It's official! I've been transferred!
I've had some hectic events happen this week, of course the biggest being transfers! We went up to Coff's Harbour Thurs-Sat, then I got my transfer call and drove to Newcastle on Sunday, then to Sydney on Monday. And the verdict is.... I'M IN THE CITY! I was pretty surprised to leave Tamworth, actually, and although I was bummed I am really excited to be in Sydney CBD! My companion is Elder Marshall from Maryland, I'm really excited to be working with him. I think the thing I am most looking forward to is all the KOREANS! YESSS! The city is a YSA ward with 14 missionaries, and they go street contacting basically all day every day. It's going to be a whole lot different from the work I did before, but I am really excited about it. I am also pretty happy because a lot of the members in Summer Hill work in the Family History Center in the City-I even ran into some yesterday! It was the strangest feeling riding the train into the city, I couldn't believe how many people there were. After being in Tamworth for so long, I definitely felt like a little fish in a really really big pond. Haha.
As for my last week in Tamworth, we had some fun experiences. Elder Tavalea tracted into a Pentecostal minister, and after a brief discussion on our beliefs he asked for a prayer, then proceeded to "heal us" and even tried to get me to speak in tongues. It was pretty funny, and just a bit too fanatical for us. Great experience, though!
On Wednesday we went to clean Betty the crazy-bird-lady's flat. Holy smokes, I have never seen a messier house. The floors were covered in bird-seed, and you couldn't see the ceiling from the number of spiders covering it. The walls looked like they were moving from the number of cockroaches roaming around, but it wasn't even the best part- every 2 or 3 seconds you'd see the scatter of several mice running around. It was, to say the least, disgusting. I guess Betty had gotten really depressed and just let her house go to dumps, and so she was very thankful for us to show up to help her. It took all day, but we managed to move all of her furniture out to the back lawn and sweep all the floors down. We didn't even touch the walls or ceilings. At the end of the day, she took out all her birds and let them fly around. They were pretty fun, except the Galahs bit me, those nasty birds. I've got quite a number of photos from the event, so I'll have to show you all one day :)
The call to transfer came as a pretty big surprise to me, so after we came home from Coffs Harbour I spent the rest of the time saying goodbye to members and investigators. It was quite difficult to say goodbye to a number of them, especially Matt and his family, Chris, and Adam. I've really come to love them- it's hard to let go and leave someone else in charge of their eternal affairs. Such is the life of missionary work, though!
And that's been about my week- full of travelling and saying goodbyes! I feel really hopeful about this next phase in my missionary adventure, though- I just feel like it's going to be a really great fresh start for me. I am setting some goals to really push myself, and I am excited for the potential of growth in me this area has to offer. Wish me luck!
Oh and I cannot forget an Aussieism: The country folk of NSW (New South Wales) had a really funny quirk in their speech. When saying a sentence that begins with "But", they flip it around and say the "But" at the end. example: "I am happy, but I am just really tired" would instead be said "I am happy, I am just really tired but". Or when responding to the question, "She was in hospital?!" a country Aussie would say, "Yeah, she's okay but". Don't ask me why.
Well, I love you all heaps and hope you have a great week!
Cheers,
Elder Easton
Photos:
The last moment Elder Tavalea and I had in Tamworth! I'm gonna miss him!
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