Free to Choose

Since it is Flag Day in the US we thought we would focus on Freedom!  We feel very blessed to live in a country that enjoys freedoms much like home.  We spent Saturday in Sydney visiting more of the historical sites and learning about the history of this country.  We started in Hyde Park.  While it is not as large as Central Park or Hyde Park in London, it is large enough that you need several trips just to explore and enjoy all of its beauties.  That is Sister Feil by that fountain, not a statue.  

This statue which Elder Feil has chosen to lean against represents Earth, Wind and Fire.  These elements have helped shape this country.  In 1787 land was needed for arriving ships and the human cargo of about 1500 convicts who sailed in on 11 ships from England.  While the convicts didn't have much choice about their journey Captain Arthur Phillip chose to be a good leader and brought them to Australia and gave them chances for a better life.

Hyde Park always has a lot of street vendors who provide entertainment for all ages.  Also, there are fountains, walkways and lots of trees.  The missionries in the city spend a lot of time here contacting people.

From the park we went to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum which housed thousands of incoming convicts over about 30 years.  In 1848 it was converted to a female immigration depot. More than 40,000 women were temporarily housed here over it's 38 year history.

The mural shows that parting with family is hard.  But the convicts had been sentenced and were required to leave for either 7 or 14 years and some were banned to Australia for life.  In front the table represents an example of the victuals of the time for convicts.  As we went through this museum we thought about the people who made choices in the United Kingdom which resulted in being sent far away.  We also considered how their choices here resulted in either further punishment or the privilege of choosing to develop skills for a better life.

One of the interactive displays had shackles of the type used with the convicts housed here.

This is a display of some of the many tools used on various projects in constructing the buildings of Sydney.

This is a diorama of early Sydney which shows the aborigines being an integral part of the society.

The architect for these downtown buildings was a Mr Greenway who had been convicted of forgery and was sentenced to life in Australia.  He took the consequence of his actions, turned lemons into lemonade and developed his skills while building this prison for prisoners.  These large beams come from the Sydney blue gum trees that were here even then.

The clock on the outside of the building is still the working clock of today.  It reminded the convicts that time for them was controlled by Macquarie, the governor at that time.  The picture below is where the convicts slept - even though this building was supposed to house 900, there were times that it held up to 1500 convicts.  

Wouldn't you like to sleep on a hammock with 30 to 70 other people?  It was close quarters with limited choices after the return from work assignments.  Looks as comfortable as ... (fill in the blank)

The work of the mission continues via many phone calls no matter where we are.  No worries.  We enjoy helping the missionaries while we are out and about.  That's our choice!

Though there were women, very few convicts had wives until they left the barracks.  One of the women in charge actually had her family living here - 8-9 of her 14 children and her husband.  

Out on the street, the Church and Court lined up with the barracks.  Macquarie wanted the convicts to remember God and the law should rule their lives.  It's wonderful that these buildings are still here for us to enjoy.

The old man with the old building - or maybe the handsome man with the handsome building!  We really enjoyed our day in the city and learned more about this amazing land down under.

Lachlan Macquarie's clock - a good reminder for us all of choosing wisely in the time we have.

And across the street at the entrance to Hyde Park is Macquarie's statue.  Is that his wife hanging on to his leg????

Hyde Park with another view of the fountain.  There were 2 brides getting their pictures taken in front of the fountain.  Below was our view as we headed back to the train station so that we could take a quick trip to Circular Quay for dinner.

Life in the big city includes driving in crazy traffic, looking for parking, traveling by bus and train, and always dealing with crowds of people.  We have become pretty adept at this part of our life and enjoy the hustle and bustle.  We are finding that it is not nearly as hectic and scarey as we first thought.  

We enjoyed dinner at a german restaurant - very appropo for the Feils.  After learning about the convicts and seeing the emphasis put on the descendants who had made it good in this land, we enjoyed our German heritage.  The sauerkraut is brilliant and as we hustled back to the train, we managed a stop at our favorite chocolate shop - Guylian - and relished chocolate cheesecake brownie and carmel slice.  YUMMMMMM!

We ended a lovely day with a baptism of 4 people from two zones.  Greenwich is a suburb of Sydney and has a baptism font that opens to a courtyard.  Missionaries from the City Zone as well as Beaches Zone gathered for this event.  

The baptism was for  3  Chinese students from the mainland and 1 Greek.  It was definitely a multi-cultural event.  

We can't say enough about the two senior couples in the city - they are dedicated to helping the students, new investigators, and people trying to learn English.  They cook, clean, teach, expound, counsel, love, taxi, and when necessary, conduct baptisms at the last minute.  They are exemplary of Seniors who still choose wisely!

