Friday, August 28, 2015

I felt like I was driving the green beast

Hello everyone it's always so good to hear from you all and it sounds like everyone is doing so well. Its' been a really crazy week here but the trip down to Katherine went great and I felt like I was driving the green beast to mountain view....only it was a toyota carrola and a 7 foot trailer with some mattresses and a couch haha. But we found a new investigator and several other great people to follow up with while we were there. 
I am in a trio again until transfers in 2 weeks and we are covering all of Darwin (two areas) so things are pretty busy and the office will not be happy with our KM situation. Its alright they will forgive us. 
Hope you all have a good week, next week I will have some spiritual experiences to share promise! 
Love Elder Hartley 



Elder Glova and I had the greatest experience on Saturday

Elder Glova and I had the greatest experience on Saturday. There was a non member who came to church a few weeks ago on his own.  We had never seen him before. As we talked with him we found out he went to church for a bit in New Zealand as well but was never baptized or taught by the missionaries. We got his address and planned to go and see him. That was 3 weeks ago and we have still not been able to ever meet with him but we keep on trying whenever we are close. It seems like every time we go and he is not there we say.....we should tract here sometime....but we never did there always seemed to be some where else that we needed to be or someone else we were trying to track down. Finally Friday night during planning we decided to tract James street if he was again not at home. When we went there of course he was gone so we started to track. The first door we knocked on in the flats next door we met a man named Mitchel. He is the most prepared soul I have met my entire mission. He let us right in and we taught the restoration and Book of Mormon and committed him to be baptized on September 26 all in that first lesson with him. The Spirit was so strong as we taught and Elder Glova bore powerful testimony at the end to finish it all off. We are so excited to keep teaching him and hope to meet and teach his parents soon as well. The Lord is always preparing people we just need to listen to the Spirit tell us where we need to be! Things are good here and I am learning a lot about patience....Elder Glova speaks really well but he doesn't understand what people say as good but I forget because he speaks so well its kind of funny.
 Our worlds at home were so different. He learned how to use the microwave the other day and that you cant put metal in it. He is great and will do anything that he is asked to even if he feels like he can't do it good. We are really excited for the coming weeks and the people that we are working with at the moment. It will be a short week I am going to Katherine again on Wednesday and Thursday. We had to rent a little trailer to take some stuff down for them and to do trade offs. It will be a fun little trip. We are always so busy and time is going to fast.
 Love you all have a good week....love you 
Elder Hartley 

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

My companion is Elder Glova he is from the Philippines.

It’s been a good week. It feels so nice to be back in our own flat and our own area again with just two of us. My companion is Elder Glova he is from the Philippines he was there for 4 months waiting for a visa. We picked him up at noon on Friday, he is great and has such a strong desire to do all he can to help others learn the Gospel We do language study together every day and it is funny because he helps me with grammar and I help him to pronounce. Serving with him has already helped me to be much more grateful for all that I have been given. He came here with so little but he is so happy, none of his family our active and most are not members of the Church. It’s going to be great to serve with him and to find new people here that are ready to hear the Gospel. He is hard working and tells me that he loves knocking doors so we should get along just fine. Many of the people we have been working with are slowly disappearing but that is ok there are plenty more out there to talk to.
I am so glad to have the chance to serve and learn here and things are going great.
Thanks for all you do
Love Elder Hartley 

I am happy to stay in Darwin for a while longer.

It’s been a crazy week of running around and changing companions and getting all the new missionaries here set up with the paperwork and things that they need to be legal! We have to get approved to work with children and if you are here more than 90 days get a Northern Territory drivers licence and stuff like that, it all takes a lot of time.

I am still in a trio my new companion gets here Friday at noon, he is coming from the Philippines! I am pretty excited to have a steady companion and area again it has been a crazy month. People here in Darwin are so different than in Adelaide. We find so many people to teach here but most are unwilling to commit to do much acting on what they know to be true. Almost all of the people we found the last two transfers have been dropped because they are not willing to make the changes that the Lord wants them too. The culture here is very relaxed and friendly it is great. It will be so good to have a companion that can communicate with the Philippine people here! We still meet with Gary and his family they are doing good progressing slowly we are really trying to help the mum to have the desire to be baptized Gary really wants to but he wants to do it all together with his family. Things are going great here and I am happy to stay in Darwin for a while longer...maybe I will be here till Christmas!? That would be good by me....thanks the emails and letters I am so glad things at home are going so well.
 Love you all Elder Hartley