Sunday, July 24, 2016
Monday, July 18, 2016
Sheila writes in black, Rick in blue.

We enjoyed our wonderful skype time with our children and grandchildren which is always so special to us.  We had a lovely visit for over an hour with Sister Bernadette, the retired nun who lives in our complex.  She is seventy years old but appears much younger.  She has no radio, TV and does not read newspapers.  She said she has had a hard life, always serving where no one else wanted to go and now she just wants peace.  However, she is interested in what Mormons believe so we enjoyed exchanging questions and discussing the common beliefs we have. I gave her some quotes from the Prophets that I used in last week's Sunday School lesson. She seemed reluctant but took the paper when I said "I'm not trying to get you". She replied that she had already been got. She prays several times a day. Maybe she will pray about the words of Latter- Day Prophets and receive a spiritual witness. It would not be the first time it has happened.

Tuesday, July 19,2016

Seminary and English teaching with the elders filled our morning.

During our community choir practice, the lady next to me said she had been singing with that choir for 25 years - amazing. We are finally starting to feel some level poof comfort with this piece and I am now enjoying listening to the harmonies and don't have to concentrate so much on the part.

When we arrived home a huge night crawler greeted us on our doorstep.  The tiles are six inches by six inches. I bet Elder Condie could catch a whopper with bait like this.





Wednesday, July 20, 2016

We have had quite a bit of rain and this morning the sky greeted us with this beautiful display of symmetrical clouds and blue sky.





Today we finally met up with Brother Benesch and were able to home teach him.  He is a very interesting man who has a wonderful testimony of the gospel.  As a young boy he was placed in a Catholic boys' home after his other remarried.  His time there was very difficult and the other boys treated him badly.  As Elders' Quorum president, he has lists of less actives and we have lists so we spent time organizing our information into similar lists.

A gorgeous sunrise

Today was a beautiful winter day here in Armidale. I snapped these pictures as we walked around town running errands and meeting people.

Downtown on the plaza.

An old hotel in the center of town and another below. Blue skies in the forecast.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

After teaching Seminary we babysat the youngest MacDonald children while there mother spent some time working on her practicum for her master's degree.  We enjoyed our time with them.

Tonight we had a branch movie night and showed the movie "Ephraim's Rescue.  I made caramel popcorn and we took punch and ice cream bars.  Sister Ford and her two children and Sister Pearce, our newest member attended along with a family that are not members but are taking the Elder's English class at the library.  The movie is very touching and we have found most of the members we have asked here, are unaware of.the handcart pioneer stories.

Sister Berger and Sister Pearce.

Sister Ford and her daughters really enjoyed movie night.

Elder Yang and yours truly.

A different scene.

Elder Kelly, Elder Yang, Sister Pearce, Sister Berger, Bree, Sister Ford and Devika.

Friday, July 22, 2016

After Seminary we set out to deliver a birthday card to a member two hours away and seek out a less active member an hour further away from the sister who is having a birthday.  Along the highway we observed several dead kangaroos.  We stopped to mail our grandson's birthday card in Bundarra and the post mistress told us a mother kangaroo had hopped in front of a car and been killed and on her way to work. She saw the "Joey" at the side of the road.  He was too young to stand up or hop so she had him inside her jacket waiting until her shift was over to take him to the vet.  We took advantage of the opportunity to take pictures.  Holding him was a bit of a challenge as he thrust all four legs frantically around, which took me back in time to the first occasion that my father handed me a new born calf to hold,  until I held him tightly to me and then he calmed down other than hissing at Elder Berger each time the camera came close to him.

Special delivery in the Bundarra post office.

Me and the Joey

These Kangaroos have exceptionally soft fur. Is almost feels like really high quality brushed suede.

Saturday, July 23, 2014

On our way to Guyra. I don't know why, this sign just amuses me

Sunday, July 24, 2016

It was strange to have a 24th of July that is not celebrated.  We had a lovely spirit in Church.  We had a talk by Joshua Smith who is 11 years old. He did a great job speaking about courage. We had the good fortune to have President Leneham with who gave an inspiring talk on keeping the commandments and enduring to the end. I am amazed at the quality and spirituality of the talks here ion our branch. Today we only had 22 people and there was a wonderfully strong spirit in the chapel.

