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