Things I wish I had photos of:

Driving Petie's Audi - Petie was in China for a week at the expense of her glass supplier for the new building so we got the cool car - Audi A4 convertible - and drove it all over Brisbane with the hood down of course. Jesse said that when she was in it with Alec driving people were pointing and looking at them much more than when I was driving - either it makes more sense to have someone my age driving a car like that or Alec is just better looking - or both. My favourite photo moment of all was on Friday night when Roger had Alec in the front and Peet and Max in the back and they were heading in to look at the Ferrari dealership. They pulled up beside us (in the Tarago) at traffic lights and waved out of the open roof - Max's face was too cute.

Max in the Spiderwick Chronicles. Max started off sitting by Roger and ended up on my lap as the movie got scarier. At one point the mother apologises to the boy for not believing him about the goblins - and Max looked up at me, chin quivering, to ask 'would you believe me?'.

The three little kids with Roger at the beach for 3 days. There is some video of this and it looks like they had a wonderful time.

Louisa hugging Alec and crying last night. Alec drove Louisa to Faith in God activities at church last night and ran into the back of another car on the way there. It was at a railway crossing and the car in front of him must have missed the lights starting to flash and hit the brakes hard instead of keeping going - so Alec hit the brakes hard too and with lots of screeching tyres managed to just hit the back of the car. It was a 4WD with a tow bar so not too much damage to the other car - not too much really to mine either - but enough to repair. Louisa had snuck into the front seat (where she is not supposed to be due to the airbags) and thought she was going to die because she was waiting for the airbags to inflate and smother her. Alec dropped her to FiG and came home - he was a bit shaken but ok by the time Louisa got home. She came running in to the house - crying - and asking for Alec so she could hug him for a while.

Jesse walking out of the State Library - it's Jesse's home away from home at the moment since she has a pile of assignments and she always looks beautiful and tired walking out to the car park to be picked up late at night or at the end of the day.

Thomas News

Letter from last week:

Well, this week has seen very little change in transfers. I've been moved from one side of Daugavpils to the next. My companion is Elder Cavender once more. I'll be the last missionary he serves with. This is his last transfer in the mission field. Elder Cavender's previous companion is going into my old area and Elder Arnel is going into Vilnus to serve in the exact area I served in.

The first day two days of this transfer, however, saw me leave Daugavpils to go to Tallinn in order to do my Latvian visa work. I was SO excited to see Tallinn again. It remains as the most beautiful city I've ever served in. I was the oldest missionary of the lot going up there (the other 6 were all on their second transfer). Having knowledge of the area, I was able to take care of them after the visa work was done (essentially, find a cheap place to feed them) and take them back to our bus back to Riga on time. I then spent the night in Riga and only very recently got off my bus back into Daugavpils.

The time before the end of the transfer saw some really wonderful things happen. We met a man named Vasili- he was just 3 days out of Prison and that time had really humbled the man. He realised the need for the Lord in his life and started reading the Bible, which he was carrying with him. He expressed a sincere desire to be baptised.

Also this week we made a deal with one of the young women in our branch. We agreed to teach FHE at the chapel (her calling) if she would teach a spiritual thought at our English class (all of whom were girls between 18 and 25. The 18 year olds spent much of class giggling). Well, I missed both events, but Elder Cavender taught FHE and the young woman kept her part of the deal. The Sister missionaries filled me in. Only one person turned up to our class (Victoria, the 18-year-old who gave Elder Arnel and I the cake for Easter), but the spiritual thought went perfectly and the Student accepted a baptismal invitation! It was really great.

Max's pictures with the Budgie are so cute. I love the fact that his concern was that bunny might be named "twinklenose". He is the most genuine little boy, isn't he? He looks so content in that photo with the thing on his shoulder.


Letter from this week:

Well, you've probably read the title of the letter (which was 'my week with the immigration police') and started wondering what happened this week. Elder Cavender and I were walking back from an appointment when a car pulled up next to it and a uniformed man yelled out "Hey, Agents!" Well, we were not going to answer to that, so we kept walking. He finally catches up with us and starts speaking on proper terms, asking for our documents (ie, our passports). Well, I wasn't one to walk around with it, so they had to take us back to their office. It turns out that these men are immigration police- their job is to check for people who are living in Latvia without a visa (Latvia being a land of milk and honey and all...). They told me I had to come back and show them my passport, because if I didn't have a visa, I'd get kicked out.

