Tuesday, March 11, 2008

resend of last down under update

9Mar. 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
 
     What a week!  It was busy, challenging, but very rewarding.
The first part of the week we taught classes every day.
Thursday Mar 6th  we taught a University lesson at 11 AM  in the flat  to a girl that missed our lesson at Canberra University on Wednesday. Then we went to Australlian National University to teach another Uni class at 1 PM  We were expecting 3 to come but only 1 showed. However, an investigator came,  Kotai  a 21 year old Chinese young man who grew up in Japan, moved with his family to Long Island NY in 2001 and is here for 6 months at ANU.
We picked him up from our ANU orientation stall 2 weeks ago. I dropped the lesson and we spent part of the hour letting him talk about himself and then the last half on gospel subjects he had questions on. It went very well. We then hopped into the car and drove an hour north of Canberra to Goulburn, NSW to visit a daily home seminary that is held late in the afternoon. The father & mother teach their 2 teenage boys. The father is the captain of the prison guards at the state prison for NSW(New South Wales) one of the  8 States in Australia. He is Samoan. and his wife is Maori.    After the hour lesson, which we observed, they fed us supper and we immediately jumped into the car and drove 2 hours & 15 minutes North to the Church temple motel near the Sydney temple.
By 7:45AM Friday we were at the Baulkham Hills chapel in a Sydney suburb, to hear Elder David A. Bednar speak. When we got there most of the other missionaries were already there even though it was not to start until 9 AM,  All the missionaries that are assigned cars in Australia are issued white 2007 Toyota Camay's.  So in the church car park(what Aussie's call parking lots) were 60-70 white 2007 Toyota Camray's. What a sight!  Even though the chapel was full and the over flow was almost full with about 275 missionaries, because we were senior missionaries they told us to go down front and sit in the very front row right below the speakers stand. So we did. Right before 9 AM in came the mission presidents from Sydney North & Sydney South missions with their wives, then came in three General Authorities, Elder Sabrowsky the Australian Area President, Elder Hilbig his 1st councillor and then the Apostle  Elder Bednar. All had their wives with them.
The meeting went for 3 hours with no breaks.  Elder Bednar took up about 2 &1/2 hours of it with his wife and the 2 other general Authorities taking up about 20 minutes all together. The rest was prayers and hymns.
Half of Elder Bednar's talk was on some new perspectives on the Holy Ghost and on prayer, None of which I had ever heard before. He supported all his "new' principles with scripture. The subjects are too long and intricate (not complicated but simple) to relate. However, the general theme is that if you use these principles in every, yes every, meeting in Church ( from temple , to sacrament, to missionary lessons , to all gospel teaching classes, etc, members will have  a "Revelatory Experience" with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will reveal knowledge to the members of these groups based on their adherence to these principles. None of these principles are earth shattering but I never have looked at the Holy Ghost from this perspective before.
The Apostle referred to Sister MacPherson  in a couple of his examples as she was no more then 4 ft away from him as he looked down from the pulpit. I asked him a question to which he responded. About an hour of it were questions by the missionaries and his answers.  At the end of the meeting we all filed up in queue and shook the hands of all the leaders including Elder Bednar.
We then rushed to the car and drove directly to the temple grounds to make a 1PM session to do sealings in the temple. We did 25 male and 25 female child to parent sealings, and 12 spousal sealings, both in moms line and my line.  We then went out to lunch at about 3 PM and then went to a Seminary inservice meeting in the Villawood chapel that night. Villawood is a southern suburb of Sydney. After that we went back to temple motel which in northwest Sydney Suburb of Carlingsford.  Saturday we got up and drove 3 hours plus back to Canberra. Later that day we attended a baptism and in between arriving home and the baptism I had two, yes two, migraine attacks. I think I'm getting more migraines down here because we are "down under" and therefore upside down from you and thus more blood to the head, and of course more migraines! Now there's a great diagnoses. I should have been a doctor!
The leaves are now changing and a tree in front of our flat is dropping leaves, Autumn is here. Yet when we were in Sydney this last week we saw trees 20 -30 ft high, full of large deep purple flowers like we saw in the spring time. When I walk, I go through a grove of oak trees that are full of acorns and large white Cockatoos. They are eating the acorns but in the process they break off the ends of the branches and the ground is full of these branch ends and cracked acorns. There are no squirrels in Australia so the nuts are eaten only by birds. 
Well this is way too long, so I'll sign off.
                 Love Elder Mac
 
