This week was just a standard ‘go to the office and do work’ type of week for the most part. Most of our days would be boring to write about because we tend to do the same types of activities every day, nothing too exciting. When we first got here our assignment was to get the Self-Reliance program started, Australia had not had any sort of program like we are in charge of; Self Reliance and Perpetual Education Foundation loans only existed in third-world countries. Once it was determined that there was a segment of the population in Australia in need of these kinds of services we were sent to start it here. It has been challenging, but I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress in getting the services in place and getting the word out and building the program. We’ve seen slow, but steady progress in getting the word out. We seem to be getting better known a little at a time, we’ve had a couple of people show up because they heard about us on one of the Chinese forums, so little by little we are moving from just church members to the general public. We are about as busy as we can handle right now, any more ‘business’ and we’d need more than just the two of us to handle it. I’m thankful for that. We’ve spent a lot of time learning how things work in Australia and how to best help people within that framework. Every day is a busy day, so that’s good because Dave and I both like to be busy. However, since we don’t have a big house, or any yard at all, our Saturdays are free (once we do our twenty minutes of housecleaning chores!) to explore this big city. I’ve done more sightseeing in the 2 ½ months we’ve been in Australia than I did back in the States in six months! It’s kind of nice living in a minimalistic situation, I don’t think I ever want to go back to having a big house and yard to maintain, living little has it’s perks. Living in a big city and in a new country also contributes to keeping us entertained because there’s so much to see and do within a very short distance from home. I definitely prefer country living to city living, but we really enjoy having so much to do within a short distance from home right now.
Friday was what they call Anzac day here in Australia. It’s the biggest public holiday in the country. It’s celebrated on April 25. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australia and New Zealand in World War I. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces became known as Anzacs. When World War I broke out in 1914, Australia had been a federal commonwealth for only 13 years. The new government wanted to establish a good reputation in the world, so they sent forces from Australia off to war. In 1915 Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of the allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli peninsula in order to open the Dardanelles to the Navies of the allied forces. The ultimate goal was to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and who was an ally of Germany. The Anzac forces landed on Gallipoli on April 25 and met huge resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. Instead of knocking Turkey out of the war quickly, the campaign ended up dragging out for eight months. By the end of 1915 the allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy losses. Over 8,000 Australian soldiers had been killed. April 25th became the day Australians remember their first great sacrifice as a country. They celebrate the day as a national holiday with memorials to fallen soldiers in all the wars since then.
We took a couple of hours off from the office and went downtown with another couple to watch the parade. Sadly, it was a rainy day, but no one let the rain keep them from celebrating. The parade lasted four hours and featured only soldiers and bands, no floats or anything like that, it was strictly limited to military-based participants. There were thousands of people watching the parade, we commented on how things have changed in the US and we don’t celebrate our soldiers like we used to. I remember growing up there was always a big program held at Boise State on Veteran’s Day in Boise. All the high school bands and drill teams participated and there was always a fly-by with jets from the Mountain Home Air Force Base. They don’t do that anymore. In fact, we were wondering if Veteran’s Day has much patriotism shown at all nowadays. It’s a holiday, but it’s not honored like it is over here. Kind of sad.
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| We took this picture after the parade, you can see how much rain those in the parade had to endure. |
Saturday night we spoke at a Relief Society meeting in a Chinese ward. We met a very interesting couple. They both were born and raised in China. They got to know each other through their business connection. He was in import/export in the fish industry. She ran a restaurant. She bought her seafood from him and over time they fell in love and were married. They made the decision to leave China after Tiananmen Square. She told me living in China was always difficult because the government was so controlling. You had to be careful who you were friends with because if one of your acquaintances got in trouble for something, you could be taken to jail as well just because you knew them. You had to be careful what you talked about in public and even in your own apartment because the neighbors could turn you in for what you said. She said that after Tiananmen Square she and her husband realized that the hoped for changes in China weren’t going to happen any time soon, maybe never, so they began the process to leave China. It took a long time and was quite difficult, but they finally were allowed to leave and they came to Australia. They’ve been here since the early 1990s. They have one daughter who was born here. They go back to Shanghai every few years to visit family, but when I asked the husband if they had dual citizenship he said no. One time when they went back he was asked which passport he wanted to keep, China wouldn’t let them be dual citizens, and he said he gave back his Chinese passport and renounced his citizenship. Now when he goes back to visit, he’s just that, a visitor.
