World Cup Horse Vaulting Championship Competition, the girl in red is from the USA

  This is the Birthday Tea the Family History Missionaries and HR Department put on Friday

September 29 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Sep 29, 2013

Dear Family and Friends:             

Here it is Sunday evening and we are in our flat with me typing the weekly letter home.  Last week I said we wouldn’t be home until Monday but plans change.  On Tuesday morning President Howes (our mission President) called to ask if we were going the Armidale this weekend and I said yes, and he said he needed to go there and could he go in our place.  I really wanted to say no because we wanted to see that part of the country, but of course I said sure and he said he would take over our Hotel booking.  Hopefully we will get up there another time.  At least we didn’t have to talk, but we have been working on our talks today to finish them up for the next time in 3 weeks.  Today at Church for the combined Relief Society and Priesthood the Bishop told of the wishes of the Stake Presidency for General Conference in 2 weeks.  We get it a week later here.  They have always met at 1:00pm on Sunday and had all the sessions in a row, all 4 of them.  This time the Stake wants to do as they do in Salt Lake with a 10am and 2pm on Sat. with the Priesthood meeting Sat night, and the other 2 sessions the same on Sunday.  He advised the families to prepare ahead and take picnic lunches as many have at least a half hour travel to get to the Stake Center.  That will be very different for them.  I would think that would be easier than trying to control the children for 8 hrs in a row.  We will probably watch it at the office when we can.  That is what most of the Sr. Missionaries do. 

Monday it was wonderful to talk to all of you and see you.  We really look forward to those calls.  Later in the morning as I was checking my email I saw from Deven the first issue of the Roberts Review newsletter, formerly called the Burdett Bugle.  THANKS DEVEN!!  We were so excited to come home Monday night and sit down and read what all the families are doing.  Thanks to all of you that contributed and hope all of you do in the coming months.  You have no idea how it lifts our spirits.

This week’s activities started with Family Home Evening at the Temple President’s home Monday night.    They have a lovely home behind Pres. Howes home.  After dinner Brother and Sister Jeffs (they are here on sabbatical from BYU) gave the lesson.  He is here working with analyzing data that is received from deep space radio telescopes.  He showed us pictures of his work and the telescopes he works with and what they are doing. Wow, it was so interesting.  It is so much fun having them part of our FHE group.  Sister Jeffs served an apple cake for dessert.  She left this week to go to Colorado and Utah for 3 weeks to help her daughter with a new baby.

On Thursday we captured 5,000 cards and we were exhausted by the time we got home.  Mark was so impressed and excited that he is giving us morning tea on Tuesday for reaching that milestone.  It won’t happen every day because it takes prep time to go through the cards to separate the ones that are written on both sides.  On Thursday we had enough done so we didn’t have to stop and do it.  We also took our walks around the grounds and ate lunch with the Williams. 

Friday the Family History Department (us and the Williams) and the HR department were in charge of the Birthday tea for the month.  We had it in the court yard at Buckland House and had Chicken Salad Croissants   (Sister Williams made the chicken salad and it was delicious), fruit trays, cheesecake, pastries and punch with fruit in it.  It took us most of the morning to get it ready before 10 and we got back to the office just after 11.  At least we didn’t have to take a lunch that day.  The croissants are not as flaky as at home but they were good. 

Yesterday after cleaning the flat we left with the Williams to go to Parklea, the huge market we went to the first Sat we were here.  It is about the size of a football field with everything under one roof, with everything for sell you can imagine.  The fruits and vegetables were amazing, but we didn’t get any because we didn’t want them to sit in the hot car all day.  After we left there we went to the Sydney Olympic Equestrian Center to watch the Australian Horse Vaulting Championships.  The athletes somersault, spin, and dance on the backs of moving horses in a bid to qualify for the World Cup and the World Equestrian Games.  It was so interesting and fun to watch.  We had a very enjoyable day.  One of the contestants was from the United States of America and she was really good and a crowd favorite.  We had fish and chips there for lunch.  When we got home Dad and I went to the grocery store and got a few things. 

