Week in Review

Hope it's been another great week for everyone!

This week I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience: I got to shake hands with and listen to one of the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ- Elder Russell M. Nelson!! It was one of the coolest experiences ever. On wednesday we had a whole mission conference, combined with the South Mission, and Elder Nelson came and spoke to us. Talk about incredible! As soon as he walked into the room, the Spirit was so strong. It was inspiring. Definitely the highlight of my week!

Not much movement as far as our investigators- Jim has been getting a lot of anti-literature, so it's hard to answer a lot of his questions. He's still coming to church though, which is a really good sign. Graham is.. well Graham. He's just bogan, but I love it. We're planning to teach him the Word of Wisdom this week... wish us luck! As for Ray, Yosuke and the others... they're doing great.

This week the other set of elders in Summerhill had 2 BAPTISMS! Holy smokes! It was awesome, I'm really proud of them. Certainly puts the pressure on Elder Evans and I, that's for sure!

In other news, the uni starts back up this week which I am SO STOKED about. Finally there'll be some more students, and hopefully lots of exchange students.. hehe. Pray that I'll get to meet some Koreans! I'm super excited to get back into finding full force.

Something kind of fun, I tried a Lemington for the first time this week! It was at the Sebastions, the aboriginal family that fed me snake, and although it looked dodgy it was actually pretty good. Check that one of the "Australian things to do" list.

Speaking of Australia, here's the weekly Aussieism: You know how we say "Chug" or "Gulp" when you down a drink really quickly? Well here they don't say either of those, but rather, "Skull". Example: "I'm so thirsty I could skull that whole pitcher of water!" or "I ran in from the heat and skulled the whole milk carton". It's one of my favorite words now, for sure.

As for a spiritual thought, I'd like to share something from the wise words of Elder Nelson at our conference last week. He said, "The Lord uses the unlikely to do the impossible". How true is that? In missionary work as well as in all aspects of life, I am finding more and more that Heavenly Father doesn't always use the way we think it should be done, but he always gets it done. Think about the Restoration of the Church by a young farm boy, or the commoner Mary to birth the Savior, or a 19 year old boy to share the gospel... and yet we find that those unlikely ways are always the most effective. Love it.

Hope you all have a great week! Saranheo!

Elder Easton

 

P.S. There was a HUGE rainstorm the past 2 weeks, and this was the sunset that followed immediately after a dounpour. I live in PARADISE 

New Transfer

Hello Everyone!

The new transfer has begun, and the cycle of six weeks has started once more! I got my new companion on Wednesday night. His name is Elder Evans, he's 19, from Layton, Utah, and here's the best part: He's 6'7"!! Elder Evans has served for 3 transfers in the North Carolina Mission, but now he's finally made it to Australia. He's awesome, I'm really excited for the next few weeks with him.

A cool thing happened on Thursday. I was up in Carlingford on the temple grounds for some training. I was with the other District Leader in my zone, Elder Stephens, and after the training he wanted to stop by his uncle who works in the Church office building. Anyways I go to shake his hand, he reads my tag and says "Elder Easton. Ah, you're Jeff Easton's boy!" It totally threw me off! Turns out Elder Stephen's uncle is Jared Hart, who is dad's good friend up in Baulkham Hills! It was really great to finally get in touch with him. Not to mention he took us out to lunch, too.. hehe.

So our investigators are going good, Jim and Graham are still cookin' along. Ray, our new investigator from the resting home, is awesome as! She's really sincere in all the questions she asks and her desire to learn more. We also had a miracle yesterday at church- this lonely looking lady came in and sat through sacrament. I went up to her after and talked to her- her name is Sue, she's in her 60's and was baptised about 20 years ago but went less-active right away. She decided finally last week that it was time for her to come back, because she knows that the church is true and it's what she's supposed to do! Which was really great to hear, we'll be working with her now to help her get ready for the temple and all that. Super exciting.

Because there's a major Hospital in our area (Royal Prince Alfred), I get the awesome opportunity of going and giving blessings to anyone in the hospital that requests one. Elder Evans and I went and gave a blessing to this boy on Friday, and it was a really neat experience. He had got in a fight or something and was bashed in the head and face, with broken ribs, leg and arm. It was pretty bad. Only his auntie was mormon, so it was extra special to have him and his non-member family there to experience it. The spirit was so strong- it was wonderful.

The Aussieism for the week: A Stroller (like for children) is called a "Pram", and a Shopping Cart, a "Trolley". Reminds me of Harry Potter.

