December 22 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Dec 22, 2013

Dear Family and Friends:

A very quiet Sunday afternoon 3 days before Christmas.  Where has the year gone we are asking ourselves.  It has certainly been one filled with many changes.   We have been in the Beautiful Country of Australia for 6 months.  We love our work, the people we associate with and seeing all the new and wonderful things we are blessed to see.  We have 3 new spirits that have joined our family, Eli came to meet us the day before we left to join Chase and Megan and Jaxon Cosgrove’s family, Brielle Anna came to Jessica and Thomas Simon in June, and this past week Rowan James came to Kaylee and Ezra Castleton.  They are all precious children on loan to us from our Heavenly Father, and we are sure glad they came to our family.  Being grandparents and great grandparents is the BEST!  We are glad Ezra will have 10 days to get to know his son before going back to the Marine’s for a few months.  We wonder what this New Year is in store for our family with Jessica and Thomas going to be out of state for medical school and Kaylee and Ezra will be assigned to a base somewhere.  Life is about change!

This week has been very busy.  Monday night we had Family Home Evening at the Archibald’s.  They are 2 floors above us and have the same floor plan we do.  We had potato soup and chili, rolls, and salad.  Sister Archibald then past out parts of the poem “Teach the Children the Real Meaning of Christmas” and we were to give a personal experience relating to the part we had.  It was fun to learn more about everyone.  We had the Sr. missionaries, Pres. and Sister Barr there.  The Jeff’s didn’t come because he was not feeling well.  We then went down to the Moore’s for dessert, cheesecake with cherry topping (they do not have any pie fillings here) so Sister Archibald got a bottle of cherries and thickened the juice.  They also had chocolate dessert and ice cream.  We got a plate of homemade cookies from the Barr’s, some of them were from different countries she has lived, a basket of candy from the Archibald’s, a box of microwave popcorn from the Williams, and we gave our little boxes and some homemade mints.  The Tanner’s gave us a box of truffles.  We have enough candy to last a few months and we are enjoying every bit of it. 

Tuesday we left from our flats at 8:30 to go to the Christmas Zone Conference at the Baulkenhills Stake Center.  They divided the mission in half for the Christmas conferences so there was over 150 missionaries with the couples there.  We had video clips and talks from the missionaries, then Sister and President Howes talked.  We then went to the cultural hall and watched “Ephraim’s Rescue”.  None of the young missionaries had seen it so it was fun to see their reaction.  We then had lunch prepared and served by Sister Cox, our Bishop’s wife, the Feil’s, Tanner’s, Archibald’s and Sister Moore.  Elder Moore was sick.  It was roast beef, ham, green salad, pasta salad, hot rolls, baked potatoes with butter, and sour cream, or gravy.  Dessert was pavilova with whipped cream, strawberries and passion fruit glaze, chocolate delight (my name), and several yummy treats that Sister Howes made, one of which was the little round pretzels with caramel, she puts a caramel on it on a cookie sheet, sticks them into the oven just to soften the caramel, then puts a chocolate kiss on it, then dips it in melted chocolate.  Yum!  She also made toffee, and a couple of others.  Also a fruit bowl, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew and strawberries.  Then they had a talent show of the young missionaries.  It was a wonderful day.  We got home about 4:30 and left about 6:15 for Mark and Melinda Kelly’s home for dinner.  We go with the Williams thank goodness because they know where they are going.  Mark has a beautiful home.  We sat on the patio for a few minutes visiting, then went into dinner at a beautifully set table.  A tradition here is to pull open the crackers that was at each place and put on the little plastic crown for dinner.  It also has a little toy, stickers and very cheesy jokes.  The one I kept out from Dad’s to tell you is “Why did the golfer wear two pairs of trousers?”  Those that know can tell us tomorrow on the conference call or text the answer to us.  We had a delicious dinner of turkey roll with stuffing, baked potatoes, fresh beans and carrots, green salad, and a sparkling grape drink.  Dad asked Mark and Melinda how they met and so the dinner conversation was that.  They were both raised in Tamworth, but didn’t meet until after high school, Mark went to a Catholic school.  They dated through the summer then Melinda left for BYU for a year.  They kept in contact while she was gone.  When she got home they became serious but she would not marry outside the Church so she said she would investigate the Catholic Church if he would take the discussions from the missionaries.  They went together and he really enjoyed going to Church with her.  He was baptized and a year later they were married.  His family was very upset with him and his sisters didn’t have anything to do with them until after they started having children, and now they have come around to be friends and family.  They have 5 children, 1 married daughter with a baby boy, 2 sons in Queensland, 1 son at home and one daughter on a mission in New Zealand.  They are going to Queensland for Christmas, the whole family and he won’t be back in the office until the 6^th of January.  It was such a fun evening.  When we left Melinda gave us a bag of chocolates and a gift.  When we opened it when we got home it was 2 children’s books (you all know how I love children’s books) titled “An Aussie Night Before Christmas” and the sequel “Brucie Saves Christmas!”  They are adorable. Of course I read them before going to bed.  We are excited to bring them home and share them with the family. 

