G'day everybody!

G'day everybody! I finally got everyone's letters yesterday at transfer meeting. It was so great to read about the boy's track and everything. It sounds like you and Miranda had a good time in McCall. I especially liked Bryson's drawings and the page of family pictures! Kenzie looks so different! She's really growing up!

Jackson was asking in his letter, if I'd eaten anything weird yet and if the people have accents. I haven't eaten anything real unusual. People are obsessed with sausages. When you have a barbee it's more about sausages than burgers. We had a ward BBQ and they had what I thought were hamburger patties, but it tasted more like meat loaf. It was kind of gross because I was expecting a hamburger. Burger King is called Hungry Jack's and people call McDonald's, Maccer's.

I made hamburgers at our house last week. We even fried some eggs to put on them. They don't really have root beer here. They have ginger beer though which is pretty good.

Pretty much everyone has an accent of some kind. There are a lot of Aussies. They say "mate" a lot. And how ya goin'? Then there are lots of New Zealanders, or Kiwi's. Their accent is different. There are also some Polynesian Islanders (they sometimes call them fob's, meaning Fresh Off the Boat). And also people with English accents. I have also met several people with Scottish accents. One old guy had such a heavy accent I had no idea what he was saying. It was sort of like the guys on Brave, only it was an old man.

So this week we had transfers and my companion Elder Paia'aua left. My new companion is Elder Hensley and today is the first day of the transfer. He's from Washington state. He seems like a good guy so far. We haven't been together for real long yet so we'll see how it goes. He's been out for more than a year. So now we're finding out how well I know the area after 6 weeks! Been doing well so far.

I told you about Anna last week. We also found a lady named Anne who was very prepared to hear the Gospel. We are teaching her now as well.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks is coming to speak to us this Friday! I'm way excited for that.

I almost lost my companion last week! We were biking and I was in the lead. His chain fell off and I had no idea, and just kept on going. I got about two miles away before I noticed he wasn't behind me. I ended up having to knock on someone's door and ask if I can use their phone to call my companion.

It's been a good week and I'm excited for the start of a new transfer. I love you all so much. Thank you everyone for your letters. I'm sorry I don't write more, but It's like Christmas when I get mail from the family! I hope everyone in the family knows that I know that God lives and he hears and answers prayers. Even when it doesn't seem to matter too much. I remember praying to find a little Lego piece when I was little and I found it. I have learned that what matters to us matters to the Lord.

Good luck to the boys in track! Keep working hard and having fun with it!

I love you mom!

 

Elder Hayden Thieme

Working in Australia

Hey, Dad! How is everybody? Thank you so much for your prayers in my behalf. I know that prayers are answered and that God listens to our sincere desires to do good. Let me tell you about one lady we just happened to find tracting. She's a middle aged lady from New Zealand. She's very friendly and loving (she even offered us a tea or coffee). She told us she's been searching for a church for some time now. She's met with some Jehovah's witnesses but didn't feel right about it. As we spoke and testified at her doorstep she felt the Spirit witness to her the truth of our words. She kept telling us how she really felt something the first time we talked, how it was different from talking to people from other religions. I know that it's not because of me or my companion or what we said, it's because of what the Spirit said to her. We went back this morning to have a sit down lesson with her. We taught her about the Restoration and she has accepted the invitation to be baptized. The lesson was a powerful one. The Spirit was so strong! She kept telling us how "she's found what she's been looking for." It was such an uplifting experience, especially after several weeks of not having very many people to teach.

I know that the Lord has directed us to those of his children who are prepared to receive the Gospel. I know He will continue to do so. I love being a missionary! I wouldn't trade it for the world!

I didn't get much time to email today, but I'll email you again Tuesday next week. And I realized I don't have any pictures with Flat Stanley in Australia so I'm going to go take one and email it real fast. I'm mailing him home today as well. Tell B sorry that he won't be home on time.

