Update from down under

Dear fab family & friends: Excuses, excuses, excuses! For the past week or so, our computer has been down more, than up. The Friday before Mother's day, the computer totally crashed and Dad called our YSA President to ask him to help us and he got back some of the computer, including our church website e-mail (which is not really e-mail friendly and much more labor intensive); but NO msn.com website. One of our sons called on the day before and we had a nice chat and then another son called on Mother's day in the states, which was actually Monday AM; and you two son's made the day for me. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Sunday evening I cooked dinner for a young couple with a baby, who attend our eternal marriage class and two of our YSA's and one of their Mom's. And Christop ( the young married Dad) even worked on the com- puter after dinner and couldn't figure out what to do to retrieve out personal e-mail. Monday evening after returning from family home evening around 9:30PM and at the suggestion of the YSA, who had helped Dad that past Saturday, Dad called the states and talked to someone at MSN about getting our e-mail up and running and voila' he got it unlocked and printed out a stack of lovely e-mails from family, which I read while taking a long bath. THANKS, THANKS, THANKS! Life doesn't get much sweeter than that. I felt of your love! Want you to know, you all bless our lives. I will try to catch up on personal e-mails probably later, than soon. Last week, we taught 5 different classes, one everyday; with  4 separate preparations. Thursday, we though it might be a somewhat slower day, as we were down to last prep time for that week and your Dad ended up doing a blessing for a YSA, troubled by the death of a co-worker at work that morning and then later in the day, we drove over to the hospital, where I had had my two knee surgeries ie arthoscopic to give a blessing to the same YSA's girlfriends Mother, who was going into surgery within a couple of hours.  I think our days never ended earlier than returning after 9:30 PM and we get a bit beat. I told Dad I'm looking forward to a rest in a hospital, as I hopefully get the right knee really fixed upon our return. We had two of our YSA young women over for supper tonight, which was nice. After Institute this past Tuesday, Kali said she really wanted to spend some time with us, as she will probably move to Melborne to date a young man, who is seriously interested in her and vice versa; but the distance is not working; so she will move near him in the near future. He is a return missionary and currently has two sisters on missions, one in Nauvoo for 6 months, then on to Califorina and one on the west coast, Spanish speaking in Oregon and they don't want their brother to marry until they return. The sisters are 6-12 months away from returning. We have grown close to Kali and tonight she asked if we couldn't extend our mission for another 6 month period and of course we agreed. NOT! Don't think I want to miss any more baptisms of grandkids at this time and we would miss the twins ( Jacob & MaKayla), Kaiden's & Katelyn. Dad may stay back, as their is a single sister, close to our age, who just arrived from Scotland and they could probably pair up. JUST KIDDING!! We are the only missionaries in our zone, who never get transferred!!! And of course oh well we shouldn't. Hey, I heard Rob quote his son, RYNE who said on a vacation no less, " Is this eternal family thing really a good thing"? Dad is the most patient, I have ever, ever, ever seen; but somehow this "luxury" ie teeny, tiny flat is too small for me. Usually, it is men who are known for looking for a little private space, not here, it's me: NO BASEMENT! NO ATTACHED GARAGE! NO PAT'S OWN CAR, I know you all get the picture. Eteranal joy, but in cramped, as well as expensive spaces. But, again thank goodness for Dad's patience. Last Sunday, during one of the two 3 hour blocks we attend, one of our YSA young women asked if I would be willing to skip RS so she could talk to me and I said she was more important than RS at that time. Saw her again at Institute Tuesday and then this morning she called and asked if she could come over to our flat and talk with both of us. She had invited us to a graduation this past Thursday night as a personal trainer and we had attended. She is a fairly recent convert of maybe 5-6 years from a divorced family (she said today, her parents divorced when she was a teenager) and she is the single Mom of a 10 year old and she just turned 30. My heart so goes out to so many of these wonderful YSA's, who come from such difficult backgrounds and have such a struggle themselves. She talked about Mother's day being no different than anyother day with both her & her Mom and also with her and her daughter. She works and goes to school and really has quite a struggle. Tomorrow is Sunday here with two - 3 hour blocks of church meetings, followed by another couple of hours of YSA meeting which is always every 3rd Sunday. This next week, we only have 4 classes to teach and 3 preps as we teach one class, same material at the 2 uni's; but we will attend 3 early morning seminary classes, which means we will be up at 5:15 AM three mornings this next week. Sure seems like we're burning the candle at both ends sometimes. Well our dinner guests left @ 9:30 after a group hug, Kali has me hug Elder Mac and she hugs me from my back. She is amazingly affectionate, she is a beautiful half Chinese/Astrailian, probably 5'10" and I feel a bit squeezed in the middle of Dad and Kali; but it sort of reminds me being hugged by Frank's wife, Elaine. When Elaine gave you a hug, you knew you were being HUGGED! After Kali and Charissa (she is the sweetie who was just bapized by Dad no less, just a couple of weeks ago) left, Dad said he had a migraine and went straight to bed, I remember thinking his eyes looked tired, but instead it was the migraine. Oh my gosh, it is 11:45PM and I am whipped. It is a good thing I can sleep in. NOT! Life is mostly good. We feel blessed to serve and continue to pray that we can do some good over here, even in such small ways. Thanks for your loving support. You are all in our prayers. Hope this finds you all well. Love, mom Mac/ grandma mac/ & of course aka sis mac