Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009

Belated Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, 2009!-from "Down Under"   We are into the last week of our actual service/ mission among the wonderful Australians we have met with, taught scripture classes and marriage classes too, broke bread with and have grown to love more than I could have ever imagined. We have predominately served among the YSA's (young single adults 18-31++) along the high school age "kids"(aged 14 to 18) and young married adults. One of our YSA's would always remind us, here in Australia, "it's all about food, thus the break bread privilege. Just this Monday night we had several YSA's for dinner at 6 PM, they didn't leave until 11 PM. I remember shortly after we had arrived, I told the CES Coordinator we report to, nobody told us, this would be so much night work. We have been saying goodbye for the past several weeks, as we received invites for dinner; and then it really dawned on me(us), that it was going to be much harder to leave these fun loving, sensitive to the Spirit, warm, kind and so incredibly loving people than I expected or anticipated. At one of our missionary meetings we attend weekly, which generally is with the young 19-21+ year old Elders and Sisters, one of these young Elders commented that if when he returned home, if he was met at the airport with an ambulance to take him to a hospital, he would  know he had worn himself out in his missionary service and that it would be acceptable to the Savior. At another meeting, we heard, that missions are the very least we could do. Well, although, we both feel a bit worn out-we don't think we will need an ambulance—and are just hopeful it won't be a hearse to meet us. JUST KIDDING. We typically would pray daily, especially for these beautiful young people and prayed that by small means, we could help to uplift, encourage and edify them. Don't have to tell any of you, life can be hard and the challenges for young people probably were unimaginable years ago. This week has already been a full-out time with them. Up early, go to bed late, but worthwhile. When we came over here, now close to 18 months ago, it was sooooo hard leaving our family and grandchildren, but we knew we would be going back to them. Here, it is almost harder. We are excited to go home and see two new grandchildren we haven't even held, along with our other beloved thirty one grandchildren. But, as we say these ongoing goodbyes, we are aware as we leave, we may or most probably will never see most of the older people we have met & loved  and even many or most of the young people. We feel, as Aussies are truly world class travelers, we may see some of these choice beautiful young people in the U.S.. Our mission has been mostly good, just as life is mostly good with just a few disappointments and frustrations along the way. Our second son, Rob, his lovely wife, Annie and four grandchildren will fly into Sydney this coming Sunday, Dec. 21st and we are thrilled they will spend an Aussie Christmas with us and we will all travel together. Just recently I read again, having read this statement before: "…not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive & nonexistent future when you will have the time to do all that you may want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey-now. What a bittersweet journey this has been in Australia, busy, productive, meeting such wonderful people who are so easy to love and now somewhat bitter leaving them. We wish you a most lovely Christmas with family & friends. A couple of weeks ago, a lady talked about Christmas and gift giving and the fact that as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, He's the only one who doesn't receive gifts. She suggested we think of ways we can give gifts to the Savior:such as services and kindness toward to others. Thus the saying: This is the Reason for the Season.      Love, Elder & Sister MacPherson   aka Doug & Pat

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a most beautiful Christmas and a Happy New Year! Shame on me, I've already lost several attemps at sending e-mails and the've gotten lost out there in cyber-space. The reality is our e-mail is the next slowest thing to snail mail. Oh how I've missed having high speed internet. I need to let Elder Mac, no high speed internet, no future missions. Actually, if I'd have know prior to our mission, I would have said it then. Hope you and your families are well. Rob, Annie and GRANDCHILDREN will be here in just days now. We are looking forward to seeing family and friends when we return. Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Doug and Pat, aka sis & elder mac Recent Activity Visit Your Group 10 Day Club on Yahoo! Groups Share the benefits of a high fiber diet. Everyday Wellness on Yahoo! Groups Find groups that will help you stay fit. Get in Shape on Yahoo! Groups Find a buddy and lose weight. . __,_._,___

Am not totally trunky, but in saying goodbyes, it is tougher than I expected.

Hi beloved family and special friends: ELder Mac and I spoke in two wards today and the members were exceptionally kind with their hugs and gracious things they said. We continue to know that life is indeed bittersweet. I missed our family and friends for longer than I expected to, when we were in the beginning months of our mission/ service. Now I find it is harder again to leave these extremely loving and kind people who really know how to party in church activities. I second guessed each time how bitter it was to leave behind our family (okay, grandchildren for sure). Now I  know  how bitter it is to leave so many of these warm Aussies--pure and simple, because when we left our family & friends behind, we knew we would come back to them/ you. There are some of the young Aussies, that we feel will look us up in their many travels. If you ask an Aussie if they have been to the states, the will many times say yes-- several times and more. Even though our service was mostly  with the seminary and YSA's, the longer we were here the more we got closer to many of the older members. We will have so many sweet memories of the members here. When we were baptized into the church 45+ years ago, it was in a Milwaukee ward. I cried when we moved away, after having our 2nd and 3rd babies there. I remember thinking, I will never meet people as special as the saints were in Milwaukee. By time we left Madison where Doug finished his master's degree--it wasn't as difficult as I KNEW we would be meeting wonderful people as we had known in Milwaukee and then Madison. Well, the church is the same, I believe wherever we go in the world. Wonderful members who are so loving, kind and such kindred spirits, who are the next best to family. I am so grateful for the gospel in our lives; as the gospel totally connects us as brothers and sisters of our Loving Heavenly Father. One of the sister's here who happens to YW President in the first ward we spoke at, came up to me when I was at the back of the church. She is blessed with 4 young children under the age of 8( this sounds like Mariah's life, right?) Anyway sometime in September she asked how soon before we were going home and it took me off guard and I remember thinking, the members have had enough of us. Of course, all the young missionaries are only here for short times and frankly up to  6 months is a long time. Also the young missionaries, even if they stay, may have new companions. Anyway, they've had us in their midst for the whole time, NO TRANSFERS AND NO COMPANION CHANGES! But getting back to this YM president, she is really tall, incredibly slim and actually very beautiful. As she hugged me, she said I always made her feel good or better about herself. She's such a beauty and with a lovely family and then she has an incredible singing voice, I was surprised how I could make her feel any better about her self. But I knew she was being very sincere and it dawned on me, we all deal with certain flaws and shortcomings and need to encourage one another. Even when we think others have it all together, they may not as much as we perceive. Her hug and loving comments sure gave me a boost. Years ago, I came to the conclusion-- really only 3 things really matter in our lives: our relationship with our Heavenly Father and His Son, our beautiful families and great friends. I'm not going to pretend it has been like a bowl of cherries over here all the time, because there were a few difficult times here and there; but just as life is mostly good, so has our mission been. I do KNOW it has been a privilege to serve and it has been the least we can do. Contrast the Savior's mission which was a mission where He did the most he could do perfectly. We have worked diligently and hard, but the blessings have truly been out of this world. Remember the neat saying I believe, by Erma Bombeck, which was; if life is such a bowl of cherries, how come I feel like it's the pitts every so often? At this most special time of the year when we commemorate the birth of the Savior in such humble circumstances, I KNOW that our Loving Heavenly Father sent His beloved Son here and that they each love us more than we can comprehend. May you all have a blessed Christmas and enjoy being with your family's & friends. Love and miss you all, Mom/ grandma mac aka sis mac  Recent Activity Visit Your Group Y! Messenger All together now Host a free online conference on IM. Yahoo! Groups Stay healthy and discover other people who can help. Weight Loss Group on Yahoo! Groups Get support and make friends online. . __,_._,___

