What's with the faster updates and shorter emails?

Hello American's from those American's from down under and no we are not Aussie wanabees,
anymore then they are American wanabees; don't we all/ each love our own free countries??
Hope this finds you all well and kicking.
Love from Mom/grandma/ sis mac

Hi Fabulous family & Friends: Can't believe the past several weeks have flown by; it is early Sunday AM and this will be a long day. We practically always attend two sacrament blocks of meetings alternating between the two ward buildings each having

two wards, so we will be on the north end of Canberra today and into this evening.

Early in these past two weeks of which I'm trying to report: on a Monday evening,

we had two of the missionaries at our flat for a teaching appointment for a young Aussie

woman to have a gospel discussion; taught by the Elder from Burma and his companion,

who we have known since we arrived here. Elder Nielson had been down in Merimbula

(now that is NOT a tough place to be, as it is coastal and lovely at that). Charissa is a referral, of a Brett, less than a year convert himself, and has been meeting with the missionaries for the past several months and had set a baptism date; but  out of respect deferred to her Catholic Mum and Grandmum about taking her time to consider being baptized. The missionaries taught with a sweet spirit; but couldn't commit her to baptism. Last week Charissa went back to see her Mum and Grandmum, and we haven't heard, but it appears she is trying to honor and respect them. Brings back to memory our baptism and the fact we didn't even tell Dad's folks and I didn't tell my Dad that we were going to be baptized; and we know that was right for us. We were a young married couple and knew that was our own decision to be baptized and frankly we just didn't want any negativity or lack of support for that decision after receiving a testimony that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and that this great, beautiful church is certainly the Lord's Church. Hopefully, we will see Charissa today and if not, I will give her a call.

We continue to have YSA's to our flat for food and gospel discussions. This past week, Joel, who pretty much comes for lunch and a BOM lesson/ discussion every Monday had been in our flat the night before to celebrate a birthday for one of our YSA's and then he

was at our Institute class on Tuesday night and I kiddingly asked him, can you take us

three days in a row?; he survived. Joel, is the young man who has just passed his first

year in the church and previously hadn't felt quite ready for receiving the Melchizedek

Priesthood, but today is his day to be so blessed.

Wednesday evening our flat doorbell rang at 9 PM and it was a wonderful YSA, who gifted us with a lovely box of chocolates for the next day, with a sweet message about

Valentine's day; good thing (and so kind), as that was the extent of our recognizing

Valentine's day. This lovely YSA stayed until 12PM++ and Dad's eyes had glazed over,

but believe it or not, I baled him out by looking at my watch and telling her how late it

was. We saw this lovely young woman at an engagement party yesterday and she said

her roommate said to her the next morning, " got home a bit late last night, eh" Sometimes, I'm not sure how it goes for them (the YSA's ) when they spend that kind of

time with us; it seems they are checking us out about marriage and other good things.

Last night we attended the Church Leadership broadcast on the family with Elders Oaks

and Holland with Pres. Packer reading the Proclamation on the Family; it was good to

hear him read it in it's entirety. It is certainly sooo inspired, how blessed we continue to

be as members of the Lord's church. Brett L., who is a recent convert of less than a year

(and is the great member, who referred the Charissa I wrote about at the beginning of this

letter) sat next to us last night and leaned over to me and said I bet you're going to be on

our backs about getting married and I leaned back over and replied, you could probably back me off, as you're taller. But he heard the truth, the family is central in the church. And just as in the states there seems to be a slight problem with young people dating and committing to marriage, so is there also here and maybe even more so. I not talking about teenagers, it is definetly geared to the YSA's and especially those who are 25++++ or ?

It will soon be time to get ready for church.

After our 6 hour block of church meetings, we have a YSA meeting, followed by a meeting with our Institute president meeting at his flat starting at 7 PM to plan orientation

meetings at the Uni's prior to the next week, when we start Uni Institute classes. SO, this Sunday will be our day of REST?, starting at 9:30 AM and last meeting at 7PM probably going until 8. It is good thing your Dad is used to long, long, long Sundays and I'm adjusting.

We are also still working on setting up a class for recently married couples on Eternal Marriage at the request of several couples; it just will be a bit challenging finding a suitable time for these busy couples, some who may still be students, working and starting  their families.

If we take on the Marriage classes, we will be teaching at least 4-5 different subjects/ scriptures and the accompanying preparation that goes with that. We know, we know

what do we think you all did on your missions; but just have to remind you, you never

never had to worry about those senior moments. And these senior moments aren't exactly blessings?!

Well, I'd better close and try to get this e-mailed. I had written a fairly long letter directly

on the our e-mail and then totally lost it as I sought to send it.