The weather this week has been beautiful, not to hot and not to cold.  Last week on Thursday the air conditioning stopped working in our office and the temp got up to 27c which is about 80.  Maybe that is why we did so many cards, or maybe why we were so tired.  They came and fixed it Friday morning so we are comfortable now.  It will be nice to move before it gets really hot here to have air conditioning in our new flat.

We are hoping Vaun and Mandy had a fun trip to Mexico, we are anticipating hearing all about it.

We Love you all and you are always in our Prayers!

Mum and Pop

   Top picture, mommy nesting, middle, mommy, bottom 3 babies. Daddy is still very close. They are right outside Buckland house. The birds are called Plovers.

September 22 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Sun Sep 22, 2013

Dear Family and Friends:

Another week gone by and it seems we are busy every minute.  The weather is beautiful, we had rain Monday and Tuesday and sun the rest of the week.  Still a little cool in the mornings and evenings, we remind ourselves that it is March weather, changing but getting warmer.  The trees and shrubs continue to bloom with vibrant blossoms of color and the flowers are really starting to grow.  It is a joy everyday to see the changes.  Dad’s tomatoes are doing good, a little behind where they would be at home, he puts them outside every morning on the deck, and we bring them in at night.  We have one avocado seed that has sent a root out and the other two are looking like they might.  We put them over the heat lamp each night.  It is still pretty cool in our flat so they don’t grow fast.  It looks like we are moving for sure, around the middle of October.  It will be good to be able to walk to work every day.  We still haven’t seen all of the flats, they are going to get 4.  We know they are only 1 bedroom so we will be downsizing.  I have been going through bookcases and getting rid of things we don’t want to take with us.  Most of it is things that have been left by other missionaries.  We did take a printer and some books to the mission office this week.  I have a stack of books to go to Vinny’s and some old magazines to go to the garbage.  This week I need to start on the kitchen, there are so many utensils that I have not used and a few dishes.  We will give those things we don’t need to the mission office and they will share them with the young missionaries if we think they will use them, otherwise they will go to Vinny’s.   We did meet the fleet elders the other day who will be moving the furniture, etc.  Had no idea we would be moving when we got here but we are excited about having heating and air conditioning.

We sent our hard drive in Friday with just over 13,000 images, not bad for 3 ½ days.  We are really enjoying the history that is on some of the cards.  One told of a plane crash between Sydney and Melbourne and was not found for 27 years.  The plane was the “Southern Cloud” so Dad looked it up and it had crashed in a very wooded area.  One card said a 15 year old boy was killed by a tree falling on him whilst riding his horse with his father.  That was in 1859.  We just finished a box on Friday and that makes 11boxes we have finished.  We will go get 3 more tomorrow or Tuesday.  We still have almost enough cards to copy tomorrow, depending how long we talk to the family.  Last week was a very long week without video contact.  Thank goodness we have been able to talk to some of you, get emails and text others.  Today I was talking to Amanda for a few minutes and she said she was sick so I told her to get better so she could go to school tomorrow.  She said tomorrow was Sunday, and I said no it was today because we had just got out of Church.  She said that was weird.

We talked to Tyson for a minute before Church and he said the Memorial Service and picnic after for Aunt Imogene went well, about a 100 people at their house.  She will be missed as we always enjoyed going to Logan to visit with her.

Yesterday Dad and I went for a ride in the country after cleaning the flat.  We went north about 50 miles and saw beautiful farms and ranches, greenhouses, orange groves and flowering trees and shrubs along the roads.  We stopped at a roadside stand and bought oranges, they had a little metal box nailed to the wagon to put the money in.  They also had egg plant there.  The trees were all just loaded with oranges.  We traveled a lot of the way along the river and through heavily wooded areas where you could see they wouldn’t find a plane that went down in 1931.  We rode the ferry across the river at Wiseman’s Ferry to get a hamburger at “Convicts Kiosk” and it was closed for painting.  Talk about disappointed, we had been looking forward to it all day.  We went up the street and stopped at a bowling club, we know they have good reasonable food there and got a hamburger.  Not as good as the other but it was good.  It did have the beet on it.  Of course anything would have tasted good seeing as though it was 2:00 pm.

