How I
love coming to the Taree Library for emailing each Monday and opening
up such loving and excited emails! I am
so jealous of all the snow!! It is just
getting hotter and hotter here! I am not
sure what percent humidity it is here but the past couples days have been
around 30-38 degree's Celsius. That is
blazing hot but I hear that it gets up to 45+!! So it is very hot but so nice because it
doesn't make me miss Christmas or anything so that is a bonus. I have
been waiting for a few weeks for Elder Freitag to stop by and drop off the
stuff! I am so happy he did! He was the missionary that picked me up from
the airport when I got in Sydney. He was
the Assistant to the President. I love
him and can't wait to be able to meet up in two years with him. Olivia
and Joseph! I hope you like the small gifts. It costs heaps here to send anything but a
letter so I figured this would be one of the only chances to send something
home. I hope you aren't too upset getting such an early Birthday Present
;) haha. I hope that the IPod wasn't too
much to ask! I really appreciate it. Elder Imeson and I get along so well and love
talking but we drive to Port and Coffs at least 2-3 times a month and that is a
3 and a half hour drive and then to Sydney is 4 and a half! But it is very fun ha we think of good games
and things like that to do haha. I can’t
believe Brett is stuck in the Philippines.
That would be so hard! I swear I would
start swimming or something!
I
wanted to answer a few of the questions you have asked me. Hopefully this will help you kno what my life
as a missionary is like. Each day we
leave the flat at about 10:00. Sometimes
11:00 because I am doing a "new" missionary training program. We do service quite often and try to do it in
the mornings because it is literally too hot to do anything during the day. For breakfast I am still trying to find
something I enjoy haha. Heavenly Father
has blessed me with no problems with my acid reflex because we eat some pretty
awful things at times haha. For lunch if
we don't have time to go to the flat we eat at Hungry Jacks or Maccas. Dinners here traditionally are these
interesting types of Sausages with mashed potatoes, corn, peas and some fizzi!!
Fizzi is Australian soda and it’s
carbonated x 100!! It knocks you out it
is so carbonated haha They do have
sprite but it is too expensive so everyone drinks what they call lemonade, which
is carbonated water and is awful! haha We
stay out doing missionary work until 9:00. If we have an appointment we are
allowed to be out til 9:30. They
don't have any cinnamon here. No cinnamon gum:( No caramel apple suckers. The caramel they make here is NOT good at all
so E. Imeson got his mom to send a few Caramel Suckers and we gave them out and
people were drooling haha! But they have
really good chocolate - Cadbury and another brand. We are hooked on this Cadbury bar that is
pretty cheap so we get it every once in a while. It has jelly beans and pop rocks in it :) It
is so good! People love soda and really
any candy. The candy is very different. Cheap branded and some of it isn't good but
every once in a while when we go to Coffs Harbour, they have a candy shop that
imports American candy so we stop by there:) I think that is all the
questions... I hope I answered them alright I love questions tho so keep them
coming:)
A follow up on the lady we gave the Book of Mormon to with the
Postie. Her name is Kelly and she has
two little boys that both have ADHD and are hilarious! They have so much energy and we love spending
time with them. She is a typical Aussie,
a bit stubborn and doesn't know exactly what she wants, but she is accepting
and every time we meet with her she agrees to what we want her to do and what
we teach her. She said she will be
baptized when she feels it is right. We
are just working with her and teaching her so that is going well! We actually mowed her lawn the first day we
met her because she was stressing about it and worrying. It was about 34 C. !!! TOO HOT!! haha but it was good, her yard is
huge!
This week was full of excitement and
Miracles. President and Sister Howes came to church on Sunday and
spoke to the Taree Branch. It was
awesome! We had dinner the night before
with them at the Sicilian, a pretty nice restaurant that is very popular. They are amazing. I really want you to know how loving and
amazing they are. President Howes is a
GENIUS. He is so smart and knows so
much. You should see when he speaks and his trainings he gives. It is unbelievable. He spoke to the Branch and totally rebuked
them! haha it was awesome. He was like,
"Look at all these empty seats! Why is that?" He went on in a very
loving way but talking about missionary work and how we need to open our mouths
and have the courage to spread the Gospel. It was very good.
One thing on food we ate this week was.... CAMEL!! We went to the butcher thinking we were going
to get some Roo (Kangaroo) for cheap and try it cause every loves it here. We ended up walking out with some camel! It was on sale for 4.50! We pulled off the stickers and the original price
was 28 dollars! Let me tell you, that
was the most disgusting thing I have ever had in my life!! I was sick all night and finally in the
morning got over it! hahaha it was a bad deal, but very fun:) haha
We have been having many encounters with the Jehovah's Witness.
They are lovely people but just so lost and don't understand the scriptures.
That is one thing that I really studied the other day after having a
conversation with one of the JW's. They tried to convince us that we would call
our parents by their first names and that is how God is. We all know Gods name is not Jehovah, that is
Jesus Christ, and we know it is respectful to call him Heavenly Father. I thought that was interesting looking into
that. I have my testimony strengthened
each day. But one thing that is fact,
everything that any other religion argues or tries to tell us we are wrong, you
can look it up in the scriptures and prove it! I know that Heavenly Father has allowed other
religions because not everyone in the world is going to join our church. People need other Religions to keep the world
going and to have some moral standards. I
wish that everyone in the world would convert to our Gospel but that is one
thing that I have learned is that we have our agency and that is how it is.
Christmas here is amazing!! Not very many people put up lights but those
that do go FAR OUT!! I have some really cool pictures of houses decked out with
lights and everything. It doesn't feel
like Christmas at all but I know it is there. It is a weird concept to try and grasp.
If you want to look on google maps my address is 176 High Street, Taree,
Australia. We are flat 5, the light blue
one:)
This week we have training in Newcastle that we are driving down
to in a few hours and then next week we have the Christmas training/celebration
in Sydney! We will be out of our area
for a while but things are going so good. I am loving it so much! Each day I wake up and feel so lucky and
thankful for this opportunity to serve a mission. I have truly felt that I am on a mission and
It scares me thinking about coming home, mainly getting back into the real
world. It is so wicked and corrupt. It is so sad how Satan is ruining people’s
lives and taking hold of kids at such young ages.
I love you all so much! Have an amazing week mates:)
Love, Alex