As for the Spiritual thought, this week one of the Elders in my flat suggested that I read through my Patiarchal blessing, and combined with Moroni 10/D&C 46, to try to identify Spiritual Gifts that Heavenly Father has given us. It was incredible- I had never looked at my blessing like that before, but there are so many promises and potential in it. Heavenly Father has given us so many things, and it's our job to cultivate and refine those gifts. It made me think about the advice Uncle Charlie gave me before I left on my mission- that so many people focus on fixing their weaknesses, that they never work on their strengths- therefore ending up with very mediocre skills. However, when we focus on the strengths we have, on what we're good at, then we're able to reach more of our potential. I think that reflects perfectly with each of our own divine potentials here on this earth.

Well, I love you all heaps, and hope your week is great! Keep up the strong work,

Elder Easton 

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! This has been a week of miracles. Elder Bettridge and I have more than tripled our investigators, adding heaps of students from the uni. We are still teaching Graham (who didn't come to church this week- his baptism's been pushed to the 22nd), Jim (agreed to baptism, not comfortable setting a date yet), and Romario, but we've also added Jessica, Jerry, Weijan, and Angie (Chinese), Paris and Liz (Taiwanese couple), and Yosuke and Valinda (Japanese couple). It's wonderful!!

Some interesting news. The other elders had to give their car to another set of misisonaries, so we are back to sharing a car between the 4 Summer Hill elders. It's a great experience for me to practice sharing and patience.. haha. As for the Aussie children, school started again which means morning and afternoon traffic again, but I think most of the moms here are pretty happy. The most exciting thing that's happened this week, however, was CHINESE NEW YEAR! There've been heaps of celebrations and festivals going on all around the city, from dragon dances to lantern parades- as you can imagine, I'm in paradise! Chinese people love handing out those good ole Red Envelopes, and I certainly don't object to receiving them. We didn't get a break or anything for the holiday, however, but it's been great for finding activities. Hoorah for the Chinese!

Another big event happened, in terms of my taste buds- I ate olives! We had dinner at a members, and the chicken pasta was packed full of them. They tasted exactly how I've always imagined them to be- nasty. I figured mom and dad would still be happy to know I managed to swallow them down.

Speaking of food, I found a little convenience store that sells American Soda! Even better, they have cans of Cherry Dr. Pepper.... =heaven.

I did have a bit of a blonde moment this week... I lost our cell phone at the park. It's a long story, but needless to say it's been a pain without a phone. We can't contact anyone, and no one can reach us- the worst part is it had heaps of potential investigator's numbers in there we probably won't get back. Hopefully we'll get a new one this week, but I just have to keep hoping and praying that something good will come out of my forgetfulness- then again, Heavenly Father definitely knows how to work, even with our weaknesses! That's what I'm banking on anyhow.

Cool experience yesterday- two of the Korean sisters at church found me after sunday school and asked me to give them each a blessing. The only problem... they didn't speak English. It was pretty rough, but I did my best at giving a blessing in all Korean. I had to use a few English words, but I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father was helping me out with those- there's no other way I could've made it through those! So that was pretty neat.

Aussieism for the week- Speaking of soda, there's a drink here called "L&P". It's actually from New Zealand, but it's getting bigger here- it's this delicious lemon soda drink. They also make L&P chocolate.. it's pretty interesting. If you ever get a chance, try it!

And finally the Spiritual thought. I have read Mosiah 5 a few times this past week. Simply beautiful. It talks about taking upon us the name of Christ- I especially like verse 12. As a missionary, that's what I'm inviting people to do- to take Christ's name through baptism. But as I've pondered I think more and more how taking His name is not just at baptism, but a continual process we have to work on for our whole lives. I suppose that's where "Enduring to the End" comes in!

Well, love you all heaps, and hope the Super Bowl turns out well for you.

Til next time,

Elder Easton

Happy Australia Day!

As the Aussies would say, "Happy 'Straya Day!" It's been a great (and Patriotic) week down under.

The weather's been overcast all week, which has been really nice to curb off the heat. Everywhere else in Australia is having record heat waves, so it's nice to be in the cool for once.

Investigators are doing well, we're continuing to work with Graham and Jim, both older Aussies. Graham should be getting baptised next month- exciting times!!

The highlight of my week was probably eating dinner with the Stokes- she happened to find Dr. Pepper at a market and graced me with one of those cans of sweet nectar. Oh how I missed Dr. Pepper. 

The Tongan Elders had their first baptism this transfer, and so that means I got to do my first baptismal interview! It was hectic. I do not envy the bishops and stake presidents at all- they can be hard work! Thankfully, it all worked out. 

