Elder MacPherson updates the Kangaroo Chronicles

Dear Fellow Americans,                                     23/4/08 in Aussie = 4/23/08 in American          As you can see I got bored with the friends and family greeting. When you work with youth all the time you pick up their traits and boredom is one of them. Update on the two YSAs that were injured in the car accident 2 Fridays ago. Sarah,   the girl that had her collar bone broken in two places had surgery last Wed. They put in a metal plate to hold it together because the fractures  were quite serious. All is well with her and she is now back home. They will remove the metal plate in a year.  Eddie, the one with massive head injuries is making remarkable, miraculous progress. He is still semi conscious to unconscious, but is off all life support, all major drugs and they sit him up about 4 hours a day. He has full use of his left side and moves his hand and foot when pestered by the nurses. He is now showing slight movement on his right side. He injured the left side of the brain which innervates  the right side. He appears to be partially aware of his surroundings.  The doctors say if he does recover it will take him up to a year in which you will see only slow gradual progress over time  . The neural surgeon   said she has never seen a person in 20 years of practice with this kind of head damage that has lived past the 1st day.  The prayers of the YSA keep flowing up to the Lord. At every meeting- Family Home Evening, Institute & Sunday school Class etc prayers are said for him. Monday a YSA  named Charissa  a 25 year old Aussie who has been  investigating the church since we first met her in November asked me to baptize her. The missionaries have been teaching her and we have had her over for dinner, and lessons and she has been coming to our institute class for a couple of months. Last night she told me how in her job  working for the  Australian Federal Government she had the opportunity to meet movie star Hugh Jackman. The new government had a huge meeting called 2020 in which they invited many Australians and many  state, local and foreign  government officials to a special meeting on how to improve the Federal government programs. She had a supportive role with the prime minister and got to meet many government leaders and famous people. Hugh Jackman topped the list. She said he was "just gorgeous". We spoke in a stake fireside last Sunday on strengthening  our marriages and families. Pat spoke on the strengthening the Family and I spoke on what it was like to be a perfect husband and gave them a few of my tips! Well it was something like that. Last Saturday we had 2  other baptisms from our Orientation week booths in Feb.  at the two universities in Canberra. One was a Thai, one was from China, both were YSA women. Ramon the Thai has attended many of our institute classes.   We are really getting very close to some of  the YSAs , in fact maybe too close. Last night an hour before our class two of the YSAs called  and said that they would be at our class but they were running late and would not be able to prepare their dinner and would we feed them something.  So mom took all the left over food that I had designated for my lunch today and gave it to them! Sometimes missionaries  have to make great sacrifices for the Lord. I can  now relate to Stephen the New Testament.   Autumn ( Fall only occurs in the States) has brought out some new visual treats. They have different deciduous trees here than those  we have  in the States and the colours  of some of these trees are more brilliant with extremely deep vibrant oranges, reds and golds. You will note in the above paragraph how Microsoft Word makes me spell colors . There is obviously a different Aussie/ Great Britain version of  Word spell check  Savior is not acceptable here it is Saviour  Center is wrong it is Centre and so on. We are now in the autumn school break period which is two weeks in April and the spring break is 2 weeks in September, the winter break is 6 weeks in Jun and July and the summer break is all of Nov, Dec. and Jan. with the Universities adding 2 more weeks in Feb. Australia has more holidays than any other Western country. This Friday is ANZAC day which celebrates a military DEFEAT of the Australia and New Zealand  Armies in Turkey in WWI. All of Australia and New Zealand have the day off. We have had 5 Holidays so far this year. Tomorrow the Olympic Torch relay passes through Canberra and they have fenced  with potable fences many of the main streets downtown and near Parliament House. We may try and attend. Enough of the culture and climate. I still love this mission and the weeks seem to go by so fast. We will pick up another class in May which will give  us 5 classes a week with 4 different preps. We are in the scriptures hours a day and it is fantastic because when you study the gospel that much you really have a sweet peaceful spirit flow over you that  lifts  you up and gives you the feeling of joy and happiness.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ is True!        Love Elder Mac( aka Dad, Grandpa or Didgeridoo Doug )

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Aussie wanna be, NOT! but from down under, YES!

