Senior Couples and Sister Scrugg's 50th

We have a good time with the Senior Couples in our Mission. Here is a picture of Elder and Sister Marcantelli (Dick and Mary) at Mountain High Pies in Wentworth Falls which is about 25 k’s from here up the mountain. We loved these pies and especially enjoying such a nice time with the Marcantelli’s the last week of their mission.
We also had a nice time with the other senior couples for our last get together at Marcantelli’s. We had pizza and salad and celebrated Sister Scrugg’s Fiftieth Birthday. She is such a cute lady and does so much here in the mission.

Fun with the Missionaries

We had an all Mission Conference on Tuesday, August 19th. We were privileged to have Elder Jay E. Jensen and Elder Tad Callister as speakers and trainers for the mission. We had to leave our flat at about 6:00 am but it was worth it. All the missionaries from the entire mission attended and we took a mission photo. As you can see we also have lots of identical White Camrys to drive and of course the Pizza and Subway Sandwiches were a real hit with the Elders and Sisters.

During our Penrith District Meeting with the Elders they had a fun activity where they had to wear protective sunglasses. Don’t they all look cool?

We try to take out a companionship to lunch each week. We usually go to Mackers (McDonalds) or Hungry Jacks (Burger King) but this time we took Sister Yang (who is from mainland China) and Sister Harman (from Melbourne) to a nice little Chinese restaurant in St. Mary’s. The Restaurant is the Silver Palace and all of us enjoyed our lunch especially Sister Yang. She is a real darling and has such a strong witness of Jesus Christ.

Baptisms in May and August

Bonnie Alercon was baptized on August 8th. We were able to teach her along with the Elder Thrift and Elder Pope. We enjoyed getting to know Bonnie’s mother Marie and her older sister Sean. The Marcantellis also taught the Alercons when they lived in Hebersham.

At the End of May Elder Harris and Elder Garepo from the Penrith Ward taught Seluvais Tuitupou and she was baptized. Seluvaia is a very special person. She was born in Tonga and raised in New Zealand. We have been teaching Seluvaia the new member lessons.

Rugby League Football

At the end of June we were really thrilled to have Elders assigned to the Leura Ward again and to our surprise we have three instead of two. Elder Garepo is our shortest elder at 6’. We also have Elder Boardman 6’5” and Elder Collinsworth 6’9”.
We really enjoy these Elders and love to go teaching with them. We did have to show them the overlook in Lithgow between appointments.

On June 27th our zone went to a Rugby League game at the Panther Stadium in Penrith. Elder Hall and Elder Butters our Zone leaders organized a barbecue before the game. It was really fun and we had a good feed. All the Elders and Sisters had a great time at the game but our new sister from China, Sister Young, about froze to death. She had a little cotton jacket and thank heavens one of the Elders gave her a warmer jacket but it still was cold.

Hassen's Wall & Lithgow Sites

Every once in a while we go to an overlook and take a few photos. You can see the little opening that we had to go through to see the valley and Hassen's Wall near Lithgow. These photos were taken on April 29th during the Autumn season here.

Holly & Vanessa's Baptism

July 7th was a very special day as Holly and Vanessa Cochrane were baptized. We really love the Cochrane family. They are our family away from home. Belinda (the mom) has cooked us a lot of meals and we love to be in the company of everyone in the family.

Holly is 18 and just finished High School she is very bright and understands the gospel very well. Vanessa is 14 and has just started going to Seminary. She has a nice voice and likes to sing and play the guitar.

We were able to participate in most of their lessons with Elder Butters and Elder Hall. The picture with all the elders shows many of the Elders who helped teach the girls. Elder Orton and Elder Glazier taught Bob Cochrane so the girls sat in on those discussions and Elder Thrift was there the night the girls accepted the invitation to be baptized.

A mission really doesn’t get any better than this, seeing two lovely sisters baptized and seeing their happiness and joy. It is a great blessing!

One photo of our Blue Mountains was added by mistake but I decided to leave it in as we do work in a beautiful area.

May - The Knight Fight; Donations to the Library

On Friday, May 16th many of the Leura Ward went to the Sydney Temple with Neville Perrin. Neville is a 73 year old convert to the church, and it was a great experience to be with so many of our fellow Leura Ward Members. There were 15 of us in attendance. Here is a photo of Bishop Harrison, Neville, and the two of us. We had a nice picnic after the temple session.
At our District Meeting for the Penrith District. We had two teams who used aluminum foil to create their very own knights. Then of course there had to be a knight fight to finish the activity off.
As part of our mission we try to help out wherever possible. We were able to schedule the presentation of a set of reference books on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Springwood Library. These books will be available to libraries throughout the Blue Mountains. Bishop Hamstead made the presentation to Vicki Edmunds, Manager of the Library.