October 26 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday October 26, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

What an amazing week we have just finished.  We are so blessed to be here in this Beautiful Country and especially the marvelous people here.  We have really been spiritually fed with all that has happened.

Monday night was Family Home Evening and we served the dinner of barbecue chicken sandwiches, it cooked in the slow cooker all day, and sweet potato salad that was made Sunday night.  Can’t get much easier than that.  It was very good and we had very little left so it was a hit with everyone.  It was Elder Feil’s birthday so Sister Archibald had the table decorated.  They had cake and ice cream for dessert.  After all was cleared away they put us in a circle and had a soccer ball with questions on it that Kailee had made up for an activity while she was here.  It was thrown to each person who read the question and answered it.  They were all about yourself.  Lots of fun.  The Feil’s leave the mission this Thursday and they are really going to be missed.  The Williams are going to do great to take their place, and will be very happy to move into the house.

Tuesday morning Dad and I left to pick up the plaques and grabbed a sandwich while out.  The plaques turned out so good.  When we got back to the office Elder Smylie and Dad left for the airport to pick up Sister Rogers and her son Lester and take them to the hotel in Parametta.  They got back to the office and we all worked for about an hour, and then left to go to the hotel to have dinner with the Rogers.  The restaurant in the hotel looked good so we just stayed there.  It was a lot of fun getting to know them, especially for the Smylie’s.  The dinner was good and we visited for a couple of hours.  We told them we would pick them up about 11 the next morning and spend the rest of the day with us at the office.  Wednesday morning we ran across the street to get chips, tarts and juice for lunch, they have taken Subway out where it was and moved it down closer to the food court and they aren’t open yet so I ordered the sandwiches from a Subway over on North Rocks Road.  We ran over and got them, came back to the office and put them in the refrigerator, and went to the hotel.  We got back to the office and showed them how we do the photographing, and let them do about 200 cards.  She kept saying that by writing on the back of some of them it created more work for us.  We told her we have a system so it doesn’t take much more time.  We had lunch and Elder and Sister Allen joined us.  They are the ones that wrote the article for Mormon Newsroom Australia.    After lunch Mark presented Sister Rogers with the plaque and she was very pleased, and especially that we were able to find a picture of her husband.  They stayed at the office visiting until about 5 when we all left to go to dinner in Parametta at the317 restaurant.  It was very good, then we walked down to the corner, across the street, and then back to the cars.  Sister Rogers wanted to attend the temple Thursday morning so we told her we would pick her up a little before 9 for the 10 session.  Lester stayed in the office with us for about an hour, then went over to the mall to walk around.  When Sister Rogers came back from the Temple, we got in the car and went over to the mall for lunch.  We drove because the men need to leave for the airport.  We ate a quick lunch and they left, and Sister Smylie and I ran back across the street to the office.  It was such a great experience having them here.  We now have 2/3 of a box to finish the entire project, we are hoping to be done by Wednesday night.

Friday we took the day off to do some more traveling.  We left around 9 went up the coast towards Salt Ash.  We got off the motor way as soon as possible and took the back roads.  We found the Lakehouse café at Murray’s Beach for lunch.  We had delicious fish and chips outside.  We then found Stockton Beach and walked along it and found two bags full of shells.  We then watched a huge tanker filled with coal being towed out to the ocean from Newcastle port.  There were 3 tugboats pulling and pushing it out.  We just happened to be there at the right time.  Several other cars in the lot watched it and then left.  It must be a big thing, we really enjoyed it.  We then left and went to the hotel I had reserved for the night and got there about 5, it was the Sir Francis Drake Comfort Inn in Heatherbrae.  It was beautiful, really nice room with a jetted tub, and a wonderful restaurant.  We were tired of being in the car so we just stayed there to eat.  We walked around the beautiful grounds before going to our room.

Saturday morning we left around 9 and drove to small towns in the country.  We found a little café around 11 for brunch and ordered sausage and onion rolls.  They were so good.  We ate outside where they had lots of fun signs hanging.  One was “No we do not have Wi-Fi, talk to each other.”  I found some onion jam I am bringing home and maybe Deven can recreate it if it is good.  We then took off again to the country and saw beautiful ground.  Around 5 we got to Gosford where we had reservations for the night.  We walked down to town and got chicken sandwiches for dinner.  We like eating only 2 meals when we are in the car so much.

