Australia Day 2011

Summer sizzler helps make Aussies' big day
Greg Stolz From: The Courier-Mail January 27, 2011 12:01AM

THE Gold Coast was not the place to be for the Aussie yobbo yesterday. Whenever he reared his ugly head, he was pounced on by a swarm of lawmen. Police netted about 30 arrests in a Schoolies-style blitz to prevent a repeat of previous Australia Day mayhem on the Glitter Strip.

This marred an otherwise idyllic day of celebrations around Queensland, where the still-fresh trauma of devastating floods did not stop thousands of people enjoying themselves at beaches, parks and backyards.

Brisbane's de Beer family celebrated becoming citizens yesterday with a distinctly Australian barbecue of kangaroo steaks. "We've got lots of mates coming over for Australia Day," said Louis de Beer, 44, a recent immigrant from South Africa. "We are going to dress as ridiculous as possible, get some stubbies . . . and then we are going to eat kangaroo." He and wife Debi were two of about 13,000 people from 143 countries who took on national citizenship yesterday. Mr de Beer turned down an offer to work in the US to bring the family to Brisbane after a stint living in New Zealand. "It was the most brilliant city we had ever seen,'' he said. "We wouldn't live anywhere else.''

After Australia Day riots at Burleigh Heads a couple of years ago, Gold Coast police drew a line in the sand and adopted a zero tolerance approach to what they considered unAustralian behavior.

More than 300 police including mounted officers, the dog squad, and undercover teams converged on popular party spots including Burleigh and the Southport Spit to stamp out loutish antics. Those arrested included at least six on The Spit where violence between drunken youths erupted about 6.30pm. Gold Coast police superintendent Paul Ziebarth said police had adopted a "high-visibility, early intervention strategy''.

"We challenged bad behaviour early before it became criminal behaviour, and considering the large crowds on the beaches, the arrests have been low,'' he said.

Supt Ziebarth's comments were echoed by Burleigh Heads locals Carmel Clout and Wendy Eacott, who celebrated Australia Day with their families in the suburb's foreshore park. Both women said the large police presence had allowed families to "reclaim Burleigh". "It's been a fantastic day for the families,'' Mrs Clout said. "There's been no biffo or aggression.''

With beaches packed, busy lifesavers performed 17 rescues and 10 first-aid treatments.

- with agencies

Saturated

from Kiefer's e-mail Jan. 23

The days seem to be going by a little faster than when I first got here but there are definitely some days that just crawl by. lol. The area is great and we have a heap we can do so we can stay busy. One of our investigators actually came to church yesterday and he seems to fit in pretty well. He's had all the lessons before but he just hasn't been baptized. The cool thing is he wants to be baptized so we're glad that we'll be able help him fulfill that goal. He's the Costa Rican guy that stopped us on the street a couple of weeks ago, so yeah. Hopefully we'll have a date set in the next week or two.

...my shoes are holding up good and they seem to be lasting well. IDK if they'll last the whole 2 years but I sure hope so. The Brazilian shoes seem to be the best for tracting and keeping out water so I like those a little more at this point but they're both great. I'm still on a bike but we still haven't been able to replace/ fix the punctured tube. We tried to patch it but then when we went to fill it up my companion over inflated it and the tube just exploded so we've been look for a bike shop that has the right sized tube. Unfortunately we need a specialty shop and we don't have one in our area.

The food here is good and the islanders feed us really well. So much so that I've come to hate having dessert every night. Its just too much by the time you've gone through dinner, lol.

So funny...but sad...experience from this past week... We had an appointment with one of our less-active members, but the lesson turned into a dinner at McDonald's. So, not that bad, except that they got us a triple burger with a massive thing of chips and a cheeseburger to go with it. Wow. So we handled that alright except right after that we had our dinner appointment. As it turned out, we had McDonald's again!!!! This time it was only a double with heaps of chips. It was probably the worst afternoon of my life, lol. We just felt so nasty after that. Words can't describe... You can't decline to eat either. It was just bad. The next night we had a drop-off dinner and as it turned out -- it was McDonald's too. lol. It was as interesting couple of days. I don't think I will be able to eat McDonald's for another week or two. It was fun though. This Wednesday is Australia Day!!! Mark the day... Heap of drunks to be sure.

