Strange fruits, flowers and fights

9/30/08 Dear Friend and Family, Our busiest weeks so far are over. We have been out 11 nights of the last 14, and that's a lot for 2 old timers. Teaching wise we have had to have 4 different class preps each week due to the two Universities having different midterm breaks. So instead of teaching the same lesson twice in a week, we have had to teach different lessons at each Uni as they were 2 weeks off their simultaneous schedule because of  Canberra University having its mid-term break 3 weeks before ANU "midterm" break which started this week. I don't think ANU should call their break "midterm" because they only will have 2 weeks of classes before their final exams start in November On top of this we have been teaching a gospel essential class in the Tuggeranong Ward. We have also been doing a lot of ministering. The Y. S. A. and regular members come over or call us to go to visit them . Families that do not live in the area have called us and asked us to visit someone in the hospital. We have had the Y. S. A. ask us to come to some activity and watch them perform or receive awards or just go to some activity with them. Floriade is in full swing here in Canberra. This is a huge flower festival in which 400,000 people are expected to attend from all over Australia & Asia. As I mentioned in a previous e-mail they have planted hundreds of varieties of spring flowers- mainly tulips in raised beds over many acres in a huge park. There are literally over a million individual flowers.  We went last Wed. night  to see some of the entertainment that was at the show with a YSA and her mom. .  The Main Act was called "Strange Fruit". On a large outdoor stage were fastened 7, 16 feet high flexible metal poles. Near the top of the poles were foot rests for someone to stand on. At the very top of the pole was a back support and strap that went around a person's waist. At the beginning, in the dark, 7 persons climbed these flexible poles and strapped themselves to the poles.   Then they pulled up over their entire bodies globes of white fabric about 6 feet in diameter, so that they were entirely incased in the globe. It looked like there were 7 huge plants with these globes looking like unusual flowers.  The show started with music that was very unusual and spot lights changing colors every so often so that the "globe flowers" appeared to be changing colors. The "flowers" appeared to be waving in the "breeze" as the performers swung their flexible  poles in unison.  After a while you could see things slowly coming out of the top of the globe flowers- human  heads with weird pistil like hats, or  one or two human arms waving around. All the time these "flowers" waved back and forth to the music in the "breeze".  Slowly the performers in weird flower like costumes emerged from the top of the flower.  First their head, then their torsos, then their entire bodies that appeared as though they were standing on the "globe flower" 16 feet in the air.  What was really happening was they were slowing lowering the globes so that they appeared to be rising out of the flower. The music changed and became faster and they stated waving more and more in the "breeze" until they were almost touching the stage with their heads. They had a number of different choreographed routines that matched the music, and that was the show. I never had seen anything like this before.  They also had a short (no more than 5 minutes) Film Festival. Some were really bad like one story about a paper poster of George Bush that was trying to kill this woman by stalking her and trying to kill her by slashing her with paper cuts. My favorite one was about a white young man and a Polynesian young man arrive at an empty beach. They start asking to each other asking  where is everyone else is and decide to wait for others. One is carrying a cricket mallet and the other has brass knuckles. They talk and one says he is having trouble with his car stereo and the other says he can fix it, so they fix it, then the two play a 2 man cricket game. They talk about their girl friends. Then one of the men's mobile phones rings and it is his gang members asking him where he is. He hangs up and say's to the Polynesian that they are at the wrong beach and the Polynesian's gang and his gang are now fighting each other at another beach.  The white guy says to the Polynesian "Do you need a ride to the gang fight?" the answer is "Yes" . The last scene you see the two drive off in together in the sunset. On the spiritual side, we baptized another Chinese student last Sunday, Joui Li, who we call Gary Lee.  He is a student of our ANU uni class, and is going for a Master's in Mechanical Engineering at ANU. He is an only child; part of the "one child only" policy of China,  and is 23 years old .  He was first approached last March by Sister Wei,  the full time missionary from China we told you about. She was transferred to Sydney about 4 months ago.   Gary has come to church on a regular basis for all these months.  He is from central China and will be here another year and half. Gary likes to be with Mom & I and after each class he walks us back to our car, helping us with all our books etc. We found out another Y. S.A. woman has decided to go on a full time mission and is in the process of sending in her papers. Her name is Leslie Shepard, is 22,  and has been a member for about 2 years. She is a regular attendee of our Institute class. Up date on Eddie Canton - the young man that was in the terrible auto accident in March. He is now walking and much of his right side that has been paralyzed for all this time has returned to use. He has been unable to speak and had to write or use sign language to communicate up to now. He is now speaking a few simple words. It is amazing that in the beginning they gave him less than a 10% chance of living and if he did it was as a vegetable. He is still included in our prayers. Well enough.         Love you all                               Elder Mac

Father's day stories???????