I had an interesting experience at church yesterday- the primary chorister was out of town, so instead of having me play the piano they asked me to lead! Mom, I have no idea how you did it.. it was intimidating up in front of those kids! I definitely prefer playing the piano, haha. Still fun. After Church we headed to the park, only to find heaps of festivals going on, and no one really interested in talking about religion. There were heaps of Aboriginals there- with the big Australia Day Holiday, all the aboriginals rally up and call the holiday "Invasion Day". They burn Aussie flags and make lots of anti-aussie commotion. I found it really interesting- I don't think anyone in the states would ever let that happen!

This week I read an article on Integrity by Elder Tad R. Callister. He's one of my favorites. Anyways it really stuck out to me for some reason, how having integrity is more than just changing behavior- it's changing nature. He talked about how integrity is the foundation for all other Christlike Attributes- having integrity with yourself and with others builds the strength you need in developing just about any quality. Just food for thought.

The Aussiesim for this week: Blue=angry, wanting to fight. If someone says, "Oh, he was blue today" it means he was grumpy and easily provoked. Funny how it means something definitely different in the States.

Sorry for the short letter! It's been a crazy, but great, week. Love you all heaps and enjoy the rest of January!

Love you heaps, 

Elder Easton

P.S. Happy Birthday, Katie!

Pictures: Me and Mikayla Byrne at the Primary clean-up activity

The Pavlova and Dr. Pepper... yum

At a members house- I'm holding home grown bananas and, yes in fact, a machete! It was a little slice of Fiji.

It's Elder Easton!

Hello Again,

This has been a wonderful week.  I have some exciting news (well, it is for me at least): Elder Bettridge and I got asked to be the "beta testers" for Elders at Uni of Sydney! Aka that means that we'll be spending the rest of the transfer only finding and teaching on and around the University of Sydney campus- the rest of the ward falls under the second set of Elders in Summer Hill. I'm super excited! Uni's have really high success rates, and so Elder Bettridge and I are to see if Uni of Sydney will be as fruitful as other Uni areas (just so you know, I'm still in the same flat, same ward, etc- just different activities now). It's been wonderful so far. The first time we went finding there, I taught 6 lessons, got 2 potential investigators and 2 new investigators! Which is a really big deal- the most I've ever done at once! So I'm excited to see the miracles from this change of scenery.

As for other investigators, we set a baptismal date for Graham-February 15th! I'm really stoked, he's come a long way so far. We're still seeing Jim, he's still unsure about baptism. We'll keep trying! It's been a blessing to see such a positive change in everyone's lives as we share the gospel with them.

On Wednesday we went to a feed with some Cook Islanders in our ward. There was so. much. food. It reminded me of family parties back home- they lay all the food out and then everyone just helps themselves. After we ate, they pulled out their ukuleles and guitars and sang island songs for us. As you can imagine, I was in paradise! Even though I just hummed along, it was still so beautiful to listen to their islandy voices and harmonies. For the spiritual thought, I asked if I could use the guitar and share a song with them- so dad, I guess I can let you know those guitar lessons weren't in vain! I was rusty, but it was still so great to get to sing with them.

Speaking of islanders, on Friday I had an exchange and went into the Eastlakes (or Tongan) area. There was KFC at every appointment! Haha. I met some Wolfgrams- aren't Grandpa Easton's neighbors Wolfgrams?- and for dinner, I got a whole chicken. Like literally one of those rotisserie chickens just for myself. I tried my best, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I'm not fat enough yet to be able to eat all of it. 

On Saturday I had dinner at the Cutlers, who live in a little apartment in Pyrmont, with a window that looks right onto Darling Harbour. During dessert, the Darling Harbour fireworks went off and I got to see them! Which was really awesome.

Sunday I sang in Church- "I Believe in Christ". It felt good to get to sing again.

Yesterday we had a mission conference with nearly the whole mission, and the special speaker was the area 70, Elder O'Riordan. It was inspirational, to say the least. Before the meeting I really prayed that I would learn something new and that I'd be inspired as to the course of action I should take in Summer Hill, and boy did I get an answer! It was so incredible to hear perfect answers to all the questions I had come straight out of Elder O'Riordan's mouth. If I doubted before, I definitely know now that Heavenly Father really does know me personally and cares about me. 