Love you dad! Tell everyone I miss them!

Elder Hayden Thieme

Exciting times around Gen. Conference

Hello everybody! I had a great week. Our new mission goal is to get 392 finding hours for the month of April. That's tracting and street contacting. My companion and I did 14 hours this week. Everyday we come home exhausted. It's a good feeling. The best thing about this week was that we found 27 new potential investigators. We didn't have much of a teaching pool so we're working to improve that. We've been meeting some really nice people. For the most part when people aren't interested they'll tell you politely. That's nice about this area. There are of course still those who hate our guts though. We went on splits with some members and my companion's appointment fell through so him and the member he was with went tracting. The street was all older retired people, and apparently the Jehovah's Witnesses had recently knocked it. They didn't have much success. They got cussed out and yelled at by one guy. But when you find some people willing to listen, it makes it all worth it. When you get to talk to someone and you feel the Spirit fill your inexperienced mouth with words, it makes it all worth it.

We finally got to the store and I was able to buy some fruits and veggies. And I've been weaning my companion off of KFC. Haha, yesterday we were fasting and we went home after church to break our fast. As soon as we finished eating we got a call from a member inviting us over for dinner and he would not take no for an answer. So we had two dinners last night. I thought I was going to explode.

We will watch conference this weekend. I've never been so excited for it before! It's been pretty cool the last few days and we've been getting quite a bit of rain.

The sisters in our district had a baptism this last weekend. It was a Tongan lady and her son. They had an "island feed" afterwards. They had so much food! Then they made us take home a heap of leftovers too.
We're getting a new mission president in July. This'll be my third one.

We got a referral from missionaries in another area who met a family that lived in ours. Its a big family with eight being baptism age! We're excited to start teaching them.

I got everybody's letters! I love to hear from everybody. I don't get mail until Zone conferences on Thursdays so sometimes I wait a while to get letters. I'm in the process of writing some letters but i haven't got them in the mail yet. I also got the Easter card. Thank you for that, I loved Bryson's little excerpt in there. Tell Jackson and Evan to keep it up in track. Tell everybody I love them and give them all a big hug from me! I love you mom! I am so excited for General Conference. To me it's kind of like the scriptures. You can read and listen and hear just what you need to hear and I know it's because it is the Lord speaking through his servants. He knows just what we need to hear. I love you all so much!

Love

Elder Hayden Thieme

April 1, 2013

Hey everybody, how ya goin'?

It's been a good week! Yesterday we did a whole lot of tracting and bike riding. My rear is pretty sore today! We knocked doors for about four hours and found twelve potential investigators. That's a pretty big number, so our finding has been effective. My companion and I only had KFC once last week! It felt so good. We were tracting with a young man named Dallin. He's got his mission call to go to India in June. He and my companion got chased off by a big dog. 

 

For P-day we are going to play touch rugby with the other missionaries in our zone along with a couple potential investigators we invited. 

 

I made some spaghetti sauce the other day. I found a can of italian diced tomatoes so I threw that along with some italian seasoning and chicken stock stuff in a pan and heated it up. My companion comes in and he's like "what's that smell?" I told him it was tomato sauce. But here tomato sauce is the same thing as ketchup. 

 

We heard that Jeffrey R. Holland is coming to our mission after General Conference for a leadership meeting and a youth fireside. He's been invited to speak to the missionaries but we're not sure if he'll be able to yet. I'm not sure how General Conference works for us. I'm assuming we'll probably watch some of it.

 

Our mission's goal for March was to get 75 baptisms. We had 62 with one week to go. The last week of March we had 22 baptisms! We exceeded our goal and it's so exciting to see how many people are changing their lives and making covenants with their Heavenly Father. 

 

It's been hot but not too bad. Yesterday it rained on us a little. A few days ago we got some good rain. When it rains here it RAINs. Love you dad! Tell everyone I love them and give mom a kiss on the cheek for me!

Elder Hayden Thieme