Sunday, September 17, 2017

Sunday, 17 September 2017

Monday, 11 Sep - We said good-bye to Zizi this morning as we put her on a bus to Byron Bay at 0800.  Margaret went to help continue the declutter of one of the sister's homes and Mike went back to the house to vacuum & clean.  Finally got the last of the unwanted things in the garage into the rubbish bin.  Now we can make our own clutter.  Dinner tonight is meatloaf and we have Scott coming over for dinner and FHE.  Both Margaret & I took a nap this afternoon to catch up on rest that we missed over the past few days.

Tuesday, 12 Sep - we made a trip to Bunnings (hardware store) to pickup an inside/outside thermometer.  We are told that it will get hot here in Grafton and we wanted to be able to measure the outside (and inside) temperatures when the summer months arrived.  So far this spring the lows outside have been in the 9-11 C range - chilly, but not too cold.  Then over to one of the Sisters places in South Grafton.  She is moving houses - just around the corner thank goodness.  We spent a lot of time packing and removing "clutter".  Then some of the rest of the ward  helped move the packed things over to the new house.  We were able to make it to the Primary youth activity at the branch meeting house in the afternoon. The kids played soccer with the young missionaries.

Wednesday, 13 Sep - Talked with Mom Haley this morning.  She still has an extra house guest for another week or so. Then we went back to South Grafton to help finish packing and moving the sister. We did not read Book of Mormon with the YM today as the flu is still making a rampage through Grafton and the boys are recovering, but not well enough yet.  We miss reading with them as they bring some very good comments and questions.  We held District Training Meeting (DTM) at our house at 730pm.  I accused the elders of doing this so that we would provide dinner before the DTM.😁Elder Gibb is the new District Leader and he did a great job conducting the meeting and providing the training - his first.  The training lesson was on "The Spyglass" by Richard Paul Evans.  It was about vision and having a vision which would lead us to making the vision become reality - we are what we think we are.

Thursday, 14 Sep - Today was an errand and fix things around the house day. No emergencies today.  We did go back to South Grafton for a bit in the morning to help sweep out the house for the sister there, and we did take a car load of things over to the new house.  YM/YW was held together tonigh and will be from now on.  The YM/YW made a practice TREK by pushing wheelbarrows around the neighborhood which had several bricks in them to add weight. Margaret worked with Sister Stiller on a shoe box charity project and prepared for the upcoming 72 hour kit activity this coming Saturday.

Friday, 15 Sep - BE NOT WEARY OF WELL DOING. A day without having to clean or move one of the members.  It was a welcome relief and change from the last 3 days.  We did go to the bank and ask them to check the night deposit box as one of the Church deposits had not been recorded.  We had a similar problem in Sydney where the night deposit box was either not checked regularly or the deposit was stuck up in the box.  Either way, this causes a problem when Church HQ looks for a deposit in our bank account and it does not show up.  The bank people said they would have a look into the box and let us know.  We got a call from the Elders and the Auntie of one of our members was admitted into the Emergency room with breathing issues, so we headed to hospital.  There we met with the lady and talked with her for a while.  Then asked the nurse if we could have some privacy so that we could administer a blessing.  The Auntie is a member of another faith, but she was pleased to have us give her a blessing.  Then back downtown to try out the Indian restaurant there - it was a good meal and we will go back.  While downtown Margaret took me on a shopping trip to look for items to be put into the shoe boxes.  The shoe boxes are for children ages 2 to 14 in some of the 3rd world countries.  This is a community service project and not directly sponsored by the Church. We found several things, plus some items for the 72 hour kit activity on Saturday.

Saturday, 16 Sep - The Relief Society held a "72 hour kit" emergency preparedness activity this morning.  There was a reasonable turnout, but not the largest.  Several items were distributed to help the sisters get started in making their 72 hour kit.  Mike went over to one of the neighbors during this time and visited with her as she was having a garage sale.  She was wearing an apron that one of the ladies in town made and sold - it had a lively aboriginal print on the front.  I showed it to Margaret when she got back from the RS activity.  We spent awhile talking with Maureen and offered to help take things to the "Op shop" (opportunity or thrift store) in town if they were not sold by her.  She will try 1 more garage sale this coming weekend and then take any leftovers to the Op shops.  In the late afternoon we went back to hospital to visit the Auntie (Bobby) and see how she was doing.  She was not sure when she would be going home, but still had a bad cough and was on oxygen.

Sunday, 17 Sep - Branch Presidency meeting at 730am - at least it is not at 630 am like the Newbury Park Stake High Council meetings 😏 Then PEC and by 10am we were ready for the Sunday branch meetings.  The speakers delivered really good messages this morning - the messages are always good.  The first speaker was one of our YM (young men) and he talked on being in the world, but not of the world - he did a good job.  He was followed by his mom who talked on being spiritually self reliant. She has been fighting cancer and shared some experiences with us that were really strong testimonies of her faith and trust in the Saviour, Jesus Christ.  The final speaker was a sister who lives 1 1/2 hours from the branch meetinghouse. She and her family face that challenge each week for Primary; YM/YW and Sunday.  She talked on how to keep the Sabbath Day holy.  All the talks were good and down to earth so that we were able to see how to apply the Gospel principles in our lives.  After Church Margaret and I stopped by hospital and visited with Bobby since she was still there (we learned that she would remain in hospital until Wednesday).  Interestingly she has asked that I say a prayer for her after each time we visit.  We also visited another Sister who was in hospital and made arrangements to visit with her at her home on Tuesday and give her a blessing.

Primary Age Activity - soccer

The Elders are trying to keep up with the younger kids, but not sure who is winning

The sun setting on Grafton and the Clarence River

The clouds help make the sunsets here.  This is from the Carr Peninsula

The cattle do not seem to be very impressed with the sunset

Rainbow Lorikeet like the bottle brush tree.  Boy are they noisey.  Mike sees them each day on his morning walk/exercise

Caught one Lorikeet in flight

The wood deck was removed and now we have dirt - hopefully grass some day.  Mike moved extra brick from the fence line to make steps on/off of the veranda so we did not have such a big step up or down.  We walk this way several times a week to put out laundry to dry.

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