We took them a little box and Dad printed a picture he took of the Temple and framed it.  They were very happy with it.

Wednesday was a day at the office.  We went to the mall for lunch as we needed to pick up a few things. Sister Barr wants a picture of the Temple, she met Dad on the path the 3 mornings he walked over to take it.  He wanted to get the light just right, so then we needed to get another frame.  We had Kabab’s. 

Thursday morning we went to the office for an hour then left for the Christmas Conference for the other half of the missionaries.  It was our turn to fix and serve the lunch.  Sister Tanner bought Christmas aprons for the ladies, so I bought them for the men.  We had the Williams, Dick’s, Sister Cox, and ourselves.  We began chopping, cutting fruit, cutting ham, whipping cream, and then at noon in comes a leg of cooked beef, and I mean a leg, it weighed about 80 pounds.  A Tongan member cooked it and delivered it, wrapped in cardboard and foil.  It was really hot, hard to handle.  Thank goodness Elder Williams has cut beef before so he took charge.  We all helped and it was so good and tender.  There was really a lot of meat on it.  Towards the bone was the rare meat, my favorite.  We cleaned up and put the food away for the Pres. and Sister Howes to take it home.  Thank goodness they have the assistants and the fleet elders to help.  Deven called before we left and asked if we could set up google+ on my IPad.  We called them and got to meet Rowen, and talk Kaylee and Ezra.  Thanks Deven.  We love Technology!   When we got home Dad and I got in our car and went grocery shopping.  We don’t want to go to the stores just before Christmas.

Friday was a day at the office, we got 2,000 images before lunch which we had in the conference room with Mark, Paul, and the Williams.  Sister Williams had gone over to the mall and got Subway sandwiches, chips and water.  It was nice to only take lunch once this week.  We really get tired of taking lunches.  We sent off 9,000 images which is pretty good for not being in the office much the past 2 weeks.  We did 1,000 in the afternoon that I will transfer in the morning.  Friday night was our last night to work at the Art Show.  We worked with 2 sisters from South Jordan and Samoa.  The Samoan sister has only been here 2 weeks.  She is really doing great with the language.  We had 2 sets of Elders, 2 took care of the video and 2 were outside talking to people.  It was slower than they expected but we had a thunder and lightning and rain storm right about 8 that lasted about a half hour.  Last Sunday night over a 1,000 people came and last night the Williams had over a 1,000.  I am sure every night now will be busy including on Christmas.  Friday was also the Birthday Tea, and they had crackers and bread with about 4 different dips, mixed nuts, homemade brownies with whip cream, and sparkling grape juice.

Yesterday we decided on another slow day because of the busy week we have had, and the Williams didn’t want to do much because they worked last night.  We went to Vinny’s and Salvo’s, I got 3 shirts at Salvo’s and Dad got 2.  Then we went the Harry de Wheels for lunch.  The rest of the day was spent doing laundry.  Dad and I decided to go to “La Botte” for some pizza and when we got there it was so noisy we just got take away and came home with pizza and garlic bread. 

Friday we got new computers, monitors, keyboards, and mouse at the office.  They change them out every 4 years.  The monitor is larger, 19” and really nice.  He just got them hooked up as we were leaving the office so we haven’t had a chance to work on them yet.  He had to come back after 4:30 as it wouldn’t print in color.  He (the IT guy) got it fixed so we didn’t get home until after 5.  That was a really long day but thank goodness we were home from the Art Show by 11.

Today we went to Church, the program was talks and music by the audience singing Christmas Carols, the Sister Missionaries sang a beautiful number, and the YSA in the ward, 6 of them, sang a couple of songs.  The last number was a piano and solo.  We really enjoyed it and really felt the Spirit.  There were 4 investigators there with the missionaries, hope they felt it also.  We came home fixed some dinner, sausage stir fry, it was good even though it doesn’t sound so.  We are trying to use up everything that will not keep while we are gone for 5 days.  We are getting so excited to go, we are going up to the Williams in a few minutes to map out our route.  We will leave sometime Thursday morning and go to Canberra and then go onto the Church ranch on Friday, it is about 4 hrs from Canberra.  We will stay there 3 or 4 nights and just travel around during the day. 

We are really enjoying opening the little gifts for the 12 days of Christmas, so far we have only missed one.

