December 3, 2013

G'day everybody!

     We had our temple trip this morning. Woke up early to catch the train into the city. It was great. I always love the temple so much, and I am so grateful that we have one in our mission and are allowed to attend regularly.

I hope Grandpa is doing alright still. Send him and Grandma my love! I always remember not being thrilled to go to Woodpile for the holidays, but the time spent with Grandma and Grandpa Nuttall was priceless.

I missed Thanksgiving! We did have a ward Christmas party this last weekend and they had some little store bought mini pumpkin pies, but that's about as "Thanksgivingy" as I got this year. I missed all the mashed potatoes and gravy and pies and all the Aunties and Uncles and Cuzzies! I hope yous all had a great one though!

We finally got our mail yesterday and I got to see all the XC pics and results and everything! You  boys did awesome. And that is probably the most origami I have ever seen in my whole life. Chur bro! Thanks Kenzie for the letters and I will write back but I won't tell you what I'm getting you for Christmas! Thanks so much for all the letters. I love hearing from you guys.

Well the new area is pretty good. It is a small area. We pretty much just cover the suburb called Burpengary. There are lots of Aussies here. Not quite as much of the cultural diversity as in other areas I have served. We have been doing pretty well so far. The area is relatively new. They only opened it the transfer before this one. We have been teaching a few people we have tracted into. We have one girl who has really started progressing as of last week. She is originally catholic but is open to all religions. We took her on a chapel tour and happened to schedule it the same time as the ward was having a baptism, so she got to see that as well. It was great. The highlights were when we showed her the baptismal font and the chapel. The Spirit was very strong and she definitely felt it. She then came to the ward Christmas party that night and Church the next morning (fast and testimony meeting even)! So we hope she didn't get overloaded. She really seemed to enjoy it and the ward definitely made her feel part of the family. We hope to commit her to a baptismal date the next time we meet with her.

There is also a guy that was tracted into a long time ago and thus far the missionaries hadn't been able to catch him at home. my companion and I decided to try him. Our hopes were not high. But lo and behold, he was home, so we taught him the message of the Restoration and shared the First Vision. It was quite powerful. The Spirit testified to him that it was true. He told us it gave him a good feeling and gave him the chills. We read him the part in Galatians ch. 5 that lists the fruits of the Spirit and he said, "that's exactly what it was!" It was pretty amazing. We plan to set a baptismal date with him soon as well but our appointment fell through because he got called in to work! Ah!

out of time!

I love you all very much!

Elder Thieme

Nov 24, 2013 pictures!

G'day everybody! I've been about a full week in the area now. It's been a fun week. Every night I come home just exhausted and sweaty from the heat and the humidity. We've been working hard. Luckily this area is nowhere near as hilly as Nerang. It's pretty flat everywhere.

  There's not much happening here yet but we've got some great people to work with and we hope to see some good success here.

Here's a few pics

First one was in my last flat. One day we were tracting and this lady wanted to give us some baby berets to hand out. We weren't sure exactly what to do about it so we were just like, sure we'll take a couple. She grabbed four of them and held them out and told us to put our hands on them and then commenced to bless the baby berets by the laying on of hands. They had been sitting around the flat for about five weeks so we decided to do something productive with them and put them on and take a few pictures.  

This is just a huge moth that landed on our glass door. That's my companion's hand next to it.
 

Caught a little tree frog outside while it was raining one night. 

Next morning I went to take a shower and there was a big huntsman spider on the shower door. I reckon he was a good three inches across with his legs. Big ugly things. They can get massive. They aren't dangerous but they look like they can bite your toe off.

So my new companion is Elder Peacock from Tooele, UT. He's lived in Idaho for a little bit. He is a mad Tim Tam slammer. The Tim Tam (chocolate coated cookie thing: sort of like a large rectangular Oreo with chocolate filling and chocolate coating) slam is when you bite the corners off the biscuit and then stick it in your Milo and suck it like a straw until the middle is soaked, then you eat it, doing as many as you can. He slammed 36 Tim Tams one night. He likes singing and sugar. He is the oldest of ten kids.

We live in the flat with Elder Ottoson, the district leader, from Washington, and Elder Mahuinga from Tonga. He is still working on remembering my name and keeps calling me "Elder Smiff (Smith in a Tongan accent.)." It's a pretty fun group.

I hope all is well back home and that you know how much I love you all! Have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving soon!

Elder Thieme

Nov 21, 2013

G'day! How is everyone goin?

Transfers this week was a bit of a shocker. My companion and I got white-washed out, leaving behind just one companionship instead of two. We didn't see it coming and we were pretty bummed actually. We were just  starting to see some success. I was a bit sad to leave my companion as well. We were just starting to get things going. The last week of the transfer he had a bit of a rough time and was feeling like he wanted to go home. We talked it over and by the end of the week he had changed and he was ready to work. So the transfer was a surprise, but you get used to it after you've been out a while. They're usually a bit of a surprise. And something I've realised is that you don't always get sent where you want to go but you are always sent exactly where you're needed.

If it's not too late do you think you could stick some Cheetos in the package as well? Only if you haven't sent it yet.

Haha just tell Evan to stop growing will ya? Yeah, I reckon he can have some of my clothes. I don't think any of my pants will fit very well anymore, you can have those. Just take what you want. All good bro. I actually bought a couple T-shirts at Target because all the shirts I brought have gotten a bit snug. "Oh boy!" 

Actually, it would be cool to have a BSU shirt (probably medium size). I wish I could have thought of these things earlier. But if you haven't sent the package yet I think that's my last request for this Christmas.

 So I've been transferred to Burpengary 2 in North Brisbane. It's a nice area, small. It's nice and warm up here. I was hoping to stay down on the Gold Coast for summer! The area is relatively new. There has only been two companionships in the Burpengary ward for one transfer before this one. I didn't get to email Tuseday when transfers and p-day was because we didn't make it back home before the library closed.

It has been good so far. The area has lots of potential. We plan to baptize this transfer.

FYI, I seem to have misplaced my church issued credit card. I will get a new one in a few weeks, but I will have to use my home check card to buy some groceries for the next little while.

I hope mum  and the kids are feeling better by now! It is no fun to be crook.

I love you all! Especially Kenzie... and Bryson...and Jackson... and Evan...and Miranda.

Love,

Elder Thieme