This morning we left around 7:30 for the Toukley Ward.  They have a beautiful building and had about 50 people in attendance.  The Bishop has been a member about 10 years and has been Bishop for 6 years and they all just love him.  His oldest child is 8.  All the meetings were wonderful, the lady that led the music in Sacrament Meeting taught the Sunday School lesson and the Relief Society lesson.  There are 2 sets of sister missionaries there, and one of them was in the Blacktown Ward with us for about 6 months.  It was so good to see her again. 

After the meetings we followed Malcolm and Helen Arvidson to their home.  He retired from the service center a couple of months ago, and went back to Toukley where they had a home.  It is such a nice home and they have and are doing a lot of work on it.  We ate a delicious dinner of Barbecue chicken on the grill with pineapple and asparagus on the grill, and 3 salads.  Malcolm then showed us a book that Helen had made for him for his 6oth birthday.  It is of a lot of the pictures he has taken when they have traveled.  It was beautiful.  They then gave us a book to take home “Landscapes of Australia” and it has beautiful pictures.  We had taken a crystal nativity set for them.  We then got in their car and they showed us a lot of the country for a couple of hours, beautiful beaches, a lighthouse, and some forested area.  What a fun day.  We are going to miss them.  We got home about 6:30, got unpacked and had a sandwich, I wrote a spiritual thought for meeting in the morning.

We love you all and appreciate the love and support from each of you.

Mum and Dad

October 19 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia October 19, 2014          

Dear Family and Friends,

What another busy week this has been.  Last week while talking to you we were bragging about the weather, telling you how it had gone from winter to summer with no spring temps.  That was probably a mistake with the weather we had at the beginning of this week.  Monday afternoon the clouds came in and that evening it started thundering and lightening and rain.  Tuesday was just cloudy and about 60 degree’s.  Tuesday night around 7 it started with thunder and lightning and wind and rain all night long.  Wednesday night while watching the weather they said it was the perfect storm of the century, with cyclone force winds and heavy rain. They had flooding in parts of Sydney, large trees blown over, power outages that were still out for some on Thursday.  In the Blue Mountains they got snow that shut down the buses, trains, and closed roads and school, and a lot of power outages.  The news showed the kids building snow men.  Just a year ago they were fighting bush fires and this year an early snow storm.  Crazy weather!  The rest of the week was in the 60’s and some clouds but no more rain.  Yesterday it was cloudy in the morning in the 60’s, sunny in the afternoon in the 70’s, and today was 85.  There is rain predicted for a couple days this week.

Last Sunday the new mission office couple came in to replace the Feil’s.  They are the Williams from Brisbane.  They have been married 16 years, both 2^nd marriages.  He is from England and she from Brisbane.  They are going to be a lot of fun.  They are staying in Temple Housing until the Feil’s leave on the 30^th.

Monday Mark talked to us about having Sister Rogers come down next week.  Sister Smylie made the airplane reservations for Tuesday afternoon and they will leave Thursday afternoon.  Mark made Hotel reservations in Parametta for them and we will be responsible for taking them to dinner Tuesday night, and Wednesday night, and getting them to the office on Wednesday.  Elder Smylie and Dad are going to get them from the airport and take them back.  Dad told Mark he thought it would be nice to make a plaque up to present to her with her two family cards that she had typed up and put in the boxes.  He had pulled them out and Mark thought that was a good idea.  Dad got pictures out and the Smylies helped us design it.  We went across the street for lunch to see if there was a framing shop but there wasn’t.  There was a place to get pictures printed and we decided we needed them 5x7.  There is a picture of Sister Rogers with her husband, and one of Dad and I working on the cards.  We liked it so much that I typed up our information on cards and we are going to get one made for us.  We were so late at the mall getting the pictures printed that we missed going to the Temple.  Wednesday morning we got the final design done and left to go to a framing place I found over by Castle Hills Mall.  They will be done on Tuesday.  Mark said to go about $150.00 and we are getting it done for $122.00.  I think he will like it.  He was out the rest of the week for his father-in-laws funeral and will be back tomorrow.   We finished another box of cards and now we have just one to do.  We don’t know how much we will get done this week but we would like to get a good start on it.  We are taking Friday off to go up the coast to a couple of beaches we haven’t seen and then we speak in Toukley on Sunday.  Malcolm and Helen have invited us for lunch after Church.  That is our last speaking assignment and we are feeling kind of sad.  It has been fun to visit the branches and meet the members.

