Monday, 14 Aug - We spent time canceling the cable tv service and setting up a dental appointment in Maclean. In the afternoon Margaret went to the hospital with one of the sisters and Mike ran some errands before picking them up at the hospital. Then the elders joined us and we gave the sister a blessing. In return we came home with some ham & pea soup. Oh yes, after 1 year in the city Mike has started to do my morning walks & exercise. His arms and shoulders are a bit sore due to the change in inactivity to activity.
Tuesday, 15 Aug - We made arrangements to visit one of the members who lives at Dirty Creek. Did some more laundry. Then we drove 40 km to Whipporie to meet one of the sisters, but found out that she had sold her store 6 months ago and moved to some place outside of Sydney. Now we need to see if we can find a good address for her. Then off to Lawrence, along the Clarence River, to see another sister but she was still at work. We did get to talk with her daughter and now have a mobile number to call. The drive was nice through the country. We saw a number of sugar cane fields in and around Lawrence. The farmers burn off the leaves which lets the sugar cane stalks be easier to harvest. We did not see any of the fields being burned, so those particular fields must not be ready for harvest yet. Then back to the meeting house for the Primary youth activity. We have more neighbor kids than members attending. The neighbors like it because it gives their children a nice thing to do and way to play for an hour or so.
We have started to set some weekly schedules now -
Tuesday - Primary Activity day and Faith in God after school. Young Men, but this will move to Thursdays in about 2 weeks
Wednesday - District Training meeting with the Young Missionaries. Reading Book of Mormon with Joseph & Decklin Lynch. Getting them prepared to start Seminary next year (we hope).
Thursday - Young Women
Monday, Friday, Saturday - visiting the branch members and handling welfare/service requests. (we do this on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday also).
Sunday - Church meetings and visits.
Thursday, 17 Aug - we drove out to 1 Dundoo Reach, Dirty Creek, NSW. we visited with Brother Ward who is a past president of the branch. He lives on about 100 acres of land and the GPS got us close, but was still 2 km off. We did find Bro Ward by semi-accident and had a good visit with him and his dogs. Then we went across country to visit with Sister Wallbank - and we did get lost trying to find her thanks to the GPS. We ended up going down a dirt path across a few ditches until the road ended at the home of a man who told us we were lost and not where we wanted to be. We could see from the GPS that Sister Wallbank was just over the woods a bit, but there was NO road to get there, so we back tracked and found her home on a nice, blacktop road - go figure, but Google Maps does not work well out in the Australian country side. But the drive & visits were nice.
18-19 August - We made a trip up to Brisbane (3 3/4 hours) to attend the temple as part of the branch temple trip. We stayed in a hotel about 2 blocks from the temple on Friday night. Brisbane/Gold Coast/Surfer's Paradise is a LONG city - it is about 50 km long and seems to take forever to traverse. The Brisbane temple is a pretty temple and the temple site is really nice. It was good to attend the temple. We were able to attend 1 endowment session and then performed sealings for branch members, including many family members of Brother Ward. Then lunch and head back to Grafton. We did stop along the way and saw some feral chickens at the rest stop. Mike was also able to spot an echidna (live, not dead) along the side of the road towards the end of the Gold Coast part of the trip. It is surprising that the echdna was so close to city. We were able to have two of the branch sisters ride with us both ways.
22 August - Brother Tom Jones showed Mike/Elder Haley how to find addresses of members using the AEC (Australian Electoral Centre) computer system. It is nice that all registered voters are on the system and anyone can access the Electoral records to find addresses. We were able to find some addresses of members who have moved from Grafton and are in other parts of Australia.
23 August - We attend District Training Meeting every Tuesday at 10 am. Elders from Grafton meet with us at the branch meeting house and we add the Elders from Coff's Harbour on the phone since they are part of the district. We spend about 1 1/2 hours reviewing the past week's activities and then being taught by the District Leader (currently Elder Ta'ala). He does a good job and we really learn things from his instruction. He usually uses a talk or presentation from one of the First Presidency or one of the Twelve Apostles, and we read parts of it and discuss what we learn/get from the talk.
