Elder Nelson vs. Black Widow- Nov. 27, 2017

So it turns out that humans have evolved to be very good at killing spiders. haha. I found a black widow in our flat this week (don't freak out mom, they're only dangerous if they bite you ;). I'll include a picture. It was pretty cool to see one in person. I also found one this morning in our back yard that was in the middle of an epic battle with a cockroach (I will also include a picture). I haven't seen any kangaroos this week, but hopefully I can get a picture next week (fingers crossed). We do also have a 2.5 ft lizard in our back yard. I'm pretty sure it's watching me because every time I have a camera on me, it doesn't come out :( I also think that it's poisonous because it has a blue tongue, but I can't remember exactly. Maybe look it up and send me a picture of different lizards with blue tongues haha :)

So the people here tell me I have a very strong American accent. I'm not quite ready to lose it though, because it gets kids in the street to talk to me. They all want to know what I think about Donald Trump (haha) so send me some of the latest news so I can stay up to date.

I don't know if I mentioned this the past two weeks, but I'm serving in the Camden ward. We also cover part of cambelltown (shoutout to Colton). I honestly love it here. Everyone says that the work is really slow here, but the members are awesome! We're getting lots of referrals and everyone's keen to help with member lessons and FHE nights. Bishop's wife had a big thanksgiving party on Saturday (normally not celebrated) for the American missionaries and also invited a fairly large crowd over. It was really awesome to see that she cares about us :) Something that's a little different over here is that with the Islander culture, there are a lot of famous athletes that are also Mormon. So I mentioned Sam Perrett (super active, amazing elders quorum pres.)(also was rugby world cup champion), but we also have brother Hopoate who has been gone playing for Tonga in the world cup right now. Bishop jokes that since Tonga has been winning, church attendance has gone up (true) The Lord works in mysterious ways, and if Tonga doing well in rugby means people start coming back to church, that's all right with me :) haha.

So every Wednesday, we do rescue visits with the elder's quorum. This week Elder Simanungkalit and I went with Brother Perrett to stop by some part member families and share a quick spiritual message. We had planned to stop by this one house, but this 10 year old boy opens the door and tells us that his parents aren't home. Brother Perrett sees that he's wearing a rugby jersey and starts asking him about how his team's doing. They have a pretty good talk and we tell him that we'll try and stop by later. As we were walking past the house later that night, we see a car pulling out of the garage. So we run over and stop the mother and start talking. She tells us how her son was super ecstatic that Sam Perrett had stopped by and talked about rugby. But we talked to the mom for a bit and it turns out that she's really interested in becoming active in a church. She said, "I've been talking to the Jehovah's Witnesses, but that's just because they knocked on my door. Since Nico (the son) is super excited about rugby, and my husband's already a member, maybe we'll start taking lessons." So we're going to try and start meeting with them :) I've decided that using Brother Perrett's fame to steal JW investigators is not a sin. ;)

Another cool story, we stopped by a less active member's house a week ago Monday to share a spiritual message. It turns out he's originally from western Ghana! (shoutout to Isaac) We talked a little bit about the church there, and it led in perfectly to Elder Simanungkalit's message about the standard of truth (Joseph Smith). We had a super spiritual lesson about how "no unhallowed hand can stop the work" and how the gospel is spreading. He shared about how when he first moved to Australia, the stake presidency came into their struggling elder's quorum and told the elders that they wanted to split the ward, but they needed more active priesthood holders. Brother Amaoko was sceptical (the elder's quorum was already struggling), but the split the ward anyway, and with the increased effort to reactivate the elders quorum, that ward is now the Camden ward! It was really awesome to hear his testimony. We have a dinner planned for this Saturday, so hopefully we can get him coming back to church.

That's about all for now!

Elder Nelson

p.s. I didn't want to include this as part of my weekly because it's more solemn, but there was a missionary from my stake here in Australia serving in Samoa that was hit by a car and killed not too long ago. The family wants all the missionaries in the zone here to take part in the funeral, which will be good. But I also would like to request your prayers on behalf of the Patiole family.

1. Black widow in our flat

2."White" sandwich bread (at the other elder flat--don't worry mom, we're pretty clean)

3. Black widow fighting a cockroach

Big Jud's Has Nothing on Samoa- Nov 19, 2017

So. Much. Food.

Prior to coming here, I was preparing to eat a lot because I had heard that eating is a big part of the Islander culture. I can tell you right now that there is no way to prepare for the sheer quantity of food that we get here. I love the hospitality that all the Tongans and Samoans show us here. Below, I have attached a picture of (only) the left over beverages we were sent home with from dinner at Brother Nauto's (keep in mind there were only five of us, we have meals most nights, and I didn't even get a picture of the leftover food). I talked to Sam Parrett (famous rugby player and elder's quorum president) and he recommended trying to eat mostly meat and greens so I don't pack on too much weight. Elder Petchon said that at the last baptism he had, the whole ward showed up and brought food. The missionaries got sent home with so much food that they couldn't close the trunk. We had a ward party on Saturday and they had this really good drink that I want to try to replicate, but I didn't get the recipe. It's probably 50/50 water and milk with shredded watermelon, coconut, and pineapple. There's enough stuff in it that you have to chew it.