One thing I've been pondering a little bit about this week has been Foreordination. It sprang up from a topic in Sunday School a few weeks ago- there was an old man who said Foreordination ensures that something will happen to you. We all know that's not true- Foreordination is more like the potential we have, and is still conditional upon our own choices and actions. I think about how we have all been foreordained to every calling we've ever had and will ever have- and it's up to us to live worthy and ready so when the time comes, we will be able to fulfill what the Lord requires of us. I was discussing this with Brother Iakoba, a member who's come back to church last year after about 10 years of inactivity. He said it kills him to think of all the things he was supposed to do for the Lord that he was Foreordained to do, but didn't because of his choices. He told me that I better not ever waste the opportunity to reach the potential Heavenly Father has given me because of laziness, unworthiness or stupidity. It's just not worth it. I think that applies to me very much so right now as a missionary- I've been Foreordained to be here in Australia right now, so it's my responsibility to do my best to make the most of it. I think it applies as well to each one of us- as long as we are living the best we can to the commandments and laws of God, we know that it's exactly where we're supposed to be. I hope we all can live up to our own personal Foreordinations, because we all have a special calling to attend to, I know it.

An Aussieism for the week: A "Texter" is the word they have for "Expo/White Board Marker". Don't know the connection.. but just so you know if you ask for the "Expo Markers", they'll grab you sharpies.. I'm learning new things everyday!

Love you all heaps!

Elder Easton

Hello Again!

Another hot and sweaty week has passed by here in Sydney. Everything is going great- the work is really starting to pick up. We've got a lot of potentials to work with, but right now our only progressing investigator is Jim Nichol. He's come to church twice now, which is awesome! And we're meeting with himtonight for Family Home Evening. His newlywed wife, Nestine, was baptised in the Phillipines and went less-active, but now wants to come back and get her husband baptised too. So we're really excited about them!! 

I feel like I've had a Korean wake-up call this week. I have been pretty discouraged and unmotivated to study.. I had just had a really unproductive Korean study, and Elder Bettridge and I were walking to the car to go to an appointment. Out of nowhere (or so it seemed) this Korean man popped out and I was able to talk to him and get his details, which was a huge miracle. We then drove to our appointment, and when we got out of the car I heard 3 Korean guys talking as they got into the car next to us- another huge miracle! So I was able to talk to them and use some Korean twice in like 15 minutes, which doesn't happen very often. It was a good reminder to me that I still need to keep at it, because I never know when it'll come in handy. 

Speaking of Koreans, I had a little adventure this week. We went to Strathfield for finding (the really good Korean area), and I sat on the bus stop next to two old Korean women and began reading the Book of Mormon in Korean. Of course, they noticed, and were really excited that a white guy was trying to learn their language. They started gabbing at me in old-woman Korean, and before I knew it they were inviting us to come get some Korean food with them. I dragged Elder Bettridge along and we started following them, only they then led us into this van chuck-full of Korean elderly. I asked them where we were going and they said just around the corner, so I figured what could be the harm? and we got on and left with them. Well anyways it turns out it was NOT just around the corner, and soon I was very confused where we were and where we were going. The only thing I could do, of course, was to keep following them. Well when we got out they told us we were going to their church to hear a sermon and then they'd provide some Korean food.. I thought we might as well, it'd be good Korean practice and I could meet more people. When we started walking in this suuuper old Korean woman (a different one than who we were with) saw us and began screaming and spitting at us, but I had no idea what she was saying. Probably a good thing. We went into the church and met their lady-pastor, who thankfully could speak a little English. I asked if we could sit and listen to the meeting and she said of course, and then asked us what kind of missionaries we were. When I told her we were Mormons, her face went pale and she started freaking out. To make a long story short all these Korean women came up and started cursing us, and we ended up being kicked out of the church. No big deal, right? We're pretty used to rejection.. only the problem was now that I had no clue where we were! It turns out we had been taken over the border into Armageddon, aka the South Mission. We had to call up President and arrange for someone to get us out of there really quickly.. and of course I got a swift talking to. Haha. You know the lesson they told me to take from this experience? To not get on buses or vans that are going somewhere I don't know... haha. Sound advice, I suppose.

One other funny thing happened this week- I was on exchanges with another Elder, and we had to take their car in really early to get serviced at the Toyota Dealership. We had to do our studies there, and when it got time for companion study, we did everything- from singing an opening song to praying together to recitations. We got some pretty funny looks, but we were able to brave through and do it all! 

As for the food I've had this week, I had to face a lasagna again, and I managed to gulp it down. Heavenly Father truly works miracles. I also tried a "Kransky", some sort of Australia-fied German sausage. It was pretty good!

Now the Aussieism of this week took me forever to uncover the meaning. Whenever I do something for Elder Bettridge, he always says "Ta" and I never understood... I finally asked him and it turns out it is another word for "Thanks" that the Aussies use. No where the heck'd they get that?