April 16, 2008

Dear beloved family & friends:

So much has happened: the good, the bad and the sad. Last week was the typical teaching with lots of prep time to teach from the BOM, Pearl of
Great Price and Old Testament. Last Friday night, we attended a fun class

where two YSA's taught dance classes in prep for a stake dance planned for  late May, with a 2^nd class planned for just weeks prior to the dance. We

noticed as theYSA's were learning the Salsa and also Bollywood dancing

the common expressions on their faces were big smiles, and there were

a lot of good healthy laughs when they "messed up". The next morning

we received a really early phone call from Jade, a returned missionary of

six months informing us of a really serious accident of 3 of the YSA's who

had been at the dance class the previous night. The driver had been one of

the YSA's we had attended the Rugby game with the previous Friday night. He and the girl he was dating, were unhurt: the two in the back seat were each injured. Sarah, had a broken collar with two breaks and is set to have surgery this morning. Eddie, one of our Institute students, is probably an inch taller than Ryan and Zach and apparently that height was a hindrance,

when the car started to flip. The driver, Jeremy, had lost control on some gravel out in the country and as he did the best he could to regain control and manoeuvred between trees and poles, the car went down a steep embankment, flipping over several times before landing on it's side. The two girls were hanging by their seat belts, but were able to release themselves. The driver, as the least hurt, pulled or assisted getting all the rest out, in case the cars gas tank was ruptured. Sarah, with the broken collar bon, assisted getting Eddie out thru the back window and only then

realized she had pain in her left shoulder. Eddie had a head injury and was

bleeding profusely. Jeremy found his cell phone, but was our of range and had to scale a large fence and run up an incline to find phone service and was able to call 000 for emergency help, which apparently arrived in approximately 15-20 minutes. Tamina, who had been in the front seat in the accident, now held Eddie's head in her lap until the paramedics arrived and the four of them were taken to the Canberra hospital, which is just a few blocks from where our flat is. As the four young people were waiting for emergency help, one of them prayed and the others sang primary songs.

That Saturday morning, after receiving the call, Dad called the sister-in-law

of Eddie and volunteered to help as needed and she said they had been there for hours and could we prepare some breakfast foods and of course we

we were  happy to do that; then we  took some lunch foods over also.

We visited with Sarah, broken collar bone and all, and her greatest concern

was unselfishly, for Eddie. Eddie was in his second surgery when we arrived and went into a 3^rd, which was supposed to last 7 hours, but had to be cut short after a couple of hours as he had so much pressure on the brain, it was 26 to 27, whereas the normal is 10. He was put in a drug induced comma to see if that count can come down to closer to normal range and we were text messaged yesterday, that he was hovering between 10 to 13. We were actually allowed to see him, although he is comatose. It was amazing to me, his body did not appear to have even a scratch and frankly he looked healthy and vibrant; except for his head, where he definitely suffered the most trauma. His male nurse had said most people with the type of head injury he had never make it to the hospital; he also said, he is a very seriously injured and ill man.

Well, not to be more depressing and frankly on a positive note; we have seen

the goodness and love of the YSA's kick into place as the YSA president called us early after hearing to ask us to fast for Eddie & Sarah and the others not apparently hurt physically, but hurting in other ways; and he texted to all YSA's to fast as a group. Sunday, after the fast; a fast breaker supper was held and we attended. We have seen the most beautiful rallying around these young people by their peers and heard the most beautiful prayers and have heard the most heartfelt concerns. Food for the family has continued to be brought to the hospital. There are five adult children in the Catton family, with Eddie being the youngest; they sadly lost their mother at

an early age and the oldest brother has held a lot of responsibility of raising

them. The older brother, approx. age 30, gave Eddie an anointing & blessing after he came out of the 3^rd surgery, as he couldn't get near him any

sooner until the doctors  finished the 3^rd surgery.

Mitch, the oldest said his brother had just been in another accident within the past several weeks, when he was alone and hit and killed a kangaroo,

which then flew back partially into the windshield, bruised his face  and took out his car. Kangaroos on the road are a real danger here. Sort of like in the states, for those who hit deer. I believe we have already known of two

YSA's hit kangaroos and pretty well took out their cars; that is two in the first 9 months we've been here. The kangaroos seem to be most dangerous

around twilight. It isn't that they (the kangaroos) are aggressive; they just end up being in the way/ on the road at the wrong time. Over the many months we've been here, we have been warned several times and have frankly seen a fair number of kangaroos dead on the side of the road. Anyway, Mitch said he thought it was a wake-up call for Eddie that he should have been on his mission. The brother just older than Eddie is on a

mission and was called within hours and said he would pray for his brother,

but that he is so close to finishing that he wouldn't be coming back. He finishes in early June and I believe he is in the Perth, AU mission. One of

the neat things the oldest brother has done is to give a blessing to the driver,

who has been friends with his brother for years and previously a flat mate to

even him, prior to his marriage just this past November, 2007. The family does not want the driver, Jeremy, who they all know so well to carry guilt.

