Greetings from "Down Under" G'day mates!

Hi Family & Friends: So much has happened since writing the last letter to all of you; it's all flying by, reminds me of having our family and how quickly the time flies by. Same old, same old ....the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream... (sounds familiar right?, from Jacob 7:26). Tomorrow in the AM we have Missionary Zone study, where the Zone leaders teach. Just within the past two weeks, all 12 of the young missionaries were transferred the same day. We were surprised, as truly every missionary we have met with in our district and zone meetings are just so excellent and so inspiring; but these last two Zone leaders were so full of revelation for the Zone, you could feel the tremendous Spirit they each conveyed and the love for their work and the Savior. I feel because of the excellence they conveyed, they were needed elsewhere. Of all the new replacements, two had been here in the past. Next week on Thursday, Oct. 23, the Mission President and his sweet wife will be here and spend the day. And at the same time, a senior couple who finished their last several months here have completed their mission and will go into Sydney to pick up several of their adult "kids" and travel for the next week or so. We are always amazed how long Aussies take holiday/ vacations---typically they are at least a month, sometimes for 3 months and for the young YSA's they think nothing of traveling for a year (called a round the world trip. They fly from Sydney to the states or Canada or ? and make several different stops throughout the world. One of the YSA's will returning from traveling for a year to Canada, the states, So. America, England, India and usually finish in the Orient before returning to Australia. They are amazed that we don't travel like that or at least for a month straight or so. We have heard from other YSA's from Chris who has been traveling for nearly a year and then he also sent us an e-mail. They are quite daring and fearless in their travels. Although Spring has been here since the 1st of September, it can be sunny and mostly warm; but at night it cools considerably. Probably, Dad had e-mailed about us going to Floriade, which is a month long tulip time festival that starts the second week in September and ends the middle of October. We usually try to stop in once a week on our way back from teaching our Uni class on The Pearl of Great Price. It is sort of like the tulip festival held up in Holland, MI for a week in May. Floriade brings in people internationally and usually they figure on 300,ooo and up for attendance- ; and although the entry is free to get in, and actually the parking is also, people buy things from the lovely booths/ stalls which actually sell quite nice "stuff". Last year Elder Mac bought his leather Ozzie hat with the wide brim, etc. at Floriade. I certainly couldn't be out shopped by the least shopping person in the world, Elder mac, so I bought a few things so he wouldn't feel so lonely in his shopping. Wherever did our sons get their interest in shopping? Dad? Don't think so. Our Mission President and his wife were in Canberra for zone interviews the first Thursday and Friday of October and asked me to make the plans and all the senior missionaries from the mission were allowed to come here  from Sydney and Ulladulla (the south coast) and spend time together. We had particularly beautiful sunny and warm weather. The first night the Pres. and his wife were here, they had me book/ make a reservation for dinner at the classic Hyatt Hotel for dinner for 16 of us. I was a bit taken back at the cost, as it was a buffet type dinner at a cost of $49 per person. I think to acknowledge the coupe finishing up here next week, he treated all of us. It was without a doubt the freshest, finest food we've eaten since coming over here and now with the American dollar higher against the Ozzie dollar, that $49 in Australian money, would be about $35 in American money. It was so lovely, but don't think I could talk Dad into spending that for us. You know his saying, why should we go out, he likes Pat's cooking. I'll just have to think of something to celebrate about, how about Thanks- giving, which of course the Aussies don't celebrate. Maybe we can celebrate a belated Father's day here this past September. It is interesting Mother's day is celebrated here when we celebrate Mothers day in the states; but Father's day is that first Sunday in September here. Usually Dad gets upset if Father's day isn't a treat in a big way, you know?? I actually had been asked to speak in our home ward, Woden, on Father's day on Fathers, of course. We attended another ward in the morning of Father's day and no one mentioned Fathers day or greeted the Dads and no treats either.  But at the Woden Ward, there were talks on Fathers and some of the best treats that were yummy for the chocoholic missionary I live with. We've attended two missionary farewells this past month; the last was a barbeque for a young man who is going to So. Africa. Glen is the youngest son of 3 sons to serve, each of his brothers served foreign, one to Rome and the other to Japan. I asked Glen how he felt about going to So. Africa and he said he had prayed for a tough mission and sure enough he got it. I then asked, why would you pray for a hard mission and he responded he knew he would grow more. Isn't that interesting that a young man would pray for a hard mission? He is a rather quiet young man, although he can certainly carry on a nice conversation.  