Down under is done

12/10/08 Dear friends and family; We are done! No more classes. Last night we had our last Institute class and  many YSA showed up. We are teaching Doctrines of the Gospel and the class was on prayer and its great importance in worshiping God, and there was a great spirit there.    The summer institute class takes a Christmas break that will last until the 2nd week in January. As we leave on the 4th of January, some one else will finish the course, which lasts until the 2nd week in February. Rob and his family come a week from Sunday, and in the interim we have much to do. The mission has decided to keep our flat and move some young missionaries into it. I believe we told you that the church has decided that no more American CES missionaries will be sent to Australia.  They have been advertising for an Australian CES couple but there have been no takers. Though we are done teaching we still have a pre-seminary teachers training  class tonight for the new teachers that will start teaching in Feb. However, the CES coordinator is coming down from Sydney to teach most of it. After that  all there is are the  "goodbye dinners"  we are putting on to have one last ministering shot at some of the YSA who are struggling, and also 3 ward and stake Christmas parties. This is the party & food part of our "CES, Food & Party: mission. Many under estimate the power of food has to draw people closer to the gospel. One of the YSA's who has fallen away and we have only seen once or twice in months, called us yesterday and asked if we were still  going to invite him over for dinner before we left,  as we had promised months ago, when he basically rejected my plea to come back to church. Mom said "We loved to have you over, if you will make your famous Pavlova dessert." He willingly agreed. During this time we have to get ready to leave and be semi packed as we only have 1 day  between when Rob's family leaves and when we leave. This has been a bitter sweet time for us. Gradually saying goodbye to people we will probably never see again. Yesterday we returned from Sydney where we met with ½ the missionaries in the Sydney South Mission in a giant combined Christmas zone conference. We said goodbye to a lot of good young missionaries that we have worked with in the past and who have been transferred outside of Canberra. Some of the YSA have returned home for the summer and many of the adults are going on their month long summer Christmas holiday and we will not see them again. What is sweet is that a lot of people have come up to us and said they will miss us and many have thanked us for our work here. We will take a cruise for 2 weeks starting Jan 4th along the east coast of Australia and then all around New Zealand. We end up in Auckland on Jan. 18th and fly out the same day and arrive at O'Hare Airport 1 hour before we leave as we are a day ahead of you. Could you all please pray that spring comes to Rockford by Jan. 18th, as we have not experienced any snow and real cold for almost 2 years  and would be unable to tolerate it.        Thanks &   Love Elder and Sister  MacPherson

Christmas money for day after Thanksgivng or ? from grandma/ pa mac

Hi Family: hopefully you have all received the Christmas money from our Associated bank account; if for any reason, you haven't received it, please copy back on this e-mail, so we can check it out in a timely manner. Well, we (okay, I will) be preparing Thanksgiving dinner for some of our most special YSA's; unfortunately, I can't find somethings which are fairly typical in the states, but aren't here. As we spent Christmas Eve/ and Christmas day the Aussie way--it was different, as it is fairly hot for Christmas. We will be thinking of you this Thanksgiving and feeling thankful for the wonderful family you all are and the families you are raising bless our lives soooooooooo much. Miss and love you all, love, mom/ grandma mac aka sis mac

Summers just around the corner: December 1st.

