Wow! It's been a whirlwind month and a half since I wrote on the blog. Where does the time go? Things have been going well......and staying busy! A lot of the students are going back to China for the Chinese New Year. They have a break from school until the end of February, so it's slower than usual here.
We spent a P-day over in Sydney with some of the students. Went to the small zoo by the Opera House. The 4 Elders in our district and 2 of the members were with us for the day. Great time.......great food! This is Elder Ding and Elder Yow, along with Emma, a new member of two months.
I'm not sure how Elder Harper had the "guts" to do this. I can't even look at a snake, let alone let it move around my neck! Yuk!
We thought we had the Elders and 2 investigators coming for dinner. This was the night after my birthday. They surprised us with a fun birthday cake and 16 people there. It was like manna from heaven because I had planned on only 8 people. The food stretched and we had a wonder time together.
Elder Harper gave me tickets to the Merry Widow ballet at the Opera House for my birthday. On the way over there, this tin man was sitting on a stool. Of course they're sitting there like a statue....and they don't move. BUT when Elder Harper put a coin in his box, he jumped up to have his picture taken with him. Fun picture. It was a wonderful night. The ballet was spectacular!
Australia starts their Christmas lights the first part of November. As we were going back to catch the train after the ballet, this beautiful tree was across the street. Strange here with Christmas......the malls are all decorated, and of course everyone shops a lot! But you hardly see any Christmas trees anywhere except in the malls. Very few homes have trees. I think we probably saw about 3 houses with lights on them the entire Christmas season!
This picture was taken at Danny and Sophie's baptism. They had lived together. Separated so they could get baptized. And then got married. This picture includes the 2 Sr. Couples, and the 4 Elders, along with the 2 Sisters in the middle, who were responsible for this couple getting baptized.
We were able to take the 2 Sisters with us to the Blue Mountains for a P-day. This picture is taken by the "Three Sisters" behind us. It was quite cool this Monday. The Sisters had prayed that it wouldn't rain. AND IT DIDN'T!
We got our picnic food out to eat right by where we had taken the train down the steep hill to walk through the rain forest. When we got back from that long walk and took the tram across the hill and saw the gorgeous waterfall that falls forever into a beautiful pond below, then we ate. It started getting cooler with the wind blowing so we decided to head to the hill. Low and behold........it started raining! We definitely wore the Sisters out....they slept all the way back, which was about 1 1/2 hours.
Because it was so cool, Sister Du on the back went in the gift shop and bought herself a hat. What fun Sisters and what an opportunity to work with them. They have such beautiful spirits and we get to have them in about every week in our home with their investigators. So sad that Sister Kim got transferred the day after Christmas.
Elder Harper and I got to serve at the Art Exhibit on the temple grounds twice during the Christmas holiday. There were 34 pictures in the exhibit. They had 8,000 come to the exhibit last year. I haven't heard the official count this year.
They had a beautiful display outside with live size nativity pieces. And the lights were a "mini" temple square. Very beautiful. Drew a lot of people to the area.
This was Elder Byram's 70th birthday party. It was a great party!
Sister Kim is such a talented artist. She is from Korea. She made this special card for Elder Byram's 70th birthday. It stood up with the missionaries as sheep. They were made with cotton balls. Notice Elder Yow in Sister Byram's arms. He just got out of the hospital from having his ruptured appendix out. That's why there's a bandaid on his stomach! And Elder Harper and I are off to the right. Darling card! She is so talented!
Elder Hume chose to spend his last day with us at our flat. It was such a special treat for us. He is in the center (the tall one). He and Elder Chan (2nd from the right) went to the city (Sydney) with us and we saw where the Sr. couples teach English in the city. We also saw the Family History center there. We then came back to our home and had dinner at 1:00. He had picked some of the special members that he had baptized. We took him back over to the Mission Home and was in one of the worst rainstorms we have ever seen in our lives. It took us 1 1/2 hours to get over there and back. WOW! Hope that never happens again. It was scary!!!
I'm going to stop with this information, because we must rush off to FHE with the students. Will post again real soon so you can see some of the other things we did in December.
Sure miss all of you and think about you lots! Hope you have a wonderful New Year. We love you all! Hugs, The Harpers
This is so amazing! I can't believe how many people you are meeting and all the places you get to go! I am glad our Christmas card got to you. We miss and love you both. Happy belated birthday!
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