January 26 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Jan 26, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

Happy Birthday Loren in the States!

Happy Australia Day!  This is a holiday to celebrate when Captain Cook first landed in Australia.  Today is the actual date, but because it falls on Sunday tomorrow is also a holiday.  Most of the major cities are having big celebrations today according to the news.

This week has been an interesting one.  Monday was mission conference with Elder O’Rierdon (not spelled correctly).  He is the Seventy over the Sydney Missions.  He is an Australian originally from Melbourne.  The Elders and Sisters of the mission are told to prepare 5 min talks for all the conferences and then they announce who will be talking.  They have 5 subjects they can choose to talk on.  At the beginning of the conference they announced who would talk and they all did wonderful.  Then we had a 10 minute break, then Pres. and Sister Howes talked and then Elder O’Rierdon talked for about an hour and a half.  It was so good.  We left the conference about 1:30 and found a place to eat not too far from our office, a new place that has just opened.  It was really good, we will definitely go there again.  Then we went to office and visited with some of you.  That is always the high light of our week.

Tuesday morning we boarded the rivercat at 6:05 am to go to the Quays and meet Jennie, Arnold and their friends, the Conger’s and the Flygare’s.  We got them day passes and got right back on the rivercat to come to Rydelmere Wharf where our car was.  The Williams met us there to transport some of them to our office.  We introduced them to Mark, they saw our office and what we do.  Then the Williams showed and told them what they do.  We walked over to the Mission Office and Sister Feil explained their duties.  Then to walk to the Temple for picture taking.  We gave them the history of Buckland House on the way over.  Then we ran across the street to the mall so they could see all the shops.  Some of them wanted an Australian treat to take home so we had them get Tim Tams and told her how to make a Tim Tam Slam.  We then went back to Buckland House to show them the offices and introduce Elder Archibald, the Moore’s and the Tanner’s.  The Tanner’s took 3 of them and we all went down to see the bats.  They were pretty impressed with them.  We then parked in the park and walked to the RSL club for lunch.  It was great and everyone could order pretty much whatever they wanted.  We had everything from Chinese, Salmon, Fish and Chips, Veal, Shrimp.  They all looked delicious.  Then we took them back to Rydelmere to catch the ferry as they had to be on their cruise ship by 5.  It all worked out good and it was so fun to see them.  They are now in New Zealand.  We got back to the office about 2 and captured 1,000 cards before going to the Temple.  We were pretty tired when we got home seeing as though we got up at 4:30 am. 

Wednesday and Thursday were normal days at the office, except on Wednesday at noon we went back to the Caner Skin Clinic so Dad could have stitches out of his forehead and arm.  His arm was still infected so he gave him a prescription.  We got it after work and it still doesn’t look much better so we are going to call on Tuesday.   Friday was the Australian Days lunch we were on the committee for so we were at Buckland House by 9:30 to get things ready.  Dad and Elder Williams got the grill cleaned and started cooking sausages while we were getting everything else ready.  It turned out every well and everyone enjoyed it.  We got back to the office about 2:00 and worked until 4:30.  We did laundry and cleaning until bed because we wanted to leave for Grafton by 9 Saturday morning.  It did take us 8 hours to drive to Grafton with 2 stops, one to walk around and lunch for about a half hour.  We stopped in a little town not far from Port Macquarie and had Kabab’s at a cute little shop, The Fuzzy Duck.  We checked into our Motel, unloaded everything then got back in the car to go and find the Church.  It was about 15 min away and in a subdivision in a 2 story brick home probably built in the 80’s.  The Church bought it 20 years ago.   We then rode around the country and saw some beautiful pasture ground.  As we were driving I found a sign for an Agricultural Research Center.  We turned around and went to it and they were doing trials for soybeans.  Then as we were driving down the drive I yelled stop and there was a kangaroo looking at us from a pasture.  Dad got pictures through my window.   Then we headed back to town to find someplace to eat.  We saw people going into a café so we decided to try it out.  The minute we walked in we could tell it was expensive with linen table cloths and napkins.  The menu was on a blackboard they wheeled around to the tables, entrees on one side, and mains on the other.  We decided to share a steak, we don’t eat that much at night.  It came with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, all topped with a creamy mustard sauce.  Oh my gosh, it was the best meal we have had here.  The steak was cut with a fork and had the most incredible flavor.  That meal was $38.00 which is not bad for 2 of us.  We were talking to the owner after and he said they buy all their beef locally and it is all grain fed, which Dad had already guessed.  We then went back to our room and studied our talks.

