Happy Thanksgiving

Dear family

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope you have all had a wonderful day. We were invited to 2 dinners . One at 2:00 and one at 7:00. Needless to say ,last night we felt stuffed. We also are invited to one on Saturday night. There are people here who have either lived in the USA or love the tradition. 

Monday night for family home evening the couples went to a musical program. We enjoyed it,but knew our children would have had several words to say about it. It was in an old building that was cool. The performers were people who loved to be asked to entertain. The music was from the good old fashioned musicals. We did enjoy it. Everyone was singing along with the songs.

The office has been busy. It is always busy. This afternoon 2 of the office staff are teaching mission prep to the two missionaries who just came from China. They are going to the temple in the morning. We love the temple here.

what is everyone doing for Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Are you doing the Festival this year? Please send pictures. I love the pictures on Instagram.

I love you all and miss you.
Love, Mom

Christmas

Our Christmas decorations.  We are loving fixing up our flat.  We don't do Thanksgiving but some ex-pats are having a real Thanksgiving Saturday and we are invited. 

 We made these for the sister we visit.

Vietnamese Dinner

Elder and Sister Lattiere cooked a Vietnamese dinner. He was in the service and met her in Vietnam Nam. Wonderful couple. 

Tongan homecoming dinner

 Getting ready for the big Tongan party.

 We were seated at head table out of respect for us being senior sister missionaries. They also asked us to put leis on The returning elder George. It is a Tongan tradition 

 Our sweet friends.

It was one of the best and most fun night we have had.

Dear Family,

We have had an exciting weekend.  Two to three weeks ago we were given an invitation to a missionary homecoming party.  We didn't know the missionary but have become friends with a number of the Tongan families in our ward.  The missionary is George Otunukulikiliki.  The family goes by LikiLiki.  We wanted to go because they were so nice to give us a cute invitation. The time for the party was 6:30 til LATE.

All afternoon, Friday, we watched them preparing for with lots and lots of meat; chicken, pigs or pork, and roast beef.  They were cooking it outside in a cooking trailer.  They cater for islander's parties.  They fed between 200-300 people and had enough leftovers so that everyone could take home food.  It is the islander way.  We posted pictures on our blog, cannonsisterscalledtoserve.blogspot.com.au   It was amazing to see all that meat being cooked.

The evening was supposed to start at 6:30 and at 8:00 food was finally served and the buffet line started.  The Master of Ceremonies or MC told us this was normal.  The table decorations were as elaborate as any wedding we have ever been to.  The MC and the mother of the missionary reserved seats for us at the head table.  It is to show respect for two senior sister missionaries.  It was very nice but a bit embarrassing.  There was a whole cooked pig on the table where we sat, in fact right in front of our plates.

We tasted some new food; corned beef wrapped in taro leaves.  We also ate sweet potatoes that were purple.  They were very similar to our sweet potatoes but didn't look near as tasty. They had oriental type foods, we picked the meat off the pig, and many foods we didn't try.  The dessert tables were wonderful, trifles, cupcakes, cakes, fruit etc etc etc.

They had non-alcoholic wine at all tables.  We didn't care for the taste so we drank the orange punch.  It was good.  

There was entertainment. Many of the people were the entertainment.  The women get up and dance throughout the evening without the men.  The entertainers have oiled their bodies, (they wore native costumes).  As they are dancing or singing people from the audience get up and slap real paper money on their skin.  Very generous with the money they give.

The returning elder was called to the floor to be honored.  The mom and the aunts put leis on him. The mother gave us each a lei to go and tie around his neck.  We felt very honored.

The leis are real flowers,some are candy,  fabric ones sewn with shells, ribbons etc. People lined up to tie leis on his neck.  Quite a site. Lots of kissing with each lei.  No, we did not kiss him.

All in all it will go down in our history as one of the memorable and happy experiences in Australia.

Today in church the Tonga family blessed their first grandchild, a baby girl names Ava.  She had a wreath of white flowers around her head.  She was beautiful.

