MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE...2012

Around 106 missionaries attended this conference on December 20 at 8:30 A.M. at the Villawood Church building.  We had wonderful training by President and Sister Howes on the apostasy, reformation and then the restoration.  Several missionaires shared their talents with us; we had a great lunch; and then the movie 'Luther'.  The part they all enjoy the most is reuniting with each other and receiving their gifts from home!!

 

Elder Rodriguez, Elder Reyes

 and Elder Au Fook

       Sister Vaai and Sister Pio

    

 Senior Missionaries!! 

   Elder and Sister Tietjen, Sister Braden,

    Elder Somson,  Elder and Sister Tanner and Arvin

                                                        

THANKSGIVING IN AUSTRALIA...ST HELENS PARK

Thanksgiving with five Elders from America and one from Samoa!  They are all in our Campbelltown District.  Cooking was a two day project...pies the first day and the rest on 'the' day.  We have a very small oven and small refrigerator.  I had to use a Ward members oven for two of the dishes...but we made it work!! 

Elder Au Fook-California, Elder Rodriguez-Utah; Elder Reyes-Colorado Elder Liki-Samoa; Elder Crawford, Elder Ravsten-Dallas, Texas and Elder Frietag-Utah

                                  

Chocolate Pie; Apple Crumb pie; and Strawberry Rhubarb plus we had a pumpkin pie from Costco (they don't sell pumpkin for pies here).

ARVINS BIRTHDAY PARTY AT THE RSL CLUB IN CAMPBELLTOWN

We celebrated Arvin's birthday this year at the RSL club in Campbelltown with the Ngati family! The Ngati family is from the Cook Islands.  The RSL club has a really nice buffet at lunch with lots of yummy choices from meats, salads, oriental and desserts!

THE 'OUTBACK' ...ALICE SPRINGS AND ULURU

 Arvin and I flew out of Sydney on October 29th on Quantas.  We had to walk to our plane and we were way in the back!! It was a 2 and 1/2 hour flight with a time change of 1 hour and a half....weird. 

Off we go to Alice Springs almost smack dab in the center of Australia.  Arvin has always wanted to go to Alice Springs...fulfilling his dreams!!!!

 A view of Alice Springs and the gap leading out to the outback.  Alice Springs is nestled amongst the majestic MacDonnell Ranges.  

Monday afternoon at 5 P.M. we had arranged for me to ride a camel.  Marcus is the owner of Pyndan Camel Tracks!  Marcus has property about 20 minutes from Alice Springs where he lives with his family and his camel business.  He captured his 13 camels in the wild.  There is reported to be 1 and a half million wild camels in Australia!!

The Camel I am riding is named Doc.  It is pretty much like riding a horse except when he gets up and then gets down.  The camels lay down on their knees. Just Marcus and I went riding in the desert with 3 other camels hooked to us.     

 Tuesday we went on a tour with Alice Wanderer Emu Run bus to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta National Park.  We left at 6 A.M. and arrived home at 12 midnight...long bus ride!  It took 4 1/2 hours to get to the National Park.  We had a sack breakfast (juice, crackers and cheese, nut bar).  Along the way they passed out orange slices, apples, candies etc. so all was good.  We also had a sack lunch! Our evening meal was a barbeque. The desert looks just like Arizona especially Sedona with all the red rocks. 

Mt Conner is the name of this large mountain on the way to Ayers Rock. The road to Uluru was totally straight with no turns..amazing!

Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). Weathered rock domes which have aboriginal stories connected to all the markings on the rocks. We walked in and around the domes and up to the gap in the rocks.

The National Park represents the spiritual heart of Australia.  Uluru is one of the great natural wonders of the world!  This is a sunset picture of Uluru.

While we were in Alice Springs we met the Elders serving in the area and a cousin of one of our inactive families the Paulos. 

  Elder Morrissette from California and Elder Taukala from Sydney and the cousin Ezra .  We treated them to Hungry Jack (Burger King) as it is called in Australia because they did not have much business when it was Burger King!! Elder Taukala had turned down a  million dollar contract with a Rugby team to come on his mission.

