Baptism Interview

 It’s been quite the week this week with lots of new experiences. We were able to get 3 new investigators which was great so hopefully we can get some more lessons this week.

The strangest thing this week was I had to do a baptismal interview for an investigator of the Sisters that is being baptized on Sunday. I found it pretty strange he is 52....so here I am sitting down with a man older than my parents to talk with him and see if he is ready to be baptized.

It was different but I think it went really well and he is ready to make the commitment this Sunday,  which we are excited for.

Another funny thing was last night we were talking to this man from India and he is a sequ (they wear the turban) we were telling him all about Jesus Christ and how it’s only through him that we can go back to live with God. He stops me mid sentence and asks me if I am married? No I replied. He then looks me in the eye with all his might and says "your wife will be very rich" haha I had to try and not start laughing. I asked him how he reckoned that one, he replied....I just saw your palms and I know that your wife will be very rich haha.  I told him I was cool with that and we moved back to Jesus Christ he was a crack up.

Elder Henderson and I get along really well, and everything is going good. Thanks for all that you all do and all the prayers and help I get from you....love ya all 

Elder Hartley 

Mini mission with the priest this week.

I am well and good I don’t have much time at the moment cause we are running all over the place getting ready for some big event coming up next weekend. We take priests out with us for a couple of days on a mini mission or something like that I don’t even know what it is....maybe we will take them door knocking alllllll dayyyyy!! Or maybe not that’s mean haha.  We only have a few people here that we are teaching so we are saving them all for the weekend with the mini missionaries.

 Elder Henderson and I will be experts at the door after the next few days. We meet some great people and they all give us water because its so hot out. That’s probably why they don’t let us in cause its so hot they think me must be crazy to be walking around knocking doors in that heat. We are finding a lot of people that we hope to teach soon! Things are well and Elder Henderson really knows his stuff so it works good.  I walk up and shoot the breeze with people and then he smashes them with doctrine.....so far so good eh?

 Love you all and thanks for all you do!!!! 

Elder Hartley 

My new area is Clearance park

My new area is Clearance park I am the district leader and my new comp is Elder Henderson. It is his second transfer so I am still training. 

 I am healthy as a horse haha. I sleep like a baby as soon as I hit the pillow.  I am going to get up early most of this week to clean our flat cause its kinda nasty form the last missionaries. We are so busy it just never seems to get done.

Good Luck this week with selling the animals. Thanks for all you do,

Love Elder Hartley

John blessed the sacrament this week

Its transfers today and I got the call to pack my bags I find out tomorrow where I am off to. Its been a good little while here in downtown and I am going to miss it but its time to get on to somewhere else.

John blessed the sacrament this week, he had to practice all week so that his english was good enough to say it but he did great. He’s off to the temple for baptisms on Friday and he was asking us a ton of questions about missions this week. I will miss him he’s a good kid.

I don’t have much time we are running all over the place today.

 love you all,

Love

Elder Hartley

When did Si Robertson move to austrialia? Actually this is Jim and he is crazyier than Si. We visit him often. He has some how survived 24 strokes and is still half with it.  Keeps us entertained.

We did find a Chinese family to teach!

Its been a crazy week but I reckon Friday was the strangest day. The City of Adelaide has a big Christmas Festival and parade every year and that was Saturday. So Friday we rock up to the city on our bikes and city workers were setting up a bunch of speakers in downtown to play music for the festival. They played "walking in a winter wonderland" for hours....poor choice of song when its 37 degrees outside and every one is suffering from heat stroke haha lucky for us we had appointments almost all day in the Library and it is air conditioned.

There is a MacDonald's or Hungry Jacks (burger King) on almost every corner in the City so we buy a lot a 1 dollar frozen cokes....it’s like a slurppee  it’s a life saver.

Cops ride horses around the city sometimes here, they all ride massive grays for some reason.  I don't know the breed but they remind me of that silly gray we had for a summer. 

Other than that the week was pretty regular we are always really busy with people to teach and find things slowed down a bit cause it was finals week for the University. So everyone we talked to was stressed and a bit on edge most of our investigators were busy.

We did find a Chinese family to teach! William Sophie and Lydia they are great. There dad was actually baptized 20 years ago in China by some greeks but the mum and daughter have no clue about anything. They want to come to church and should be there next week!

