Australia Sunday July 27, 2014
Dear Family & Friends,
Here it is 7:15 pm and we are sitting in a really nice Bed
and Breakfast in Albion Park. We got out
of the Church in Narooma about 1 and decided we would find a place to stay when
it got dark. We really enjoyed Church,
there was about 20 in the Branch which is held above a Real Estate Company and
a little convenience store. The full
time missionary couple have been there for over a year and he is the Branch
President and she teaches Seminary in the morning and fills anything else that
needs to be. The full time missionaries
were one from Mesa, Arizona, and one from Layton, living in Kayscreek on
Bridgecreek Lane, Elder Hixson, and his parents are Scott and Molly. If any of you know them tell them he is doing
great. They are all from the South
Mission. When Dad called President McAra
and told him we had been assigned to speak he said to call the Island View
Resort for a room because the owners are members and let the missionaries stay
free. I called them and she said that
they always give their best cabin to the missionaries, and it was a 2 bedroom
cabin that was so comfortable. They
tried to get us to stay another night but we explained we needed to get
back. When I emailed Mark on Thursday to
tell him we may be late on Monday, he said to take all the time we needed.
We had a wonderful trip down yesterday. We were awakened about 4 am with it raining
so hard and hitting the window it sounded like hail. We were a little disappointed as we really
didn’t want to drive that far in the rain, but although it rained hard for
about the first hour, by the time we were out of the city it had let up a
little and then we had dry roads and just overcast. We first stopped at Fitzroy Falls and walked
to the lookout. They were
magnificent. We got an ice cream bar in
the little café and then drove on to Cambewarra Mountain Lookout. This lookout is a magnificent panorama of the
Shoalhaven Valley and Coolangatta Mountains.
It was a really awesome view. Dad
took a lot of pictures and we had lunch in the Lookout Café and enjoyed the
view. We then drove on to the resort,
checked in then walked down to the beach, about 50 yds. We watched the surf for a while then walked
back and went into town to find something to eat. This morning Dad walked down to the beach
before 7 to take pictures of the sun coming up over the ocean. The resort is a beautiful place with
different size cabins, a swimming pool, tennis courts, basketball court,
laundry facilities and showers for those that camp in tents. The family has owned it for about 10
years. They have 5 children and are
coming to the states next month for 3 months.
They will be in Utah and so we told them to go to one of the markets
either in Murray Park or South Jordan and say hi to our family.
Wednesday was Elder Smith’s birthday so Sister Smith invited
us over to their office for cake and ice cream at 12:30. We just ate and visited for about a half
hour. He turned 60.
Friday we had the Birthday Morning Tea and our department
and Lyn Hunt and Martin Harvey from HR were in charge. We decided on a menu of party meat pies,
sausage rolls, pikelets with cream and jam.
They are little pancakes, also chips and dips, grapes and bananas, and
tim tams and mint slices. Martin wanted
a watermelon but one watermelon was $25, and that would make them over budget
so they put it back. Of course the
grapes were $12.95 a kilo and they didn’t even look at that. Martin, Elder
Smylie, and Dad did the shopping on Thursday. We have not been buying grapes at that
price. It turned out so good and
everything was gone except a few grapes.
We had a small group as there was a funeral for a 15 year old boy who died
of heart problems while playing basketball and he was in the Penrith Stake,
which several employees live in including Lyn so she wasn’t there. Melinda Kelly came in to help in her place. It rained most of the morning but cleared up
by noon. As soon as we got to the
office Friday morning I transferred the folders we had done on Thursday to the
Hard Drive and Dad got it packed up to mail and took it to the mail room on the
way to prepare the Tea. We got back to
the office around 11:30 and packed things up, turned off the computers and went
over to Buckland House for the Sr. Couples Conference. There were 12 couples, President and Sister
Howes, and the 2 assistants. Five
missionaries gave 5 minute talks, then the assistants gave some training, then
Sister Howes had us all move the tables and gave us a paper who would be at
what table, we were with the Feils and the Hokasen’s. We each were given a paper with 12
statements on them we were to pick 3 and take 2 minutes in turn to talk about
it. We were to tell how these effected
our relationship with our Savior. They
were such things as facing death, paying tithing, how a scripture have affected
our lives etc. I forgot to bring that
paper with us. It was pretty fun and
really moving. I had to get my tissues
out of my purse for our table. President
Howes then talked for about an hour. We
then walked to LaBot for dinner. After
dinner we walked back to the Howes where Sister Howes had made little meringue
cookies, and told us we were to make meringue mess. She said to crush the meringues in the bowl,
top them with sliced strawberries, mango puree, whipped cream. It was so good. We got home about 9 after a very great day,
and very spiritually lifted.
We had a good week with copying the cards, we finished a box
in 2 days because they were really easy cards.
Then we got into a box Thursday of really hard cards so we hope we can
get the box done in a week. We sent in
19,523 images and did those in 4 days.
Really good we think!
When we got home Friday night we noticed the lights were not
on at the elevator so we walked over to the other elevator, went to 0 floor,
walked through to our floor and walked up the stairs to our floor. We were glad we were on the 1st
floor, as we had to do the same thing yesterday morning with our suitcase and
bags to go. Hopefully it will be fixed
by the time we get home tomorrow night.
No repair people work on the weekends.
Friday night after we got home Sister Moore knocked on our
door and asked if we could pick up Devmini, the Sri Lanka girl that her and her
mother are taking the missionary discussions, from school on Monday at
4:30. We told her we could so we will
leave a little early tomorrow and then we have Family Home Evening at 6.
We wish Martin a very Happy Birthday on Wednesday. Hope you have a wonderful day.
We Love You All and Pray for you! Talk to you tomorrow when we get to the
office.
Mum and Dad
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