I'm running out of time. I have to let my companion have some of my time. He doesn't have a library card. TTYL.

Waiting - Jan 22/23

Sunday nights are exciting at our house because it means Monday in Brisbane and Mondays are P-days...I got an email from Kiefer at 7:28pm (Sunday night) and quickly wrote back hoping for some cosmic, instantaneous contact...it is a very big small world!

Love you too. 10 sec left bye lol.

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 11:34 AM, Karen Hatch wrote:
Hi. I don’t know if you are still online but I’ve been staring at my computer for the last two hours….good to hear from you …. We love you!!! MOM

Special Edition on Flooding - Courier Mail Jan 2011

http://www.couriermail.com.au/extras/creative/editorial/flood-2011/

Email - January 16 - Helping Hands

The last week has been interesting. It rain pretty good at the beginning of the week. But then on Wednesday (Jan. 12th) it just poured all day long. They say it was basically an inland tsunami and so, with the last month of heavy rains it caused serious flooding. Overall things are bad for the city of Brisbane. Since the Brisbane River runs right through the city and has many offshoots, there were a fair amount of homes flooded. The waters peaked Thursday so clean-up started the next day or as soon as people could get to their flooded houses. We've been on foot for most of the week because Elder Tui popped his bike tire. We haven't been able to do much as far as getting around our area goes. Luckily the area I'm in didn't flood at all and none of the members but one had any damage done to their homes/property.

We finally got to help with clean-up on Saturday. We slept over at the Zone Leaders flat with like 6 other missionaries and then the next morning we went out and worked in Oxley from 8am to 6pm. I've seen floods and stuff before on the TV and heard of that happening, but until you actually see it you can't realize how bad things really are. I guess the first thing about it was the smell, was pretty awful. I can't really explain it, but it smells like the mud off the bottom of Lake Worth, so it is pretty bad.

The next thing you see when walking down a street that has been flooded is the mud that’s left over. It’s everywhere...on the streets, grass, on the outside of all the houses and then inside every flooded house. Where ever the water has been the mud is as well. It’s about the consistency of Dad’s pudding he gets from Sam's in the #10 cans but it is sticky and nasty. (lol) The sad thing is you can’t save very much from these flooded home. Everything has to be thrown out and then the sheet rock and carpets and everything else have to be removed. The massive piles of rubbish left over are just unbelievable. At one two-story Queenslander's house, that we took a lot of stuff out of, had a rubbish pile probably the size of our garage. It was really sad and ever house I went to was like that.


So we started at one house pulling all their belongings and spoiled stuff from their house and then we power washed everything with clean water. Later, we scraped the mud off of another house’s lawn. We also did several other odd jobs here and there. It was cool to see how many people were out there helping. Whether they were pulling stuff out of houses or giving out food to volunteers, it was great. The cool thing was we had Mormon Helping Hands jerseys on. It was good to get out there and show the community that we do more than just knock on people’s doors all day long, lol.



I didn't get many pictures but I'll try to get some from the Zone Leader or at least the picture of what we all looked like after it all went down, lol. Needless to say we were covered in soooooo much mud and gunk it was really very funny. We can't go out and help today because it is our p-day but hopefully we will get back out as the week goes on.

I'm doing good and the work is great and going well. Happy Birthday call and cheers to all y'all, lol. Good to hear from you. Love you … talk to you next week.

Elder Hatch

Still Looking

I can't get over the magnitude of destruction and loss. I'm comforted by the thought of Kiefer being able to serve in Brisbane. I know he is a blessing to everyone he meets.

It is early Monday morning now in Brisbane. Monday is usually Kiefer's P-day but I don't know if he will get to email me today or not. I know it is better that he be working and helping others but a quick i'm-a-ok would be nice. I'll keep you posted ...