This is the last week of the transfer and I have been here 4 now so I am slightly scared that I am going to be moved but I hope not. Honestly if it were my choice I would stay here for 2 more and train again. I love it cause new missionaries are not biased and they really think outside the box. They work HARD to gunhoe and ready to go.

The worst thing for our own progression and anyone around us is idleness. It tells us time and time again in the scriptures and we have all had our own personal experiences. When we are growing we are busy and effective when we are idle we are slow or stop all progression. There is one secret to success its work! I can promise that if we work effectively for a righteous cause we will always come closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. That will bring us closer to our families and friends. I love you all and I am greatfull for all you do....keep it up eh and remember I am pullin for ya we are all in this together (red green)

Love Elder Hartley

PS - in case you didn't notice my email is the longest this week..........worth noting cause it won’t happen again.

It’s been a crazy week of ups and downs but it always ends on the up. We have Stake Conference this weekend and it was really good but really different haha. John came along with us, he is doing so good and was asking us about Jews and Gentiles the other day....most Chinese can’t understand the Book of Mormon at all but he gets it enough to ask those types of questions which it is great. He doesn't understand why the Jews would kill Christ if he was there to save them. We are going to go do family history with him this week or next and prepare to do baptisms for the dead in a few weeks.

 We moved Saturday into a new flat, we switched with some sisters cause they needed to be closer to the Chapel. We are still in the same area, Downtown just a new flat. It was a nice change I have been in the same place for awhile now. I love it and am happy here but a little change was all good too. The new place is very nice as well so we are happy.

We have a couple of people getting ready to be baptized in a few weeks that we are working with at the moment and Elder Tolbert and I are staying really busy.

I know everything is good at home and that you are all doing well. Thanks for all you do, keep reading and praying and we will always have the answers that we need.

Love ya all 

Elder Hartley

John is getting interviewed for his baptism on Sunday

Over at the Sorrels yesterday for dinner and they have some baby ducks Looks like everything is going well at home! Everyone seems to be doing great. Sorry for the short email I am already turning into Chris sending two sentences that's it haha. Sorry eh. I have been doing a lot of reading on faith and how to strengthen it and the difference between faith and believing. Bible dictionary faith, it’s pretty good. John is getting interviewed for his baptism on Sunday and I am going on tradeoffs with the District leader today and tomorrow. Love you all keep up the good work and mum thanks for the pics I love them. Thanks for all you do Love elder Hartley Massive footy (aussie rules) stadium. Its the weirdest game ever. golf course not to far from our flat

John will be ready to get baptized October 26!

It has been a very busy week, we were full on all the way until Saturday and then we had conference Saturday and Sunday and now it is Pday. So I feel like I haven’t worked in 3 days, I feel rusty already! 

We have a guy named John getting ready to be baptized on the 26th of Oct. He is the man 18 from China. We met him doing some bball contacting a few months ago. We stun them with our moves so they will give us there numbers! naaa justr kidding. We do tell them what we do and we kinda stand out balling it up in what I tell them are the new Jordans but really they are my nasty tracting shoes. He didn’t believe in God 3 months ago but he was always willing to keep his commitments. Action is the only way to gain a testimony or strengthen it. 

All our investigators that keep there commitments completely are baptized or are progressing well. We cannot expect knowledge or blessings without action on our part that’s just the way it works. We have several other people that are on dates for the next few months and they are all pretty solid and keeping commitments to gain a stronger testimony.

Conference was great and I loved how bold a lot of the talks were, that’s the way to do it eh. I try to be as bold as possible all the time. No point in leaving people a chance to guess what you are saying. 

We had a lot of changes in the district this transfer, there are only 3 of us left from when I first got here. It makes me feel old. Our district leaders don’t mess around.  Its good he is upfront and bold and if you aren’t doing something up to snuff he’s going to find out. He’s a hard worker and does all he can to help us. I feel bad for the poor leaders haha.  They are on the phone all the time and have so much more to stress about. 

I love our tiny area, it’s easy to keep things straight and there is always something to do. Every once and a while we do some door knocking just to mix it up when we get bored. Seems to be easy to find a crazy person that way to give us a 5 min laugh and wake us up again.