Although, Jeremy is obviously weighted down with sorrow seeing his friend

now fighting for his life.

While at family home evening this past Monday, our Institute president, who is very spiritual, returned missionary, etc. said he felt Eddie was invincible

after surviving both accidents. I wouldn't disagree out loud, but I thought hmmm, none of us is/ are invincible. Life can be snuffed out in a moment

It will take a lot of miracles to see Eddie come back to full health; but we already see some miracles thru the tender mercies of the Lord, I am certain

are in response to all the beautiful prayers of these deeply spiritual YSA's.

They have such spiritual depth and at the same time, they are such fun loving spirits. It is a privilege to see them serve and focus on serving. I have said it previously, that this stake, which is a great stake albeit it is a small stake and hard to staff for that reason; this stake would not function as well  if these same YSA's were not in fairly key positions, especially pertaining to the YM/ YW.

Well, we took a bit of a breather, went over to visit the family of Eddie at the hospital and were told he has been taken off the drugs and is somewhat feisty in as much as he pulled out the leads for the ECG and had to have his left arm restrained; although he is still in a coma. It sure seems like another small miracle has occurred to follow those that have already occurred. Oh, the wonders of youth, coupled with mighty and ongoing prayers.

We had an interesting Institute class last eveining, where many of the YSA's commented such positive and loving remarks about their friend and interesting enough, our lesson was on the setbacks and problems that Moses experienced trying to get the Pharaoh of Egypt to let go of the Israelites who were in bondage and the fact that before they were allowed to leave or more accurately almost paid to leave after all the plagues that the Lord allowed to come upon the Egyptians, including the last one which was the loss of all their first born males/ sons. At that time they were allowed to spoil the Egyptians and take of their gold, silver, clothing, etc. However, the point was when Moses first went before the Pharaoh and requested the Israelites to leave, they were forced to work even harder and had even harder lives, before they ultimately were allowed their freedom. Sort of like so many of our lives, we taste the bitter, so that when the sweet comes along, we know it is SWEET.

This week, we still have district missionary meeting and I am hoping to bake the missionaries caramel sweet rolls, as this is transfer time and many of them may end up leaving. They always love, cookies, brownies, etc, but they have commented about the homemade cinnamon/caramel sticky rolls being their favourite. Sister Wei from China reminded me, she eats two of them and doesn't usually brownies or otherwise such sweet, sweet things.

Saturday morning, Dad & I  have seminary in-service @ 8 AM and Sunday evening we are each speaking on subjects pertaining to the family.

We do manage to keep busy, busy busy most of the time and frankly we get a bit worn out being out as many nights as we are, but we shuffle along.
While at the hospital now just a couple of hours ago, while also sitting with

the parents of Sarah, who was going to have a cat scan of her head, before

her collar bone surgery supposedly set for today (oh the wonders of socialized medicine). Sarah's Mother commented as she saw Dad walking, what is wrong with his leg? I said he will probably need a hip replacement.

She is needing knee surgery herself and knows I have a bum knee. I said, hopefully Dad can take care of me, when I have my knee surgery and then I can turn around and take care of him, when he has hip surgery. Gee, aren't you all saying nursing home for Mom & Dad?, even sooner then you thought. Don't make any plans for us for nursing homes for us yet; I can still remember the comforting( parting) words of our stake president. If you should die over there/ now here, the church will ship you back.

The weather is cooling here as yours start to warm up, but practically always there is sunshine; and oh how we love that.
Well we are half way+ thru this mission; and again although we miss you all

so immensely; we continue to pray that we can in ever so small ways uplift, encourage and edify these wonderful YSA's. Can I say it is easy, not really; can I say it is worthwhile, yes.  But, oh, how I wish for greater ease, then I am reminded it was never, ever easy for HIM!

Want you all to know, even though there are decisions I made that maybe I wish I might have made differently; again, I have never, ever, ever, ever

regretted the decision to be baptized a member of this great church and to

have the Saviour's restored gospel in our lives. Along with that, in Family

Home evening this past Monday, one of the YSA's said he is afraid of being

a parent and having a child. Well, you know me; I just had to jump in and say, with parenting you will have your highest highs and lots of stuff in the middle and some of your lowest lows, but I wouldn't have missed those highs for anything in the world. How you all bless our lives, you are our highest highs. Hope this finds you all well.