This morning we were ready to go to Church by 8:00 and wanted to get there early to call Loren and tell him Happy Birthday.  The Branch President was there as well a couple of others.  What a wonderful Branch, it was so fun to be there.  They normally have about 20 people attend, but today there was 23.   The talks went well, at least everyone said they were good.  There is one set of Sister Missionaries, one is from West Jordan, and the other one from Tonga, and she has only been here a little over a week so is still trying to learn English.  For the closing hymn everyone stood and sang the National Anthem, “Advance Australia Fair.”   They have 2 primary children, 1 young men, a 12 year old.  The Sister missionary taught Sunday School, and there was 7 of us in Relief Society.  After the block they had a lunch for us before we left.  There were 3 different kind of sandwiches, a couple of casseroles, sweet and sour meatballs and a couple of salads.  Then they had apple pies, cobbler, brownies, cake, and others for dessert.  Then they wrapped up the leftover sandwiches and desserts for us to take with us.  That was so sweet.  We put them on ice and drove 4 hours to Port Macquarie.  That is about half way home to Carlingford.  We found a room and then went for a ride to see a light house.  Wow, it was a spectacular view of the ocean.  Dad took pictures then we came back to our room and ate our sandwiches.  We are now watching tennis, the Australian Open, the men’s final.  Last night we watched the women’s final.  

We should be back to the office early enough to call you all.

Happy, Happy Birthday Aunna, on Tuesday!

Love you all and you are all in our prayers.

Mum and Dad

          Australian Days luncheon on the courtyard. Australian Days commerates when Captain Cook landed in Australia in late 1700's.

   Elder Roberts, Jenny West, Sister Roberts, Debbie & Ted Conger, Arnold West Rob & Jaleen Flygare.  Jenny is Elder Roberts cousin, and they are all from UTAH!

January 19 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sun Jan 19, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

This week has been pretty busy and several things have happened, not all good, but okay.  Monday night was FHE and we had chicken nachos, all the toppings and a salad, by the Jeff’s.  The program was by the Feils, they divided us into 2 teams, had the 3 birthday’s for the month, the Tanners and Brother Jeffs sat in front of the room and the Feils asked questions that could be for anyone of them and we had to guess which one, all of them, or none of them, such as, whose favorite color is blue, who graduated from U of U, who has visited 5 continents, etc.  It was great fun and we learned a lot about them.  Both men graduated from the Y and Sister Tanner graduated from Beauty school.  Then we had a talent show.  Sister Tanner sang a solo, then the 3 sister missionaries from upstairs at Buckland House, the Tanners, Moores, and Archibalds.  They had their husbands sit on chairs in front and sang to them “I’d Choose You Again” that is Dedicated to the Sr. Missionary Elders.  They sang to a CD.  Here are the words dedicated to my eternal companion Dix:

I’D CHOOSE YOU AGAIN

LOOKING AT MY LIFE,

THROUGH THE EYES OF A YOUNG GIRL,

GROWNING OLDER ALL THE TIME,

AND MAYBE JUST A LITTLE WISER.

I CAN CLEARLY SEE,

ALL OF MY MISTAKES COMING BACK TO VISIT ME.

POINTING OUT THE ROAD NOT TAKEN,

SOME THINGS I’D LIKE TO CHANGE,

ONE THING REMAINS THE SAME:

THAT I’D CHOOSE YOU AGAIN,

I’D CHHOSE YOU AGAIN!!!!!!!!