 Thanks for all the help from everyone at home and the prayers. And thanks for the letters Melissa sorry I never write back eh. Love you all

Elder Hartley

So grateful for all your support.

fresh hair cut and elder Faamausili headed home Well I am glad you all got to watch conference. I don't get to see it until this week haha. So we watch it this Sunday recorded, but I am excited for it. I did not get transferred. Elder Tolbert and I are both still in Downtown for another 6 weeks. I am ok with it. I like it here and there is so much to do. I like it here cause it is really easy to stay busy.  Thanks so much for the home made jelly mum (not sure if I said that last week of not).  It’s been a crazy busy week and things are going well. Thanks for all you all do at home for my and while I am on my mission. I am so grateful for all the support I have always had from home. Love you all Elder Hartley Dads favorite guy david susiki!

I am starting to think that they are all crazy

Its been a crazy week but I am starting to think that they are all crazy. We had the temple this week so our P-day is Thursday rather than Monday. 

It's a holiday on Monday so I will email Tuesday when the library is open, its also transfers on Monday so I might not be in the city next week but I really doubt that. I made sure to tell President Carter not to move me ( I really didn't but he knows better I am sure) 

I got your package last week mum it came 3 times faster than the last one thanks so much for the welches and jelly!!! it is quite heavenly....Oh no mum, tim tams in Canada, that is going to be dangerous for me haha. I don't like the peanut butter ones but the original and double chocolate are the best, I don't eat them to much now cause its to hot to drink hot chocolate. 

We had a tradeoff yesterday with the Zone Leaders and I went to there area and Elder Tolbert stayed in downtown, ran it like a pro. I could leave Monday and the area wouldn't skip a beat (probably be better eh) Kinda scares me though cause I don't want to leave, maybe I will tell him to stop being so good. 

While I was on trade offs I drove all day in a little toyota camry on the left had side of the road, it's kinda weird. I got used to it fast.The hardest part is remembering that the signal lights and windsheild wipers are opposite so I always turn the wipers on like a fool. But I didn't hit anything so all in all I considered  it a success. 

It's getting quite warm here now. At the temple today I met an Elder pitcher from brooks. Dan and Shawn pitcher are his uncles it was pretty funny to have a chat with him I think there are 4 elders from Alberta here and Sis Dardon as well. We are in the same district at the moment, she is doing well. The Temple was great today I love getting the chance to go so often and it is really nice to get a break in the routine as well. 

I got a pretty good used bike for 50 bucks from the office and they gave me this massive u lock that you need a torch to get through so I should be good now. I figured if I bought a new one I would problably get sent to Darwin and just have to leave it here anyways. 

I am glad to here everything is going well at home and it is good to see dad is still killing stuff every couple of days haha. Everyone here gets a kick out of his pictures and short emails about cattle prices, tractors and killing things, I like!

Love you all

Elder Hartley

Elder Tolbert is my companion

Temple day for the Elders

My bike got stolen

Its been a interesting week, we had a ton of meetings Tuesday and Wednesday so we got half way through the week and felt like we hadn't hardly done anything. Also had a tradeoff Thursday and Friday which was good, its always so nice to see how other people do things and to try to improve yourself.

 A member of the ward was on a mission up in Brisbane and he came home and reported in church on Sunday. Turns out he served around Dallin Low up there it was funny. 

Also we had dinner at a members house the Triponels last night and it turns out that he served in the Fort Lauderdale mission about 15 yrs ago I think. He was happy to hear about Melissa being there. We had a good dinner and had a wicked big chunk of lamb it was really good I quite enjoyed it. 

Last night ended not the greatest cause when we left to go home we went outside and found out that someone decided to cut the lock off our bikes and to take them home for there needful kids I am sure. 

So that's not ideal but its alright it seems to happen a lot I guess. So we are off to get new ones at the office today. 

What I do when my bike gets stolen...ice cream and Mormon messages haha

We are workin hard and the weather is getting warm. I'm not sure I will survive 40 degree weather. We have quite a few new investigators and there is a lot of good things happening in the ward right now! 

Thanks for all you do, I love ya and miss ya

Elder Hartley

random statue at the University

A massive rip in my pants....took me 15 min to sew it up so all good now

My sweet bike that got stolen

Investigators came to church

Its been a crazy week, I feel like we have been in meetings for a month now, with specialized training, arrivers training, district meetings, and zone training tomorrow. But it's good we have great leaders here that really helps us all work more effectively. 