The family with the Primary children were in Brisbane for a funeral and the other 2 children did not attend today, I was able to attend Relief Society.  I looked around at the six other women who attend, some of whom have been in and out of activity since joining the church.  They are of very different backgrounds and personalities but they continue to gather together to strengthen their faith and to enjoy the fellowship of one another.  Such is the church throughout the world, reaching out to bless the lives of our Heavenly Father's children.  What a blessing it is to be a part of His missionary program.

Sunday, July 17, 2016
Monday, July 11, 2016
Sheila writes in black, Rick in blue.

We were finally able to touch base with a less active couple some 20 minutes driving time away.  It is her birthday and we phoned to see if we could bring a birthday card to her.  She is on dialysis from a kidney disease that has destroyed her kidneys. She has her treatments 3 times a week for about 7 hours a day and has the equipment in their home so it can be done there. Her first transplant was when she was 18 years old.  She had another transplant and that went bad so at present is doing the dialysis three times a week.  She also works three days a week.  Her husband works nights and writes country western music and raises show horses. The only day they are not on different schedules or dealing with dialysis is Sunday.

They were a lovely couple and very welcoming.  He told us that he was raised Catholic and one day the thought came to him when he was 17 that he did not know what was going to happen to him when he died.  It really bothered him that he had so many questions unanswered about religion.  A year later he met the missionaries and became friends with them and took the discussions.  He said, "I want you to know the missionaries did not convert me. I decided if  the Mormon religion based its beliefs on the Book of Mormon, I needed to study it and as I did so, I KNEW I was reading the words of Jesus Christ.  I have been less active on and off over the years and right now know I need to get back into activity.  During all these years, no matter what, when I pick up the Book of Mormon and read from it, I know the words come from Jesus Christ."


Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for over 40,000 years and NSW is home to Australia's largest Aboriginal population.  There are many here in Armidale and one of the areas that was and is special to them is the Blue Hole area of Oxley Park which they consider a deeply spiritual place. We stopped there today for a few minutes. This is where Jo, our investigator was baptized when we were in Sydney so we wanted to see it..  We will come back when the weather is better to walk a few of the paths.

The Blue Hole

Too cold for Elder Berger. Sister Berger took this picture from the warm car.

Tuesday evening is community choir.  I am so amazed when in our music of Puccini's Messa di Gloria, the Sopranos have a high A to hit and these 70 year old women hit it with vigor.  I, on the other hand, lip synch the A.

Graham, our conductor, looks somewhat fierce but is a very gentle leader who encourages the choir to do it correctly, please.

Some of the blokes and sheilas in the choir.

Asleep on my feet. The man in the Al Borland shirt holding his coat is a wonderful tenor who can really hit the notes without straining too much. He has asked for one of the solos.

Our pianist is amazing. She is standing next to the piano talking to our secretary in the aqua colored coat. (I would have said bluish but I didn't want the edit)

Two of our basses who travel an hour and forty five minutes one way from Inverell to attend practices and who are desperately trying to get me to sing the correct notes.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

I checked on Jean, our 93 year old neighbor.  She had given us a tea towel with Australian blue wrens that I hanged on our bedroom wall and I told her how much I liked it and wanted to find a place to get Australian souvenirs to start gathering to take home.  She called her 85 year old sister and gave me some ideas.

We were planning on feeding one of our home teaching persons tonight but they cancelled.  We worked on our branch home evening we are planning for tomorrow and fed lunch to the elders while we worked on Elder Yang's English.

                         


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Unfortunately, only the elders and us attended our branch home evening.  We will keep trying.  We discussed the situation and decided to perhaps change the name to branch activity night and open it up to all of the branch, not just those without children.  We are thinking we will try showing the movie "Ephraim's Rescue" and see how the attendance is for that.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Elder Berger left with the elders to do a service for one of the less active families - unloading lots of boxes.  They live about 90 minutes away.  While he was gone I prepared for our home teaching dinner tonight. We helped the family unload a large truck full of boxed goods which contained the remaining inventory of his antique and collectibles shop in Tamworth. It was good to help but they still have a lot of sorting to do to get to the point of selling it on E-Bay. We saw several Kangaroos on the trip and talked about the realities of life with the Elders.