Obsessed

Yes, I know I'm obsessed or possessed, whatever, I'm a missionary mom. I have been spending hours looking at online stories, videos and pictures of the Brisbane floods.

Here is the official statement about Missionaries serving in the Brisbane area: "MISSIONARIES – President Langeland reports that all missionaries in Queensland are safe and well but ten companionships have been moved out of low lying areas as a precaution. Many are providing comprehensive community assistance in the areas in which they serve. Some of their flats may be affected."

I know Kiefer is fine and I know my obsession is totally narcissistic, but I keep thinking I'm going to run across a picture of him with some volunteer clean-up group. I know it isn't going to happen but I have seen several pictures that I think "he could be there..."

This was taken near Blunder Creek which is in Forest Lake.

Kiefer has, hopefully, not been very close to the large scale flooding in Brisbane. Kiefer lives near Ipswich Motorway and Blunder Road. His flat is close to the Oxley Creek which is experiencing flooding but not in the area that was expecting evacuations. Durack is south of Oxley. He works mainly in Forest Lake which does not have any major waterways but they, like all of Brisbane, have had a lot of rain.

I sure he will have plenty of opportunities to serve many people in Brisbane that have been effected by the flooding. He probably would like to roll up his sleeves and do some serious labor.

January 10 on the 9th

Hey, Happy Birthday Dad…hope it is a good one. Let me know if you (or Colin) want me to send you something and I'll try to start working on it. There is a Samoan shop just around the corner. I could get you a lava lava (?) for church or some islander shirts. lol

I'm sure it was cool to have some cold weather in Texas. Ha ha. The story about the kid throwing up at church really reminds me of when Colin did that in Target. ha ha ... that was great.

Background Story...from THE MOM's weekly email to Kiefer: ...at the end of Junior Primary one of the kids stood up and just vomited. Needless to say, the room had to be cleared…literally. We took the whole Primary including the Piano into the Cultural Hall. The dad of the kid did kid clean-up and most of the worst floor clean-up. Then he put the kid, feet first, into one of the really large garbage bags and took him home. I was the second crew…and now I can’t get away from that smell. Colin was scolding me on the way home because we “let” the kid throw-up. I reminded him of our trip to Target when he vomited just inside the store. He said that it wasn’t his fault because we had taken him to Castle Park just before. Now I know I was a total failure of a mother!

I got a package from the ward this week. It was a care package. It was amazing. Tell Sis. Patton thank you. I really appreciate that and it meant a lot to me. The week went good though. It was pretty much normal like yours. It's been a little stressful basically being in charge of the area but Elder Tu'i is getting used to the area. It's been very helpful having a kiwi (New Zealander) companion just because the ward is mostly Poly (Polynesian) and he relates to them really well. It's good that we can start to, hopefully, get a better relationship going with the members.

I've been driving the last couple of days. As its turned out it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It's been a little weird just judging the turning radius of the car from the right side of the car and the left side of the road and all, if you know what I mean. Thinking back now it was actually kind of nice not having to drive but I guess I will be driving for the rest of my mission now so I'll get over it. I guess there is not much I can do about that.

This week is looking to be busy. One of the 12 Apostles is coming for a mission tour this Friday. I think it is Elder Nelson so that will be excited to have him here and maybe even get to meet him. On top of that we have interviews with the (Mission) President this either this Wednesday or later in the month, I'm not sure about that one. It will be good though. We taught a couple of people while tracting last week so we'll see how interested they are this week and whether they will continue to progress or not.

Elder Tu'i popped his back bike tire so we will be walking everywhere (Monday-Thursday) until we get that fixed. It has been raining a lot though so if that continues we'll have to walk anyway. I love the rain it really keep things cooler here.

Well, we're working hard and doing our best to move things forward in the Forest Lake area. Thanks for everything. Love you and will talk to you next week.

Elder Hatch

* the items in italics were add by THE MOM as clarification / comment ...