HI Family and friends: Just yesterday, Dad, received an e-mail from Ralphi (the ward/ branch clerk- for the singles branch. In the message, Ralphie, sent some gorgeous pictures from the Klemme Arboretum in Rockford to make us homesick and to chastise us for not better planning our mission, as we have already just left our second winter here and will come back to winter in the states.  Somehow the thought of leaving a hot summer here to return to the states reminds me of when we left the states, July of 2007.  We left a hot, hot summer to be in the middle of the Ozzie winter, which is soooo mild compared to what we were used to and will go back to.  But 3rd winter or not, we're getting ready. I was pleasantly surprised as we were returning from something last week, he commented as much as he has liked it here, he's ready to return.   The last e-mail I sent was saying I was really looking forward to a RS rebroadcast of the September RS broadcast with President Uchdorf and it was even better than I expected. They sure know how to have fun at whatever they do. The Saturday rebroadcast meeting started at 10:30 AM with a greeting, a short educational test and dissussion on better nutrition. I think I may have said way back when we first arrived here, I hadn't noticed any really over- weight people. I think we were so pleasantly surprised with all the bike paths and so many bikers (not motocycles) just plain and simple, bikes. You see alot of young guys, but also women, kids, etc. Well, after about a week being here, we started seeing quite a few over-weight people. Apparently, Australians are either just ahead of us as the fattest country in the world or we Americans are the fattest. Gee, that's one thing neither of our countries want or seek for,  that title! Anyway, back to the RS meeting. After the short but sweet educational info/ discussion about healthier eating came the real fun stuff. We have 4 Aussie women aged 25 -maybe 40, who dress in Bollywood/ India clothing and do Bollywood dancing. It was such fun. Then they taught any/ all of us how to do Bollywood dancing from a few teenagers up to the barely able to move. But move they did. I even tried, but I really have a problem with that darn knee and it hurts with those simple movements. Oh darn, can't wait to get that knee fixed. But, in spite of the fact, I couldn't hardly dance; I will remember Kiki (aged 26) teaching by saying Indian women lift their arms/ hands up in the air--then memorably Kiki said it is as if they are saying " look at my lovely arms, love my hands" and then she showed how to dance with the legs and repeated " look at my lovely feet, I love my feet." Even after I recupe, I'll remember her saying look at my beautiful hands, look at my beautiful feet---- and I'm sure I can do it. Yeah, sure. The fun thing to see, was just how happy the sisters were trying to dance, wether they could or not. Everyone had smiles on their faces. After that they had a lovely healthy lunch and we all visited and talked for about 45 minutes. Then we went into the chapel for a lovely singing of a song to a different melody, which I had seen them do before--it gives a different perspective to the way we usually sing a song/hymn. Their was a lovely relaxation thing finishing with a lovely song and then the broadcast. It did last until 2:30 PM (I was amazed how younger moms could be away that long during the middle of the day, like that. I told the stake RS President, I had never seen anything so much fun done in the states; we could learn from them, they are mostly more laid back then we are.   We have now finished the major teaching we had : the Eternal Marriage classes ran from May until Oct. 17th., year long Institute classes on the Old Testament were finished the week after and then we finished the second semester of Pearl of Great Price classes at the two uni's we taught at. As, we taught the last uni class on a Wednesday at UC and then Thursday, at ANU; it was indeed bittesweet to realize that was the end of that part of our mission.  After all the attendance and paperwork was sent into Sydney to make up certificates of completion; we then visted our last early morning seminary class (start time is 6:30 AM) on Friday, October 31st and that was just days from the graduation for Seminary/ Institute on that Sunday, November 2nd. More attendance and paperwork was e-mailed by sis mac for making of scripture mastery and completion certificates as well as the Programme handout. We work with the Stake presidency on this, but we do most of the leg work, the food prep and serving, etc. with our YSA's assisting. It turned out nice; our CES Coordinator from Sydney and his wife came for it. We have our opening social for Institute tomorrow, Nov. 11th and then we will teach 4 classes into December with a final class where we will focus on the Savior and this special time of year- Christmas. That last class will be on December 16th; we then are attending a special Christmas music presentation at the Sydney Opera House- called Christmas at the House on Friday, Dec. 19th and the two older sister missionaries will travel in with us. I had the privilege of taking a tour of the Opera House when Mariah, Art & family were here over Thanks giving last year, and the tour was great; but I'm even more excited and pleased we will be able to see an actual performance in the "House". Our mission President & his wife suggested we attend and any other senior missionaries who want to attend. Some of the senior missionary couples in Sydney have already been able to see some performances as their mission is in Sydney.   Dad isn't knock down excited about this Christmas concert and especially since there will be three of us senior missionary women in his car. Or is it possible, he will fill like he died and went to heaven as he chauffeurs us into Sydney? Last week, I had planned on reciprocating for dinner appointments we had been invited to; so we had a couple in last Tuesday for dinner and a widowed lady and her YSA daughter in for dinner on Wednesday. That was the week, we thought we would slow down a bit and to a degree we had, but that big word BUT... The Monday following the seminary graduation, we both felt like collapsing after our Sdyney CES coordinator came over to our flat, before he and his sweet wife returned to Sydney to discuss what we have planned as we continue to teach and yet finish up and even what to do, should another couple not replace us. That Tuesday following the Sunday graduation, one of our older YSA's called in the morning and said she wanted to stop in for a chat around 11 AM, which she did; we talked and fed her lunch. We had one of our YSA's ask us if we are planning to celebrate Thanksgiving over here and said if we were, would we invite her for dinner. Well, why not; I just love this great YW. With so many of the YSA's not having parents near by, they feel generally pretty comfortable inviting themselves over to eat. Last week Elder Mac let me have a few hours without him to attend a Cirqus Du Soleil with the widow friend later in the afternoon, then she came over for dinner and her daughter came also for dinner. This lovely sister, Sister Loveland had invited us over for dinner on Christmas eve last year and made my Christmas away from family, bearable and had invited us for dinner a couple other Sundays during the past year. So, it was time to thank her by cooking for her. I LOVED the "Dralion-cirqus Du Soleil and feel an addiction to wanting to see some others. The first time I had ever seen a Cirqus Du Soleil was on TV when I was helping out Shauna after her surgery, the year before Mallory was born. I had never seen one before. Our tickets for the live show were side seats and I thought the seats were fine. Then as we were returning from the intermission to our seats, one of the people who help you get seated, said if we would follow him, he would seat us in better seats and better seats they were. How about 2nd row, totally front and center. It was terrific to see everything so upfront and close. To sort of kick back last week finally on Thursday, we drove into Sydney/ Umina beach where we will be staying at the end when Annie, Rob and family are here for Christmas. They will be here, just five weeks from yesterday, on December 21st. Wow, it is so amazing that the time is drawing so near, so quickly. We were able to attend the temple on Thursday night and then the next morning, Friday, and then return to our flat. We were involved in a service project Sat. Nov. 8th from 9AM to 2 PM at a public school. There were about 60- 70 adults who painted the interior of the school and Dad worked outside in the landscaping area and loved it, but is still in pain. I had the easy job, taking care of the younger children, up to about ages 10-12 in the school's gym watching and entertaining 20-25 kids and was worn out when we returned. It is good to be useful, but we will be ready to finish up and return. It has been mostly good to be here; the members are just so loving and fun to be with and around. But, a mission is work, and certainly we're not slackers; but we are getting tired. At our final uni class, it was two young women and a young Chinese convert of about 2+ months and we said that was the last class and the young women said how much they loved attending Institute at their uni's and couldn't we stay longer. One of them said, we see you as grandparents and I haven't ever really had grandparents. I responded,  we see you as grand'kids' and love being with you, but we have 33 grandchildren in the states and they said they understood. We are putting together a final seminary graduation for this coming Sat. night at Nowra, on the south coast. The drive should be beautiful (but scary- thru to very narrow mountain passes. We will drive down Sat. during the day, attend and each speak at this graduation, etc.;like the other one, just smaller and then stay overnight, attend their Sunday meetings the next morning and drive back. It is 3+ hours each way. The South coast is really lovely and I always love visiting with the lovely members in Nowra, it is a small branch and they are always so friendly. We will see a couple of young missionaries who had served in Canberra and now are serving there; we are looking forward to seeing Elder Boyer--he is that sweet young man, who had been a rodeo rider before he hurt himself. We are continuing to go as full out as possible and hope in small ways we have been helpful. We are missing you all so much and now our hearts are happy to return to all of you, who we love soooooo much. Sorry again, this is so long. It is a snap shot of our lives/ service here. We feel blessed and feel the tender mercies of the Lord here. Love, mom/ grandma/ sister/ friend aka sis mac

