Will a Root Canal Give You More Aussie Accent?

g'day family,
Sounds like you have had a good week. New Mexico sounds like fun. That is crazy that they are taking down the whole Ogden temple. Do they expect it to take longer now then? Have they built any new in-n-out burgers close by yet? I sadly haven’t found as good of a burger over here yet. I think they make them a bit differently.

We had stake conference yesterday also.

There was a funny experience this week where we were visiting a less active, she has an autistic daughter that does some funny stuff. I have been there a couple of times so I knew what to expect and she always acts like her hands are different animals and they climb up and jump on your ties and stuff when you go. So this time I was prepared, I put my backpack on the front of me. Luckily I did because she came out with glue stick all over her hand. This time her hand was a huntsman spider, ha, so the spider had to climb all over my bag, pretty funny.

I had another good experience this week, it was called root canal. I think that it was a Halloween themed root canal, because as they were doing it they put this plastic thing in my mouth and stretched it out and as they did that Elder Sie said “dressing him for Halloween?” and then laughed.  They  also put a temporary orange filling in it.  It was actually a pretty good experience my tooth feels heaps better.  It was on the tooth that was done for my mission physical. They said since he drilled to the nerve to put the filling in, he had put some medicine in it but that medicine wore off and then the nerve got infected.  They showed the nerve to me after they pulled it out, and it was big and white.  It is supposed to be red. It was pretty cool.  We joked maybe with some Australian hardware in my mouth it might make me have a more Aussie accent.

I have had a great week. Your prayers must have been working, we found a couple new families to teach that seem to have a lot of potential.
Have a fantastic week. Love you all heaps.
love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
Not a very creative one, but a very Aussie one.
Mate = friend, can be said to anyone at anytime, or everyone every time. They say it a lot. Ha

Gorge Wildlife Park, Halloween and District Meeting

Hey family,
This week has been a good one as usual. I am writing late again today because we went to the Gorge Wildlife Park. We found some creatures to teach there. The kangaroo. There is a picture of Elder Sie and I teaching them. We were actually able to hold koala as well which was cool.  Their fur is so soft to touch but the claws are not. They like to be secure so they hold you with their claws, it doesn’t hurt too bad, just like if Connor were to wrestle you and he scratched you that is what it would feel like.

They do celebrate Halloween here but from what I understand it is not as big as in America. Only a few people go trick or treating and a lot of people that give out stuff don’t give out lollies, they give out apples or some other fruit.
We did a service project with the Mormon Helping Hands program. We sorted clothing for and op shop, an op shop is like a DI here in Australia.

After our district meeting we were able to have an interview with President Poulton. He is awesome. During the interview we are able to ask any deep doctrine question. In 2 Nephi 28:30 it tells us that we need to learn line upon line precept upon precept, and I definitely learned the truthfulness of that because he boggled my mind with deep doctrine. My mind couldn’t quite grasp that stuff yet but as I build my knowledge everyday, someday I will understand.  We have people ask about dinosaurs, and how that fits in with God, a lot so I asked Pres. Poulton about them and he blew my mind away.
I love you all heaps, have a great week. I should be on normal time next week.

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
I don’t know if I have already done this one
fair dinkem = an expression like "wow" or "oh really" I have heard it used in a lot of different ways so I don’t know the exact translation but that’s what I understand about it. ha.

Service at the Temple, Growing Potatoes and Pouring Concrete

g'day mates,
Sorry that I am writing late today.  We got a call from the office the other day asking if we would do service for the temple this morning so we couldn’t resist. It was a big sacrifice for us to give up some of our pday but it was a blessing as well.  Not many missionaries get the chance to do the service so it was a good experience.  It was weird that they called us too because we are one of the furthest missionaries away from the temple in the city zones.  I just think they needed some of the strongest most studly missionaries. ha.  I think that I may also write late next week also because we might go to the Gorge which is another wildlife park where you can actually hold a koala, so that should be cool. So I may or may not write late again next week, it depends.

Back when I was with Elder Pack we bought a big sack of potatoes.  We didn’t use them all and they started to grow the seedlings out of them. We have just a little like half meter patch of dirt at our flat so I decided I would chuck one in that dirt not expecting it to grow or even if it did not be around to see it. But sure enough it has grown and it is bigger than some of the other plants in it.  People told me it wouldn’t work but dad had taught me the skills and it worked.