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR CHECKING IN

Forest Lake

January 4 E-mail

Hey everyone,

It has been a crazy couple of weeks with Christmas and New Year all around the same time. The Holidays went well, the members really fed us well and over the last week we've been spending a good deal of time helping one of the less active members giving up smoking. He's doing really well and we're Happy that he's progressing. It has been tough the last week with Elder Merrill leaving for home and all. He didn't get too trunky but they're was some dodginess going on. Today was Transfers and I got a new companion. His name is long and a little hard to say but we just call him elder Tui. We've only met just a couple of hours ago but as far as I can tell and from what other missionaries say he's a pretty good guy and a solid missionary. I'm excited and hopefully we can learn a lot from each other and get the work moving in the Forest Lake area. He's from New Zealand and is Tongan on top of that so I know the Ward will love him and hopefully will really warm up to him. I can easily see how two short Americans could easily put off a primarily Poly ward, lol. He's been out for about 9 months now so it will be interesting. Oh and this transfer I get to drive! lol. On the left side of the road and all. I'm a little apprehensive about it but I'm not too worried. Just keep thinking "to the left, to the left". We'll see how that goes. I'll tell you how it is next week.

New Year's was good but quiet. We had to be in the flat by 5 pm so we could let the Aussies get all their drinking out of the way before we take another go at them in the new year. The next day was deep cleaning and that was amazing to say the least. The flat probably hadn't been seriously cleaned in like 6 months, so yeah. It was, like bad. There was a thick layer of brown goo on the inside of the toilet where the water sits. Needless to say its white again! lol. It was fun. I really like the flat but it is pretty ghetto.

Elder Hatch




Mom's Note:
Anyone that has lived with, worked with or seen Kiefer in cleaning mode has to get a laugh out of the visual of him cleaning a dingy little flat that has been inhabited by heaven knows how many 19-22 year old men. Kiefer's has a manic-cleaning-mode that was inherited from his mother and grandmother...we aren't neat freaks but when we REALLY clean it is there is no "nice and easy". I call it Tina-Turner-Proud-Mary-cleanin'...

Finally, I love the word "dodginess" and the thought of Kiefer "stayin' to the left"...

KIEFER'S MAIL ADDRESS AND INFO...

NOTE FROM THE MOM

Thank you everyone for checking out this blog. I hope you enjoy it. Colin and I have had several requests for Kiefer's mailing address. So I have added the "Where in the World..." tab on the left column of this blog.

Kiefer is currently living in a flat on Hampton Road in Durack, Queensland but it is best to mail letters and (small) packages to the Mission home. Australian Customs opens and inspects all packages and their contents. Any non-commercially packaged food or questionable materials will be removed. I think what he would most appreciate are letters and pictures. Remember to take all letters and packages to the USPS because international mail has different regulations and costs that stateside mail. The best things is to use are the USPS Priority Flat-Rate options. Do not use UPS. The USPS contracts all international mail through FedEx and the Flat-Rate options are the most reasonable cost-wise. I have found that it takes about 10 days for Kiefer to receive a letter and a bit longer (depending on how long it take in Customs) for him to receive a package.

Please remember that he can receive his emails on his Preparation Day (p-day) which is only once a week. Also, he has to pay to get a printed copy of his emails and he has only one hour a week online for reading his emails. Mission rule allow him to email me (THE MOM) weekly but that is all. So don't feel neglected if he doesn't reply to your e-mail. He is not supposed to. I will be posting information from his weekly emails on this blog for everyone to enjoy. I will also forward as many comments from the blog as possible to him weekly but again his computer time is very limited. So please, get out the old fashion pen and paper and drop him a note. He would really appreciate it.

Thanks to everyone for your love and support for Kiefer as he serves in Queensland Australia. And remember to have a Good Day, Mate!

PS: His area has not had the massive flooding experienced by some areas of Queensland. He is currently living in the southern Brisbane area. The worst flooding has been in Rockhampton which is on the northeastern side of Queensland. He has, however, report that all of Queensland is experiencing an unusually wet Summer.

January 4

Hey everyone,

Its been a crazy couple of weeks with Christmas and New Year all around the same time. The Holidays went well, the members really fed us well. Over the last week we've been spending a good deal of time helping one of the less active members giving up smoking. He's doing really well and we're happy that he's progressing. It has been tough the last week since Elder Merrill was leaving for home and all. He didn't get too trunky but they're was some dodginess going on.