 

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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Interesting Story

We are also going to a missionary conference talk in Sydney this Fri
to hear David A Bednar. It looks like Australia is getting close to
being translated to Zion! Yep, the rumour is Australia and New Milford
are going at the same time. Love Elder Mac

Part of a talk given by Sister Ann M Dibb the daughter of Thomas S. Monson
Given at BYU Idaho devotional on 19 Feb 2008. The Kellie is Kellie Neill
Brown the daughter of Anthony Neill our CES supervisor, who we directly report
to.

“I’d like to share a very recent example of encouragement. Our son, Mark, served his mission in Australia. One of his companions, Adam Brown, from Adelaide, Australia, came to Utah in order to attend general conference. He attended every session. In between two of the sessions, we introduced him to my father. This is an excerpt from the letter of thanks we received two weeks ago:
“As you were aware, when I returned home from Utah, I planned to propose to my beautiful girlfriend, Kellie. Her family is great, but I was still very, very nervous about asking her Dad for permission. I knew he would say, ‘Yes,’ but I was petrified. I think one of the things that got me over the line, because I chickened out the first two times, was President Monson’s comment when I showed him a photo of Kellie while visiting with him in his office. He said, ‘I approve.’ I gained courage from this. I figured if Kellie’s Dad were to say, ‘No, you can’t marry my daughter,’ I would be able to reply with, ‘Well, President Monson said that he approved.’ With this added courage on my side, I asked, and after the twenty-minute interrogation, he said, ‘Yes.’”
Adam Brown and Kellie were married on February 2nd in the Sydney Temple. My father was pleased to learn that his word of approval may have encouraged a temple marriage! “
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Monday, March 3, 2008

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 1st. 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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Saturday, February 16, 2008

What's with the faster updates and shorter emails?

