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

MOM--Sincere Condolences

Hi beloved family, sleep seems far away from me at this moment of time, so just thought I'd share part of my insomnia. The death of this relative, Aunt Wilma, 98, no less is the last from my Dad's generation. Still have Aunt Leona, the youngest brother of my Mom, who now lives in Florida. Hope this finds you all well and hopefully I can fall back to sleep. Love, Mom/ grandma mac aka sis mac From: mac9pcom@msn. com To: diannemahoney@ tds.net Subject: RE: MOM Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:41:06 -0500 Dear Dianne: It is Friday, August 15th here in Australia. I woke up at 1:00 AM,  this morning and for some reason decided to check our e-mail; which I don't normally do in the middle of the night like this. So sorry to hear about the gentle passing of your most special Mom. How she blessed your lives and you & your siblings blessed her life; and as well, she (and your Daddy) blessed the lives of so many. I tried to go back to sleep, but a flood of memories filled my mind. One that came first, was when Frank & I had the privilege of living with Grandma Bormann when we were 10 and 11 and us traveling up to your home and taking a train to Seattle, Washington to visit Aunt Bea and Uncle Harold and then down to California to visit Aunt Corrine and Uncle Vic. That was a summer I will never forget and in fact I always had it in the back of my mind to take my own grandchildren on an adventurous train trip as she did for us. When you are a child, you don't always have enough wisdom or life experiences to know what a sacrifice of time that was for Grandma Bormann to have had Frank and I with here for the year before our Dad then taking us up to Wisconsin to live with his third wife for our junior and high school years. Years ago, I knew that Grandma Bormann's loving, kind care of us showed just what a queen of a woman she was. Part of our train trip started at your home and I  have such sweet memories of your parents and your family. What a special summer that was and it pretty much started at your home. We were so grateful, as adults, to attend a special celebration for your parents 60th or was it 70th? wedding anniversary in Minnesota. It was at a park with a indoor shelter where we had a nice picnic style lunch. I so remember your beautiful Mom, as we all stood around in one really large circle to pray and your Mom so lovingly acknowledged all who were there and the distances many had traveled and then I believe she a knowleged those of her grandchildren and family that couldn't be there to celebrate with them. I believe after speaking for a few minutes and the prayer of blessing on the food was about to happen, your Daddy said he had something to say. How you were all blessed with some of the most remarkable parents out there. There are so many other things I can say, but I will finish with the very last time, I was in Estherville with my husband, now several years back. I had called and found out many of my Mom's nieces and nephews would be that one magical weekend as were most of you from my Dad's side also. Your Mom had told me, just about every day as she drove past the cemetery on the way to her home, she would think of my Mom as she was buried there; which so touched my heart. Your Mom & Dad are two of the finest of the many fine relatives that blessed my life. That weekend, I naturally visited the graves of both of my parents and I remember saying to my husband as we drove away from Estherville, that I knew that would be probably be my last time to visit there and it was as if, I was mourning my great childhood memories there. On my Mom's side, only her youngest brother, Uncle Bob's wife, Aunt Leona lived there in Estherville at the same time of that visit and shortly after that Aunt Leona moved to Florida to be near one of their two sons. Please convey my condolences and love to your siblings and families and I want to acknowledge my love for your beloved parents and for all of you. May you all feel of the tender mercies of the Lord and be comforted at this time in your lives. Love, Pat, Doug and family of nine children and (husbands and wives) and 32 beautiful grandchildren with the 33rd on the way. We have now served 13 months of our 18 month mission in Australia working among the teenage and older youth of Australia, ages 18-31+. We have enjoyed (mostly, that is ) our time with these most loving and inclusive young people; but I am looking forward to returning to our own wonderful grandchildren, aged less than a year and up to a 20 year old. This has truly been an adventure here, also.   From: diannemahoney@ tds.net To: mac9pcom@msn. com Subject: MOM Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 10:56:33 -0500 Dear Patsy and family,   My Mom died Tuesday morniing in her sleep.  The funeral is Saturday, I am just walking out the door to go to Estherville now.  Wake is Friday, 5 - 8.  Know you will be with us in spirit, and I will fill you in on the details when I return, which will probably be in a week or so.   She was 98, and such a special person.   Love, Dianne