We stopped at another roadside stand on the way home and bought strawberries, they are beautiful, we are going to have some tonight, a dozen fresh eggs, and a bag of mandarin oranges and they are so good.  They also had tomatoes and avocados but I still had some.  I told Dad we will have to go back.  We talked to the lady and told her we raise vegetables in the states and she asked if we sell at a stand like that and we told her yes.  Last night we walked down to Harry’s and got another pie.  Dad had seafood pie with mashed potatoes and gravy, and I had chicken with mashed potatoes, smashed peas and gravy.  When we move it won’t be as convenient to come down to get one.  We do want to get the roast beef sandwich one day there, and they will put the potatoes, peas and gravy on it also.  Don’t know about that!

Next weekend we travel to Armidale, about a 6 hour trip to speak at the Branch there.  Dad has to talk 20 min and me 15, so we have been preparing talks this afternoon.  The Branch President didn’t give us a subject so we are on our own.  He does want us to come to dinner Sat night at his home, and if Dad is too tired to drive all the way on Sunday, we will come home early Monday morning.  We will just ask Mark if it is okay to come in a little late.  We love going around the mission meeting the people, we just don’t enjoy talking.   They normally have about 10 people to Church, at this Branch.

After Church today the Primary Children were coming out with cupcakes, they looked so good I was wishing I had been in Primary. 

On Thursday the door bell rang, and seeing as though we were the only ones in the building Dad answered it and it was President and Sister Sadler from Coffs Harbour.  They came in a visited for a while and saw our operation of capturing the cards.  We walked over to the Mission Office to see if President Howes was in town, they know them, but they were in Sydney, however the Sadlers knew the Sister Missionary that was working in the office so they had a visit.  It was good to see them again, and they asked us to come stay with them again.  Hopefully we can before we leave.

Sister Jorgensen is getting things cleaned out because they go home Oct 16^th so she gave me her crockpot last night and I am so excited.  It is a much newer one than was here in our flat, so today I had 2 crockpots working, just like at home.  We had a really good beef stew in one, and sweet potato mash in the other.  Then we cooked fresh beans.  Everything was fresh vegetables except the beef.  Can’t get any better than that.  She also brought over 2 camp chairs for us. 

  Vaun and Mandy called Friday because they left for Mexico yesterday.  It was good to see them and the kids, and he took us on a tour of the new home.  That was fun to see, they have a beautiful home with lots of room.  Deven said that Loren came in on Friday afternoon, Tyson picked him up at the airport and Deven, Loren, Tyson and Vaun golfed in the glow ball Friday night.  Loren went to Penrose Saturday morning, and Tina said they had dinner Saturday night with Onalie and family, and Tyson and the boys and Dallen.  They also had lunch on Sunday before Troy picked him up to go to Boise for a conference.  It was probably pretty quiet at Penrose with no TV or internet.  Maybe he needed some downtime.  I doubt we will see him tomorrow but maybe Tami will come on.

We love you all and pray for you continuously.

Mum and Pop

                                          Marble Garden Cemetery in Hobart,Tasmania

                                          On top of Mt. Wellington. 1 degree C (Brr)

September 16 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia, Monday Sep 16, 2013

Dear Family and Friends:

What a busy and very exciting week we just finished.  We missed talking and seeing all of you this morning but maybe we can hook up sometime this week.  We did talk to Deven yesterday for a few minutes before Church started in Tasmania.  That was the first time we had Wi-Fi since Wednesday.

Last Monday was FHE and the Jeff’s (the couple that are here on Sabbatical from BYU) had the dinner and it was very good, a curry dish from Africa over rice.  The Jorgensen’s had the lesson and he talked about the different religions in the Middle East and why there are so many problems there.   They served Ghana Chocolate cake and ice cream.  Great visiting with the other couples.

Tues night at the Temple it was really small but wonderful.  We are getting to know most of the workers on that night and it is so fun to get a hug from each of them as we come and go.  When we got home I got one load of laundry done, and another one on Wednesday night and then we packed.  Wednesday we got the shuttle ready to go and down to the mail room with over 14,000 images. Not bad for 3 ½ days.