It was interesting to talk to this couple in relation to religion in China. Of course, most people in China are Buddhist. Missionary work in China by Christian religions is not allowed. As far as the LDS church is concerned, no church meetings can occur with foreign passport holders and Chinese nationals attending the same meeting. All Chinese branches are comprised of only Chinese nationals. Non-Chinese citizens must attend their own meetings. Chinese members living abroad may introduce their nonmember family members to the Church and they may attend Sunday meetings, get taught the gospel, and get baptized but that they cannot have their friends taught and baptized within the PRC. The Church asks that Chinese members living or visiting China not distribute any religious literature, attempt to attend church meetings with foreigners, or set up religious-based blogs or websites on the internet that could be misconstrued as promoting the LDS Church in the PRC. Chinese nationals may "pursue personal individual belief and practice" in the PRC, meaning that there are no restrictions on members studying the gospel and engaging in personal and family religious activities within their homes. The Church tells Chinese members from Taiwan or Hong Kong to attend congregations with PRC members if they reside in mainland China and to attend congregations with foreign passport holders if they are visiting for business or tourist purposes Kind of interesting. The LDS church has grown tremendously in the last several years, mostly from Chinese who have left China to work or study and joined the church while gone and then returned to China. There are currently 11,000 members in China. Spencer W. Kimball once said that the church in China would come through Australia, we sure see that happening.
The two main ethnic groups we work with over here are the Pacific Islanders and the Chinese. These groups are on opposite ends of the spectrum in cultural behaviors and expectations. The biggest barrier to getting employment though, is something they share, the lack of sufficient English skills. The Chinese especially struggle, even if they have a pretty good command of spoken language, their accents often make them extremely difficult to understand. It’s interesting to note that often two people the same age and who arrived here at the same time, have vastly different English speaking abilities; some people have pretty good English with not much of an accent and others have the same level of English skills but have such a heavy accent they are almost impossible to understand. I don’t know why this is, but I suspect that it may have something to do with how much English they were exposed to through TV and movies.
One funny thing about the Pacific Islanders who come to Australia and learn English is that they have a tendency not to say the ‘th’ sound. They say things like, “Come wif me.” They call us Elder and Sister Smif. I love it!
Grandkids:
Grandpa and I got to go to see The Lion King this week. Sadly, I couldn’t take a picture of our friend, Graham, who played the part of Simba. The Disney Company has a rule that the actors can’t have their pictures taken in their costumes. It has something to do with advertising; the actors can only have their pictures in the program (which costs $25!), so I didn’t get to take his picture. I was sad; I wanted you to be able to see him in his costume. We loved the show though and had a good time.
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| This isn't a real person, it's just a mannequin dressed up to look like someone in the show. It's the closest we could get to having our picture taken with someone in the show! |
Grandpa and I went to a parade that honored all the soldiers who have fought for Australia since they became a country. This is a picture of a boy who marched in the parade with his grandpa. If you look closely you can see that he is wearing some little metals and his grandpa is wearing some metals. The metals belong to the boys' great grandpa who fought in World War I. They have a tradition in the Anzac parade that you can march with your own metals, you wear your own metals on the left side of your jacket, or you can march with your relative's metals. If you're marching with your relatives' (usually your father's) metals you wear them on the right side of your jacket. This man is wearing his father's metals from World War I and his own from World War II. This boy marched with his grandpa to continue on the tradition and someday he will march in the parade wearing his great grandpa's and his grandpa's metals.
They had bagpipe bands that marched and played. Here is a video of some of the bagpipers playing. They are playing ‘Scotland the Brave’. Can you guess which church song has this melody?
Can you guess what this is? I took this picture a few weeks ago when Grandpa and I went to the wild animal park.
This is a dingo. It’s unique to Australia. Lots of people think a dingo is a dog, but it’s not. It’s a type of wolf. I felt sorry for this dingo, he seemed to be very unhappy living in a zoo. I think he knew that he should be able to run free in the bush and in the outback. He has a boring life living in a cage in a zoo. Click on this link to watch a video about dingos:
Have a good week, Grandpa and I love you!
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