Transfer calls. . . . . . drum roll please. . . . .

Hello family,
We actually got official transfer calls after we emailed on Monday. And......... we are both staying another 6 weeks in Tennant Creek. Speaking about transfers, I heard that that Elder Brown from Boise Idaho is being trained in Alice Springs so I will be able to see him when we go down next time. I don't  know when that will be. Pres and Sister Poulton said they would only come up one more time to Alice before they are done with their mission so I don't know if that will be this transfer or next.
My comp doesn't believe that blue darts are real and I havent been able to prove to him yet so I might need Derek or Joe to send a video of one of them doing it. Ha.
We were talking to an aboriginal member this week and she said she was working on a book at a culture center. She said it was putting together a book of birds that symbolize things in their culture. I asked what kinds of things that birds can symbolize and she said like protection, death, and some other things. I just thought that that was interesting. I haven't seen the book or anything but it would be interesting to see.
Well I hope all continues to go well. I love you all.
Love, Elder Hyde

Another Great Week

G'day family,
Had another great week. It started out in Alice Springs for the mission tour of Elder Hamula. There are actually things to do for p-day down there especially since there are heaps more missionarys. So we went to what they call Simpsons Gap which is a canyon with a little creek going through it. We kicked a footy around and a volleyball. Had a little barbecue, no shrimp! ha. That was a good time. We met these nice people down there as well that decided they wanted to feed us a couple nights while we were down there. They are greek so she cooked us some good greek food. One night she cooked us some authentic lamb and chicken yiros. I think they spell it gyros in America. But I asked them and the correct greek spelling is yiro.

We had a great training with Elder Hamula. He is a powerhouse. He taught us to think of why we do things and help others to realize why we do things. Such as it is easy enough to know what and how to pray, but it is harder to understand why we pray, even though knowing why is one of the most important parts. He explained it more elegantly and more in depth than I did but it makes a lot of sense. You are more likely to follow Jesus Christ if you know why you are supposed to follow Him.

This was our first real week of taking over church. I think we will be able to handle it, we have some other good sisters that help out a lot as much as they can.

I had more that I wanted to say but I forgot my planner that I wrote everything in at the flat so I guess that will have to wait til next week.

I love you all. Remember that God loves you and have a fantastic week.
Love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
a footy = either like a football or rugby ball

Poor Goanna

Hello Family,
I heard that you just had daylight savings so this is probably getting to you later than usual. But anyway, our week has been great. We actually had district conference with the whole Northern Territory, so we got coverage of that on the internet. It was held in Darwin. We actually had like 20 people at church too for the conference. Elder Hamula of the Seventy was there and he is coming down to Alice today. So we made the trip down here to Alice Springs yesterday. We are going to have a zone conference with him and President Poulton will be here as well.
On the way down I accidentally hit a goanna. Elder Tomadakis reckoned it wasn't worth bringing with us so we just left it, I'm sure some aboriginals can make a good meal of it. Ha. Just a couple kilometres down the road there was an eagle that swooped down and grabbed a lizard right in front of us so we had to swirve to the other lane. It was massive. We usually find a few birds in our grill by the end of the trip anyway but im sure that eagle would have done some major damage.
The root beer was awesome, I forgot how good it was. The candy is a hit. The kids always make funny faces when you give them the sour ones or hot ones but they always ask for more. Ha. They call the atomic fire ball the chilli one. They always ask us now when we give them a lolly if it is a chilli one.
Well I love yall. Have a great week.
Love Elder Hyde

Sweet Sacrament Meeting

G'day family,

We have had a great week. We topped it off with a sweet sacrament meeting. This Sunday was the last day for the 2 priesthood leaders in our branch, they are both moving. Pres Dawes is going to Darwin, and Janusz, our other active priesthood, is going to Tasmania. They gave powerful testimonies. We were able to get our best investigator at the moment there as well. We have a baptism date with her and she enjoyed church so lets hope that continues to go well. We are going to have to replace these priesthood somehow as well. Church will be interesting trying to fill up all the time, I think me and Elder T will be talking a lot.

We came over to Pres Dawes house for district meeting the other day and there was a knock on the door so we answered it. There was a lady that was asking for pasta. We were thinking that was something strange to ask for. But then we realized she was asking for pastor, asking for Pres Dawes. He always gets humbugged by people to give them stuff because they know he is a good guy.

I think it has rained everyday this week. Its great for the temperature, but it makes it harder to teach people because they dont want to sit on the wet ground and learn. This week has been the first time that it has been below 95 degrees I swear. It feels to good. We haven't seen the sun for a few days but I'm not complaining because when the sun comes out after rain it just gets humid and makes it worse. I actually had to turn on the warm water a little bit in the shower because it was a bit chilly. Anyway enough about the weather.

I love you all. Have a great week.

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

humbugged = the act of someone trying to get something off you for free

How Many Dogs Attend Your Church Meetings?

Hello family,

My week has been great. Sorry I didn't email yesterday though. Something was wrong with the internet here in Tennant Creek so nobody had internet.

We got a sweet new aboriginal investigator and she committed to a baptism date, it is very hard to get them to do this and she is reading from the Book of Mormon daily and praying. She is moving along well.

We had a sweet trip up to Elliott this weekend. We just hold church under a tree at a members home so we had a total of 16 people, 10 dogs, 1 sleeping cat, and 1 dead rat with its head off hanging by strands made an appearance for a little bit until someone chucked their thong (flip flop) at the dog who brought it in. So all in all a great success. Ha.  Something great happened as well, we had some aboriginal men with the priesthood help us out with the sacrament. It is usually pretty hard to get participation in those kinds of things but their hearts have been changed and they want to help.

We weren't able to take a shower up there though because where we usually shower they say it is only for staff members now, so I guess we kind of fit in a little more. That's probably bad to say.  It was also way to hot to sleep in the tent so we slept outside with the dingos, mossies (mosquitos), and other ravenous animals. Ha.

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
yakka = work we did some hard yakka this week

Elliot- Population 600 602

Standing on a cliff-kind of hard to tell

This is where they hold Sacrament Meeting for the 16 people, 10 dogs, sleeping cats, etc