IF GOD GAVE ME A CHANCE,

TO DO IT ALL AGAIN,

I’D CAREFULLY CONSIDER EVERY CHOICE AND THEN…

OUT OF ALL THE BOYS IN THE WORLD

I’D CHOOSE YOU AGAIN.

IF GOD GAVE ME THE CHANCE TO DO IT ALL AGAIN,

I’D CAREFULLY CONSIDER EVERY CHOICE,

I’D LISTEN TO MY HEART AND I’D CHOOSE YOU AGAIN!

They sang and danced to the music and it was so cute.

We then went back to the conference room where we eat dinner, and Elder Williams showed his roping rope and how he ropes animals, then showed a couple of video’s of men roping.  It was really good.  Dad showed about 10 pictures he has taken from Europe and here.  It was a great program.  The Feils served homemade eggnog floats and cookie bars.  Another great evening.  We have dinner in Feb so if anyone has any idea what to serve, pass it along.  Sister Feil announced before we left that we have a mission conference on Monday with Elder O’Rierdon all day.  We are excited.

Tues we went to the Temple and stayed for sealings.  We got out about 9.  A long day but really good.

Wednesday we had Dad’s Dr. appointment at 5 so we left the office about 4.  We found parking in a little lot, $3.50 an hour.  We put enough coins for a little over an hour, and walked the 2 blocks to the clinic.  The Dr came out after an hour and said he was going to be at least another 20 min. so I walked back to put more money in.  If you get a ticket it is $150.  I put enough in for another hour.  Dad came out with big bandages on his forehead and arm.  Both results from the cultures came back positive so the Dr took 50cent size tissue out and put stitches in.  Then these cultures will go back to the lab.  We go back on Wed at noon to have the stitches out.

Tuesday we are getting on the rivercat at 6 am to go to the Quays to meet Jenny and Arnold and 2 other couples and bring them back.  Elder and Sister Williams are going to meet us at Ridlemere Warf to bring them back to see the Temple and where we work.  Then we will take them to see the bats, and eat lunch and then put them back on the ferry.  We will then go back to work and then to the Temple.  It will be fun to see them.  They get on the cruise ship to go to New Zealand and then fly home from there. 

Yesterday Dad and I got the flat cleaned and then left to go the Wisemans Ferry, we wanted a good hamburger.  We ate there and then rode another ferry across the Hawkesbury River to drive to St. Albany where Dad had seen an old Church in one of our rides with Gerry and Jan.  It was a beautiful drive along the river and there were many boats, and water skiers on the river.  It was 102 there, we were miserable eating in the shade it was so warm.  We found the Church high up on a hill, and a small cemetery down the hill from the Church.  The Church was built in 1836 by prisoners, the first Catholic Church in Australia.  It is St. Joseph’s Church.  It was burned in a bush in 1850 and the shell has just been sitting there.  Someone bought it several years, on a 99 year lease and he has restored it for an event center.  It was locked but Dad got some pictures and walked down to the cemetery and took pictures.  It was a very good day.  It was only 98 here when we got home.  We are loving being in an air conditioned building. 

Today we just stayed home as I have an ugly cough from allergies, and Dad doesn’t like the bandage on his head. Tomorrow I am going to try and put a smaller bandage on so it isn’t so obvious at the Conference.  We have both worked on our talks for next week. We go to Grafton which is an 8hr drive, so we will be gone 2 nights.  We will get back on Monday and make later calls home and send a letter.  It is also FHE that night.

On Friday we sent in almost 18,000 images so it was a good week.  This week is another story with the conference tomorrow, time with Jenny on Tues and the dinner for Australian days on Friday.

Last week we told you about the camera not focusing and Salt Lake had no answers for us, so Mark took the lens home Wednesday night and put it on his daughters Canon camera and it worked fine on automatic focus, so he emailed Salt Lake and they are sending us a new Nikon.  Dad is pretty excited.  We get to set it up as soon as it comes, hopefully this week.

FYI, we have 28 countries represented with the Elders and Sisters in our mission.

Happy Birthday to Loren on Saturday and to Aunna next Tues, a big 7 years old. 

