Jambo

Hello family,

One thing that is sweet about this area is that there are so many different cultures here.  We get the opportunity to teach a lot of different people, and they teach us a bit about their culture.  They teach us a few words in their language, jambo is hello in Swahili in case you were wondering why that was the subject.

We talked to a really funny lady this week that had all the funny misconceptions about latter day saints. The one that I thought was the funniest was that she thought once you join our church "you start to speak like an American." ha.  She must have met a lot of American missionaries in the past.  I think the biggest problem that we have here with finding people is that they don’t really know what the church is like and they don’t want to try and find out.  But, whenever we are able to get people to church they love it and said that it’s not what they expected. So we just need to figure out how to inform people about who we really are.

I had some really good prawn here which is shrimp. i think the main reason I liked it is because it wasn’t the texture of rubber bands.  They must have a secret way of growing prawn here?

I got a wedding announcement from Brad Lloyd this week, if you see him tell him congrats and that I would have come if I knew about it but the announcement was late.

I am going to try to burn a disk with pictures and videos to send home hopefully soon.

Hugs and kisses. Have a great week

Love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

brekky = breakfast
tea = dinner

Whispering Wall, Drunk Driving Test, and Basketball

Hello family,

“How you going?” Is how they greet you here. In response they say “Oh Yeah” which basically means good.

I have had a great week. For pday last week we went to a place that they call the whispering wall. It is sweet. It is where they built a dam to make a reservoir and then they found out that you can stand on opposite sides of the dam and talk to each other like 200 meters away from each other just by whispering. It is crazy how it works, I don’t know if it works at all dams but they have like a monument and stuff for it at this one. On the way to get to there I saw my first kangaroos and a kookaburra.
My comp and I take turns to drive every other day. On one of the days that I was driving the police were doing a random drunk driving test, and I ended up having to take it, all I had to do was breath into the breathalyzer. I was kind of scared that I would fail because as missionaries we get pretty wasted... on the Spirit.

We have noticed that the getting people to the church and meeting members have converting powers. So my comp and I have been thinking of ways that we can get investigators to the church and to meet members. One of the ways we decided was to have a weekly basketball game with members and investigators, so this past week we got it set up. We had 3 investigators show up and some members. Everyone had a great time and said they would be there next week. We are hoping that eventually the members will take over so that all we have to do is invite people and then the members become friends with them and it helps make the work better. I am excited because I feel that we are getting very solid investigators that are interested in the happiness that we have to offer them. We just need to show them how to enjoy it themselves.

When I show people the pictures you guys sent with me, they always comment about how cute the grandkids are.
Have a great week. I love yall.
love the studly Elder Hyde

p.s. A lot of people over here do not know what twinkies are so if you send a package something that might be kind of cool would be twinkies so people can try them because a lot of people have actually wondered

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

They think that we are weird because we eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. We have to explain to them though that jelly is different though because they call jello here jelly. so they think we eat peanut butter and jello, but once we say its jam they don’t think it’s quite as weird.

jelly = jello

Chicken Hearts

I am not sure this is the same Elder Hyde we sent to Australia.  He would have never eaten chicken hearts.

They taste like chewy chicken!

Changing World, Oranges and Making Spaghetti

hello family,

It is crazy how the world is changing.  We knocked on a door this week and there was an answer without the door even opening. There was a speaker and camera next to the door that the person talked to us from.  It was a little awkward because the person could see us but we couldn’t see them.

Speaking of change, we had transfer this week, and nothing has changed, I am still in Elizabeth Downs with Elder Pack!  I enjoy it here though so it is great. I am excited to further the work in this area.

We were able to have a zone pday on Monday. We all met up at the zone leader’s flat and had a barbecue, then we played some touch rugby. At the barbecue they made some chicken hearts so I tried a few.  They tasted like chewy chicken. It is kind of funny to play rugby because there are only a few Americans in the zone and we have no idea how to strategize while playing rugby so we get teased a little bit because we just run around like chickens with our heads cut off, but it is still fun.

Oranges are in season now here in south Australia and people have been giving us heaps of oranges.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I come back orange because I eat one almost every meal. They are so fresh and delicious though. Sometimes they even let us pick them straight off the tree and eat them.

