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 31st 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
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