Usually only get 5 at church if you count the missionaries!

Me and Bro. Friday...his English isn't great so we were reading 2 Nephi one of the Isaiah chapters and he asks us what it means we look at each other and shrug our shoulders..he pauses and says in the aboriginal accent "sooo is the Lord coming or what" it was so funny! 

We had a really busy week, zone training on Thursday...I went down to Kathrine to run church with the Elder that looks over that area (he has been with us 3 weeks now cause his comp went home early for his bros wedding, sorry forgot to tell you that) Kathrine is a lot like Cardston small only one stop light and full of aboriginals like the natives at home. It’s a 3 hour drive...we went with some members Saturday afternoon and came back Sunday afternoon. Usually only get 5 at church if you count the missionaries! It’s really different there. It was a fun little trip I am going again in 3 weeks to take a trailer of supplies down cause no ones else can drive a trailer.

 Elder Kelese got transfered today we just put him on a plane to Adelaide. That is why I am late emailing. Our new companions will get here Wednesday afternoon.

We are working hard but most of our investigators have either dropped or are not progressing so we will hit the doors more this week but I actually really like it so it’s all good.

Gary and his family are good just slow because they are really busy and the wife is not to keen at the moment but Gary still really wants to be baptized so we are still really working and praying for them.

Thanks for the emails sorry I never give you all a personal reply. Love you all have a good week! Love elder Hartley....

PS open to any help on receiving communication from heaven next week it is something I am thinking about recently. 

This is were we had lunch

They pull 4.5 meter crocs out of there sometimes but people still swim....crazy fellas 

Elder Kelese and Keith Sailor

Elder Kelese last night in Darwin 

Swinging from the vines

Got a Christmas card from Aunt

Ginny this week....that must have gotten lost somewhere! 

Went down to Kathrine, check out how big the trucks are some pull 4 trailers! 

This is were they have church in Kathrine....only like 3 come usually but we had some visitors from Darwin so we needed more chairs haha pretty different from home...the elders speak every week!

WW2  Cemetery

Pres. and Sister Parker came up this weekend and they are so great I love them.

We had a crazy week again, I have spent two days in Hospital with two different Elders for different reasons and meetings and different things. I feel like I wasn’t a missionary this week! I was but we did a lot of different things.

Pres. and Sister Parker came up this weekend and they are so great I love them. They have so much energy and are so excited to be here and get to work. Pres. Parker is really excited. He actually didn’t serve a mission, so this is his first one! We had a short training and were able to spend time together getting to know each other more. It was a really good experience. It was sad to see them leave, they are just getting on there plane right now....they brought the assistants with them. It was really good to see Elder Pitama again. Its’ been a while since I have spent much time with him, brings back memories of the city and all the Asians we talked to. I didn’t get to see many of our investigators this week because of the logistics of everything. They all are moving a bit slow at the moment. Gary and his family our still really solid but they are busy every day doing paper work to get permanent residency here. They plan to be done in mid August so until then we have short 20 min book of mormon reads with them which are great. Pres Parker got the whole mission to read the book of mormon together (8pgs a day). We started last week and I am in 2 nephi now its good because we can talk about what we are learning with each other because we are all in the same place. Pres Parker is a really hard working man and he is going to do a great job. I am really excited to work with him. Things are going good here. We are really going to help people to read the book of mormon this week.

I love you all thanks for all that you do!

Love Elder Hartley 

I did learn something about revelation.

This week was kind of average to be honest, we didn’t work much at the end because of meetings and a sick missionary that we were doing some trade off with so his companion could go and work and teach some of the investigators that are getting ready for baptism. I did learn something about revelation. When I first got here we did not have a branch mission leader (he had just moved the week before) I was here for several weeks and we still did not have one...all of us and many of the members were getting a bit frustrated because there were many members whom "we" thought could do it. It has been nearly 2 months but finally they called Bro Popp! He just moved in and his second week here he was called. He is so perfect for what the branch really needed. If they have called someone who "we" thought would be good it would have been the wrong man. Our Branch President wasn’t going to call someone until the Lord told him too and now I understand why. The Lord knows what is best not us. 

 Thanks for all you do love you all and thanks for the emails!

Elder Hartley 

I have been working out can you tell? 

 The Greys are a mission couple. They came and got a bunch of spare furniture to take to Alice Springs 

It’s all because the Lord is blessing us with families to teach.

big old dead toad on the road

sunset from our flat 

The highlight of the week was to teach a young family for the first time last night. Jared and Kristie are there names. We met them nearly a month ago and have been trying to follow up with them since then. We finally got there at the right time. They have 3 kids (one may be 8 we are not sure yet).  They have no religion but have always been very spiritual. They are great, two of the kids are autistic. They are so humble and willing.  They are just grateful for everything they have, which is not much. We taught them about prayer, how to pray, why it’s important and how they will receive answers. It was a great lesson we were only there for about 20 min in and out with a powerful Spirit as we talked. We are excited to work with this young family and to see them again on Tuesday or Wednesday!

All our other investigators were really busy this week so we didn’t see them much but we have several appointments and plans for this week already.

We are doing really good and we keep on finding new investigators every week, it has been great. We have found 21 in the last 4 weeks! It’s all because the Lord is blessing us with families to teach.

Love you all Elder Hartley 

The lady on my left is a member Sis Winfield she gives us so much food. The one on the right is Margret her neighbor we taught he that day