Last Saturday as we were in the elevator to come home our little Chinese neighbor was with us and said his wife had the baby and that she was jaundiced so they were worried.  We told him that all of ours were and they were fine.  We checked with them on Thursday and she was much better.  She is so little and cute, and her name is Emily.  His mother is here from China for a few weeks to help out and she speaks no English but is so cute and gracious.  We went to the mall Friday at noon to get a few baby things for them, and the Moore’s and us took them over Friday afternoon after work.  They were very pleased.  They baby is 2 weeks old today.  They wanted us to hold her but we told her we would in a couple of weeks, and to knock on our door’s if they need anything.  Friday afternoon the Smith’s called and asked us if they could take us to dinner before we left, and we said anytime, and they said now.  They had not been to Parametta to eat so we went down there.  They had roads blocked off and it was a mess to find a parking spot, but we did about 2 blocks away.  We walked over and looked at all the restaurants and a police man that was on the street said a parade was going to start anytime.  We decided to eat at Criniti’s and we sat outside.  We had pizza and Elder Smith had ribs.  The parade started just after we ordered.  The festival was called parramasala and is a celebration of the many rich and diverse cultures in Sydney.  It was really interesting and fun to see.  After eating we crossed the street and started back to the car and saw a pastry shop so went in and each got something and sat and ate it and visited some more.  The owner came and brought us some samples of other pastries, one with honey and cheese and it was warm.  The other was just a sweet one, all very good.  It was a good thing Dad and I split a pizza.

When we got back to our building we were waiting for the elevator when the Killebrew’s came out of it.  They said to come to their place to visit so we did.  They invited us to go with them and the Williams on Saturday to Paddington Markets in Sydney and then to lunch at PaPa’s, an Italian pastry place.  We said sure so we left around 9, picked up the Williams and drove down to Paddington’s.  This is a little street market we hadn’t been to before.  Everything there has to be made by the vendor so there was wood, metal, clothes, jewelry, tiles, etc.  It was really fun to walk around.  I bought a beautiful scarf out of Australian wool, and while I was paying for it a couple was there and asked where we were from and what we were doing here.  They asked us where we were living and when we told them Carlingford they said we must be Latter Day Saints and asked if saw the Christmas display and the story of Christ in pictures.  We told them we were and had worked at the display.  They said they enjoy it each year and said they live in Epping.  Dad bought some tiles that were painted on.  We had parked at Centennial Park and walked about 3 blocks to the market.  We drove to PaPa’s and it was packed.  Everyone comes there to get Cannoli’s, and Italian pastry that is filled with custard, chocolate custard, or cheese.  They are to die for.  We did eat sandwiches that were very good before Elder Killebrew went and bough the Cannoli’s.  We came home and went to the store to get the food for Family Home Evening tomorrow night.

Today we went to Church at Blacktown and it was interesting how many people said they saw our article in the Newsroom.  We were really pleased with the way the Allen’s wrote it.  We hope you all had a chance to read it.   We came home and fixed dinner, then got the food ready for tomorrow night.  We just made the most delicious sweet potato salad, Tyson save us some sweet potatoes and I will make it when we get home.  We will go early to Buckland House to start the barbecue chicken and take everything in.  I think we have it all ready to go. 

It is getting late so we will close for now.  We are hoping the onion harvest is going well, we enjoyed the video Tyson posted.  The farmers markets are also almost done for another year, and next year we will be there to do ours.  We are looking forward to talking to you tomorrow.

We sang “Teach Me To Walk in the Light” in Sacrament Meeting and in Relief Society so maybe we all need to hear the words.

Teach me to walk in the light of his love;  Teach me to pray to my Father above; Teach me to know of the things that are right; Teach me, Teach me to walk in the light.

Come little child, and together we’ll learn, of his commandments, that we may return, Home to his presence, to live in his sight, Always, always to walk in the light.