Want you to know, you are all in our prayers and we appreciate your prayers. We pray

for you and your most beautiful families.
For the several times I said it was hotter then heck it and it was at those times; but it has

mostly been a lovely summer here.

Oh, just have to share this: this past Wednesday, we had Elder Keith Hilbig here for a two zone conference meeting; Elder Hilbig is from Milwaukee and although we didn't know him at the time, as he was serving a mission and/ or a student at Princeton U; his father was the very first home teaching companion Dad had as a new member, now almost 45 yrs.ago. What incredible speakers he and his wife were, they just weren't fun and entertaining, they were also edifying and uplifting and encouraging. Elder Hilbig spoke at the last Fall's General Conference.

I'm sorry I go on and on, but that's just the tip of the iceberg for the special blessings in

our lives at this special time in our lives.

Miss you all sooooooooo much; but KNOW we are where we are supposed to be at this time in our lives with these wonderful YSA's and besides we're out of your hair.
Love to all of you; you are the very best.
Love, Mom/ grandma mac aka sister mac

 

 

---

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

Family and Friends:

Family and friends,                                                                              Feb 4, 2008

Well, 7 months has gone by since we entered the MTC. It has gone by very, very fast for me, too fast. I love it here. To be so old and yet to be so needed. The Canberra stake is so small, about the size of a large Utah Ward with  500-600 active members dispersed between 4 wards, 1 branch and two dependant branches that meet once or twice  a month.. We have a beautiful small chapel  that until a few months ago was not even being used and had been unused for 2 years. . We are now using it for seminary and 1 Sunday a month for the 3 hour block meetings .   There is a huge inactive population here. Sunday is sports and play day here.   

Today the seminary classes started for the year. The summer vacation is over and school is back in session. We are roughly a semester behind the states, and we have 3 early morning seminary classes and 4 home study classes in the Canberra stake and 2 large home study classes that meet  in chapels and 1 individual home study class that meet in the Nowra District . All are supervised by us. The area that we cover is roughly 200 miles by 150 miles, with units in all the corners of the stake and district. We have just distributed all the supplies. Fortunately, there are missionaries in all these places and some of the materials were given to them at zone conference and sent out with them. We also completed our preschool in-service training with all the newly called seminary teachers.

This month we were to hear from Elder Quentin Cook and Elder Tingey, who came to Australia but unfortunately, they were called back at President Hinckley's death.  This month Elder Keith Hilbig of the of the 1^st quorum of the 70 will tour the mission. When mom & I first joined the Church in 1963, my very first assignment was that of a home teacher and my senior companion was his father Karl Hilbig in Milwaukee Wisconsin. .

We are still teaching Summer institute as the University's don't start up until the last week in February. We still teach the Book of Mormon at our flat to a small group of new member YSA's . When the Universities start up we will teach a large class of YSA's the Old Testament and a class of young newly married couples the After Temple Marriage class. ( we have had 5 temple marriages since we been here), and 2 Pearl of Great Price classes, one at Canberra University and one at  Australian National University(ANU). We have also scheduled 3 seminary teacher in-services this semester, here in Canberra and then going to the coast (Nowra District ) and teaching them individually because their  are so spread out.

Our scriptures are already wearing out as we are in them for hours almost every day preparing for our classes.

After Sister MacPherson (can't call her Pat, Honey or Mom)  2  knee operations in November and January, she is thankfully pretty much pain free, however she needs a cane when she walks  up or down stairs and more then 50 yards. If she has to have a partial knee replacement then that will be a real problem. So far though, a month later, she is doing okay.

We are doing a lot of fellowshipping as the missionaries get YSA's close to baptism and after they are baptised.  Tonight we are having over a young  woman with her member friend and the missionaries for dinner and a discussion . She is very close to being baptized. We first met her in November at a YSA picnic that another YSA brought along.

            Well I better close this rare update   Hope all is well with you and as they say here when all is well.  "No Worries"  Elder MacPherson

---

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

Fwd: [DPMacFamily] Apologize for some incorrect info on sweet Sister Wei!

