Howzat!

This past weekend our American boy Caleb was introduced to one of New Zealand's favorite summer sports - Cricket! Our Branch had an activity with the Young Men playing the Elders Quorum and High Priests at cricket. Caleb did really well, so did Pete for that matter seeing as it had been years since he had played. It was fun to watch, especially when it was Pete's turn to bowl and Caleb was up to bat and vice versa. 

(FYI  "Howzat" is a term used to appeal to the umpire as to whether a batsman is out or not.)

Quick Draw

I am addicted to Pictionary! 

We usually buy a game every Christmas, and this year it was Pictionary. We have played it at several family dinners over the past few weeks and the evenings have ended in much hilarity and sore sides from laughing so much. I played it years ago, but it has lost none of it's fun over the years. When I suggest we play, people will say that they can't draw. But it's not about being good at drawing, it's about getting your idea down on paper and across to your team in one minute or less. It's really fun to see how people's minds work, and a good exercise in thinking outside of the box.

Canary Islands

Good logic, if you can guess the canary part. We must have guessed every bird but canary!

Jackpot

Caleb drew this, and I guessed it quickly. 

Our other team mates were dumbstruck, but those visits to Vegas paid off baby!

Sorbet

This was done by my Dad, he has interesting logic. 

He drew ice cream, and then a frog (yes it's a frog not a cricket), to indicate that it's a 

French word!

Garden Fresh Veggies

I have been trying to follow the advice to live providently and so after numerous gardening classes over the years, I have finally managed to grow a small vegetable garden. We have been enjoying organic garden fresh lettuce for a while now. My peas are almost ready, the tomatoes still have a way to go. Tonight I decided to cut some fresh broccoli and cook it for dinner.

So I cut a few stems and washed them and cooked them and served them up proudly. 

Unfortunately Rachael discovered a stowaway in her broccoli - a boiled caterpillar. Yumm! Now our garden fresh veggies don't have quite the same appeal to my family!!

Stories from Elder Ball

"Ya, we moved flats (translation = apartments), areas, and wards. I'm in the Eltham Ward. It starts down by Watsonia, and goes all the way up to King Lake, so ya, that's my area. I'm excited because kangaroo grounds are in there as well, so we are most definitely going to see some roos.

The ward is awesome, they are so active in missionary work, and we are getting fed like everyday. It's insane, at the beginning of the week it was going pretty slow just because we got doubled in again ( =both elders new to the area), the area book was a mess and we didn't know the area. But we got it under wraps now, we found 2 new investigators, and trying to get them both baptised this month hopefully.

Went tracting a lot this week. Got heaps of doors in our face, but that is the best way to humble a missionary.

Met this awesome guy named Johnny, he's from England, not a member, but he went to a YSA Conference over here, says that the church just makes sense, which it does. He's leaving the end of the month, so we're hoping to teach him all we can. It should be really cool.

So last P-day after playing touch rugby, we all went to lunch together. And after we all left, while driving down the road, a van had like 15 wood boards on the top - those skinny long rectangle ones, about the size of dry wall. So he hit the brakes and all the boards fall off down the front of his car and go into the middle of the street. We were all in different cars, but we pulled over, and then we saw the others pull over as well. So there were 9 of us that just came out of nowhere and just helped out these two guys. They were telling us while we were helping them " when we saw all of you coming to help us, it's like you were sent by God." We all just laughed and then they looked at our badges  and laughed as well. So we put them all back up on the van in like 10-15 mins. It was cool and also really funny."

First to see the New Year

One of the perks of being so far "downunder" is that you get to be first to see a new day, or in this case a New Year. So even though the blogger date says Dec 31, 2008, it is actually Jan 1, 2009 here, and it looks like it's going to be a great year. It's like being in the future! Who says time travel isn't possible. Happy New Year everyone.