Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone has survived the holidays. It's been another great (and hot) week down in Sydney.

So yesterday was transfer meeting, and there've been some changes for our zone. I'm still in Summer Hill, but I have a new companion- Elder Bettridge. He's from Adelaide and is Aussie as! He seems pretty cool so far, hopefully we'll get along well. Elder Han got moved up to Kellyville, and the other 2 Elders in my flat left also! So it's been a big change. Also, I got called to be District Leader! Like what the heck?! It's going to be a lot of hard work, and even though I think President's crazy for asking me, I guess I better do what he says! haha. If any of you have any tips I'd love to hear them!

We met with Izac Sebastion this week. His dad wanted us to paint his house, but it was too hot, so instead I gave service by teaching Izac piano lessons! It was really fun. Afterwards they fed us some "Authentic Aboriginal Food". Elder Han asked what it was and this is how Alex (the dad) prefaced it: "I'm not going to tell you until after you eat it. I don't want you not to eat it, so taste it first and then I will tell you!". In my mind I was freaking out, but I decided that I have to at least try it. Anyways they made us this red curry with rice, it was really good but the meat was strange, really soft like fish. I was super worried it would be some sort of bizarre organ or something and was really apprehensive, but ate it anyways (Surprised, aren't you?!). After we ate, Alex told us what it was: snake! It was probably the last thing I was expecting, but I was definitely relieved to know it wasn't a liver or bladder, just a different kind of animal. So that was cool!

We had a miracle this week as far as investigators: We got a referral from the Ashfield Sisters (Chinese Speakers), it was this Egyptian man named Romario. When we met with him the lesson went incredibly; he bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon, how he knows it has to be true and how he feels the spirit when he reads it. Incredible. Hopefully he'll continue to keep that witness as we prepare him for baptism in the nest few weeks!

Christmas was great. It was really stormy and kind of cold, so it felt more like Christmas to me (even though all the Aussies were upset, haha). We had heaps of feeds, and they were all huge roasts and hams and all sorts of filling foods. I literally thought my stomach would burst by the end of the day, but it's part of the mission experience, right?

Boxing day was the best because I got to call home! A family in the ward let me use their house phone, it was super nice. Not to mention it was soo good to hear from you guys! Thanks so much for making my holiday the best.

Okay, so the Aussieism this week is small but I thought it was cool: They call "Ziplines", "Flying Foxes". Kind of a neat name!

And my spiritual thought. Literally 4 or 5 times this week, in conversation or trainings or talks, the scripture Ether 12:27 has come up, so I figured Heavenly Father's trying to tell me something! Haha. But as I read and studied it this week I realized that it says "weakness" not "weaknesses", which is really interesting. I think if you imagine it in the sense that weakness is like all our sins, all our imperfections, then it's kind of amazing to read it and think about how Heavenly Father has given us all weakness, or imperfection, so that we may be humble- puts a lot of importance on that quality, doesn't it? I know humility is something all of us, myself especially, can definitely improve on.

Well I hope your New Years starts of with a bang! Enjoy the holiday and be safe!

Much Love,

Elder Easton

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I hope you're all enjoying the cold, Christmasy weather. Down here we've had 3 consistent days of 40degrees+, and it doesn't look like it'll cool down anytime soon! Haha, I am constantly glistening- that is, in my sweat. I'm learning to love it, though!

Elder Han and I met up with Letitia this week. She's doing good, she heard about the Word of Wisdom and isn't too sure about that.. which is hard because she still doesn't have a testimony of God, so we're working around helping her with that. We also went and visited an old former, his name is Izac and he's 11. He's aboriginal which is super cool, his mom and brother are baptised but not active and his dad is Catholic, but all for his son getting baptised. We're actually meeting up again tonight, let's hope it goes well!

Our Christmas Conference was so much fun! I had no idea there are so many missionaries in my mission- I've kind of been stuck in my little zone bubble since I got here! I also received the parcels and mail you've all sent me, thank you so much!! It literally has made my month! Mom and Dad, thank you especially for the felt tree- you'll be proud to know it's sitting up on my desk! I'm glad I get to be a part of that missionary tradition. Anyways the conference was a blast, we got to watch "Ephraim's Rescue" (loved it) and had a little talent show and all sorts of stuff. The only downside was the elders in the flat made ME drive all the way back from Baulkham Hills in the rush hour traffic... it took 2 hours to get home!! Stress to the max!! 

Speaking of Christmas, I had a holiday surprise this week! So a few of the moms in the ward have been noticing that some of my shoes are starting to fall apart... and so three families, the Dalmans, Byrnes and Stokes chipped in together and bought me a brand new pair of Rockports!!! I couldn't believe it!!! They're beautiful and fit perfect. I think we can definitely agree I'm well taken care of and watched over here in Summer Hill.

Our recent convert, Harry, (the one who got baptised the first Saturday I was here) went home to China this week. It's kind of dodgy, the only thing the church had for Harry was an email for him to write to in order to get in contact with the church. I am sad he left, but know he'll do great things in hastening the work in China.

This week, Elder Han and I have done heaps of service projects, including helping people move, weeding and gardening, and of course, mowing lawns. I have to say it was actually kind of nice to be able to mow the lawn again (And it helps that the lawns are teensy over here). 

Well, that about sums up the work down under for the week! Here's my weekly "Aussie-ism":
In the Spirit of the Season, I thought I'd send you all a treat. "Urine" for a good one- just don't pee your pants! The first time I walked into the bathroom to, well you know, I was surprised to see that the urinals aren't at all like the ones in the States- in fact, it's just a metal wall and a trough that you just stand next to and go.. maybe this grosses you out but I thought it was hilarious! Definitely a culture shock for me. And don't worry, after 3 months of trying to sneakily get a picture of one, I finally have done it, so I've attached the Australian Urinal in all it's glory just for you. Merry Christmas!

And now for the Spiritual thought for the week:

I found a quote I really like from President Lorenzo Snow which I found really applicable for all of us. It goes, 
"Each last day or each last week should be the best that we have ever experienced, that is, we should advance ourselves a little every day, in knowledge and wisdom and in the ability to accomplish good. As we grow older, we should live nearer the Lord each following day."

Some good advice, if you ask me.

Enjoy the holidays!! Love you all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Cheers,

Elder Easton 

Cheers from Down Under

The first week of December has been off to a decent start! Elder Han and I have added a few more people to our teaching pool, including an old Aussie named Graham and a Korean named DK. Not much to report on their progression, because we've only just begun teaching them, but hopefully more exciting news will follow in the coming weeks!

