Australia Sun Apr 13, 2014
Dear Family and Friends:
This has been a pretty busy week and we still had a good
week capturing cards. We sent 15,500 in
on Friday so we are still right on schedule with our goal of at least 3,000 a
day. A couple of interesting things on the
cards this week. One man in 1871 was
found under his horse at the bottom of a shaft, and another man in 1920 was
found dead with both hands missing and they didn't know if he was born that way
or it was an accident, is name was Wingie Moore, hence the name it said. These cards are really interesting.
The update on Elder Vatuvei and Brother Jeff’s. Elder is doing good and expected to be
released tomorrow to go to a relative’s home in Manley. Brother Jeff’s was released Tuesday or
Wednesday and is doing well. As we said
last week “Just a Miracle”.
Monday night was Family Home Evening, the Williams had
dinner, their last one. They had taco
soup with chips, cheese, sour cream, avocados, tomatoes, and lettuce to put on
top. It was really good. The Barr’s had dessert, caramel crème with
cherry sauce and a chocolate candy in it.
They played trivia about the Prophets, he read statements such as their
favorite song, favorite scripture, and how many temples were built, etc. Really interesting and fun to guess.
We are still trying to get used to the time change, it was
really dark when we came out of the Temple at 8 on Tuesday. Actually I don’t think we ever get used to
time changes. It has been cloudy most of
the week and we have rain almost every day.
A couple of evenings we had real downpours. Everything is sure green though so we don’t
mind it.
Thursday the managers at Buckland House, 5 of them plus
Mark, and the manager from Family Services, gave a luncheon for the Sr.
Missionaries as a thank you for all they do.
It was really nice. The secretary
to Mark Allen, the boss manager, fixed chicken, baked potatoes, a rice salad
and a green salad. There was bread, and
different kinds of crackers and dips on the table to begin with. We had sparkling grape juice to drink and
also water. After Mark Allen welcomed
everyone, Mark Kelly said a few words and then the managers served the
missionaries. They brought about 4
desserts out on a table and we got our own.
It was all so good. It was really
nice of them. They also had a little box
of chocolates on the table for each one of us with our names on them. The men got Lindor assorted, and the women
got Ferrero Rocher, yum! The tables were set with linen cloths and we had real
dishes. We all felt really special and
it was a lot of fun. They announced that
this is the first annual luncheon they intend to have each year.
Friday we talked to Ruston for his birthday and that was
great. First time we have talked to him
personally since we came. We usually
e-mail. Now we need to get him and Sarah
on our video calls. For lunch we ran
across the street because we were tired of fixing lunches, and I wanted to look
for Easter decorations for the tables for our lunch next week. We were just getting ready to go to the dollar
store when I looked at my watch and it was after 1, and we have to have the
shuttle to the mail room by 2 so we just went back. We will look tomorrow night when we go to the
grocery store. We just want a little something
and not spend too much money.
Yesterday morning after getting the flat cleaned and
starting laundry, we drove to the Sydney Olympic Park for the Sydney Easter
Show. When we were working at the Art
Show in December we met a lady who teaches Agriculture at a High School in
Windsor and when she found out we were farmers she told us we had to come to
this show. She wrote her information and
the dates of the show and told me to contact her about it. Last week I emailed her and she told us where
it was and we told her we could come on Saturday. First time Dad had been to the Olympic Park,
I went to Time Out for Women there last year, and Mark said it usually isn’t
very fun to drive there with the traffic.
We left home about 9 and had very little traffic. We parked in a huge parking garage, paid
$25.00 to park, and walked over to the show, it cost us $77.00 to get in but it
was worth it. It is just like the State
Fair, on a much bigger scale. They
expect 90,000 people to visit over the next 2 weeks. We went to the Agriculture part of it and
they had one building dedicated to teaching children about Australian
Agriculture. I got lots of handouts to
send to Belva. I was having so much fun
asking questions and watching the kids.
It was totally a hands on experience from digging root vegetables out of
moist sand, real vegetables and then the kids had to identify them from
pictures hanging on the wall. They had a
bakery where they were rolling out dough and making little pies you could buy,
and the kids had a little area where they could grind wheat, and roll out their
own dough and cut it out with cutters.