We had a family of five join us for dinner.  I made a lovely spinach, and lettuce salad with mandarin oranges, apples, sugared nuts, etc. and home made dressing. We baked potatoes and Elder Berger cooked salmon.  We served cheese cake for dessert.  We played a get acquainted game over dessert and I think everyone had a good time.

They brought us drinks and a hostess gift of chocolate truffles which was so very sweet of them.

 We borrowed these dishes from the flat common area clubhouse as we do not have extra dishes.  We also borrowed chairs.  It makes it so nice to have the facility just steps away that we can use. My poor attempt at a centerpiece came from our two daffodils blooming in spite of freezing temperatures, and the vase is an empty syrup container from Costco, (necessity, the mother of invention)


Sunday, July 17, 2016

Sacrament meeting speakers cancelled so Elder Berger and I were asked to speak which we did.  We had a good turn out at church, many were late but arrived which was great.  After church we stayed for an hour while I worked on the piano piece Canon in D by Pachebel.  President Sully asked me to play the piano in the branch talent night program. I will need LOTS of practice. Sister Berger gave a great talk. We also had a talk by a 15 year old young woman who talked about virtue and was excellent. Sometimes it seems as though we have a strange bunch of members but we love them all. They come to their meetings because they want to worship the Lord, not because of peer pressure. They study the gospel and know it very well. It is our honor to serve here, and a blessing for us.

Sunday, July 10, 2016
Monday, July 4, 2016
Sheila writes in black, Rick in blue.

Every time we skype with our children we are so thankful for the miraculous technology the Lord has blessed us with in this period of time.  It would be so hard to be on a mission and have a letter take two to three weeks to get to the U.S. and that long to get a response.

Yesterday, one sister in Relief Society mentioned that she lost her mother at the age of 20 and that her mom and been a cold and pious woman.  She said when her husband left her years ago and her parents were dead and she had three small children, she had a dream and her mother appeared to her in white robes and said, "Now you are completely alone."  After, I asked her how that made her feel and she said she had been devastated because it was true.   Another woman said when she died she was going to look for the person who could tell her why she had been sent to the earth into such a horrible family.  Situations like this do not have easy answers but I do believe that the church provides a new family and that if wards and branches function as the Savior asks, new members will feel they have a new family.  It is Elder Berger and my hope that we can help to create a warm, loving atmosphere in the branch where people with such sad pasts join together in worship each week.

We made bread today and I do mean "we".  Elder Berger did the kneading into a beautiful specimen of an elastic ball and was able to do the window pane test.  Neither of those things happen when I do bread. I need to be careful about revealing talent in the kitchen. It is like admitting that you can play the piano. When you let others know what you can do, you need to be prepared to be called to do those things. I really don't mind helping, but Sheila "owns" the kitchen. 

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

I must admit not having seminary and being able to sleep in is rather nice after a night of not the best sleep.  We awoke to rain and prepared for the elders to arrive at 10:00 for English training.  We had an enjoyable hour working on Elder Yang's English.  I cannot imagine how hard it must be until I ask him what a word I am teaching him is in Mandarin and when I hear his word and accent I realize how hard it would be for me to duplicate what he is saying!

Tonight we joined the community choir once again to work on "Messa di Gloria" for an August performance.  It was cold and rainy as we joined the other choir members at 7:30 pm.  The piece goes up to an A for the Sopranos and I am so impressed that women in their sixties can hit such a high note.  The Choir secretary, Ken, is a tenor and Elder Berger and he get along well.  He asked if there was a day that he could meet with Elder Berger to learn about what Mormons believe.  He sounds more intellectually interested but we are happy to spread the word in that way as well, always hoping the spirit will touch their hearts. It is fun and challenging to sing in this choir. Most of these singers are very experienced vocalists in a choir setting. This is no ward choir where people need to be coaxed to sing. These folks are ready to do battle with the piece and conquer it. The pianist who accompanies the practice is just amazing. He plays everything like he has practiced it for months but he hasn't. One of the men in the choir told me that he had been a concert pianist in his younger years and was one of the best in Australia. The music is praising God and it is inspiring to sing. When the group practices and then really starts to get it, the sound is wonderful and uplifting. 