With Christmas coming along, we've decided to do a little Christmas Activity every day to bring a little more of the holiday cheer. For example, one day last week I decked our flat out in paper snowflakes; another day we had milo and peppermint candy; a third day we sang carols to some ward members. It's been really fun to have something to look forward to each day! Speaking of singing, guess what I get to do? A member of our ward is the director of the newly formed institute/ysa Christmas Choir, and so she asked us to join it! We had to pull a few strings, but Elder Han and I are now the proud members of this little choir... yeah we're pretty terrible, but it's so fun to get to go and sing! It reminds me of last Christmas, singing in choir at school... has it already been a year since that happened?!

The weather has been beautiful this week, with the warm weather rolling in. It smells like summer more and more everyday- I love it! The one problem is that with the heat, the flies and mosquitoes have quadrupled. Since it's warming up, we spend more and more time in the park doing finding and talking to people. President Howes has actually implemented something called "The Survey". Just like the name suggests, it's a 3 minute survey we have that we can go and ask for peoples opinions about. It may sounds dumb, but the results of it have been INCREDIBLE! About 75% I've been able to get people to really open up about their beliefs and share some of ours.. some of the conversations I've had have even lasted for over an hour! It has kind of blown me away how a less threatening approach like a survey really gets people to be more comfortable around me, as well as more interested in what I have to share. It's great! I feel like using this survey more is really going to get our teaching pool up... let's hope so!

This month I've set a goal for myself to be a "Savior Centered Servant". With the Christmas season, I think it's a really great chance to focus extra hard on the Savior and what he has done and still does for all of us, so I decided to start reading "Jesus the Christ". Oh my goodness. It's been amazing! I've learned so much about Jesus already in the one week I've been reading it. I feel kind of bad I have never taken the opportunity to read it before, but I'm so grateful I can now! I especially have loved reading about the Antemortal Christ, how He was foreordained just like all of us for His role here on the earth. I'd definitely suggest reading a chapter or two from it when you get the chance, maybe even the part on Christ's birth! :)

As for the Australian quirk, I've just begun noticing that there are heaps of people who go shoeless. Like everywhere. In the store, on their bikes, on the train, mowing the lawn... you name it, they're barefoot. Kind of funny, although I can't imagine how many times they cut or skewer their feet. Maybe they're like hobbits? haha. 

Thanks again for all your prayers and love! Hope this is another enjoyable week as we all prep for Christmas.. whoo hoo!

Love,

Elder Easton

Another week down

Merry Christmas!

This has been a great week, as we've really gotten into the Christmas spirit. You'd never believe it, but I found "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" dvd in our flat! So we've been watching it at almost every member appointment we have. It's been really fun to watch the same movie we've watched every year since.. well since forever!

On Thursday we went to a Christmas party with a ward member, Richard Callcott. He was baptised about 5 years ago, and lives in a nursing home just up from the church. It was a party with all the old folks in his home, and it was a blast! We sang carols and ate pre-digested food (to help the older people swallow), but still very fun. He gets a bit lonely sometimes so it was really good to go and visit with him. He's a crackup!

On Sunday, Elder Han and I also got to sing in the Institute Choir because they "toured" over to our ward. We sounded pretty terrible, but still so great to get to sing. Everyone in the ward is really getting into the spirit of giving, and I love it because it means I get to be the recipient! Haha, looks like even in Australia, I still get a Christmas! ;)

Saturday we had our ward party. It started in the Afternoon with caroling at Richard's nursing home, after which we went to a park for a barbeque. It was so fun, heaps of food and good company. While "Santa" was getting dressed and grabbing the presents for the kids, the bishop asked Elder Han and I to play some games with the children to distract them. I decided to teach them "Mingle, Mingle, Mingle"! Uncle Jon, I'm proud to report that your game has made it all the way over to Australia! Haha, the little kids loved it- so much that even on Sunday they kept chasing me around to play it with them in the gym. So that was fun! 

Our recent convert, Harry, brought his non-member friend, Letitia (pronounced Latisha- yes, she's Chinese) to the party. On a whim we invited them to go to the Temple Lights up in Carlingford afterwards, and they agreed! Together with a member and her daughter, the 6 of us drove up to the Temple and took a look at the lights and displays. We watched a movie about Christ and then looked at a gallery of art depicting Christ's birth, life, and resurrection. It was a really spiritual experience- Letitia loved it, and even told us her favorite picture was Jesus getting baptised! At the end of the night we went up to the temple and looked at it while we talked about the Church and how we can feel so much peace, calm and comfort from it. Letitia expressed how she had a wonderful experience and just felt so much peace from going, and the best part being that she wanted to learn more! It was definitely a Christmas Miracle, because she was able to feel the spirit so strongly that she had a desire to meet with us again. We're meeting up with her on Wednesday, hopefully she'll become a new investigator!

As for our other investigators, unfortunately they've been dodgy this past week and we haven't gotten ahold of any of them... but of course we'll keep trying and hopefully see a few more Christmas Miracles leading up to the big day!

As for the "Aussie-isms" for this week: I'll share with you some speech patterns Aussies have. For one, they love to shorten words and add "ie" to the end. For example, Australians become "Aussies", Mosquitoes become "Mossies", and even Missionaries become "Mishies". Also, they love to say "aye" at the end of a sentence, such as "It's hot today, aye" or "Don't you love the gospel, aye!". The difference between Aussies and New Zealander's is that the NZ's say "Haye" instead of "Aye". Funny little things.

And finally, for the spiritual thought of the week: When you get a chance, read 2 Nephi 4. It's sometimes called "Nephi's Psalm", and is a beautiful chapter all about Nephi's testimony and growing in the gospel. My favorite verse in the chapter is 18- "Awake my soul! No longer droop in sin." I think Christmas time is as good as any to re-evaluate where we are with the Savior and to recommit ourselves to wake up a little and be more proactive in fostering our testimonies. I know I definitely can! 

Well folks, love you heaps and hope you have a great week! Talk to you soon,

Elder Easton

A Late Thanksgiving to you all

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hope your holiday season has started off well. Mine definitely has! It's been a great week, certainly getting heaps hotter down here. For Thanksgiving, us Elders thought we'd have a little celebration, so Elder Han cooked some chicken fried rice and cut up some fruit (the extent of fancy food for us missionaries). We did buy a stuffed chicken, but didn't realize the label said "30 minutes cooking time for EACH KG", not total... so we had to finish cooking it the next day. But still delicious. 

Since we're on the Holiday topic, I thought it would make you happy to know that I bought a little Christmas tree and some decorations! It has definitely brought that Christmas Spirit into our flat, even if there aren't any presents. Don't you worry, however, I have begun wrapping things up that are around the flat and planning to give them as gifts... let's just say I hope the Elders will be pleased to receive a slightly used spatula or a ball-pen from yours truly. Hehe. 