Today was transfers and I got a new companion. His name is long and a little hard to say but we just call him elder tui. We've only met just a couple of hours ago but as far as I can tell and from what other missionaries say he's a pretty good guy and a solid missionary. I'm excited and hopefully we can learn a lot from each other and get the work moving in the Forest Lake area. He's from New Zealand and is Tongan on top of that so I know the ward will love him and hopefully will really warm up to him. I can easily see how two short Americans could easily put off a primarily poly ward lol. He's been out for about 9 months now so it will be interesting. Oh, and this transfer I get to drive! lol. On the left side of the road and all. I'm a little apprehensive about it but I'm not too worried. Just keep thinking "to the left, to the left". We'll see how that goes. I'll tell you how it is next week.

New Year's was good but quiet. We had to be in the flat by 5 pm so we could let the Aussies get all their drinking out of the way before we take another go at them in the new year. The next day was deep cleaning and that was amazing to say the least. The flat probably hadn't been seriously cleaned in like 6 months, so yeah... It was like bad. There was a thick layer of brown goo on the inside of the toilet where the water sits. Needless to say its white again. lol. It was fun. I really like the flat but it is pretty ghetto.

Elder Hatch

New Year's Eve in Brisbane

Kiefer in Australia

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010

Dear Brother and Sister Hatch,

Your son has arrived, has had his mission orientation, and is now in the area around the Brisbane Temple talking (GQ-ing—asking golden questions) with various people who are usually visiting that particular area. He is in good spirits, but tired, and is so anxious to be doing missionary work. Thank you for sharing him with us.

President Langeland will be sending a letter to you soon with more information. We just thought you might want to know that everything is fine with your son.

Sister Abel
Mission Secretary
Australia Brisbane Mission
ph. 07.3268.7077
Fax 07.3268.5625
e-mail 2014513@ldschurch.org


Monday, November 29th

Hey,

I'm doing good. Its really nice here. It not perfect but the weathers been good. It gets a little toasty during the mid-day but we've had cloud cover in the afternoon that has made it great. Its getting hotter though and that's make biking a pain and just tracking in general but that's alright. We share a car with another companionship and get it thur. - Sun which makes getting around great to say the least. The ward/area is good. Its about 80 % poly so we're thinking we're going to get fed well. My trainer and companion is Elder Merrill from Utah. He's been out for a while and I'm the second one he's trained. He's good and we get along well. The area that I'm working in is called Forest Lakes. Its south of Brisbane city center and is very immigrant centered. Its not bad though and the people are very laid back. The elders before us had been in this area for 6 months so they were very loved by the ward. We're white-washing the area so my companion and I don't know anything about the area except the records in the area book and the notes the other missionaries left. Its been hard just jumping into things but its been good. The flat is pretty ghetto but that's that. Every night I've been here I've slept so good its great but that's probly just b/c I'm exhausted by the time I get to go to bed. Teaching has been good. We've taught a couple of lessons and they've gone well but I have a lot to work on. It really hard to simplify everything you say to a primary level and still teach well.

The church is true though and we're doing what we can to help people to understand that. I'm not sure what my address is but I'll have it next week for y'all but you can send stuff to the mission address and I get that eventually. We have new missionary training this Wednesday and I'll pick up anything that's there. In our district we have two sets of sisters and then theirs just us but they have they're own areas so we don't see them except for on p-days and district meetings. Our zone is pretty tight though and its going to be a lot of fun. we're really busy though and we're hard at work. This next week is going to be fun so we'll see what happens. We're going to go do our shopping after this and then spend the next 5 hour of the day doing sport. which sounds fun...i guess? but it'll be go to move around and do something. Love y'all. We'll talk to you next week. Hopefully I'll get a full hour next week to email.

Kiefer Hatch





from Kiefer's December 6 email

Hey how is it going? I have a full hour today to email so hopefully I can get everything written I need to.

