Little Cove

Our absolute favourite beach anywhere is Little Cove at Noosa. It is almost always calm, usually has fish swimming around your feet, occasionally has turtles, is seldom full and is safe and secure.

We swam there each day of the Easter break (except Sunday, of course). This time there were even waves for the little kids to boogie board on.

Easter Visitors

Lots of easter visitors this year.

Caroline & Stephen - though no kids.

And Georgie.

Travelling

Travelling to and from the coast took a obscene amount of time this year - 2.5 hours up and 4(!) hours back. The kids like to listen to the commentary on radio station (B105) and the music on another (MMM) - so the flip between stations. As we were driving up listening to the commentary station a song came on and was left on for a half a minute or so till Jesse changed stations saying 'you can feel your IQ dropping'. Altogether too pop for her.

Easter Chocolates

Lee & Joan came up to Sunshine for corn beef on Saturday night - but since someone turned the crock pot off at the wall we had fish and chips instead. Max was begging for ice cream from Massimos and I said no because there would be heaps of chocolate on Sunday morning. Alec - who is just cheeky - asked what made this year different to any other year - when there's not lots of chocolate - just some. Nothing - everybody got a rabbit and some little eggs - and a book of course.

Thomas News

Dear Alec,
Just so you know, after trying to ride a cow, you cannot condemn me of doing anything immature and stupid ever again!

Dear Family,
As funny as the whole cow situation has been, I felt like I was entitled to say that. I love the pictures that came with the blog. Particularly Alec walking up to honey with absolutely no subtlety at all, and Honey looking back like she knows exactly whats going on. Wow, what a weekend for firesides!

It must have been great to hear Elder Bednar give answers to questions that people where asking in Australia.

Well, big curve ball in our week came on Saturday when I got VERY sick. The single worst stomach pain I had ever felt. I wanted to vomit, and came close, but nothing. I was hoping I had diarrhea, but my stomach was too sore to go the the toilet. Thankfully President and Sister Watterson came around for flat inspection (which turned out okay). And Sister Watterson was able to tell me that this was just something going around. She at that point gave me news that Elder Rasmussen had a concussion- He ran into another elder during sports. The story sounded kinda like what happened when I ran into Alec and knocked my teeth back- but much more extreme results.

We've been working hard here this week. Our last week was abysmal and we were determined not to have a week like that again. Monday turned out marvellous. Our lesson, contact and new investigator goals were all met. We had a curve ball thrown at us yesterday when Elder Cavender got sick and I had to stay with him while our companions had to handle two sets of meetings. Which worked out pretty well, except most of ours didn't show up. We really need to speak to people in their homes.

Unfortunately, that's really all for now. Now I need to write to President and account to him for our week. I love you all very much. I love this work and know that our Heavenly Father really does love all of his children.

Your Son/brother/Grandson/Nephew/Cousin (I understand that Joan sends this letter around quite a bit)

Riding Honey

Alec announced on Wednesday night that on Thursday afternoon he would be riding Honey and Peet was going to video it - the little kids immediately started nominating how to spend the prize money from Australia's Funniest Home Videos.

Robert and Samuel heard too and were on the doorstep at 4 o'clock to make sure they didn't miss out.

Turns out - Honey can understand English! Usually she sticks her big head in where ever we are and makes a nuisance of herself but as soon as she saw Alec heading towards her with a twinkle in his eye she took off.

We had to get the scraps bucket to lure her - and even then she was cautious.

Alec finally caught her by the horns, dragged her across the paddock, and jumped on.

He only lasted a couple of seconds and Honey was very touchy after that. But Alec still had the scraps bucket - Honey was literally drooling at the thought of it and was just desperate to get to it. Finally she decided to risk it and Alec grabbed her by the horns again. This time he threw Honey and she staggered up in a cloud of dust, ran into the fence where the little boys were sitting - scared them half to death - and took off down the paddock. We were out of scraps by this stage so Alec reckons he'll try again another time - this time I think we'll make a bale to run her into.

Thomas News

ALEC LOOKS LIKE HE HAS SHINGLES!!! I saw the photos and it looks as though that'll heal if he washes in the Jordan river 7 times, he should be better (see Kings 2, chapter 5). Jesse looks like she has a nasty bruise too, but I'm just looking at one bruise there. Maybe Jesse is more agile than Alec.