Two investigators came today.  They were in their 70's.  When we introduced ourselves to John, he kissed our hands and said, "This is the European way."

Last night we went to the Lattiere's home for dinner with the other senior couples.  They serve in the Vietnamese branch.  Sister Lattiere is from Viet Nam and met her husband during the war.  He was in the army.  They are a wonderful couple.  She served us a Vietnamese dinner.  We are tasting and eating many new foods. Picture on blog..

We got our flat decorated Saturday for Christmas.  We watched Christmas movies and listened to Christmas music. It looks very festive and makes us happy.

                "Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?

                Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men?  Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest

                part which I feel."             ALMA 26:16

We love you all,

The moms and grandmas

Dear Family,

  

We got up this morning and watched a beautiful, emotional Hallmark Christmas movie, Christmas in Canaan.

At our ward missionary meeting, before church, we learned one of our missionaries is being transferred.  Adrienne and I got teary and when he saw us getting teary then he got emotional.  We  have become very close to Elder Rice.  The first night we stayed in our flat, nearly 4 months ago, he and Elder Hollits came to welcome us.  It helped make our first night better.

Then we went to choir practice, before sacrament meeting, and started preparing for the Christmas program.  We had a difficult time singing beautiful Christmas carols and got teary again.

Christmas songs always make us emotional and the choir was singing them so beautifully.

Next, was sacrament meeting.  A returned missionary, Harrison Simon, spoke using an American accent.  We understood everything he said.  He served in the Salt Lake City East mission.  He spent time serving at the University of Utah and now says he is a Utah Man.  He also served in Kamas.  He was made the district leader in Kamas to 6 sisters serving in Park City and said the seventh was his companion.  He talked about the atonement and because of that he grew to love the sisters and his companion.  He learned a lot with that calling.

         He said,. " my mission was not the two best years of my life

                          my mission was the best two years FOR my life."

Thought that was a great quote.

Our next meeting was the missionary prep class.  We had two NEW members and 2 investigators. One investigator, Danielle, is getting baptized in 2 weeks.  She is so ready and understands the gospel.  She met the missionaries one month ago.  She has been going to a Christian church so she knows there is a God.  We will be able to go to her baptism which is exciting for us.

One of the new members was baptized 10 weeks ago and we were able to go to that.  Hopefully the other investigator will be baptized and we can go to his baptism.  The gospel would really be good for him.  He has so many struggles.  Our lesson was on God the Father.  It too got very emotional.

In other words it has been an emotional day.  The spirit was sooooo strong.  Once again the Holy Ghost testified to us of our Father and Jesus Christ!!!!!!!

We are home from church, via a drive through some new neighborhoods looking at houses.

We are having salmon, wild rice and veggies for dinner.  While eating will be watching the 2nd part of Christmas in Canaan.

Thursday night we visited our lady friend, Ella.  She is the concentration camp survivor.  Her dementia is getting worse but we will still visit.  One of the ladies we visit, who invited us back, isn't answering her phone.  I have left so many messages.  I feel so bad.  I will try again this week and pray and hope.  I know all you former missionaries can relate.

We learned to play farkle at our FHE last Monday.  We, older missionaries, played it slowly and I finally understood the game.  Playing it with our adult children is harder because you play so quickly.

We had three weddings at the temple last Wednesday.  We walked over to see the brides in their dresses.  It was such fun and they all looked beautiful.  A friend of ours is getting married on Friday.  We are so excited to see her dress.  Her groom was born in Antofagasta , Chile (where Tony served his mission.)  His family now live in Australia, but grandparents are still in Chile. I will be meeting his father next Sunday.  They left Antofagasta in 1993-5 or abouts.

Adrienne just read Helaman 5 and says it is marvelous and all of you should read it.  

    "Strength is not something you have, it is something God helps you find."    Emma Smith

 Love to you all,

The Sister Sisters,  The two moms, The two grandmas

Shorts

These are the shorts that all the Australian men wear. Teen, 30 plus and old men.  Its quite awful.

