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!!!