Not much progression with the investigators. One of our investigators, Sherry, just moved back to Kenya on Sunday, I was super disappointed. Pray that she continues to meet with the missionaries back in Africa!

Oh so I think you'd all find this interesting... after 2 months in the field, I finally had my first battle with a cheesy member dinner. Yes, it was about as cheesy as it can get- lasagna. I froze- what was I going to do? I prayed that I would be able to stomach it and that it wouldn't taste cheesy.. and I can testify that PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED! Haha. I hope (Mom and Dad especially) that it makes you proud that I ate a whole piece of lasagna. Now don't expect me to be able to do it when I get home- it was for the greater good, so I had no choice. 

Saturday was a really eventful day. Elder Han and I spent like 9 hours at the chapel. We helped with the baptism of a little girl in our ward, who's whole extended family are non-members. We got a few contacts, not to mention that her family is entirely Indian-Fijian, so I had some of the most authentic Indian food ever. Delicious. It was, however, on the spicy side... I grabbed a samosa (spelling?) because it looked fried, only to discover after I had pounded the first two that they were literally packages of LAVA! My mouth was on fire! Besides that, however, it was veeery delicious. After the baptism, the authentic food continued, but this time it was Korean. The Korean families in our ward planned a Korean fireside for all of the Koreans basically in Sydney, and quite a few came! It was wonderful language practice, not to mention the food- so good! It was really fun, I was able to talk about the basics with the Koreans, which I was really happy about. The only bad news we had about it is that at the beginning of the week, Elder Han and I had 12 Korean potentials lined up to come- by Saturday morning, every one had cancelled. Too bad.

Not much else to report. This month we're really focusing on preparing a gift for the Savior during the holiday season. Elder Han and I are ready to work extra hard to get a baptism this month! None are planned right now, but I believe in miracles!! There's also a light show and art exhibit up in Carlingford at the temple, and we are allowed to go if we bring an investigator. Pray that we'll find one to go with; I desperately want to go see it! Haha I love Christmas lights too dang much.

Australian Quirk: Okay this week I have two. 1- Real Estate is HUGE here. They have huge canvas posters in front of houses to advertise, and every Saturday there are humongous open houses everywhere. Real Estate is in high demand, and it's super pricey. A two bedroom flat in a decent area? $700,000. It's crazy! Oh then the 2- They say "Happy Christmas" here. Not sure how I feel about that one.

And spiritual thought: Proverbs 147:5. I found this scripture at the temple this morning. The happiest people on this earth are those who have hope in Him. 

Now go have a wonderful week preparing for Christmas! Enjoy the snow for me!!
Love,

Elder Easton

p.s. The Pictures: Thanksgiving and my Christmas Tree!!

oh p.p.s.- I Started driving this month!! scary!!! It was really hard at first, but I'm getting better! Pray I don't crash! Haha...

Another week gone by

G'day!

Another eventful week has gone by. There's not a whole lot to report this week- Doris is still our investigator, but she's pushed back her baptism. She's dealing with a lot of things lately with her roommate and her family (we fond out she has a husband and children, but they live in America!), so she has some issues to sort out before she can prepare herself for baptism. Hopefully she'll keep letting us come over!

We did meet a lot of potential this week. I met a girl on the train named Sherilyn, and she's golden, but unfortunately she left later in the week to go home to China for holiday break. She said she wants to meet with us again when she gets back, but that's not until March, so it won't be for awhile. We also met a man named Denis, he's also Chinese and is pretty golden as well. Luckily for us he's staying, so we'll get to see him a lot more often! He is agnostic but has a lot of christian friends, and wants to find out for himself if it's true or not. Pretty perfect, wouldn't you say?!

Elder Han and I did quite a bit of finding this week in Strathfield, which is like the little Korea Town of Sydney. I was super happy to be able to finally practice my Korean, but unfortunately it's not where I would like it to be.. haha. I was able to share a message in Korean, but I didn't know what the heck anyone's response was. I think it was a good wake up call for me though, and is really getting me motivated to study harder! Even with the language barrier, we did manage to get in contact with two Korean guys, Min Jae and DK, both of whom don't speak English.. and so we get to teach them!! I'm super stoked about that, because that means I'll get them to teach me Korean in return. Speaking of learning Korean, our Korean Teacher, Shin Ha-seon, left home for Korea yesterday. It was really hard to say goodbye to her, because she had become our really good friend. She promised though that if I ever went to Korea, she'd show me around! I think that settles it- Mom and Dad, better start saving up to go to Korea for the 2016 Olympics!!

One other piece of news you may find funny- I tried baking cookies for mutual on Wednesday. I started making chocolate chip cookies, but we didn't have enough butter, or chocolate chips, or flour.. but I didn't know that until I had already started making them, so I improvised and put some other things in just to try to fix it. I have never realized how convenient mixers are until I tried mixing without one! Needless to say they were more than a little grainy.. anyways I wasn't sure how they were going to taste, but I took them to mutual anyways and turns out they were alright! I was more than a little surprised, but happy that they weren't terrible.. just a little interesting! Haha. I figured it might make Mom proud to know I attempted baking, and that it didn't end in a disaster.. rather unusual for me! 

Other than that, a fairly uneventful week. Here's the Australian culture tidbit of the week: All the bogans (aka country people; hicks; super outback-Australians) say "Fair Dinkin" almost every other word! I'm not even entirely sure what it means, and I don't think they do either, but it's just a slang word they use for everything, good or bad. Example: "This fair dinkin weather is great. I'm so fair dinkin tired I'm gonna rest on that fair dinkin bed, fair dinkin." Make sense? Yeah, it doesn't to me either.. but it's pretty fair dinkin hilarious!

And now for the Spiritual thought. This week especially, Elder Han and I have really been focusing on helping less-actives come back to church, and inviting our investigators to come to church. The scripture we've often shared is Moroni 6:4-6. It talks about the reasons we go to church: to be nourished by the word of God, to talk with and strengthen friends, and to take the sacrament. When we don't go to church, we miss out on these great things, the most important of which is the sacrament. How insignificant it may seem, going to church is one of the most important things we can do to keep us spiritually uplifted and resistant to temptation. Also, through the sacrament we can repent and renew our covenants... sounds pretty great to me. I think if we all really understood what it means to go to church, then there'd be no barrier to big to keep us from getting to the meeetinghouse every week. Just food for thought.

Hope all is well on the other end of the world! Have a great week, and enjoy Thanksgiving! (I almost forgot- isn't it this week??). Get fat on the eats for me!

Love you all,

Elder Easton

Another Week Down Under

Hello Everyone!

This week has had a HUGE amount of rain. It's rained almost every day, and BUCKETS. It's actually been a blessing for the bush fires, but it's also been really wet.. haha. Being the saavy spender that you all know I am, I decided not to buy an umbrella or rain jacket because as soon as I did I know it would stop raining... anyways I've had that logic for about 7 days now, so maybe I'll finally buy one today! 