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!  Be sure to teach your families the real meaning of Christmas and we challenge all of you to carry the spirit of Christ throughout the year in all you do and say.  We will miss you all and hopefully be able to talk to you in the middle of the week.  I have no idea when we will be able to write next week, we will see maybe we will have internet at the ranch.

Happy Birthday Canyon on the 26^th,!  A big 16 years old, wow, that went fast.  Happy Birthday to Dallen and Anaston on Jan 2^nd, 15 years and 6 years old. Also Happy Birthday to Andy on the 27th and Tina and Tyson on the 28^th.

Love you all and Pray for you!

Mum and Dad

All the ornaments finally arrived! Thanks everyone.

                         Our Christmas tree and poster of the Sydney Temple Dix took.

             We have all the Christmas Decorations we need.

           We are going to leave our tree and ornaments up until we go home.

         Transfomation mugs from Loren and Tami and family. We tried them out with hot chocolate.

                                              Summer solstice from our deck, beautiful!

  LEG of beef that was delivered hot and ready to cut up for the Christmas Zone Conference.

                                           Contestants for the Great Australian Game Show.

                        Buffet table, ham, pulled pork, stuffed chicken breast, vegetables and salads.

                                            Contestants

          

                                                         Yummy Desserts!

                                Work station decorations, notice the house, that is his cubicle.

       Harry de Wheels Cafe. Pies with mashed potatoes, mashed peas and gravy, yummy!

                                             Sydney Australia Temple Christmas Lights

                                      Lights around the grounds  Below: Christ Art Show Display

                                             Nativity Display in front of Buckland House.

                    Elder and Sister Roberts, Elder and Sister Williams, Melinda and Mark Kellly

December 15 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Dec 15, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

Sunday evening, and 10 more days until Christmas.  One of the Sister Missionaries at Church today reminded me of that.  This week has been extremely busy and wonderful.  We did not get many cards captured this week because of all the meetings and activities.  Tuesday morning we had a meeting to finalize all the plans for the Christmas Party on Wednesday.  We made a list of everything that needed to be done, and Sister Williams and I got the assignment to go to the mall and get the last minute things we needed from the dollar store, that is really not a dollar store although the name says it is.  We have never found anything for a dollar yet in there.  We got all we needed there, and went to Woolies to get the rest, that is Woolworth’s grocery store.  We were gone about 2 hours, and while we were gone, Dad and Elder Williams taped the questions for the game on Christmas cards.  We ate lunch when we got back and then went over to Buckland House to set up the table and chairs.  We got back to the office at 5:30 so too late for the Temple, so Dad and I ran to the mall to get a TV box.  Australia went from analog to digital the first of Dec, and even though we hardly turn it on we decided we might as well get one.  That cost us $40.00.

Wednesday morning we got our things ready to go to Buckland House and had to be there at 8:50 for a Pacific Area Devotional piped in from New Zealand.  Everyone had to sit at tables as we had them all set up.  The devotional was wonderful, all on the Savior.  After it was over we decorated the tables, we used vases with ornaments in them, little candy canes and Hershey candies. We had 10 tables set up.  They looked really nice with the white linen tablecloths.  Will get some pics up soon.  We had a Christmas tree brought in from one of the offices, had inflatable beach toys hanging from the ceiling as well as a little tent.  The theme was “An Aussie Christmas” and they go to the beach on Christmas.  We also had a beach umbrella set up with sand, a little chair and sand toys.  We put a beach umbrella over the serving table, and one over the drink table.  We had 4 short filing cabinets, about waist high, for the contestants for the game, set up sort of like family feud.  We wrapped all of those in Christmas paper, and tinsel, and put tinsel around the stands of the umbrellas.  We had huge posters we hung around.  When everyone came in at noon, Dad took pictures of the ones that wanted to.  After welcoming, we had Jared who was on our committee be the master of ceremonies, we had an opening prayer and then sang the 12 days of Christmas “Aussie” style, and it was funny.  We couldn’t pronounce half the things and have no idea what they are.  We played one round of “The Great Australian Game Show”.  Jared had made a wheel like wheel of fortune on the computer that we had on a big screen.  We had put Christmas symbols under some of the chairs and the audience members had to come up, 4 on each team.  There were 4 categories, trivia, name that tune, physical and charades.  We had someone spin the wheel, Jenny, who was on the committee was the hostess, and would pick a card and give it to Jared.  It was pretty funny.  We had a bell on each table and 4 hats, Santa’s on one table, and elf’s on the other.  When they completed the round, they had to put on their hats and ring the bell.  After the first round we ate the main course, ham, pulled pork, and chicken roll with feta cheese inside, salads, vegetables.  We had someone make a fruit punch that was delicious.  We then had another round of the game and then had dessert, two kinds of cheesecake, a pecan dessert, and pavlova, that is to die for, and fresh fruit.  We are so glad it was catered.  Everyone seemed to have fun.  We used china and silverware so a lot of washing up, but LeeAnn and Jenny did most of them, while we cleaned everything up and got the room back to order.  We got back to the office about 3:30.  We all feel like it was a complete success. 

