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.

Pictures From Williamstown

Islander Weatherman, Flat Tire, Police Chase

g'day family,
I have had a great week. I think next Monday is a public holiday here and also transfer is next week so I don’t know when we will be emailing. but don’t worry if you dont get an email on Monday because we might just email later in the week.

One day this week we were driving in the car and Elder Sie rolled down one of the windows, the sun was out and there were no clouds, but he smelled the air for a second and said it smells like it is going to rain tonight. I was like no way, there aren’t any clouds, how can you tell, and he said it just smells like it. and sure enough that night it rained. I don’t know how he did it, must be the islander weather man.

I got the package with the M&Ms, thanks, they were delicious. They were gone like the next day because a lot of people haven’t tried the peanut butter ones over here so they ate them all, and of course I ate a lot too.

It was funny this week, we have an investigator that can play the accordion. i think she might have some mental disabilities but she could play it alright. she just turned on some music and started playing with it and singing, she got quite into it.

We were teaching a less active just on her front porch, and we kept hearing police sirens get closer and further. it was going on for about 20 minutes and then all of a sudden we could here it really close. So Elder Sie got out his camera and there was a police chase going on. The car came down the road we were on. a bit later there was actually a helicopter flying around that was helping track him. That was pretty cool to see.

As we were coming out of church yesterday we looked at our car and it had a flat tire. So we had to change the tire in church clothes. Oh well it provides for some good memories. I don’t know why it was flat, I think maybe, it is because of Elder Sie crazy driving. ha.

I am glad to hear that people are taking care of you, getting a hot tub and such.
Have a great week, iIlove yous.
love elder hyde

It is Alden’s 6 month mark today.  He said,

Time fly's when your having fun.
I told Elder Sie that and he didn’t understand the expression that time fly's. he's funny

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
add (as) to emphasize something.
so if something is really sweet you say "that is sweet as" or "it is hot as" or "kangaroo are cool as"
when i first heard it though i thought they were swearing but its not.

The Sun is Intense Here

g'day family,

I hope your week has been good. Mine has been great as usual.

I cant remember if I told you about a bird that a member has that talks. It was funny because elder Sie was recording him one time and put the camera right in his face by the cage and all of the sudden the bird attacked the camera and said "what are you doing, oi, what are you doing?" like he was mad at him.  Then Elder Sie just answered "I don’t know"

Sorry these computers are being super slow today so it is taking forever to type.

The sun is so intense here.  We were in the car one day when it was only like 30 degrees Celsius which is about 90 Fahrenheit.  We had the air conditioner on full blast but it was still hot with the sun coming through the windows.  You could barely even feel the air conditioner.  It will probably be hard to survive the summer because from what I understand it gets super hot. It is a requirement for kids to wear hats for recess at school.  So when you drive past primary schools it is funny to see all the kids wearing matching hats.

Well I am getting frustrated with typing on this slow computer, so I am going to stop.  But I want you to know that I love you and have a sweet as week.

Love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

mucking around = messing around

Got Pictures, Laid Sod and Getting Fit

Hey family,

I got the photos and stuff that you sent. Corbin looks like a healthy guy. Connor is looking like he can take me in wrestling now, and Chloee looks like she has gotten tall, has she?

i woke up on Thursday with a kinked neck.  That wasn’t fun, it hasn’t completely healed but it is a lot better, a member gave me a heat pad to use. Elder Sie made fun of me, he would walk around with a stiff neck and stuff. He is a fun companion because he likes joking and having fun.

We helped lay some sod on Saturday.  The grass is way different here, it is like that crab grass stuff that dad doesn’t like in our yard. Some peoples rubbish is another mans treasure. ha

We didn’t eat out as much this week thank goodness. Since elderSie has gained 25 kilos on his mission he has started to want to get fit again. So we are going to buy protein and start working out, and also not eat out as much.

Well, have a sweet as week, I love ya

love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

knots & crosses = tic tac toe

It's a Small World

G'day grandma,

Things are going great here, and I am glad to hear that things are going great there. I will take your advice and remember the adventures that I am going through.

It sounds like you are still yourself, making up words like "kibitz", ha, is that word legal in scrabble?  What does it mean?
I am teaching a lady that reminds me a lot about you. She is very nice to us and likes to have a good time.  She takes good care of us and offers us anything that we need.  I reckon those are good qualities to have.
Have a fantastic week, I love you.
Love, Elder Hyde

Hi Family,

You asked about my clothes, most everything is fitting good.  The only thing that is getting a bit small is the grey suit.  But it is starting to get warm so I won’t have to wear a suit as much, so she’ll be alright.

This week has been good.  One of my new Zone Leaders is Elder Sackett from Layton.  He knows Austin Hyde and graduated the same year as him.  He asked how he was going.

We cooked an Australian Barbecue for a service project this week.  It was pretty fun. Nobody ever says “Throw a shrimp on the Barbie”.  We just made sausages and onions and then you put it on a slice of bread, the food is pretty simple.

I got on someone’s scale a couple of months ago and it said that I gained seven kilos which is like 14 pounds.  That is why it is weird that my clothes still fit good, because it hasn’t affected the size of my stomach very much.  So Elder Pack and I started to work hard to lose weight but I fear that I will gain more because Elder Sie likes his fast food.  I don’t think I have ever eaten so fast food in one week.  He said that he likes it because they don’t have these kind of fast foods in Tahiti so he likes them and wants to try them all.

From my companion I have learned a bit of Tahitian and French, but he tells me more about the culture than the language.

As far as me teaching him English, I am not very good at English in the first place so if he wants to learn good English he would probably have to learn elsewhere, But for the level that I am he is learning good English.

One of Elder Pack’s friends is serving in Armenia.  He was telling me the he was hoping to train Ben Seegmiller, that would be cool.

ua here au ia oe!
tapati maitai' roa!
That is I love you! and have a good week! in tahitian
dont ask me how to say it though

Have a good week.

Love, Elder Hyde

Aussie Term of the Week:
They don’t have garbage, here it is rubbish. They don’t have trash cans or garbage cans.  They are rubbish bins.