The missionaries gather around this new convert just as they have for months while he was learning and studying the gospel.

The Harbour Young Single Adults pick up when the missionaries have to move on and fellowship the new converts.  They are just as needed and helpful as our missionaries; this young man already put in his time as a missionary and has come home to continue working in the Single Adult ward.  Such dedication!

It was amazing to hear the American Elder give the baptismal prayer in Chinese.  We, unfortunately have only learned Australian - "Bob's your Uncle"!

And the final Perfect Choice - The missionaries and ONE member clean up the Kitchen.  Once again, the missionaries show their service and love for everyone by handling the details themselves.  They are amazing and we love them heaps!!!!

Earlier in the week the Baulkham Hills Zone came to the temple and wanted Sister Feil to take pictures.  This is a wonderful group of dedicated missionaries who choose to serve well.  We know that sharing the gospel with as many people as will listen is the reason for missionary service.  Choosing to accept the gospel will change lives for the better. 

Time is marching on and we love the choices we have made and we are inspired by the good choices of other people.  We hope that each of you will ponder your choices and make your earthly journey joyful and successful.  Happy Father's Day to you fathers out there who have chosen to be very good fathers.  We respect and admire your positive choices.  Have another great week!  Love from Down Under, Elder and Sister Feil
p.s. the cockatoo is enjoying the view from the Angel Moroni :)

Bridge Views

When you live around water, you must accept bridges.  If you go anywhere, you cross a bridge; and if any of you really know Molly Feil, you know that bridges are not usually on her top ten list.  But after living in the east for 19 years, and living in Australia for a year, bridges have become a way of life.  In fact, we are beginning to enjoy the view...
The Circular Quay (pronounced key) is basically a bridge.  We always enjoy the city and when we were invited to a wedding of one of our investigators, we were excited to take the train into the city for the afternoon and evening.

We were waiting for our friends, the Smiths; you can play "Find the Hidden Objects".  Of course, our "uniforms" help us to stand out.

This young couple from China wanted to get married and did not have any family here, so Elder Smith became the favored Uncle who gives the bride away.  

This was a very small affair - maybe 15 people counting the photographers and wedding planners.  It was held at the Gazebo at the Sydney Observatory on the first day of winter - June 1st.

A licensed civil minister performed the marriage.  The Harbour Bridge is always the perfect backdrop for any photo.  We were so cold and this bride was very brave.  We had passing showers, wind, and we were wearing our raincoats and scarves.

After the wedding, we rode the light rail to Darling Harbour for the wedding dinner.  These Sisters from Taiwan have been teaching the bride about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This bridge separates Cockle Bay from Darling Harbour.  

The view from Darling Harbour at sunset with a rainbow truly does look like Oz.  This is the time of year for the light show and while we have shown you Sydney Harbour's Vivid, Darling Harbour also has a light and water show as well as fireworks.  The wedding dinner was at a chinese restaurant right on the Harbour and we had the best view for the show.  They repeated it every hour from 6-9 pm.

This is a small part of our Chinese speaking missionaries.  The four Elders are from the US and do an amazing job with learning Chinese.  The dinner was an 11 course meal.  They would bring small portions - meat, fish, vegetables, noodles, rice, meat, fish, vegetables, soups. We had only chop sticks to use and tried to ask what we were eating at each course.  With so many courses, it was hard to keep track, but we ate abalone, shrimp, scallops, lobster in the shell, pork, beef, chicken.  You should have seen us doing that with chop sticks. That must have been some view!

The marriage was performed wearing western clothes, but they wore traditional Chinese attire for the dinner.  We were honored to have the couple at our table.  The final course was dessert consisting of the wedding cake, some pastries, and red bean soup.  Red bean soup is red beans in a sweet sauce.  Elder did a great job of consuming his, but Sister just couldn't wrap her head around red beans and sugar.  The sweet Chinese sisters told her not to worry, it was an acquired taste.  :)  So the Americans ate the cake and pastries, while the Chinese ate all of the red bean soup.  If our next mission is China, we will acquire the taste!   

We enjoy having missionaries in our home for dinner and a spiritual message.  They always lift our hearts and challenge us to become more like the Saviour.  We still can't post any videos to this site, but if you go to facebook, you can hear the song they sang for us.  One Elder is from Samoa/America and the other is from New Caledonia.  We have learned more geography since coming to Australia and serving a mission.  

 These are the Senior Missionaries with Elder Haleck.  He is in the 2nd Quorum of the Seventy and serves in the Area Presidency.  He joined us for our usual Monday Night Family Home Evening dinner and lesson.  