We have attended an engagement party and have another one on November 1st. Both of the young women are well educated and one is a just this past year returned missionary and both are marrying return missionaries in the temple of course.  One of these wonderful YSA's (the returned missionary had to be hospitalized for kidney stones and each time we went over to the hospital to spend time with her and then take her home. We met her (Jade's parents) at her engagement party here and her Mom came right up to us to thank us for being there when she couldn't. Apparently, the 2nd stint  in the hospital for Jade, her Mom's Mother was having surgery on her back at the same time and Sydney is a good 3 hour drive away. We are keeping more than busy teaching 3-4 different classe every week, each requirering different prep. And in between the ministering we do, we are kept busy and mostly out of trouble. I am ashamed to admit, I am enjoying the teaching aspect so much more now, I found it much more daunting than I expected. But, even though the teaching is much more fun to prepare and teach, we are both ready to finish up. We will keep busy to the end, even though it may be more ministering. We have in the works, two seminary/Institute graduations to help plan and prepare for in early November on the 2nd and the 23rd. By the end of this month we will finish the uni classes as t the end of the semester will be only 3 weeks away, our last Eternal Marriage will be at the end of this month--we had started those classes in early May. Also, the Institute study of the Old Testament will end at the end of this month. Then there is a two week break from Institute for the graduations and then we have a social activity for Institute, probably a barbeque and sports or ? and then back into Institute. A couple of Saturdays ago, after having spent part of Thursday at Floriade and part of Friday morning with the other senior missionaries, Dad wanted to go to the Australian National Botanical Gardens here in Canberra. I wasn't real excited about going, as we had been there several times although not recently, but we had also done a lot of walking with Floriade. Anyway, Dad persisted and are we both glad he did, as the spring flowering was spectacular. We don't think there was a bush in the whole garden that wasn't blooming. We saw the spectacular Waratow and Stuart's desert pea, that needed to be seen to do justice. I swear they have flowers here, you've never seen anywhere else. The Stuart's desert pea is so spectacular and literally blooms in the Outback/ desert. The most beautiful red's. It was one of those times we both were so glad we took about an hour and a half to totally enjoy the beauty we are all blessed to see throughout the world, that always shows us the touch of the Master's hand, the Lords, no less. Since the baptism of Gary Lee, a Chinese student at ANU in Engineering, back on the last Sunday of September, the 28th. I asked Gary how his parents were about his baptism and he said his Dad asked him if he was happy and when Gary responded yes, his Dad said then that is fine. I told Gary he must have a great Dad. Typically, Gary is an only child. Dad had read on the internet news that ANU (Australian National University is rated # 15 in the world for excellence and accredidation. So for the last month, Gary, has attended our uni class there and participates extremely well. It continues to amaze us the Chinese who are becoming members of the church here. He has a particularly special spirit about him; he's almost like a sponge just drinking up the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of our favorite YSA's, one of the YW who were injured in that car accident now over 6 months ago and had to be hospitalized, had to have surgery. Sarah has attended our uni classes faithfully and sometimes our Institute. Well, her Mum has been hospitalized for the past couple of weeks, and we visited her several times. We had drawn close to Sarah's parents after the accident, as we could literally walk over to the hospital to visit the young ones. I think I wrote,I had invited the parents over for dinner one week night, they came at 6:15 PM and left after !! PM; but they were so much fun and still are. They recipocated by taking us out for Indian food, which was really lovely. The best food here tends to be the International type. Am looking forward to this Saturday, as the Stake RS is putting on the RS broadcast from the states back in September: but here is the fun Ozzie take on it. The meeting starts at 10:30 AM with the broadcast, a nice lunch, Samaoan and Bollywood dancing, the activity lasts until 2:30 PM. They sure know how to have fun. The national motto should be: NO WORRIES!!! Hope this finds you all well and having a good time sailing thru life. We are so blessed as members of the Lord's church and want you to know we love the Lord and are doing the best we can and we love and miss you all. You are in our daily prayers and we not only appreciate your prayers, we can feel your prayers. Thank you for being the best family and friends we could ever want to have. Is it not neat that Mariah and Art and family have been blessed with their fourth child. We can hardly wait to see you all and for me to meet and greet Rachel Mac and Spencer Tsubaki. We are pleased to have 33 grandchildren. Love to all of you, mom/ grandma/ sister and friend aka sis mac