The town

We went by a bakery and this was the window. No we did not partake. There are soooo many sweet shops but this had the prettiest window. 

 We went to China town.

Dear Family,

              President Uchtdorf said;  "Often the answers to our prayers does not come while we are on our knees, but while we are on our feet serving the

                                                        the Lord and serving those around us."

Well, this has been another week of firsts or as we call them, another new experience.

We are very busy at work but the weather has warmed up and we have been walking.  We have found new neighborhoods to walk in and we figure we are doing 3-4 miles

exploring.  The bonus is that the sun is shining and it is light til about 8:00 PM.  It does wonders for the mind when you can get out and walk.  We love it when the sun shines.

Melbourne weather can change so quickly in one day.  Hot, rainy, cloudy, back to warm, then hot, than rain.

Two senior couples plus Adrienne and I have formed a Family Home Evening group.  We meet on Monday nights.  Last week we met at Elder and Sister Rust's flat.  They are friends of Paul and Suzette.  He showed us a video on the church vaults that are up the mountain on the way to Alta, the ski resort.  It was so interesting.  The vault is kept at 55 degrees.  I couldn't work there it would be way too cold. The Rust's work in the archives which are located in the city.

We have been making Christmas ornaments for our the Christmas Party. Adrienne and I are having the party for the office staff and President and Sister Maxwell.  While we do this we are watching Christmas movies.

We pruned the trees and bushes in our backyard one night.  Adrienne is a much better gardener than me. It looks so nice and we have our table and chairs out there.  Now when we get home and if it is sunny we can eat our dinner outside.

We took the train down to the city on Saturday.  We love going downtown.  We shopped and as we were walking we bumped into three young elders.  They looked so happy and clean.  The Chinese branch building is close to the shopping.  They directed us to the building.  It is on the 2nd floor.  It is open 7 days a week.  The missionaries eat there meals there, teach gospel lessons and English classes.  Two senior couples oversee the day to day operations, which make for very long days.  There is a Chinese Branch and an International branch, which includes Vietnamese, Iranians etc.

On the train ride home we took the wrong train and ended up at Lilydale, the end of the line.  We had to double back, change trains and finally got home. Good thing we can laugh at our experiences.

We got our carpets and our teeth cleaned this week.  All on the same day.  The dentist Dr. Hatel Patel is from England and was very nice.  He did the cleaning.  It is different from the US but our teeth feel much cleaner.

We were invited to dinner last night, by a great couple, Brother and Sister Snow.  They always have people over on Sunday for dinner.  There was another couple and their daughter.  She is a fabulous cook and makes two main courses, two sides, two kinds of salads, two different desserts.  It is amazing and all very very good.  They told us about a lady in our ward who survived a concentration camp.  She is very old and quite alert.  She is in a nursing home and we are going to visit her.  It should be a very interesting visit.

Four elders are coming to our home tonight for pizza.  We don't do much cooking because the oven isn't great.  I guess that is our excuse.  Two senior sister missionaries still can't have two elders over.  There are new rules and the rules are necessary.  We are happy to have 4 coming tonight.

                LESSON FROM RELIEF SOCIETY;    THE OBJECT OF OUR BEING HERE IS TO DO THE WILL OF OUR FATHER AS IT

                                                                              IS DONE IN HEAVEN, TO WORK RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THE EARTH.

We love you all,

Adrienne and Dee Dee

Grandmas

Moms

Dear Dear Family,

We have found our favorite restaurant here in Australia.  It is called Degani.  There food is delicious.  The owner came over and talked with us.  We told him we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He said he has quite a few patrons who are members of our church.  When you come to visit we will go there and eat.  MY TREAT,

We had huge rainstorms on Monday and Tuesday.  The thunder and lightning were unreal.  So I am now wearing tights again to work because it is cold.