Oh really quickly- sorry about emailing a day late! It was transfers this week and so our p-day got moved a day later. One of my zone leaders and another missionary in my district finished this transfer, and it was really weird saying goodbye to them! My district leader transfered, but besides those three everyone's still here! I'm glad I get to be with Elder Han still, and I love Summer Hill area, so all is good with me!

Some great news about Doris: we got her back! Elder Han and I decided last week just to stop by and give her some fruit and see what happens, and we ended up teaching a lesson and recommitting her to baptism! It was great news.

On Wednesday we had a "District Activity" to close off our transfer. One companionship in my district is in the Eastlakes Ward, which is a Tongan-speaking ward, and so we got invited to go over for one of their sports nights. I played footie for the first time, and it was so much fun! I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty frightening having giant Tongan men running at you, and for me it was basically dodgeball, except the ball was 50 some odd Tongan men, but still a blast. I also had "O-Ty" for the first time, a slushy drink that was basically milk with chunks and juice of watermelon, passionfruit, cantelope, etc. It was SO GOOD! I can understand why Tongans tend to be... larger, though, because when I sat down to drink, as soon as my cup would even start to look empty they'd take it while asking "Do you want more?" and fill it up no matter what I said. It was pretty funny, and I loved it! The best part about O-Ty is that they made it in a giant storage bin, so there was literally gallons of it, and it was completely gone by the end! Haha! The Tongan people are so loving. I'm so glad I get to experience a million different cultures here!!

My Korean teacher, Shin Ha-seon, leaves for Korea on Sunday, which I'm super sad about! She has helped me so much with learning the language! Hopefully I'll find someone else to submit to teaching us soon. I have actually met quite a few Korean students this week, but with the school year ending for all the unis, everyone's going back home! So finding's been a little tough, but hopefully once summer school gets going there'll be more students to prey on and teach, hehe.

Here's the Australian quirk of the week:

I'm about to get a little personal, but I feel like we're all at that level so it's good. I just can't hold in the strangest thing that I've found so far about Australia- my pee smells so weird! Maybe it's the water or perhaps my diet, but it just smells so strange. So be warned, if you ever come to Australia, you may be surprised at the distinctly different aroma in the bathrooms. TMI? Haha just had to put it out there!

And finally a spiritual thought for the week: 1 Nephi 21:15-16. I love the line "I will not forget thee". Heavenly Father knows who each of are and where we are at in life. He loves us literally so much that it's impossible for Him to forget about us. So turn to Him, because He will always be there. I came across this scripture one night this week where I was kind of feeling a little downhearted and lonely. It's incredible how the Lord works and helps us when we need it most. I have no doubt in my mind that He is real and He lives!

Love you all and talk to you soon,

Elder Easton

Subject: Week 5 Down Under

Another Week flies by!

This week has been a really humbling one for me. Our only two investigators, Monica and Doris, both dropped us this week. As you can imagine it was pretty hard to lose both of them this week, but we are keeping our spirits high! We did meet a man who's super ready for the gospel. His name's Malcolm, and he looks just like Eeyore.. haha. But he's really awesome and committed to be baptized, come to church, and give up smoking all at once! It was pretty incredible to see his faith. Unfortunately we found out he lives in the South Mission, so we have to refer him over to the South Missionaries.. which means we're back to square one. But it's all good- just another chance to start a clean slate!

Another really humbling experience I had was at church yesterday. The sacrament pianist hadn't showed up yet and so they asked me to play some prelude piano, which was no big deal. I played until church began and then was super surprised when they announced that I'D be the sacrament pianist!! I was really confused. So I get up there to play the first song, and it's "Have I Done Any Good". It's one of the hardest songs in the hymnbook, and I'd never played it before, so I totally smashed it. Like badly. It was actually pretty funny, and definitely humbling for me. Thankfully a lady took pity on me and came up and offered to play the rest of sacrament, which I happily obliged to. Later in sacrament I was giving a talk, when I referred to a conference talk in the Ensign and realized- I grabbed the wrong Ensign! I was really flustered and tried to tell the story from memory, which was pretty bad. Here's the funniest part- it actually WAS the right Ensign, I just confused myself up on the stand and got mixed up! Haha. I definitely think Heavenly Father must've been trying to teach me something yesterday!

This week I got to go do Driver's Training to get "certified" to drive a mission vehicle. It was the strangest experience I've ever had. Not driving for 3 months, on top of driving on the opposite side, threw me for a loop! The weirdest parts are that the blinkers and the ignition key-slot are on the other side, but the pedals are still the same. Weird. Thankfully I passed the training! But I won't drive until December.

One other funny thing. There was a former investigator who dropped the missionaries right before I came, but still comes to church and does activities and stuff... it's a complicated situation. Anyways we offered to come by with some cake and then I could get to know her (playing on my newbie-ness to meet with her again, haha). We stopped by this week with the cake, and as we read the label right as we got there... it was Tirimisu Cake, aka chock full of coffee! What are the chances! Haha it ended up all good, she had TimTams so we ate those instead.

So here's the weekly Australian Culture Tidbit: Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE (Islanders, Asians, Aussies) are obsessed with ice cream and canned peaches. I've had it almost everytime we go to someone's house. It doesnt matter what kind of ice cream: I've had it with vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, caramel, anything- and peaches! Haha I'd never had that combination before, but it's actually pretty good.

Okay so two other tidbits: They spell "Tires", "Tyres" and "Curb", "Kerb". Thought those were pretty funny.

And finally for the spiritual thought: Read 3 Nephi 1:6 and then 3 Nephi1:13. This was right before Christ came to the Americas, when the believers were about to be put to death by the non-believers because the prophecies hadn't been fufilled. In verse 6 the non-believers tell the faithful that their "faith hath been in vain." Yet I love the comfort that Christ gives to them in verse 13, to "Lift up your head and be of good cheer". I think there are times in all of our lives where out faith is put to the test- and sometimes it seems like our Savior isn't going to pull through. Even so, I promise that if we continue to put our faith in Christ and to ask for the strength that we need to overcome our challenges and trials (even when we think we can't), that He will reassure us to "Lift up our heads and be of good cheer". I promise that.

Well, love you all and enjoy your week! Don't forget to enjoy the snow for me.

Cheers,

Elder Easton

How many weeks has it been?

G'day! Yet another week has passed, and it's been great! Here's an update on current investigators:

Monica is still Golden. She didn't make it to church yesterday, but still has a super strong desire to learn more. We taught the Plan of Salvation last week and she didn't have any questions!! It just made sense to her... like I said, golden! 

