M&M Haley Mission

Sunday, 22 Oct 2017

Monday, 9 Oct - Time for Margaret to go declutter one of the sister's houses. While she was decluttering, Mike did the grocery shopping and some other errands. Margaret worked on making shorts for the Christmas shoe box charity project later in the day. A slow day for Elder Haley; although he did some more yard work late afternoon.

Tuesday, 10 Oct - Margaret worked on sewing more shorts. She also made a mercy "taxi" run for one of the sisters. Mike studied the scriptures quite a bit today. We both went to the Primary activity in the afternoon and helped with memorizing some of the 13 Articles of Faith. Then Mike worked on cutting up more of the yard waste while dinner was being prepared. Margaret worked more on sewing shorts again into the evening.

NOTE - It is getting harder to keep up with the blog. Missionary work comes first and that is taking a toll on the blog, plus the internet is slower than molasses in July (remember we are in Australia) for the past 2 weeks. I was not made to be a journal keeping/blog keeping person.

Wednesday, 11 Oct - Talked with my mum this morning. She still has Pauline as a house guest, but hopefully that will change next week. It is really grand and generous of mum to take Pauline in, but they both need their space and have different life styles. We met with Joseph & Decklin and read some more of the Book of Mormon with them. They are really super great young men. Elder Gibb & Elder Corpany came over for dinner and then we held DTM with the Coffs Harbour Elders via the phone. The lesson portion was about what we learned/remembered from General Conference - a good thing to review.

Thursday, 12 Oct - Today was Heather & Kevin's anniversary. We had a Branch Presidency meeting this evening and then Sister Haley & I met with the YW & YM.

Friday, 13 Oct - Friday the thirteenth - not the best of days, but not the worst. We had to run one of the sisters to some appointments and I totally forgot that I was to be at the meetinghouse at 10am for a cleaning assignment - sheesh, what a dummy I am. I got a text from the others and then zoomed (50 kph) over to meet them and get the work done. Tonight was branch movie night and we watched "The RM" which was a bit hokey, but I survived.

Saturday, 14 Oct - I administered a driver's test to a new missionary. Margaret worked with the RS to finish stuffing shoe boxes for a local Samaritan Child Christmas charity project. The Sisters filled 75 shoeboxes with clothes, school supplies, snack, health items - wow it was quite an amazing thing. We joined in the transfer call that night, but all of us in Grafton stayed in Grafton.

Sunday, 15 Oct - We had District President Alfred and his wife as speakers in sacrament. After the 3 hour block the branch had a pitch-in luncheon. We dropped off our food and then climbed in the car (1 pm) and drove to Rhonda Crosbie's in Rouse Hill (Sydney suburb). We went down to Sydney for the Lems' farewell Family Home Evening at the Mission Home to be held the next day. We made good time and arrived at Rhonda's around 830 or 9 pm. It is about a 700 km drive. The drive was nice and without anything exciting (accident ???) happening.

Monday, 16 Oct - We took the bus into Sydney with Rhonda. We hustled over to Costello's Discovery Opal to have Jamie Costello take pictures of Mike's opal cuff links since Jamie forgot to do that earlier. It was good to see him again. Then Margaret & I walked over to the Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens where we spent a few hours waiting for our time to meet with Cristina de Godos for lunch at 1 pm. Cristina told us that her temp job had been changed into a permanent position (Yay). She is also dating a Spaniard that has lived in Sydney for a few years. We had a nice talkative lunch and then we had to leave so Cristina could go back to work and we could meet with Avril Shen for a quick catch up on life before meeting Rhonda and heading back to her place. Avril also had good news for us - She passed her PTE English test with flying colours. She has also taken a translation test and hopes to hear back on the results by 27 Oct. Then she can apply for a position at one of the banks in Sydney. Caught the bus back to Rhonda's. Got to Rhonda's and climbed in our car to go to the Mission Home. We had a good time at the FHE and were able to talk with the Lems and others. Then back to Rhonda's and crashed for the night.

Tuesday, 17 Oct - We took Rhonda to the Mission Home complex where she was having an intern interview with LDSSA. Margaret and I met with Sister Barr and Sister Cox to deliver things and catch up on what is going on at HQ. Then we picked up several things from the Distribution Centre and met Rhonda. She looked like a deer in headlights. We found out that she had gone in for a no-pay internship interview and ended up with a paying job offer - that was a BIG shock for her. We are so happy for her. We then went to Costco to pick up some supplies for us and the Branch. Then back to Rhonda's for dinner and letting Margaret/Rhonda gasbag for a looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnngggggg time.

Wednesday, 18 Oct - We left Rhonda's at 9 am and drove back to Grafton. We did stop at Heahterbrae's pies for a meat pie & a blueberry/apple pie. Then back on the road. We made a stop at Coffs Harbour to check out their mall to see if they had any 5 kg dumbbells, but they did not have any that we found affordable. We also ate dinner in the food court. We got home around 7 pm, unloaded the car and went to bed.

Thursday, 19 Oct - Called and talked with Mike's mum via Skype - a day late since we were on the road the normal talk day. Worked around the house and then Margaret with with the RS President and finished up the shoe box project. At around 4 or 5, we got a call from the YW president, who is pregnant, and asked if we could cover YW as she could not stand up straight. So, we had a crash course via lds.org website on YW Personal Progress so we could work with the YW later that night.

Friday, 20 Oct - Ran some errands for the branch and looked into the approval to cut down some sizable limbs on a tree for one of the sisters. Made arrangments to administer another driver's test to one of the Coffs elders the next day. We also call the Mackie's in Coffs to ensure that they were expecting some of our YM to spend Saturday night with them since we all would be in Coffs for District Conference.

Saturday, 21 Oct - We picked up Joseph & Decklin at noon and drove down to Coffs. We got to the District meeting house at 1:30pm - just in time for me to give the driver's test. Then at 230 pm the boys and I attended a priesthood meeting while Margaret went over to the mall with one of the senior sisters. They were back by 5 pm when we had a general member meeting. Boy the presentations were good, uplifting ad educational - just as good as General conference. Margaret and I drove (1+ hour) back to Grafton for the night.

Sunday, 22 Oct - We were supposed to bring a sister from Grafton with us to the Sunday session of District Conference, but she did not make it. The talks were great and, again, spiritually uplifting. We had a pitch-in lunch with all the other attendees. We then met with the CES (Church Educational System) person for our area and were updated on Seminary (religious education for the teens). Then we climbed in the car and headed for home. The Swains (senior couple from Port Macquarie) followed us home. We stopped on Turf Street and took a zillion pictures of the Jacaranda trees, before we got back to our place. We changed clothes and walked down to the Clarence river while dinner was cooking. After dinner we talked and finally decided we should go to bed so we would get up at a decent hour on Monday. The Swains are really a nice couple and we enjoyed talking with them.

Spring is here and so are the Jacaranda trees - lots of them here in Grafton

Cleaning up the back yard and trimming bushes that have not been touched in years

The tree in our front yard. It was green and then the leaves turned purple. later they turned a yellow and are now going back to green. A non-electric, electric show