Pullin' Weeds

Unfortunately, the internet here is really bad. We are working with what we have though.

This week has been busy. We have been driving all over the area to see less actives and to do heaps of contacting. We are talking with a Catholic lady from the Community Garden. She had us do yard work for her and then she made us some funky herbal food. The Community here is very much into the natural remedies and recipes.

Elder Richins and I have a big P-day planned, we are heading out to Wave Rock over past Kondinin. We will take loads of pictures and see if we can stop by the wildlife sanctuary if we have the time.

I love it out here. The members are so spot on. The people are still really unreceptive but that is ok. The weather is picking up and we are almost in the 20's. President Fife has limited our travel so we will be spending all of our time exclusively in our area and have very little interactions with other Elders except for zone conference and for zone p-day so that is a bummer.

Everything is going well. We are teaching an 8-year old branch member and meeting with his family under direction of the Branch President to get him ready for baptism.

The Community Garden put us to work and we were there for hours pulling weeds and moving bark and mulch. Love you lots and will keep you posted in the coming weeks with pictures and more emails...hopefully.    

As close to a castle as we get out here. 

Elder Paongo has moved on by signing his name.

New Companion: Elder Richins.

This week has been a little hectic. Me and Elder Paongo traveled to the out reaches of our area into a town call Kattaning. We visited two less active members named Stevie and Johnalee. They are two sister and they are crack up. We enjoyed the scenery and got some cool pictures of what the country is actually like over here. It is really green and full of color.

The following morning, we got a phone call from our Mission President, President Fife. Elder Paongo got emergency transferred to be a Zone Leader up in North Coast. My training is complete so I am no longer a greenie. My new companion is from Hanifer, Utah and his name is Elder Richins. He is awesome and we are contacting heaps here in the country. If that wasn't enough his first Sunday here in the branch the Stake Presidency came down and called a new Elders Quorum President and a new Branch Presidency. So there was heaps going on in our small town.

The area of Kattaning in the next little bit here might be able to form a branch and that would be amazing. There are plenty of members and less actives down there and that is because it is a 1:20 minute drive to chapel. So lots going on.

At the moment Manny is having a rough ride. We are trying our best to get him to the chapel to be baptized as soon as possible but he is just out of the area because of family issues. I am hoping that Elder Richins and I can get a lot done this transfer and widen the teaching pool by a lot.

All is going well though, I am enjoying every second of it and can't wait for Zone Conference this Friday. We visited an elderly lady named Janette. I may have talked about her before but this time was a little funny. On Sunday we cleaned her house a bit, lit her fire. We got talking about animals and turns out there are rare almost extinct animals in WA. She has kept some that she has found in here deep storage freezer! She showed us some of the bandicoots which was crack up.

We use the library in Narrogin for Internet.  It is alright internet wise. However, they are charging us though 4$ an hour to use the computers though which bites.

I was sad when Elder Paongo got transferred. It is all good though and honestly it is like trying to know the way of the spirit. President Fife does what he feels the spirit tells him to so it is all good.

We are joining the gardening club here in Narrogin so hopefully we can get through to the people and do some more service for them in that way. The people don't like us, some even have signs saying no Jehovah Witness and no Mormons ha-ha. We knock anyway and see what comes from it ha-ha.

Hope everything is well on the home front.

Field outside Kattaning. 

More of the fields outside Kattaning. 

 Lake outside Kattaning.

More of the lake. 

 Who knew?

Elder Richins and I at the library.

Nothing like a little KFC

Man I miss American food just a bit. The majority of what we eat here is the same. They just have different styles and less options for ingredients. I would kill to go to a sport event and watch something right now.

This week has been a crazy one. It started off with Elder’s Pday. There were three Elders that were going home and so we played touch, had a KFC feast and some arm-wrestling matches.

Going into Tuesday, we had district meeting and exchanges. Our District Leaders came down to Narrogin with us and we had heaps of fun meeting up with members and tracting for days. I was with Elder Toupou and he has been out 20 months and is from Brisbane. He is a crack up guy and loves the people. We accidentally broke my bed but that is ok I will survive ha-ha. The frame just snapped ha-ha.

We came back up to Perth on that Thursday to finish off our exchanges and help them in their area before zone conference.

The weekend was a good bonding time of members and missionaries. We had a priesthood and a general session on Saturday and then another general session on Sunday. The missionaries are crackup. Heaps of the investigators through our service came out of the wood work and rocked up to conference. Saturday afternoon we helped a Pilipino family move. we drove Utes and trailers so that was fun. They gave us heaps of food which has been the blessing of our labors lately. I will get fat on the mission I have accepted it.

