May 11 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday May 11, 2014

Dear Family and Friends:

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, Tina, Michelle, Sarah, Tami, Danna, Onalie, Mandy, Amberlie, Tifanie, Megan, Jessica and Kaylee.  Was really hard knowing you were at the Brunch yesterday (today) and I was missing it.  I was really good this morning going to Church until I was checking Facebook before Church started and I came across the pictures from the brunch of the girls.  Then the tears were going until after the Sacrament, then I was fine. 

This has been a really interesting week, and we are hoping we don’t have any more like it.  I will explain in a few minutes.  Last Monday was Family Home Evening and the dinner went great.  Everyone wanted the recipe for the soup and salad, and there was enough left of two recipes for our lunch on Tuesday.  The Feil’s had dessert, sticky date pudding with whipped cream, and the lesson.  They had everyone put two things on papers that no one else would know about you, then they passed them out and we read one thing and had to guess who it was.  We learned a lot about everyone.

Tuesday when we got to the office we still didn’t have an audit from Salt Lake for 2 weeks.  We send the hard drive in on Friday, they get it in Salt Lake on Tues, and we usually have an audit by Thursday or Friday.  I emailed them and asked them what was going on, of course they had gone home by the time we sent it, so didn’t get an answer until Wed morning.  They said they had not gotten any shuttles since Apr 15^th, so they were missing the 2 that were sent on Thursday the 17^th and 24^th because Friday was a holiday those weeks. They had just received the one sent on May 2^nd.  We checked with our mail room and she said they went in the shuttles both those weeks, and Salt Lake mail room said our shuttle was not in the pouch.  We had 11,100 images on one, and 10,500 on the other one.  After emailing back and forth between about 6-8 people it was decided we would put them on another blank hard drive we have and send it this week.  We can’t resend anything without an order from Salt Lake.  Thursday morning I was just getting to calibrate to start copying when a popup came on the computer that says
are we there”.  I had Dad answer and he said he wanted to take control of the computer and get those files transferred.  It was 5 in the afternoon in Salt Lake and he said he was working late.  Dad hooked up the new hard drive and they started transferring and it took 3 ½ hours.  I did indexing and Dad did Family History.  When he finished he said to plug back in the hard drive we had been using but it would give us a new media number, so Friday we sent 2 shuttles with 4 media numbers.  We will be anxious to know that they make it this week.

We went to the Temple Tuesday night and stayed late to do other things and didn’t get out until after 8 and as we were getting in the car Dad noticed something on our windshield, or window screen over here.  It was a little bag of candy with a note that said “Thank you for serving the Lord!” from the Oatlands Ward Young Women.  We also went back to the Temple Wednesday night as the Temple will be closed for 2 weeks for maintenance.  

Mark was out of the office Tues, Wed, and Thurs. morning.  He was working with Mike Higgins from New Zealand.  They brought lunch in Thursday afternoon, Kabab’s and they were really good.  Friday we sent 12,000 images in which was pretty good for all the interruptions this week. 

Yesterday we decided to take a ride up to Morisset Hospital, a little over an hour drive to feed the kangaroo’s.  It was a beautiful drive, a little cloudy but no rain.  When we pulled up to where we saw a bunch of roo’s, a couple came right over to us.  Dad got some great pictures we will post when we have time.  We then drove on up the coast and went to the The Entrance, a little town where the Tuggerah Lake on one side, and Pacific Ocean on the other.  It was beautiful.  We found a place to pull over by the beach and watched some surfers for a while and picked up shells along the beach.  Then we walked up to our car and drove around the town looking for a place to eat.  We found a cute little place and had fish and chips and salad, and then Dad had a slice of triple chocolate cheesecake with ice cream, and I had a peppermint bar, chocolate crust, peppermint, and a hard chocolate shell on top with whipped cream.  They were both yummy.  We decided to have dessert because we had split the fish and chips.  No wonder we can’t lose any weight over here.  We got back in the car and drove on up the coast to another beach where there were some surfers and we picked up more shells.  There were a lot of younger kids with boards trying to surf.  It was fun watching them.  We got home about 6 just after dark.  We had dinner and we were both indexing when there was a knock on our door and Sister Archibald came in with a beautiful corsage for Mother’s Day she had made.  That was so sweet, made me cry again.  I have been teary all week with Jerry Sargent’s death and Mother’s Day.

Today at Church as we went in the Chapel I got a card and Mars bar from the Elders, then a little candy bar and a pen with a flower on the top from the Young Women, then when I went into Relief Society a counselor in the presidency put a big candy necklace around my neck.  It probably has at least 20 little candy bars on it, and I have no idea who made it.  Only a handful of sisters had them.  Then as we were leaving another sister handed me a chocolate rose.  As we were getting into the elevator the Moore’s were getting out and she handed me a little bag of Mothers Day Candy that said, Caring, Loving, Kind, Friend.  We probably have enough candy to last us until we go home as often as we eat candy.

After dinner tonight I was in the mood to bake so I made cookies, ginger snaps.  That is Tyson’s fault because he said a month or so ago he had made some and I have wanted some ever since.  We delivered them to the Archibald’s, Moore’s and Killebrew’s, and we have 2 plates to take to the Smith’s and Allen’s tomorrow.

We got an exciting email on Thursday and the subject was “Interested in attending a Rugby League Game in a corporate box????”  The email said “Due to my husband’s employment we have been given an opportunity to use the corporate box at Brookvale Oval on Monday 19thMay for the 7pm Rugby League game between the Manly Sea Eagles and the Newcastle Knights. I know this is Family Home Evening but if you would be interested in joining by small family that night to watch the football (light meal and drinks included) we would be more than delighted.  The game will start at 7pm and it takes around 45 minutes to an hour to get there.  We can arrive anytime from about 5:30 onwards.  It is a fun night and if you are wondering about what Rugby League really is, here is the opportunity to see a game for free and out of the cold.  It is a great way to experience some Aussie culture at the grass roots level (well not quite this is the up market way to see a footy game—sorry but I don’t go any other way.)  Let me know if you would be interested and I can coordinate tickets etc.

Lyn Hunt, Human Resource Manager

We are so excited to go.  We are going with the Smith’s, and the Archibald’s and Allen’s are going together.  We are glad Family Home Evening is changed to tomorrow night with Elder Halek.

This next week is going to be busy also, we are moving offices.  Mark is moving us into the office with the other couple, they are coming on Jun 4^th, because we are getting an intern and 2 service missionaries, young men who have returned from their missions and want to train in the Family History Office.  It will be interesting with 3 young people here.

Guess I had better close and get to bed, it is almost 11.

Happy Birthday to Jaxon tomorrow, or Monday for you.

We love you and you are all always in our prayers!

Mum and Dad