Wednesday night was our turn to work at the art show and lights.  We were there at 7:00 to let the Elders and Sisters in and give them the instructions.  We have to turn the spotlights on the paintings, turn on the cd for music, and get the video ready to run.  We open the doors at 7:30.  The Elders take care of the video, and greet the people coming in from the parking lot.  The Sisters take care of the other door for the art show.  We have a counter on the door and at the end of the night we take the number and divided it in two.  The Sisters we had were from Cambodia, and one from Ohio, and the Elders were from California and Florida.  Dad and I just walk around and visit with the people and answer any questions they have.  It was a pretty slow night, usually Tues, Wed, and Thurs. are the slowest nights of the week.  We had about 175.  We got home about 11:00.  President and Sister Howes always come over sometime during the night to see how the missionaries are doing.

Thursday was a pretty good day capturing cards, we did 3500.  The Williams were out of the office visiting family history centers in the area, and Mark was in the office.  Friday we captured 1000 cards then took a walk over to Buckland House to take some pictures to Elder Tanner that he wanted from some Dad has taken.  When we got back to the office we decided to run to Bunnings and get some more wood for a project Dad is making for Christmas.  We were only gone less than an hour.  We ate lunch when we got back and then were able to video chat with Vaun and Mandy and kids.  We haven’t seen them for a long time so we had a good visit.  We had to get our HD to the mail room.  We did something fun this week, hope the auditors in SL think it is cute.  On the backs of a lot of the cards we capture there are birthday cards that have been cut up, envelopes, and lots of Christmas Cards.  We kept out 16 that had enough of the picture or phrases on them for Christmas and copied them in a special folder, and put a note on the front of the hard drive to look at every image in folder #1. 

Friday night was the Oatlands Ward Christmas Party so we decided we should go.  It started at 6:30, we ate first, chicken from Roosters, it was really good, a tossed salad, and a pasta salad.  Then Pavlova for dessert.  My gosh I could eat the whole thing it is so good.  The Primary did the program with the audience singing Christmas Carols to go with it.  There were 5 angels, Mary and Joseph, 3 shepherds, and that was all the Primary Children, so 3 Deacons were the wise men.  It is a very small ward.  Santa Clause was coming and the kids were very excited.  We decided to come home.  It has been a busy week, and we were tired.

Saturday we had kind of a lazy day, we didn’t get up until 7, we didn’t sleep until then, I just said I wouldn’t get up before then.   After breakfast Dad wanted to wash the car.  We went through some construction on our way to Tamworth last weekend and it was really dirty.  There is a car wash bay in the parking garage, so we went to Bunnings and got a hose.  On Friday we went to a car wash to see how much it was to wash it, automatic car washes are nowhere to be found here.  The guy said for us it was only $52.00.  We laughed and said we didn’t have time.  The hose cost us $12.00 I did some deep cleaning and laundry.  We haven’t been home on a Saturday for over a month.  We went over to the office about 11 to call Krey and tell him Happy Birthday.  He was at CeCe’s Pizza with some of his friends.  It was good to see him, and we talked to Loren for a while.  Then we waited for Tyson to call us so we could see the Burdett Christmas Party.  It was good to talk to Larry, Sandy and their kids, and see and talk to everyone else.  I was feeling really good until Larry started playing his accordion, that about did me in.  After we hung up, I shed a few tears and was fine.  We went to the mall for lunch, Chinese this time, did a little grocery shopping for the week and came home to get ready for the art show.  We got there about 7 and the missionaries came right after us.  We were ready to go at 7:30 and people were waiting at the doors to come in.  The Sister missionaries were from Samoa and Kaysville, and the Elders from Hawaii and California.  We had 822 on the counter so about 411 came in.  It was pretty busy all night   The Sister missionaries talked to a lot of people who were interested in our Church and what we believe so they spent a lot of time talking to people and giving Book of Mormon’s away.  One man came up to me and said he wanted to know more about “this Christ guy” so I took him over to the Elders as the Sisters were busy.  He got his questions answered and came back in and joined his family in looking at rest of the paintings.  The last people left the exhibit at 11:15 so it was almost midnight before we got home.  That was a long day.  A lady came up to me and ask me where we were from, and said she was in Sal t Lake this summer as her daughter got married in the Salt Lake Temple and is living in Orem.  They are from Windsor, and asked what we do at home.  When I told her we were in Agriculture she got pretty excited, she teaches Ag in a high school.  She asked if we would be here in April as there is a big Ag Fair for 2 weeks, it sounds like a State Fair.  She said we would really like it so she wrote down the dates and her contact info.  Sounds like it will be fun to go to. 