Doris came to church yesterday, and loved it. The whole ward really fellowshipped and talked to her, which was a blessing on High. She's planning on getting baptized at the end of the month, but we've still got a lot to teach her. Pray that she'll continue to understand everything we teach her!

...and that's about it! Elder Han and I have really been trying to increase our teaching pool, but to no avail. Hopefully after some more contacting this week, we'll have more investigators! I did find a potential last week, kind of a fun story. The Zone Leaders borrowed our car for a day so Elder Han and I were using the train and bus. We were in Strathfield (aka Koreatown) and a little old lady came and sat near me at the bus stop. Elder Han was on the phone, so I decided to give it a try and talk to her. Her name's Ki Ju, she's from Seoul and is so nice!! I tried to speak in Korean and she just laughed, but apparently it made an impression. When Elder Han came over she told him (in Korean, so I didn't understand until later) that she thought I was a cute white boy and so she was going to take us out to lunch later in the week. We grabbed her mobile and met up with her a few days later. This time she was with an even older lady, her 80-year sister (still unsure of her name). Ki Ju's sister was KOREAN AS, it was awesome. Anyways these two ladies walked us over to a Korean restaurant and we had lunch. It was delicious Korean food, but kind of awkward. We all just sat there and ate, whenever I tried to talk the conversation died right away... I felt kinda bad about it because when I asked if we could share a message, they said "Call us and do it", so we didn't even talk to them about the gospel.. However, at the end of the meal, Ki Ju said "I'll take you out again next month!". Elder Han told me after that the Ladies were kind of testing us, and we passed! So I guess that was good! Hopefully we'll get to visit them before next month and practice our Korean.. but there's definitely still hope!

Along the lines of the car being gone, you'd be proud to know that we biked to our last appointment that day, and it was an hour away! I actually really enjoyed it, the biking was really fun (Except I had helmet hair.. haha).

Oh! So this week I had my first Bible-bashing experience! We showed up at this referral's house, he was an older man but seemed really nice. Anyways we sat down and he had his Book of Mormon and Bibles on the table and a paper with a bunch of notes... and for the next hour we totally got smashed. He sat down and the first thing he said was "Okay. Convince me Mormonism is truth. What's your argument?". We told him we weren't here to argue, just to testify, which we did. He went off about prophets and other dumb stuff and we just testified again, but he even challenged our testimonies saying that "You can't KNOW it's true because it's based on feelings, not fact" or something. I think his problem was he just didn't believe you could come to know something only by feelings, but rather by logic (He also happened to have a Philosophy degree... joy). Well we took the advice of Joseph and "Got out of there" pretty quickly. It was funny for me, it actually turned out to be a real testimony building experience. It showed to me exactly how Satan works into people to make them "logic out" the truth, to ignore the Spirit because it's not "intellectually correct". I guess he was just a living example of how the wise are the foolish.

Halloween was fun, not as exciting as in the States. On the bright side, Elder Han and I got a brand new car! Our car was the 2nd oldest in the mission, and so they went and bought new ones so ours got phased out. It's a 2013 Toyota Corolla and only had 50 Ks on it when we got it... not to mention that New Car Smell, mmm.

On Saturday night, I probably had the best experience of the week. Hyde Park, the YSA ward in the city, gave Elder Han and I a list of their members who live in our area. Since we are more mobile than the missionaries in the city (they're stuck in a little area), and the YSA has practically no Home Teachers, the bishop asked Elder Han and I to go visit some of the Less Active members and check up on them. After calling down almost the whole list, this girl named Sabrina answered and said she was available that evening if we wanted to stop by, which was really surprising. We planned to teach her about going to church and how it can help us in day-to-day life, since we figured she was probably just less active. We got to her lesson and began talking to her, and she had such a firm testimony. She had been converted like 15 years previous, and was way more knowledgeable than I was in the gospel... needless to say she wasn't less active and seemed to be strong in every area of the gospel. I had no idea why were there. Then I just felt like I should share D/C 4:2. Elder Han read it, about putting your whole heart, might, mind and strength into the Lord's work. Sabrina looked up from the scriptures and had tears flowing down her face. I don't remember what I told her, but I know that whatever I did say, it was exactly what she needed. She later told us that she was really struggling with some trials right now and was really surprised when we called her, because she had been sinking really low that day and needed help. I then told her that the missionaries will always there to be the priesthood she needs (she's a single lady), and I gave her a blessing. Needless to say we were all in tears and it was a very spiritual experience. It amazed me that the Lord really does know each of us and wants to help us- I had no idea when we went over why we needed to be there, but through us He was able to help Sabrina. It was such a humbling experience to be able to have the Lord work through me to bless someone in need; I guess for the first time, I kind of experienced what it means when the scriptures tell us to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I know that it's experiences like Saturday night that remind me why I'm on a mission.

Well, I love you all lots! Thanks again for all the love and support. The work goes on!

Love Elder Easton

p.s. Spiritual thought for the week: Alma 38:5.

p.p.s. Australian quirk of the week: No one serves ice... like what the heck?!?

Talk to you all in a week!

Another Week Down Under

G'day!

It's hard to believe that I've been in Australia for nearly a month now! Holy smokes! Time sure flies, doesn't it? This week started off great because we all got a "special zone activity" for keeping our driving records clean for a month, haha. We headed down to Darling Harbour and got to see a documentary called "Hidden Universe" on the IMax screen!! It was super fun, but I felt really weird wearing normal clothes and going to a movie theater, ya know? Still fun.

So the most exciting news I have: Our investigator, Angeliki, got baptized on Saturday! It was a wonderful baptism, albeit the water was FREEZING! She was really ready though, it warmed my heart to really begin to see the fruits of our labors and to be reminded of why we do missionary work: to bring others home. Unfortunately on Saturday night, she got really sick, so she didn't come to church on Friday.. haha so she's yet to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost! But other than that everything went smoothly.

Another update on an investigator: Doris committed to baptism this week! We taught her about the Restoration and it all made sense to her, and she said she wanted to get baptized. The Spirit was so strong during our lesson, it was incredible! Her date's set for the 23rd of November so hopefully we'll keep her getting ready for that day. 

As for other incredible teaching experiences, Elder Han and I visit this way less active family every week. During our lesson this week the Spirit was super strong, I'm convinced you could cut it with a knife. We felt super good about our lesson, like probably the best lesson we've ever had. And then a miracle occurred: after a month of visiting them, they came to church FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS. It was incredible- at church everyone was crying and they were crying and it was just wonderful. What a great feeling it is to rejoice in the return of our brothers and sisters!!