You are all in our prayers daily and we send our Love;

Mum and Dad

                                                          Another sand sculpture!

January 12 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Jan 12, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

We have had a fairly quiet week and it has been nice.  Monday when we got to the office we had a Christmas gift from Pres. and Sister Howes, a Cast Iron Skillet, with 2 brownie mixes.  You bake it in the oven.  I will have to try it this week.  We still have so much chocolate from Christmas, and we are trying to not eat so much.  We are trying to eat just one or two a day. 

At the office we took the Christmas decorations down on Monday and got them put away.  Thank goodness we did not put too many up.  Sister Williams said what goes up must come down!  It was good to get back to capturing cards without too many interruptions.  On Wednesday we went to the Skin Cancer clinic in Parametta because Dad had a sore on his arm and he has been concerned about it for about a month.  Sister Howes has been to this clinic.  It took us over a half hour to find a parking place and walk two blocks to the clinic.  The Dr. took biopsies of two suspicious things, the one on his arm and one on his forehead.  The one on his head has 1 stitch in it.  We go back on Wed at 5:15 to find out the results.  It is a good thing he has had many suspicious ones before so he knows what to look for.  Take notice everyone, wear sunscreen and protection when you are out in the sun.  They have not bothered him at all, the one on his arm is still covered until we go back.

Thursday we ran across the street for lunch as we needed to pick up a couple of things.  All of the decorations outside were down by Wednesday, and they have put down turf (sod) where the grass was killed. 

We went to the Temple Tuesday and it was great to get back.  The workers were telling us Happy New Year and wanted to know how our holidays were.

Thursday afternoon we had a committee meeting for Australia days with the Williams, Lyn and Martin from a department at Buckland House.  We are wondering how we are so blessed to be on every committee for everything.  I told Sister Williams we shouldn't do such a good job.  They are also going to combine the Birthday Tea with it and it is our turn to do that.  We are going to have a sausage sizzle, with buns, homemade salsa and chips and dips, and salads, with ice cream bars for dessert.  We decided to make it easy, and we have the budget to buy everything.  We are in charge of the chips, crackers, and dips, and ice cream. 

Yesterday Dad and I went to Windsor to the Hawkesbury International Sand Sculpting Championship.  It was held in a park by the Hawkesbury River.  The theme this year is “The Lost World” and they were incredible. Hopefully we will get some pictures posted tomorrow.  There were 12 exhibitions.  The sculptors were from Australia, England, USA, 4 from the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Latvia, Canada, Ireland, and Russia.  The sand is trucked in and it is called heavy sand as each grain is more square, which means it sticks together better, like building blocks.  The only thing that can be added to the sand is water.  The competitors have 4 days to carve 20 tons each.  All formed sand must be altered by hand, no power tools.  They had one man working on a piece to show people how it is done and he was only using a wide mouth shovel.  They can have helpers but they cannot enter the plot except to assist with removing forms.  The show runs from 29 Dec – 26 Jan.  Well worth the $14.00 each to go.  After the show ends they will bulldoze the pieces and haul the sand away to be stored until next year.  Before leaving we had an ice cream sundae.  We then went for a ride in the country.  We saw where green onions were being harvested and saw a lot of turf farms.  We then went back to Windsor to have fish and chips at our favorite place with the parrot.  We then came home.  Another very enjoyable Saturday.

When we send the shuttle with images to Salt Lake each Friday, we plug in the new shuttle for the week.  There is always updates from Salt Lake on it, and when we plugged in the one last week an error message came up and nothing would download.  It has also stopped the camera from focusing automatically when we calibrate each day.  It is a good thing Dad can manually focus it.  We have been talking to Danny about it, and twice he has had us leave the computer on all night so Salt Lake could have a look at it.  We left it on Friday night so on the way home yesterday we went to the office to check it and nothing has changed.  We shut it off and will have to wait until Tues to hear anything from SL.

