March 3 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Mar 3, 2014

Dear Family & Friends:

Here it is Monday night, we got in too late last night to write.  We didn’t even unpack, we just went to bed.  It has been such a big week, and here we are in another month.  The time is really going by so fast.

Last Monday night was Family Home Evening and we had the dinner.  We didn’t get home until Monday afternoon so it is a good thing we ordered pizza and garlic bread on Friday night.  We ordered 6 large pizza’s because the owner gave us a good deal, buy 2 and get one free.  When we added up how many people were coming it was a good thing, we had 20 people there and they ate all of it except 3 slices.  They all enjoyed it because no one had had pizza before.  The Williams had dessert, strawberry shortcake and it was so good.  They gave the lesson on Family History and showed a short video.  It was very good and everyone learned a lot.  The program has really changed lately with the new things the Church has available.  Now I want to really do more, but no time at present.

Friday was the Birthday morning tea and they had sweet rolls and croissants, cheese and crackers, cheese balls, red and green grapes and sugar plums, potato chips and dip.  It was very fun as usual but we ate so much we didn’t eat lunch.  Friday was the last day of Feb, and the last day of summer here.  On the news they said the Sydney area was hotter than usual, there were only about 4 days that were uncomfortably hot for us.  It was also drier than normal and we knew that.  We had rain about 3 days last week and most of the weekend and it was very welcomed.  We were noticing how green everything is looking this morning.

Saturday morning the William’s picked us up at 6 am and took us to the airport.  Our plane left at 8 to go to Brisbane, Queensland.  It was a 1 ½ hour flight. We lost an hour going there.  The Hill’s, Doug and Margaret, met us at the gate and we went to their car.  We went about 2 hrs and stopped at a park in a small town and had morning tea.  They had brought sliced beef, cheese, crackers, grapes and lemonade.  Then we had chocolate candy bars and cashew nuts in the car.  We got to Bundaberg about 2 and checked into our motel.  We then went to Sister Rogers home and she was so excited we were coming she was outside waiting.  She is the cutest lady.  She just can’t believe we are really working on the cards and they will be put out for indexing soon.  We had taken a book of pictures for her to see how we do everything and left it with her.  She told us about getting these cards.  She and her husband were asked by the Family history department in our office to get the records of deaths and burials in the Queensland cemeteries.  They loaded their little car with a camera for microfilming and other supplies and off they went.  She said that her husband had never driven so she did all the driving.  Queensland is a state bigger than Texas or Alaska.  They would microfilm the records and then move on to the next cemetery.  When they finished that, they were sent to the cemeteries in other states.  Australia is bigger than the US.  It took them over 5 years to finish this.  Then they and their son and daughter in law took the information from the microfilm and wrote them on cards, over a million, with about a ¼ with ifo on both sides of the cards.  Then they were all alphabetized and put in the boxes and eventually donated to the Family History office and here we are.  She is so excited that we are doing them.  She is still creating cards from the obituaries in the newspapers.  She absolutely loves Family History.  She then showed us her projects to keep her busy.  She crochets rugs (afgans) and gives them away at different activities she is involved in.  She brought 4 of them out and they are beautiful.  She asked me if I wanted one and I thought she was kidding, well she wasn’t, and I just started to cry.  Here is this lady we had just met and she gave me this special gift.  We will try to post some pictures this week.  She also knits, covers hangers, and many other projects.  She goes to a couple of markets each week and sells the little items.  We then went on a tour of her house, and outside and she has a couple of fruit trees, and another bush that she will be picking the little flowers to make jelly this week.  She will be 87 years old in October.  The Hill’s had told her we were taking her out to dinner so we left so she could get ready and we went back to our rooms to freshen up.  She wanted to dress up and she looked so nice when we went back to get her.  We went to Sizzler, the first one we have seen here in this country.  The prices start at $35.00 and go up from there, however each meal does include the salad bar.  It was really good though.  We just stayed there visiting until about 9.  We took Sister Rogers home and said we would meet her at Church.  Sacrament Meeting started at 9 and they have a pretty big ward.  Sister Rogers said she had some papers in the car for us after the meeting because we had to get on the road. She had copied her life story, the story of going to the cemeteries and creating the cards in her own hand.  She told how they did it in each town and cemetery.  We are looking forward to reading them.  We got pictures after Church before leaving for home.  We did drive through the town and it has some really old buildings.  In 2011 it rained so much that the river flooded over half the town.  On the way home Doug stopped so Dad could take pictures of termite mounds, sugar cane fields, soybeans, macadamia nut plantations.  It is a beautiful drive.  We will post pictures as soon as we have time.  We stopped at a rest stop for afternoon tea from their cooler, and went to their house for about an hour, and we ate dinner that their daughter had prepared.  We certainly ate well on this short trip, before they took us to the airport.   When Mark came in today to see how the trip went, Dad showed him the pictures and I showed him the histories and I told him I thought this story needed to be told in the Ensign.  He agreed so I emailed Doug and Margaret and asked them to write something up and we will send it on to Mark with some pictures.  We are hoping and praying it will work.  What a wonderful weekend we had.

Today at weekly staff meeting they announced we had taken 6,000 images in one day.  That was really neat.  Most of the employees at Buckland have no idea what we are doing.

We left work a half hour early for Dad to go to the skin Dr and have the stitches out from behind his ear.  The Dr said it was cancer but he got it all.  He wants to see him in July for a checkup.  We walked up the street and found a place to eat dinner, I had salmon and Dad had king prawns, brought out in the shell with the eyes and all.  He said it was very good and mine was so good.  Then we came home and took the afgan up to show the Williams.  They leave in the morning for Melbourne to visit family history centers until next Wednesday night.  It is going to be quiet in the office. 

We hope Chase and Bob had Happy Birthday’s.

We will close with our love to all of you.

Mum and Dad