Love ya all, Mom, Grandma, etc. aka sis mac

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Hi fabulous family & friends:

It has been since last month since I've written; oh, alright it was actually on th29^th of last month, just a week and a half ago. But doesn't time fly when you are having this much fun; isn't that Dad's line? For me it is pure and simple; this is hard work, but never-the-less, it is satisfying work. The YSA's

continue to be interesting to work with. One of them came to me with a  

concern and two were beyond concerns/ it was heavy duty; my heart goes

out to them for some of the difficulties that are in their lives. Just as in all of

our lives, somethings will take a lot of prayers and changes, etc. I did not tell Dad the specifics, as they did not give me permission, but they lay heavy

on my heart and Dad said that's why men are bishops (they don't internalize

as much as we do as women). It is nice to be trusted and frankly with one of

them, I highly recommended they see their bishop.

Dad continues to be in hog heaven with the teaching and we are still trying to figure out when we can teach an eternal marriage class. In the next couple of weeks, we have an in-service meeting to prepare and present and talks at the stake level the following day for a special meeting for adults after our block of Sunday meetings. It is the prep that continues to challenge me, just  trying  to keep things straight.

Our trip to the coast was really lovely. Frankly, as pretty as this planned city is, it pales in comparison to the lush and green areas of the coast. We attended two seminary classes in two different towns/ cities and did a new seminary appointment in the lovely coastal city of Narooma; where we had a

nice lunch with the LDS  owners of the large resort area. On our way back home we drove along the slower, scenic but lovely road right along the coast. We saw quaint lovely towns & cities we may never see again. Couldn't believe Dad took the time, but he did and we both enjoyed the trip and it probably only added 20, maybe 30 minutes more to the trip home. The

weather was lovely. It was sunny, sunny, sunny! But fall/ autumn is really in

the air; I'm already wearing warmer, winter skirts and pulled my sweaters out of the drawer to wear.

As usual, we try not to miss our zone meetings with the 12 young missionaries in our area, including the two spectacular sisters; these wonderful young missionaries are soooo fearless and we feel spiritually fed

in their meetings. I practically always bake some homemade goodies for them, which they always seem to appreciate.

This past Friday night; talk about fun, we attended our first union rugby with two of our YSA's. It was fun to watch as the ball is practically always in action. The home team lost, but we're used to that. Hey we're used to the Cubs. Each of the YSA's seemed to feel badly, the home team lost even though we tried to reassure them otherwise. The next night we had a couple of YSA's over for dinner on Saturday for supper; they came over to our flat at 6:30 and didn't leave until 11pm. About 11:45 that same night, the phone rang and as I got up to answer it, Dad commented it must be something bad from the states. Nope it was one of the YSA's we had been with the night before at the Rugby game; Jeremy had misdialled, said he thought he was calling his mom ( he said she works nights).  He apologized. The next evening Dad and I saw him at the fast breaker for the YSA's and told him,

he doesn't have to call us when he gets in at night.

Last night was neat, we were asked to sit in on a missionary discussion to commit/ or actually invite a super young woman to be baptized on the 27^th of this month. They had her read Mosiah 18:10 Now I  say unto you, if this be the desire of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the Lord, as a witness before him that ye have  entered into a covenant with him, that ye will serve him & keep his commandments, that he may pour out  his Spirit more abundantly upon you? v.11And now when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, & exclaimed: this is the desire of our hearts. This is of course Alma bapizing the righteous of the evil King Noah. Charissa had several of her YSA friends there and although she didn't clap her hands for joy, she agreed to be baptized. Several of her close church friends, along with us old folks, were there with her and shared our feelings about being members of the church. I shared, now having been a member of the church for the past 45 years, that over that span of time, I may have questioned many other decisions I have made. But, I said I have never, ever, ever questioned being baptized and becoming a member of this great church and having the gospel in our lives. Her Mother and Grandmother had been encouraging her to wait,wait, wait; how knows for what or how long? She is 25 and certainly at an age, she is capable of making such important decisions. We are looking forward to attending her baptism. It is neat to sit in on these meetings, there is always such a great spirit there.
Well, time to close. Guess, I just have to repeat myself: I have never, ever, ever questioned the choice I made just weeks before Dad, to be baptized and have the Savior's restored gospel in our lives! I want you to know I love the Lord and appreciate this time to serve. If if weren't for the gospel, most of you probaly wouldn't be in my/ our life/ lives. And I can't imagine you not being in my life.

Love you all, your momma, grandma, sister,friend etc. aka sis mac

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Dear Friends & family,

Today is "Hump Day" The fun is ½ over. Nine months ago today we entered the MTC in Provo. I can't believe it went that fast! Maybe I can get Mom to extend for another 6 months. Let's see - Grandkids verses Mission? Hmm I guess I'll forget that! Grandma will never go for it.

