Australia Mar 16, 2014
Dear Family and Friends:
Happy St Patrick’s Day!!
We have just had the most fun evening.
In fact everyone just left so I will tell you about it first. A couple of weeks ago we got a package from
Tina and in it was the ingredients for a Leprechaun Cake with topping. It was so cute we decided to share it with
the other couples, so we invited them to come about 6-6:30 and it is now
8:45. I made the cake this morning, a
little worried if it would turn out on this side of the world and at sea
level. It was perfect and really, really
good. We had vanilla ice cream to go
with it. Those that came were the
Williams, Feils, Tanner’s, Killebrew’s, and Moore’s. The Smith’s had to teach a class tonight, and
the Archibald’s are out of town. We
visited, and laughed and just had fun.
It is going to be sad when the Tanner’s go home on the 31st
of this month, and the Williams on the 26th of April. We are really going to miss them. Everyone said “Thanks Tina”! She also sent us some Leprechaun Chowder I
will make for tomorrow.
Seeing as though I started the week backwards I will just
continue. Church today was wonderful, in
Sacrament Meeting a returned missionary spoke, he went to the Salt Lake City
South Mission and absolutely loved it. He
told his life story, he was born in England and came to Australia when he was
16 with his mother and stepfather. He
moved out when he was 17 with a friend’s family because of problems with his
stepfather. In his Sr year of High
School a girl invited him to Church and he said he has no idea why he said he
would. He had never been inside a Church
before in his life. When he got there it
was a Spanish Ward and he couldn’t understand any of it. He was ready to leave after the meeting but a
lady asked him to stay for Sunday School and again he said yes. She bore her testimony to the class in broken
English and he was very touched. The
next week he found a ward closer to him in English and started going and really
enjoyed it. He went through several sets
of missionaries but couldn’t commit to Baptism.
One night he read the Book of Mormon again with real intent and with
Prayer and knew it was true so he was baptized.
He was 19 and knew he would never go on a mission until the Bishop asked
him if he wanted to and again he said yes not knowing why and said it was the
best thing he has ever done. He was so
good. The counselor in the Stake
Presidency also gave a really good talk.
We enjoyed it all. It rained
really hard all the way to Church with thunder and lightning, and the sun was
shining all the way home. We also got a
really big storm last night for about an hour.
We need it so we are glad to have whatever we get it.
Yesterday after cleaning we went with the Williams to Palm
Beach, about 45 minutes away. They
needed to get some red sand to take home and that is where it was. We took shoes off, rolled up our pants and
went in the ocean. It was really
fun. We found a place to eat on the way
home in a little town. We were looking
for fish and chips but went to a chicken place and it was really good. Sister Williams asked a man on the street
where to eat.
Friday we sent the shuttle off with 20,000 images, a really
good week. We averaged 4,000 a day. That’s what we can do when we don’t have many
meetings and interruptions. One day we
found a card that had the name “Swagman” on it with a burial date and
cemetery. We showed it to Mark and he
thought it was pretty funny also. Friday night we went to Buckland House and
watched “Saratov”. The Archibald’s had
just got it that afternoon so we had an impromptu party. We took nuts, Sister Tanner made brownies and
had ice cream, Archibald’s had popcorn and cookies. It was a great movie. I told Tina to buy it and share it with all
of you. We want to have it in our
library. It is about 2 missionaries that
were kidnapped in 1998 in Russia, and held for ransom, this is their true
story.
Last Monday night was Family Home Evening and the
Archibald’s and Moore’s were in charge.
Sister Archibald made enchiladas and a salad, and Sister Moore bought a
birthday cake and had ice cream. We were
celebrating Elder Archibald and Elder Moore’s birthdays, both tomorrow. We played musical chairs, pin the tail on the
kangaroo, played the candy bar game, and learned line dancing and round dancing
from the Feils. It was so much fun, and
we were exhausted when we got home.
It was good to have the William’s back after being gone for
8 days. Mark was in the office all week,
but he pretty much stays in his office working.
With the Williams there we kind of visit back and forth, and we eat
lunch together.
This morning and after dinner while waiting for everyone to
come we started reading the book “A Lion and a Lamb” by Rand H Packer. It is the true story of a young couple’s 24
year mission in New York living in the Joseph Smith Home. We are really enjoying it. Hopefully we will finish it tomorrow night,
or at least this week.
Can’t think of anything else now, I was asked to say the
closing prayer for the meeting tomorrow so now I can worry about that. We are looking forward to seeing you all
tomorrow.
We Pray for you all and Love You!!
Mum and Dad
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