Another Week

Elder Hyde skipped out on his weekly the last couple weeks.  He responded to ours but didn't write one of his own so we are going to have to get after him for that.  Here is some of what he had to say:

From July 8:
"This week has been good. This time it was just me and Elder Yamamoto that went out to bush and we were only there for three days, because there was a show her in Alice so all the communities came in for that. So we didn't do church out bush this week.  It was weird going to an actual organized branch for church. I haven't been to one for the past like 8 months, just got to sit back and relax. For church out bush we hurry to all the communities and do sacrament at all of them. We give talks and conduct and preside, so we do the whole lot. Its way fun-you get to learn a lot that way.  We do have something planned for p-day today. .  . . CLEANING! We want everything to look the best for when President Carter comes up. We have interviews with him tomorrow and then training on Wednesday.  We do have some investigators, more of our focus is developing the priesthood so they can run the show, and strengthening the members to do their own missionary work."

From today:
When asked how his week was and how it went meeting his new mission president:
"The week has been good. We didn't go out bush at all we just stayed in town because some of the bush saints were here so we had to stay in and look after them.  The meeting with President Carter was good. He is awesome.  We did get everything clean but he didn't even look at any of it. Ha. They are really going to help us get things moving more quickly here. At the end of the interview it was pretty funny because we were kneeling down to pray, and I got a cramp in my leg because we had done some service for some people and I didn't drink much water during or after it.  So I had to stand up and stretch and then we could say the prayer. Ha."

When asked if they have many investigators in the areas they go to:
"When we are in town we pretty much have to just go finding tracting and stuff all day and then give who we find to the town elders so we meet heaps of people and we have been running into a lot of Americans lately. There is a secret base here that they work at.  We do have investigators, not very many but there are some and a lot of potentials we are trying to start teaching. It is interesting how it works because they have to come to church 2 times before we can count them as new investigators and when we start teaching them."

Here is a part of his letter our dad:
"I can't think of anything that I really need here yet. Transfers is this week and there is a lot of talk in the air so I don't know. It has gone by so quick though. All of the aboriginals in those communities pretty much know us, even if we really don't know them. Actually last time there were some that told us that we need to visit them because they knew us and saw us going around but we never went to their house.
Yeah the whites own the cattle stations, we never see or talk to them although I want to try to hook up with them and see if their wife would cook us food or something. ha. but they aren't really our focus. The aboriginals are our focus. 
Well love you. Stay happy.
Love Elder Hyde"

 

Just Pictures This Week

This week Elder Hyde just sent a few pictures along with some responses to some questions that we asked him.  Here are the pictures:

Elder Hepworth, Elder Hyde

Gate to the Aboriginal community

Here is how Elder Hyde descibed this gate: "There is this gate that we have to go through because there are cattle so we have to get out of the ute and open it up, but directly under the gate there is an ant hill.  But they are not normal ants. They chase you! So you either have to be really fast to open the gate or do a little dance to stay away from them. It is especially hard at night!"

Another side note: "Our new mission president came in last night so we will meet him on July 10th when he comes to Alice."

Great News!

Hey family,
I recieved some great news this week from Tennant Creek. Noeleen the lady that I was working with for the past 4 months to baptize actually got baptized. Flipping exciting. Can't wait to hear how they did it. I don't know how the week could get better after hearing that.
Time flys like crazy here. We get up in the morning get ready pack up the ute, go out and teach til night then we unpack, eat, and sleep. I wish I had more time to explain it also but the time also flys while I am emailing so it is hard to write a whole lot.
Love ya.
Love Elder Hyde