Happy Thanksgiving!

We decided to have an American traditional Thanksgiving. First we had to go to a butchers and have him order a turkey. Some Australians eat turkey at Christmas but only Americans think of it for Thanksgiving. Trying to do pumpkin pie was interesting as you cannot buy canned pumpkin or any other pie filling here. So I baked a pumpkin and pureed it and added eggs, spices, sugar, etc. to make an American pumpkin pie.

The picture shows the challenge of making an all butter pie crust in a flat with no central air condidtioning. This was my second attempt and as you can see it basically melted. I even had the aircon cranked up but it just doesn't cool the house like at home. The crust was a disaster but the filling tasted good. Some of the people invited had never had an American inspired Thanksgiving meal. We went around the table and talked about what we were thankful for. Two of the people attending, one from Papua New Guinea and one from China, said they were most Thankful for finding the gospel and how it has changed their lives. We had so much turkey left over. We just sent a lot home with everyone. For some reason this blog page is not working as well as usual. Sorry for that. I can't see the pictures without going to the preview page.

The beautiful trees, flowers and bushes are back now that we have gotten some rain. Unfortuneatly the heat is also back. We did meals on wheels this week and the weather app said it felt like 107 degrees. I bought a new had with a wider brim with helps. You can see the picture of a couple of kookaburras. They are the coolest birds. Look up on utube and listen to their call and I dare you to try not to smile. They are large birds ofthe the kingfisher family. Their beaks really are so big they look like they would fall over.

These flowers look like hydrangeas but are bright orange and yellow. I have never seen any that color. There are lots of mango trees growing in peoples yards. There are many varieties and we buy them in the store at pretty low prices. We love going to the farmers market. Grapes will soon be back. They are amazing.

These two are pictures of our flight from Rockhampton to Townsville. Our whole district was on the plane. It was so fun. It was my first flight, that I remember, being on a propject. I thought the engine sounded like a gocart. LOL and when we landed they reversed the angle of the propellers to slow down quickly and it threw you forward than back. Yee Haw. We had a nice three day Zone conference with all of the missionaries in the north of the Queensland Mission. It would have taken us 8 hours to drive there. The far north at the tip of Queensland it would have taken 16 hours to drive to Townsville. You can see why they fly missionaries around. We had training sessions with our Mission President and his wife, the Gomezs and an Elder Wakola and wife. He is a member of the Pacific Area Presidency. Today Patrick Donovan blessed the Sacrament. He is a convert of about 9 months. He is older with some health problems. He was so excited and I was so happy the be there to see it. I felt real joy seeing him use his priesthood to bless the congregation. This has been the most joyful part of our mission. Seeing how lives change when they accept the invitation to get on the covenant path. We continue to love teaching with our dear sisters. They are so amazing. They give the best prayers! It is also joyful to talk about the Savior multiple times some days and different times during the week. My favorite is teaching the plan of salvation, plan of happiness, or plan of progression which ever you choose to call it, and looking into the faces of those who are being taught. Sometime, if you are lucky, you can see the light of rememberance shine in their faces showing that the spirit is teaching them. I wish everyone we taught could feel that way. Sorry again that this page looks crazy. I think it a beta test or something. Love you all.