On Saturday night we had a ward Trunk-or-Treat party. It was a blast! I'd say it could even rival the ward parties in Utah.. hehe. I got one of the elders to hide in our trunk and when the kids would come for candy, he'd pop out and scare them. It was pretty funny. We have some kind of dreary looking pass-along cards that are in black and white and say things like "What happens after I die?" or "Will our marriage continue after we die?" and morbid stuff like that, so we passed those out to the little kids. To top it all off, I thought I was hilarious and passed out candy canes to everyone, saying "Merry Christmas!". I think I was the only one who thought I was funny, everyone else just thought I was legitimately all mixed up about the holidays. Haha.

Okay so time to talk about Sunday. It was our Ward Conference, and as such there was an enormous feed afterwards, with tons of food and ice cream and all manner of deliciousness. During Sunday School we went to the Korean class, which consists of 3 Korean women and 1 Korean man, and only one of them can speak English.. anyways they loved having us there, but I think they found a little too much joy in picking on me to do things. They kept calling on me and then smirking as I tried to read a sentence or say a thought... but hey, it was super awesome for me because it meant more practice! I actually loved going, just being able to hear them speak even though I knew maybe one word out of fifty. Little steps, right? They were all very gracious to me, however, and invited me back for next week. Hallelujah! 

So there're the highlights of my week. Most of my days so far have been studies in the morning, driving around all day either visiting members, teaching investigators, or going to the park and tracking down the Asians, then coming home and planning. Wash, rinse, repeat. I actually really like it, I'm meeting some sweet as people down here. We get fed about 3 or 4 nights a week which is super nice, oh which reminds me! There's a family who recently moved from Provo in our ward, they had us for dinner the other night and guess what they made? Homemade Cafe Rio! It was like a little taste of home. Loved it.

So time for some weekly Australian quirks:

1. Popsicles are called Iceblocks. Cilantro is Coriandor. Bell Peppers are Capsicum.

2. When there are workers working to cut trees down (like for powerlines and stuff), they put out signs that say "Tree Lopping". It just sounds really funny to me.

3. Sometimes being here feels like a blast into the past. For example the gas pumps aren't digitalized, meaning there are little number things that flip around to count how much gas you have used and then you have to pay inside. Also, credit cards must be a fairly new thing here- most places don't take them! That has really surprised me, especially for food joints and other stores. Also, no one has "Air Con" (AC) here... now I know what it feels like to grow up like Mom and Dad!!

And finally a Spiritual thought for the week. Every day we drive by a billboard sign that says "If you believe you can, you can." It has really gotten me thinking and reminded me of another quote "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right". How often do we limit ourselves because we simply think we aren't capable? I know in missionary work it's super easy to do that. Too often I've thought that I'm too new to teach well, too inexperienced to be bold with investigators, or too weak to meet high goals and expectations. But really the only things keeping me back are my own limits. The beautiful thing is that when you strive to follow the Spirit, stay close to the Lord in prayer, and read your scriptures, you can do ANYTHING! I know I'm learning every day that it's true. I challenge everyone reading this this week to take something that you feel you can't do, can't overcome, take it to the Lord and His Atonement, and then tell yourself I CAN! Because I know that indeed you can. 

Well, love you all heaps! God bless and have a great week!

Elder Easton

Hello Again!!

Yet another week's gone by Down Under!

The bush fires have been going nuts down here. They're not anywhere close to me, but the smoke travels down and covers the sky. Everything smells like campfire! So that's weird. The other day it turned the sun dark red, which was super cool! It's pretty sad actually, over 100 houses have been lost... luckily no lives though!

So the work is really getting started down here in Summer Hill. Last week Elder Han and I really cranked out the lessons, and it's starting to pay off!! Whoo hoo! One of our investigators, Angelikki (I forget if I told you about her) is getting baptized on Saturday, and she asked me to baptize her! Which I'm super excited about. Angelikki is awesome, I'm super excited for her! She wanted to get baptized ASAP after our first lesson, so we taught her every day last week and every day this week. So basically she'll be a 3-week convert, which is awesome.

I'm really starting to get to know my ward, which has been a blast. The one problem is there're a ton of islanders, which means-yep, you guessed it- they feed us all HEAPS, and boy am I packin on those pounds!! Haha but oooh it's tasty! I also found some Korean members in our ward and forced them to talk to me. All the Korean members kind of stick to themselves in our ward, so I could tell it was uncomfortable for them but I still made them practice with me. He he he. Sooner or later I'll get them to cook Korean food for me too, I'll have to let you know how that goes.

Speaking of the ward, playing piano in primary was SO MUCH FUN! I had forgotten how lively kids are! It's definitely more fun than sitting in Sunday School.. haha. They only have a keyboard and it doesn't have a pedal, so it was kind of weird to get used to at first but I  think I'm getting the hang of it. Oh and mom, there's a primary songbook in my flat so I got hold of one! No worries.

So new updates on the subtle differences in Australia:

1. They don't have single grocery stores, everything's in malls (and there are malls EVERYWHERE). Even funnier, the escalators in the malls are all giant ramps so you can get your shopping cart (aka trolley) up and down the levels. 

2. Speaking of stores, here are the stores that they have one literally every single block: Thai Massages, Beauty Salons, and Gyms. Like literally. Everywhere.

3. And the last one for the week: Every single park here is BEAUTIFUL! They keep ridiculously good care of all their parks, with fountains and benches and the whole shebang. Which is really nice cause Elder Han and I spend a ton of time finding at the parks, haha. 

Not much other news than that, haha. Doris came to church this week, she's darling as always. Every week when we meet she brings tons of treats and cakes, it's the best! Monica is still golden. She's doing everything she's supposed to, and it's so great because the gospel just makes sense to her. She's coming to church this Sunday so we'll see how it goes!

So spiritual thought for the week: just wanted to share a scripture, Alma 37:35-37. It's a great reminder :)

Thanks again for all your prayers, everyone! The work here continues to grow. I'm falling more and more in love with Australia every day. This is what we always tell our members: Remember CPR, Church, Prayer, and Reading Scriptures. Love you all and peace out!!

Elder Easton

I come from the Land Down Under!

G'day Everyone!

It's been a great week as I've become more adjusted to life down here in the bush. It gets hotter and hotter everyday, with the peak being last Friday at 37degrees Celcius (I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit), but it was a boiler! It's going to be a hot summer, I can tell you that! Haha. 

Elder Han and I did a lot of finding this week (aka street contacting) and have a few potential investigators, which is awesome. We also have some referrals, one of which being a Jehovah's Witness named Jacob. He is quite the character and really funny, when he first started talking to us he went off about all sorts of Conspiracy theories... it was hilarious. Thankfully we were able to talk to him a little bit about the gospel after his rantings and he's reading the Book of Mormon now!

