Sunday, September 3, 2017

Sunday, 3 Sep - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY AUSTRALIA

Monday, 28 Aug - Ah, a day to rest & relax & recuperate from the visit by some of our Hyde Park YSA friends.  Well, not much of a rest & relax.  Margaret is off helping one of the branch sisters declutter their house.  Mike is left to do laundry and work on the blog, plus clean up bathroom toilets, etc.  We have been reading the Doctrine & Covenants together in the morning and we just read D&C 130.  There have been a lot of interesting things in the D&C and we have had plenty to discuss with each other as we have read - hopefully some of what we have read will stay in our heads. The sun is shining brightly today (as most days) and the world is warming up from the low 40's F to about mid 60's F, so it will be a bit cooler today than the last few days.  BUT it is still winter so what do you expect?????

Tuesday, 29 Aug - We held District Training Meeting a day early because the Coff's Harbour Elders were in Grafton for trade offs. It is interesting to be part of a District training where the young(er) Missionaries preside & conduct the training. We (not so) young missionaries come along for the ride and LEARN much from these young men & women.  We go over last week's activities that are of special note, discuss what we will do the coming week and then have a 30-60 minute spiritual training lesson where all participate, but it is led by the District Leader (usually about 19 to 20 years old). Then a Primary activity in the afternoon (3:30-5 pm) where we provide a snack every other week. Then the Young Men & Young Women had a practice hike getting ready for TREK by walking from the branch meetinghouse to our house in Junction Hill - about 5 km (3 miles).  We had hot cocoa, ice cream and brownies waiting for them.

Wednesday, 30 Aug - We talked with Mike's mom on Skype as we do each Wednesday AM.  Then off to the Branch meetinghouse to fix a cabinet door and check out some other things at the meetinghouse.  At 4 we dropped off some of the brownies from Tuesday night at Joseph & Decklin Lynch's home since they were not able to make it on the TREK practice.  Decklin has been crook with the flu for over a week.  Then we hustled home to prepare dinner for one of the members who lives near us.  We had chicken kiev compliments of Coles Supermarkets who had a sale on them - there were pretty good.

Thursday, 31 Aug - The rental agency came by late morning to inspect the house - to make sure we had not dismantled it or trashed the insides. (We passed inspection with flying Aussie colours).  Then off to Maclean for a dentist appointment - just teeth cleaning (for A$ 580 for the two of us).  OUCH things are a bit expensive. We stopped by to visit Joan Hibberd after the dentist and had a good time.  Joan had fallen earlier in the week and her face was a bit mashed up, but she was chipper and as mentally alert as the last time we saw her.  Maclean is one of the Scottish towns that has Highland games, so we will be taking Joan to those during Easter time.  The Young Women (YW) met tonight and we all worked on preparing food for the YW/YM dinner to be held on Friday for the ward members.  It is a service project for them.  We made pumpkin soup,  potato/leek soup, and mince pasta/lasagna.  I am ready for Friday night so I can sink my teeth into the meal.  Oh yes, we had to report our car mileage back to Carlingford since it was the end of the month.

Friday, 1 Sep -  SPRING HAS SPRUNG IN AUSTRALIA.  This is the first day.  We spent the morning at home getting things ready for the YW/YM dinner later tonight.  We headed to the meetinghouse just before 5 pm and started to warm up the potato/leek soup and the mince/pasta/lasagna.   The branch members were ready to eat at 6:30 and we were ready to feed them just a few minutes after. The Elders & YW took food orders and the YW served the food to the members.  We had about 30 in attendance. The YW decided to use china, glasses & silverware for the dinner.  That was nice, but the washing & clean up was a bit more challenging.  The YW did a LOT of the dish washing and we were on or way home by 9:30 pm.

Saturday, 2 Sep - We slept in for a few minutes this morning.  Then got up and went for a walk through part of the neighborhood that we had not walked before.  We also tried to see if we could get over to the Roo fields, but the fields were a bit further down the road and there was not walk path.  We went to visit Sister Cave's in the afternoon for a visit and had a good time with her & her husband.  Then a quick stop by Vicky Carters - she was home and we were able to get her new phone number.  Now we are home and Margaret is fixing a chicken pot pie for dinner, and then we will begin our fast since tomorrow is Fast Sunday.

Sunday, 3 Sep - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, AUSTRALIA.  Today was Fast Sunday (the first Sunday of the month) so there were no early morning meetings before Sacrament - a nice way to start off Father's Day.  We had Elders Ta'ala & Gibb over for dinner in the afternoon, after we got home from Church.  Elder Ta'ala is being transferred to the Baulkham Hills district so he will be near Rhonda Crosbie.  We spent most of the rest of the evening reading - I have started a book on Brigham Young that was loaned to us by Rhonda, and it is pretty interesting.  There is a fair amount of information on Joseph Smith as well, as related to Brigham.

The sun coming up in the morning, during one of Mike's exercise walks

The same sun a minute later

One of the games played by the youth during Primary Activity day - Tuesday afternoons.  The young Elders play with the kids

The Clarence river in the foreground and marked by the fog coming off of the water.  This is just at sunrise on a cold winter day in August.

The sun coming up and hidden in the tree on the right.  Notice the fog/mist on the Clarence river is beginning to disappear

Some of Mike's morning walk companions

Sugar cane growing on the island off of Maclean and at the Maclean/Lawrence ferry 

All roads lead to Grafton

Just in case you wondered if the Aussies were into ecosystems.

The ferry coming into our side of the river.

A front row seat on the ferry - headed to the Lawrence side of the river.

The mighty Clarence river

Our portable dishwasher - Make is Haley and model is Mike.  We wash in the green bowl and rinse in the sink.

We love the birds here in Australia.  Above is a Galah

We were lucky enough for a Galah to land on a fence near the car.  Normally they are quite wary of humans and we have not been able to get this close  before.

Some more of our neighbors, about 1 km from our house

The neighbors having a block party & BBQ.  This is one of two or three mobs of Roos in the area near our house.
The same group of neighbors with one hopping along in the left background.

The sun is setting on another day in OZ.  This is the sunset seen we have from the corner of our house lot here in Junction Hill.

Sister & Elder Haley, Elder Ta'ala  He is a great young man

Sister & Elder Haley, Elder Gibb He is pretty good, too.






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