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