Food for thought

Food for Thought                                                                                                     Dear Friends and Family,   We are finished! Finished with the spring semester at least! We had our last University class yesterday. Last week we finished our Institute and our eternal marriage classes. This week we finished our uni classes at Canberra University and at Australian National University.   The Class at Canberra University was a challenge.  When we got there Wednesday. it was the last week of classes for the spring semester and it was also  "Stoned week". That's right "Stoned week", many of the students were drinking, drunk or stoned on something. Our class is in a building right above the student center court yard and there was a Very Loud rock band playing right below our classroom window in the Spiritual Living Center. So loud you had to shout to be heard.  We moved the class to another room farther away and much quieter. Some of our students were quite stressed out, because they wanted to study for exams, and their whole dorm was drunk and noisy, so they could not study or sleep.  ANU which is the top University in the southern hemisphere and rated 16th  in the world was a whole different story the next day. It was quiet and the students were going about their studies.   We have grown very close to some of our students. We received the highest compliment from some of them. Besides calling us Elder and Sister MacPherson, they also call us Grandma and Grandpa MacPherson. They have told us that they consider us as surrogate grandparents.   We now have no classes for 3 weeks, but during this time we have our Canberra seminary and institute graduation, our Southcoast district seminary graduation and our opening summer institute social.  This Sunday is the 1st graduation and we are expecting about 100 students, parents and friends to show up, and mom  has been coordinating  the graduation and has to feed a meal to these 100 people  Its also the fast breaker meal  for the Y.S.A., as Sunday is also Fast Sunday. She will hopefully have lots of help, but all the planning and buying of the food in her lap.   We picked out a park to have the  Institute opening social on Nov. 11. It is right near the Australian Parliament House on Lake Burley Griffith. Burley Griffith was the Chicago architect  that designed the city of Canberra in the early 1900's. It is a beautiful setting.   Latter in November we will travel to Nowra  for the South coast district seminary graduation. We have to go though the 2 mountain passes that lead in and out of Kangaroo Valley ( the place where  "Babe" the movie was shot) and Mom really gets scared because of the sharp turns,  narrow roads and my driving. It takes about 3 hours to get there and then 3 hours  back the same day.   We are up into the 90's today and all of the trees are leafed out. We take walks about 3 times a week in the large Woden cemetery right next to our apartment complex. The cemetery has 3 gates which are open in the day but locked at sunset. This last week we have seen a medium sized kangaroo roaming the cemetery. Somehow, it wondered in even though the cemetery is near the center of suburb of Woden. As they lock the gates at night it can't get out and during the day, there is lots of traffic around the cemetery. They water the grass in some places, and as Canberra region is in a drought, the Roo must think it is in heaven with all the lush grass it can eat.   We are now going into the food part of our teaching, party, and food mission. Mom has decided to invite small groups of members over once or twice a week and just fellowship with them.   Our teaching will end one Dec 16th when almost all of Australia takes off 2 weeks for Christmas. Rob comes the 20th of Dec and we start our cruise to Tasmania and New Zealand on 4th of Jan.  So essentially  our mission work will be done on the 20th of Dec.   Hope all is well with you   Love Elder Mac _,___

Greetings from "Down Under" G'day mates!