We did service for a less active and guess what it was, pouring concrete.  It brought back some fun memories.  The only problem was we had to do it the old fashioned way with a shovel and a wheelbarrow.
Have a great week. love ya.
love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
crossed = angry
if someone is cross with you they are mad at you

Crazy weather, Elder Sie's Birthday, Conference

Hey family,
That is crazy that it is snowing already in the mountains. the weather has been really weird here as well to me. I don’t know if it is normal here, but we will have a day that is above 90 degrees and then the next it is a bit cold and rainy.  It is weird.
 
With this being a short week since p day wasn’t very long ago, I don’t have a whole lot to say that was extraordinary. Other than it was my companion’s birthday. I  made him a little cake out of an English muffin and some nutella spread and a match. I will attach a photo.  There was also a family that had us over for dinner and they baked him a cake, theirs was a little nicer.

Conference was awesome. They basically just put conference onto a DVD and play it on a projector in the chapel, so you have to go to the chapel to watch it.  They play it at the same times as in Utah but the priesthood session they play on Sunday morning.  There were some great talks though.  We are out all day talking about how we have prophets on the earth today, and it was cool to see them speak and boost my testimony of them so that I can better testify to others.

We are emailing from an investigators house right now and they bought some fish and the ingredients for Elder Sie to make a Tahitian specialty.  It is raw fish though so even if it tastes good I probably still wont like it. ha
Well I hope you all have a great week, don’t get too cold. love ya.
love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
"bobs your uncle" = I don’t know the exact translation but it is used after you describe instructions to someone. I think it basically means "easy as that"

Holiday and Zone Conference, Burning Ties and Investigators

Hello family,
It’s been a great week. We had a public holiday on Monday so we worked that day and then Tuesday was transfer so that is why I am emailing today.  I am happy to say that I am still in Elizabeth Downs with Elder Sie.  I can't believe that I will be here for another 6 weeks. It is a good place to be though.  The people are very humble.

Thanks for sending me with the bug spray that you sent me with because it came in handy this week.  Not exactly for the bugs, but to burn our ties. Elder Sie and I both burned ties for our six month. We did a companionship tie burning. ha.

We have become really good friends with an Indian couple that are members.  They call us their kids and fed us like 4 times last week. They cook really good food too so I am not complaining. But the scale when I step on it complains. They make really good curry. I had never tried it until then though.  Elder Sie likes going there because they make fish for him so I have been trying the fish as well. It has been alright.  They made a Polynesian specialty of fish, they make it with raw fish and coconut milk and lemon and tomatoes. I tried it and it tasted good but I still couldn’t get over that it was raw. it was all in the mind.

We had a zone conference this week, and we went to the temple for that.  It was sweet because we had about 50 missionaries in the temple at the same time and also president and sister Poulton.

Elder Sie was telling me about a crazy guy in Tahiti that drinks cow pies.  His mind is all messed up because he uses the cow pies as a sort of drug.  So now I know why dad is so crazy because he used to eat the cow pies as well.

You asked a question a couple weeks ago that I never answered about how we find people to teach.  That is the trick here.  We are constantly trying to come up with new and better ways to find because tracting and stuff just aren’t effective enough.  The best way is to work with the members to get referrals from them. But that doesn’t always happen either.  The most effective way that I have found so far is to visit the less actives.  There are heaps of less actives in the ward.  So we visit them, a lot of them have partners or children that aren’t members and that has been the best.  

Like I said before though, we are always trying new ways to find people to teach so I had a great idea this week. we were on our way out to Williamstown and the whispering wall is on the way out there.  We had never tried to contact at the whispering wall before, and there are always people there so we stopped and tried it. It was funny to talk from one side and ask people if they have ever heard about Jesus Christ.  It was funny but not very effective just because most of the people were tourists from out of town, not in our area.

We have General Conference this weekend, they get it copied down onto a DVD and then play it at the churches here.  So it will only be one week late. and yes we also get the Ensigns each month.
Well, I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week.

When you are down to nothing, God is up to something.
love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
Bludger = kind of like a bum. someone who doesn’t do anything they just bludge off others.