Today at Church was very good.  We met with the Ward Mission Leader after the block and he would like us to visit with a couple of single sisters with children.  We are going to try to go sometime this week at least to one of them.  I think I will make some cookies to take for the kids.  One has 11 year old triplets, a girl and 2 boys, and the other has 4 kids under the age of 14.  We didn't get home until 5:30, it is a good thing I left dinner in the slow cooker.  After the dishes were done I made some rice pudding.  We shared some with Archibald’s, no one else was home. 

This week we have FHE tomorrow night, and the Temple Tuesday.  I got a message on Face Book last week from Jenny West.  Some of you have met her, she did the travel and condo rentals for Hawaii.  She is Dad’s cousin, Uncle Barlow’s daughter.  She and Arnold are coming to Sydney next week, the 17^th-21^st when they are getting on a cruise ship to go to New Zealand.  We are going to meet up on Tuesday and take them around.  We will probably ride the river cat to the quays and meet them, then come back and get our car.  It is much easier than driving to the city.  We are excited to have them visit.

We have a new young Chinese couple that moved in next door to us.  We had no idea they had moved in until the alarm went off Friday afternoon after we got home from work.  When it didn't go off Dad knocked on their door to see if everything was ok, or if we needed to evacuate.  They were trying to figure how to set it and couldn't shut it off.  They kept apologizing.  Finally a man from upstairs came down and shut it off.  His neighbor had the same problem when he moved in so he knew the code.  Nice way to meet new neighbors.  They are very quiet, and we have never seen them leave or come home.

We are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow.  Until then!

Love and Pray for you. 

Mum and Dad

                            International Sand Sculture Contest. Theme was "The Lost World"

                                        New Years Eve day with 17,000 other crazy people

                                              Fireworks!

                                                   The boats had the best view of the bridge

                                           Elder and Sister Feil and Ruth, it was sprinkling!

                                          Boat light show between the fireworks, Stunning!

                                                  Church Ranch, Darlington Point, NSW

                                Elder and Sister Willliams and Roberts under a 150 year old olive tree

                                                        Irrigating grain corn on the ranch

                                            State Bird of Australia, the Emu racing the car

                                                   Elder and Sister Roberts in the outback

                                    Ranch manager Ren Fairbanks with Williams and Ruth                

January 5 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Jan 5, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

The start of a new year and it has been another busy week.  Hope you all had a very good New Year’s Eve and day.  It was good to see those we could get a hold of.  Tuesday morning, New Year’s Eve day here, the Feil’s picked us up at 8:30 to go to the city for the fireworks.  They have a parking spot at the building the city missionaries live in.  We got to the park about 9 where there were already about 5,000 people.  Some of them at the front of the line had camped out for 2 days and nights.  At 10 the lines started moving into the park where we would sit for the fireworks.  We got through security and into the park about 1:30 and found a spot.  Of course the very best were already taken but we got the best we could.  They only let 17,000 into that park, and there were still people lined up at 11:00 pm hoping to get in.  We just watched people, played phase 10 dice game, walked around and got something to eat.  The first fireworks went off at 9:00pm for the families with children, then there was a boat light show for a couple of hours.  There were tall ships and small boats all lit up and they went around the harbor.  It was beautiful.  Then the 2^nd fireworks went off at midnight, in 4 places all going off at the same time so no matter where you were sitting you could see them.  At the end some went off the harbor bridge, it was spectacular.  We are so glad we went, but we would not do it again.  Thank goodness we had beach umbrellas to put up in the heat of the day.  We walked about ¾ mile to the car after.  Getting out of the city took a little while but we were home about 2:30am.  We did sleep in until 9.  Took a couple of days to get rested up.  New Years Day after talking to you all at the office, I decided to make cookies.  We had to run to the store for more butter and powder sugar and then after dinner we shared them with the Williams, Archibald’s and Moore’s.  On Thursday we took a plate to the Feil’s and Tanners. 