In other news, Australia is really cool! Our ward boundaries include a significant portion of a national park here, so we went on a short hike last P-day. We saw a kangaroo (in the wild!) but I didn't get a picture of it :( I could have sent a picture of a dead one on the side of the road, but I think I'll wait for a better opportunity ;) Our ward is really awesome! It might be slightly smaller than the one at home, but the members here are awesome! The bishop's wife asked us to come into Relief Society yesterday and bring 10+ copies of the Book of Mormon. One of the sisters shared her story about giving away a Book of Mormon and it inspired the rest of them to come grab copies for their friends.

The work here is a little bit slower than most other places. I still haven't taught a lesson yet :( Most people here just aren't interested. The Australians either hate us or don't care. The Islanders on the other hand, are super awesome! It's fun to walk down the street because pretty much any Polynesian person you see will wave/give you money for food. I've heard that anywhere from 50-70% of Tonga is LDS, so if they aren't a member, then they generally have good feelings toward the church anyway. They also have a deep respect for missionaries, so we receive all sorts of gifts. And refusing food/gifts is considered rude (they don't get mad at you, they just won't invite you back), so we end up having to throw away lots of food.

I'm going to format the last part of my email a little differently this week because I just wanted to tell a little bit about my companion's backstory. Elder Simanungkalit is seriously super cool.

So he grew up in 3rd world Indonesia. He reminds me a little bit of Challin (my cousin). He loves dangerous animals (but not spiders) and grew up wrestling crocodiles (he says something about using a rope). He currently has one as a pet back home that's 5 metres long. He caught it when it was (only) 3 metres. The largest he's ever wrestled is 7 metres. He said its mouth was bigger than his torso and head. Anyway, he gets his call to come to Australia, but his visa is delayed, so he can't leave the country. Since the closest MTC is in the Philippines, he gets reassigned to go straight into the mission field in Indonesia. Because of some disobedient missionaries, his home stake has some problems with trusting the missionaries and the work is going really slow. So his mission president assigns him to serve in his home stake because the people there know and trust him. Because his dad's in some stake calling, they end up seeing each other and working together quite a bit and even has dinner with his family. While at dinner, his girlfriend shows up to his house. After about 4 months of waiting, he finally gets his visa. So he flies out to the MTC in the Philippines. In the Philippian MTC, they don't have any missionaries learning English. So he spends 3 weeks with the native togalog speakers (he doesn't speak togalog) learning how to be a missionary. (at this point, he also receives his first copy of PMG). After his 3 weeks in the MTC, he then comes to Australia, having never spoken English before (this was in March). In the intervening time, his father (a translator for the church) promises him that his English will improve if he finishes Jesus the Christ. So he tries twice, but gets stuck in the middle both times. He tries a third time and finally makes it through. He finished it a few weeks ago and he says that his English has improved. haha.

Also, his name is pronounced see-man-ung-call-it.

I'll try and answer some of your questions, Mom:

What are some Australian holidays coming up?

Christmas. They celebrate all of the same holidays here for the most part, minus thanksgiving and the 4th of July.

What new foods have you eaten?

We had carne asada on top of fries covered in cheese with barbeque sauce and the sweet and spicy sauce that I really like. That was pretty good. The Tongans and Samoans here hate salad/anything green, so we get a lot of different meat. Also, KFC is really big here with the Islanders, so a lot of times, they'll drop off a bucket of wings for dinner.

What is your companion's, and the other missionaries' in your apartment, conversion story? (personal or family)

Elder Petchon is from the Philippines (the church is exploding over there). His family was converted when he was really young, but he said that they originally kept having the missionaries over because they entertained the kids with magic tricks.

What are your neighbors like?

Neighbors honestly never talk to each other here. We've met one guy, and he lets us borrow his lawn mower every P-day. Not many people are interested in religion, though.

Tell us some Australian phrases.

Crikey (use instead of wow)

Chips (instead of fries)

Macca's (McDonald's)

Did you pack everything you needed? Do you have to scramble and buy anything?

Not really. I'm doing pretty good

Anything you overpacked?

Same.

What is the weather like? Do you miss winter?

The weather's actually been really nice here. 75-85 mostly. Everyone says that it's super unusual though, so it's about to get really hot. It's also drier here than I thought. About the same as LA

What is something funny that happened this week?

Elder Simanungkalit and I changed our ringtone to the recording "from the conference center in temple square..." that makes us laugh anytime anyone calls.

Is there anything/ anybody you would like us to include in our prayers?

Just for people to soften their hearts here. Nobody sees the need for religion.

That's about all for now!

Elder Nelson

1. My area. to the left of my finger is all national park, so we don't go out there. Up and to the left is Sydney

2. The national park

3. The national park and Elder Simanungkalit

4. Lots of apple juice. I also forgot to get the 2 bottles of Sunkist in that one as well.

5. What the houses look like here (this is a pretty rich area)

6. Name your own Vegemite Jar!

7. Australian drivers only use roads as a suggestion. People park on their manicured lawns regularly. This picture is in more of the ghetto area (still not that bad) but notice that those are sidewalks, not roads. The nearest road is a good 100 yards away.

P.S. There haven't been any truly massive spiders yet. Just moderately big ones. Elder Petchon (also grew up in a 3rd world country) has zero fear of spiders. He plays with them (with bare hands) and tries to get the spiders to fight, but apparently, the spiders here aren't as aggressive as in the Philippines.