Another investigator we started teaching this week is named Monica. She's a uni student from China and we met her in the park. Anyways she didn't have hardly any religious background but wanted to know more about God. At the end of our lesson we committed her to baptism... and she said yes! Even without knowing just about anything about the Church, her sincerity to understand and grow closer to God is definitely a miracle! She's what we all call a "Golden Investigator". Hopefully as we continue to teach her she'll keep that desire. Monica was for sure the highlight of my week.

The third investigator we're teaching is this 64-year-old Aussie named Doris. She'd walk by a member's office window everyday and so eventually he got to know her and gave her a Book of Mormon, and finally invited her to meet with the missionaries. She suffered from a stroke a few years ago and has had to teach herself how to talk again, so her speech is a little hard to understand but she's the sweetest old lady ever. I think she's just really lonely and wants friends and happiness around her, which is great because that's what our church is all about!! We're meeting with her again this week, pray that she'll decide to come to church!! I think that would be really good for her.

Because of the time zone differences, we watched General Conference this past weekend. It was so weird to me to go to the Chapel and watch all the sessions being broadcasted there. Loads different from that Utah life, haha. When everyone asked me how Conference was done in the States they were all astounded that we just watched it at home! I thought that was pretty funny. Conference was of course AMAZING, I loved the messages shared and thought it really applied to me as a missionary. I don't know about all of you, but I sensed an overall theme of bearing burdens and turning to the Lord for help. I loved it. While it's impossible to pick favorites, I'd have to say one of the best ones I heard was from Edward Dube of the 70, to "not look back" and how "Faith always looks forward". I think it was a great reminder to always be diligent in serving the Lord and not becoming complacent. Overall, it was one of the most spiritual and inspiring conferences I've ever listened to, and it made me kind of sad when President Monson said "Conference is now over". Can't wait for the Ensign to come out now!! haha.

So now for the most exciting news of the week (well, for me). I played prelude for all the General Conference Sessions, and on Sunday the Primary President came up to me and told me they hadn't had a pianist in primary for years, and if I would be willing to play for them. I was so exited!!! I'm now unofficially the Primary pianist, I think that would've made Grandma Easton so proud :)

Well, I hope everyone keeps trekkin' along this week! Thanks so much for all you do for me, and know that I love you!

Cheers, 

Elder Easton

Matt's new address

Here is the information that I have on Matts address:

 

	Physical-(for shipping parcels) 756 Pennant Hills Rd Carlingford NSW  2118 Australia
	Mailing-(letters & postal box) P.O. Box 2723 Carlingford NSW 2118 Australia

Of course the best way to contact him is by e-mail: Matthew.Easton@myldsmail.net

Well, Here I Am!

G'day Everyone!

Well, I'm officially here in Australia. I can't believe I'm already here! I realize I haven't been able to write in over a week, so I'll try to catch you up as best as I can.

Leaving the MTC was a lot harder than I'd expected. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone in my district as well as my teachers. I couldn't believe I had already been there for two months! It finally hit me when I got to the airport that I was saying goodbye to Utah for the next two years! It was nice to see my mountains again one last time before I peaced out.

The plane ride wasn't bad at all, I slept for a lot of it (surprise surprise) but tried my best to get adjusted to Australia time while on the plane. I was super lucky and didn't have hardly any jet lag (thanks for the advice, Dad!) so it has been easy getting acclimated to Australia time. It was so wonderful to talk to everyone on the phone, I'm so glad to hear you are all doing so well!

Once I got off the plane I met President Howes (pronounced House) and his wife, and they took us to the mission home where we camped out for most of the day.The first missionary I met there was Elder Esplin, he was an SBO at Brighton when I was a sophomore (so Katie's age) and I was on sem council with his sister, Olivia! Small world, isn't it?! He was going to be a trainer and had about a 30% chance of training me, but instead I got assigned to Elder Han. Elder Han is awesome, he left the MTC the week I went in, so he's about 2 months ahead of me. He learned Korean in the MTC too, and his teacher was actually the same as mine! It's hard to practice Korean (especially since there aren't really any Koreans in our area), but we still try to study it. Since transfers didn't happen for a few days after I got here, I was actually assigned to a trio, Elder Han and his trainer, Elder Jun. Elder Jun is from Korea which was great, but his English is perfect and he didn't like speaking Korean at all.. but that's okay! He just got transferred yesterday to a new area so now it's just me and Elder Han.

So the first area I've been assigned to is Summer Hill. It's the southernmost district in our Mission, and it actually covers part of the city which is super fun. I love this area a lot, the ward is awesome and very diverse. There's lots of Tongans, Islanders and Asians (mostly Chinese). Native Aussies are actually really unreceptive to the gospel, so most of the new converts and investigators are Asian students.

So, as I'm sure all of you would like to know, here are some of the main differences of Australia to America:

-THEY DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE! Haha I'm sure you all already knew that, but I've had so many mental car crashes from thinking everyone's going the wrong way.

-The Street Lights don't hang over the street, they stick straight up from poles on the side. Kind of different.

-All the trees in the suburbs don't grow by the sidewalk, but are planted straight in the street (I'll take a picture sometime and send it to you)

-The birds make the WEIRDEST sounds. I feel like I'm on another planet!

-There are millions of different kinds of trees, and right now they're all flowering, which is actually very pretty.

And no, for some of the Aussie-slang I've picked up:

Boot=Trunk (like of a car)

Hectic=cool/good

Flat=Apartment

Biscuit=Cookie

Sauce=Ketchup 

Mackers=McDonalds

Gas (for the Car)=Petrol

and may favorite so far is this slang format everyone uses for just about anything. If you want to say something's sweet, you'd say "Sweet As", which means like "Sweet As Pie" but they drop the pie, so it sounds like you're swearing which is pretty funny. They say things like "Cool as", "Hectic as", "Sad as", so on and so forth. I can't get myself to say it because it's too dang close to swearing, but it's hilarious to hear all the missionaries say it.

So exciting news! I got a baptism! Haha well kind of. Elder Han and Elder Jun had been teaching this Chinese Student, Harry, and he got baptized on Saturday so I got to go to his baptism. Very cool. He's a golden investigator and it's been sweet getting to know him better.

So there's my first impression of Australia! The weather's a bit chilly, but it's warming up slowly. I haven't seen any Kangaroos or Koalas yet, but I'll keep my eye out. I love it so far, and I'll let you know as soon as we find some more investigators to teach! Thanks for all you prayers and thoughts. God Speed!

Cheers,

Elder Easton

Matt arrived in Sydney!!!

Week 9

Subject: Week 9

Hey Everyone!!

It's official: this is my last P-day in America!! I am so excited! With my stay at the MTC coming to a close, I thought it might be nice to highlight 10 of my favorite things about the MTC. Sound okay?