This never used to be such a big deal- it used to be that if you got kicked out of one EU country, you go into the next and wait. But recently new laws have been made- laws which take down all international borders within the EU.

This means two things:
- You can only have one visa in the whole European Union (meaning my Estonian visa is now void)
- If you don't have a visa within 90 days of arriving in any giving country, you have to leave the union altogether.

Thankfully, the office checked my passport yesterday, saw that I had applied, and that was good enough for them.

Well, this weeks been interesting. We've been teaching one guy named Igor. Usually his girlfriend (Zhana which is a good 10 years older than he is- they sure do things differently in Europe) is a menace. At least she was the first time I was in a meeting with them. But we spoke with them on Friday, and she was an absolute treat! Was just really supportive of everything. I wonder if Igor spoke to her about last time?

We've also been meeting with one of the sweetest old ladies in the world. Her name is Alexandra (for a moment, it was difficult translating her name into English). We committed her to fast for the first time on Sunday and she agreed, while saying "Wait, I'm at my daughter's place on Sunday, and she'll want to feed me. I guess I'll just tell her I'm sick." Which was quite a coincidence since she was sick on Sunday any, so she didn't come to church "But," she said, "I fasted anyway!". Just lovely like that.

I got a letter from Linda just this week, along with your Easter package. Thank you very much, it was wonderful. I'm going to send you an email today that I'd like you to send on to the Sturgesses if that's okay. I think I just need two or three garment tops, same size as I bought them first time (for the life of me, I can't remember what that was), and v-neck would be nice.

If you guys think it was funny about my English class being full of YSA aged girls (In the mission we refer to them as "Janes"), you should have seen Elder Cavender, who after hearing how Elder Arnell didn't want to teach the advanced class because it had a lot of Janes, put us in the 2nd level class which we were sure would be "Jane free". That goes to show us, doesn't it? Thankfully, the sisters have taken over that class.

Anyone can email me, but I can only write directly to family. I can give you guys emails to forward back to them, though.

My hand is doing pretty well, I'm able to give pretty strong handshakes to most people now, so long as they shake with the palm. A common european way of shaking hands is to grab only the fingers and shake those. When people do that too rough my hand tends to hurt. Other than that it's still a little swollen but doing well.

Well, that's all from me this week, I hope you're doing well. I've been trying to take more photos and will send some next week if I can remember.

Wednesday

Wednesday last week I needed to go up to Sunshine to look for a file so Louisa & Max and I had a day at the beach.

Swimming - Louisa was out too deep too quickly for me to get a photo:

Massimos, followed by spending the money Lee & Joan gave them - dinosaurs for Max and watch that Louisa says is really good value since it was only $19.95. Part way through their ice creams Louisa spotted a woman who looked 'just like Granny' - turns out it was Granny, and Caroline and Brenton - they'd been to the Eumundi markets and were having a swim before heading home.

Then lunch at Baked Poetry - the kids had calamari and chips and I had my favourite salad. Anne & Caroline & Brenton turned up there too - which is my fault - I said we were going to Baked Poetry for lunch - and didn't explain that it's all organic salads etc - it sounds like a cake shop - luckily they have wonderful Iced Chocolates so Anne et al could have that for afternoon tea.

Working Bee

Had an at home working bee on Saturday - all in preparation for the mini goats - we've been working on them for a good six months now and there's a few more months to go. This time we were getting ready to move Honey's fence - the big boys were pretty excited because a chainsaw was involved.

The front yard is looking better but I think there is still a weekend or two or three to go.

Thursday

When I cleaned my bedside table on Friday morning I found a 'talk slip' left there by Roger when he got home late from Bishopric meeting on Thursday night. On the 20th April I will be speaking in Sacrament meeting for 20 minutes on "How I seek balance in my life' - a topic with a certain irony considering the day I had on Thursday.

We did the normal house keeping stuff , made sushi for lunch, then took Peet to his physio appointment - where he was given new stretches and a massage that nearly sent him to sleep, despite the physio and I talking the whole time about how hard it is to fit everything in, because he is completely exhausted and ready for a holiday. Then dropped him to school late. Louisa and Max are already on school holidays so we met the Jalils and the Parrys at GoMA to see the Andy Warhol exhibit - and added a whole new meaning to pandemonium. The kids loved the silver cloud room, the photo booths and the '15 seconds of fame' video.