Hi Family & Friends: So much has happened since writing the last letter to all of you; it's all flying by, reminds me of having our family and how quickly the time flies by. Same old, same old ....the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream... (sounds familiar right?, from Jacob 7:26). Tomorrow in the AM we have Missionary Zone study, where the Zone leaders teach. Just within the past two weeks, all 12 of the young missionaries were transferred the same day. We were surprised, as truly every missionary we have met with in our district and zone meetings are just so excellent and so inspiring; but these last two Zone leaders were so full of revelation for the Zone, you could feel the tremendous Spirit they each conveyed and the love for their work and the Savior. I feel because of the excellence they conveyed, they were needed elsewhere. Of all the new replacements, two had been here in the past. Next week on Thursday, Oct. 23, the Mission President and his sweet wife will be here and spend the day. And at the same time, a senior couple who finished their last several months here have completed their mission and will go into Sydney to pick up several of their adult "kids" and travel for the next week or so. We are always amazed how long Aussies take holiday/ vacations---typically they are at least a month, sometimes for 3 months and for the young YSA's they think nothing of traveling for a year (called a round the world trip. They fly from Sydney to the states or Canada or ? and make several different stops throughout the world. One of the YSA's will returning from traveling for a year to Canada, the states, So. America, England, India and usually finish in the Orient before returning to Australia. They are amazed that we don't travel like that or at least for a month straight or so. We have heard from other YSA's from Chris who has been traveling for nearly a year and then he also sent us an e-mail. They are quite daring and fearless in their travels. Although Spring has been here since the 1st of September, it can be sunny and mostly warm; but at night it cools considerably. Probably, Dad had e-mailed about us going to Floriade, which is a month long tulip time festival that starts the second week in September and ends the middle of October. We usually try to stop in once a week on our way back from teaching our Uni class on The Pearl of Great Price. It is sort of like the tulip festival held up in Holland, MI for a week in May. Floriade brings in people internationally and usually they figure on 300,ooo and up for attendance- ; and although the entry is free to get in, and actually the parking is also, people buy things from the lovely booths/ stalls which actually sell quite nice "stuff". Last year Elder Mac bought his leather Ozzie hat with the wide brim, etc. at Floriade. I certainly couldn't be out shopped by the least shopping person in the world, Elder mac, so I bought a few things so he wouldn't feel so lonely in his shopping. Wherever did our sons get their interest in shopping? Dad? Don't think so. Our Mission President and his wife were in Canberra for zone interviews the first Thursday and Friday of October and asked me to make the plans and all the senior missionaries from the mission were allowed to come here  from Sydney and Ulladulla (the south coast) and spend time together. We had particularly beautiful sunny and warm weather. The first night the Pres. and his wife were here, they had me book/ make a reservation for dinner at the classic Hyatt Hotel for dinner for 16 of us. I was a bit taken back at the cost, as it was a buffet type dinner at a cost of $49 per person. I think to acknowledge the coupe finishing up here next week, he treated all of us. It was without a doubt the freshest, finest food we've eaten since coming over here and now with the American dollar higher against the Ozzie dollar, that $49 in Australian money, would be about $35 in American money. It was so lovely, but don't think I could talk Dad into spending that for us. You know his saying, why should we go out, he likes Pat's cooking. I'll just have to think of something to celebrate about, how about Thanks- giving, which of course the Aussies don't celebrate. Maybe we can celebrate a belated Father's day here this past September. It is interesting Mother's day is celebrated here when we celebrate Mothers day in the states; but Father's day is that first Sunday in September here. Usually Dad gets upset if Father's day isn't a treat in a big way, you know?? I actually had been asked to speak in our home ward, Woden, on Father's day on Fathers, of course. We attended another ward in the morning of Father's day and no one mentioned Fathers day or greeted the Dads and no treats either.  But at the Woden Ward, there were talks on Fathers and some of the best treats that were yummy for the chocoholic missionary I live with. We've attended two missionary farewells this past month; the last was a barbeque for a young man who is going to So. Africa. Glen is the youngest son of 3 sons to serve, each of his brothers served foreign, one to Rome and the other to Japan. I asked Glen how he felt about going to So. Africa and he said he had prayed for a tough mission and sure enough he got it. I then asked, why would you pray for a hard mission and he responded he knew he would grow more. Isn't that interesting that a young man would pray for a hard mission? He is a rather quiet young man, although he can certainly carry on a nice conversation.  We have attended an engagement party and have another one on November 1st. Both of the young women are well educated and one is a just this past year returned missionary and both are marrying return missionaries in the temple of course.  One of these wonderful YSA's (the returned missionary had to be hospitalized for kidney stones and each time we went over to the hospital to spend time with her and then take her home. We met her (Jade's parents) at her engagement party here and her Mom came right up to us to thank us for being there when she couldn't. Apparently, the 2nd stint  in the hospital for Jade, her Mom's Mother was having surgery on her back at the same time and Sydney is a good 3 hour drive away. We are keeping more than busy teaching 3-4 different classe every week, each requirering different prep. And in between the ministering we do, we are kept busy and mostly out of trouble. I am ashamed to admit, I am enjoying the teaching aspect so much more now, I found it much more daunting than I expected. But, even though the teaching is much more fun to prepare and teach, we are both ready to finish up. We will keep busy to the end, even though it may be more ministering. We have in the works, two seminary/Institute graduations to help plan and prepare for in early November on the 2nd and the 23rd. By the end of this month we will finish the uni classes as t the end of the semester will be only 3 weeks away, our last Eternal Marriage will be at the end of this month--we had started those classes in early May. Also, the Institute study of the Old Testament will end at the end of this month. Then there is a two week break from Institute for the graduations and then we have a social activity for Institute, probably a barbeque and sports or ? and then back into Institute. A couple of Saturdays ago, after having spent part of Thursday at Floriade and part of Friday morning with the other senior missionaries, Dad wanted to go to the Australian National Botanical Gardens here in Canberra. I wasn't real excited about going, as we had been there several times although not recently, but we had also done a lot of walking with Floriade. Anyway, Dad persisted and are we both glad he did, as the spring flowering was spectacular. We don't think there was a bush in the whole garden that wasn't blooming. We saw the spectacular Waratow and Stuart's desert pea, that needed to be seen to do justice. I swear they have flowers here, you've never seen anywhere else. The Stuart's desert pea is so spectacular and literally blooms in the Outback/ desert. The most beautiful red's. It was one of those times we both were so glad we took about an hour and a half to totally enjoy the beauty we are all blessed to see throughout the world, that always shows us the touch of the Master's hand, the Lords, no less. Since the baptism of Gary Lee, a Chinese student at ANU in Engineering, back on the last Sunday of September, the 28th. I asked Gary how his parents were about his baptism and he said his Dad asked him if he was happy and when Gary responded yes, his Dad said then that is fine. I told Gary he must have a great Dad. Typically, Gary is an only child. Dad had read on the internet news that ANU (Australian National University is rated # 15 in the world for excellence and accredidation. So for the last month, Gary, has attended our uni class there and participates extremely well. It continues to amaze us the Chinese who are becoming members of the church here. He has a particularly special spirit about him; he's almost like a sponge just drinking up the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of our favorite YSA's, one of the YW who were injured in that car accident now over 6 months ago and had to be hospitalized, had to have surgery. Sarah has attended our uni classes faithfully and sometimes our Institute. Well, her Mum has been hospitalized for the past couple of weeks, and we visited her several times. We had drawn close to Sarah's parents after the accident, as we could literally walk over to the hospital to visit the young ones. I think I wrote,I had invited the parents over for dinner one week night, they came at 6:15 PM and left after !! PM; but they were so much fun and still are. They recipocated by taking us out for Indian food, which was really lovely. The best food here tends to be the International type. Am looking forward to this Saturday, as the Stake RS is putting on the RS broadcast from the states back in September: but here is the fun Ozzie take on it. The meeting starts at 10:30 AM with the broadcast, a nice lunch, Samaoan and Bollywood dancing, the activity lasts until 2:30 PM. They sure know how to have fun. The national motto should be: NO WORRIES!!! Hope this finds you all well and having a good time sailing thru life. We are so blessed as members of the Lord's church and want you to know we love the Lord and are doing the best we can and we love and miss you all. You are in our daily prayers and we not only appreciate your prayers, we can feel your prayers. Thank you for being the best family and friends we could ever want to have. Is it not neat that Mariah and Art and family have been blessed with their fourth child. We can hardly wait to see you all and for me to meet and greet Rachel Mac and Spencer Tsubaki. We are pleased to have 33 grandchildren. Love to all of you, mom/ grandma/ sister and friend aka sis mac