Thursday morning the Williams took us to the airport to go to Tasmania, and we were so excited.  It is about a 1 ½ flight and they served us morning tea, a very large cookie and juice or soft drink.  Our flight was at 9:30. Tasmania is about as far south of the Equator as Utah is north of the Equator.   Elder McDonald met us at baggage claim and Sister McDonald was waiting in the car.  We drove into Hobart, the airport is about 30 min away, and went to the Archives where they are taking pictures of the records there.  It was very interesting to see their set up.  They have the big camera as they have taken pictures of huge books.  Right now they are finishing up doing admission records from the Mental Hospital in the 1800’s.  Next week they start books of cemetery records.  They had brought lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit.  It was very good and then we watched them work.  We are really liking our project in our bright sunny office.  They wear Levis to work each day which would be nice some days, but we love what we do and where our office is.  Tasmania is very green and beautiful, and the trees and flowers are just starting to bloom.  We went back to their flat which is about a 20 min drive.  Hobart is part of the tidal basin so you see water all along the road to their home.  We saw lots of sail boats, and other water craft on the river.  We went over a beautiful bridge.  The Cadbury Chocolate factory is there but it is closed on Sat.  We visited after dinner and they are originally from Heber City but raised their family in Lyman, WY where he worked for the mines.  He worked with my cousin Bill Aaron.  They are being released Oct 20^th and going to a home they have in South Jordan.  On Friday we took them to work and then took their car to Port Arthur Historic Site which was about 1 ½ hours away.  We went through some beautiful country, lots of sheep and cows, and through the burn area where the news said Tasmania was on fire last January.  There is so many trees and undergrowth that they can’t stop it once it gets going.  They call them bush fires.  We saw several homes being rebuilt and many places for sale.  Port Arthur is a place of national and international significance – part of the epic story of the settlement of Australia.  It was much more than a prison, it was a complete community – home to military personnel and free settlers.  The convicts worked at farming, and industries, producing a large range of resources and materials.  The Port Arthur penal station was established in 1830 as a timber getting camp, using convict labor to produce sawn logs for government projects.  From 1833 Port Arthur was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies.  By 1840 more than 2,000 convicts, soldiers and civil staff lived at Port Arthur, which by this time was a major industrial settlement producing worked stones and bricks, furniture and clothing, boats and ships.  The end of convict transportation ended in 1853, and it became an institution for aging and physically and mentally ill convicts.  The penal settlement finally closed in 1877.  Lots of the old buildings still stand, some have been burned in bush fires and some were taken down and sold.  We really enjoyed the 40 min walking tour and 20 min harbor tour.  We also went to the basement where they had displays of the various buildings and cells, and histories of some of the prisoners.  It was a great day.  We had a bowl of sweet potato soup which was delicious before heading back to Hobart to pick up the McDonalds.  On Saturday we went up to Wellington Point, an overlook point where you can see all over the valley.  It was beautiful and very cold, snow on the ground.  It is 1270 meters high or 4,167 ft.  There is a radar station that looks like a rocket so it is called Rocket Mountain.  We stopped several times on the way up at lookout places so Dad could get pictures, we will try to get them posted soon.  After getting off the mountain we went to a street market where there was all kind of things being sold, food, crafts, clothing, fruits and vegetables.  It was about 10 times bigger than the one Jeremy goes to in Salt Lake, the downtown market.  It was a lot of fun.  Then we went down the street to the harbor and got fish and chips. We stopped at the Botanical Gardens but only stayed about a half hour as they were closing.  We went out for Chinese Food that night and it was very good.  Sunday morning we took a ride up the river before Church.  They go at 1:00.  They have a pretty big ward and it was fun meeting new people.  For dinner we had corn beef and colcannon (mashed potatoes with cooked cabbage, cream and butter), didn’t know if we would like it but it was really tasty.  This morning we went for a ride on the other side of the river and went to the beach for some pictures, then to the airport.  The Williams picked us up and we went to the office for a couple of hours.  It was a really memorable trip.  There are so many things we didn’t have time to see, it would be fun to go back sometime.

After the office I started laundry and then we went grocery shopping seeing as though we had nothing in the fridge.  It is so discouraging to go because the prices are so HIGH!

