Australia Sun Nov 24, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
We have had an interesting week weather wise. It started raining last Sunday night and we
had thunder and lightening with it. It
rained until Tuesday afternoon, then cleared and warmed up until Thursday
evening when it started raining again and continued until this morning. Everything is so nice and green now, we
really needed the moisture. We were only
able to walk to work Wednesday and Thursday.
We have used our umbrella more the past 2 weeks than we have since we
got here. We keep one at the office and
one in the car. It has still been pretty
warm even with the rain.
Last Monday night was Family Home Evening and the Feils had
the dinner, baked ziti casserole and salad.
It was yummy! The Tanner’s had
the lesson and we watched a new video about the life of Christ that BYU has put
out. It was very good. It was filmed in Goshen. They also showed a short clip of a talk by
Ezra Taft Benson that was very good also.
They served a chocolate fruit cake with ice cream for dessert. We had a lot of fun.
Tuesday evening we went to the grocery store right after
work to get things for the week. They do
not have milk in gallons, a little bigger than a half gallon so we have to get
milk every week. Also we need fruit and
potatoes so we go once a week. Wish the
prices would come down.
The rest of the week we just came home after work and worked
on writing talks, did indexing, fixed dinner, and I worked on my afghan, and
Dad worked on the computer with his pictures.
We did go walking on Wednesday, the only good day we had.
Thursday for lunch we ran across the street and tried kabobs. They are cooked chicken with tomatoes and 3
different kinds of salad, coleslaw, lettuce and some other kind in a tortilla
soft shell, with sauce (we had barbecue) and then warmed up in a warmer. They
were very good. We will definitely have
those again. We just had the children’s
size and that was plenty.
Saturday after cleaning and washing the sheets we ran to the
office so Dad could submit some indexing that was going to expire today. We then came home and made the bed, and left
for Taree. It is about a 3 ½ drive, but
we decided to take a little side trip and see a light house. It only added about a hour. It started raining about a ½ hour into the
trip and rained all the way to the light house.
We have never seen such hard rain as we had in some places, and the
thunder was right on top of the lightening.
Pretty scary for me but Dad said we were as safe as anywhere. That made me feel better?? When we got to the parking lot it was raining
pretty good, so Dad left me in the car and he went up and took pictures. I was really disappointed but it was quite a
hike he said. We left and went to Taree
and got to a place after traveling about a ½ hour where the police had the road
closed for the triathlon that was being held, so we backtracked to the other
road. We found a little roadside café
and went in for lunch about 3. It was
Chinese, and was very good. It was
raining but we ate out on a patio in the back and Dad saw a little garden so he
went and checked it out. That is some of
the fresh things they use in their food.
It was very good. Going back to
the main road we had some of the hardest rain we have ever, ever had. Dad said it was coming down in buckets. We could not see the road and the wipers
could not keep up with all the water.
Dad just went really slow, crawling along until it let up a little. There were 2 trees blown down across the road
so we just had to go around them. We got
to Taree about 5 and checked into the River View Motel. It was raining pretty hard so we left the
things in the car and went for a ride.
We found the Church about 2 blocks away and then road out into the
country. We got back to our room and it
was only sprinkling so we took everything in and studied our talks. We could see the river from our window, and
we watched rabbits eating the grass from our window. We watched some football on tv, totally
different than our football, they use a round ball and throw it to team mates
to score. We also watched some cricket,
kind of like Baseball with a wide bat.
We never did figure that game out.
This morning the motel had a continental breakfast, the
first we have seen in Australia, so we went down to it and then got ready for
Church. We got to Church early so we
could call home but we had no internet on Vonage at all. The Branch is very small, about 20 people,
and 2 little boys in Primary, one in nursery, and one is 4. They have no young men or young women. Everyone was so nice, we really enjoyed being
there. The new talks went well. The High Councilman came in and he works at
the Temple on Tuesday nights so we have visited with him. He travels 2-3 hrs to visit his branches he
is assigned to. He said Taree is only 2
hours away. He said he had 2 missionary
companions from Brigham City and he served in Germany. I asked him their names and one was Kevin
Christensen (his wife is Karin) and he is a dentist. The other one is Kay Christensen, he couldn’t
remember his wife’s name, but he is a judge.
Bob, do you know either of them?
Also they announced in Relief Society that they are going to start
meeting once a month at 10 in the morning and assign a sister to tell about
herself. They want life stories with
pictures, a slide show or whatever. I
thought that sounded fun. Most of the
sisters are older, in fact most of the branch are retiree’s with 2 or 3 in
their 40’s. The 2 little boys that were
there come with their grandma. We left
right after Church was over and got home just before 6. At least we didn’t have any rain today, but
we are supposed to get more this week.
They had a lot of flooding in the Sydney area and in the Blue
Mountains. Glad we didn’t have to go
that direction. There was a small
tornado sighted about 4 hours away from where we were. Coffs Harbor, where we were a couple of
months ago had flooding from all the rain.
The grounds crew have really been working hard on the lights
for Christmas and the Nativity set, it opens next Sunday on the 1st. They also have an art show at Buckland House
that they say hundreds come to see. The
Sr. missionaries are assigned a night with 2 sets of Elders and 2 sets of
Sisters on busy nights, and only 1 set each on the other nights. Our assignment is on the 11th, 17th,
and 20th. We have to be there
at 7 until about 10:30. We just walk
around and answer questions and visit.
It should be fun, we are excited to do it. They even open on Christmas evening because
so many people come. That is the last
night, they are open 7 days a week.
Tomorrow morning we are meeting for the Christmas Dinner
with the committee right after the Devotional.
We are having the Devotional’s in the birthday room because the art will
be set up in the usual room. That is
also where we will have the dinner so we are going to figure the lay out. It is going to be so much fun. They keep adding people invited so now we are
up to 70. It is on the 11th
so I have got to figure how much potato salad to make for that many.
The Temple opens Tuesday and we are really glad. We have really missed going.
Friday the Mission President is having a Sr. missionary couple’s
conference. We will meet at his house at
his house at noon, we will eat lunch before going over. About 5 we will walk to an Italian Restaurant
for dinner, we have no idea where it is, then back to their home for
dessert. We will have to get the shuttle
down to the mail room in the morning.
This Friday we sent in 20,000 images, a very good week. We are now officially 1/3 of the way through
the cards. Tuesday we brought 6 boxes
from the storeroom off the new pallet.
Dad opened the box and 50% of the cards have information on both
sides. A very, very interesting card
this week, a 22 year old man passed away in Jerusalem and is buried at the
Mount of Olives. There was a plaque in
the cemetery where he was from with the information on it.
Last but not least important, probably most important we
have a beautiful felt Christmas Tree hanging on our wall (thanks Tina) and
ornaments hanging on it from 6 of our families.
They are so cute with their pictures looking at us. Now we just need the ornaments from the other
6 families. The tree is half bare, so
get them to us please. It is fun to see
what each family did to create theirs.
We appreciate all you do for us.
Tina, Dad says thanks for sending the binoculars and lens for his
camera. We also have a package with the
12 days of Christmas we have to wait until Dec 14th to start. That will be fun.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving this week where ever you are, we
are so blessed in our lives. I did find
a turkey breast at the meat market across the street, $40.00. I think we will just have chicken on Sunday.
Guess I will end for tonight and if I think of anything else
I will add it before sending it in the morning.
Prayers and Love go to all of you!
Mum and Dad
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