August 2, 2015

Wow so this has been such an awesome week!

My home address is 16 marlow street Mooroolbark, VIC 3138

So my companion is Elder Gunnel!! He is the mantis!! Or in other words he is a stud! We get along so well. He is from Mesa, Arizona. We wake up at six every morning to do insanity workouts, so I am getting big out here! I'm already training for you sterling! He is so flippin funny! We work hard but everything that we do is so funny as well! He reminds me of Sterling just a little, but he is a lot shorter! He looks kinda like Link off of Zelda! hahah he is funny!

Ok so there are some main differences that I thought were really funny. Everyone here drives on the left side of the road!!! I literally scream every time we make a right turn haha. there are only small trucks and the roads are pretty skinny in the suburbs. every other car down here is what they call a ute but it is a el comino like the cars with truck beds. everyone is crazy about them down here! uh they call trash cans rubbish bins and they are tiny. the trash can that you pull to the street only goes to my waist and its like a foot and a half wide! they call breakfast breckies and they call mcdonalds macca's so that is different. the d word and the h word are not bad so the bishop uses them when he talks to us and my comp uses them while explaining the scriputres. its so funny to me it catches me off guard every time! they say mate ...... they actually say it.....  and they say heaps ..... they say it heaps.. chirp is like an agreement word.... so if you said that food was good I would say chirp. I thought that was kinda funny. and when they describe things they instead of saying oh wow that is as cool as a freezer they just say wow that is cool as.... does that make sense... if not sterling can explain it to you! so the awkward moment for the week I was talking to these chinees elders and i asked them where they were from and they said they were from main land china ..... but to my very American ears I heard "made in china" and for some dumb reason I decided to be a parrot and I said out loud ... hahah made in china. and nobody laughed and I didn't realize what was going on until my comp explained that they said main land china!!! so ya we got a good laugh out of that. so they are really good about gluten here! the store has a little more gluten free food than back at home. and all the members know what it is .... but my companion doesn't... so when we were in an investigators home and they offered us milo he said yes and I just drank it thinking it was hot chocolate.... but it is pure barley.... which he rememberd after I drank it all:) he felt soo bad so he called over the other elders and gave me a blessing so it wouldn't affect me and that was three days ago and I am going strong!!! the power of the priesthood is real!!. so we have two people on date for baptism brian and cathy. brian is a stud he is going to counciling for word of wisdom things and cathy is a little on the edge with things but we are working on her. we have 6 investigators and one of them is named barry... I called barry from the area book because he was a former investigator and he is super exited to meet with tomorrow. and another is named algie he knows so much about god. and most of his beliefs are correct but he talks so much that we have a hard time getting in our beliefs!!! he is so funny so we just have to be really bold with him. we are going back to teach him on Thursday!  so ya I am loving the mission! it is quite a lot of adjusting but its all for the better! I love getting to study for two hours every morning and then I get an extra hour for golden study(study because Im new). and I love bearing constant testimony. my testimony is strengthened every time I share it and so I share it as much as possible. I got up and bore my testimony at church this sunday and guess who got up right after me..... elder lynch... well brother lynch now. he was the elder from Australia that served in our ward and  went home right before I left. ya I am serving in his ward now! he stood up right after me and then pointed right to me and he said "brothers and sisters this is staaann ... oh crap elder wiser. I served in his area on my mission" and then he bore his testimony on missionary work! it was so good to see him. he is taking us out to lunch today and then feeding us at his house twice this month. oh man iiiiiii loooovvvvveeee auuuusssstttrrraaalliiiaa!!!! its chilly here but I only need to wear that wool jacket that we got right before I left. it is raining as we speak. and it rains quite a lot. but the church is true. and the book of Mormon is the word of god! look up this scripture romans 8:38-39 god loves us individually and nothing can change that! have a good week back in America!! love you all       love elder wiser

oh and guess what I am killing my companion... this is his last transfer... so we are at opposite ends of the spectrum I am new as and he is near the end. but he is still a gun.... he works hard and is super obedient

I ran out of time to send pictures. but I will send them next week. I love you all so much have a good week! and read the book of Mormon ;)