Father in Heaven, we thank thee this day, For loving guidance to show us the way.  Grateful, we praise thee with songs of delight! Gladly, gladly, we’ll walk in the light.    

Love you all!      

Mum and Dad

October 12 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday October 12, 2014

Dear Family & Friends,

This has really been a busy week, and a really good one.  At work we finished all the rework we had to do and now we are down to only 2 boxes to copy, providing all of the ones we have sent in pass the audit.  Actually the only ones are the ones we sent in on Friday, 9500, that have not been audited.  We do have some to put away tomorrow.  We normally get an audit on Wednesday or Thursday.  We felt a great relief to have them done, they are the ones that were taken with the Canon camera that Danny was trying to get the audit cancelled, but we decided to do them anyway as we are running out of time.

A card we found that was interesting said;

                Robert Pinkerton WILLIAMSON, a jockey,

                Born: 19^th Sept 1885                                       

                Died: 11 May 1912

                Age: 26 years    

                Husband of Ethel WILLIAMSON, accidentally killed while riding Vibrator on the Albion Park Racecourse.                                                                                                                                                                                   

Last Monday night was Family Home Evening.  Sister Moore served roast beef, potatoes and carrots, and a salad.  It was really good.   It was Labor Day, a holiday, so we were able to get things fixed at home.  We made trifle and it was almost gone.  We played a short Book of Mormon trivia, Elder Feil got 15 out of 19 possible, and Sister Allen got 14.  We had asked everyone to bring a favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon and tell why it was a favorite.  There were no duplicates which was surprising.  Dave, Rashika, and Devmini were there and Dave gave his favorite from the Bible.  They weren’t asked to bring one because we hadn’t been able to get a hold of them until late Monday afternoon. 

Tuesday we were working when the door bell rang, and Dad went to get it.  It was Elder and Sister Finch from the Salt Ash Branch.  They had come down to get a new car and turn their old one in.  Elder Killebrew exchanged 7 new cars this week.  We tried to talk Stoo Cox and Elder Killebrew into letting us have one for a month, but to no avail.  We decided to run across the street for lunch with the Finch’s as they didn't have to meet to get the car until 1:00.  We had a very enjoyable lunch with the Finch’s, Smylie’s,  and a couple of young Sister Missionaries.  One was from West Jordan, and one from Tasmania.  It was her birthday so Sister Smylie went a got her a birthday cake and candles.  It was P day and most of the missionaries attend the Temple in the morning, and then run across the street for lunch, so they were all around us, so we had them help us sing Happy Birthday.  She was really pleased and passed the cake around for all the Elders.  She was baptized 2 years ago and is the only member of her family in the Church.  It was strange to come out of the Temple with it still light out at night.  The moon was almost full and was beautiful.  When we got home, Dad and Elder Killebrew went to the roof to get some pictures.  Dad actually went out 3 times.

Wednesday night we were invited to dinner at a family’s home from our ward in Blacktown, the Matiu family.  They wanted to have us over before we go home.  They live about 45 minutes away.  The mother lost her husband in July from Diabetes.  He was the Ward Mission leader so we had talked to him before.  Their daughter, son-in-law, and 3 year old daughter live with her.  They were born in New Zealand, and the daughter’s husband was born in Samoa.  His parents are Mission President in Papua New Guinea.   They had a pork roast and delicious sweet potato salad with corn and bacon.  I need to get the recipe.  They had brownie alamode for desert.  We sat and visited for almost 3 hours.  The husband is a security guard and got ready for work as we were leaving.  He had a BYU shirt on, and I asked him why he likes the Y.  He said Taysom Hill served his mission here and had been in their home to eat many times.  I gave him the sad news about the broken leg and that he would be out the rest of the season.  We knew he had served his mission here but hadn't met anyone who knew him, it was only one mission then. 

Thursday night we went to the store before coming home.  We found out the entire building had no television all week.  That is how much TV we watch.  Friday the Smith’s called and said the BYU game would be on TV at 10:30 and we could watch it at their neighbors home.  We went over and really enjoyed the game, other than the final score.  They just had too many stupid penalties in the 2^nd half, and then a no call on the final play.  Oh well, just a game, but it was really fun to watch.  We all didn't realize how much we would miss watching the games.

