week 37: australia style

bye elder richie

me and my new comp elder wheeler

cool spinny chair

MY NEW CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bench press (team get big)

comfiest study chairs ever

got my blankets!!

old school sign sign in the flat

had a baptism yesterday

slide at a members house

Gday mum!!

Well this has been a pretty hectic week coming up from tazzy!  Well yous are prolly wondering where I ended up hey?  I am on the mainland now in a place called Eltham.  It is in the main city zone, but on the outskirts of the big city.  My new companion is named Elder Wheeler, he is cool as.  He is from Western Australia, and has been out on his mission for 14 months.  As far as the work goes here in Eltham, it is dead as.  At the moment because our most progressing investigator Tania was baptized yesterday, we have 1 investigator.  After the transfer meeting, President talked to me and said he was sending me here to bring the area back to life.  So I am so excited to be here to help turn the area around, I definitely see some serious potential in the area it just needs a bit of refining.  

But as I said Tania was baptized this week, and it was such an awesome service.  I had the priveledge of meeting at their home and getting to know her and her whole family.  So her husband that she was married to last week, baptized her.  His name is Wati and he was a long time less active member and he started coming back about a year ago. It is amazing that he had the opportunity to baptize his wife.  They have 3 kids living with them at the moment Briley, Rooney, and Chayton.  All unbaptized ;)  At the baptism I talked to their daughter Briley and asked her if she wanted to receive the missionary lessons, and she wants to!!!  I was about to jump up in the air and do a fist pump of joy, but I withheld the excitement...  We are going to see her this week, and I am PUMPED.

This week we were blessed to find 22 new contacts, and I guess it is the most Eltham has gotten in a long time.  So the finding is going really well at the moment!  There are heaps of part member families in this ward too, so we are making efforts to see all of them and hopefully we can find some people that are keen to learn more.  Ah man, I am so excited to be here!

Elder Wheeler and I get along really well, he is a good man.  He really loves the NBA and just sports in general.  Guess what?!  He is a LAKER fan too!!!   I guess we can keep him around hey?  Even if the Lakers tanked it this season haha!  It is starting to get cold as over here though, I woke up this morning and thought I was going to die of hypothermia.  Haha all goods though, I am loving being out here and serving.  Also I finished the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time on my mission today!!  I was pondering about on things that I could take from the experiences I had with the Book of Mormon on this go.  I came to the conclusion that I need to have more meaningful prayers, because I know for myself that I can get caught doing a routine of the same prayer over and over again.  So I have put a picture of the Saviour on my pillow, and he is going to be my reminder to pray sincerely, so I guess I will see how I go with this haha!!  Man, this Gospel is true, and I know it without a doubt it is as simple as that.

Gday mum how are you going??  Thank you heaps for putting some mula in the account we were kinda desperate!  We had to buy a GPS because Elder Wheeler doesnt know the area very well, and we had no idea where we were going haha!  I am doing really good though, it is good to be back on the mainland, it is heaps warmer up here, but it is still really cold.  It sounds like you have had a fun week with G and G Richins, I wish I could have been there!  That is awesome that you are going to Cali this week!!  HAPPY HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!  Haha Olive sounds like a crack up hey!  Today for P day I have no idea what we are going to do, hopefully something fun!  I got my basketballl shoes back, so hopefully I get to use those at some point today haha!  I also got a car!  I was so happy, we have a big as area but it is heaps of fun.  The GPS talks to me and tells me where to go, I named her Roxanne she is a nice lady!  The flat I am in is cool as, we have a full weightroom and just a bunch of interesting stuff in the flat, just like that old school sign haha!  But yeah, that is all I have to report this week, just a whole heap of finding and not so much teaching but that will change!!  I love you so much mum!!  I hope you have a great week!!!  Have an awesome anniversary!!!!!  Travel safe!  Cheers!!

Elder Richins