Parcel was ripped in half and then taped up again

Nothing to crazy happened this week, it is starting to warm up quite a bit and hit 26 yesterday. I am not sure how I will survive 40s in the summer. We will see how that goes. I have AC in the flat so we are lucky.  Because not all flats have AC just fans.

We only ride in the car on Monday and to meetings with the zone leader.  I did drive with a senior elder a few weeks ago for a road test so I can drive cars nos.  It's pretty weird on the other side of the road but being on bikes for awhile helps to get used to it.

The parcel mom sent me took almost 2 months to get here.  And when it arrived it had been ripped in half and then taped up again.

We have 3 people that are really solid investigators right now that are really working hard to learn more about God. All three are Chinese and really don't know anything about our Father in Heaven, his Son or their plan for us.  But they see the importance of learning it and that's all that matters right now. I don't know how many times people tell us that they think religion is good and that they see it help people but it's just not for them or they don't care. Come on man you just said you know its good, listen to what your own spirit is telling you! 

I love you all thanks for all you do,

Love Elder Hartley 

P.S. pretty much ate a whole lamb leg yesterday and I tell ya what it was pretty good

Found that bug in the closet, the bugs are starting to come out now that the weather is nice

5 new investigates

Its been a crazy week and we are staying really busy but things are going well. Elder Pitama got transferred to Molsen Lakes and I was assigned to train a new missionary. His name is Elder Tolbert and he is from Utah. His visa waited one transfer in Las Vagas and then came here. He's the man and has been teaching me a ton. We are staying really busy and things are going well. I am grateful for the chance to train but I am pretty sure he is teaching me more than I teach him. We got 5 new investigates this week!  We are really excited to keep working with them, the weather is already getting warmer here and my shirts may not be white for long haha but its all good. Love you all and thanks for all you do

Elder Hartley

bit of gubba on ya poof  .... I guess that means you have fluff in your hair? Aussis are weird

My first companion is getting transferred

The sorrell family they are great and feed us every so often

 It is starting to really warm up here. Its transfers today, Elder Pitama is leaving. We find out tomorrow morning where he goes and that’s when I will get my new companion.

The blessing went great on Sunday.  I have never felt so guided in a blessing before.  It was very cool.

tim tams were on sale....we bought a case I'm getting fat but who cares eh

My first Baptism

Its been a crazy week we have been so busy the whole time but its good cause if we aren't really busy we are bored and ain't nobody got time for that.

The area here is really taking off there’s too much to do to leave now.

We had a baptism this week, Thomas, he is a uni student here and is from China. .Elder Pitama baptized him yesterday after church and I will confer the Holy Ghost next week in sacrament meeting. We met him at a bus stop last transfer, it was the funniest contact ever. We said hello and he’s like I gotta go there’s my bus so we said we talk about God can we get your number and he’s like ya sure.  So we rang him up and stated teaching him. At first he didn't even believe in God but told us straight away that if he found out there was one he would follow. Anyways 2 weeks later he tells us he knows God is real and that to be the best we can be we need to follow him and that's what he wanted to do. It was great. When we taught him the commandments he’s like why didn't you tell me these sooner I would have quite coffee and tea and came to church every week! Thomas is the man and it’s so easy to see the difference between people that have really been prepared and are looking for more in there life. He bore a powerful testimony after his baptism giving thanks to God for all the help he receives and guidance. He knows the church is true and wants to continue to learn more.

Thomas at his baptism

We also found 2 members one from china and one from Twain that couldn't find the church so they haven’t been in awhile. So we are helping to activate them There are getting to be a fare amount of Chinese and Asian young single adults its cool to see. We hope to be able to start a special Sunday school class for them soon.

Elder and I joke around about President telling us that we get to stay in downtown for a year and learn Chinease while we are here. It won’t happen but it would be pretty cool and would make the work a lot easier.

We play a bit of basketball whenever we can but not a lot and now that it’s nicer out side we go kick the rugby ball around on a field instead. Its a silly game but I like being outside and every Aussi and New Zealander loves rugby and that's the majority of our mission so they always want to play it . I am getting better though my kicking skills are pretty poor.

Things are going well and I am glad to be busy cause we I am not time goes by way to slowly but when we are busy all is good. I think that is the main reason why I am in this area cause its so easy to stay busy and that really helps me.

