First off, sorry for the late letter. We moved our P-day so that we could go to the temple this morning! It was super awesome!
This week we travelled out to Picton, which is in the middle of nowhere. It's a very scenic trainride, though. I personally love going out to the country areas because of all the nature we get to see. So as we're tracting, we hear this screeching noise that gets louder the closer we get to this bridge. As we're crossing the bridge, we look down and see the trees down by the river blanketed with fruitbats. According to my companion, you don't want to get to close because they're pretty dangerous??? I took some pictures, but I don't know if you can see the bats. Basically everything not covered in leaves has bats on it. Pretty cool.
So the feasting continues :) sorry for those of you who might be starving in Argentina. I'll try to make this the last email about food. haha. I've included the latest picture of me and our pickings from one night this week. We ate as much as we could, and they still sent us home with so much food (mostly candy, so it's all good). The Islanders have this really good sweet potato that they cook in coconut cream. It's pretty much solid protein (probably why they eat it). It's pretty sticky, like oatmeal, but so good! And it's gray. If they have anything like that in the states, I want to find some when I get home. To give you perspective on how much it is customary to eat here, I'll share with you a story relayed to me by Elder Simanungkalit. So during his time visa waiting in Indonesia, they assigned him to serve with a Samoan companion. For P-day, they went to this restaurant that specialized in serving lots of meat. Similar to Big Jud's back home, they had a 1kg challenge where they serve you 1kg of meat (2.2lbs). His companion easily completed the challenge, and they went back the next week for the 2kg challenge. And the following week, as well as the week after that. They finally asked him to stop coming when he completed the 4kg challenge in under 25 minutes (by himself). That is the equivalent of about 9 Big Jud Burgers. For those of you who want to have thanksgiving every night, here is the dieting schedule I follow: 1. If I'm hungry, I drink lots of water. 2. If I'm still hungry, I let myself eat an apple. 3. I then sweat a gallon of water every day. There you go. 3 easy steps and you can eat whatever you want for one meal a day. :)
(pause for a second)
The second half of this letter is going to be a little more spiritual, so here you go:
Over here (and probably everywhere) the people think that after we serve a mission, we're guaranteed a job as a minister in our church. It is honestly a little depressing how everyone assumes that we do this for money. This country is very concerned with making and spending money. Last week, when we were caught out in the rain (4 hours of walking country roads), not a single person stopped to offer us a ride. It was kind of eye-opening to me because I never really understood how Jesus could say that it is near impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Australia is entirely peopled with wealthy individuals. (interesting thought on that: in Jesus the Christ, Talmage notes that an eye of the needle in Christ's time actually meant the side gate into a city (tight fit). Camels could only enter if all the baggage was removed) That being said, I have met some truly amazing individuals over here who are perfect examples of selfless service, as well as raising strong families.
Spiritual thought:
I think I've mentioned Dave before, but some quick background on him; Dave and his 6 other friends (studying theology) have started their own church a few blocks away from ours. We have been teaching Dave off and on, but it feels like he is more interested in learning the doctrines of our church merely so he can pick and chose what he likes to teach to his own congregation. This made me stop and think for a minute; what if Dave copied every single one of our beliefs--just started the Mormon Church II down the road? What would be different? The obvious answer is the authority from God. But equally important is the convincing power of the Holy Ghost. Dave is a smart guy, but somehow I don't believe that he could stand up in church on Sunday and tell the congregation that God had asked them to move to Ohio. He couldn't call 30 year old men to leave their families and share the gospel in another country for an undisclosed period of time. Nobody in his congregation would travel across the plains in the middle of winter and sacrifice their lives for his religion. Why? Because it is the Church of Dave--not the Church of Jesus Christ. All too often, we forget that we are not just another church in a sea of varying beliefs. It is because this is the Church of Jesus Christ that when the prophet calls all worthy, able young men, ages 18-25, I responded to the call and came out here to preach the gospel. This IS the true church. Don't doubt that.
Elder Nelson
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