This week said goodbye to Dimitri. Most of the lessons were just big arguments over the nature of god (trinity or the Godhead). It just isn't his time yet. But it is hard when they decide to drop you on account of refusing to believe. On the other hand, I'm not ashamed of the way we handled him. We testified hard, we taught from the scriptures, and the spirit was in those lessons.

We have been finding some other people to fill the void, though. Tonight we'll be speaking to a man named Dimitri, who we contacted totally by chance, and I think good things will come out of that. We attended a baptism of one man, Vaisili, this week. He's been meeting with missionaries and coming to English for a long time. Elder Cavander baptised him. His mother is a member in Riga, so I'm sure it will be lovely for her to know he is baptised.

The weather on Monday hit the warmest it's ever been (10 degrees Celsius). It was so sunny and nice. I kinda miss it now that its back to 4 degrees here. But spring is definitely here, the American elders have said that they have seen flying bugs around Daugavpils- which apparently means spring.

Well, that's really all the big news for this week, unfortunately. Lee and Joan's garden looks amazing! I can see why you need counselling.

The office also looks great- quite the step-up from the renovated shed. I expect to hear about another couple of stories being added onto that thing. I love Max's apple question- it's such a stumper. And his missionary comment is amazing. Well, that's all from me. I hope you all are well. More is on the horizon. I can feel it.

Gardens

Lee and Joan have finished the garden between the house and the new office and it looks wonderful. Now everyday when I go and work there I look out at a beautiful garden. So in family meeting I spent one of my 2 alloted items to talk about our yard and how it needed some work. Jesse took the minutes and wrote: 'Mum is jealous of Lee & Joan's garden - seek counselling' - and that was about all the discussion I got.

On Saturday Louisa and I took Sean and Lauryn (Jalill) with us when we went to drop off the welfare order to the Rea's and lucky for us they were out in the garden - so we got a tour.They have fruit trees, herbs, veges, chooks, stone steps, pumpkin and choko vines - it's too gorgeous for words. Sean climbed up one of the avocado trees to pick fruit for us to take home, all the kids foraged for cherry tomatoes, we got chokos and a pumpkin to take home, gorged on Brazilin cherries that Malcolm shook loose from the tree and were promised a monsterio delicio (sp??) plant and fruit when they ripen.

Now I have to seek counselling for that too!

FFFN

Last week was more FFWN (Friday Family Work Night). Still fun, but also work - we sealed up 50 kg of plain flour, 50 kg of SR flour, 25 kg of white sugar, 25 kg of castor sugar, 30 kg of icing sugar and 12 kg of coconut - which translates to full shelves. I did make honeycomb to make the medicine go down a little easier.

Max

Some questions Max has asked lately:

'You know how when you tie a piece of string around the end of your finger it goes purple - well why does it go purple.' I answered that it was because the blood was cut off. But Max said 'yes but if it had no blood shouldn't it go clear or pale'. Had to wait for Roger to answer that one.

'You know how red apples are green when they aren't ripe - well what colour are green apples when they aren't ripe?' Still don't know the answer to that one.

Also:
Max was crying again in church this week - this time it was when the missionaries were speaking. He sobbed and said 'I just can't bear to think of Anastassia not being a member of the church.'

Skirmish

For reasons that I do not understand Jesse and Alec played Skirmish yesterday. It costs a fortune and they come home looking like they've been tortured in an Iraqi prison. The photos don't really show the extent fo the damage.

They had a group of close to 40 friends and they both say they had a great time.

Thomas News

Hi again from Daugavpils. This week has seen a lot of tiredness, but its some of the best tiredness you can get.

Yesterday we've been trying to contact- initially seemed like a good day. Then out of nowhere comes one of the biggest snowstorms I've ever see. I'm walking against it, and the front of my coat goes almost entirely white. I can't look straight ahead, because the snow gets in my eyes otherwise. Considering how blue it was during the day, it was really bizarre.