Strange fruits, flowers and fights

9/30/08 Dear Friend and Family, Our busiest weeks so far are over. We have been out 11 nights of the last 14, and that's a lot for 2 old timers. Teaching wise we have had to have 4 different class preps each week due to the two Universities having different midterm breaks. So instead of teaching the same lesson twice in a week, we have had to teach different lessons at each Uni as they were 2 weeks off their simultaneous schedule because of  Canberra University having its mid-term break 3 weeks before ANU "midterm" break which started this week. I don't think ANU should call their break "midterm" because they only will have 2 weeks of classes before their final exams start in November On top of this we have been teaching a gospel essential class in the Tuggeranong Ward. We have also been doing a lot of ministering. The Y. S. A. and regular members come over or call us to go to visit them . Families that do not live in the area have called us and asked us to visit someone in the hospital. We have had the Y. S. A. ask us to come to some activity and watch them perform or receive awards or just go to some activity with them. Floriade is in full swing here in Canberra. This is a huge flower festival in which 400,000 people are expected to attend from all over Australia & Asia. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail they have planted hundreds of varieties of spring flowers- mainly tulips in raised beds over many acres in a huge park. There are literally over a million individual flowers.  We went last Wed. night  to see some of the entertainment that was at the show with a YSA and her mom. .  The Main Act was called "Strange Fruit". On a large outdoor stage were fastened 7, 16 feet high flexible metal poles. Near the top of the poles were foot rests for someone to stand on. At the very top of the pole was a back support and strap that went around a person's waist. At the beginning, in the dark, 7 persons climbed these flexible poles and strapped themselves to the poles.   Then they pulled up over their entire bodies globes of white fabric about 6 feet in diameter, so that they were entirely incased in the globe. It looked like there were 7 huge plants with these globes looking like unusual flowers.  The show started with music that was very unusual and spot lights changing colors every so often so that the "globe flowers" appeared to be changing colors. The "flowers" appeared to be waving in the "breeze" as the performers swung their flexible  poles in unison.  After a while you could see things slowly coming out of the top of the globe flowers- human  heads with weird pistil like hats, or  one or two human arms waving around. All the time these "flowers" waved back and forth to the music in the "breeze".  Slowly the performers in weird flower like costumes emerged from the top of the flower.  First their head, then their torsos, then their entire bodies that appeared as though they were standing on the "globe flower" 16 feet in the air.  What was really happening was they were slowing lowering the globes so that they appeared to be rising out of the flower. The music changed and became faster and they stated waving more and more in the "breeze" until they were almost touching the stage with their heads. They had a number of different choreographed routines that matched the music, and that was the show. I never had seen anything like this before.  They also had a short (no more than 5 minutes) Film Festival. Some were really bad like one story about a paper poster of George Bush that was trying to kill this woman by stalking her and trying to kill her by slashing her with paper cuts. My favorite one was about a white young man and a Polynesian young man arrive at an empty beach. They start asking to each other asking  where is everyone else is and decide to wait for others. One is carrying a cricket mallet and the other has brass knuckles. They talk and one says he is having trouble with his car stereo and the other says he can fix it, so they fix it, then the two play a 2 man cricket game. They talk about their girl friends. Then one of the men's mobile phones rings and it is his gang members asking him where he is. He hangs up and say's to the Polynesian that they are at the wrong beach and the Polynesian's gang and his gang are now fighting each other at another beach.  The white guy says to the Polynesian "Do you need a ride to the gang fight?" the answer is "Yes" . The last scene you see the two drive off in together in the sunset. On the spiritual side, we baptized another Chinese student last Sunday, Joui Li, who we call Gary Lee.  He is a student of our ANU uni class, and is going for a Master's in Mechanical Engineering at ANU. He is an only child; part of the "one child only" policy of China,  and is 23 years old .  He was first approached last March by Sister Wei,  the full time missionary from China we told you about. She was transferred to Sydney about 4 months ago.   Gary has come to church on a regular basis for all these months.  He is from central China and will be here another year and half. Gary likes to be with Mom & I and after each class he walks us back to our car, helping us with all our books etc. We found out another Y. S.A. woman has decided to go on a full time mission and is in the process of sending in her papers. Her name is Leslie Shepard, is 22,  and has been a member for about 2 years. She is a regular attendee of our Institute class. Up date on Eddie Canton - the young man that was in the terrible auto accident in March. He is now walking and much of his right side that has been paralyzed for all this time has returned to use. He has been unable to speak and had to write or use sign language to communicate up to now. He is now speaking a few simple words. It is amazing that in the beginning they gave him less than a 10% chance of living and if he did it was as a vegetable. He is still included in our prayers. Well enough.         Love you all                               Elder Mac

Father's day stories???????