Thanks for all the love and support! love you all

Elder Hartley

 

                            Elder Pitman moms always sends us chocolate from New Zealand so good.

We had a baptism in the ward this week

Its been a great week and we are staying really busy, the weather is getting nicer and I don't wear a coat very often anymore, not sure how I will ever survive summer though.

We had a baptism in the ward this week from the sisters and it was cool to go to my first one on the mission. We took one of our investigators who is also hopefully getting baptized in the coming weeks.

 Its going good, somedays are better than others but we get lots of practice teaching people. We have 4 lessons tomorrow 2 Wednesday and a few others already scheduled for the rest of the week. The hardest is teaching around 1 cause I cant stay awake!

 Yesterday we taught the Gospel principles class, I shared an analogy about horses.....pretty sure no one had any idea what I was talking about. But it made sense to me so its all good.

They have tons of massive big bumper guards on the front of the the vehicles to protect them from hitting kangaroos. They are pretty massive and tough looking especially the ones on the big rig trucks. You could mow over a lot of deer with one that's for sure.

Thanks for all the love and support. Love you all

Elder Hartley

Tim Tam Slam

 It has been a good couple of days. The weather here has seemed really cold, I am turning into a wimp cause its around 5 and I am still freezing. Probably should of brought that coat I bought eh. It was cool on Sunday afternoon we had a first appointment with a Chinese student named Frank. He had no belief in God only believes in himself but he has a roommate who believes in God so he was curios to learn more. We told him to bring his friend along to the lesson as well. So yesterday we walk up to the Library and here is Frank coming with a Chinese member that we know. Turns out they are roommates and we were able to have a great lesson together. We are going to meet again and Shawn says he will bring Frank to church next week. Its funny what are the chances of meeting someone on the street that lives with a member in our ward, it was pretty cool. 

We are planning for a baptism next Saturday, another Chinese student named Thomas. (these names are just what we call them because we can't say there Chinese name, its kinda funny they pretty much just pick a name when they get to Australia and roll with it) Thomas is the man, he wants to do whatever he can to follow Christ. He came to Church yesterday and we are trying to help him meet people so he can have some support.

 It's been a really good week and we keep doing our best to meet and talk to all the people we can. At the end of the day that is what it comes down to, if we don't start talking we can never help them learn about God and Jesus Christ. 

We went to the temple this week. It was really good, I love getting to go. Its really small here and only open a few days a week. We took names through for a couple in our ward that is hard core into family history so it was cool to have a bit more of an connection with the person. I really have a hard time coming up with questions though for my studies, church and the temple so I don't think I get as much out of it as I should, but I really felt I learned about how important women and the amount of respect we should always have and show towards them. Even in the temple we don't learn about our Heavenly Mother. How much  God must care about and protects her if even there she is not mentioned.

The sausages start to mess with your gut after awhile haha but its getting used to it. We eat a fare amount of chicken because it is so much cheaper,  ground beef is really expensive. I never cook Elder Pitama usully cooks and then I clean and do dishes its a good arrangment. We eat a lot of rice as well cause we have a rice cooker.

I am really glad to be in this area, we went on a trade to a different area last week and I felt so bad for the elders there, they only have 4 investigators and they are pretty weak ones at that and know one to talk to, I am so lucky to have so many people to talk to and teach here,

Its kind of surprising I still hate the city, but we don't think about that we just think about the people and what we can do to help them. Just goes to show that when we aren't being selfish we are happier.

I keep learning but I keep on seeing knew things I need to learn, pretty sure the list is getting longer not shorter but its ok, that's why we are here to learn grow and progress. 

Elder Hartley

P.S. Had to sing a solo at a FHE we had at a members house cause I was new. I did my best to warn them and get out of it but they insisted. Oh well joke is on them, pretty sure they won't be asking me to sing again.

Thanks for all the love and support miss you all

Elder Hartley

P.S.

 During weekly planning we gotta Tim Tam Slam to keep the sugar levels up so we don't fall asleep. I may have a few more chins from doing this but it is worth it. Here is a step by step process to getting fat.

1. Prepare hot chocolate and get yourself a sleeve of Tim Tams

2. Bite a small chunk off of opposite corners

3. dip one corner just slightly into the hot chocolate and suck on the other end until the Tim Tam is soft and filled with hot chocolate

4. Eat it in one bite before it melts and falls into the cup cause that will just tick you off and then repeat until you are sufficiently filled.