Friday night was the Baptism and everyone has been so excited.  Dad was asked to take pictures so we went early.  They were having a pot luck dinner after so the Ward and the Sr Missionaries all brought something.  We made 2 grape salad’s, the grapes are beautiful this time of year.  It was Devmini’s 14th birthday so Rashika made a beautiful cake and cupcakes for her.  There were around 60 people there, Malcolm and Helen even came down from Toukley.  There were 12 Sr Missionaries there, as well as 5 Elders, and 2 sets of Sister Missionaries.  

The program was as follows:                                                                                                                                

                Opening Hymn:  I Am A Child Of God

                Opening Prayer:  Elder Wang         

                Talk:  Sister Archibald

                                                Baptism of Dave, Rashika and Devmini

                Musical  Item: Senior Elder Missionaries and Dave, “How Great Thou Art”

                Talk:  Josie Mackie

                                                Confirmation of Dave, Rashika and Devmini

                Closing Remarks:  Bishop Cox

                Closing Hymn:  Families Can Be Together Forever

                Closing Prayer:  Rachel Laugery

                                     

It was so wonderful and Dad got some great pictures.  Dave and Rashika also bore their testimonies and did a great job.       

There was so much food we thought there would be tons of leftovers, but everyone just kept going back so most of it was gone, and what was left we gave to the young missionaries.  They were very excited to take it.  After cleaning up we had a little birthday party for Devmini, and some people had brought gifts for the Baptism so the Moore’s, Archibald’s, Bishop Cox and Terri, and Us, just watched them.  We had gotten a CTR ring for Devmini and she really liked it.  Dad copied a talk about the CTR ring that we gave her also.  We had so much fun and then helped load the cars and got home around 10.

Yesterday we cleaned the flat before going to Parklea to get a few more things, then went on a ride to see some ground we hadn’t been to before a couple of hours away.  Around 2 Dad asked how far away we were from Wiseman’s Ferry, he was in the mood for a good hamburger.  I punched it in “Tilly” and we were only 45 min away so off we went.  It was very good and worth the wait.  We found some peach and plum orchards on the way home over roads we hadn’t gone on before.  Some were on dirt roads.  We got home around 6. 

Today was General Conference here in Australia, so we just stayed home and watched it on the computer.  Great talks and music.  We really enjoyed it.  Before dinner we went over to Dave and Rashika’s as Dave leaves early in the morning to go back to Sr Lanka and we wanted to tell him good bye as we will be gone when he comes back the end of November.  He was watching the hurricane hit India as he has a factory about 4 kilometers from where it hit.  He was really worried about the people in the area, most are in just thatched houses.  The winds were 120 miles per hour.

Mark sent us an email Friday morning that Melinda’s father had passed away Thursday.  We don’t know anything else but he has been in poor health for some time.  Mark and Melinda were on holiday at the Gold Coast in Queensland, and her sister from here is in Scotland on holiday, and another sister lives in Draper, Utah.  Hopefully he will let us know tomorrow what the plans are.

It is almost 10 so we had better sign off for now.  Talk to you tomorrow.  A great scripture about Baptism we all need to remember:

2 Nephi 31:5                                                                                                                                                            “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel.”

We love you all:

Mum and Dad

October 5 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday Oct 5, 2014,

Dear Family and Friends,

Here it is our last full month in this Beautiful Country.  The time is flying by.  The weather this week has been beautiful, in the 70’s every day.  We didn’t even get our jackets out once on our little trip.  Friday was cloudy but still warm, and yesterday was off and on cloudy but nice.  Today was hot, 95 when we came out of Church.  Spring lasted one week.  Hopefully it cools off a little, we need a little 80’s before 90’s. We will not complain though seeing as we are coming home in winter.  That wasn’t very good planning, and we didn’t plan it, it just happened with all the visa delay’s.