As for the Spiritual thought, I'd like to invite you all to read 3 Nephi 18 sometime this week. It's about when Christ is in the Americas and establishes the sacrament. I've really been trying to improve my sacrament meetings, to make them more meaningful to me, and reading this while taking the sacrament really helped. Just a thought. 

Well, love you all HEAPS and have a great week in the freezing weather- I'll try not to sweat too much!

Cheers,

Elder Easton 

p.s. the picture: Me in the South Mission! Oh No!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone's started the year with a bang. 2014 has been great so far down here in Sydney- we've had some scorching days so far, but thankfully today's been overcast and a little cooler.

So some info about my new companion: His name is Elder Bettridge, he's 21 and from Adelaide. He's been out just a few more weeks than I have, so he just barely hit his 6 month mark. Previously he was in the Charlestown area up in Newcastle, but now he's here with me! He did a welding and metal working apprenticeship and then decided to come out on his mission... and here we are! He's really great with the members and we're going to smash it out in Summer Hill! I'm excited for this transfer.

So yeah my New Years was pretty boring... we had to be in the flat by8:00pm, and then lights out by10:30. So no, I didn't get to see the fireworks or anything, but I did have a very nice sleep. You'd be proud of me though (dad especially)- my first dinner for 2014 was a whole fish, and the member that fed it to me made me eat ALL the parts of it- including eyes! So I guess I can finally say I've joined the ranks with Anna F. by eating those nasty little things.

I had my first exchange this week with an Elder from Tonga, Elder Uasila'a. He's incredible- he has 8 brothers and 4 sisters, every single one has served a mission and is married in the temple, and his parents are currently Tongan temple president/matron. Pretty strong background. Anyways we went finding at a park and he told me something I really like- He used to watch American movies for English Practice and remembers watching Batman. At the very beginning he said that Batman's dad tells Batman this little piece of advice: "Don't be afraid". Whenever he goes finding, he says, he just remembers that- "Don't be afraid". That's all it takes. With that in mind, him and I had one of the best finding times yet on my mission! We talked to literally EVERYONE we could find and placed about 6 Book of Mormons, it was awesome. I even ran into a Korean, his name is Sang Hoon. I'm really excited to meet up with him, we're teaching him this week so wish me luck! I need all the prayers I can get to try to teach in Korean without Elder Han... haha.

Speaking of Investigators, right now we still have Romario, Graham and Letitia. Romario was in the hospital last week with some complications, but is out again so we're stopping by this week. Graham is still good, we're seeing him tomorrow which will be nice because he's been a bit dodgy as of late. As for Letitia, she has "been super busy" which makes me worried she's giving us the slip... but we'll keep trying! Thank you all for your concern and prayers for them. I love working with all these wonderful people and I'm so glad I've got your support too :)

Elder Bettridge took me tracting this past week. We were seeing no success, until finally this man started talking to us. He was born again Christian and wasn't interested, but we did have a good conversation on religion with him. I got a prompting halfway through to give him a Book of Mormon- unfortunately all I had was my own set, the scriptures I've had and marked since I was 8. I immediately cancelled the idea in my head to offer that book but then I thought came into my mind. I realized that if giving up my own Book of Mormon- even if it had all my markings, insights, and personal thoughts in them- meant the difference between this man joining the church and not making it to eternal salvation, it would be a pretty easy sacrifice. Still perhaps a bit grudgingly, I offered my own Book of Mormon to him. Suddenly Elder Bettridge said, "don't give him your own, I've got one here" and pulled out a fresh Book of Mormon to give the man instead. I was really grateful in my heart, to be quite honest, and I realized something. Because I put my faith in Heavenly Father and chose to give up my own copy, He really did send me a tender mercy and let me keep my own. I know it doesn't always work out that way but it's still a testimony to me that had I not put my faith into action and been willing to give the man my own Book of Mormon, he may not have gotten one at all.

Aussieism of the week: Okay so since I've moved in with a genuine Aussie, I've picked up on dozens of more Aussie quirks and sayings. Hopefully I'll be able to spread them out over the next few weeks, but here's one that really had me confused for a while- instead of saying "bought" they'll often say "brought". Example: "Hey Elders! I just brought you some biscuits!". That one doesn't sound too strange. But then they also say it in contexts like this- "Yeah he crashed his car, and he had just brought it". The first one I understood but the second I just don't get.. At first I thought it was maybe a lisp or something Elder Bettridge had but then I started hearing heaps of others say it too! very weird.

Well I hope you all have a great week! Don't forget to set your New Years resolutions- mine this year: "Don't get any fatter". 

Love you heaps,

Elder Easton