Vetnamese; Tongan, American Riot in Park with Aussie Flowers, all new news from down under

Required reading for all Aaronic Priesthood grandsons! This is a patriarchal order!                                                    Love Grandpa Mac P.S.   New MacPherson family motto -  to my Grandchildren. That includes the Fernquist's, Smith's, John's, and Tsubaki's because within you all flows some of that magnificent MacPherson Blood.  Humbly speaking, of course.                   "Motivated MacPherson Missionaries Make More Mormon Members"   Dear Friends and Family,   Well another 2 weeks have gone by and we are in a good groove. Our attendance in the classes is good. A total of about 24-26 come  each week in all the classes. This is out of about 32 possible.  Someone is always on holiday here and they are usually out of the country. We have some in the U.S. and Europe right now . A week ago Saturday we went to the temple in Sydney to be with Van Dang, a Vietnamese immigrant, who is a now an Australian citizen. I was his escort (helper), as this was his first time to go through. We also took Chris Kalbali a Tongan who is also an Aussie citizen. This was the first time he has been to the temple in 10 years. He fell away shortly after serving his mission and has only recently returned to church. Both have been attending our classes. Van joined the church a little over a year ago and is 32 and Chris was 30 the day he went to the temple. Both are still single.  The classes at the University of Canberra and Australian National University have been changed to the noon hour on Wed. and Thur. and Mom prepares sandwiches, fruit, brownies etc for them to eat after our lessons. Last week one of them said that the class day was her favorite day of the week. We probably spend $50 to $75 a week on food to feed many of them at our classes and at our flat.. My favorite saying to them is "One more meal from us and I get to declare you as my dependant on my U. S. Income taxes." We even had some of the Y.S.A. call us up and ask if they can come over for dinner. We have yet to refuse them.   We heard a story in Sacrament Meeting today. An American from Dekalb IL who is going for a PhD at ANU spoke. He grew up in the Los Angeles area and as 13 year old played in a Junior High school band. The band was performing in the inner city area of LA one day and had a picnic in a park after the performance. Suddenly they heard a commotion coming from the other end of the park and saw a policeman running towards them. He told them that a gang riot had broken out and that police were arriving but for the time being they where to hide under the picnic tables in a secluded area of the park. He said there were many of the 12 & 13 "bandees", as he called them that were crying in fear. The only other members of the church there was a girl from  his ward and her mother who was a chaperon. After a period of time the mother crawled over to him and asked if he was okay and said to him "You hold the Aaronic Priesthood  don't you?  He said "Yes. He was a deacon" The mother said " You are the only one here that holds the priesthood of God and do you know you have been blessed with the keys of ministering Angels  when you were ordained?  He said "Yes."  "Then please use them." she answered. He said he had never considered how he would use them before this, but he knelt and in front of the huddled band prayed to Heavenly Father that they would be protected and left alone. Though they were there for many hours until the police pulled them out of the park, no one else came near them.  Yesterday Mother was asked by one of the YSA girls if she would go to a dance play with her, so I took her to the theater, and on the way home I stopped at the park where the Canberra Floriade Festival will be held. This is a huge flower display of over a million plants spread of 8-10 acres of this park very near Parliament House. It is nearly spring time here starting in September, and the display is mainly made up of tulips, dahlias and  pansies, all cool weather flowers. Though they are just coming out of the ground the display of color and design is phenomenal.  Last Year they had over 325,000 visitors come from all over Australia and Asia, especially China.                  That's  all there is  from down under.                                                                           Love Elder Mac