M&M Haley Mission

Sunday, 26 Nov 2017

Monday, 20 Nov - Because the local bank does not check its night deposit box and then Church HQ wants to know why the tithing money we report does not show up in the bank, we have gotten permission to make the deposit on Monday morning. The Branch clerk and I make the drive into town and deposit the funds. It is a bit of a pain, but as the Clerk says we would be making the drive anyway to check with the bank on why they had not deposited the money. Checked with the Coffs Harbour elders on the repair status of their flat - Elder Haley is going to have to spend more time on the phone talking with rental agents to get the repair work done.

Tuesday, 21 Nov - There seems to always be something back in the USA that needs our attention, but we try to keep it to a minimum. Thank goodness for the internet which gives us email and VoIP calling. This is sure better than 60 years ago when we had to send letters back and forth, or on occasion fly to Hong Kong to make a phone call. Primary Activity this afternoon. With Sister Best gone for a few weeks, we are doing a lot of game activities.

Wednesday, 22 Nov - Getting ready for the BIG Day (Thanksgiving) which is NOT celebrated here in Australia. Halloween yes, but not Thanksgiving. The Aussies have plenty to be thankful about, so they should institute this day. Margaret and I spent most of the day in the kitchen preparing food - turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie, blueberry pie. Oh boy, my mouth is watering again. Then off to read the Book of Mormon with Joseph & Declan. These boys are really good kids.

Thursday, 23 Nov - THANKSGIVING. We are so thankful to be here in Grafton, NSW and serving a mission for the Saviour, Jesus Christ. We did have to do some taxi driving this morning, but most of the time was finishing the feast and having the Thanksgiving Dinner at 4 pm. We had the Coffs elders as well as the Grafton elders, plus Scott. It was a grand time. Then we held DTM after dinner and then went to the Branch meetinghouse for YW/YM. The YW/YM are helping make costume accessories for the Branch Christmas dinner - a progressive dinner starting in Bethlehem, then to Zarahemla and ending up in Grafton, NSW. This should be a fun night.

Friday, 24 Nov - Cleaned the meetinghouse in the morning. Then helped Margaret prepare things for the RS movie night to be held at our house tonight. Main part of the meal are the Hot Colby Ham/cheese croissants - recipe compliments of Pat McIntyre. They are SOOOOOOOOOOO Good. The movie is "A Song for Marion" and is a good chick flick, even if I say so myself. The dinner went well and the sisters enjoyed both the dinner and the movie.

Saturday, 25 Nov - Margaret met with Sister Stiller to work on the Branch Christmas dinner. I worked around the house and in the yard. We listened to the missionary transfer call at 9:30 pm that is held every 6 weeks. There are a lot of missionary names that we do not know as the turnover is pretty extensive - most of the elders/sisters we knew from the City/Sydney are going home and we do not get to meet the new ones since we are up here in Grafton (a million kilometers from Sydney).

Sunday, 26 Nov - a somewhat embarrassing day, but also comical now that I can look back on it. The President and 1st counselor were out of town. I was the only member of the Presidency to be at Sacrament meeting. I was told that President Denley from the District would be here for Sacrament. I had met him once, but did not remember what he looked like (ah yes, you can see this coming). A man & his wife showed up and they were familiar so I greeted them and welcomed them to the Branch. I asked the man to sit on the stand with me and began the meeting. When Sacrament was passed, he deferred the first taking to me which I thought was a bit odd since the District Presidency presides at the meeting. We had our normal speakers and then I asked that President Denley share some comments with us, so the man did that. After his talk he leaned over to me and asked who was President Denley???? This man was the father of Tabitha Best whose husband is the 1st counselor, and was not President Denley. The bad part was that not any of the other members of the Branch knew that either, or at least they did not speak up about it. We all had a good laugh and my error. During Sunday School, the real President Denley showed up and I did not tell him about the "imposter". Other than that faux pas, the day went along pretty well.

Monday, 27 Nov - It is decluttering day for Sister Haley at one of the Sister's homes today - her weekly Monday activity. Elder Haley runs errands and tidies up the yard (so the neighbors will not kick us out).

Tuesday, 28 Nov - A normal Tuesday, including the Primary youth activity. The neighborhood kids seem to really look forward to this time (and the cookies & freeze pops). Hanks Kitchen opened their new store in Junction Hill today - they make meat pies, jam filled donuts, sausage rolls, jam filled donuts, bread, jam filled donuts, pastries and (oh did I mention Jam filled donuts??)

Wednesday, 29 Nov - Margaret talked with one of our children this morning and Mike talked with his mum. It is so wonderful to have the technology that we do - it helps us keep up with our family and not feel like we are a million miles away. One less reason for senior couples to not serve a mission as you are as close as your PC or smartphone. We did our normal Book of Mormon reading with Joseph & Declan - this is always a great experience for us.

Thursday, 30 Nov - We went to the meetinghouse to check on some things and found the Area Facilities manager there looking over the place. He was not too happy with what he saw. We worked on measuring some of the windows for curtains. Then we went to look at a flat for one of the sisters. While looking at the flat (just 75-100 feet from our "unlocked" car) Margaret's purse was stolen from our car - even though it was in our sight most (but not all) of the time. Margaret had asked me to lock the car when we got out, but I did not hear her, and I did not think to lock the car because we were right there. Boy, Mike sure feels dumb. We soon got a call from Commonwealth Bank asking if we had made some purchases in the last 45 minutes, and we had NOT, so they closed down the card. We spent the rest of the day reporting on the lost credit cards, mobile phone and purse. We have learned a lot about mobile phones, their security and how to have them backed up in the cloud - some things we had done, but not as much as we would like. We did run a Google locator on the phone and found where it was last "seen" by Google, but that was at 9 pm, so we decided to go to the location in the morning.

Friday, 1 Dec - The phone was last "seen" at the Grafton Aged Care facility near the Grafton bridge. We got there at 8 or 8:30 and talked with the manager - a very nice lady. We decided to check the rubbish bin and found some loose pieces of paper from Margaret's purse, but not the purse. The bin had been picked up by the rubbish people at 6 am and we found out that it had already been compacted and buried, so there was no way we would ever find the purse. We should have gone down there the night before, but lesson learned. We did do some tracing of the credit card purchases and got some details on time and that the stores all had videos of the man using our card. They could not give that to (or show us), but told us to have the police come down and get what they needed. We reported this to the police. Later in the day, the police asked us to bring in a printout from the bank with the stolen charges and we told them we would bring them to them in the morning.

Saturday, 2 Dec - We delivered the Bank print out of the fraudulent charges to the police. When we arrived they told us that they had the man in the back - hurrah for swift police work. We then went on to Spotlight to buy the curtains for the meeting house, while they were on sale. We have looked into getting a new mobile phone for Margaret and hope to have that resolved in the next few weeks. In the afternoon, Scott came over to mow the grass and Mike worked on cutting/trimming a large bush in the backyard that is choking some desired trees. We had Elder Corpany & Lankford over for dinner and reviewed the #LightTheWorld online advent calendar sponsored by the LDS Church.

Sunday, 3 Dec - Fast & Testimony Sunday - the testimonies were good. Sunday school was about Zion and how to establish Zion in our lives, our families and community. Third hour the men went over the #LightTheWorld events for the coming week and discussed how we could do what was suggested for each day of service. After Church Margaret & I visited with the Howards - 2 doors down the street. Then on the way back we stopped and talked with Peter & Lois who live next door. Then we crossed the highway to get a better view of the sunset. Now it is time to wrap up the blog and start a new chapter.