Hello American's from those American's from down under and no we are not Aussie wanabees,
anymore then they are American wanabees; don't we all/ each love our own free countries??
Hope this finds you all well and kicking.
Love from Mom/grandma/ sis mac
Hi Fabulous family & Friends: Can't believe the past several weeks have flown by; it is early Sunday AM and this will be a long day. We practically always attend two sacrament blocks of meetings alternating between the two ward buildings each having
two wards, so we will be on the north end of Canberra today and into this evening.
Early in these past two weeks of which I'm trying to report: on a Monday evening,
we had two of the missionaries at our flat for a teaching appointment for a young Aussie
woman to have a gospel discussion; taught by the Elder from Burma and his companion,
who we have known since we arrived here. Elder Nielson had been down in Merimbula
(now that is NOT a tough place to be, as it is coastal and lovely at that). Charissa is a referral, of a Brett, less than a year convert himself, and has been meeting with the missionaries for the past several months and had set a baptism date; but  out of respect deferred to her Catholic Mum and Grandmum about taking her time to consider being baptized. The missionaries taught with a sweet spirit; but couldn't commit her to baptism. Last week Charissa went back to see her Mum and Grandmum, and we haven't heard, but it appears she is trying to honor and respect them. Brings back to memory our baptism and the fact we didn't even tell Dad's folks and I didn't tell my Dad that we were going to be baptized; and we know that was right for us. We were a young married couple and knew that was our own decision to be baptized and frankly we just didn't want any negativity or lack of support for that decision after receiving a testimony that the Book of Mormon was the word of God and that this great, beautiful church is certainly the Lord's Church. Hopefully, we will see Charissa today and if not, I will give her a call.
We continue to have YSA's to our flat for food and gospel discussions. This past week, Joel, who pretty much comes for lunch and a BOM lesson/ discussion every Monday had been in our flat the night before to celebrate a birthday for one of our YSA's and then he
was at our Institute class on Tuesday night and I kiddingly asked him, can you take us
three days in a row?; he survived. Joel, is the young man who has just passed his first
year in the church and previously hadn't felt quite ready for receiving the Melchizedek
Priesthood, but today is his day to be so blessed.
Wednesday evening our flat doorbell rang at 9 PM and it was a wonderful YSA, who gifted us with a lovely box of chocolates for the next day, with a sweet message about
Valentine's day; good thing (and so kind), as that was the extent of our recognizing
Valentine's day. This lovely YSA stayed until 12PM++ and Dad's eyes had glazed over,
but believe it or not, I baled him out by looking at my watch and telling her how late it
was. We saw this lovely young woman at an engagement party yesterday and she said
her roommate said to her the next morning, " got home a bit late last night, eh" Sometimes, I'm not sure how it goes for them (the YSA's ) when they spend that kind of
time with us; it seems they are checking us out about marriage and other good things.
Last night we attended the Church Leadership broadcast on the family with Elders Oaks
and Holland with Pres. Packer reading the Proclamation on the Family; it was good to
hear him read it in it's entirety. It is certainly sooo inspired, how blessed we continue to
be as members of the Lord's church. Brett L., who is a recent convert of less than a year
(and is the great member, who referred the Charissa I wrote about at the beginning of this
letter) sat next to us last night and leaned over to me and said I bet you're going to be on
our backs about getting married and I leaned back over and replied, you could probably back me off, as you're taller. But he heard the truth, the family is central in the church. And just as in the states there seems to be a slight problem with young people dating and committing to marriage, so is there also here and maybe even more so. I not talking about teenagers, it is definetly geared to the YSA's and especially those who are 25++++ or ?
It will soon be time to get ready for church.
After our 6 hour block of church meetings, we have a YSA meeting, followed by a meeting with our Institute president meeting at his flat starting at 7 PM to plan orientation
meetings at the Uni's prior to the next week, when we start Uni Institute classes. SO, this Sunday will be our day of REST?, starting at 9:30 AM and last meeting at 7PM probably going until 8. It is good thing your Dad is used to long, long, long Sundays and I'm adjusting.
We are also still working on setting up a class for recently married couples on Eternal Marriage at the request of several couples; it just will be a bit challenging finding a suitable time for these busy couples, some who may still be students, working and starting  their families.
If we take on the Marriage classes, we will be teaching at least 4-5 different subjects/ scriptures and the accompanying preparation that goes with that. We know, we know
what do we think you all did on your missions; but just have to remind you, you never
never had to worry about those senior moments. And these senior moments aren't exactly blessings?!
Well, I'd better close and try to get this e-mailed. I had written a fairly long letter directly
on the our e-mail and then totally lost it as I sought to send it.
Want you to know, you are all in our prayers and we appreciate your prayers. We pray
for you and your most beautiful families.
For the several times I said it was hotter then heck it and it was at those times; but it has
mostly been a lovely summer here.
Oh, just have to share this: this past Wednesday, we had Elder Keith Hilbig here for a two zone conference meeting; Elder Hilbig is from Milwaukee and although we didn't know him at the time, as he was serving a mission and/ or a student at Princeton U; his father was the very first home teaching companion Dad had as a new member, now almost 45 yrs.ago. What incredible speakers he and his wife were, they just weren't fun and entertaining, they were also edifying and uplifting and encouraging. Elder Hilbig spoke at the last Fall's General Conference.
I'm sorry I go on and on, but that's just the tip of the iceberg for the special blessings in
our lives at this special time in our lives.
Miss you all sooooooooo much; but KNOW we are where we are supposed to be at this time in our lives with these wonderful YSA's and besides we're out of your hair.
Love to all of you; you are the very best.
Love, Mom/ grandma mac aka sister mac
 
 

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Monday, February 4, 2008

Family and Friends:

Family and friends,                                                                              Feb 4, 2008
Well, 7 months has gone by since we entered the MTC. It has gone by very, very fast for me, too fast. I love it here. To be so old and yet to be so needed. The Canberra stake is so small, about the size of a large Utah Ward with  500-600 active members dispersed between 4 wards, 1 branch and two dependant branches that meet once or twice  a month.. We have a beautiful small chapel  that until a few months ago was not even being used and had been unused for 2 years. . We are now using it for seminary and 1 Sunday a month for the 3 hour block meetings .   There is a huge inactive population here. Sunday is sports and play day here.   
Today the seminary classes started for the year. The summer vacation is over and school is back in session. We are roughly a semester behind the states, and we have 3 early morning seminary classes and 4 home study classes in the Canberra stake and 2 large home study classes that meet  in chapels and 1 individual home study class that meet in the Nowra District . All are supervised by us. The area that we cover is roughly 200 miles by 150 miles, with units in all the corners of the stake and district. We have just distributed all the supplies. Fortunately, there are missionaries in all these places and some of the materials were given to them at zone conference and sent out with them. We also completed our preschool in-service training with all the newly called seminary teachers.
This month we were to hear from Elder Quentin Cook and Elder Tingey, who came to Australia but unfortunately, they were called back at President Hinckley's death.  This month Elder Keith Hilbig of the of the 1st quorum of the 70 will tour the mission. When mom & I first joined the Church in 1963, my very first assignment was that of a home teacher and my senior companion was his father Karl Hilbig in Milwaukee Wisconsin. .
We are still teaching Summer institute as the University's don't start up until the last week in February. We still teach the Book of Mormon at our flat to a small group of new member YSA's . When the Universities start up we will teach a large class of YSA's the Old Testament and a class of young newly married couples the After Temple Marriage class. ( we have had 5 temple marriages since we been here), and 2 Pearl of Great Price classes, one at Canberra University and one at  Australian National University(ANU). We have also scheduled 3 seminary teacher in-services this semester, here in Canberra and then going to the coast (Nowra District ) and teaching them individually because their  are so spread out.
Our scriptures are already wearing out as we are in them for hours almost every day preparing for our classes.
After Sister MacPherson (can't call her Pat, Honey or Mom)  2  knee operations in November and January, she is thankfully pretty much pain free, however she needs a cane when she walks  up or down stairs and more then 50 yards. If she has to have a partial knee replacement then that will be a real problem. So far though, a month later, she is doing okay.
We are doing a lot of fellowshipping as the missionaries get YSA's close to baptism and after they are baptised.  Tonight we are having over a young  woman with her member friend and the missionaries for dinner and a discussion . She is very close to being baptized. We first met her in November at a YSA picnic that another YSA brought along.
            Well I better close this rare update   Hope all is well with you and as they say here when all is well.  "No Worries"  Elder MacPherson

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Friday, February 1, 2008

Fwd: [DPMacFamily] Apologize for some incorrect info on sweet Sister Wei!

Hi again, When Dad read my e-mail already sent, he reminded me of a few things
about Sister Wei; hope I don't distract from her sweet story. Sister Wei met a Chinese young
woman who first peaked her interest in the church on a bus in Shanghai, while that young
woman was back from Singapore to get her visa so she could go on a mission and wasn't
aware she wasn't supposed to actively proselyte and told Sister Wei where she could go to
attend church in Shanghai where Sister Wei lived.
The branch president told Sister Wei she couldn't attend.He said she could go to Hong Kong
to learn about the gospel, which is what she did. Sister Wei took the train and had prayed if
God was really there, to help her find the church. Apparently Cantonese is mainly spoken in
Hong Kong, but shes peaks Mandarin. HJowever, she  found a man who spoke her language and
he directed her to those two churchs,  one being ours the chapel/ temple in Hong Kong. While
going to the Hong Kong chapel, she spotted a missionary with a name tag. She was baptized
7 days later. I know I can't quite convey the beautiful spirit that was there as she talked
about the many miracles in her life. Her companion said she continures to see miracles as they
work together.
What I want to testify to, is that we surely see the Lord's hand in this work: just imagine a
young Chinese missionary and also meeting this first young missionary out of Burma.
Love, Mom
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Update from down under! Summer continues to be hotter then heck here; but then it cools! Whew!!