This week was wonderful.  Dad had made a list of about 20 towns in the country, so when we left Denman Monday morning after having a continental breakfast that was in our room, little boxes of cereal, milk, juice and toast, I just put the first town in Tilley and off we went.  We saw such beautiful ground, with grain, canola, and alfalfa that was being cut most places.  Some of the towns were just a couple of farm houses, and others were a street.  It was so much fun.  We stopped at a country store that was like a huge DI and walked through it.  I found a couple of used books that I got.  We tried to stop and walk around at least every two hours.  We talked to a few farmers.  We saw lots of cows with new calves, and sheep with lambs.  We also went on a lot of dirt roads, but the dirt roads here are very smooth and nice driving.  In the afternoon Monday we were driving along when I saw a sign for the Bee Gee cemetery, so Dad turned around and we went on a dirt road and found an Aboriginal Cemetery.  At least half of the graves were just mounds of dirt with a white cross that stated the name, date of death, and sometimes the age.  The other graves had big nice headstones, usually with a picture of the individual.  There were probably 2-3 hundred graves.  It was in a forest and had a fence around it.  Dad took a lot of pictures.

Tuesday morning we started early and continued with the list of towns.  About 11 we stopped for fuel and just grabbed sandwiches from the service station and drinks, and was on our way again.  In the afternoon we drove to the Siding Springs Observatory that was on the top of a mountain.  It was really interesting.  We got to all the towns of the list except one because Dad didn’t want to drive after dark, so we drove to Mudgee and got there about 5:30.  We found a place at the Winning Post Motor Inn and checked in then walked to the Restaurant at the Inn.  The counter guy that checked us in was also taking care of the restaurant.  He said a couple of girls would be in anytime.  There were only 3 tables being used before the girls came.  We ordered fish, me Salmon and Dad Barramundi.  It was so good, served on sliced baked potatoes and grilled vegetables with a white sauce over it.  We are going to miss the fresh fish when we go home.

Wednesday morning we drove to Lithgow for breakfast, then came home through Bilpin, which is the apple capital of Australia.  We stopped at a little road side stand and asked the girl working who made the homemade pies she was selling for $9.00.  She said her Mum, so we bought one, and a few other things.  We got home about 2:30 and I did a couple of loads of laundry.  The Feil’s picked us up about 5:15 to go to Arthur and Judy Sheen’s home for dinner.  They wanted to have the four of us before we go home.  They also invited President and Sister Barr and Brother Stewart that is here from the Temple Department.  Judy is from Hong Kong and she fixed an absolutely delicious Chinese dinner.  She had sweet and sour chicken, ham fried rice, beef stir fry, honey and sesame seed chicken, a pork dish, curry pockets, and egg rolls.  For dessert she had a mandarin in a flaky crust, cheesecake, and ice cream.  While eating dessert Brother Stewart told his conversion story.  He was raised in St. Joseph, Missouri and was raised Baptist, the religion of his mother.  His father was Lutheran, and other relatives that lived close were other religions.  He used to question his mother when he was younger why there was so many different religions, and she said it didn’t matter where you went as long as you live your religion.  He had a best friend that they did everything together.  One day his friend’s mother had to go to Liberty Missouri and took them along.  They had most of the day to just wander around and check out the town.  They were standing in front of a sign about the Mormon’s and laughing when a man came up, took them by the neck and said come with me.  He took them to the Liberty Jail and they were afraid he was going to lock them up.  He gave them a tour of the jail and as they were leaving he called them back and gave them a couple of pamphlets.  As they were driving home, his friends mother noticed the pamphlet and told her son to tear it up immediately and to have nothing to do with the Mormon’s.  Brother Stewart who was in the back seat slid his pamphlet inside other papers he had.  When he got home he read it and said it all made complete sense.  He didn’t want to lose it so he put it in his Baptist Bible.  He said when he went to Church on Sunday he was probably the only one there with the Joseph Smith story in his bible.  When he was 16 he was playing basketball with friends in a park and after the other boys left he continued to shoot baskets.  A couple of young men in white shirts and ties rode up on bikes and asked if they could shoot with him.  He said it only took a couple of minutes for him to realize they knew nothing about basketball.  They said they were missionaries and would he like to learn about Jesus Christ.  He said he was Baptist and happy with that.  As they were getting on their bikes they said if you ever want to know the story of Joseph Smith to call them.  He said you mean the boy that was confused about religion and prayed in the Sacred Grove and the Father and his son Jesus Christ came down and spoke to him.  They were shocked and just looked at him.  They went over to a picnic table and talked for hours.  He was very excited to learn all he could.  He was baptized when he was 18 and started dating the only LDS girl in his High School.  Just before he turned 19 the Bishop called him into his office after Church and asked him if he wanted to go on a mission.  He told him he had a girl friend, a new car, and a job so he didn’t think so.  The Bishop just said that his girlfriend was going to BYU and would be snatched up by a RM, but to come back in when he was ready to go.  He said a few months later his car started having major problems and one day while driving the steering went completely out.  He pulled the car to the side of the road wondering what to do when a man stopped and offered him $500.00 for the car and he took it.  In the meantime his mother and dad got divorced and his mother remarried and moved away, and so he had no place to live, so he quit his job and moved with her.  And about this time he got a Dear John letter from his girlfriend who had indeed met an RM.  The next week at Church he went into the Bishop’s office and said he was ready to go on a mission.  The Bishop had him fill out the paperwork right there, made an appointment with a Dr that lived in the Ward for the next day, and after the physical the Dr took him across the hall to a Dentist who did an exam and signed off the paper work.  The Stake President came to the Bishop’s house that night and signed it, put it in the Mail on Tuesday, and ten days later he had his call to the California San Francisco mission.  He told the Bishop he had no money to pay for a mission and the Bishop said there are people in the Ward that will support you on your mission. His mother was very supportive and took him shopping to get his clothes.    One night he and his companion had a dinner appointment with members in a very wealthy part of town.  The butler answered the door and showed them into the dining room where the longest table he had ever seen was set for four, one at each end, and one on each side.  An older couple came shuffling into the room and had them sit down for dinner.  They were served several courses of very good food.  The couple said it was too hard for them to go to Church anymore but they enjoyed having the missionaries for dinner.  Brother Stewart kept asking the man if he knew him but he kept saying no.  As they were leaving the couple told them they had served three missions together and said they hadn’t done much good in any of them.  Elder Stewart asked where they had served and when the man said the Liberty Jail in Missouri, Brother Stewart told the story of he and his friend being taken there by a missionary.  The lady said her husband was always in town rounding up people to see the jail.  Brother Stewart said because of him he joined the Church.  The man hugged him and was so happy.  A couple of days later the butler came to their door just as they were fixing peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and said the couple wanted to take them to lunch.  Over lunch the man kept calling him his missionary and introduced him to others.  The man passed away before Brother Stewart completed his mission.  Sorry to have bored you but we thought it was so interesting.