The mission has been going good. We have so much to do. Its good but their is a lot to do in a day. We have lots of potential investigators and referrals to contact but we're still working on getting actual progressing investigators to teach. I don't really know where to start but i guess I'll just kind of jump into it...

I found out that my trainer (Elder Merrill) is actually on his last transfer of his mission and goes home on January 4. He still a good missionary and isn't that trunky yet lol. More so that means that I will be in this area for at least one more transfer if not more. Thats good to know but it will be fun when transfers come around and I get a new companion that doesn't know the area. I'm excited for Elder Merrill. the funny thing is he's really got his mind set on getting married and i'm givin him a bad time about it.

Well its all good down here. The accent isn't all that bad the culture in may area is so diverse. Lot of religions and races, from Africans to Asians and Australians. Everyone has accents but since I'm in the city it not as bad as in the bush. the Polynesians feed us heaps but its all good. A lot talk broken english like they've just got off the boat from New Zealand but I can understand them alright in most cases. Most of the missionaries here have gained weight ironically from the food in general. All week we've had rain off and on during the days and its been absolutely beautiful. It has kept the heat at bay and the sun away so I just pray it will keep raining LoL. I love it. our flat doesn't have ac so its going to be painful as it get hotter.

Yesterday we had thanksgiving dinner at an Italians house in our ward. It was a big get together and the food was great. The father is an amazing cook and pasta dishes were all to die for. Really great. We have dinner again at the bishops house. They wealth and very nice. Had my first peachy and did an awkward dance that the family video taped so I might send that to you. Its basically a soda that tastes like a peach pie in a can. It was amazing. Also had Kangaroo that night which was surprisingly very good. Like beef jerky sort of. I think tonight they're going to have me try ginger beer. I'm excited.

Yeah it was cool could to meet a 2nd cousin here. I was so excited. She was on the ward list and an inactive so we decided to just drop by to get to know her. I knew grandpa hatch's name but I just couldn't think of it on the spot. She has three little kids and is really nice. We're hoping we can get her to come back to church and to reactive her. I hope we can help her out. They came to church last sunday we're hoping for the best.We have dinner with them next monday so I'm excited about that.

We went hiking with the zone today to a place in our zone call white rock it was a good little hike and it was nice to see some of the countryside and to get out of the city slightly. i guess for christmas I'd like a slightly smaller camera that I can just take on the town everyday and for random stuff but idk yet. I might decide on something else.


from Dec. 14, 2010 email

Hey,

Sorry I didn't get to email you Monday. Today, Wednesday, was our temple day and our p-day. We played Risk last night with the zone leaders at they're flat so we didn't get much sleep. It was fun though and it made the temple session very interesting. The Brisbane temple is very nice. Its only a mini temple but its good and you could really feel the spirit there. I've been doing good. We've been busy with this and that but haven't had the chance to teach heaps of lessons or anything but that's alright. We have a couple of good investigators that look promising but are going to need some time to make some changes in their lives. We had a zone conference this week for the southern Brisbane region. Their were heaps of missionaries there and it was some good training. It focused on finding. The mission president has given us the goal to have 14 hrs of finding a week which is a big increase from what we're doing now but it will be good to get talking to more people. Finding includes tracting, talking to people on the street and a couple of other things. Its tough but we're working on it.

We had this one guy wave us down earlier in the week on our bikes. As it turns out he was from Costa Rica and has had the missionary lessons in Sydney but never was baptized. He's a good guy and speaks broken English but it was really cool to just hear his testimony of the church and his desire to be baptized even though he has had a bad divorce and has had some hard times. Hopefully we can continue to help him. He's a good guy.

We have the car from Thur-Sun so that's good. The other days though, we are on bikes most of the day. They have good buses and transport here so we use that too.

Sounds like you are all doing really good, its good to read your emails. Have Colin just email me or send me his address b/c I dont have it for some reason. Thank you for your prays and support I'm praying for yall as well and look forward to talking with you in a little over a week now. I keep learning heaps and things are going great. Tell everyone hi for me and thank the Coombs and Grandma and Grandpa for me as well.