My comp has been a little sick the past couple of days with a chest infection I think, whatever that is?  So we had to stay in the flat for some of the days, and at first I thought that it would be kind of nice because I would be able to rest from the physical labors of the work and relax a bit, but after a little bit I was tired of it because I realized that the real fun of this work is to share the gospel with others, not keep it to myself in the flat.  Luckily my comp is starting to get a little better, and I am excited to get back out and have some true fun.

We have a family that has been feeding us a lot, so on Saturday we told them that we would make a meal for them. They were a little scared when we made the offer because they were scared of our cooking but they finally accepted. I wanted to cook some kind of Utah meal but I didn’t have any recipes or enough time so I just cooked some spaghetti. That was one of the days my comp was a little sick so I had to do most the cooking. I think they liked it or they at least put on a good act if they didn’t.

Well I want yous to know that I love you and keep enjoying life.

love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

The weather has been wet so we haven’t been able to ride our pushies very much.
pushies = bikes

Pictures from Australia

Double Rainbow From Our Flat

An Autralian Tree

View From the Plan going to Adelaide

Funny Kid with Australian Underwear on his Head

Transfer Week and I Drove the Car

g'day family,

This transfer ended with a sweet experience. We have an investigator that hasn’t come to church because he grew up in a Christian background but that turned him off of it.  So he always came up with an excuse not to come, but last night we had a fireside, it was basically all music.  This investigator ended up coming to it because it wasn’t a normal service.  After the fireside we found out that him, his wife and his month old baby had walked about 5 km to the chapel for it.  We decided that we would walk back with them a little ways.  We had a good conversation because he said that all his concerns that he had in his childhood about church were non existent in ours.  He told us that he also wants a quad.  It was sweet.  As we were walking back it started to rain a bit but we didn’t even notice because we were so happy that he wants to come to church now.

I drove this morning.  It is quite a bit different. I kept pushing the windshield wiper toggle instead of the blinker. I don’t think it will be too hard to get used to though. The worst part is just being on the opposite side of the car.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week.

love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK

gasoline that you put in a car = petrol
car wreck= car smash
a service station to get petrol= servo

Having a Family Forever Brings Me Great Strength

g'day family,

It has been another great week as always.  For p day we played some billiards at a member’s home and they bought us KFC and Domino's. KFC is a pretty big deal here.  Billiards was fun, this guy converted his shed into a sweet chilling place, with everything that a grandpa would need.  

To answer a few of your questions, I can’t think of a lot of things that I really need.  They don’t have Reese’s or Peanut butter M&M’s.  People have told me that there is an American shop where I can get things like that but it is super expensive.  I don’t know if it would be more expensive than shipping it.  The only other thing that I can think of is that I have worn down a pair of the work gloves.  It would be nice to have a few more.  It doesn’t matter to me if you send letters in the mail.  I guess it is up to you because it is just as easy and cheaper to email.

My pants still fit good.  I feel like I am gaining weight just because everywhere we go people ask if we want something to eat and we say no but they give us food anyway. We could probably eat healthier.  I have been taking the vitamins you sent me with.

We got a sweet new investigator that is actually a member of the RLDS.  She is a very nice lady.  It is going to be interesting to teach her because she already has the beliefs in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but she just doesn’t know the complete truth.  We haven’t had a lot of time to talk with her but I am excited to bring her all the happiness that the knowledge of our gospel can bring, because one thing that she mentioned was that they don’t believe in celestial marriage, but I cant imagine not having that, I wouldn’t be completely happy without it. The knowledge I have of being with my family forever brings me great strength.

We had a missionary fireside yesterday and President Poulton spoke at it. I love president. He is a very knowledgeable about the gospel.

We had trade off on Saturday and I was with another elder that also can’t drive a car because he is new. We were left to ride our bikes all day.  As it turns out the weather was perfect all week, except for Saturday it rained all day.  Then on Sunday it was sunny again.  I think that I was probably supposed to learn some kind of lesson out of it but I don’t know what it is yet. Luckily I wore my waterproof coat. Usually if it is rainy then we just get in the car but we didn’t have that luxury.

Sorry for the short letter but i love you all and have an awesome week.

love Elder Hyde