Thursday and Friday was back to the office and it was good to get back.  Hopefully we can get a lot of cards done this week with no meetings.  LeeAnn Hulme who is the secretary to the manager of the service center is going home to New Zealand where she was raised to be secretary to the service center director there.  It is hard to see her go, we have really enjoyed her.  She was on the Christmas committee with us.  Dad printed a copy of the Temple he took and we framed it for a going away gift.  She really liked it and said she didn’t have a framed one.  Her last day was Friday.  She has 4 children, I think, the youngest one is 10, and the oldest is getting ready to go on a mission.  She is really going to be missed, especially by Mark Allen.

Yesterday we went with the Williams to Rydelmere to catch the river cat to the city.  We got off at Darling Harbor and walked about a 1/3 mile to Paddys Markets.  The Williams are trying to get souvenirs to take home.  They go the 5^th of May.  They got all they wanted there and we just walked around and bought a couple of things.  We met at the door we came in at 1 and went upstairs to the food court for lunch.  Most of the choices were Chinese, and there was a BBQ, Indian, and Korean.  We ate then Dad decided he wanted to walk to Hyde Park and see it.  That was about 2 miles because we walked to the quays from there.  It was a really pretty park, and lots of old buildings on the way.  We went into one of them that had a huge Christmas tree, it went up 4 stories, and had 40,000 lit crystals from Austria.  It took over a month to put it up.  It was impressive!

The Park was beautiful, we walked through the middle of it to get back to the quays to catch the river cat.  We bought a mango yogurt with strawberries to eat while waiting for the ferry.  It was yummy.  We got back to the flat about 6 and ran to the mall for a few things.  While I was fixing dinner Dad cut up the other half of the watermelon and cantaloupe so we can take them for lunch this week. 

President Howes have assigned all the Sr. Missionary Couples a ward to go to and help out any way we can.  We go to that ward for 3 weeks each month, then we go to the branches on the 4^th Sunday to talk.  We can’t hold positions, but we can help where needed.  We are assigned the Blacktown Ward, about 35 min away.  It is a pretty good size ward.  The Bishop had us introduce ourselves before Testimony meeting.   We are going to enjoy going there.  The Relief Society meets in a part of the Cultural Hall, they would love their own room.  It is a small church building.  The Relief Society President went study abroad to Manti and was introduced to the Church there and was baptized.  Her Husband is from Russia, and I think she could be also.    We will probably be spending at least one night a week working with the Ward Mission Leader.  He wasn’t there today but called us yesterday and excited we are going to be in the Ward.  The only bad thing is they start at 1pm.  We love morning Church.  Just as we were finished eating dinner Sister Moore knocked on our door to invite us to their flat for dessert.  The Archibald’s, Williams and Tanner’s came.  She had a delicious lemon cake and ice cream.  The cake came from Costco, her favorite store and it was huge.  We didn’t even eat half of it.  The Feils came later but they didn’t eat, just visited.  We came home and did the dishes, and now it is 10, time for bed.

A thought I would like to leave with the girls, big and little “We are beloved spirit daughters of God, and our lives have meaning, purpose, and direction.”  This could also be for the men in our lives also.  We all have a purpose on the earth with a Heavenly Father who loves us.

Our Prayers and Love are with you!

Mum and Dad

December 30 2013 Weekly Letter

Australia Monday Dec 30, 2013

Dear Family and Friends:

Christmas is over and we made it through just fine, although we missed all of you terribly.  It was so good to see and talk to most of you either Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.  We are still having a hard time believing it is Christmas with it so warm outside.  Hope you were all able to see the blog for all the pictures we posted last week.  We have decided to keep our ornament tree up until we go home because we love looking at the pictures and it makes us feel you are all closer to us.  We love them all, so thanks for sending them.  Those that did not send them we made ornaments for you so everyone is on the tree except Rowan, and we are going to get him with a picture from Facebook.