Elder was having fun with his iphone camera and Sister was busy working!  We were finally able to get the iphone unlocked and use the sim card from our church phone in it.  So Elder is back in business with only one phone - his favorite iphone.  That was another learning experience with electronic gadgets and restoring the phone.  You should all be impressed with what we can do now with computers and phones.

We have enjoyed being the member present as missionaries teach some people at the office.  This great lady from China has taken the lessons and been baptized.  She now comes with her 8 year old son while he takes the missionary lessons.  The Elders are from US and Philippines.  It is a great blessing to be a part of teaching and every one learns.

On our preparation day, we headed north to see - the Brooklyn Bridge and Long Island.  We traveled again with the Smiths.  We always enjoy getting information from locals who help us find places to eat as well as things to see and do. This is the Hawkesbury River just before it joins the ocean.

This is the boat stop - we were told we had enough time to get fish and chips from the local shop and of course enjoyed fresh fish!  Dory is one of the common fish that they use in fresh fish and chips and of course that reminds us of Nemo.  

Waiting patiently and blending in.  We even know to ask for tomato sauce, not ketchup, and we drink ginger beer not root beer.  We have become experts at the cuisine and will miss some of our favorites!  Do they have Bundaberg Ginger Beer in Utah??

There it is, at last - The Brooklyn Bridge!  It was built by the Union company from New York.  The bridge connects Brooklyn and Cogra Bay by railway and was finished in 1888.  We didn't want to test it's durability, so we did not take the train.  We chose instead to take the ferry!  :0  

Dangar Island is a small island in the middle of the Hawkesbury.  We decided to stop and see this small (population 267) community.  These brown boxes are the mail boxes for the town. They are located in the one restaurant/store/art gallery.  There are no private cars on the island.  There was one golf cart that seemed to be their taxi service and  we enjoyed an hour of walking around the island.

This is a poinsettia tree in bloom.  Because it is winter, they are blooming here now.  They seem to grow wild, but not sure they are indigenous to the area.

Once again we found interesting gateways to properties.  We are trying to think of some way to jazz up the entrance to our home in Lehi - here are a few of the ideas we are considering.  

The streets are not paved, but the signs keep us on the straight and narrow - maybe.  We were trying to figure out the right way to go and it is difficult to get four old people to agree!  :)

 How about this entrance for Lehi?? Or maybe the one below with all of the surf boards? That would help our old vinyl fence look more interesting.  We loved our tour of the quaint village and would love to come here again.

The river views and beyond is the ocean.  We were amazed at how quiet and peaceful living here would be.  

 We distrubed this poor man enjoying his back yard and reading a book on a quiet Saturday.  Everyone had some sort of boat.  If you don't want to wait for the ferry, you need your own transportation.

 We puzzled over this sign until we saw the other side.  There is probably a lesson in this - make sure you read all sides of the signs.  The area is subject to the tides from the ocean and the beach is a wonderful soft sand.

Of course we got more information from the locals as well as history and we were escorted by two young men on bikes who kept track of our progress on the island by riding past us numerous times.  

We loved this gate which led to this old water tower which looked like a home for a princess.  Maybe we have been watching too many princess movies! The flowers and foliage were spectacular and very thick.

 This small walk way leads into the "center" of the town.

Because there are no cars, the locals use wheelbarrows to and from the wharf to haul their supplies.  We assume you just recognize your own wheelbarrow.  Public information is posted on a pole by the wharf.  The best part of this agenda is the Attendance/Apologies.  Maybe we should all take a page out of this... :)

Our ferry captain who also took our money and gave us history lessons as well as tour advice about when and what to see.  It doesn't get any better than that.  This was the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the "Captain's Bridge".  There were not very many rules on this ferry.

The last stop on the ferry ride - Little Wobby Beach.  And believe us, it was little.  We passed on this walk, but maybe the next time.

The boat refueling station is a must in this world of water.  And we did not expect to see this type of toilet flusher which is above the toilet.  

At the end of the day, the fishermen are cleaning, descaling, and filleting their fish while the local trash collectors wait...

We stopped at Pie in the Sky for apple rhubarb pie and ice cream.  This shows you where we had spent the day.  

What more can we say?  Sunsets are spectacular and we just keep taking pictures.  That would be a cloud bridge!  Finally, the picture of Kay at her baptism.  We are blessed to be part of this world and work.  At the end of the day, it is the view of seeing others accept the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings so much joy.  We are grateful that two little souls, Grant and Peyton have joined our family and look forward to another sweet baby in November.  We are excited for Brandon, Tommy, and Miriam to be baptized and confirmed in the next few months and Kadin is receiving the Priesthood.  These milestones mark our mortal lives and show our progress as we strive to return to Heavenly Father.

We will continue to cross the bridges and enjoy the sunsets "Down Under".
No Worries,
Elder and Sister