Christmas Festivities 2007

The dinner at our flat on Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. We had a white elephant exchange of gifts. The food was great and the Elders and Sisters enjoyed themselves.

Zone Conference was so much fun. The Elders and Sisters had their gifts from home distributed to them so they could take them home and open them later. I know the Elders did not wait until Christmas morning but our sisters did. We have a new sister in our zone from Mongolia. She is doing very well; she even participated in the talent show.

The Blue Mountains

We have a beautiful area to work in. Here are a few of the pictures we have taken of this area recently.

The Blue Tongue Lizard

In between knocking on doors and finding no one home, meeting less active families, and going to meetings we had a chance to meet a nice 12" lizard. Elders Sully and Wellard caught this lizard in the schrub beds at the church and both Glenn and I got a chance to hold him. It was really great. By the way we do spend most of our time doing missionary work but this was just a fun experience.

Dee's Birthday at the National Park in Glenbrook

We went on a wonderful picnic on Dee's birthday and yes we got to see some kangaroos. We were only about 10 feet from them. This is the Nepean River at Glenbrook George

Service

Here we are helping put mulch around the Lapstone Primary School. The volunteers are members of the Emu Plains ward and the bishop is the person who is about to dump a shovel full of mulch on Dee's back.




























Caron Hunter is a newly baptized member and the Elder's helped paint her fence.























This is the Leura ward chapel by twilight.












Another picture of the Elders working at Caron Hunter's home.

Our First Zone Conference

All of us who have birthdays in October were honored at Zone Conference with goodies in a party hat. I think President and Sister Scruggs are doing a great job in creating a spirit of fun as well as spirituality in the mission.

Here is the Waratah flower. It is the flower of New South Wales. Anita cut these flowers for our granny flat. She is such a choice person. She and her daughter got busy yesterday and assembled a care package as she called it of food essentials for us to take with us to our new flat which we will move into next Thursday.












Here are some of our Elders doing the Haka dance from New Zealand at Zone Conference. They chanted and made it really fun. Of course President Scruggs said that they were not to perform this before baptisms or in the wards.







These good looking people are the senior proselyting couples in our mission. They are a real strength to the mission and the younger elders and sisters in our mission.

Australia Adventure

We arrived here here on Wednesday the 19th of September and were met at the airport by President and Sister Scruggs. We have been assigned to work in the Emu Plains Ward and the Leura Ward which is located in the Blue Mountains.
We think we have found a place to live. The mission will put in an application for us to lease this home in Springwood which is up the mountain from Emu Plains. It is possible that we won't get this place but the big thing is that it has ducted air conditioning and heat which is unusual. Most places do not have heating and air or they just have a unit in one of the rooms. They say that there are wallibies that live out in the bush in the canyon in back of this duplex.

Here we Are at the MTC

Here we are at the MTC. We are having a wonderful experience. We taught our first lesson today to an 82 year old volunteer. She was wonderful and the lesson went very well. Our schedule is grueling but we are very excited about our experience here.

We have met some wonderful people and our friends Anne and Wayne Lott were very helpful in picking us up at the airport and having us stay in their home for two nights and then bringing us into the Missionary Training Center yesterday, Monday, September 10th. Well we have started our mission and other than being really tired it is great.


We were set apart Friday evening by President Sabin, our wonderful Stake President. He gave us wonderful blessings and advised us to have fun as well as doing good. We are very blessed to have all of our friends and family pulling for us and helping us. We would love to hear from you on our E-mail.





Todd and Denise were here the last 3 days of our preparation time. They probably feel like they pushed us out the door and they did. They were very supportive. Sandi was also a big help to us. Well I must go as we have a devotional tonight and we haven't eaten yet. Our best to all our friends and family.

More Pictures of Legoland

We have a preview of Sydney. We will arrive there on September 19th.




































Kevin is 11 months old and loved being with Grandpa.

























Nora &
Ethan.










Trevor, age 8, got his Driver's License. He did a great job.























We worked really hard and won the race.















Trevor with Harry Potter. He has read all the Potter books.

More Family Fun at Legoland

While we were all together we went to Legoland. All of us had a great time, especially the kids. Of course we are all kids, right!

Great Family Fun

We have had a great time with our family this past week. We think these grandchildren are the cutest ever.