An Elder's Epitome from Emuland

Dear friends & family,

 

 Well another month has gone by since I last wrote. Fall has officially arrived in Australia as of March 1^st. They don't go on the same fall equinox system the States use. As a matter of fact it is not even called fall here it is only called Autumn.. Rugby has started and cricket is winding up. I understand you will soon go on Daylight savings time and we   will go off it a few weeks later. That means the time difference will increase by 2 hours. Now it is 6 hours different MTS time 7 hours different CST and 8 hours different EST. When you go on and we go off Daylight savings time it will go 8, 9, and 10 hours difference.

Seminary started a month ago and we have visited all 3 of the Canberra seminaries. This month we go to the outlying seminaries of which there is there is now 6  spread over 300 kilometres.

We also start our regular institute class and our 2 university classes (called Uni classes) this week. Last week we had our opening social at Uriarra Crossing, a park about 15 kilometers from Canberra on a river.

 Canberra is shaped like a giant octopus with the body the city centre, with all the federal buildings, parliament house etc, and all the embassies and central downtown area. Reaching like tentacles from the center are all the suburbs extending for miles away from the centre but unlike other cities there is open space between the tentacles (suburbs) in which are either parks or wilderness areas. Thus you have kangaroos getting in all the way to the centre of the city and when you drive from one end of the city to the other you can drive for 20 minutes at 100 Ks / hr  in these wilderness areas and not drive by one house in the process. A few weeks ago the car in front of me hit a medium sized "Roo" and broke one of its legs and it could not move and was just lying in the middle of the road with it's head up. The government has a kangaroo unit that handles injured Kangaroos and Wallabies (smaller kangaroos). So the unit was called and they responded.    

Anyway, back to the opening social. About 30 YSA showed up. 3 were ANU student investigators. We ate and barbequed Australian sausages, which they absolutely love, but I think taste terrible. They swam in the river, played football, had a scripture proverbs scavenger hunt that I made up, and they roasted marshmallows and had a testimony meeting around the fire and nearly everyone bore their testimony. We even had the 3 investigators get up and had them tell us about themselves. It was a great night that turned out to be very spiritual.

Yesterday(Sunday) we attended two ward blocks for fast day and then went right into a baptism that was after one of the blocks and then as soon as that was over we went the the YSA fast breaker at  the "Belco Boys" home. (Four YSA men from the Belconnen Ward rent this large home). Afterwards  we took one of the YSA's home who lives 40 K's from our flat. We left our flat about 9 AM and got home at 8:30 PM. The baptism was a 10 year old girl of one of the YSA's who joined the church 5-6 years ago. We discovered that she had never been baptised, but was attending regularly with her mother. Her name is Jordan DeAlvia. Jordan MacPherson has a female name sake.

This summer has been almost perfect as the temperature was in the 70"s, 90 % of the time, and in the 90's only 4-5 days with the rest in the 80s. The sun shines about 80-90% of the time. In fact, the big Australian cancer is skin melanoma from the sun.  All primary school children are required to wear wide brim hats or they can not go outside for recess. I have a "Crocodile Dundee" hat that I wear when I take walks. About a month ago I was walking and this "Auaker"(another name for Aussie) about my age came walking towards me in this hat that had a bigger brim than my hat and he said to me " I really like your hat but my hat is much better" he smiled and I laughed and we kept right on walking past each other.

Because of our assignment, we are in the scriptures hours each day. It is amazing how much this very act makes one so much more spiritual. We are constantly being prompted by the spirit to teach this or that, or to call this person or that person who was, as we had been prompted, struggling with some aspect in their lives. We have found that our benefit to those we serve is not so much what we teach them in class, but in the bonding that occurs with these people.  Who then ask us for advice in their personal problems, of which many of these problems we have experienced and hopefully can give them some helpful answers.

I can not tell you how much I love this work, the people, and this place. A mission can give you a tremendous amount of joy and self worth. I recommend it for all my grandchildren. Granted it is not easy but rarely in your life will you feel the spirit so much in your daily life, and get so much satisfaction and joy in what you are doing.    

Well this is long enough.

     I love and miss you all

                  Elder Mac( aka Dad, Grandpa, and Doug)

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