October 15th Update

Hello everyone: Seems like a long time since I have written to you all. We keep busy with this and that. We enjoyed conference very much. Saw Sunday's sessions on Monday here in the office and Saturdays the following Sat. in our stake center and then since it was Sunday and the whole stake was watching conference we went back and saw one session again. We so enjoyed the talks. Then, for our Family Home Evening here in the Area Offices we again shared favorite talks. Pres. Baxter and Elder Hilbig returned from conference and gave us their observations of conference for our devotional Tues. morning. It was very interesting to hear the behind the scenes tidbits.

We were very impressed how conference dealt with the financial problems world wide etc. Basically, if we stay obedient and stand firm and do what we should we will be OK. We should learn what we should do, do what we should do and be what we should be. We need to stand close together and lift where we stand. We can't afford to be superficially righteous, our testimonies should run deep. So we need to get busy and figure out what we need to be doing. And DO it. We need to be serious about the gospel.

We are planning a Halloween/triple birthday for 3 of the missionary senior guys. We are having a potluck Halloween theme dinner etc at the area doctor's apartment overlooking the harbour. Hope to stay til it is dark to see the lights. They have such a beautiful view. I sent you some pictures of the cruise we took of the harbour etc. and their apartment building in the background. Picture was taken from Auckland side. If you look closely you can see tall building in the distance. That is where we live. Across the street from the tall one. We went to the temple early in the day and came back as we had tickets for a free cruise. It was fun.

We are planning our next trip which we leave on on Sunday. Have to fly in and out of these islands on weird days to get where we need to be when we need to be there. We are going to New Caledonia which is French speaking. Hopefully, we will have an interpreter, The food is really expensive (like $60.00 US for a meal at the hotel) so we will likely live on bananas, bread and peanut butter while there. Have to eat just at certain places and never drink the water. A bottle of water at the hotel is $12.00 US. Problem is we arrive on Sunday. Should be interesting. We stay there til Wednesday and then fly to Port Vila, Vanuatu (where we were in August) stay the night at our favorite hotel and then catch a plane for Santo island at 7:00 a.m. the next morning. We are staying in Santo over night. We could only find one place to rent a car there--at $124.00 US per day and we only need it for 18 hours or so. I'm sure that they will charge us for two days. The airfare from Port Vila to Santo (171 miles) is about $1500.00 US for the two of us. This is a very expensive little trip. We are trying to establish contact with our director there at the Family History Center. He got married in March and we haven't heard from him or the center since. Heard via the grapevine that he had to go live with his new wife's family (family tradition) etc. Guess, we will find out what is going on.

The email situation is bad in some of these islands. Most of the people get yahoo and then never use it again and yahoo drops them after so many months of non use. So the computers in the centers get old and deteriorate with the humid temperatures etc. With the new system they have to have Internet to print the new 'Family Ordinance Requests" and we have whole branches going on 'temple' trips and needing to know how to get their own family's names printed etc.

New Zealand went 'live' yesterday. Michael (our boss) is down in Hamilton for the roll out. He is going to Tahiti while we are in New Caledonia etc. Our next biggy is a huge genealogical conference here in Auckland in January. The conference organizers have contracted several people (like 4 or 5) to come from the Family History Library in SLC to be key note speakers etc. Don't know what our part will be --probable at least a booth etc to 'man' for Family Search etc.

We are excited that Megan and her friend Stephanie Cook are coming for Xmas. Pres. Baxter's wife stopped in yesterday and told us that they had met Stephanie at a lunch for the general authorities in SLC. Stephanie knows their daughter "Heather" who is coming the same time as she is. So, with our two girls and Heather and then a girl that just got back from her 'American" tour and stayed with Stephanie in Washington D.C. last month they (the four) should have fun together etc. Probable run them up the side of Ringatoetoe (sp) the volcano out in the ocean across from our beach. Should slow them down etc. Anyway we are anxious.

We are planning Thanksgiving also. Seems that we can order a turkey for only $12.00 per kilo or about $6.00 per pound. There will be about 22 of us but we decided to 'do' T. day with all the trimmings. I have just asked the Exec. Sec.(Sr. McLaughlin) wife if she would take it over for me. She is very organized and a good cook and doesn't have that much to do sooooo. Besides she can cook the turkey. We are going to use the kitchen here in the Area office--have games etc and make a day of it on the 29Th--Sat. Not Thursday as the office is open as usual. They don't celebrate our T. day. Funny thing.

Spring is coming!! We are excited. Flowers are blooming, trees are leafing out etc. It is getting prettier and prettier. We put away several of our heaters and only use them occasionally now. Still use the heated pad on the bed for about 5 minutes.

Well, must get back to work. Have a great day and let us know how each of you are doing. We would love to hear from you tooooooooo!

Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Andrea and Woody