Today after Church we went up to the office and watched the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Devotional.  It was really good.  Wish we could get the Christmas Program but I don’t think they put it on the net, just put it into DVD’s next Christmas. 

Dad just cut up a watermelon and cantaloupe we bought yesterday and it is very good.  We haven’t bought any because we forget, at home we only eat ours when they are on.  We got them at the fruit stand in the mall, the watermelon, they only grow seedless here, was $9.05 and the cantaloupe was $3.99.  Now we have enough to take for lunch each day.

We have Christmas fairies at our flat that leave little gifts, one morning we had a bow with bells on our handle, it is now hanging on our door, and the other night there was a little Christmas tree with lights in it that change different colors.  Dad has made little boxes with “Christmas is for Love” we will take to Family Home Evening tomorrow night and I made some mints today also  to take.  At work one day when we went to get the mail there was a package for all the Sr. Missionaries in their box.  It was an Australian Scholastic Book “Wombat DIVINE”.  It is an adorable Christmas story using Australian animals.  Would love to thank who ever left it but so far we have not been able to pin anyone down.

Tina and Bob sent us the 12 Days of Christmas so we started opening them yesterday.  The tag reads:

“With each present we’ve attached A scripture as a clue.

So look them up, and try to guess What’s wrapped inside for you. 

We hope you like the things we’ve sent, And think we are real clever. 

Because we want to wish for you The Merriest Christmas ever!”

The first scripture was Amos 4:6, and today was Mosiah 4:16.  We are 2 for 2 guessing the gift so far.  We will see what happens on the other days.  If you want to guess, look up the scriptures.

It is now 10:00 so I think I will close and get ready for bed.  I want to leave all of you with a thought, and know that we love you all and pray for you all!

Our Beloved Prophet said:  “To catch the real meaning of the Spirit of Christmas, we need only drop the last syllable and it becomes the Spirit of Christ”

Mum and Dad

                                           One of the posters at our office Christmas Party

Top: Nativity display outside Buckland House. Bottom: Art Show of the Life of Christ.

December 8 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Sun Dec 8, 2013

Dear Family and Friends:

Here it is 9:15pm and we just got home from Tamworth about 15 min ago.  Will tell you about the trip later.  We have unpacked and put everything away, turned the air conditioning on, and Dad just put some Christmas music on the computer.

Last Monday night was Family Home Evening and we sat 16 people for dinner.  We had 8 at our dining room table, 4 at the Moore’s round patio table, and 4 at our patio table.  We were not crowded and we were quite surprised.  I had table cloths for all of them.  We have 4 chairs, the Williams have 8, the Moore’s have 2, and Archibald’s have 2, so it all worked out.  The Williams did dinner, sloppy joes, potato salad, 7 layer dip with chips.  It was yummy.  After dinner we took some of the chairs next door to the Moore’s for the program, we watched Ephraim’s rescue, and then Sister Moore said there was someone in the room that was an extra in it and we had to guess who.  We each put a name on a paper, and I was the only one who guessed right, it was Elder Archibald.  I got a big chocolate Santa.  He got to be an extra because one of his grandfathers was Ephraim Hanks.  T C Christensen let anyone who had relatives from the rescue be extras.  That is such a good movie, if you haven’t seen it you need to.  After the movie we played a game, guessing some Christmas questions, and they were really hard.  I got 2 right, Australia often celebrates the day after Christmas as a holiday---what is it? And In last year’s Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra Christmas Performance featured a famous veteran.  What was his name?  The winner was Brother Jeff’s, he got 8.  It was a really fun night.  We got the tables and chair’s returned and everything cleaned up before too late.  We had put the love seat and chair over where our table normally is.  Everyone that came in commented on our felt Christmas tree and the ornaments.  We told them it is half bare because the rest are in the mail we hope.  We have 2 Christmas presents from Loren and Tami so we put them under our little table tree, and wrapped some empty boxes.  Looks cute.  Will send pictures as soon as we get all the ornaments.

We couldn’t have the committee meeting for the party on Monday because Melinda Kelly was sick.  We met for a few minutes on Wednesday, and finalized the decorations.  They liked my idea of ornaments in vases so we are going to use that.  I had 2 vases, and ornaments I am not using because they are too big for our little table tree.  We are also going to put Christmas Candy on the table between the vases.  We got an email on Wednesday morning that the area Presidency Christmas Devotional is next Wed the 11^th, at 9:30.  Of course this is the day of our Christmas Party so LeeAnn decided we will just sit at tables for the devotional.  We will just get the tables decorated and everything else done right after it is over.  We are very glad it is being catered.  Sister Williams and I are in charge of getting the questions for the game written on cards.  She found some big cards at the mall, so we will use those.  They are cute Christmas ones.  LeeAnn is going to email us the questions tomorrow.  Will tell you more about the game next week.  It is going to be so fun.