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Amidst wind, rain, sleet and almost snow, we traveled to President and Sister Sully's farm to home teach.  When we set up the appointment, President Sully asked us to come at 11:00 and have lunch with them.  We saw two different herds of kangaroos as we neared their farm.  We had a wonderful time giving the message from President Monson about the pioneer spirit.  Both of the Sully's are first generation members of the church and President Sully's dad reacted in anger and had very little contact with his son after he joined the church.  They are definitely "pioneers".

Sister Sully served a South African dish, "Bobotie".  They lived in South Africa for four years because of President Sully's work in architecture for the church.  The dish was very tasty, similar to a meatloaf but much more moist with raisins and spices.  We took an apple pie which she warmed and we had that for dessert. We talked about the plan to start a branch family home evening this coming Thursday and will announce it in Sacrament meeting this week.  We had a lovely visit.

We worked on conversational phrases today and naming of pictures of day to day activities.

 Elder Kelly looks bored as Elder Yang studies English at the hand of Sister Berger.

Elder Kelly has just seen our bill for the English Class.

Elder Kelly, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan whose hometown is in Pennsylvania.

Elder Yang

Stormy winter skies in Armidale

The Catholic school across the street and the wintry sky.

Choir practice - it is held in a private girl's school named The Presbyterian Ladies College.

Out accompanist must be close to eighty years old and he is fantastic

The Director, seated, knows the music as well as if he wrote it.

People entering the Choir Room. Everybody comes early. They consider singing in a choir to be a treat and a privilege. Pictured are some of the Basses and the Altos. You can guess which is which. 

These signs are definitely something to take notice of.  Huge herds of cows think they own the road.
On our way to do home teaching, we encountered a warning of who yields to who in this situation.

A lovely old church, the Tenderton church, near to Sully's farm.

The first kangaroo we saw on our way to Sully's farm

Friday, July 8, 2016

We visited members and enjoyed bringing a message of hope to those who are struggling.  Clarksons invited us for tea (dinner) which we enjoyed very much. Tonight was rosemary chicken with vegetables and chocolate self saucing pudding which is an Australian favorite so far as we have been able to see.

Elder Berger and Brother and Sister Clarkson

rosemary chicken made with what they call "lovely legs" - a piece of chicken leg.

Roasted vegetables and potatoes.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

We skped for a quick few minutes to wish our granddaughter, Kate, a happy 7th birthday.  She is such a cutie and very excited over her birthday celebration.

                                                                               

Grandaughter Kate, Halloween, 2015

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Sharing and singing time in Primary is such a challenge as the children are mostly related and unaccustomed to a traditional Primary setting.  I constantly worry over how to best keep their attention and teach them something. One of the families we home teach is from the Philippines, working and going to school here.  Because of various difficult challenges, they left their baby in the Philippines with relatives until they could get to a place where one of them could watch him during half the day and one during the other and into the night, if necessary as they could not afford day care. They finally got his visa and he arrived here.  They brought him to Primary and were so excited.  His name is Isaac and he is now three years old and speaks almost no English. That is a thought provoking statement which is no doubt still in effect as the Lord continues moving forth with His work to spread the gospel throughout the world.

We had a wonderful Sacrament Meeting. President & Sister Sheen of the Sydney Temple Presidency spoke to us. They bore very strong testimonies about revelation, Heavenly guidance, and Temple work. He is an Australian whose roots go back to the convict ships and she is from mainland China and is descended from a Chinese Royal Family. They met in the Temple a few years after their spouses  had passed away and after a time, they married. This enabled them to serve a senior mission together and for him to be called into the Temple Presidency, something they could not do if they were not married. They are wonderful people. We had a good turnout today, there were 37 members there. Our usual number is 25-30. 

In our Gospel Doctrine class, Elder Berger read a quote by President Spencer W. Kimball from the April 1971 Conference Report: "There are many, many upright and faithful who live all the commandments and whose lives and prayers keep the world from destruction." That is not all I did, but I guess I was successful. As they say: "If you can just get them to remember one thing."

I stayed and practiced a piano piece for the branch talent night after church and then we joined the MacDonald family for a coconut/curry meal that was quite tasty.