"keep your stick on the ice eh"

Its been another crazy busy week. The first few days we had lessons pretty much solid throughout the day but then the last few days we did a lot of finding. I actually like finding usually cause we get to talk to some many interesting people. Its crazy how small the world is. 

We were able to contact 2 young families the other day and they even live in our area!  That never happens here so we are pretty excited about that. We also taught a Iranian muslim family the other day but then they told us to go "hunt" people that don't have a belief and leave them alone.  We get told a lot of funny things because people's English is bad and they don't have the right words to say.

 I am leaning how to say words in Chinese like prayer, baptize and things like that they never hear in English cause its the only way they understand. 

I also don't think Chinese people ever change there clothes. We taught  this one fellow and he has been in the same track suit for 6 weeks now. We have to figure out who is really interested and who is not cause some of them just want white friends its kind of funny. 

Our apartment  one of the nicest flats in the mission from what I have heard and seen so we are pretty lucky, kinda getting attacked by ants at the moment but we are poisoning the heck out of them so it should be good. We don't really tract much here just street contacting, we had 6 people  committed to come to church yesterday but then only one showed up so that's not ideal.  If all goes well we will have a baptism next Sunday. 

I gave a 5 min talk in church my first week here! But since then nothing, the bishop in the ward was actually the mission president  here in Adelaide 10 years ago. He has a pretty interesting story. One of  the hardest things the first few weeks of my missions was to talk about the church to people.  I can shoot the breeze with the best of them but bringing in the gospel and talking about that was really different. It gets easier everyday. Right now I am trying to figure out how to get more out of my studies any ideas?

If dad could see me now he would be proud, we eat so many sausages and potatoes its not funny, I don't think I can tease him about that anymore. We had dinner with a member yesterday and they fed us tacos just like home, they were so good. I always loved tacos. 

We have many people interested and progressing at the moment and are doing all we can to help them better know who God and Jesus Christ are, what they can do for us and what we can do for them. I learn new things each day and am happy to be here. Love you all

"keep your stick on the ice eh"

Last week I saw this guy walking down the street with a hockey stick and bag, turns out he is from Manitoba. Also saw a guy with a flames jersey on but he was sneaky and got away from us. Funny is when I see this Veitnames guy with a mighty ducks jersey so I went up to him and was like "go ducks go" pretty sure he thought I was crazy and he doesn't even know that he is wearing a hockey jersey.

Coldest in 10 years this week.

Its been a great week. It is transfers this week but we are both staying in downtown. I am glad.  I like it here and I'm not ready to leave. 

We have been really busy with lessons this week.  I guess the other day was one of the coldest in 10 years here. But I think it was around 6 or 7, these people don't know what cold is.

  Last p-day we went out of the city to a wildlife park and saw a bunch of kangaroos and koala bears and stuff. It was really cool to get off the pavement and see some country side. 

I am getting better at teaching and finding.  But  there is still so much more to learn. 

Love you all.

Downtown Adelaid

My first Wipe out on my bike

Its been one crazy of a week but all is well. We have had quite a few good lessons and currently have 5 baptism dates! The thing is that in the city most of them don't actually live in our area or ward boundries so we teach a few times and then refer them to the missionaries in there home area.  I think we are going to refer 2 of the people this week but it is good cause we get to meet so many people here. 
The other night we went street contacting on the main road and were able to get 9 potential investigators  phone numbers.  All in a hour and a half, we felt good after that day. We have had several small miricels throughout the week and we do are best to follow the spirit to where we need to be and talk to. Everyone says talk to everyone and it says it in PMG. But here we can't, there are too many people so we try to discern  who is ready to hear about Christ.  
It is a bit different and hard cause who am I to say one guy is ready and the other isn't. I love President Carter he is a great man and is able to help me more that I would have ever thought before.  I am lucky to be here with him. It is transfers next week but I am sure both elder Pitmam and I will stay in the city a while yet.
 We went back to our friend Jeronamos house (like the Indian) and had dinner with his family. Then he busted out the Kareokee machine and started going to town with this pillipeno love songs haha it was pretty funny. They are really nice but work so much that they can't come to church and don't want to commit to something they feel they cant follow through with. So we don't see them a lot just every once and a while. 
Its funny I am in Australia but have yet to teach an Australian haha .
We are going as a zone to the zoo today I am excited to check out some assui wild life. All I have seen so far are birds and a few rats. Theres not alot of rats but its weird they are like huge mice running around the streets. There is tons of pigeons in the streets as well, it takes all my strength not to stomp on them and kill em! But I decline, that's not very Christ like. 
I can't remember if I wrote this last week or not but I had my first wipe out on the bike awhile ago. Right in the middle of the street in front of a car haha. The guy stops and asked me if I was all good. I said yes and rode away really fast casue my pride was hurtung. So mum was right again I guess I should of brought a needle and thread cause I have some patch work to do. 
All is well and I am doing good, almost half done my training now. 
I love the pictures and emails keep em coming eh.



