Australia Sunday Jul 6, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
This week has really gone by fast, we have really been busy.
When we got to the office Monday morning we had an email
from Mark Allen announcing that some changes will take effect August 1st
concerning the service center. Malcolm
Arvidson’s role will be made redundant and his work will be re-allocated within
the department. He has worked for the
Church for 13 years. The second change
will be that the warehouse will close and Patrick Hsu’s role will also be made
redundant. He has been here for almost 8
years. They are both retiring. We still don’t have many answers about the
mail etc. Mark Kelly has been in New
Zealand for the week. Our biggest
concern is sending the shuttle to SL each week.
All of the questions after devotional Monday morning was about this
change, but they don’t have all the answers yet. We are really going to miss both of them. Malcolm is going to move to Toukley where he
has a house and some property. He said
we have to come and stay with them before we leave and I think we speak in that
branch in October.
Monday night at
Family Home Evening the dinner was really good, they ate most of the soup we
took, 2 crockpot’s and all the salad, and I tripled the taco soup and 4 times
the salad. The Feil’s had pumpkin pie,
pecan pie, pumpkin pecan pie, and apple crisp with whipped cream for
dessert. They divided us into 4 teams,
we were with the Smith’s and gave us a question paper about the US, and 5
questions about Australia. It was in
honor of the 4th of July. We
tied for the winner. We even knew 3 of
the Australian answers, actually we had lucky guesses.
The Allen’s passed out bookmarks at Family Home Evening to
read the Book of Mormon in 2 months. If
anyone is interested I will send you the page numbers to know how to finish
it. On the bookmark is the quote by Ezra
Taft Benson “There is a power in the Book of Mormon which will begin to flow
into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of it. You will find greater power to resist
temptation. You will find the power to
stay on the straight and narrow path.”
A couple of weeks ago as Sister Moore was walking to work
she was stopped by a lady that had been walking around the Temple and was asked
if she belonged to that Church where the Temple is. She said she did and the lady said she is
from Sri Lanka and lives in our building with her daughter and her husband
travels for work and comes home once a month.
They moved here so their daughter who is 13 could get a good
education. She goes to a private girl’s
school and the tuition is around $28,000 a year. She and her daughter have been meeting with
the missionaries and the Moore’s since that time. The husband came in Wednesday night and the
Moore’s picked him up from the airport.
Thursday night they had an open house so all of the Sr. Missionaries
could meet them. There is also another
couple from the Oatlands Ward that live in our building so they were
invited. We knew them from when we went
to that ward. Bishop Cox also came to
meet them. There is a lady in the
Moore’s Ward from Sri Lanka that came and met them, and they had gone to the
same school growing up. We had dessert
and just visited. They are really sweet
people. She said they rented the flat
they did because she could see the Angel Moroni from her window.
Friday it was exciting to find an article about Henry Wells
Jackson, dad’s 3rd great grandfather that was printed in the Deseret News. Hope you all got an opportunity to read it. It does not tell the whole story but we
thought it was good. The Jensen guy that
wrote it has talked to Dad and got information from him and we knew he was
writing a book about him. Friday night we had a 4th of July
party at the Feil’s. We had hamburgers
and hot dogs on the grill, and all the condiments to go with them, potato salad
that I made, Sister Archibald made baked beans, and we had fresh fruit, and magnum ice cream
bars, and desserts from the Moore’s open house.
We sat and talked, and laughed a lot.
A young couple from the Salt Lake area that are interns here with the
legal department for a month came. All
of the Sr couples were there as well as the Barr’s. It was a great evening. The Allen’s daughter sent 4th of
July napkins and sparklers.
Yesterday the Smith’s picked us up at 9 and we drove to
Botany Bay where Captain Cook first came to in 1770. They had never been there. We went through the museum, saw a movie
there, then walked down to the bay to see the monuments and plaques. We walked back to the car and drove to a
whale watching area. We were able to see
a few whales but they were quite a ways out in the water. You could tell where they were with several
boats around them. They had spotted 28
by the time we got there at 1. We then
drove back to Parametta Park so they could see the Government House. We went to the little café there for a snack
because we wanted to eat dinner at the RSL Club and they didn’t open until
5:30. We had scones with jam and whipped
cream, and Dad had a piece of carrot cake.
Then we walked around the grounds and read all the signs. We then drove to the good, bad, and ugly
cemetery so they could see it, then back to the RSL Club for dinner. We had Scotch Fillet Steak with Shrimp and
chips and salad. We each brought half of
ours home for dinner today. It was just
as good today as it was last night.
Today I did cook sweet potatoes to go with it. We really had a fun day with the
Smith’s. They are from Fruitland,
Idaho. Their office will be moving to
Family Services in a couple of weeks.
Right now they are in a hallway at Buckland House.
The weather has still been cold and sunny and windy again
this week. We really need rain but there
hasn’t been any in the forecast for this week.
We are just wishing the wind would stop blowing.
Sister Archibald just brought us each a piece of cinnamon
roll cake, still warm and it is yummy.
Happy First Birthday to Brielle on the 15th.
As we finish another letter for another week the word’s of
the song we sang in closing Sacrament Meeting today has such a beautiful
message.
“Press forward Saints, with stead-fast faith in Christ, With
hope’s bright flame a-light in heart and mind, With love of God, and love of
all man-kind. Press forward, feasting on
the word of Christ. Receive his name,
rejoicing in his might. Come unto God;
find everlasting light. Press on,
enduring in the ways of Christ. His love
proclaim thru days of mortal strife.
Thus saith our God; “Ye have eternal life.”
We Love you all dearly,
Mum and Dad
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