This week I was also blessed with being able to go to a big open Tongan Market. The District Leaders and some of us other Elders helped set up and they gave us horse and lamb and some amazing potato salad to eat. Elder Anitema helped me get material for a Tupenu with is a lava lava or ceremonial skirt worn by islanders. A nice Tongan grandma is making me one and possibly a tie or two ha-ha. The people are crackup and I love every second of being out.

This Sunday transfer calls were made. Supposedly there are heaps of missionaries coming in this new intake which is exciting. A lot of the Elders and Sisters in our zone were asked to be in leadership positions or training. Me and Elder Paongo are still together in Narrogin though.

We have meet up and rescheduled Manny's Baptism for this Saturday the 19th which is exciting. We are also teaching two keen investigators Chevon and PJ from the Kattaning area. We are hoping to set them on date soon.

 Helping at a garage sale.

Hanging out at Stake Conference.

Hectic Week

This last week has been pretty hectic. It flew bye with doors being shut at every tracting opportunity but that is just how it goes some days. We did a big feed for the Senior Training Leader's going home this and next transfer. We gave them traditional Tongan food, sang for them "We are Warriors" and preformed a haka. I will see if I can get the videos from someone. Transfers will be announced following Stake Conference this Sunday which is exciting. I think me and Elder Paongo will stay together for at least one more transfer but who knows.

The baptism that we were supposed to have two days ago fell through. Manny was having really difficult family life and needed to live with his dad for a couple days outside our area. We were unable to reach him. He is strong though just needs to be in town and he will be baptized so hopefully in a week or two.

We have two awesome investigators Chevon and PJ two girls from Katanning that are keen on learning on the gospel. They have come to church a bunch and are just finishing the discussions with us. So hopefully we can get them involved and members of the church ASAP. They are great and bring a little bit of happiness to our small branch. This week we did some service and visiting the elderly members. One of them, Janet, fell and almost broke her hip so we went over on Wednesday to help as best we can. Oddly enough her care giver was given a Book of Mormon and along with her husband wants to quit smoking. They have become potentials and we will try to get more details from them so that we can teach them. Everything seems to be falling into place which is really nice.

I made some food from home this week and got a little back in return. I made Manly Goulash for my companion and we have been using that as the go to meal for after workouts and things. Funny enough Maori bread is just like Navajo Flat bread like we make at home so that was a meal that I appreciated greatly from our members.

They ask us to read a couple of books while on the mission and I have just fallen in love lately with Our Search for Happiness by elder Ballard and Our History. I have also started reading books that are lying around the missionary flats that are other church leader written books which are a good read as well.

I am loving Narrogin and the people. The branch is small about 15 active and 60 on the roster. We have a lot of souls to reclaim. We don't have callings but we teach and fill in everywhere all the time. The presidency there have tough jobs and need to be away for Sundays sometimes so we just help. Our branch has a lot of older members. Barely any young families. The Investigators are keen too which is good so we are excited

Oh yah I posted a picture of our little Elderly body weight gym park ha-ha. We found it while tracting ha-ha. We generally just play rugby touch with all of the missionaries in our zone. It has been rainy though so basically it is just a giant mud fest ha-ha.

 Gotta love my cooking!

Our workout equipment we......found.

Practicing Haka.

 Cooking Lu!

Singing at the STL party.

Performing Haka!

Country Elder

In Australia it is 10 AM on Sunday and the middle of winter. Because I am a country serving Elder at the moment the only way we can email is if we rock up to the District Leader's flat Sunday night and spend Pday with them which kinds sucks.

Narrogin is doing good. We have one baptismal date and that is for this upcoming Saturday. His name is Manny and he is 13. We are hoping there are no complications with his parents. They have signed a consent but he wasn’t able to attend church because of vacation and family issues so we hope it hasn’t complicated the baptism There are a lot of people in our area, less actives.  They seem to pop up out of nowhere.  We are also trying to track a lot of them down in the farther areas of where I am serving such as Kattaning, Darkan and Boddington.

The islanders are cooking up a big Lu and BBQ feed for the Senior Training Leaader’s because they are leaving this transfer and one next. It should be good; man I am excited. This week we had octopus and Otieica which is raw fish with cream, tomatoes and chives. It wasn't too bad. I ate a couple of scales though.

When all of the Elders get together we play a lot of touch. I am getting a little better at it. I think the first souvenir I will get is a cool super rugby jersey we found at a kiwi (New Zealand) shop.

I was able to go to the temple this past week and that was awesome. The Perth temple is small but the workers are super nice and the garden area is pretty. Following that I had my last training as a new missionary called follow up training. We ran through a couple of role plays with the Assistants to President Fife.

The food was uber good. We got free fish and chips which is like a staple of good food here in Perth. Also Burger King is called Hungry Jacks and the KFC here is pretty good ha-ha.

