October 7 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Monday Oct 7,2013

Dear Family and Friends:

Yes, this week’s letter is a day late.  Today is Australia’s Labor Day and the Queen’s Birthday so we had the day off.  It was nice being able to sleep in one day.  I said it was 7 when we woke up and Dad said it was really 6 because we changed day light savings time yesterday morning.  Oh well, it felt like we slept in.

Tuesday morning at 10 Mark had a morning tea for us for capturing 5,000 cards in one day.  He invited Mark Allen who is the service center manager at Buckland House, and the Williams.  Melinda Kelly, Mark’s wife who also works at Buckland House made an apple cake, and we had juice.  It was a lot of fun.  Mark Kelly showed a video one of the wards made for a contest that is about Family History.  It was really good.  He sent Dad the link so we can get a copy of it.  On Tuesday afternoon we had a meeting for the Christmas Social with the committee.  Us, the Williams, and 3 others from Buckland House are the committee.  We decided to have an Aussie Christmas as the theme.  It is kind of funny seeing as though we have 4 American’s, 2 New Zealander’s, and one from China on the committee.  We will have another meeting next week to report on our assignments.  It is going to be a fun party.  On Wednesday the new couple in public relations came in.  They are taking the Kohlerts place.  They come from North Salt Lake and their name is Moore.  This week as Dad was taking the tomato plants out to the deck for the day he noticed 6 more came up, they were planted 2 months ago.  They are liking the warmer weather during the day, and it is still too cool for them at night outside.  On Thursday at noon Sister Williams, Jorgensen and I went to Salvo’s about 20 min from work.  I got 3 short sleeved shirts and a skirt.  Also a really nice 8 in square pan.  It was half price day so nothing was over $2.00.  Deven Skyped Dad from the Farm Bureau social at Tyson’s so he was able to say hi to the committee.  I was sorry I missed it.

On Saturday we rode the river cat (ferry) to Sidney Quays (pronounced keys) for the Pride of Nations Ceremonial Fleet Review, Royal Australian Navy Warships.  We found a grassy place to sit down above the harbor and watched the ships go by.  They expected millions of people and I think they were all there.  The first line to go through was the minor war vessels, then the major warships, led by HMAS Sydney, representing the original seven warships of the 1913 fleet.  They also had the Fleet Air Arm and Royal Australian Air force fly-past’s, as well as Naval helicopters Search and Rescue.  They were neat to see them fly by.  Each ship went past the review ship, where we are told Prince Harry was on board.  They also had a fireworks display at night but we didn't stay because the last ferry to go out was at 4 pm.  We ate a hot dog from a stand by where we were sitting. 

Yesterday we went to Sacrament Meeting and then when right to the office to watch General Priesthood meeting.  Dad couldn't get the speakers working so he just watched it with head phones, then Deven Skyped us from Tyson’s.  Tina said we looked good on the big screen because she usually only has picture on her phone.  It was lots of fun talking to everyone that was there and see some of the things the girls bought.  There was also excitement when water started running out of the ceiling light.  Everyone scrambled and we were able to see it all happening from Deven holding a pan up to catch the water, and Tyson and Vaun taking the light down, and I guess the girls running upstairs to see what happened.  Don’t we just love 2 year olds?

This morning we packed our dishes and kitchen items we won’t need this week and we hope we are moving next weekend.  They are supposed to close on our 2 flats, us and the Williams on Friday.  We are trying to decide what furniture to take, we are moving into a smaller area.  We will bring home some more empty boxes tomorrow, we filled all we brought home Friday.  About 11 this morning we left with the Williams to go to the river cat to go to Sydney and walk to Watson’s Bay and see the ships that are berthed there.  The ferry was full so we couldn’t get on, so we decided to drive to Windsor, about a half hour away.  It is an old town with shops and eating places.  There is a water wheel in the center of the street, and an old hotel.  We ate fish and chips outside and they were really good.  We then drove to an old Church, 160 years old, and graveyard.  We walked around reading the headstones and taking pictures.  We then drove around in the country and saw some farmers working the fields, lots of cabbage and other crops.  We stopped at a stand and bought some strawberries.  Another fun day.

Tomorrow the Williams, and Mark are going to Brisbane for meetings for Family History, and the Jorgensen’s are going to the Great Barrier Reef to go scuba diving so we will be alone in the office and at our flat.  They will all be back on Friday. 

We were talking to a family at the show on Saturday and she said the kids go back to school on Tuesday so I asked her what the schedule is for school.  They go for 10 weeks, off 2 weeks, and then off 6 weeks for Christmas. 

Saturday and last night we watched “The Man from Snowy River, parts 1 and 2.”  We really enjoyed them.  Elder Williams loaned them to us, he had borrowed them from someone in our ward.  Tonight we are going to watch the” Gladiators.”

Love you all and Pray for you daily:

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