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