Hi fabulous family & friends: We are mostly enyoying the type of summer they have here,
a bit like Utah, hot but little humidity. Just got thru a couple of days from heck, again.
Mostly we do fine without air-conditioning, as we have 3 great fans; but there are usually
a few days we sweat like heck. But mostly, of the Aussies we know, don't have C/A. But
when it cools off like now, it is actually quite cool. Reminds me of how the desert probably
can be, unbearably hot during the day and scary cold at night.
It was sad to hear of the passing of our much beloved prophet, Pres. Hinckley-he sure set an
example of serving right up to the end. We should all do as well, right? I felt sad, and yet
happy for him, he is with his beloved wife, Marjorie and I really appreciated that we saw him
remain strong up to the end. Yesterday, in an e-mail message we received from a missionary
couple, who we had known in the MTC and who came over here just days before us. In it
Elder McKell wrote this most beautiful poem / tribute to President Hinckley. I e-mailed to Elder
McKell that I would certainly credit him properly as the writer, and that I would include in my
weekly? update:          
To our Beloved Gordon B. Hinckley
Decades at the feet of prophets prepared you:
Man of faith to Prophet of God,
Builder of Temples now dotting the earth,
You lifted our souls and our spirits,
As you focused on Family and
Traversed the world with the energy of many
half your years.
You are the sweet example
of all the things you asked us to "be."
We've witnessed your Charity and Love of the Savior,
in His name asking us
to stand just a little bit taller,
to be better, kinder, gentler.
We'll not soon forget your humor and wit,
Your inspiring Vision of Faith.
Inclusion is your Legacy.
Such influence does not end.
Adieu, our noble Prophet-Friend.
Elder McKell-Syndey So. Mission, AU
 