That night is our night to work at the art show so it will be a big and tiring day.  We have to be there at Buckland House at 7 pm to train the Elders and Sisters, turn on the music and video.  Then it opens at 7:30 until 10:30.  There is getting to be more and more people every night.  We are going to try to get some pictures posted this week, we just ran out of time last week.  We wonder where the time goes.  Mark was out sick Monday and Tuesday, and then was in on Wed for a half day, and then had meetings Thursday and Friday.

Friday was Zone Conference and it was absolutely wonderful, talk about being spiritually renewed.  It was held at a Stake House about 20 min away.  We went with the Williams.  We didn't go to the office as we had to leave about 8:30.  We got the hard drive ready to go on Thursday and to the mail room.  The assistants took care of the morning session of conference because Pres. and Sister Howes were at the airport picking up an Elder.  They got back about 11 and introduced him.  He is from Germany and had left the Provo MTC on Wednesday, remember he lost a day coming here.  The assistants talked about a survey and asked who had been using it and was it successful.  It was interesting to listen to them.  There were about 50 young missionaries there, then us the Williams, Feils, Tanner’s, and Moore’s.  They had lunch and it was sloppy joes, chips, fresh fruit, cookies and water.  Those Elders can really put the food away.  Sister Howes and Sister Archibald do the food for the conferences so they make it very simple but good.  In the afternoon the fleet elders gave safety training with a game.  It was really fun to watch them.  Then Sister Howes talked about Faith, and President Howes finished with talking about Jesus Christ.  Very, very good.  We got out about 5.  Sister Howes got a text from their son that she interrupted Pres to read to everyone.  Their 6 year old grandson that was diagnosed a few months ago with kidney cancer, tumors in both kidney’s, had just finished a scan, and they are gone in the right kidney, and shrunk a lot in the left, so they are going to finish the treatments before deciding whether to remove the left one.  They have known all along that it would be removed so they were very pleased.  She wanted everyone to know because they have all been praying for him.  They have certainly been blessed. 

Saturday morning we went to the office for a few minutes to print our talks.  We change them every time we give them.  I wanted to put a Christmas story in mine, THANKS Tina for finding it.  I think she went through every Christmas book I have, and that is a lot.  We loaded the car and took off.  We stopped about 2 ½ hrs into the trip to walk around and there was a Vinny’s so we went in and I got a skirt and 2 pair of shorts.  We stopped for fish and chips around 1 and got to Tamworth about 5 and checked into the motel.  Tamworth is the Country Musical Capital of Australia.  We stayed at the Golden Guitar Motel.  We took a ride to find the Church, about 15 min away, and then parked down town and walked around for a while.  On the way up to Tamworth in the car we were listening to Music and the Spoken Word on CD.  The message was about Family History, and fit in perfect with Dad’s talk so I got out my pad and pen and wrote it down by starting and stopping the cd.  I only had to listen to it twice to get it all.  When we got back to the room I wrote it out so someone could read it.  It was really hard in the car.  Dad put it into his talk and said it was inspiration that I chose that cd out of about 15 we have.  I think so too.  We walked next door to a restaurant that the Williams told us to eat at and had a steak dinner that was really good.  We just studied our talks until time for bed.  We got to Church about a half hour early hoping to hook up on the internet but I couldn’t get my iPad or Vonage to work all the time at Church.  We thought Church would be large because it is a Ward, but they said they average about 30-35 people.  There was about 45 yesterday.  Mark and Melinda Kelly were raised there so we met Melinda’s mom, and sister and family.  Her dad is in hospital.  It was a great ward, we really enjoyed our time there.  The missionaries are teaching several people.  One Elder is from St George and one from Arizona.

We decided to take another route home, but didn’t do much homework on that because it ended up being 4 hours longer so a total of 9 hours in the car.  It was a beautiful ride though but a lot in the hills and forest with a very windy road.  Dad was glad to get off it and back to the freeway.  It was a long day!

We could not find any Christmas Music on the radio at all.  Hard to get in the mood for Christmas with no music, not many decorations on houses, and it is 85 degrees outside.

Happy Birthday to Krey on Friday, going to be 9.  Glad Bob is doing better after his surgery, and Deven likes his new job.  Life is good!

