Did I say it is HOT? Christmas service

Hey family,

Glad to hear that you had a good trip to Hawaii. It looks like I did get the packages, I took a peek at the senior couples house and I think they were there. Thanks

This may sound like a broken record but it is hot here. There is nothing like getting out of a cold shower and drying off, then 5 seconds later having to dry off again because of the sweat.

The people are a little bit hard to understand but not too bad.  They speak kind of like a pigeon English. It is pretty quick but for the most part you can understand. They also mix a few words of their language with English, so you have to learn them. For example they would say "look at that goonaba" which is dog. They just mix so you have to learn some of their words.

The Aborigine people are quite a bit different, they are hilarious. They like to relax in the shade and just enjoy life and the outdoors. They dress semi normal, very plain clothes, nothing fancy.

We do listen to music, just EFY and Mormon Tabernacle. The five hour car rides would be hard to make without being able to listen to something.

We have firesides each week where we invite people and we try and focus on getting the kids there and involved. So what we did for this last one was taught about faith and then had the kids stand up backwards on a chair and had them tip over. So they had to trust that whoever was behind them would catch them. It was pretty funny.  Then we have games for the kids after the lesson.

We did a service in Tennant on Saturday, and they had us cook a barbie.  We cooked over 1000 sausages, it was crazy. We cooked the barbie for a children’s Christmas party at the park and they had Santa there.  Santa came in on a sleigh with kangaroo pulling him instead of reindeer.

We sang for a local choir as well, that was interesting.

Well time is up.

Have a great week. Love you heaps.

love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

mob = group of 2 or more people. We get called a mob a lot.  You could call a family a mob, its just a group.

More About Our Area, Visiting and Camping in Elliot

G'day family,

One of the biggest differences in our area is the amount of people.  In the city it is kind of just like put the pedal to the metal.  You are just rushing everywhere teaching and stuff, while up here we have to take a ready aim fire approach.  We have to prepare for the work, like do a lot of activities to get the aboriginals interested and its not quite as fast paced. The food is mostly the same. the aboriginals like to catch goanna which is a big lizard, and bush turkey. I haven't had the chance to eat either of them yet but sometime.

My bike works good. We actually leave the bikes that they gave us in the city, and just use some that they have up here. I hope it gets me back in shape. I guess we will see.

It is bleeding hot here, but it has been alright so far, the sweat keeps me cool. ha. I didn’t bring the camel back up but that’s alright, I have been able to handle it.  There are some people that give us drinks.  We keep a lot of water in the fridge.  They actually had e coli in the water up here, so they put out a warning to boil the water while they clean it up, but we never boiled and we didn’t get it, so we were protected. We actually didn’t hear about it until about a week after they sent the warning out and we figured it was too late to start boiling because if we were going to get it we would have got it already. This is the hottest place I have ever been though

I have had a great week. For p day we went to this old open cut mine called Nobles Nob. There is a little lake at the bottom of it now and so we decided that we would hit a golf ball into the mine. The goal was to get it all the way across the mine but we weren’t good enough. We are just in a little town so we have to make our own fun on p day.

This weekend we did our Elliot trip. Elliot is about 250 kilometers away from Tennant. We have a lot of members up there. So we go up there and visit them and put on a sacrament meeting for them.  It is a town of only about 600 people.  So we went up on Saturday morning and visited the members that day.  There are a lot of cheeky dogs up there. Then as it was getting dark we decided we better go set up camp.  We went along the highway until we found a little place where we could set up our tent. Once we found it, we set up the tent, our cots and made some dinner.  Guess what was for dinner? Ramen noodles. yeah! Then we told ghost stories, just kidding.  It rained heaps on the drive up so we were scared that we were going to have to sleep in the car for the night but it dried up so we were able to set up the tent.  The tent is tiny so our cots like stretch it out.  It is funny to see.

The best part of the trip was sacrament meeting though. We ended up not having very many people there, and we just held it in under a tree, but the spirit was as strong there as I have ever felt, especially when we turned the time over to them to share their testimonies. You could feel their humility and love for the gospel. it was awesome.

Well time is up but love yalls. Have a great week.

love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

yo yo = aboriginal way of saying yep.

More about Tennant Creek

Hello family,

My week has been great, hot but great. We spent the first part of the week in Alice for training by President, that went well. In the training he teaches us how to become better missionaries in general, and then spends time telling us how to specifically become better in our area. The missionary work in this area is very different from in the city.

Since we were in Alice the past 2 weekends, I haven’t been able to do much work in Tennant but that is alright, it is small enough that I can learn it quick.  It is about a 5 hour drive from Alice to Tennant so we get out and take a break for a little while at some rest places they have. some of them are funny, like I included a picture at the Wycliffe Well which is where they have had UFO sightings and stuff, and also devils marbles. There are just some cool places and a picture of church. I conducted at church this week, kind of interesting.

This area is actually a biking area, we just have a car to get from here to Alice and also Elliot.  So when we are in town we use our bikes. something that is pretty fun is that when you are on your bike, is there are just heaps of random cheeky dogs walking in the streets and in peoples yards and stuff.  As you ride past them they chase you. It is especially fun when you get a half dozen or more trying to chase you down.  You just got to kick them.

We are the only two missionaries in our own, just us and the aboriginals. ha.

It is hot here. When we were in Alice it was raining though. It is hotter up here then in the city.  We rent a little building for church.

I could describe Tennant Creek in one word, small, but I will give you a few more details. Very secluded, red dirt everywhere, so don’t expect me to come home with white shirts. ha. There is only one stop light and it isn’t at an intersection, it is for pedestrians.  There is only one grocery shop called Tennant food barn.  The only milk they have there is boxed and frozen bread.  We make our own meals but there are a couple of people that feed us. There are only like 20 streets in the whole town.  We email from the library,  I don’t know what else to say about it. It was a mining town.

