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
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