Dear dear Family,
This letter is going to
be all about our Christmas experience in Australia.
Wednesday was Christmas
Eve. We had six of our favorite missionaries over for dinner. They
are our favorites because they live close to the mission office. Two of
them are in the ward with us and the other 4 go to our sister ward. We
see them often. We fixed ravioli with a tomato sauce, a really big green
salad and french bread. For dessert we made a lemon pudding cake with
whip cream and fresh raspberries. We put the whip cream on the cake
before we served it. The missionaries asked for more and went through a
full can. It was a delicious meal and the missionaries are great eaters.
We had decorated the table so everything looked very festive. We
had green and red m&m's in a bowl. Elder Utai, a large Samoan, put a
large handful of m&m's in the middle of his plate, surrounded by the meal.
We had popcorn, more candy and soda for them. Everything was finished.
We played Christmas charades. Elder Lin Sin, Utai and Garcia-kempf
(from Spain) had never played charades. It was very fun and there was lots
of laughing.
Elder Larsen gave a
beautiful thought tonight to bring Christ to our party.
"Lift up your head and be of
good cheer; for behold the time is at hand, and on
this night shall a sign be given, and on the morrow come I unto the world,
to show
unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be
spoken by
the mouth of my holy prophets.
3 Nephi 1:13
We talked about how the
star shone exactly at the same time that the Nephites were told that Christ
would be born. It all was set in motion when the Lord created this earth.
It was all perfectly planned. What a blessing to know that this is the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and he is our Savior.
We took pictures that
are posted on our blog. The missionaries wanted the pics emailed to their
parents. Elder Utai said he wanted the pictures so he wouldn't forget
this great evening. What a nice thing for him to say.
Thursday Christmas Day.
We had 4 invites for food but we could only accept three. Our first
meal was a lovely breakfast at the Cameron home. There were 8 elders
there. They always make everything more fun. The table was
decorated beautifully. There was an omelette, rolled pancakes,
ebelskivers with raspberries and ham( bacon) and lots of juices. The boys
or elders thought nothing of taking 6 pieces of ham. They are great
elders and missionaries. It was a beautiful morning with the sun shining.
We came home for 1 1/2
hours and opened our presents. Then it was onto lunch but it is called
supper here. Viviane and Todd Chapman went to so much work to have a lovely
wonderful meal. Todd's brother, his baby and his mother were there also.
The table was set with china, crystal glasses, pretty Christmas napkins
and a very nice and fancy printed menu of our dinner. So fun. The hors
d'oeuvres filled us before the main meal of chicken, ham, carrots and peas,
baked squash, potatoes, onions, turnips and great brown gravy. It was all very
good. We then opened presents before dessert. They had wrapped a
box for both Adrienne and me. It consisted of all things Austsralian. There was
a koala bear, tea towel, apron, hot pad, candy, (it tastes like soap), herbal
peppermint tea, tam tam cookies, which are delicious, shortbread cookies, and
soap bars that smell wonderful. We were so surprised and so happy.
They went the extra mile to make our Christmas wonderful. Now back
to the dessert, English Christmas pudding that was made in July. It is
wrapped in a cloth and frozen until Christmas day. It is served with
custard and whip cream. There was also cake and chocolate parfaits.
We didn't even try the cake or parfait. We wondered how we would be able
to eat another dinner,(they call it tea). That dinner started 1 1/2 hours
later. BUT WE DID IT.
Our final meal was at
the Vinck's home. It was another full course meal, turkey, ham, rolls,
salads and several choices of dessert. At every home they serve carbonated
fruit drinks; lemonade, raspberry, grape, mango etc. There were two
elders and two sisters also at the dinner or tea. The Vinck's had a gift for
each of the missionaries. We got a mug the said I Heart Melbourne.
Inside was a Koala bear with an Australian flag. And as with every
gift a box of candy. Cadbury candy is made here in Melbourne. All
people think it is the best candy anywhere in the world. Adrienne and I
still like Sees. They refer to candy as Lollies.
We rolled home at the
end of the day. We drove the two sisters to their flat. We really
love our Sister Missionaries. Our new Chinese sister is struggling a little
bit, the language and being so far from home. We all have experienced
home sickness sometime in the first three months. Elder King, an office
missionary gave her a blessing of comfort. She and her companion hugged
us good-bye and said "I love you."
HAVE WE TOLD YOU HOW
MUCH WE LOVE THE MISSIONARIES?
It has been a very full
week.
It has been a very
spiritual week.
It has been a very fun
week.
And this week is
transfers and 15 new arrivals.
We loved talking to all
of you,
THE WORDS COME UNTO
CHRIST ARE AN INVITATION... IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVITATION ANYONE CAN
ACCEPT. PRESIDENT EYRING
WE CLOSE WITH WE LOVE
YOU ALL,
THE MOM'S
No comments:
Post a Comment