We have had a very full week so I will start with last Monday.  We went to the store after work to get a few last minute groceries.  It really wasn’t as crowded as we thought it would be.  We worked Tues. (our Christmas Eve day) until 2:00 and came home.  I made a couple of salads and some cookies.  Christmas morning we opened our few gifts, and we had just fixed some hot chocolate that Loren and Tami sent with some really neat transition mugs, when Elder Archibald knocked on our door and handed us a plate of hot cinnamon rolls.  We told him the timing was perfect to go with the hot chocolate.  After we ate we went to Buckland House in the birthday room to help the Williams set up the tables and chairs.  Elder Tanner and Moore had already set them up and 2 ping pong tables, so we put the table cloths on and got the serving tables ready.  Sister Archibald came in to decorate them so we left to go to the office to call home.  It was raining when we woke up and rained all day but it was very warm.  The dinner was so good and a lot of fun.  We had ham, funeral potatoes, crockpot corn, salads, chips and dips, homemade rolls and homemade pies.  We just visited during dinner.  We had 9 Sr. Missionary couples and the Jeff’s.  After we ate we watched Mr. Kruger’s Christmas, then played the game that we play to give the gifts for the adults.  I got #16, and dad got #20 so we got really good gifts, some stuffed animals, a kangaroo and a koala bear and 2 key chains.  We cleaned everything up and got home about 5, put things away and got ready to go to Malcom’s and Helen’s for dinner.  We went with the Williams, we were the only 2 Sr. couples to go and then they had a friend that has lived with them, they call her their daughter, and her husband and a friend.  We had ham, chicken wings and salads.  We visited and then sang some Australian Christmas carols.  Malcom gave us a copy of each one of them to take home.  It was pouring rain when we left so we were happy to get home.  We only had to go about 4 blocks.  We really need the rain so it was very welcome.  At the dinner this afternoon Sister Feil handed out the new speaking assignments from the President and on it he has assigned us a Ward to go to each week except on the 4^th week when we go to speak.  We have been assigned to the Blacktown Ward.  We are to be there as support, we will hold no positions.  We are excited to go, but sad to leave Oatlands.  We will see what happens this Sunday.

Thursday morning we went to the office early to call home and see what everyone got for Christmas.  The Williams knocked on our door about 9:00 to leave for Canberra.  We took our car as it is the newest.   Elder Williams drove the whole time so Dad was very excited to be able to look around, as he can’t when he drives.  We stopped about 11 at a little café and ate, then got to Canberra about 1.  We went right to the Australian War Museum and stayed there until after the closing ceremony at 5.  It was very interesting, and it is really a big place.  The closing ceremony included bagpipes, a horn, the Australian National Anthem, and the laying of wreaths at the reflection pool.  We then went to our motel and checked in and decided to eat in the restaurant there after we took our bags to our rooms.  We had snitchel, a chicken breast with breading and deep fried, with toppings on it.  I had Hawaiian, ham, pineapple and mushrooms.  Dad had mushrooms and gravy, and the Williams had Mexican.  They were really big, we should have split one.  When we went back to our room it was sprinkling and about a half hour after we got in it started pouring.  We went out on the deck and watched it for a while.  We met in the lobby at 8 and went to the Parliament building and toured it for a couple of hours, then went to the old Parliament building that is a museum now.  They were both beautiful and we enjoyed the history in them.  We left about 1 and found a place to eat downtown.  We had hamburgers, eating outside.   It is about a 41/2 hr drive to Griffith.  We stopped about 6 to eat and get fuel, then got to the ranch about 7:30.  We drove right to it with the directions Ren Fairbanks, the general manager of the ranch, gave us.   The ranch is called the Kooba Station Ag Reserve.   He showed us to our rooms, in a part of the original homestead house, built in the early 1800’s.  The original furniture is still in it, the owners sold it as is to the Church in 1998.  It is absolutely beautiful.  We really enjoyed just walking around and checking it out.  Ren’s wife, Marilyn came over to meet us.  They live in the back of the house and they have 3 bedrooms.  The part we were in also has 3 bedrooms, a front room, huge dining room all with marble fireplaces, a kitchen, a sitting room and 2 bathrooms.   The Fairbanks are from California and he has worked for the Church most of his adult life.  He was the manager of the California Ag reserves before getting the assignment to come to Australia over 4 years ago.  Merrill Dibble took over for him when he came here.   We met him outside Sat morning at 8 for a tour of the ranch and farm.  It is divided into the cattle operation and crop production.  We toured the cattle part of it first, they have 3500 cattle on over 85,000 acres.  They have a river that runs through it where they get their irrigation water.  We saw kangaroos and emu’s.  Dad got some cool pictures of them he will try to get up on the blog the end of the week.  We then went to the crop production ground that is over 15,000 acres.  They only have water for that amount of ground so they are able to set aside a large amount of acres each year.  They have had a drought for several years so they were cut down on water.  They grown grain corn, cotton, some hay and some grain that was harvested a couple of weeks ago. We also saw rice being grown but the ranch do not grow it because it takes so much water.  They have 25 employees that take care of the ground and cattle.  The irrigation and harvest are all contracted out.  There is one missionary couple that take care of all the grass, garden and flowers around the homestead, and other odd jobs that need to be done, including managing the youth treks.  He took us into Darlington Point, a very small town for lunch at a little diner.  He told us to get the lot, a hamburger with fried egg, ham, pineapple, beet root, lettuce, tomatoes, and sautéed onions.  We split one it was so big.  We also had chips with it, (fries).    We finished the tour about 4, and after resting about an hour, we left and drove to Hay, about an hour and a half into the outback.  We ate dinner at a serviceman’s club, really good Chinese, and then drove back to the ranch.  On this trip the Williams needed to stop at family history centers to check out the equipment, so we went to one in Canberra, one in Wagga Wagga, where we were able to call Canyon and tell him Happy Birthday, we forgot the time difference and it was after midnight, but luckily they were watching a BYU game.  We went to church early yesterday so they could get that one done before Church started.  We were able to call Tina and Tyson to wish them Happy Birthday. The Fairbanks were the speakers and it was really good.  Sister Fairbanks also plays the organ, and the Sr missionary is a counselor in the Relief Society.  Brother Fairbanks is a counselor in the District Presidency.  