Happy Birthday to Dixon this week.  Amanda looked beautiful in the pictures for homecoming and the boy looked really nice.  It would be nice to know something about him Amanda, and how the dance was.  Lydia caught 2 good looking, big catfish.  Sure do love FB.  Loren flew into SL Friday afternoon and we hear they went glow ball golfing Friday night, good thing Dad’s clubs are in Layton, and then he went to Penrose.  Hope you all got to see him.  He is in Boise this week for meetings.

Guess we will close for now, keep the emails coming.

Love you and Pray for you all:

Mum and Pop

                                           On the way to Mount Wellington, cold and snow!

                                          Port Arthur Prisoner Barracks 1833-1875

                                          Elder and Sister McDonalds their office in Tasmania

                                        All Saints Cemetery in Parametta graves from 1800's,

                                              Looks like the Good, Bad and Ugly, right?

                                                  Australian bug on way to bridge

                                          Oprah

Elder Williams, Elder Feil, Sister Jorgensen and Dix on top of pylon

 House from top Pylon observation deck

                                              Ruth and Sister Feil on the River Cat to Sydney

Enough stairs for me and Sister WilliamsAdd caption

                                         On the ferry on the way Darlington Point

                                            Saturday trip to Sydney to see the bridge

September 8 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia 8 September 2013

Dear Family and Friends: 

G’Day Mates!

Today has been a cloudy day but still warm.  We have been up in the 80’s all week and it looks like a very warm summer seeing as though we just had the warmest winter on record.  No wonder we have enjoyed it.  This week we averaged 4,000 pictures a day as we sent over 20,000 images on Friday.  Wednesday we did 4600 and Thurs. 4500.  That is the max and we were really tired.  We figure 4000 is about right, and we still get our walks in.

In front of Buckland House on the lawn a small bird is nesting.  Someone has put a cone by it so the lawn and garden guys don’t go near it.  The daddy bird will start dive bombing you if you go to close.  Dad went a little close to get a picture and he came running back when the daddy started dive bombing.   They make a lot of noise also and someone told us they have poison on their wings.  We will see what happens when the eggs hatch.  We also look for the daddy when we go walking, and he is always on the lawn or in the tree.

The flowers are coming out everyday, we have a beautiful bird of paradise just outside the mail room.  They are all very vivid colors.  A round bush that we thought would stay green has just started with blossoms, white, pink and red on the same bush, and they looks like they will cover the whole bush. 

The Williams came back Tues afternoon and they had a great trip.  They said Tasmania is beautiful and if any of their family comes they will definitely take them there.  They brought back lots of travel guides for us to look through for when we go this week.  They said the McDonalds want us to have an idea of what we want to see because we only have 3 days of sightseeing.  We leave Thursday morning so we will have to get things ready and packed.  Mark left Tues morning for Tasmania and will be back in the office tomorrow.  When we get back on Monday the Williams and Mark leave for a family history conference somewhere for a week.  The Williams will drive because they are taking a lot of supplies for the booth, and Mark and some others will fly.

The only activity this week at night was the Temple.  One night after work we walked down the block from our flat and got a chicken mushroom pie from Harrys De Wheels.  It is just a little building on wheels that is world famous.  You order a little individual pie, beef, chicken, veggie and a couple combinations, and then they put mashed potatoes and smashed peas and gravy on top.  Really very good and very filling.  They also have hot dogs with barbecue on top and a barbecue beef sandwich on a hoagie bun that looks really good.  They also have breakfast all day so we have decided to walk down there again and try something different.