We went back to the office on Thursday and started on the rework.  We have decided we have to be finished with all the cards by Oct 31^st in order to have an audit back before we can put all the equipment away.  We have two full boxes, and 1 ½ boxes of rework to do in 4 weeks.  Mark came in with a bottle of Pina Colada caramel popcorn for the four of us to share, and a box of dark chocolate covered macadamia’s.  Yummy!  Mark is going to be on holiday next week.

Yesterday we met the Killebrew’s at the car at 7:30 to go the river cat to go to the Quays.  Dad wanted to get another picture of the bridge and the opera house with the sun different from the last one he took.  Elder Killebrew just bought a new camera so wanted to try it out.  They walked over to Mrs. Maquarie’s point and we stood on the opera house steps so they could see us.  With the new camera on zoom they could.  When they came back we were in a little café by the opera house and we each shared a hamburger with everything on it including the egg.  We then walked to the rocks and found the street market that had the Christmas Store in it and I bought a nativity set of Koala Bears, a Santa Clause, and Dad picked out an ornament made out of Banksia Nut.  We then walked up the market and Dad found a cutting board out of wood in the shape of Australia.  We were happy with our purchases.  Sister Killebrew and I sat down on a wall and they went up to the Sydney Observatory and then met us back at the Quays where we got a cup of mango yogurt and waited for our ferry home.  We got home a little after 5 and went to Parametta to a restaurant the Archibald’s had told us about.  Dad and I had a prawn dish over rice with a white sauce and it was really good.  We have enough left for lunch.  It was another great day.

Today we went to Church at Blacktown Ward and it was wonderful.  The time changed last night so we moved ahead one hour, and it was light until 8 tonight.  It will be different to get used to again.