We left right after the block to continue on home, and as we were getting in the car Marilyn handed Sister Williams and myself a shirt bag full of some chocolate, 2 Christmas pillow cases, 4 homemade dishcloths, 2 scrubbies she has made,  a scarf she has made, 2 cups ( I think she got them at thrift shops, they look antique,)  a package of Kleenex, a Christmas ornament she had made.  That was so sweet of her.  We decided to drive through the Snowy Mountains and it was a beautiful drive.  All the way we tried to figure out where the big scene in the movie of him riding his horse straight down the mountain through the trees.  There were actually several placed it could have been filmed.   We stopped in Cooma about 7 and found a Motel and then went into town to eat.  All of the restaurants we found were closed so we settled for a pizza place.  It was ok, we have had better but we were really hungry.  We were only eating 2 meals a day.  We left this morning about 9 and drove on home.  We stopped for lunch in Canberra and Dad and I had homemade lasagna, Elder Williams had an omelet, and Sister Williams had a steak sandwich.  It was all very good.  On the way home we passed a lot of grape vineyards, and orange groves.  We stopped at a roadside stand and bought a bag of oranges.  They also had onions, red, white and yellow but they were in too big of bags for us to use. 

We got home about 3, unpacked, and started a load of laundry and went grocery shopping.  We went to the fruit stand and got watermelon, cantaloupe, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, banana’s, lettuce, radishes, then went to Coles for milk and a few can goods. 

I forgot to tell you that on Christmas at the dinner Dad’s computer glasses broke, the ear piece snapped right off.  Today he got some readers, and when we get to the office on Thursday, I am going to call Pam, because he just got them a couple of weeks before we came.  Hopefully these readers will help at the office and when he is on the computer. It is now time for bed, I don’t know when I will send this letter, maybe we will be able to go into the office on New Year’s Day.  We are excited to go to Sydney in the morning to stake out our place for the fireworks.

Love you all and you are all in our prayers!

Mum and Dad

Australian War Museum

                               Elder and Sister Roberts and Williams at the Australian War Musuem

                                             Looking at Parliament Building from Musuem

                                                  Parliament Building in Canberra