Sunday, 26 April, 2015

Dad's course started this past Monday - he is teaching about the A320 aircraft.  He has 10 guys in the class and they are very familiar with the airplane, so Dad is finding it an easy course to teach.  The course itself has been changed quite a bit since Dad taught it last and so he has spent a number of hours after work each day prepping for the following day.

I have spent most of my time this week preparing for the talk which I gave today at church.  It takes me ages to get a talk together and then usually I write it and rewrite it and rewrite it again and again.  I then have to practice it tons of times so that when I give it, I can keep eye contact with the congregation as much as possible.  Dad fine-tuned his talk yesterday.  After we gave our talks today, we received some very positive feedback which was nice to get.  My favourite quote in my talk was from President Thomas S. Monson........."Not a day has gone by that I have not communicated with my Father in Heaven through prayer.  It is a relationship I cherish - one I would literally be lost without.  If you do not now have such a relationship with your Father in Heaven, I urge you to work toward that goal.  As you do so, you will be entitled to His inspiration and guidance in your life - necessities for each of us if we are to survive spiritually during our sojourn here on earth.  Such inspiration and guidance are gifts He freely gives if we but seek them.  What treasures they are!  I am always humbled and grateful when my Heavenly Father communicates with me through His inspiration.  I have learned to recognize it, to trust it, and to follow it."

I have been reading a lot this week (at night just before bed) and I am quite enjoying it.  It's great having my e-reader and being able to download books from the library (thanks, Jennifer! :-)  I am reading books that I found good reviews for on goodreads.com (I could spend ages on that site) and are not the usual books I read (which are usually crime novels from authors like Mary Higgins Clark or James Patterson).  I am currently reading 'Big Little Lies' which was chosen by the online book club that I joined.

Dad and I went out for dinner on Friday to a local hotel.  We had been there before and had had a nice meal, so thought we would go there again.  We both had a chicken meal and, although the chicken was cooked beautifully, there was not much flavour in the meals - a bit of a disappointment.  After dinner, we decided to go to a movie - Dad was able to get cheap tickets through our mobile phone provider.  We had seen the movie 'Paul Blart - Mall Cop' a number of years ago and had laughed our heads off through the whole movie.  So, when 'Paul Blart - Mall Cop 2' came out recently, we were looking forward to seeing it.  It was a little bit disappointing as there weren't many laughs during the first half of the movie, but the second half was full of laughs, so it redeemed itself a little.

On Sunday, we invited our Canadian friends, Trevor (the Bishop of the ward we go to) and his wife, Debbie, around for dinner.  We made 'chicken broccoli divan' (thanks, Krystal) and it went over very well (as it always does).  It was great to have a chance to catch up with Trevor and Debbie again since it's been ages since we were in Melbourne.