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 2nd 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 5th 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 4th 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
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