 Love you all take care

L

Member Missionary Lessons

 We had a good busy week, on Tuesday we were trained on how to use family history as a way to find people. It was pretty interesting and we have already used it to get some people interested in doing it and then hopefully hearing a lesson or two. 

It has been tough to teach this week because all our investigators are students and its testing week so none of them want to see us.  But its all good we did a lot of street contacting and found some new people to teach hopefully. I like street contacting it is a lot less stressful than knocking doors.   But we don't do much of that. 

My first month in Adelaide has flown by already and it all feels like one big day. Yesterday was a fifth Sunday so the ward had a soup Sunday, they had some really good chili there but I may or may not be paying for eating so much of it today.....reminds me of a Jonny Cash song. 

 We went to this islander cultural night Saturday it was good until they started dancing then we got out of there quick.  But we had some good food. Some was quite interesting and I figured it was best to not eat it at all. People here get a big kick out of the family picture I have on my planer cause its on the back of the super duty with the dog and dad and I are in cowboy hats, they figure it is pretty redneck. I actually met 2 people this week that asked if I was from Canada because of the way I talk rather than America. The one guy was awesome he is married with a little boy and even had some interest but wasn't ready to give us a number or address. So now we just keep wondering around that area hoping to see him again. It has been cold and windy and wet here but with a coat it isn't too bad. Its ok because we hit up all the bus stops and talk to people and they never leave cause its dry and out of the wind. 

 We have really been trying to get members involved in missionary work and do what we call MMLs. Its a really cool program that president designed to help people get names they know for missionary work. We visit 1 or 2 homes each week to do the member missionary lessons it also helps us meet the members. It is so different here than at home as far as the logistics go for missionary work. 

I am  learning heaps (and knew words) and progress each day. 

Love you all Elder Hartley

"and remember I'm pullin for ya we are all in this together"  Red Green Show

Keep your stick on the ice - everyone here thinks I love hockey too.

People think I'm crazy not wearing a coat!

Today the weather here is kind of nasty its cold and really windy and it randomly down pores every so often so I am grateful to not be on the bike. We had a busy week and there never seems to be enough time to get everything done but we do our best.

 We have really been focusing on trying to find families and people that will really help to strengthen the Prospect ward here. Our area is so full of international students that we have to really work to find more permanent people that are interested in hearing the Gospel but it is good to stay busy. We do knock on a few doors but for us it is mostly street contacting. I can usually shoot the breeze with most people but it is tough to start talking about the church and stuff without making it awkward. So I have been really trying to learn how to tie it in with the conversation rather than have to say "what we do or what we teach or do you have a few min". It is so much better if you can just have a regular conversation. So that is what I have really been working on this week.

Everything at home looks really good and green, that is a ton of water that you got last week. I am glad everything is ok there. People look at me funny when I walk around without a coat on cause it is 15 out and they are freezing. I get cold some days but most I am not too bad in just my long sleeve shirts. We have laundry in our apartment which is really nice to keep your clothes from getting nasty cause I spill all the time so then I can wash it right away.

 Going to the temple Thursday was great, its the only time I was able to really relax my mind from all that we are doing here and focus on something else. I am finding more and more that if I have a specific question I can always find the answer in the scriptures, at the temple, or praying.

I am doing well so don't worry about me Elder Pitama is even a half decent cook so that is a bonus. It just randomly started pouring again, its like a hurricane in the library. Tomorrow we have a specialized training on family history so that should be interesting. I don't have a clue about that stuff.

Love you all take care.,

Elder Hartley

Elder Pitama, my companion from New Zealand

Elder Flintoft (Zion Leader)