24 August - Today was a clean up more of the house day - we are getting closer to having everything cleaned up. We attended Young Women and Margaret helped sew up the skirts the girls will wear during Trek which will be held the last weekend of September. The girls are getting close to having their clothes ready. The Young Men will be getting their clothes over the next 1-2 weeks. Next week there will be a practice hike from the branch meeting house to Junction Hill.
25 August - Today was more cleaning and preparing food for the weekend. We will have Ka Yi, Deshao & Shawn from Hyde Park visiting with us. Margaret also had to make a run to the hospital to help a sister get home and buy some food for her. There always seems to be an errand of mercy each day, but I have not mentioned them in each day - it is just becoming part of life. The YSA get into Grafton at about 30 minutes after midnight tonight and will stay at a lodging room a few km from our home. We will pick them up tomorrow and do some touring of the area.
26 August - Playing tour guide today for the YSA from Hyde Park. Ka Yi Ng, Shawn Long, Deshao Liu came up to Grafton for a visit. It was SO NICE to have them visit and stay with us. We went our to Iluka beach on Saturday via Kellymorgan road where we were able to find/see kangaroos in the wild. The kids cooked a Chinese dinner for us Saturday night and we had the Grafton Missionary Elders over for dinner as well. We were overly stuffed by the feast. Sunday we went to Church and Shawn & Deshao helped pass the sacrament. After Church we went for a walk down to the Clarence River and then home for Lasagne before taking the Three Musketeers to the train station for their ride back to Sydney.
The sun coming up during morning exercise
Sugar cane field near Lawrence, NSW
more sun rise
more sun rise. I really like the sun rise here in Grafton. Prettier than the pictures
Yes, the sun is coming up
Hah, finally made it up out of the horizon
One of the roads (better one) in looking for Sister Wallbank
A couple of roos out in the field as we travel from Bro Wards to Sister Wallbank
Dirt road that "leads" to Sister Wallbank, but this is NOT the road. Dumb Google maps or Dumb Mike for believing Maps.
young women & leaders sewing the skirts for Trek
Brisbane Temple
Brisbane Temple
Feral roosters at a rest stop on the way from Brisbane to Grafton
Yes, you guessed it - a sunrise
Primary Activity day/Faith in God - making Father's Day cards and gifts. Father's Day is on the first Sunday of September in Austrlia
The sun is rising again
It will get there,through the clouds
Made it, in all its glory. Love the sun rises during my morning walks
Margaret, Shawn, Deshao, Ka Yi in the "I Scream" retro 50/60 cafe
On the road to find 'roos
We found some
The wild kangaroo hunters
Mail boxes, OZ style
More Roos - watching us or us watching them???
The road to Iluka lookout
One of the trees at the lookout
Iluka lookout - rocky area
Trying to decide if we want to go down on the rocks
the answer was "yes" let's go. Margaret, Ka Yi, Deshao, Shawn
Enjoying the view - Margaret & Ka Yi Ng
Elder & Sister Haley
Splash - well we did not get wet, but it was possible
Checking out the rocky shoreline
Deciding if we wanted any of the sea life for dinner - NOT
Whew, that was a tiring time at Iluka
Preparing the Chinese dinner feast - with music to calm the raging chefs
The feast & guests
More guests and more feast
Our neighbors as we walked down to the Clarence River
Checking out the Clarence River to see if it is fresh or salt water - Fresh of course, but fun to check it out.
looking out over the Clarence River
The last train to Clarkesville, er I mean Sydney
Yes, they were really in Grafton - Shawn, Ka Yi, Deshao
On the way back to Sydney. thanks for coming and brightening up our lives for a few days. Love you HEAPS
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