Anyway, today was an interesting day at Canberra University. We were in the middle of our weekly class in the Spiritual Living Centre where all the religious teaching, church services and counselling goes on at the university, when a obviously distraught woman in her late 40's walked in. She asked for the head of the Spiritual Living Centre who was not there. Usually, there is a chaplain of some faith on duty, however, today no one was in the office. She asked if we were Christians and I said, "Yes we were." She then asked if we could pray for her. I told we would be glad to pray for her. At that point she just opened up all her current problems in front of the class. She was a single mother with 5 children and 4 teenage boys, some were into drugs, one was going blind and needed to be placed in a special school. She was on government assistance and was required either to work or go to school. She had chosen to go to the University to become a nurse. The woman named Kate went on for about 15 minutes obviously needing to unload her burden. She was to have a big meeting for her nearly blind son this afternoon to determine if he would get into the special school, In preparation for this meeting, this morning she had an altercation with some government employee who had caused her a lot of frustration.

We knelt in prayer and I said a prayer for her and then Mom & I tried to build her up. Telling her that she was making the right decisions as we understood her and that she apparently was a good caring mother and that the Lord would be with her later in the day when she had this big meeting. Her sad countenance began change and she started to smile and thank us for listening to her and building her up and then she left. We had 5 minutes left in the class so we talked about what just happen and bore our testimonies and closed the class. 

Our institute classes on Tuesday night are getting bigger and with much more student interaction. We have changed our teaching style to ask many more thought provoking questions. Last night we taught about Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac.( Genesis 22) We asked questions such as "If God knew with His foreknowledge of all things what Abraham would do in this situation, why would he want to test or prove Abraham? Why was Abraham so obedient to an obvious traumatic commandment? What is the application of this Biblical story in our lives? Etc The students, many are returned missionaries, take off and discuss various thoughts and opinions many times for 5 to 10 minutes until I stop them. They teach each other, they bear their testimony to each other, and they disagree with each other, but they seem to enjoy the experience much more then the standard lesson.

We got back from two days on the South Coast of New South Wales. We have small branches of the church strung along the coast. We visited 2 seminary classes and trained a new seminary teacher. This is the area where many of the Aussie's in Melbourne and Sydney vacation at. There are literally 100's of beaches and resorts strung along the coast in this area. The last place we visited was in Noruma, where we trained a brand new seminary teacher. She is the young woman's president and the seminary teacher. She has 3 young woman and one seminary student. We trained her at a member's home in a Holiday Park they own. Australia has lot's of Holiday Parks that are near the beaches and have prefabricated Cabins some of which are very plush, They also have pads for vacation trailers that contain electricity and individual small buildings that are stand alone, self contained bathrooms with tub or shower. The also have spaces for campers. The one we visited and taught at had spaces of 2 man tents all the way up to 5 bedroom cabins that sleep 18 people. They bought most of these prefab cabins from the Sydney Olympics. The cabins were originally used in the 2004 Sydney Summer Olympics. The weather was perfect and we taught the new teacher outside in the shade. They have very colourful parrots that are "wild" but will eat out of your hand.

Coming and going to the coast we have to go through the mountains. The are covered with huge gum trees that are over 100 ft high and the forest floor is covered with huge ferns some 20-30 ft high. It is very beautiful

Slowly. but surely, we are getting closer to the YSAs, and I can see some positive effects of our gentle influence on them as we bond with them. Mother and I have been invited to go to a professional Union Rugby Game this Friday night with a few of the more red neck YSAs . This sport is more fun to watch then American football. The two we are going with are YSAs that had not been coming to our institute classes until this last month

It is getting colder at night sometimes dropping into the low 40's but each day it warms up into the high 60's or low 70's . And of course 5- 6 days a week we have sun. We go off Day light saving time this Sunday.

We continue to have many of spiritual experiences and our prayers have been answered a number of times. I can not express to you how much I love this mission , the work we do, the people we meet, the different experiences we have had that would not happen in the States because of culture, climate, plants and animals. Sometimes I am like a little kid saying to myself' "Wow I never seen (or heard) that before! Such as birds that can sing so many different notes that you think they are playing a musical instrument.

Keep having the Grandkids pray for Grandma's knee as the insurance will not pay for a partial knee replacement over here. So she will have to wait until we return to the States to have it done with your Medicare dollars.

We miss you all and love the pictures you send us. The walls in our flat are covered with grandkids all smiling at us.

Love Grandpa Mac

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