Love you all and pray for you:

Mum and Dad

December 1 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Dec 1, 2012

Dear Family and Friends:

Wow, another month is gone and we are now officially into the Christmas season.  We sang Christmas Carols at Church today, and we have been listening to a few this week.  I still haven’t got Dad convinced it is ok to listen to them before Thanksgiving.  We did get Christmas decorations up this week and our flat looks cute.  We will post pictures as soon as we get the rest of the ornaments for our tree.  Hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving.  We thought about all of you and really missed being together as a family.  It was good to see a few of you, thanks Tina for calling.  Today we are having a kind of Thanksgiving dinner, I stuffed a chicken and it is in the crockpot.  The sweet potatoes are cooked ready to be put into a casserole, we are having mashed potatoes and gravy and a vegetable.  This is the first time in many years I have made stuffing from scratch, I really missed the mixes we get at home.  They have no idea what they are here.  I tried to find poultry seasoning and no such thing, but I found sage and thyme so it tastes pretty good.  We will eat in a couple of hours, about 6.

Happy Birthday today Mandy, hope it is wonderful. We are hoping we can see you tomorrow on the video chat.

This week has been busy as usual.  It rained Monday and Tuesday so we drove to work.  It was so good to get back to the Temple and get hugs from all the workers.

Wednesday and Thursday we walked to work and took a walk after work.  It was really warm on Thursday.  Friday morning we woke up to rain so we drove.  Mark got home from South Africa on Thursday and we took about an hour and a half in the afternoon to see some of his photos.  They were great, really beautiful land, and he saw lots of animals, wild animals.  His son Aaron served a mission there a couple of years ago, so after the conference, he flew over and they were able to visit some of the people and places he served.

Friday we had the birthday morning tea, and I was the only one with a November birthday, so they sang to me and I got to go get the food first.  They had pumpkin pie, in honor of America’s Thanksgiving, which was nice.  Hot dogs and buns, potato chips, strawberries and kiwi fruit, cookies and little candy bars, red vine licorice, and lemonade, Pepsi, and water.  We decided we didn’t need to eat lunch after all that because we were supposed to eat before the couples conference started at noon.  We had to get the hard drive ready to go to the mail first thing in the morning after I transferred the folders we did on Thursday.  We normally don’t take it down until about 2.  This week we did over 17,000 images.

We had the couple’s conference in the Birthday room at Buckland House because the art show is set up in the regular conference room.  There were 9 couples there.  The Tanners had to go to Canberra for an embassy official holiday to make a presentation.  We had the 2 couples that work in the city, and a new couple from Star Valley originally but came from St. Louis 2 days prior.  They will be up North about 6 hours away doing member support.  The conference was wonderful, other than I had to give a 3-5 min talk.  President Howes called me Tues morning and asked me to talk.  I could choose the subject from the following:  

                1- How I have grown spiritually since the beginning of the mission.

                2- What I expect to gain from serving this mission.

                3- How serving this mission is strengthening our relationship.

                4- What I can do to feel like a ‘real’ missionary.

I chose # 3 and I suppose it was OK.  I really do not like to talk in front of others, and especially to prepare talks.  He had 4 missionaries talk and 3 of them chose the same as me, but very different talks.  We really enjoyed them.  The assistants to the President did some training from Preach my Gospel and the missionary lessons, Bringing others unto Christ, and How to role play with the Spirit.  They were very good.  Next we had training for the Christmas Art Show and Lights.  We are in charge of training the Elders and Sisters that will be working with us on our nights.  We have to start the music, get the DVD ready to play, make sure the counter is counting the people on our night, and then record the number before we leave.  The hours are 7:30-10:30, and we have 3 nights.  It opens tonight.  We then had a break, apples, granola bars and water.  Sister Howes then gave some training, and President Howes finished up.  They are incredible people, and they truly love all the missionaries, and they in turn love them.  After closing prayer and blessing on the food we went over to the conference room to be trained on the electronics we will be in charge of.  We then walked a couple of blocks to La Botte for dinner.  It is an Italian restaurant that has been there for over 30 years and still owned by the same family.  It was really good, we will definitely go back there again.  Dad and I shared a pizza and pasta.  We also brought leftovers home for another meal.  We then walked back to the Howes home for dessert.  It was good and fun to visit.  It was raining a little on the walk back so we thankfully had our umbrella.  Just a wonderful day.  President Howes said this is the first couples conference he has had, because usually they only have about 4-5 couples in the mission.  We are hoping they have them again.  One thought I wrote down all of you can use in your everyday lives:

              C- Church

              P- Praying

              R- Reading the Scriptures

Yesterday, we drove to the Rydlmere Station to catch the river cat down to the quays.  The Moore’s rode with us and the Archibald’s rode with the Williams.  The Tanners met us there.  When we got to the quays, we caught a ferry over to Watson Bay.  It was noon by then so we ate fish and chips there on the pier, then began our walk.  We first walked up to a place called the gap, which is a little washed out cove of the cliffs, most of them are at least 90 ft tall.  We could look over the ocean to the east of Australia at the entrance to the harbor to Sydney.  There were lots rocks and this is where a ship (the Dunbar) wrecked during a storm in 1857 killing 121 of the 122 aboard.  They found the anchor about 50 years later and brought it up and it is on display.  We could see the lighthouse in the distance, and I mean in the distance, and began the walk up Jacob’s ladder.  That is what the trail is called.  It is a beautiful light house and the walk was incredible with the view of the ocean, we saw sail boats, and other boats, and Elder Williams and Dad could see a cruise ship in the distance with their binoculars.  The weather was overcast for most of the time, with a light breeze blowing, and blowing hard up by the lighthouse.  It was a perfect day.  We walked back down to the pier and caught the 4:10 rivercat back home.  We took our car with the Williams and went right to the grocery store as we all needed to shop.  We got home after 6, and after putting the groceries away, Dad and I went to the office to pick up some things we needed.  We finally got home about 8 to eat.  It was a very wonderful day, and we really appreciate the Williams for putting it together.  The Feils were going to go but they had to get the new couple on the road to their assignment. 

Tonight we are going to up to Buckland House to make sure we know how to work all the electronics if we are going to train the young missionaries.  There will be one set of missionaries working in the DVD room and one set in the art show, and on busy nights we will have another set of elders, and they will be roaming around outside at the nativity and lights.  We are just to walk around and talk to the people.  We are really excited to do this.  Our first night isn't until the 11^th.  Last year there were over 10,000 people that came through.  The workers were still working on the display of the nativity outside Friday night about 8 when some people came and wanted to see the art show, so Glen called the Moore’s and they went over.  They are in charge of the whole thing this year.

Tomorrow night is Family Home Evening and we are hosting the dinner because we have more living space than the Williams and the Moore’s.  We will have the dinner in here, and then go to the Moore’s for the program and dessert.  They are right next door to us.  Williams have the dinner and Moore’s the other.  In the morning we will move the couch and chair over where the table is, and move the table over there.  We are also going to have to use the Moore’s patio table, we think 14 will be here.

Tomorrow after devotional we are having a meeting for the Christmas dinner.  We are going to lay out the room.  It will be in the birthday room.  We are now back to a caterer, the one who did it last year, and was supposed to be out of the country this year, is home and called and asked if she could do it.  It will be within our budget so it sounds good to us.  Now we can focus on the decorations and set up for the program.  We are getting very excited.

This Thursday we have zone conference all day.  Us and the Williams are going.  President said we may be able to help with the food at lunch.  Sister Howes and Sister Archibald always do the food for all the zone conferences.  This is our first one so it will be fun being with all the young missionaries in this zone.

We just finished dinner and it was very good.  Dad took a picture, we will probably stay late one day this week to post them or we will wait until next week.  We will see.  He got some great pictures yesterday as well, and the ones he takes tonight. 

Mark got permission to close the office through the holidays, so we are going to leave with the Williams on the 26^th, (Boxing Day) to drive to Canberra and see around there, it is the capital of Australia.  Then the next day we will drive on to Griffith the Church Ranch and Farm.  That will be a fun trip.  We will be back on the 30^th so we can go to Sydney for the New Years Eve fireworks. 

We are excited for Deven starting a new job tomorrow.  Congratulations!  We are sure it will be a change, but change is good.  We are hoping Loren’s family had a good Thanksgiving Holiday in Florida.  We were thinking of you on the beach.  Ezra comes home tomorrow to be with Kaylee for a month and the birth of their first child, a boy.  We will be anxiously awaiting the news.  There are certainly many birthdays in December to hit, or just give him his own day.  I doubt she will want to wait until the 28^th for Tina and Tyson’s.  Hard to believe Deven and Michelle grandparents of 2.

It was good to be back in the Oatlands Ward today.  There were about 25 in Relief Society and that is really good.  Two of the sister missionaries that have been here for almost 5 months are being transferred tomorrow.  We are really going to miss them.  They are both pretty nervous.  We told them some of our speaking assignments are in the South Mission so maybe we will see them.  We got the new speaking assignments for next year, and we will only be speaking once a month because we have enough couples now to spread us out.  Next week we go to Tamworth, about 4 hours north.  It is a ward.  I need to make motel reservations tomorrow.  Dad spoke to the Bishop last night and he wants us to speak.  We are supposed to go on the 29^th, but we will be gone.  Today in Relief Society the teacher gave me a 2007 calendar of pictures of Christ by Mark Mabry.  If you have a minute look him up, the pictures are beautiful.  This was a calendar made for the Parametta Stake, but I think it was also made and sold in Deseret Book.  On the website he tells how he took some of the pictures.  The site is www.reflectionsofchrist.org. 

We send our love and prayers for all of you,

Mum and Dad