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...