Guess we had better close.  Thanks Ann and Dan for the letter, we will try and answer it this week.  We have Family Home Evening tomorrow night and we have the dessert and lesson.  Everyone has asked me to make the trifle again so I am going to, and we are doing a Book Of Mormon trivia and have asked everyone to bring a favorite scripture from the Book Of Mormon.  It will be fun.  Tomorrow is Labor Day holiday so we don’t have to work.  We are going to the office to call you, we can’t miss two weeks in a row.  It was fun to see Dixon get his arrow of light badge this week, it was a great ceremony by the Order of the Arrow.  We remember when Deven did all those ceremonies.  It brings back lots of good memories.

We love you all and you are all in our prayers daily.

Mum and Dad

September 28 2014 Weekly Letter

Australia Sunday September 28, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a pretty quiet week with Mark and the Smylie’s out of the office.  Elder Meyers came in on Monday, but Elder Cummings was sick.  They both worked at Church buildings Tues and Wed and they didn’t come in the rest of the week.  We finished all the cards except for 2 boxes that Mark wants us to keep for the middle of October.  We are going to do the big rework when we get back in the office on Thursday.  Friday was Birthday morning tea and was really good as usual. 

Saturday morning we went to the office to sign some papers and get them emailed to Salt Lake and we called Tyson to see how he was doing with the onion harvest as we knew a big storm was coming in.  He said he was leaving to take the kids to their piano recital, so we ran home, packed to be gone for 4 days, and went back to the office and saw Aunna, Dixon, and Makenna play, then we left to go to Martin Harvey’s home about an hour away by The Entrance.  He is going to carve me a bone necklace and Dad wanted to see how he does it.  He showed us his house and the remodeling he has been doing, then worked on the bone.  It is going to be beautiful! 

We then drove up to Nelson Bay, and stopped for lunch on the way.  We checked into our motel with an absolutely stunning view of the harbor.  I took a picture and didn’t know my Ipad was on video.  Oh well, I got it off.  The Smylie’s picked us up around 5:30, they were up there to help with a family history fair at the Salt Ash Branch.    Elder and Sister Finch followed them so we could all go out to eat together.  They are assigned to the Salt Ash Branch and they love it there.  We ate a really good steak at the Hogs Breath restaurant.  We had lots of fun just visiting for a couple of hours.  The Finch’s are from Mapleton in Utah County and he retired from teaching at Springville High School.

This morning we checked out of the Motel and rode around looking at the beautiful country before going to Salt Ash.  They meet at the Civic Center in Medowie, and the Assembly of God Church meets there in the morning, so the Branch meets at 1-4.  There were about 40 people in attendance today.  Ralph Arvidson, who is Malcom’s older brother is a counselor in the Presidency.  Malcolm used to work in the Service Center and he and Helen had the Sr. missionaries to their home several times.  They live in Toukley, where we talk next month.  The young women sang “Come, Comer Ye Saints”, and they have 1 Laurel who plays the electric keyboard for the meeting, 1 Mia Maid who leads the music, and 2 beehives.  Their advisor also sang with them.  A 10 year old Primary Boy read a scripture, then on e of the Beehive girls gave a talk.  The advisor also went up and helped her.  You could tell she was really nervous and we found out later that she was baptized in February and this was the first time she had ever given a talk.  There were about 25 primary children.  It was so good to be there with them.

After Church we drove to Denman and checked into our Motel and then walked for a couple of blocks, there are really a lot of old buildings here.  We saw beautiful farm ground on the way here.  We also stopped in Maitland to drop a paper off to the missionaries for the Mission office.  Tomorrow we are leaving for a couple of days and just driving around to look at some new farm ground where we have not been before. 

The weather has been beautiful this week, other than Thursday when it was cloudy and we got a down pour around noon that dropped 1 inch in 10 minutes.  We had a river running down the driveway.  We were so glad we were in the office, we had just got back from running over to the mall.  Yesterday and today the temps were about 5 degrees above average.  Hopefully Spring is finally here.  We do have a chance of rain on Friday.

We are going to miss talking to you all tomorrow, but we will be in the office Sunday Morning when Priesthood meeting lets out and you are all eating dinner so we can visit.  Have a good week.  We love you all.

Mum and Dad