Hi everyone: Just want to shoot a short note. Although the Aussies celebrate Mother's day the same day we do, Father's day is actually this Sunday, September 7th. I've been asked to speak on Father's day on Father's, SO, if anyone has any fun stories or whatever, please e-mail back asap. Just a reminder, we are a day ahead of you, so it is already Thursday here. I'd appreciate any helps I can get. Hope this finds you all well. Love, mom mac aka sis mac

Magpies and politics

9/3/08 Dear Friends and Family, Spring has hit Australia.  September 1st is officially the first day of spring in Australia, not September 21 as fall is in America. The crab apple trees are in bloom in all shades, from white to deep pink. Last Thursday, Mom and I went up to Red Hill. Canberra is surrounded by mountains and is in a huge valley, but in the valley are 5 huge hills at least 1500 ft high. On four of the hills you can drive up and get a spectacular view of Canberra. One of the hills has astronomical observatories that are maintained by Australian National University. In 2003 there was a massive brush and forest fire that consumed all the telescopes and buildings on the hill, as well as 300 homes in 2 suburbs of Canberra. The fire took out almost all of the forests west of the city.  Those that were here when it happened said the sky was so filled with smoke that it blocked the sun and for a day it was like the sun never rose. It was total blackness except for burning embers which where flying through the air. People had to stand on their roofs with garden hoses and water down their property or put out fires that the embers started. Today, the observatory and the homes are rebuilt and they are just finishing replanting millions of trees in area that was burnt over.   Canberra is made up of 98 suburbs of 2000-4000 people. There is no real city of Canberra. Each suburb has a name &  a local shopping center( called " the shops" )  with a small grocery store , hairdresser,  dry cleaner and post office etc.  There are 5 Huge Indoor Shopping malls located around Canberra. They are bigger than most of ours back in the States. Each has 150-200 stores.  They all have at least 2 large super markets, as well as Mom & Pop  fruit and vegetable markets , butcher shops, and  bakeries even though the super markets have all of these items in their stores. These large malls also  have all the other type stores we see in our shopping centers.  The one thing that drives me nuts though, is that you have to pay for parking in their large car parks( parking lots). Can you imagine pulling up to your favorite shopping mall and having to pay $2-3 for parking.   The mailmen ride small motor bikes or petal  bicycles equipped with baskets on their handle bars and saddle bags on the back wheel. As this is spring the Magpie's (large crow like birds that are black & white in color) are beginning to mate & nest and they are very aggressive and  territorial. Yesterday we were driving behind a mailman on a motorbike when a magpie swooped down and bashed  the helmet of the mailman with its beak  Some of the bicyclers here, who wear soft helmets, stick 6-10  plastic straws  into the top of their helmet's breathing holes/  They look like they have antennas sticking out of their helmets like men from Mars. This apparently confuses the birds and they pull up after hitting the antenna and don't bash the helmet of the riders and causing them to fall off their bikes. Luckily, the mailman had a hard motorcycle helmet on and must be use to being dive bombed at, as he did not even flinch as the bird crashed into his helmet.   The mission goes well, however, at Y.S.A.  Family Home evening last Monday, an American YSA, who has been living here in Australia for 5 years, started  bashing  the  U.S.A. and it got Mom's dander up, and I was glad I was not him. We are instructed not to discuss politics with the Aussies but seeing this guy was an American, Mom & I felt he was fair game.  The Aussies are very interested in America and in American politics and will often ask us questions about this or that and what is our opinion and we have to be very careful of what we say. Most of the YSA's are liberal in their political opinions and are idealistic in their thinking, but do nothing to act on that thinking, and as we are old conservative people,   we pretty much swallow our tongues and don't respond to some of their thoughts and ideas. What surprises me is that if you watch the TV news the 2nd or 3rd story is usually on the American presidential race. Every Wednesday we teach  at the Spiritual Living Center at Canberra University which is right after a Catholic Noon Mass. We usually talk for a while to Father John, an Australian priest, as he takes down his stuff from the mass and we set up for our class. Lately it is all about American politics and his opinion that we need to vote for John McCain. We had a conversation with him about 2 weeks ago about Mitt Romney and religion and politics, and he was very supportive as he said "we" went through the same thing with John Kennedy.    Not much of a spiritual letter so I thought I'd relate a political spiritual story. The YSA that ticked mom off so much told this story before his political statement and it  really touched us. It seems that he graduated from the University if Wisconsin like I did. At the university the Church Education coordinator  was an Allen Gudmonsen and he has a daughter who was in her mid to late teens in the late 1990's She was in one of the  public high schools in Madison Wisconsin, and during this time the Gay Lesbian community was very aggressively promoting recognition of gay lesbian ideas in the school curriculum.  There was a public forum on adding this curriculum to the high schools. It was a very heated and antagonistic meeting and he and his daughter went to listen. Every time someone would be against the gay lesbian idea they were booed and heckled. All of a sudden Bother Gudmonsen noticed that without warning his daughter walked up to line waiting to use the microphone to speak. When her turn came she said. "My parents and my kindergarten teacher told me that I have private parts of my body and no one is to touch these parts in an inappropriate manner. And I want to tell you that one of these private parts of my body is my mind and if you pass this new curriculum you will be touching it in an inappropriate manner!" He said that no one said anything after her comment, there was no heckling, and the School board curriculum committee voted not to add the gay lesbian curriculum. The power of one good person is great!                              Love Elder Mac