Christmas Eve at the Sallenbach's

The Sallenbachs with 11 of the Elders from the
Penrith Zone (Elder Heslop is taking the picture)

Christmas Eve was fun because we had twelve of the Elders from our Zone over for dinner and a nice evening together. We might have called it a Christmas Eve Party.

Elder Jensen (from Far West Utah) and Elder Heslop
(from New Zealand) work with us here in the Emu Plains Ward

We were planning for part of us to eat on our deck, but since it was sprinkling we decided to all eat inside. Luckily we have a big coffee table so we just put a tablecloth over that and we had two tables.

Elder Cooper (New Zealand) & Elder Nolin (New Jersey)

Elder and Sister Sallenbach by our Christmas Tree

Last Year we got this tree because we knew we would be here for two Christmases. It has been fun to have a tree with decorations from St. Vinnies and a few that be bought to take home with us to remind us of Australia

Elders Stott, Vernon, and Bybee relaxing before dinner

Elder Bennett, Elder Lynch, and Elder Hall

We had crackers again with fun hats and jokes to make our dinner and evening a little more festive. We had a few appetizers and then had steak, baked potato, salad and rolls.

Elder Sallenbach with the twelve elders from the Penrith Zone
We are so proud of these missionaries - they really work hard

Back to our Christmas Eve Dinner: We ate and then had a couple of Christmas Quizzes (can you name all of Santa's Reindeer?) and taught the Elders the Aussie Christmas Song “Six White Boomers”. (Google this song and you will find that it has a catchy tune and is really quite fun.) We exchanged gifts and everyone got something they probably didn’t want. Everyone seemed to want a wallet and Rubik’s Cube which was traded around quite a bit. None of the Elders who are mostly from America or New Zealand wanted the Vegemite. So I guess we will bring it home for people to taste. It actually is pretty awful. Some of the Aussies will admit that you have to be brought up on Vegemite to like it.

We enjoyed watching the movie Emma on our 18” TV. We had popcorn and brownies with ice cream, whipped cream and hot fudge while we watched the movie.

Everyone left around 9:30 that evening excited for Christmas Day because they would be calling home and talking with their parents and would enjoy the one day each year where missionaries in the Australia Sydney North Mission get to sleep in. We have such dedicated missionaries - they truly inspire us.

Sydney North Christmas Zone Conference

Hey Aren't These Missionaries Wonderful?

We all had such a good time at the Christmas Zone Conference. We started with a temple session made up entirely of Elders and Sisters from our mission with President and Sister Scruggs. The Temple President spoke with us before the session and it truly was a spiritual experience. Then we had a wonderful dinner followed by a talent show and movies and carols. It was lots of fun. Here are a few of the photos we took of our group.

Sister MccLaughlin Enjoying Appetizers at our Zone Conference

Beautiful Dinner Served by the Relief Society

Here in Australia they enjoy serving more than one kind of meat at a meal. This Christmas dinner had ham, turkey, and beef. It was beautiful and we all enjoyed it. The gold crackers on each table also were fun. We opened them and inside there was a crown hat with a joke to keep us amused.

Sister Shirley Scruggs and Emma Scruggs

We had three groups of bell ringers for some of the carols. Sister Scruggs and Emma led us by pointing to the corrrect color of bell to be played for traditional Christmas carols. It was lots of fun.

These Missionaries had been out more than six months

Here is the bell choir made up of missionaries who have been out less than six months.

Elder Lynch, one of our Zone Leaders is helping with the
Christmas spirit by handing out red hats to everyone.

Sister Botchemeg and Sister Yang (pronounced Young)

Sister Botchime (from Mongolia) was a new missionary last year and now has been out for a year. Sister Yang (who was baptized in mainland China) has been out about six months. We have been privileged to work with both of these lovely sisters.

Does anyone want a present?

Elder Nuttal, Sister and Elder Sallenbach
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas at the House

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas because it's getting really hot.

Here we are at the park in Glenbrook with Santa

We have tried to be good this year but Santa says we still need to work on it.

The Emu Plains and Leura Wards had a fun Christmas Barbecue at Glenbrook. We had barbecued sausages and great fellowship. Some of the younger group played cricket. We haven't figured this game out yet but the Aussies seem to understand it.

The Sallenbachs at the Opera House

The Sallenbachs with Anne & Jim Green, Harbor Bridge in Background

Our newest (Green) missionaries are the Greens. They have been here in Australia about two weeks. They are from the Seattle Area and have been assigned to the Hebersham Stake. We are enjoying getting to know them and their optimistic and energetic enthusiasm.