Last week we appointed and trained the last of the three brand new early morning seminary
teachers, this is a Cooks Island native, extremely well educated thru ANU (Australian National
University); father of three, his youngest at home is 14 or 15 years old, so he will be teaching
his son with the other seminary studends. This brother had taught 15 years ago, so lots of
changes since then. At the end of the nearly 2 1/2 hour training, this soft spoken brother,
said he had wanted to volunteer a couple of months ago, but his work schedule just would
not permit at that time in the morning, and then just very recently, his work schedule changed
and lightened up-actually as a promotion. He is a demograper. He is a very sensitive man
and teared up, just a tiny bit that he has been blessed to have the time in the morning to do
this. As we sat with him, we knew this was one of those tender mercies of the Lord. It continues
to be difficult in this fairly small stake, especially when it comes to callings and appointments
as this; pure and simple, they lack the numbers here to really staff the stake.
A week ago Friday, we met with our district missionaries, who were all from the U.S. and knew
transfers were in order. So, today, of those 10 Americans, five were transfered and we got
our first Sister missionaries and what gems they are: one is Polynesian and the other from
mainline China. The Polynesian missionary told us we should hear Sister Wei's conversion story
and that any/every time she hears it, she crys. Sure enough, she cried, as did I hearing the
conversion story of Sister Wei. Sister Wei is 9 months into her mission and she went as quickly
after her baptism as she was allowed. Sister Wei, from mainland China, no less, talked of talking
to a young woman, who was waiting for a visa and was encourgaged to attend one of our church
meetings near where she was. She showed up and loved it and when the branch president met
her to introduce himself to her, he asked if she was a member. When she responded no, he told
her she could not come back, as only members could attend or their relatives; as China allows
no proselyting at all, it is illegal. He said only baptized members could attend. She asked, baptized,
what does that mean? She was told that the church was more openly allowed in Shanghi. Well
she got to Shanghai, but didn't even know the name of our church and was directed to where
there were several churchs together. One church was a Baptist Church and the other was ours.
Apparently she had seen someone in the first branch she attended in China and saw someone
had a missionary name tag on (can't quite explain this all) and when she went into the church
in Shanghi, she saw the missionary type name tag and knew she was in the right place. She was
taught the discussions and was bapized very quickly. SHe said she had lost her Dad, when she
was only 9 or 10 and was told about families can be together forever and that she would be able
to see her Father again and that helped her. As she shared her conversion in greater detail then
I can convey, sure enough her companion cryed as did I. The Spirit was so strong as she talked
about miracles in her life to bring her the gospel and now miracles continue as she serves. These
two beautiful sisters have been together I believe the 9 months Sister Wei has been over here
thru 3 transfers. They had been in Sydney all that time. They had loved being with the McKells,
who wrote the poem above. So even though these two lovely sisters are in the North part of
our district / zone and we are in the south part, we will be able to see them weekly. Just a short
while ago, Dad commented to me, how Sister Wei sat very close to me and kept holding my hand
or arm as she bore her testimony. How about this one, also at our district meeting one of the new
missionaries just came over here from Northern Utah three days ago, but one of the other new
missionaries to Canberra is the very first missionary to serve from Burma! Again, what a priviledge
to serve with these strong valiant young people.
This past Sunday, we had a taped broadcast of Elder Tingley's YSA talk from the week before
after church at the stake center @ 6. It was supposed to be right after a convert baptism
for a young Aussie woman, age 25, who the missionaries had taught and had scheduled her
baptism. But Chrissa's Mom & Grandma asked her to take her time and wait a month. Charissa
told me Sunday, she was a bit embarrased and I said, don't be. Elder Mac had previously said
to me, she was showing respect for these two good women in her life. Anyway, that sort of made
some sense to me and when Charissa said she was embarrased, I spoke Dad's thoughts, that
she was honoring / respecting them to take just a bit more time to really think this over, and added
my two bits, by saying the gospel will still be true in a couple of weeks or  a month as they had
asked her to wait. So, I invited her over for dinner this coming Monday with a great member friend,
Kali also, along with one of the remaining missionaries who had been teaching her. Saw Elder
Nielson at our district meeting this morning and asked him if a salad with shrimp and mangoes was
okay. I practically always take some kind of baked goodies to the Elders for the meetings and they
always snarf it up and are appreciative of the sweet goodies. So Elder Nielson said he loves to eat
and he couldn't wait to have dinner at our flat and to teach Charissa again. I guess they are just
like Dad, prefer someone else's cooking.
This past Monday, one of the YSA"s had a barbeque party at his home (the one with the outdoor
pool), which was well used as it was hot that day/ night. It was a party to help encourage one of
the young men to prepare to serve a mission. All the attendees at the party, were to bring a
necktie, they had picked up at a resale shop (like St. Vincent DePaul-called Vinnies) or something
like it. There was lots of food; Morgan is a great barbeque chef and put on quite a spread. The YSA
who is being encouraged to serve a mission, had made a pineapple shaped homemade pinata. He
must have had it reinforced with super glue, because it took a lot of banging around with a base-
ball bat before it shared it candies. I continue to state this is a party / food/ fun mission. With a
big emphasis on FOOD!  And food is not cheap here, let alone inexpensive. I truly believe most food
products inluding fresh fruits and veggies are 2 to 5 times typically what we pay in the states, so
sometimes I wonder how families do it over here, let alone even the YSA's.
We are back to having more YSA's into our flat, this week two separate days for lunch / dinner/BOM discussions and sometimes just some plain and simple fellowshipping. I've started
back a bit with the Tuesday night Institute, but prefer Doug to do more of the teaching. He not
only does a better job at it, he loves it. He is better with the bigger groups and I prefer the smaller
groups or just a few YSA's. Dad always says I a bit better at the smoozing with them.
We continue to be so blessed to be involved in their lives and become more and more aware of
some of their struggles and frankly in addition to praying for our own family, we pray for them as
a group and for many of them as individuals, which they are of course.
Whew, I'm tired and you are probably to just tryig to read this.
We feel blessed to be able to serve and know we are where we are supposed to be. We both
struggle a bit with some health things, that we didn't seem to bring over here; guess that is just
part of life, but we continue to SHUFFLE along. We both knew when we came over here, we
were older than dirt; now we're just  rusting our a bit faster than we expected.
You are in our prayers and we continue to feel yours and thank you for them. I continue to really appreciate the prayers of our grandchildren. Miss you all.
Love, mom /grandma aka Sister mac
                               

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