that the food is local, grown in Australia.  The locals tell us the fruit will be on in our area in Oct-Nov so we will go to stands to get some.  We did see some strawberry stands on our drive yesterday but I had just bought some Friday night.  We bought some fresh sausages with garlic and parsley and Dad grilled them last night.  Wow, they were tasty.  Thanks Amberlie for the package of ranch dressing, taco seasoning, and trail mix, and pictures from Will and Crew and a thank you note from Will.  Happy 1^st Birthday to Violet this week.  Where has this year gone?  Thanks for the messages about the kids in school, Loren and Tami’s kids have been in for 4 weeks now, and the others started this past week.  Ruston and Sarah are also back, although Sarah has worked all summer.  See if I can remember all of them, Amanda is a Sr., Canyon is a sophomore, and Dallen is a freshman at Centennial, new school for him. Lydia is 8^th grade, Makenna is a 7^th grader also at Centennial, Grason is 5^th, Dixon is 4^th, Logan, Will and Krey are 2^nd, Aunna and Crew are 1^st, Mylie and Annaston are Kindergarten, and Henry is preschool.  How did I do? Martin is training for 3 months in Minneapolis to be a manager at the Harrisville Walmart.  We are proud of him at this young age, and it will be nice he doesn’t have to travel through Sardine Canyon to Logan every day to work.

Well we made it through opening weekend without football and yes it has been really hard.  We did call Tina Thurs. night and she listened to the last of the USU, U of U game, would have liked to see the Aggies win, sorry Sarah, and way to go Tina, listening to football for your Mom and Dad!  We could not get calls and texts at all through Vonage at Church even though we had internet.  Yes boys I did reboot my phone a couple of times.

We love you:

Mum and Dad