I love you.

love elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

airgun = "how you going" with their accent it sounds like airgun. and if you meet someone and say airgun the right way they will answer you. because they think you said how you going. i have tried it a few times and it works.

Merry Christmas from Elder Hyde

All About Transfer Week

g'day family, from Alice Springs,

It has been a crazy but great week. For p day on Monday we had a zone activity where we played putt putt golf and then went to St. Kilda the adult adventure park.  It was pretty fun.  While we were there, I got a call from the assistant which was a surprise, they told me that I was packing 23. Which means you can only pack 23 kilograms which is 50 pounds. When you get that call you know that you are headed up to the northern territory. I was pretty stoked but at that time you still don’t know where you will be serving.  

So that night we spent a lot of time saying goodbye to some of the people that I became close to. There was one in particular that I became good friends with, she is like 70 years old and we called her grandma and stuff.  When we first met her, she had no interest in religion. We started to just joke around with her and her husband and they started to become really friendly but they still weren’t interested in our teachings at all.  So before I left I decided that I would write a simple testimony in a Book of Mormon to give to her.  After we dropped it off to her house, later that evening we got a call and she said that she enjoyed the testimony and said she would read the book. I was pretty excited when I heard that.  My simple testimony may have changed her heart a little bit which may lead to some future opportunities.  That was a good experience.

 
Then I was up late that night packing my stuff. Tuesday I had to meet with Pres. Poulton for a little interview to tell me about the area where I was going.  He told me that this area is reserved for only the very obedient because it is in the middle of nowhere, about 500 kilometers north of Alice Springs. a little town with the population of about 3000 called Tennant Creek.  So then I got on a flight and flew to Alice. I  did a bit of work in Alice that day.

Wednesday we did the five hour drive to Tennant Creek with my new companion Elder Tomadakis from Spanish Fork. Look up Tennant Creek on the map, there is only one stop light in the whole town.

We spent the rest of the time there in Tennant till Sunday after church we came back to Alice because President Poulton is coming tomorrow to give us training. Church is pretty cool but different, there were only about 8 people there, all but one was aboriginal. As missionaries we basically run church, I had to give a talk. We only do the sacrament meeting and sometimes Sunday School. I am on a limited amount of time right now but I have a little bit of time to answer quick questions if you want to ask any real quick. I will describe things a bit better next week about some of the stuff that we do up there.

We have a Toyota Corolla and in Tennant we have a big house. In Elliot, when we go, we will camp.

love yall.

love Elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:

ice block = popsicle

Blessings, Usual Day in Elizabeth Downs and Spiritual Experience.

g'day family,
We have transfer week this week and I am pretty nervous because I have been in this area a while now and I have come to love the area and the people in it, so we will see.
I gave a couple of blessings this week which was pretty cool because I hadn’t given any for a while.

I don’t think I have really told you about what a usually day is out here so I thought that I would describe a typical day in the Elizabeth Downs area. We start out at 6'30 in the morning and do exercise then shower and eat brekky then have our personal and companionship studies till 10'00. That is what we call a perfect morning. At 10 we leave the flat and usually that is the best time to get out on the street and just talk to everybody.  Sometimes we teach people in the morning but it is usually just trying to find people to teach during that time, sometimes we also do some service in the morning.  Then we come back at 12 and have some lunch. In the afternoon we usually have a couple set appointments to teach people and if not then we get out and talk to everyone again, or do some service and that is till about 5. We eat dinner either at the flat or usually with a member or an investigator.  Then at night is the perfect time to teach. We get back to the flat at 9 and plan for the next day. Then sleep at 10:30.  We eat sleep and live to find teach and baptize.

A pretty good spiritual experience this week was my companion and I decided that we needed to have more specific prayers. We decided on one of our investigators that we would pray for. He hadn’t really been progressing and doing anything that we asked him to do so that he would know for himself that what we are telling him is true. So we were praying a lot for him. When we went and visited him the next time he was doing a lot of research into the Book of Mormon and he was loving it. By small and simple things, great things come to pass. By simply making our prayers more specific a great change came to his desires.
Sorry I don’t have much more time because we are having a zone p day, but I love yall.
love elder Hyde

AUSSIE TERM OF THE WEEK:
cheeky = funny clever or mischievous, some people say that we are cheeky boys.

World's Largest Rocking Horse, Hot Weather and Investigators

g'day family,
Wonderful week for p day we went to the world biggest rocking horse.  It is funny. It is just this big rocking horse out in the middle of nowhere.  From the city it takes like 45 min to get there. It is in the Guinness book of world records, which is pretty cool.  Unfortunately it doesn’t actually rock though.  So that is what those pictures are of.

It is starting to get really hot here.  Like 90 degrees by 10 in the morning, then it just gets hotter through the day. Its good though because there are more people outside that we can talk to then.  Another bonus is we can take off our jackets. I  went on trade off with a hilarious Tongan elder this week, and he fell asleep at one of the lessons we were teaching, ha, because it was so hot in there, and the investigator was hard to understand because he was from Vietnam.  Not many people use air conditioners or coolers. Also while we were on trade off we walked around a lot and I didn’t have much to drink, so for lunch I bought some watermelon and ate 3 pounds of it.  After that I had to use the toilet a lot.

We got a new investigator from Nicaragua, so I asked him a little bit about the history and he kind of knew about the story that grandpa Hyde wrote his book about, with the president hiding some gold and stuff and that it was a pretty dangerous place to be at that time.
Did you have daylight savings yesterday, or I guess it is today for you?

That is sweet that Tyson Craven got his call.  Tell him congrats for me. I hope he is pumped, there is nothing better than serving the lord.
Love ya, have a good one.
love Elder Hyde