The vegetable farm with little equipment from tractors, implements,
trucks etc, in sand they could play with.
They had little baskets with food in it, cereal, peanut butter, vegetables,
fruit, dairy, etc. and the kids had to guess which basket to throw it in with
the pictures of grains, etc on the wall.
They were having a ball, it was fun watching them. Throughout the building they had hand washing
stations and were teaching the kids proper way to wash their hands, and one
place where they could wash and then put their hands under a special light to
see if they had done a good job.
We left that building and got a cup of gelato and sat down
for a few minutes. Then we went to the dairy
barn, where they milk the cows behind a glass enclosure, and the spectators
have stadium seats to watch. It shows
the lines where the milk goes into a tank.
They were cleaning everything when we walked through. They had a little store where they were
giving samples of milk and where you could buy dairy products. We then went into the barns with cows, at
least 4 times bigger than our State fair.
We saw cows we had never heard of.
They were also judging them in another building so there was a lot of
activity of people washing them and blow drying them. Then we went to the horses, lots of them and
they also had Clydesdales and you could pet them. They were really calm and big. We saw goats, chickens, sheep, ducks, pigs
and some with babies. We then went to a
stadium and watched kids on horses cut out a calf from a herd and herd them
around 3 obstacles. One little boy
looked like he was about 8 years old.
Dad took a video to show Gerry when we get to the office tomorrow. We had a corn dog and left to come home. First corn dog we have seen here.
At 4:15 we walked downstairs to meet the Smiths to go to the
Rugby game in Parametta. We had to park
about 6 blocks away, they take their Rugby very seriously here. The Parametta Eels were playing the Sydney
Roosters. We wanted to see Will Hopoate,
a returned missionary play. He was the
second youngest to ever play in the “State of Origin”. Will scored a try helping the New South Wales
Blues to defeat the Queensland Maroons before a crowd of 92,000. This unproved teenager did a man’s job in the
grueling match. Turning down contracts
exceeding a million dollars, he became a worldwide sensation with his decision
to put his career on hold to take on a significantly more spiritual
assignment. He served in the Queensland
Mission. He is now playing in Parametta since he came home a couple of months
ago. It was a lot of fun to watch him
play, and watch Rugby for the first time.
It is really an interesting game.
Another player on his team is from Fiji and came this year as a walk on
having only played pickup games on his island.
When he got here to try out for the eels he refused to sleep in a bed,
opting instead to sleep on the floor telling people that he had never slept in
a bed, and until his family had a bed to sleep in he would sleep on the
floor. When he was signed with the Eels
and got his first check, he bought a house and furniture for his family and now
he sleeps in a bed. He is only 18,
little but really fast. It was fun to
watch him. As we were walking down to
the game it started to rain so the umbrellas came out, and in the first half it
rained pretty good but we were prepared.
Then it cleared up and was nice for the rest of the game. The Feils met us at the game and we had fish
and chips at half time. They were pretty
good for being at a game. We got home
about 8:30 and it was a busy day but very enjoyable.
This morning we went to the office to watch General
Conference, there was no Church except going to the Stake House to watch conference. We watched all of Saturday sessions and then
came home and fixed dinner. Then we
decided to make the Marshmallow for the Easter Eggs. I must say I have been worried they wouldn’t
turn out. Tina sent the unflavored
gelatin and wax, and when I opened the glucose syrup it was so thick it
wouldn’t pour out, I was really worried then.
We also do not have a double boiler so I used two pans and Dad beat it
with the hand mixer. It turned out great
and I had to use a chocolate egg as a mold because they do not have plastic
eggs. We made 18 large eggs and they are
in the freezer. We will dip them
tomorrow night and maybe make another batch seeing as though we have enough stuff
for one more. Now we will hope the
chocolate turns out. It will be fun having
them for all the couples next week at the dinner.
We want to wish Jonas a very Happy Birthday next Saturday
here in Australia. Hopefully we can talk
to him on his Utah birthday on Sunday.
We love you all and Pray for you!
Mum and Dad
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