Got "Jaked" (a slang term even used by president for "stood up") 5 TIMES yesterday, that gives you quite a blow. But one of them told me that he simply forgot and if I could call today, we will have another meeting.

This very person was very interesting in fact, I contacted him on the street on Sunday morning, just about an hour before church started. He asked me what I thought about prophets. I told him that there were prophets on the earth today and Christs church as he organised it was on the earth now as well. The man, Dimitri by name, told me that Christ had never organised a church. I told him: "He called apostles didn't he? (he agreed) There you have it, the organisation of Christ." He came to church that day and we had a meeting scheduled with him for yesterday.

No luck with getting Robert to keep commitments, but that will come with time, I think. Ludmilla and Yevgeni had us around again last week and it was a lovely lesson. Lev is the funniest little boy in Europe. He takes my dictionary and runs off. Well, of course, Mum and Dad try to get him to give it back just saying very kindly "give it to him, Lev." Lev picks up my photo album and passes that to me instead- Technically, "giving it" to me. Eventually I get my dictionary back and we go home. It's been a good week. We've been finding a couple of new people and that always gets me excited.

The weather here has been like when I've procrastinated on my exams. Right at the very end of winter (technically the first day of spring) we get the winter thinking "Uh-oh. I've only got a couple more days to do this" and starts snowing. Woke up this morning, all the puddles were frozen, and there was a thin layer of snow on the ground.

Is Alec working on his mission papers yet? Not to sound like I'm nagging, but it will be the greatest experience he has ever had.

Wow, Gowrie looks amazing. Peet was a very lucky boy. Well, I've just been informed that I have five minutes left. Which means I should probably finish. Hasn't been a really newsworthy week. But more later.

The Faint's Chookpen

A visitor wandered in to the Faint's cookpen - the chooks went nuts and wouldn't lay for a few days.

Released

It's tough when your aunt is released as Primary President. Beth was released on Sunday after 4 or so years - which is most of Max's primary life - and when Max heard the announcement in Sacrament meeting he started to cry - softly at first but he built up to loud enough sobs that I had to take him out. He was distraught, I tried to tell him the new Primary President - Heather Lawton - will be lovely - which she will - but Max was loyal to Beth and declared that he would 'remember her for ever, she was a great Primary President.'

At least Enoggera ward can always count on the Bishops family to provide entertainment.

Fireblade

Jesse thinks it is all Alec's fault for naming him Fireblade. She thinks that he has a tough name to live up to and that explains why everytime we sit down to eat dinner outside Fireblade swoops down the middle of the table to try to steal our food - and why whenever there is icecream he flys into the middle of the table, land on an unattended plate (usually Max's) and takes a beakful of ice cream.

Gowrie

Peet has been a little up tight lately - high school and hormones I think - so we thought he needed some good hard work and a bit of a circuit breaker. Lee & Roger had been up to the Gowrie land (a subdivision outside Toowoomba) to put up lot numbers and didn't get the job finished so Roger and Peet went up to finish the job and camp overnight.

It's a gorgeous piece of land - beautiful views and stars, wallabies, huge centipedes and so on. Lee even saw an echidna once. It is also home to the endangered Black Breasted Button Nosed Quail - hence the 25 ha of sanctuary we had to keep around the bottom.

The boys drove up on Friday afternoon - they couldn't leave till 1.30 pm because Peet wanted to eat lunch with his friends at school- had pork chops and canned spaghetti (it's a camping-with-Roger tradition - glad I never go camping with Roger alone) - and half froze since a cool change came through that afternoon. The land is high and on the top of a plateau and the wind whistled through and chilled their bones - and they loved all of it. They put up all the signs - collected a bunch of very nice rocks for my garden and shot some tin cans with subsonic bullets bought for the occassion.

Muddier

Alec got an unxpected day off last week so he took his car and Daniel and went 4 wheel driving around Beerwah - they even managed to get the car bogged and in water up to the tow bar.

Swimming Carnival

The stake swimming carnival happned a week ago - novelty events in which Enoggera Ward came second. And a fun blow up thingy that Louisa, Max and Jesse all tried.

It all put Anne in mind of her first swimming carnvial at Windsor school when she was 5 and her mother had sewed her a special swimming costume - a skirt and bolero jacket.