Hi everyone: Just want to shoot a short note. Although the Aussies celebrate Mother's day the same day we do, Father's day is actually this Sunday, September 7th. I've been asked to speak on Father's day on Father's, SO, if anyone has any fun stories or whatever, please e-mail back asap. Just a reminder, we are a day ahead of you, so it is already Thursday here. I'd appreciate any helps I can get. Hope this finds you all well. Love, mom mac aka sis mac

Magpies and politics

9/3/08 Dear Friends and Family, Spring has hit Australia.  September 1st is officially the first day of spring in Australia, not September 21 as fall is in America. The crab apple trees are in bloom in all shades, from white to deep pink. Last Thursday, Mom and I went up to Red Hill. Canberra is surrounded by mountains and is in a huge valley, but in the valley are 5 huge hills at least 1500 ft high. On four of the hills you can drive up and get a spectacular view of Canberra. One of the hills has astronomical observatories that are maintained by Australian National University. In 2003 there was a massive brush and forest fire that consumed all the telescopes and buildings on the hill, as well as 300 homes in 2 suburbs of Canberra. The fire took out almost all of the forests west of the city.  Those that were here when it happened said the sky was so filled with smoke that it blocked the sun and for a day it was like the sun never rose. It was total blackness except for burning embers which where flying through the air. People had to stand on their roofs with garden hoses and water down their property or put out fires that the embers started. Today, the observatory and the homes are rebuilt and they are just finishing replanting millions of trees in area that was burnt over.   Canberra is made up of 98 suburbs of 2000-4000 people. There is no real city of Canberra. Each suburb has a name &  a local shopping center( called " the shops" )  with a small grocery store , hairdresser,  dry cleaner and post office etc.  There are 5 Huge Indoor Shopping malls located around Canberra. They are bigger than most of ours back in the States. Each has 150-200 stores.  They all have at least 2 large super markets, as well as Mom & Pop  fruit and vegetable markets , butcher shops, and  bakeries even though the super markets have all of these items in their stores. These large malls also  have all the other type stores we see in our shopping centers.  The one thing that drives me nuts though, is that you have to pay for parking in their large car parks( parking lots). Can you imagine pulling up to your favorite shopping mall and having to pay $2-3 for parking.   The mailmen ride small motor bikes or petal  bicycles equipped with baskets on their handle bars and saddle bags on the back wheel. As this is spring the Magpie's (large crow like birds that are black & white in color) are beginning to mate & nest and they are very aggressive and  territorial. Yesterday we were driving behind a mailman on a motorbike when a magpie swooped down and bashed  the helmet of the mailman with its beak  Some of the bicyclers here, who wear soft helmets, stick 6-10  plastic straws  into the top of their helmet's breathing holes/  They look like they have antennas sticking out of their helmets like men from Mars. This apparently confuses the birds and they pull up after hitting the antenna and don't bash the helmet of the riders and causing them to fall off their bikes. Luckily, the mailman had a hard motorcycle helmet on and must be use to being dive bombed at, as he did not even flinch as the bird crashed into his helmet.   The mission goes well, however, at Y.S.A.  Family Home evening last Monday, an American YSA, who has been living here in Australia for 5 years, started  bashing  the  U.S.A. and it got Mom's dander up, and I was glad I was not him. We are instructed not to discuss politics with the Aussies but seeing this guy was an American, Mom & I felt he was fair game.  The Aussies are very interested in America and in American politics and will often ask us questions about this or that and what is our opinion and we have to be very careful of what we say. Most of the YSA's are liberal in their political opinions and are idealistic in their thinking, but do nothing to act on that thinking, and as we are old conservative people,   we pretty much swallow our tongues and don't respond to some of their thoughts and ideas. What surprises me is that if you watch the TV news the 2nd or 3rd story is usually on the American presidential race. Every Wednesday we teach  at the Spiritual Living Center at Canberra University which is right after a Catholic Noon Mass. We usually talk for a while to Father John, an Australian priest, as he takes down his stuff from the mass and we set up for our class. Lately it is all about American politics and his opinion that we need to vote for John McCain. We had a conversation with him about 2 weeks ago about Mitt Romney and religion and politics, and he was very supportive as he said "we" went through the same thing with John Kennedy.    Not much of a spiritual letter so I thought I'd relate a political spiritual story. The YSA that ticked mom off so much told this story before his political statement and it  really touched us. It seems that he graduated from the University if Wisconsin like I did. At the university the Church Education coordinator  was an Allen Gudmonsen and he has a daughter who was in her mid to late teens in the late 1990's She was in one of the  public high schools in Madison Wisconsin, and during this time the Gay Lesbian community was very aggressively promoting recognition of gay lesbian ideas in the school curriculum.  There was a public forum on adding this curriculum to the high schools. It was a very heated and antagonistic meeting and he and his daughter went to listen. Every time someone would be against the gay lesbian idea they were booed and heckled. All of a sudden Bother Gudmonsen noticed that without warning his daughter walked up to line waiting to use the microphone to speak. When her turn came she said. "My parents and my kindergarten teacher told me that I have private parts of my body and no one is to touch these parts in an inappropriate manner. And I want to tell you that one of these private parts of my body is my mind and if you pass this new curriculum you will be touching it in an inappropriate manner!" He said that no one said anything after her comment, there was no heckling, and the School board curriculum committee voted not to add the gay lesbian curriculum. The power of one good person is great!                              Love Elder Mac

Mom, Grandm mac from down under!