Yesterday after cleaning we went with the Williams down to the river to get on the ferry.  The Jorgensen’s and the Feils met us there and we went down to Sydney to go to the rocks.  We walked about a quarter mile over to where the first house still standing is located right on the harbor.  It was a building for sailors when they came ashore and they have preserved it.  It isn’t open so we just walked around and read the signs.  We also saw a big cruise ship in dock and it was unloading, so we walked over to see if we could see the Kohlerts.  They took a cruise around the islands for 8 days before going home.  That sounded fun.  We knew the Tanners were going to pick them up and take them to the airport to fly home, so Sister Jorgensen called the Tanners and they were already back home.  We walked on to the end of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and went inside and up, and up, and up stairs, and it was a long way.   I don’t do stairs well, but we made it into the middle of the observation tower. It is called the Pylon lookout.  From there we had to pay to go to the top and see how the bridge was built.  I was done for climbing and Sister Williams is afraid of heights so we just sat on a bench and visited and everyone else went up.  It was $8.50.  When they came back down they said it was very interesting.  It is from there you can pay $200. To climb to the top of the bridge.  You put on a jumpsuit so you don’t get dirty and they they harness you in so you can’t fall.  No one did it in our group.  Deven’s friend that is over here for a conference said he did it yesterday.  We then walked back to the harbor and got something to eat from some street vendors that were there, there was food and clothes and crafts.  Dad and I got a sausage in a bun and split it, it was bigger than a foot long.  We then caught a ferry over to Darlington Point and walked over to a park where there was a Taiwan festival.  We walked around and decided it wasn’t anything we wanted to stay for so we walked back to the ferry and came back home.  The Feils wanted to eat at Harrys De Wheels as someone in Prove said to eat there.  They live up by the Temple so they never come down to Parametta.  We tried another kind of pie and they are really good.  We didn’t get home until about 7 so it was a long day but so fun.  Dad took about 300 pictures.

Today Dad spoke in Sacrament Meeting on the role of Fathers in the Home and did a really good job.  He was nervous but didn’t show it.  It was a very good meeting.  The Bishop’s wife talked about teaching children in the home.  Deven’s friend came to Church, he had a package for us from Tina and gummy peaches from Deven and Michelle, THANKS, they are so good and fresh.  Nothing better!  We took Dan up to the Temple to walk around and get some pictures.  He took a taxi to Church and it cost him $60.00.  He is staying down in Sydney by the harbor.  We took him back to the ferry and he caught it to go back, for $7.20. He has been to the Ivory Coast and is leaving for New Zealand tomorrow.  It was fun to meet him and take him around a little.  He said the bridge experience was really neat but if he had to pay for it he wouldn’t have done it, but his company paid.  He was very grateful for the ferry.

This week we have FHE and the Temple and getting packed to go to Tasmania.  I have no idea when I will get a letter written, probably Monday after we get home.  We probably won’t be able to Skype next week either because we don’t get home Mon until about 1:00.  We will see what time it is when we get to the office. 

Elder Feil came into our office on Thursday and said the mission would like to get us couples closer to our mission boundaries, we are living in the South mission but we are actually in the North mission.  There are new apartment buildings being built a couple hundred yards from work, we could walk, and wanted us to go look at them and let him know.  They are starting to rent them out now as they should be finished in about a month.  The four of us walked down after lunch and found someone to let us look at one.  They are only one bedroom, but really nice and they have heating and air conditioning.  We went back and told him to go for it.  I doubt we will be moving until about the first of November but we shall see.  Now we are wondering where we will put everything because we have things in both bedrooms here, mostly empty suitcases, etc.  The South mission needs more flats for their young missionaries. 

This week Mike has a birthday, Happy Birthday.  We are loving seeing the pictures of the babies on Facebook, Eli is really getting big, seeing as though he was only a day old when we left.  Brielle we see at Deven’s when we Skype, Violet is one now, Tifanie is on Skype now so we can see the kids, and Onalie hopes to be hooked up for Skype this week.  It was fun a couple of weeks ago to see them because she went to Tyson’s so she could see us.  Amberlie gets on most weeks also.  Hopefully we will see Vaun this week because they leave for Mexico sometime soon, and we want to see their new home.  Tina and Bob get on also and Loren and family.  It is good to have Vonage to text and talk during the week when we need to.  We really feel connected even though we are half way around the world.

We love you all!

Mum and Pop

                                          Ruth stepping across pond at Botanical Gardens

                                       The Roberts, The Willams, The Jorgensens, The Feils

                                            Dix and Ruth at Auburn  Botanical Gardens

                                         Cold frame greenhouses NSW

                                          Small vegetable farm in N S W

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