Australia Sunday Aug 10, 2014
Dear Family and Friends,
This week has been much quieter and we got a lot done at the
office. We have been on a difficult box
since Wednesday and we still managed to send in 18,500 images on Friday. This is the first Friday Patrick hasn’t been
here to send the shuttle in the pouch, so Dad took it down at 2:00 like we are
supposed to, and then went back down at 3:30 to make sure it was in the pouch,
and Pauline said it couldn’t go because only documents can go in the
pouch. She tried to call Patrick but he
didn’t answer, so they went upstairs and got Paul. He finally convinced her that we were sending
documents, just in a different format.
Good thing he went back down or it wouldn’t have gone this week. We don’t want any more lost shuttles.
On Tuesday we had a Devotional that was streamed in from New
Zealand announcing the new 2nd counselor on the Area Presidency,
Gifford Nielsen, former quarterback of BYU and the Houston Oilers. His wife spoke first and she introduced them
and their family. The two of them met in
the 6th grade and went through school together, but didn’t start
dating until their Jr. year at Provo High.
They have 6 children and expecting their 20th grandchild is
due in 3 weeks. They raised their family
in the Houston area. She said they are
so excited to be serving in the Pacific area, and said she hasn’t stopped
smiling since President Eyring ask them to come here. She quoted her favorite scripture found in
Jacob 2: 17-18 “Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar
with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto
you. But before ye seek for riches, seek
ye for the kingdom of God.” Elder
Nielsen told of an experience he had recently with the Quorum of the Twelve
where President Packer said that 80% of what he is today is because of the
women in his life, Elder Oaks said he thought his was 90% and Elder Nielsen
said his was 95% and thankful for Eternal Families. He was the youngest of 5, with 4 older
sisters. His Father played basketball at
the Y and was very happy to finally get a boy.
He played all ball when he was young but especially loved football. He told of his first pro game, preseason
against the world champion Dallas Cowboys.
The coach put him in for the whole game to see if he had what it takes
to play pro. He said he was scared to
death and when he went up to the line of scrimmage he looked across the line to
see Harvey Martin, Randy White, and Ed “too tall” Jones and they looked like
they wanted going to kill him. The first
play wasn’t pretty and he really got hit.
When he finally stood up he wanted to quit, but then he said his life
changed as he remembered the lessons from his father, and his priesthood
leaders about taking the next step to a higher level of doing hard things, and
not to fear the next level. He decided
yes he could and walked back to the huddle and played the entire game, and they
won. He said he also remembered that the
Lord is in charge of all things we do.
He expressed gratitude of being able to serve the Pacific Area which is
9,000 miles East to West, and 5,000 miles North to South. As he was deciding what to talk about he
opened the scriptures in the Temple Saturday morning and turned to D&C
58:27 “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many
things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; 28, For the power is in them, wherein they
are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch
as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.” He concluded his talk by telling why he asked
to have the opening hymn be #85, How Firm A Foundation, verses 1-3 and 7.
“How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord, Is laid for
your faith in his excellent word! What
more can he say than to you he hath said, Who unto the Savior, Who unto the Savior,
Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?
In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth, At home or abroad, on the land
or the sea--- As thy days may demand, as thy day may demand, As thy days may
demand, so thy succor shall be. Fear
not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed, For I am thy God and will still give
thee aid. I’ll strengthen thee, help
thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
The soul, that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I cannot,
desert to his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll
never, no never, I’ll never, no never, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!
He said that was the song the First Presidency and the
Quorum of the Twelve sang in a meeting he was in and he just loved verse 7, and
it has been a favorite ever since. We
really enjoyed the meeting. After the
Devotional Dad took pictures of the all the staff and missionaries to be sent
to the area presidency. We didn’t know
the missionaries were going to be in it, so Dad isn’t in it. They turned out really good.
Thursday was National Root Beer Float Day so we decided to
make some for the missionaries in our building if we could get root beer in the
vending machine at Buckland House. No
grocery stores carry it over here, it just is not a favorite. We bought all 4 cans that they keep in
there. Most drinks are either $1.00 or
$1.20, and the A&W root beer is $3.00 a can. It was fun to take them around. When we got there at Buckland House Sister
Archibald had just walked in with warm cinnamon rolls for the employees, so she
gave us each one. They were yummy!
This week we got some very cute pictures from Amberlie of
the kids, and look good on our board in the office. We also got a letter from Ann and Dan, and we
are so thankful Lon is doing much better.
It is always good to hear from home.
The Smylie’s left Tuesday morning for Melbourne and came
back Thursday night so it was pretty quiet in the office. Mark was also gone those 3 days.
Yesterday we decided to ride the river cat down to Sydney
and go to the Maritime Museum. We got to
the Rydlemere station and as we got out of the car, the Kilebrew’s pulled up
beside us. They were also going
down. We thought we were in time for
the 8:55 ferry but it didn’t come, so we sat and visited for about 10 minutes
when another couple came and pushed a button on the stand and a recording said
there was no ferry service on Saturday and Sunday. Good thing they came. We had no idea there was a button there. We decided we would bring their car back to
the garage and we would take them to Wiseman’s Ferry as they have never
been. As we got out of our cars, the
Moore’s got out of the elevator, and they were going to the river cat
also. We told them we were going the
Wiseman’s and they have never been there, so Elder Kilebrew said he would take
the van, so we cleaned out the back and put everything in their storage unit,
and put up the back seats. We took them
along the Old Northern Road that the convicts built, stopped at the lookout,
and then went on one ferry and drove over to St Albans and showed them the inn,
and the antique tractor. Then we drove
to Wiseman’s the back way, and stopped and petted the camel. We got some great pictures. We then rode the ferry over to get a
hamburger and it was so good! We then
drove to Ebenezer Church going on our 3rd ferry for the day. We were so excited when we got there as the
Church was open so we could go in and see it, and also the little store in the
schoolmaster’s house. They had a little
booklet about the history of the Church, we knew it is the oldest church in
Australia, and is still in use today.
It was built by 15 pioneer families in 1809. The schoolmaster’s house was built in
1817. The Church was first a
non-conformist, then the first Presbyterian in Australia, and today is the
Uniting Church. It was also a pioneer in
education in the colony, beginning a school in 1810-1886. There is also a lot of history about the graves.
We then came home, making a stop at a Hungary Jack’s to get a frozen coke and
frozen raspberry and ice cream cones. We
put the ice cream in the drinks and made our own floats, it is cheaper that
way. It was such a fun day.
Today after Church we went with the Kilebrew’s over to the
top of the Carlingford Parking Terrace to watch the Supermoon rise. This is when the moon is both full and
closest to earth during its orbit. The
real beauty of the supermoon is that they are much brighter than a normal
moon. We watched it come up, and then it
went in the clouds, we are supposed to get rain the rest of the week starting
tonight. Dad is hoping he can see it
around 6 in the morning if it isn’t cloudy.
Happy Birthday Michelle on Friday, we know your family will
spoil you.
We are looking forward to being in on Rowan’s blessing
tomorrow at Deven and Michelle’s. That
will be fun.
We love you all!!
Mum and Dad
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