Sunday, March 9, 2014

March 9 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Mar 9, 2014
Dear Family and Friends:
Happy 52nd Anniversary to us.
It has been a good week, a little short because I wrote last Monday night.  The weather has been a combination of cloudy, some rain, and some sunshine, temps ranging between 70 and 80.  It is so pretty as some of the trees are blooming again, and it is really green after rain.  There is always something blooming over here.  It smells so good when we walk outside.  On Wednesday Mark came in and asked us to write an article about Sister Rogers to submit for the Ensign.  We spent the afternoon working on it.  He just mainly wanted the facts so we had to read her history and her notes about the project before we could begin to write.  He is going to put what we sent him into an article.  We also sent some pictures.  We had good days capturing the cards, we are trying to average 4,000 a day and we did 3 days last week.
Yesterday we did some deep cleaning seeing as though we have been gone for 2 weekends in a row.  We finished about 9 and ran to the office to call Tina and see if she got the hot water fixed in our house.  When there is no hot water there is no heat, and she has a Relief Society activity up there this week.  Then we went to the Koala Park Sanctuary about 20 minutes from our flat.  It cost us $27.00 each to go in, but we decided it was well worth it.  We saw Penguin’s, they are warm water ones that are found only in Australia and New Zealand.  They are very small, called fairy or blue penguins.  We were there in time to watch them being fed.  We also saw lots of birds, cockatoos, cockatiels, kookaburras to name a few.  Then we saw wombats, emus, echidna, wallabies, possums, flying fox’s, peacocks, and we got to pet a Koala and kangaroos.  Pretty fun.  They also have sheep and shearing but we have seen that before.  It was fun to watch the kids feed the kangaroos and pet them.  We then went down to the mall just down the street and ate lunch at the food court.  It is probably the largest mall and largest food court we have ever seen.  When you park in the car park you have to remember what color it is and which door you go into the mall, because they have 4 decks of blue parking and no numbers.  Thank goodness others have told us that information.
Last night we went to dinner at the Sheen’s home, in Kellyville, about a half hour away.  Thank goodness Matilida guides us there, (the GPS).  They have been Sr. missionaries over housing for all the missionaries, and were released a couple of weeks ago after 2 years.  Arthur is Australian, and Judy is Chinese.  They met at the Temple where they both work on Tuesday nights so we get to see them.  They have been married almost 2 years.  She cooked an authentic Chinese dinner and it was delicious.  She had us there for Arthur’s 70th birthday, so they had his family and some friends.  It was a lot of fun.  They have fixed up the back of their house for 2 sister missionaries.  They should be moving in soon.  For dinner she had Chinese vegetables, honey chicken, sweet and sour chicken, ham fried rice, egg rolls, pumpkin soup made from a real pumpkin, pork ribs.  For dessert she made a layered cake with pudding in it, cream puffs, pudding, watermelon and grapes.   It was a lot of fun, and good to meet his family. 
Today has just been kind of a lazy day until we went to Church.  I try to have dinner almost ready when we get home about 5 so I put ham in the crock pot, made cheese potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a corn casserole.  When we got home cars were lined up on the street to get into the garage, and cars on the inside trying to get out.  Yup, the automatic door would not open.  When we pull up to it inside to go out it automatically opens, and to get in we have a clicker, or punch a number in the key pad, or swipe another thing we have.  Nothing would work, so Dad parked on the street after he went inside to look at it, along with a bunch of other people.  We went inside and told Elder Killebrew what was going on and he said he would go look at it with Dad.  I came upstairs so I could get things in the oven for dinner.  You can’t leave things in these ovens because they will only heat with the fan on, and the fan only stays on about 45 min. before it goes off and the oven gets cold.  Strange!!   Dad ran up to the mission warehouse because our car was out, and got the tool box.  They took the bottom bar off the door and was able to push it open half way to let the cars out and the others go in.  There were several that were going to work and were late.  Hopefully it gets fixed tomorrow.  Workman in this country do not come out on weekends no matter what. 
We are going to try and get some more pictures posted this week before Family Home Evening tomorrow night.  That is about all for this week so I will close.  We are going to watch a movie Dad rented the other day “The Dish”.  We are going to see the dish that it was made from when we go to Dubbo on the 22nd and 23rd.  Dad talked to the Branch President the other day and he said that he lives an hour away so he wouldn’t be there, but his counselors would.  He said they love other people to come and talk because they have to just take turns.  In Church today there was a return missionary who just returned from the Perth Australia Mission.  He joined the Church a year before he left and is the only member of his family.  He gave a wonderful talk.  It is really a fun ward.  They are going to have a Cultural night on the 22nd representing the countries they have in the ward with food and a program.  They have Tonga, Samoa, other islands, Spanish and Russian, to name a few.  We would love to go but that is the weekend we go to Dubbo.  It is pronounced Duhbo.
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow and talking to you, and finding out from Deven and Tyson how the Farm Bureau Banquet went.  First one we have missed.
We love you and you are all in our prayers!
Mum and Dad  


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