Hi again, When Dad read my e-mail already sent, he reminded me of a few things
about Sister Wei; hope I don't distract from her sweet story. Sister Wei met a Chinese young
woman who first peaked her interest in the church on a bus in Shanghai, while that young
woman was back from Singapore to get her visa so she could go on a mission and wasn't
aware she wasn't supposed to actively proselyte and told Sister Wei where she could go to
attend church in Shanghai where Sister Wei lived.
The branch president told Sister Wei she couldn't attend.He said she could go to Hong Kong
to learn about the gospel, which is what she did. Sister Wei took the train and had prayed if
God was really there, to help her find the church. Apparently Cantonese is mainly spoken in
Hong Kong, but shes peaks Mandarin. HJowever, she  found a man who spoke her language and
he directed her to those two churchs,  one being ours the chapel/ temple in Hong Kong. While
going to the Hong Kong chapel, she spotted a missionary with a name tag. She was baptized
7 days later. I know I can't quite convey the beautiful spirit that was there as she talked
about the many miracles in her life. Her companion said she continures to see miracles as they
work together.
What I want to testify to, is that we surely see the Lord's hand in this work: just imagine a
young Chinese missionary and also meeting this first young missionary out of Burma.
Love, Mom

__._,_.___

Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | Calendar

Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

Visit Your Group

Yahoo! Groups

w/ John McEnroe

Join the All-Bran

Day 10 Club.

Y! Groups blog

The place to go

to stay informed

on Groups news!

Special K Group

on Yahoo! Groups

Join the challenge

and lose weight.

.

__,_._,___

---

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.

Update from down under! Summer continues to be hotter then heck here; but then it cools! Whew!!

Hi fabulous family & friends: We are mostly enyoying the type of summer they have here,
a bit like Utah, hot but little humidity. Just got thru a couple of days from heck, again.
Mostly we do fine without air-conditioning, as we have 3 great fans; but there are usually
a few days we sweat like heck. But mostly, of the Aussies we know, don't have C/A. But
when it cools off like now, it is actually quite cool. Reminds me of how the desert probably
can be, unbearably hot during the day and scary cold at night.
It was sad to hear of the passing of our much beloved prophet, Pres. Hinckley-he sure set an
example of serving right up to the end. We should all do as well, right? I felt sad, and yet
happy for him, he is with his beloved wife, Marjorie and I really appreciated that we saw him
remain strong up to the end. Yesterday, in an e-mail message we received from a missionary
couple, who we had known in the MTC and who came over here just days before us. In it
Elder McKell wrote this most beautiful poem / tribute to President Hinckley. I e-mailed to Elder
McKell that I would certainly credit him properly as the writer, and that I would include in my
weekly? update:          

To our Beloved Gordon B. Hinckley

Decades at the feet of prophets prepared you:

Man of faith to Prophet of God,

Builder of Temples now dotting the earth,

You lifted our souls and our spirits,

As you focused on Family and

Traversed the world with the energy of many

half your years.

You are the sweet example

of all the things you asked us to "be."

We've witnessed your Charity and Love of the Savior,

in His name asking us

to stand just a little bit taller,

to be better, kinder, gentler.

We'll not soon forget your humor and wit,

Your inspiring Vision of Faith.
Inclusion is your Legacy.

Such influence does not end.
Adieu, our noble Prophet-Friend.

Elder McKell-Syndey So. Mission, AU

 

Last week we appointed and trained the last of the three brand new early morning seminary

teachers, this is a Cooks Island native, extremely well educated thru ANU (Australian National

University); father of three, his youngest at home is 14 or 15 years old, so he will be teaching

his son with the other seminary studends. This brother had taught 15 years ago, so lots of

changes since then. At the end of the nearly 2 1/2 hour training, this soft spoken brother,

said he had wanted to volunteer a couple of months ago, but his work schedule just would

not permit at that time in the morning, and then just very recently, his work schedule changed

and lightened up-actually as a promotion. He is a demograper. He is a very sensitive man

and teared up, just a tiny bit that he has been blessed to have the time in the morning to do

this. As we sat with him, we knew this was one of those tender mercies of the Lord. It continues

to be difficult in this fairly small stake, especially when it comes to callings and appointments

as this; pure and simple, they lack the numbers here to really staff the stake.

A week ago Friday, we met with our district missionaries, who were all from the U.S. and knew

transfers were in order. So, today, of those 10 Americans, five were transfered and we got

our first Sister missionaries and what gems they are: one is Polynesian and the other from

mainline China. The Polynesian missionary told us we should hear Sister Wei's conversion story

and that any/every time she hears it, she crys. Sure enough, she cried, as did I hearing the

conversion story of Sister Wei. Sister Wei is 9 months into her mission and she went as quickly

after her baptism as she was allowed. Sister Wei, from mainland China, no less, talked of talking

to a young woman, who was waiting for a visa and was encourgaged to attend one of our church

meetings near where she was. She showed up and loved it and when the branch president met

her to introduce himself to her, he asked if she was a member. When she responded no, he told

her she could not come back, as only members could attend or their relatives; as China allows

no proselyting at all, it is illegal. He said only baptized members could attend. She asked, baptized,

what does that mean? She was told that the church was more openly allowed in Shanghi. Well

she got to Shanghai, but didn't even know the name of our church and was directed to where

there were several churchs together. One church was a Baptist Church and the other was ours.