Dear Family: It is a bit late, so I'll try to keep this update hopefully not too long. We are in a particularly busy time with uni, Institute and Eternal Marriage classes, which seem to take a fair amount of time for prep as we teach the Old Testament, Pearl of Great Price, Eternal Marriage, (but we finished the Book of Mormon class we were teaching). It has been a bit less stressful as far as prep time not having to prepare the B of M. I just recently said to my companion, Elder Mac, that it seems somewhat easier to prepare now then previously. Dad responded it isn't necessarily the prep time is easier, but that our ability to do the prep has increased. Gee, how come as we close in on 14 months of service, we're finally finding it a bit easier. Alright all you return missionaries, when was your most productive time. It is hard to imagine even with all/ or so many life experiences under our belts, there is still a learning curve. And it sure hasn't been because we ever sloughed off. Da you think, your Dad would ever allow that? Dad said last week the Stake President asked if we would extend another 18 months and Dad responded he would, but me/grandma mac wouldn't. Kind of felt he hung me out there and I  said why didn't you say I need knee surgery as to be less offensive. Dad responded to me, would you stay over here beyond the 18 months if your knee weren't a problem. And I had to own up, NOPE. Miss the grandkids way too much. We had the wonderful privilege of attending the temple with Van, a member of just over a year, as he took out his own endowments, having asked Dad to be his escort. Along, were two couples of our Eternal Marriage class and one of our most beautiful YSA- YM. There is nothing like the sweet peaceful spirit that you feel only in our beautiful temples. Van is 33, unmarried and finally got the picture, his next step should be marriage. Tomorrow evening his (past?) girlfriend, who previously called us this past weekend,  said she wanted to come over to our flat to just talk. She is the one that en- couraged him to take the discussions, be baptized and to continue to grow in the church and her support has been monumental to him. I'm sure Dad had told you of us driving into Sydney to hear Elder Quentin Cook speak to our mission. Well, he had to go back to the states for health reasons; but we were still remarkably blessed to hear Bishop McMullen of the Presiding Bishopric,& his wife and Elder Jay Jensen (one of the 7 Presidents of the Seventies). Each of them were so dynamic spiritually. What a great day it was. I just want to share one story from Elder Jensen. He said he is one of 10 children (lived in Utah as a kid). He dated a young gal while in his later years of high school close to the time to make the decision to either serve a mission or not. Is that really a choice, don't think so; isn't a mission a commandment for worthy young men? Anyway, Elder Jensen continued, just after the new year, on a date with his high school sweetheart he said he thought the right thing to do was to get married. Doesn't exactly sound like it was done in a romantic way, does it? He went home later, checked in with his parents telling them he was home and said by the way, he and his girlfriend had decided to get married and then went straight to bed. Years later, Elder Jensen said his Mom told him that night his Dad cried for a long time and couldn't believe his son, Jay, wasn't going to serve a mission. Several weeks later Elder Jensen, while attending a Sacrament meeting, where a returning missionary talked about his mission, it made such a strong impression on Elder Jensen; he told his sweetheart, he knew he needed to serve a mission. Rest of the story, 31 or 33 days after returning from his mission, he married his sweetheart in the temple. He never said it, but I thought it, had he not served a mission; he probably wouldn't be in the beautiful church service he is currently doing. A week ago, Thursday, one our wonderful YSA's stopped in about 7:30 PM, just wanting to talk and stayed til about 11:30 PM. The next day, Kiki (return missionary and aged 26) called Dad while I was getting a perm asking if I wanted to attend a play the next day and to call back. I didn't as I thought oh, it just to close to using up a good part of Saturday afternoon. Well, I going to fast forward to next day and I had already asked Dad to call her back and say I couldn't. Just as Dad was to pick me up, Kiki called saying let's just go to the play. How could I resist? The play wasn't something I'd see twice, but we both thought it was magical and just fun, good for a few laughs. She was going to take me home, but just a heartbeat away, was a lovely art museum and she asked if I'd like to see some of the art and it was stuff she really likes. After that Kiki said, want to go out for dinner? I said, no, I need to go home fix dinner for Elder Mac and then we had a baptism we planned to attend. We had a nice conversation on the way home. I'm sorry all you great men, sometimes as women, we need women friends. Albeit, I could pretty easily be her grandma. When I got out of Kiki's car, I thanked her for a lovely afternoon and she wanted to give me a hug, which I sure appreciated. I KNOW I didn't come over here to play, but a bit of wholesome recreation sure helps every so often. I know some of you, have said, there is no way in heck, you would have ever been interested in ever hanging out or around people our age when you were in your 20's. I continue to be amazed, at the many, loving kindness of these great Aussies. Without a doubt, we will carry a bit of them in our hearts as we return. We have a young YSA couple who attend Institute and are engaged to be married in late November in Sydney temple and another one of our YSA's, a young woman who is also engaged to be married and she had previously asked if we could fly back late spring, 2009. Well this past Tuesday, she said they have moved up their date to Jan. 31st  in the Melbourne temple and couldn't we change our flights for after that. I said, oh, I want to be back to see two new grandchildren, attend the baptism of the twins, Jacob and Makayla and get my knee fixed. And she responded, oh you can just hobble around a couple of weeks longer. Well life is mostly good here and again I can't say a mission isn't a bit hard at times; but these beautiful YSA's have gotten into our hearts big time. Hope this finds you all well. Miss and love you all, sis mac aka mom/ grandma/ pat __._,_.___ Visit Your Group Give Back Yahoo! for Good Get inspired by a good cause. Y! Toolbar Get it Free! easy 1-click access to your groups. 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