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

Mom, Grandm mac from down under!

Dear Family: It is a bit late, so I'll try to keep this update hopefully not too long. We are in a particularly busy time with uni, Institute and Eternal Marriage classes, which seem to take a fair amount of time for prep as we teach the Old Testament, Pearl of Great Price, Eternal Marriage, (but we finished the Book of Mormon class we were teaching). It has been a bit less stressful as far as prep time not having to prepare the B of M. I just recently said to my companion, Elder Mac, that it seems somewhat easier to prepare now then previously. Dad responded it isn't necessarily the prep time is easier, but that our ability to do the prep has increased. Gee, how come as we close in on 14 months of service, we're finally finding it a bit easier. Alright all you return missionaries, when was your most productive time. It is hard to imagine even with all/ or so many life experiences under our belts, there is still a learning curve. And it sure hasn't been because we ever sloughed off. Da you think, your Dad would ever allow that? Dad said last week the Stake President asked if we would extend another 18 months and Dad responded he would, but me/grandma mac wouldn't. Kind of felt he hung me out there and I  said why didn't you say I need knee surgery as to be less offensive. Dad responded to me, would you stay over here beyond the 18 months if your knee weren't a problem. And I had to own up, NOPE. Miss the grandkids way too much. We had the wonderful privilege of attending the temple with Van, a member of just over a year, as he took out his own endowments, having asked Dad to be his escort. Along, were two couples of our Eternal Marriage class and one of our most beautiful YSA- YM. There is nothing like the sweet peaceful spirit that you feel only in our beautiful temples. Van is 33, unmarried and finally got the picture, his next step should be marriage. Tomorrow evening his (past?) girlfriend, who previously called us this past weekend,  said she wanted to come over to our flat to just talk. She is the one that en- couraged him to take the discussions, be baptized and to continue to grow in the church and her support has been monumental to him. I'm sure Dad had told you of us driving into Sydney to hear Elder Quentin Cook speak to our mission. Well, he had to go back to the states for health reasons; but we were still remarkably blessed to hear Bishop McMullen of the Presiding Bishopric,& his wife and Elder Jay Jensen (one of the 7 Presidents of the Seventies). Each of them were so dynamic spiritually. What a great day it was. I just want to share one story from Elder Jensen. He said he is one of 10 children (lived in Utah as a kid). He dated a young gal while in his later years of high school close to the time to make the decision to either serve a mission or not. Is that really a choice, don't think so; isn't a mission a commandment for worthy young men? Anyway, Elder Jensen continued, just after the new year, on a date with his high school sweetheart he said he thought the right thing to do was to get married. Doesn't exactly sound like it was done in a romantic way, does it? He went home later, checked in with his parents telling them he was home and said by the way, he and his girlfriend had decided to get married and then went straight to bed. Years later, Elder Jensen said his Mom told him that night his Dad cried for a long time and couldn't believe his son, Jay, wasn't going to serve a mission. Several weeks later Elder Jensen, while attending a Sacrament meeting, where a returning missionary talked about his mission, it made such a strong impression on Elder Jensen; he told his sweetheart, he knew he needed to serve a mission. Rest of the story, 31 or 33 days after returning from his mission, he married his sweetheart in the temple. He never said it, but I thought it, had he not served a mission; he probably wouldn't be in the beautiful church service he is currently doing. A week ago, Thursday, one our wonderful YSA's stopped in about 7:30 PM, just wanting to talk and stayed til about 11:30 PM. The next day, Kiki (return missionary and aged 26) called Dad while I was getting a perm asking if I wanted to attend a play the next day and to call back. I didn't as I thought oh, it just to close to using up a good part of Saturday afternoon. Well, I going to fast forward to next day and I had already asked Dad to call her back and say I couldn't. Just as Dad was to pick me up, Kiki called saying let's just go to the play. How could I resist? The play wasn't something I'd see twice, but we both thought it was magical and just fun, good for a few laughs. She was going to take me home, but just a heartbeat away, was a lovely art museum and she asked if I'd like to see some of the art and it was stuff she really likes. After that Kiki said, want to go out for dinner? I said, no, I need to go home fix dinner for Elder Mac and then we had a baptism we planned to attend. We had a nice conversation on the way home. I'm sorry all you great men, sometimes as women, we need women friends. Albeit, I could pretty easily be her grandma. When I got out of Kiki's car, I thanked her for a lovely afternoon and she wanted to give me a hug, which I sure appreciated. I KNOW I didn't come over here to play, but a bit of wholesome recreation sure helps every so often. I know some of you, have said, there is no way in heck, you would have ever been interested in ever hanging out or around people our age when you were in your 20's. I continue to be amazed, at the many, loving kindness of these great Aussies. Without a doubt, we will carry a bit of them in our hearts as we return. We have a young YSA couple who attend Institute and are engaged to be married in late November in Sydney temple and another one of our YSA's, a young woman who is also engaged to be married and she had previously asked if we could fly back late spring, 2009. Well this past Tuesday, she said they have moved up their date to Jan. 31st  in the Melbourne temple and couldn't we change our flights for after that. I said, oh, I want to be back to see two new grandchildren, attend the baptism of the twins, Jacob and Makayla and get my knee fixed. And she responded, oh you can just hobble around a couple of weeks longer. Well life is mostly good here and again I can't say a mission isn't a bit hard at times; but these beautiful YSA's have gotten into our hearts big time. Hope this finds you all well. Miss and love you all, sis mac aka mom/ grandma/ pat __._,_.___ Visit Your Group Give Back Yahoo! for Good Get inspired by a good cause. Y! Toolbar Get it Free! easy 1-click access to your groups. 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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

Check out Mud Puddles and Dandilions

Check out Mud Puddles and Dandilions

http://members.shaw.ca/mcinnes-hume/mud_puddles__dandelions.htm