We have been doing a lot of exchanges because we had to be up in Perth so much. We are doing the best we can in our area. Hopefully we get to interact more with investigators and less actives this upcoming transfer.

We find out about transfers in about a week or so we will see if one of us gets transferred. I will most likely finish out the first 12 weeks with my trainer but who knows. I will most likely stay in Narrogin though Elder Paongo has been there for upwards of 7 months now. President Fife likes to keep missionaries in certain areas for ages.  Elder Paongo is awesome and I am going to be sad if he leaves. He is funny and a hard worker. He is also really good at following the spirit and knowing how to help people which is awesome to see. It is helping me to get better at it.

Life is Good Out in the Country

Life is going pretty good out in the country. School is back in session here and the parents are all at work. One of the main focuses that we do is service so we are trying to help as many people as we can physically to then help them spiritually.

We had a Christmas in July dinner at sister Scott's house which went really well. There were about 15 less actives or non-members there. She is planning on having those once a month like a dinner thing so that they can eventually get talking to the missionaries and maybe become investigators. There is also a lot of food which is a plus for us starving country Elders.

This upcoming week is pretty busy we are going to be driving into Perth three or four times this week. This past Sunday one of the people that we are teaching came to church and that was awesome his name is Darryl and he is a bit crazy. He thinks the world is going to end. Funny enough though he is a member but didn’t know it so I guess we were just reactivating him and we didn't even know it.

The people here are pretty stubborn; they like their alcohol and smokes. They also hate Americans and religion for the most part. The people are genuine and to the point though so if they tell you to get off of their porch you do it.

I still haven’t seen a Kangaroo yet but they will hop out eventually.

The members are doing great we are just trying to keep as many active and coming to church as we can. We are trying to get a gal named Lora's kids baptized at some point. They are pretty adamant against it and that is a bit funny. They are good smart kids though so they should come around.

The thing that we have been trying to practice at with our off time is the art of fire knife. I'll send a few videos of that to the drive. We were also given a ram’s horn and we named it Anastasia it smells pretty bad because the person that gave it to us didn't clean it out ha-ha.

We met a kid that plays AFL and he was cool he but lives in Brisbane though. One of the things that I am trying to get better at is the sports that are played over here.

The missionaries that I have come into contact with are pretty great. All of us are working to the same goals and pushing along in our areas. This week went by quick and this next one will to so there might not be a lot to write about.

Here are some pictures!!

Our city moto!

A quick look at our bedroom.

A view from our apartment window of the city streets.

Our cool blanket from the Cook Islands.

Our living room and study area.

Our dining room and kitchen.

A view out our back window at our car and parking lot.

My companion getting ready to knock that door.  Want to learn more about this?

My camouflage biking helmet.

I think our car did more damage to the bird then the bird to the car.  Driving a lot has its casualties.

It is like they wanted us to come here.

Haircut anyone?

Anyone?

Some in country cooking.

Looks like a good meal!

Our ram horns (nicknamed Anastasia).

 Last few days at the MTC.  Hot air balloons.

My district elders packing up for Australia.  A view inside my MTC room.

Leavin' on a jet plane; don't know when I'll be back again....travel papers and tickets to Australia!

District Blitz in Armadale.

This week has been good. I have had a lot of firsts, on the Thursday I got to Narrogin. My companiona and get along well. We are currently teaching a few people. We contacted into a man named Darrel and he is a character. He thinks the world is ending and quotes Revelations all the time. I think we can turn him around just a little bit haha. He also thinks that the dragon or Satan in Revelations is a big thing in space that is going to wipe out most of the earth haha.

We are also teaching an aboriginal named Diana she is Catholic and has a lot of the same beliefs as we do, we are just trying to find a good time to meet up with here and get into our next discussions and hopefully progress to baptism. Lastly we are teaching Cindy she is in her 40's and is really religious. We asked here to be baptized about a week ago and she said yes. Our next lesson is this week and we need to clear up a couple things on marriage.

Most of the time this week we have been up in Armadale with the district leaders, bouncing back and forth between conferences and meetings. We had a district blitz where all the Elders and the Sisters ran one area and tried to get new potential investigators. That was fun we got a few people for the Sisters. One of them, his name was Big Tom, or Bitters (that is his stage name) he is one of the best beatboxers and Karaoke people in western Australia and so we jammed with him a bit and that was fun.

The Elders here in Armadale have been treating us right food wise hahah, They made an Omu last night which is an underground oven that helps them steam and cook meet and tarro. We had Otie and Lu which are traditional Tongan dishes. They were super good and I’m looking forward to trying new cultural things while out on the mission from around the pacific.

The area has been a blessing and the branch  members have been practically spoon feeding us potentials and new investigators which has been nice. I am planning on cooking a lot of goods for the Elders when they come down to Narrogin some time hahah. It has been good and I have been loving every second of it.