1. My District. They're just plain incredible!

2. The grounds. The buildings may be a trillion years old, but they keep really good care of them, and the gardening could rival Temple Square's!

3. Temple Days. Getting to go to the temple every single week has been such a blessing. Why did I never do it every week before?!

4. My Teachers. They are so awesome!

5. The Ridiculously cheap book store. No tax AND a 40% discount?! I'm in!

6. Wednesdays- ice cream from BYU creamery.

7. Making fun of all the Mandarin Speakers across the hall!

8. Having Devotionals twice a week

9. Sitting right by the window so I could watch the leaves change.

And my most favorite thing....

10. THE FOOD! ... .. 

Okay maybe not.. hehe. Actually my favorite thing has been being surrounded by literally thousands of people all desiring to be missionaries and who love the gospel! Cheesy? Yes, but so true!

These past two months have been SO much fun, I've learned more about myself, the gospel, and Korean in 8 weeks than I think I could've in a whole year at home. Crazy how that works.

So, time to highlight the events of the week. I think I'll start with the most exciting: I went to the Hospital! Don't worry, it wasn't for me, one of the Native Koreans was having chest pains Tuesday night, and the Branch Presidency asked me to go with him to 'interpret' (aka talk to the doctors) because none of his companions speak English. I think they forgot I had been released as Zone Leader on Sunday so it wasn't really my job, but I took the opportunity to leave campus and said sure! I rode in a car for the first time in 2 months.. and it was the weirdest experience ever. We got to the hospital around 9 and waited, then waited, and waited.. they finally did some ex-rays and such and I waited some more, haha. It was literally the most bizarre thing seeing normal people in normal clothes! I felt so out of place, but at the same time it was fun to get away from campus for a while. At around 12:30they came and told us they didn't find anything wrong, so they gave him some IBprofun and sent us back! My leave was short-lived, but fun nonetheless. I do have to put something in here for my cousin (you know who you are): the security guards took us to the hospital and back, and I talked to them about the security issues and such at the MTC. They said they have people try to sneak in all the time, but they "always" catch them! I had to smile, because it seems like you finally cracked the code! haha.

On Monday I had the awesome opportunity to sing at the Couples Missionary Orientation. I sang "Here Am I, Send Me". It was so great to get to share my singing with others, thanks again Shelley for sending the music to me!

Yesterday we had In-Field orientation. Everyone always talks about how much they hate it, but I actually loved it! They had us go around to different rooms and learn about using our planner, working with Ward Mission Leaders, and adjusting to the field. It really got me pumped to leave! For those of you who have seen "The District" (the LDS Reality series that followed missionaries around and filmed them teaching, every pre-missionary has to watch them), I'm excited to tell you I MET THE BLUE CHAIR MISSIONARY! For those who don't know what that means, basically there was one episode where this crazy elder made some random comment about how he wished he was a blue chair.. anyways my mission prep class always made fun of him, and it turns out he works at the MTC! It's about as close as I've ever gotten to meeting a celebrity, haha.

This week my teacher, Brother Madsen, assigned us all to study up on a Christ-like attribute and then share it with the class. My attribute was Hope, and it was so cool to be able to focus all my studying on that. I think as I go into the field, and really for all of us (no matter what stage of life we're in) to always have hope. I guess I had thought hope was to wish or to desire, but in a gospel sense it's more like trust, having perfect faith that everything is going to work out because you have a testimony that God keeps His promises. Very cool. 

This upcoming week I've decided to study about the attribute of diligence. I would love to hear from all of you about any insights or thoughts you have about it, maybe even a scripture or two! 

Well, the time comes to peace out. Next time you hear from me, I'll be halfway around the world! Whoo hoo!!

Love you all,

Elder Easton

Week 8

Subject: Week 8

Hey All,

 Looks likes I'm one week closer to heading out to the field! I am here to tell you that miracles do happen... because MY VISA CAME IN! Hallelujah! At least I think it did, I got my travel plans today!! I leave on the 30th at 6:10pm to LAX, where I get in at 7:05. I have a lay-over there until 10:10 pm, and then it's a straight shot to Sydney where I arrive at 6:10 am October 2nd! I am so excited!! It's going to be an anxious week for me, getting ready to peace out! 

 In other news, a weird thing happened last Sunday. Instead of being released as Zone Leader, they kept both Elder South and I in and called a third Zone Leader, Elder Nelson. We got to train him this week and then we'll be released on Sunday and he'll be the new trainer. I'm super glad I got an extra week in this assignment, it's been so much fun to work with everyone and even skip class a few times, haha.

 On Tuesday, a new group of Korean Natives came in. Only two of the eight speak English so it's been really fun trying to talk with them. My Korean hasn't really improved, but I'm working my hardest on it. They are such nice people and every time I talk with them it makes me excited to get out there and start teaching (er, trying to teach haha)

Wednesday marked 50 days in the mission for me (not that I'm counting or anything!) It is incredible how much time has flown by already. We got some new arrivals in the MTC, one of them being Ashley Dyer, believe it or not! I ran into her this morning in the laundry room, she's headed to Brazil! It took her a minute to remember me, but she asked how Katie was doing! She got our address and said she wants to write Kate sometime. Hopefully you'll get a letter from her soon!

Earlier this week I had the awesome opportunity to host new couple missionaries coming in! My job was kinda dumb, all I did was walk them across the parking lot from their car to the bookstore, but it was still fun to talk to them. There were some going to Missouri, some to Africa, some to Church headquarters and even a couple heading to Lyon, France (What used to be dad's mission!). Seeing all of them come in made me think of Grandma and Grandpa being missionaries and doing the same thing, and also made me imagine when mom and dad will go on their mission. It was definitely worth giving up some time to do.

Our devotionals this week were awesome. On Tuesday we had a 70 come, Elder Schwitzer, who's actually from Cottonwood Heights! I didn't recognize him or his family, but it was fun to hear about home. He talked about becoming a missionary, really striving not to just go on a mission but to live a mission, to be converted not just by going through the motions but by truly putting your heart into it. 

Which leads me to my spiritual thought for the week. My district made a goal this week to live out missions with "No Regret". That means being able to look back after two years and to really feel like we did all we could to serve the Lord. For me I realized that that means utilizing my time better, for it's not really my time but the Lord's. I've tried to consistently remind myself whenever my mind wanders or I take too long of breaks why I'm here and what I'm doing, and it really helps. I think it's important in life, too, to strive to always be your best so that you can be satisfied with how you acted. Obviously it's impossible to go through life without ANY regrets, but I think that's what makes the Atonement so beautiful- as long as we do our best, it'll take care of the rest. I have such a strong testimony of that.

I love you all and thanks for all the prayers, especially about my VISA. In just two short weeks I'll be writing you from the land down under!!

Much Love,

Elder Easton