A lot of Aboriginal people live in Alice Springs. We celebrated Halloween at the Branch building on Wednesday.  They had invited lots of people from town...was a fun event! We visited the Flying doctors museum, Anzac Hill and the Telegraph Station. 

 Before we left for the airport Ezra took us to Simpson's Gap.  Beautiful red rocks and trees.  We were told that people are not to swim in the water because of the snakes!!

           We had a great time on our 'Outback' trip and so glad we went!!

 

EXPLORING THE SOUTHERN PART OF NSW

Tulip Festival in Bowral with Arvin sitting among the tulips of all colors!! So amazing the many different varieties of tulips!  This was our first stop of the day.  We went on the trip with the Harpers and Bakers in the Bakers van. We are going to be gone for 4 days 3 nights visiting what we can down the southern part of Australia. We will end up at Narooma!

Some feathered friends we found along the way! Don't know what kind of fowl this one is but the Pelicans were very plentiful in this area of Shoalhaven and Shellharbor.
 

Elder Leon Baker found this marvelous eating place called the Stone Grill.  You cook your own meat on a hot stone brought out...soooo good! you can see the steam rising from food cooking. Ruth Ann and Carl Harper, Leon and Lorraine Baker

Our next adventure was seeing the whitest sand in the world (or so they say)!  This was at Jervis Bay.  The sand was so soft and fine not gritty. 

  Our great resort in Narooma!  The Branch President manages this resort so let us have a great price!  We enjoyed the beach just a short walk away. And explored the bush and cliffs nearby.  We had the Elders Tumarae and Bacosa over for dinner and Family Home Evening.

We had lunch at this fish and chip shop....grilled Salmon and fries!! The Chip Shop was at Jervis Bay where we got the Whale Watching.

  

 

 Lorranie, Joan and Ruth Ann enjoying the beach not far from the resort...love the ocean and the beach!!!  No swimming just pumicing our feet on our walk!

 

 Off to Jervis Bay and Whale watching!!

It is hard to see but this is a whale sailing through the air belly up!! Wow was this exciting...almost missed it!

 What a fun trip with four wonderful people..and us!!

VIDEOS OF KANGAROOS AND ROOS; KOALA; DIGERIDOO

                                                                           

We were so excited to see all these kangaroos!! Loved to watch them hop around...the little and the big ones! Love to see the roos climb in and out of their mums pouch! It is amazing how big the roos are and how they dive back in head first! We were on a Senior Couples trip...we were all so beside ourselves (crazy people)!!

 

 

 

 

Koala at the Sydney Taronga Zoo 

 

 

 

Aboriginal playing a Digeridoo at Circular Quay

 

A DAY TRIP NORTH OF SYDNEY WITH THE SENIOR COUPLES

What a happy group! Jorgensen, Horrocks, Crawford, Hill, Kohlerts, Harper. 

President and Sister Barr were our tour guides for the day.  President Barr is the Sydney Temple President. They are great people ....did not get a picture of them! They provided a wonderful trip for all of us!

 
We left from the Misson office at 8:00 A.M. and traveled 168 km north of Sydney to Morpeth.  Morpeth is a historic inland river port with a beautiful riverside setting.  The town was established around 1801.

Arvin sitting with Elder Horrocks on the bathtub outside a curio shop!!

Ruth Ann Harper, Barbara Horrocks and Connie Hill in front of the pie shop. 

Morpeth Pie Company in the back of the Slab and Shingle Cottage.  We all had a meat pie of sorts....was quite good.  the meat pies are very popular here....English heritage! Below is an Australian couple eating  meat pies with mashed potatoes piled on top with green peas on top of that...looked really good!

THE REALLY EXCITING PART OF OUR TRIP....KANGAROOS!!

We found them in an empty field in Morisset, Australia

There must have been at least a hundred of them in this open field 

You can see the tail of the roo hanging out of the mum's

pouch! How cute they are just looking around as they hang out in the pouch.  There were all sizes everywhere.  We were taking pictures like mad we were so excited!!