We went to Christmas at the House with the Cases and the Greens. We enjoyed a wonderful day in Sydney together. And especially the performance at the Sydney Opera House which was put on by the opera company and symphony orchestra with wonderful soloist performances by five well known artists from Australia.

The Stage for Christmas at the House

The stage was beautifully decorated with yellow flowers all around the skirt of the stage. Many of our favorite carols were sung. We joined in on several of the carols. The encore was "Six White Boomers" which was sung with enthusiasm by all the Aussie audience. Many of the children who were at the performance were invited to come on the stage and they jumped like little kangaroos as everyone sang the song.

Glenn with the Cases

Our friends Shirley and Lewis Case serve in the Orange District. They live about three hours from us. They visit four branches and usually visit with each member of each branch once a month. They are great people with lots of enthusiasm for the gospel and sharing it. We enjoy having them stay with us for Zone Conference.

Here we are with Brother Case

No photography was allowed during the performance but they did allow us to snap a few pictures before the performance started. It really was exciting being in such a wonderful place with great friends.

The Christmas Tree at the Queen Victoria Building

After the performance, (did we say that it was wonderful?) we trained over to the QVB where we were totally amazed by the huge Christmas tree which was decorated with thousands of Swarovski crystals and lights. You can view the tree from the three levels of this upscale shopping center.

Can you imagine how long it would take to assemble and decorate this tree?

The Sallenbachs, Greens, and Cases at the Queen Victoria Building

Here we are with the fantastic tree in the background. Our grandchildren especially enjoyed this clock. It has a ship that goes around the clock once each minute.

Town Hall - Decorated for the Season

The Greens and Sallenbachs at the Nepean River Overlook

On Boxing Day (the day after Christmas) we took the Greens for a ride to Glenbrook Park. We enjoyed this overlook of the river but unfortunately we didn't see any kangaroos. We had been very fortunate to see them on all five occasions that we had visited the park. There were lots of people in the park on that day so that is probably why we struck out. It was a fun time anyway.

Our Family's Australian Adventure

One of the true highlights of our time in Australia was having Tiffany, Robert, Trevor, and Ethan visit us. They came on Tuesday October 14th and left on the 27th of October. They did fly to Cairns for 5 days in the middle so we had them for about 8 days here in the Blue Mountains and Sydney.
Here are some of the pictures from their trip. They are not in order but hope you will get a flavor for some of the things we did together while they were here.

We really had a great time. We went to Glenbrook Park where we saw kangaroos in the wild the very first day they were here. On Wednesday we went to the Three Sisters. It was a very foggy day and at first we could only see about 10 feet and couldn't even see the beautiful canyon or the Three Sisters, but the fog lifted and we had a beautiful view. That day we also went down into the rain forest at the bottom of the canyon.
We went into Sydney three times. And while we were there we took a tour of the Opera House; we looked at the city from the top of the Sydney Tower. We also rode the red double decker bus around the city and got a real feel for this beautiful city. The boys especially liked the big clock in the Queen Victoria Building.
Trevor and Ethan really loved going to Featherdale Wildlife Park; petting the koala and seeing a kookaburra up close. We had a wonderful time with our family. Grandma Sandi took care of Kevin in San Diego so that Tiffany and Robert and the big boys could concentrate on sight seeing and enjoying Australia. We thoroughly enjoyed their visit.
Well I am running out of time to post all these pictures. Hope you can see that we truly had a great time. Australia is a wonderful place and we are really enjoying the beautiful scenery and the wonderful people. It is great to be able to share the adventure with your family.

Two Baptisms in the Leura Ward

During the months of October and November we were excited to be able to teach two ladies from the Leura area and to witness their baptisms. Janet Franceschine was baptized on Saturday the October 11 by Louis Marschik and then Kathleen Smith was baptized on the 29th of November by George Rose. Both baptisms were wonderful.
Kathleen had worried for a long time about being baptized because she is very afraid of the water. The baptismal service was very good. Sister Sallenbach (Dee) gave a talk about baptism and then the baptism took place. It went very well. As they would say in Australia, “No Worries.” After the baptism Brenda Westbrook gave a talk about receiving the Holy Ghost and then we had the closing hymn, “How Great Thou Art”. At the end of the hymn Kathleen who was sitting right in front of us fainted. Luckily she didn’t hurt herself. She had been so nervous about the baptism that she had not eaten all day. After the services concluded we got her something to eat and she was just fine. It was definitely an exciting day.
We have been teaching both sisters the new member lessons and they are doing very well. Since her baptism Janet has taken a new interest in life and has found a job and received a promotion. We are excited for both of these fine ladies and know they will find much joy as they learn more about our savior Jesus Christ and find ways of serving Him.