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 

This week was full of miracles and we are excited for them to keep coming.

We had a great Sunday. We had 4 new people at church on Sunday and the zone had 3 investigators there. It was so nice to have people at church finally. I felt like I was in the city again! We found 6 new investigators and we still have many really great people to follow up with and teach for the first time.

It was such a miracle one family that came to Church was a family from the Philippines Elmer and his wife Maria. They came just after sacrament which was not ideal but they had a great experience while they were there. The first speaker was another Philippino who spoke about baptism! At the end of sacrament meeting a member who we work closely with went and started talking to him, turns out that Elmer is there electrician! What are the chances eh. They have 3 boys who they are really worried about and they are excited about young mens and giving there boys a good chance to be around good influences and things like that.

We also had another couple come to church who we are going to teach on Wednesday with a member. They really enjoyed church and said they will be back next week. The Lord really blessed us this week as we did all we could to find and teach. We did an MMC with a member on a Thursday at 2 until 4:30 we knocked doors....not the best of times to catch people...we talked to 25 people found 1 former investigator 1 less active member and 7 potentials!

This week was full of miracles and we are excited for them to keep coming this week.

Glad to hear that everything is going well at home and that the girls are staying busy. Thanks again for all that you guys do for me and all the prayers I get. We got transfer information today and our whole zone is staying the same, Pres Parker will be here in about 2 weeks and everything is just kind of in lock down until he gets here. I am glad to be staying with Elder Kelese he is a really hard worker and we are doing really well together. Love you all and have a good week!

President and Sister Carters last time

President and Sister Carters last time before they leave at the end of the month 

 I am learning all about being busy out here. It's really not about being busy but being effective.  The weather stays the same, and it feels hot most of the time, not overwelming but it's defiantly warm. He sends a mix of missionaries here, some good some that need a bit more help but over all things here are pretty good. It's always the same story. Some people aren't as dedicated as they could be. Others need help knowing how to do things but are willing to work hard and sacrifice. Some are just trying to learn how to live on there own. Sometimes I get impatient in my head with people but I forget that not everyone was raised the way I was or given the chance to learn things that I have been blessed to be taught. So it helps me to be grateful for all the things you and mum taught us about work and just thinking things through in general. We all have our struggle myself included so it's always good to see how we are put around certain people that we can help and that can help us. 

We had a great week it was really busy. It started good and went through the whole week. Monday we found a new investigator tracting, his name is Gary. We started knocking and had the most angry fella come to the first door. He was one sad bloke and we were feeling like, man maybe we should go try to see some less actives or something cause this guy really gave it to us. But then 2 min later around the corner Heavenly Father had the greatest baptist lady waiting for us to cheer us up. She smiled and waved from across the road. She was not interested at all but she just wanted to say hello and tell us how much she appreciated what we were doing....the Lord always has our back He never leaves us alone and Satan can never win. As we continued to tract we came across Gary. Wednesday was also great we felt like Utah missionaries! We taught 2 MPL 2 Other lessons 4 RCLA lesson and found 5 new investigators! We were teaching all day it was probably the busiest day of my mission so far. On Friday we had the last training from Pres Carter, it was all day and about the doctrine of Christ. I am really going to miss them but I am really excited to meet the Parkers. One more month before the change happens. Yesterday the AC wasn't working in the Chapel it was so hot eh I don't know how people lived before AC here and this is the coolest time of year. It rained the other day and if you were outside for 3 min you were soaked! But it was still 28 degrees so it's not bad. Things are going well here and there are a lot of good things happening. Thanks for all the prayers love you all 

Elder Hartley 

It felt so good to have someone at church

We had a great week here in Darwin! Last Monday we went to a croc farm and they had some massive ones! 14 or 15 feet long it was crazy. Its pretty cool to see so different environments and animals. One of the less actives we go and see is the manager of a new cull cow kill plant up here. 
He works for a big Australian company that has 500 000 head of cattle throughout the country and they kill all there own animals as well. Pretty crazy, 
On a spiritual note eh we had 2 people at church on Sunday and we have a family of 3 on date for the 21st of June. We are pretty excited about that. It felt so good to have someone at church its been about 3 months since I have had someone come to church! President Carter is coming up on Friday for the last time before he leaves. It will be the last time I see him which is sad. It's strange cause I am excited for the new President Parker to come but really sad to see President Carter leave. Its going to be a great meeting. 
Elder Kelese and I get along pretty well it is a lot different living with an ilander but we are both pretty similar and he is happy to cook and I am happy to do dishes so that's good. 

Thanks for all the letters and emails I really appreciate it. Glad to hear everything is good at home! love you all Elder Hartley