Australia Sunday Feb 16, 2014
Dear Family and Friends:
Last Monday was Family Home evening with the Feils doing
dinner, salmon, barbecue chicken, green salad and fruit. It was really good as usual. The Jeff’s had dessert, homemade pavlova,
with fruit and whipped cream. I think
that is my favorite dessert here. Sister
Barr said it doesn’t work very well in Utah because of the high altitude. That is probably a good thing for me. Sister Jeff’s did the program, she works with
clay and is able to use the facilities at the Y. She showed pictures of the process from
gathering the clay, sifting out the impurities, onto the molding on the wheel
and then the firing process. She began
the program with a scripture from Isaiah 64:8, “But now O Lord, thou art our
father; we are the clay, and thou our potter, and we all are the work of thy
hand.” She showed some of the vases and
bowls she has made. She began working
with clay as a teenager. When she
finished she led a discussion of how making clay pots relates to the
scriptures. It was very
interesting. At the end President Barr
said he ran home when he saw the scripture to get a poem he wrote. He read it and we all wanted a copy so Elder
Tanner went out the copy machine. It was
so good I thought I would give it all to you.
The Potters Clay
And thus he said, he said thus!
Of every soul, each one of us,
We be as clay in the potters hand
He shapes each soul, every woman and
man.
‘Twas Isaiah, who said thus
He beseeched The Lord for each of
us,
True he spake, we be as clay
We need the potter every day.
Oh harrowed man, do not resist
By potters hands your soul is
kissed,
Let go, and fly into his hands
The clay and wheel, he understands.
The water cool upon us spills,
Makes moist the clay, helps cracks
to fill
For if we thirst, the clay may break
But living water, makes no mistake.
Drink the water he offers you
Let it mix, all the way through
Clay and water and potters wheel!
In the Masters hands produces steel.
He spins the wheel, he makes us whole
He, The Potter of each soul
Will lift us from this mortal clay
To Eternal Life, to Exalted Day.
Peter Roland Barr, January 16, 2014
Reading from Isaiah 64, I was impressed with Isaiah’s
heartfelt expressions, verse 8 “But now O Lord, thou are our father, we are the
clay, and thou our potter; and we are the work of thy hand.” The verses in this chapter were to me so
poetic, I felt to write a poem about this particular reference to the Father,
being as a potter and we, mankind, being the clay in his hands.
Hope you all enjoy it, he is a
very talented man. He is a beloved
Temple President by all who associate with him.
No one but his wife even knew he had left. Good thing they live just up from Buckland
House. Pres and Sister Barr went home
for the weekend and their mango tree was loaded with ripe mangoes so they
brought some back for all of us. We each
got 2 and they are so good. Dad is
getting really good at cutting them. We
have 2 bags in the freezer for smoothies and ate some fresh.
Tuesday the Williams left for
Brisbane for the week for a conference with Mark so the office was very
quiet. Good thing Dad brings his
computer and we listen to music.
Tuesday after noon our Wi-Fi went out in our office again so I emailed
Robin to tell him. He was still working
on it when we left for the Temple at 4:30.
It was working in the morning on Wednesday and then went out in the
afternoon, so I emailed him again. He
was working on it when we left at 4:30 again. Thursday it was working but not a
good signal at all, so when we went for our walk we went through Buckland House
and told him. He told Dad how to check
the signal, and said it should be about 8.0 and we were 0.25 so I email him
again and he came over. Friday morning
we had a good signal so I emailed him and thanked him, and he said it was only
a temporary fix as the fire wall had crashed in our building and he was waiting
for word from Salt Lake. We are just
glad it is fixed, and hope stays.
Thursday it was getting warmer and warmer in our office and the air
conditioning would not come on, so I email Glenn and said we were really warm,
it was 83 degrees. He came over and said
the air conditioning people would be there about noon on Friday, but we never
saw them before we left. It is a good
thing it has been cloudy all week and only in the 70’s. We are really enjoying this summer. They have told us that Feb and Mar are the
hottest months, but it can stay like this and we won’t complain. Yesterday and today we have had rain, and it
is very welcomed and needed.
Wednesday at the office we did
6,000 images, a new record, and we still took 3 breaks, had lunch, and finished
at 4:30. We think Mark will be surprised
when he gets back tomorrow. The Williams
flew to Tasmania Friday night until Wednesday night for a Stake Family History
conference. Wednesday we got a new
couple from Fruitland, Idaho, the Smith’s.
They are setting up a new office at Buckland House and they will be
working directly with the Stakes in our mission. He is a retired dentist and worked on Uncle
Snoden.
Friday was Valentine’s, so I
made cookies and shared them with the other couples, as well as the 2 people
that work in the Seminary and Institute area of our office building. Friday night all the Senior couples went to
dinner and a movie at a mall about a half hour away, Castle Hills Mall. It is really big. We ate at a Mexican place and saw “Winter
Tale”. Not really a great movie, at
least none of us really enjoyed it. We
ordered tickets online so we only paid $8.00 a ticket.
Yesterday with it raining we
took the Killibrews to Parklea, to see the Bats, and to lunch at Harry de
Wheels. Then we went to the grocery
store together and came home. It was
good to spend the rest of the day home getting caught up on laundry, etc.
I think I have told you about
the Elder that is going to have a kidney transplant hopefully next month. The Dr’s are having to make sure the bug he
had in December is completely gone from his system. He found out this week that his mother had passed
away suddenly in Tonga. Poor guy, but
now his father is coming when he has surgery.
He was really good at Church today.
He has a new companion from Alabama.
He is really cute. We now have 4
sister missionaries and 4 Elders and us in the Blacktown Ward. It is fun getting to know everyone. They all love the Missionaries. There are 10 missionaries out from their
Ward, and 1 leaving on the 26th.
We are excited this week to go
to a conference with Elder Russell M Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve. It is on Wednesday and will be for the North
and South missions. All of those with
cars have been asked to help get the Elders and Sisters there that need rides. We will probably go to the train station to
get a couple. They are supposed to call
us tomorrow.
Sister Archibald just came to
our door with brownies, they are yummy.
She looked at Dad’s arm and said it is getting infected again so to get
to the Dr. tomorrow. We will call in the
morning. His Dr. is only there on
Wednesdays so we will have to go to another one. Will keep you posted, probably when we talk
to you tomorrow. Guess that is all the
news from here for now. Next weekend we
go to Mirimbula, about 8 hours south of here, so we will stay somewhere Sunday
night and come in Monday morning, and we have the dinner for Family Home
Evening. Great timing. Have a good week and know that we Love You
All. Sorry I didn’t get valentines out,
that holiday just crept up on us.
We got a letter from Ann and
Dan this week. It was SO good to get news
from home.
Love, Mum and Dad
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