Then had lunch by the river and let the kids play which was perhaps a mistake since they all got covered in mud and grass stains and we still had a movie to go. We loaded the cars up and drove to the cinema anyway and watched Horton Hears a Who - I actually napped through part of it but am assured by Max that it was a great movie.

Joan rang to say she was sick and could we take her to town to send money to one of the guides she and Jesse had on the Everest trek (We send him money every quarter for his university fees). In the end she decided to wait for Lee to get her, and we went to school to sign the letter of appointment for the new teacher - Terry, who is Bahai so he should at least have the peace and love part of the job down. Then collected the high school kids from the train station and took them home with a decidedly glum mood penetrating the car. Except for Peet who was giddy with excitement at having got A's for his music theory test and his performance test. Jesse sat in the car with me then for almost an hour crying and assuring me that she was about to fail everything (this in spite of consistently high grades to date and masses of study/research) and that she was a disaster in every way. When she finally could cope again she went inside while I went to get chook food (they ran out on Wednesday), then came home to chat to Roger about feeling totally overwhelmed with the differing emotional/educational/social and spiritual needs of 6 children, realised I had nothing for dinner - that might explain some of those needs - tried to tell the kids that it was 'catch and kill ' for dinner (in other words try a tin of baked beans) but got howled down and bought pizza. Had scriptures and prayer before Roger left for a long night of meetings, chatted to Alec who is desperate to move to the Sunshine Coast. When I said that I would like to move there too Louisa burst into tears and I spent a while assuring her that although I fancy the idea it is not happening. Max then walked in and announced he was moving with Alec to Lee & Joan's unit and Lee and Joan would just have to figure out somewhere else to go - which caused Louisa to cry again. Made Peet cry by asking him to be respectful of Jesse at school - made Jesse cry by asking her to be respectful of Peet and put everyone to bed except for Max who was still up when Roger got home at 11.15 pm. Now does that sound like someone who has any clue how to find balance in life?

25 years of Happy Children Learning

Pine celebrated 25 years in March. We've been there for 17 of those years. We decided to have a casual pot luck dinner and to invite whoever we came in contact with rather than going the whole nine yards like we did for the 20th anniversary.

I had to leave early because it was also the night of the Relief Society Anniversary. But Roger took a few photos of some of the past Pine parents and kids and teachers.

Philip and Michael McClenehan with Patty:

Sam, Liza, Josh and Jesse:

Patty, Jesse, Tina and Tamzina:

Fraser, Steph Howarth, Jared, Sam:

Tom, Adrian and Loughlin:

Nikki:

Kate and Drew:

Kate and Di:

Of course there were heaps of others, but Roger was a bit slack on the photo taking. It was a gorgeous night - so nice to see so many now grown up Pine kids who have turned out to be wonderful people. Kaitlyn Woods was there and said she wished she went to Pine because everyone was so happy to be together again and Jesse added that it is where she most feels like herself outside of home.

Bunny the Budgie

Max has been saving his pennies for a budgie since before Christmas - he was up to $37, but we told him budgies were very expensive. But Max's happy day came on Easter Saturday when we got a phone call from Donna to say that she had found a budgie to give away, and she could pick it up after lunch if Max still wanted a budgie.

Initially I said that I thought he had moved on the guinea pigs (since Jessica and Maddison have guinea pigs), but Max assured me that budgies were still at the top of his list - so we said yes - and Donna drove all the way from Ferny Grove to My Gravatt to make Max's dreams come true.

Max's one concern was that it might 'have a name like twinklenose'. Donna rang to tell us that she had the budgie, that it was ridiculously cute, and named Bunny. Max decided to live with it.

On Sunday after church we picked up Bunny, and all her belongings - apparently she was used to having her own bedroom - but her former owner now had an 11 month old baby and couldn't manage to care for both. I am a bit nervous for this budgie.

Max is in love. We took Bunny back to the coast with us on Sunday night and Max spent Monday morning trying to win Bunny's affection. Bunny was perhaps a bit shell shocked and took a while to warm up to Max - which led to tears. But finally Bunny sat on Max's shoulder and head for half an hour and everything is good again.