More pictures! 15 Sept 2013

Here's a couple new pictures.

Jungle Ball: ghetto basketball hoops in a court of grass. Yep, grass. Sweet.

A lady in our ward gave us these hats to wear when we're tracting.

 This is our dinner last night. I don't think the picture does justice to how big it is. It's about a half pound meat patty with cheese in the middle. Of course with a fried egg and barbecue sauce (Aussie style!). They were amazing.

 

G'day everybody!

This week it went from winter to summer in a couple days. It has been in the low thirties lately, which was a bit of a shock since it's been cool for a while now. I think my body wasn't ready for the weather change and I caught a bit of a cold. Just a bit of a runny nose and congestion and mild fatigue. I am finally feeling over it. It's not fun being sick as a missionary because you want to just go go go all the time and not rest but when you're not feeling well they always tell you the best thing for it is rest. But I'm better now and ready to get a good start to the week.

We are already halfway through the transfer. Unbelievable.

This week was a bit slow towards the beginning of the week (when I wasn't feeling well) but we had some good things happen. We found some pretty solid potential investigators, which we haven't got much of lately. At one door we met a single mother with two kids. We offered to help out and she asked a lot of questions about what we do as missionaries and what we sacrifice to be there. She was impressed how committed and dedicated we were to our cause. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and she accepted a copy. We helped her move a large sofa from one room in her house to another and she was very grateful for our help. She even referred us to a friend of hers. Once again, service opens doors.

General Conference next month! Can't wait!

Haha yesterday when we were tracting we knocked on a door a couple times and no one answered so we left. I decided to moon walk away from the doorstep. Just then I see a man peek at us through the blinds. You're welcome. It was pretty funny.

I hope you all know how much I love you and love and appreciate your letters! have a great week!

Elder Thieme

Pictures from Australia!

 This is Elder Edwards and I outside the temple. He's from Melbourne. He's the man.

I'm on a boat!

G'day everyone!

It's been another week in good ol' Somerset! We've been pretty busy and things are going well. We met some pretty interesting people this week. Mostly nice people.

I almost hit my first kangaroo last night. He hopped right into my blind spot and we barely missed him. I'm pretty sure we clipped his tail with our rear bumper. It was pitch black outside and he came out of nowhere.

Thought I would send some pictures since I haven't done so in ages now. A couple weeks ago my little adapter wasn't working and then last week I forgot it. But it's working this week so here ya go!

4 September 2013

G'day everyone!

It's been a bit of a crazy week. We had our first district meeting this week. Up 'till this point we had only had zone meetings. President has changed that this transfer. And our zone leaders showed up to the meeting with an ipad! We didn't get one though.

Temple P-day was today, so we woke up at four in the morning again to catch the train. We got permission to go have lunch in the city so we got to walk around Brisbane for a bit of the afternoon. I love going to the temple, but the long train ride isn't my favourite.

I can't believe the kids are back in school already. What year is everyone? I'm pretty sure Jackson's a sophomore, Evan's in year 8? Bryson is in year 2? Or 3? Kenzie is a first grader right?I can't even remember! I feel like I have no sense of how much time has passed by.

I even forgot to say Happy Birthday Evan! Happy Birthday Evan!

I'm sorry if I forget things but I feel like I am kind of in a different world. Life back at home is supposed to just pause and wait for me to get back isn't it? It is so wierd to think about how everyone is growing up.

 I had a thought the other day that kind of freaked me out. I realized that in two months I will be turning twenty. I always couldn't wait to be in my twenties when I was growing up. It's like, "oh, I can't wait to get there, I'm going to be so cool." But it's always so far away. I felt so old when I realized that! I know that a lot of big life decisions are coming down the track, and I am glad for the things that I have learned on my mission. I know that my mission has made my outlook on my future so different than what it used to be. It has also helped me to realize the things of most importance. I know who I am and I know who I want to become, so I'm not worried about the future (not that I have spent much time thinking about it). Though, people keep asking me what I'm going to study when I go  home and I still have no idea.

I had my first experience with a swooping magpie the other day. We were doing some service for a part member family and out of nowhere I feel something smack me on the back of the head. It felt like someone just cuffed me from behind with their hand. It was pretty hard. So I get hit and look to see what hit me and here's this bird flying over my head. It lands in a tree a couple meters away and just stares at me. I had a shovel in my hand so I dared him to try it again, but he never did. My companion saw the whole thing and just laughed.

I feel like it's been a while since I emailed last, but I can't even remember what all happened this week. I don't know where the days go.

We spent a day out in Fernvale, which is a good 45 minute drive from our flat, almost an hour. We did some tracting and I swear, nobody was wearing a shirt. All these old Aussie blokes walking around in short shorts and hairy beer bellies.

After tracting we had dinner at our ward mission leader' house (well, his parent' house. He's a returned missionary still searching for his eternal companion and studying.). We had roast lamb. Dessert was pavlova and sticky date pudding. I don't know why they call it pudding. It's actually a very sweet, moist cake with caramel sauce on top. It was mean though. 
We "inherited" an investigator from the zone leaders this week. She has family who are members. She was being taught by the Brassall missionaries (our zone leaders) even though she was in our area. She has a baptismal date for September 29th, but it sounds like that might need to be pushed back, since she works Sundays and hasn't been able to attend church yet. It sounds like she's pretty solid, so we are excited to begin teaching her. We will meet her for the first time tonight.

