YOU CANNOT SUE A KANGAROO...

...Even if it's only a teeny wallaby!  

Beautiful Karawatha chapel offers plenty of grazing hectacres 

Hellos to all of you far away and farther away.  It's always with happy hearts that we carve out time to catch you up on a bit of what's happening down under!   As part of everyday life, we get to see refreshing reminders we're in a foreign country.  Instead of cattle or deer crossing signs, we are greeted by 'watch out for other critters' signage!  And they're real, and especially the kangaroos cause big trouble for drivers at dusk, dawn, and night.  A friend lives off west more in the country side, which is stunningly beautiful, and she has "been hit" by a kangaroo several times.  Literally, she said the worst was a 6-foot red kangaroo---the biggest of the species.  It was dusk, and 2 emerged at the road's edge. Quick as a wink, she thought, "Whew! I've missed them!"  But nah,..there was a 3rd giant one that literally ran into her SUV broadside and did over $6,000 damage.  Yes, no insurance company in Kangee country would dream of insuring kangaroo damage.  They certainly are a "national" disaster!

Ekamjot helping  to re-pot plants day before her 6th b-day.

All aboard for an Australian bushland ride




At Home Amongst the Clivias

This country is perfect for growing beautiful flowers year round, and reminds us of Vanuatu with the plants we grow indoors surviving outdoors as they were created to do.  As it's springtime here, my two green thumbs started to itch, and I had to have a couple of house plants.  Don't ask where to buy house plants here, rather just go find regular garden plants, because most of them ARE our houseplants.  I invited our little neighbor girl, Ekamjot, who turned 6 this week, over to help repot them, as she loves to "garden."  Our excursion for the last 2 weeks was to the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers, about 2 hours' drive west of Kuraby.  Beauty was in bloom on every side as we toured private gardens, parks, and a Japanese garden which all were remarkable.  We met up with many of the Senior Missionary couples and office staff for a royal tour. Their Clivia flowers were superb and I guess they are quite a Toowoomba  passion for there is a Clivia Society there.  Elder Grandpa Yates enjoyed the Thomas "bush train", complete with seats.  Wildlife and culture abounded as we saw people from every walk of life and many nationalities enjoying the day with family and friends.   

This has also been a week of fantastic animal discoveries!  Walking through our backyard Kuraby Bushland is always a treat.  However, a native runner we encountered on our second day in the woods suggested that when we hike down by the wetland portion, that we watch out for red-bellied snakes, pythons in trees, and monitor lizards.  When we asked how big the monitor lizards were, he said about 3-4 feet.  We have many paths to take as options, but have tried to steer clear of the heart of the wetlands. Friday we took a new path which led us to an area still very wooded, but signs of wetlands too. We can often hear the frogs croaking, and we stay clearly on the path!  A long, skinny shiny green snake was warming himself on the path.  Looking non-threatening boasting a 3 foot length and the girth of a kindergartener's first pencil, we took its picture, and felt content for the new critter we'd been privileged to see.  Not too far away, David spotted a HUGE lizard scurrying away from behind a tree at the edge of the path.  No joke, his body was so well camouflaged that we could hardly see him, and yet his body just kept flowing out behind him as if he grew when retreating away. Then he stopped at his safe distance to size us up. Well, the estimate of there being 4-foot monitor lizards was wrong!  No exaggerating, this guy was 5 feet at a minimum.  It was thrilling to see him 

A most incredulous encounter---5 foot monitor lizard!

flick his tongue to see if we were a threat.  

We took several pictures but our  zoom

couldn't do him justice.  A beautiful, powerful and wary creature.  He finally relaxed enough to bend over and eat something from the ground where he was resting.  We thanked him for staying around and letting us share a few minutes of his existence with him. Now we'll be walking more with our heads up looking for pythons, and heads down watching for red-bellied snakes since we know the runner who told us to watch out for them wasn't kidding! But that doesn't leave much time for us to gaze steadily into the bush to see the kangaroos hop by, right? And all this right outside our doorstep! Of the animals seen in the last 2 weeks, this was the greatest find.  Others included,  beautiful galahs, rose-colored birds about large pigeon size.  At the Japanese garden we saw so many Australian White Ibis and turtles that made us miss our little red-eared slider, Tatum that lives in our pond.                

Two well-fed galahs in Toowoomba 

How to capture the essence of these beauties with a picture is a poor substitute for the real  thing! Still a picture's worth a 1,000 words.

Australian  White (but black-billed) Ibis

Lights Out, but Brains Still ON in our Pathway 1 1/4 hr. Blackout

We had a couple of building blunders this week which remind us that life isn't perfect in any country, 1st world, 2nd or 3rd world.   Blunder #1: This is the ending of a 2 week holiday from school as the spring break is in full swing here.  That means that families and different groups gather to celebrate, and often use the church buildings if they are available. So, we were expected to teach a Self-Reliance class over at the Park Ridge building this afternoon to their youth.  As I checked email this Sunday morning, we were greeted by the news that the Park Ridge building was unusable.  Apparently, all the celebrations put an overload on the sewer system and,,,,, Well, it's unsavory to tell, but no one will be allowed in the building until things are fixed.  Thus, we had 3 wards from that building split between the other wards in the stake, and we had a wonderful group of displaced saints to our meetings.                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                    

Young Kookaburra Gobbling  Meat Morsel on our Patio Table

Blunder #2:  Thursday night we teach the BYU-Idaho Pathway course to 15 amazing students who are, as we told in the last blog, beginning college on line, or reentering college after a  hiatus for any reason.  About halfway into our class, Sister Yates was teaching an Institute Class, and in this remote chapel up North of Brisbane about an hour, BOOM!  The lights were totally out!  Students looked

outside and agreed that the lights were out all over Burpengary, the town.  I asked if this happened often.  Answer:yes!  Again I asked, And how long do the lights usually stay out?  Answer:  It varies, but usually a few hours. One student checked his phone and said the lights were going to be on by about 10:30 PM.  We agreed to continue by the light of our cell phones or laptop screens.  Needless to say, my power point was defunct, and we were blessed to get through the darkness and finish our Institute and academic coursework.  Our lead student was well into her Academic portion of the instruction when the lights flashed on.  Wahoo!  Being flexible is surely a great skill to develop, and the students were chipper, and the evening productive!  We are buying FLASHLIGHTS our next Costco trip!

Just like this mama kangaroo who had a joey in her pouch on the church grounds is hopping  to it, we awake every morning thrilled by the challenge of a new day and new experiences.  We hop to whatever we're able to do! Hope the video works.  Last week we went out of our office and found 31 kangaroos feasting on the grounds around the church building!  That's a sight, and we love seeing them so often.  We know this is very centered on what we're doing, but we are very interested in the events and experiences of your lives as well.  Please contact us via email, WhatsApp, blog, Skype, or whatever suits you.  Get WhatsApp if you don't yet have it!  You can talk and text free anywhere in the world that has wi-fi.  Let's get talking, all you precious family and friends!

Love you all, and wish you a beautiful beginning to your Fall season!

Elder and Sister Yates, Dad/Mom, Grandpa & Grandma Yates, David/Marsha
Self-Reliance/Education Missionaries
0424 351 854
david.yates@ldschurch.org
marsha.yates@ldschurch.org
davidyates55@msn.com