Apparently she had seen someone in the first branch she attended in China and saw someone

had a missionary name tag on (can't quite explain this all) and when she went into the church

in Shanghi, she saw the missionary type name tag and knew she was in the right place. She was

taught the discussions and was bapized very quickly. SHe said she had lost her Dad, when she

was only 9 or 10 and was told about families can be together forever and that she would be able

to see her Father again and that helped her. As she shared her conversion in greater detail then

I can convey, sure enough her companion cryed as did I. The Spirit was so strong as she talked

about miracles in her life to bring her the gospel and now miracles continue as she serves. These

two beautiful sisters have been together I believe the 9 months Sister Wei has been over here

thru 3 transfers. They had been in Sydney all that time. They had loved being with the McKells,

who wrote the poem above. So even though these two lovely sisters are in the North part of

our district / zone and we are in the south part, we will be able to see them weekly. Just a short

while ago, Dad commented to me, how Sister Wei sat very close to me and kept holding my hand

or arm as she bore her testimony. How about this one, also at our district meeting one of the new

missionaries just came over here from Northern Utah three days ago, but one of the other new

missionaries to Canberra is the very first missionary to serve from Burma! Again, what a priviledge

to serve with these strong valiant young people.

This past Sunday, we had a taped broadcast of Elder Tingley's YSA talk from the week before

after church at the stake center @ 6. It was supposed to be right after a convert baptism

for a young Aussie woman, age 25, who the missionaries had taught and had scheduled her
baptism. But Chrissa's Mom & Grandma asked her to take her time and wait a month. Charissa

told me Sunday, she was a bit embarrased and I said, don't be. Elder Mac had previously said

to me, she was showing respect for these two good women in her life. Anyway, that sort of made

some sense to me and when Charissa said she was embarrased, I spoke Dad's thoughts, that

she was honoring / respecting them to take just a bit more time to really think this over, and added

my two bits, by saying the gospel will still be true in a couple of weeks or  a month as they had

asked her to wait. So, I invited her over for dinner this coming Monday with a great member friend,

Kali also, along with one of the remaining missionaries who had been teaching her. Saw Elder

Nielson at our district meeting this morning and asked him if a salad with shrimp and mangoes was

okay. I practically always take some kind of baked goodies to the Elders for the meetings and they

always snarf it up and are appreciative of the sweet goodies. So Elder Nielson said he loves to eat

and he couldn't wait to have dinner at our flat and to teach Charissa again. I guess they are just

like Dad, prefer someone else's cooking.

This past Monday, one of the YSA"s had a barbeque party at his home (the one with the outdoor

pool), which was well used as it was hot that day/ night. It was a party to help encourage one of

the young men to prepare to serve a mission. All the attendees at the party, were to bring a

necktie, they had picked up at a resale shop (like St. Vincent DePaul-called Vinnies) or something

like it. There was lots of food; Morgan is a great barbeque chef and put on quite a spread. The YSA

who is being encouraged to serve a mission, had made a pineapple shaped homemade pinata. He

must have had it reinforced with super glue, because it took a lot of banging around with a base-

ball bat before it shared it candies. I continue to state this is a party / food/ fun mission. With a

big emphasis on FOOD!  And food is not cheap here, let alone inexpensive. I truly believe most food

products inluding fresh fruits and veggies are 2 to 5 times typically what we pay in the states, so

sometimes I wonder how families do it over here, let alone even the YSA's.

We are back to having more YSA's into our flat, this week two separate days for lunch / dinner/BOM discussions and sometimes just some plain and simple fellowshipping. I've started

back a bit with the Tuesday night Institute, but prefer Doug to do more of the teaching. He not

only does a better job at it, he loves it. He is better with the bigger groups and I prefer the smaller

groups or just a few YSA's. Dad always says I a bit better at the smoozing with them.

We continue to be so blessed to be involved in their lives and become more and more aware of

some of their struggles and frankly in addition to praying for our own family, we pray for them as

a group and for many of them as individuals, which they are of course.

Whew, I'm tired and you are probably to just tryig to read this.
We feel blessed to be able to serve and know we are where we are supposed to be. We both

struggle a bit with some health things, that we didn't seem to bring over here; guess that is just

part of life, but we continue to SHUFFLE along. We both knew when we came over here, we

were older than dirt; now we're just  rusting our a bit faster than we expected.

You are in our prayers and we continue to feel yours and thank you for them. I continue to really appreciate the prayers of our grandchildren. Miss you all.

Love, mom /grandma aka Sister mac

                               

---

Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.