We are still working with the young Sudanese kid. We played a game of basketball with him and a reactivating member who is friends with him at school and then taught a lesson. He seems to be liking the Book of Mormon. He didn't come to church this week due to a big football game up in Toowoomba (his reactivating friend didn't come either). We were kind of bummed about that. But it was a great Sunday. We had several of the less active members we've been working with show up. It's great to see the fruits of your labors. I think it's important for the member to see as well, because we have been trying so hard but just haven't had a lot of success.

But things are going well and I am loving the missionary life. I love you and miss you all, and I love hearing about what's going on. Keep me posted on cross country and school and everything! Go Broncos!

Love Elder Thieme

26 August 2013

G'day everybody!
Another transfer has gone by and another is just starting. Elder
Christensen and I will be staying together here in Somerset ward for
another transfer. This is the only time so far on my mission when I
didn't attend the transfer meeting. This will also be the longest I
have stayed in one area, and the longest I have had one companion.
Before now, I had a different companion every transfer and hadn't been
in an area for more than three months. I was a little bummed that I
didn't get to go to transfers because our district leader, Elder
Forester, who attended Middleton High School, is going home. But I am
glad to be staying with Elder Christensen. We've been having a great
time together and the area seems to be showing a little promise, after
a bit of a dry spell.
Evan lost his Smith's? Where did we get those? Those aren't the ones
we found in Payette Lake are they? That would be funny. My Ray Bans
have been starting to kind of fall apart. The left temple is pretty
loose where the plastic connects to the hinge. They are still
wearable, and I kind of fixed them with super glue, but I'm not sure
how long they'll last me. I think my head got fatter too, because they
feel tighter on my head than usual. It must be all the knowledge I'm
gaining.
I've made a goal for myself to stop eating Macca's and getting subway
instead when we have to eat out. I never really liked Macca's at home,
but I guess when you're on a short budget cheap fast food tastes
better.
We had a pretty good week. Not the best, but a good one. We had to mow
our lawn and deep clean our house since it was the end of the
transfer. Our lawn is massive, so it took ages to finish with the
little push mower we borrowed. I don't know why we have such a big
yard.
We found some good people. We also taught this young man from Sedan on
Saturday. We decided to bring a reactiveating priest age young man
along with us to the lesson. Turns out they knew each other from
school. They came to church together and it seemed to go pretty well.
We taught another lady yesterday on her doorstep. We tracted into her
a few weeks ago and she was just leaving her house, so she told us we
could come back another day. My impression was that she was just being
friendly, like a lot of people will do. But we decided to follow up
with her and she was asking all the right questions. It just led right
to the Restoration. She gratefully accepted a Book of Mormon and said
she would like to come to our church the next time she gets a Sunday
off work. It was such a great feeling afterwards, because I know that
both my companion and I were given the things she needed to hear. I
hope that she will progress down the track.
We met another lady who only listened to us after we had established
we weren't the Jehovah's witnesses. We taught her about the Book of
Mormon and gave her a copy with a commitment to read a part of it. We
have been flooding the earth with the Book of Mormon lately. I love to
teach and testify of its truth and divine origin.
Benny has still been dodging us, so we'll put him on the backburner
for a while. Thanks for your prayers. We will just take a step back
and let the Lord work on him for a while.
We got our bikes back but we haven't ridden them much yet. When our
bike rack was installed it wasn't attached tightly enough. It's one
where the attachment goes under the trailer hitch, So you just screw
the ball back on top of it. Then the A-frame that holds the bikes can
be removed easily. So we put the bikes on the rack and when we got
halfway out of town we realised it was swinging around behind us.
We'll just have to borrow a big wrench from a member to get it snug
and then we'll be good to go. I look forward to using the bikes more
when we get that fixed. I feel like then I'll be more like a real
missionary, instead of a spoiled one that sits in a car all day.
The weather has been real nice the last few days. Not too cold in the
mornings. It gets a bit hot sometimes during the day, but there's been
a nice breeze that keeps it from feeling too warm.
I discovered a new favorite food. I had seen one of my companions,
Elder Paia'aua, put mayonnaise, barbecue sauce and a fried egg on
sausage (just one that tastes like a beef hot dog) and bread. Here
they don't buy hot dog buns, they just fold bread around their
sausages. And they never use American mustard. It's always either
tomato sauce or barbecue sauce. So I decided to try this combination
and I ended up loving it. I don't think my arteries love it much
though. It's also good with bacon or a hamburger patty instead of . I
think the fried egg makes it.
My little black and white nixon died the other day. I kept thinking
time was starting to go really slow and the day would never end. Then
I realised time had carried on but my watch had stopped at three
twenty. I will see if I can get the battery replaced today, depending
on how much it costs.
I am still waiting to get my mail. It has been at least a month since
our zone leaders last got it to us. They should give it to us this
Thursday. Hopefully.
I feel bad for not writing many hand-written letters, so I will try to
write a few today.
Thank you for your prayers and everything you have done for me. You
are the best family in the world. I love and miss you all! Thank you
for your prayers for me, and I pray that you will be safe and blessed
in all things. Have a great week everyobody!
Love, Elder Thieme