One of the missionary couples left on Thursday.  We went to a pot luck dinner at the President's home.  All senior couples were invited. We played a game where we get assignments to be good or be robbers.  No one but you know to which you have been assigned.  Adrienne was robber and I was killed off first.  Sounds weird but it was quite fun.  When the senior missionaries get together we have a great time and laugh lots.

Thursday was hair day.  Adrienne got a cut and color and I just got color.  The gray is now gone for three to four weeks.  YEAH

On Friday we were the only ones in the office most of the day.  BORING.  The printer/copier was broken so consequently we had no work to do.  SO we watched Jimmy Fallon excerpts on our i pads.  We certainly laughed a lot.  We know our sons did that too, right?  We do prefer being busy!!!!!!!!

On Friday night, Halloween,  we went for a walk around our neighborhood.  We saw a house that was decorated for Halloween.  We were sooooo excited.  The family was outside in their costumes.  This is such a rarity, almost non-existent, in Australia.  We walked over and introduced ourselves and had a nice visit.  They told us they also decorate the house for Christmas.  We told them we would be back to see them.  At Christmas we will take them a treat.

As with the family mentioned above, many people assume we are Jehovah Witness because they had the huge huge international gathering in Melbourne a couple of week ago.  So we always say no, we belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Tonight is our President's fireside.  Adrienne and I are in charge of refreshments.  We are doing ice cream with Robin's hot fudge.  Remember it is spring here so ice cream is refreshing.  Also, our ward Tongan family made sandwiches.  We told them it wasn't necessary but they told us that feeding the missionaries is a blessing in their lives.  They are such dear sweet people.  The islanders are just wonderful people.  We love being around them.  It was an area wide (pacific area) fast yesterday for missionary work to hasten.  On November 30 every ward or branch in the pacific area will have a special sacrament meeting.  Everyone has one month to decide who they will bring to church that day, investigators, non-active members, part-member families or friends.  They have been stressing this for several months.

We are at the office now, and waiting for President and Sister Maxwell to arrive.  We, the office help, have a weekly meeting to get everyone on board for transfers, arrivals, departures, who is coming and going and of course keeping track of the President's agenda.  Boy, he is so busy and traveling so much.  Great great couple.

Love to you all,

Pray for you night and day,

The moms 

Hello

Dear Family,
It is Wednesday morning and I think Patti is on her way to Malaysia. I loved the email she sent. I hope the trip goes well. I want to see pictures. We were told they have one of the biggest shopping centers in the world.
There are zone conference/interviews this month. When we came into the office this morning ,the AP's had left a lot of materials here that were suppose to go to the meetings. DeeDee and I decided that we needed to take the "stuff" to them. Besides it was in a different part of the area where we had never been. Thank heavens for GPS! We are becoming more knowledgable about where we are. I just wish I had a big map.
We sent out a letter to the parents about Christmas for the missionaries. We know there will be missionaries who do not get anything so we are trying to get ahead of the game. I am keeping track of the gifts that come in. With 300 missionaries here it should be interesting. We will keep all the presents at the mission home the night before the Christmas party,all the senior missionaries get together and divide it up and make sure everyone gets something. I feel DD and I will be doing some shopping. But that will be fun.
The temple has been closed for 2 weeks for cleaning. The Temple grounds are so beautiful. We are glad to be going to the temple tonight. We really love going. One of the young girls in our ward is getting married on the 21 of nov. It will be fun to watch her come out of the temple. They are then having a ring ceremony here after. The ward is never that clean ,so I am going to make sure the room they are using is as clean as possible. It will be nice though.
The weather is an ever changing ordeal. Saturday was really hot. Sunday was cloudy. Yesterday was windy and cold. Today is sunny bit a little cool. We have been trying to walk a lot. We just look at the weather and then decide where we will walk. We have been walking at night and have found some great areas. It is so hilly around our flat, that we really get a good workout. We sometimes even get a little lost,because there are no straight roads.
I love you all and miss you. I love when we can face time. Give all the children a kiss from me.
Love Mom
Sent from my iPad