Australia Sunday Feb
23, 2014
Dear Family and Friends:
This has been quite a week and really good. Right now we just checked into a hotel in
Canberra and it is 6:30. I will start
with last Monday, Mark came into the office and said for Jan to make air
reservations when they get back on Thursday for us to go to Queensland to meet
Sister Rogers. As you remember she and
her husband began this project we are filming by going to the cemeteries in
Queensland, and then extending it to all the cemeteries all over Australia for
over 20 years. Her husband passed away
in 2005 and the family donated the cards to our Family History Center. She has been in an assisted living place but
is now back in her home in Bundaberg. We
were hoping we could be there a few days but we are flying in on Saturday
morning and flying out Sunday evening.
Bundaberg is a 4 ½ hr drive from Brisbane. Brother and Sister Hill, they work for the
Family History Department in Brisbane, will pick us up and drive us up there to
visit. Mark made reservations for the 4
of us to stay overnight, and then we will drive back after Sacrament
meeting. We are so excited. Dad is going to take pictures of the whole
project to take up with us.
Wednesday was the conference with Elder Russell M Nelson, of
the Quorum of the Twelve. We picked up 2
Elders from the Epping Station, which is about a mile from our flat. We had to be in our seats by 8:00 at Baulkenhills
Stake Center, and we got there about 10 min early. They had the Chapel and Cultural Hall divided
in half with the North Mission on one side and the South Mission on the
other. President Howes announced at 8:00
that everyone was to stand as Elder Nelson came in, and that everyone will have
an opportunity to shake his hand. He
asked that everyone be gentle, we were shaking once, he was shaking 420 hands,
and it all had to be done in 30 minutes.
The assistants assisted in getting each row to stand up and we did it in
25 min. When they came in they stood
down in front of the podium, Elder Nelson, his wife, Elder O’Rierden and his
wife, Elder Hamula and his wife of the Area Presidency. They are both in the Quorum of the Seventies. They then went to the stand and we had the
opening song and prayer. Then Sister O’Rierden, Elder O’Rierden, Sister
Hamula, Elder Hamula, Sister Nelson and then Elder Nelson spoke. When Elder Nelson stood up he asked for Pres.
and Sister Howes to stand and have all the missionaries in the North mission
stand. We all stood up and he said he
was surprised everyone was on one side and said it must have been planned. Everyone laughed. Then he had Pres and Sister Lu stand and the
South Mission stand. Then he asked for
some help and called 2 sisters and 2 Elders names, the last one Elder
Roberts. When they got up there, there
was also a young Elder from the South Mission named Elder Roberts, and he
thanked them all for their obedience. He
asked questions and asked them to respond.
When he got to Dad he put his arm around him and told him to talk about
anything he wanted. He said he loved his
wife and was happy to be here serving with her.
He asked where she was and said to raise my hand so I did, then he said
higher, so I did, then he asked me to stand up.
What an honor for each one of the missionaries that went up. He thanked them and said it is scary to come
up not knowing what was going to be asked, and he said he had no idea what he
was going to ask until they got up there.
A very neat experience. They all
gave wonderful talks, I was taking notes as fast as I could. President Howes had said this is a once in a
lifetime experience as with only 12 in the Quorum, and the hundreds of
missions, very few will get one to come to their mission. We do feel very blessed. It was a wonderful meeting. After they left we all went to our cars and
we took our missionaries back to the Carlingford Mall for lunch and then took
them to the train. It was fun getting to
know them. They are both serving in
Sydney, one is from Las Vegas, and the other from Northern California. We went to the office after and Mark came in
to find out how the conference was.
Thursday morning it was good to have the Williams back. We had a meeting at Buckland House, it was
piped in from New Zealand, and Elder Neil A. Anderson of the Twelve spoke. What are the chances of hearing 2 members of
the 12 in 2 days. We are blessed!
Mark has gone on annual leave to Bali with Melinda for 10
days. Thank goodness the Williams will
be there so we aren’t alone. Lots more
fun when we can visit.
Friday night we went to LaBot to order the pizza’s and
garlic bread for Family Home Evening tomorrow night, seeing as though we won’t
be home until tomorrow afternoon.
Yesterday morning we left the flat at 8:30 to get fuel and
drive to Merimbula. It almost a 7 hr
drive. We went as far as Berry, a very
old town and walked around for about ½ hour, then drove to UllaDulla and had
lunch down at a pier. We took the road
down along the coast and it was beautiful.
We got to Merimbula about 5, checked into the motel, found the Church,
across the street from the motel. We
then went for a ride and drove down to the ocean. Walked down to the beach and walked along and
picked up shells. I took my shoes off
and it felt so good walking on the wet sand.
We stayed about an hour, then got a hamburger and went back to our room
to study our talks. This morning
Sacrament Meeting started at 10, so we got ready, studied some more and went
over to the Church about 9:15 so we could hook up to the WiFi. The Church is in a block of buildings that
look like office buildings behind a restaurant and next to a service
station. It was very nice, there were about
30 to Sacrament meeting, and 7 in Relief Society. They have one set of Elders assigned there
from the South Mission. We drove as far
South as the mission goes this weekend, and last month we drove as far as we
could in the North Mission. Mark told us
to take Monday off to come home so we are.
We drove as far as Canberra, and found this Quality Inn Hotel. It is really nice and only $135. We just ate downstairs and it was very good,
roast pork, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, carrots and green beans all for
$12. We will drive home in the morning,
get salad ingredients, go to the office to call you guys, and get ready for the
dinner. I got the tablecloth, plates,
napkins, and plastic silverware at Parklea last week and we have everything
ready to go by the door of the flat. The
Williams have dessert and lesson. We
could have 20 there tonight.
Love you and pray for all of you daily.
Mum and Dad
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