Week 5

Camden is good. This week went by super fast. I am really enjoying it. There isn’t anything new that didn’t happen last week, but I did see my first kangaroo today. I love it here, but I do miss home. I ate some Tongan food, and that was different. They had gasava [cassava?], and that is like a potato. But they also love meat. They had a meat salad, and it was lamb and some greens. And like you would be eating it, and you would have to stop to pull out bones and fatty tendons, but it didn’t taste bad. It was just the texture of some of the foods. I have tried more foods, but I forgot the name of them. They make sure that [we] are fed.

This week we were doing service for a non-member, and they gave me and elder Iino a weight lifting set. So we have three adjustable dumbbells and a barbell and a bench to do bench presses, so that’s good. I was getting sick of pushups. And we also have a forearm thing that is pretty good for your forearms.

We are only supposed to do four hours of service, but this whole week was service. Like we had no one to teach, but we had heaps of service to do, so we got that done. I got a little sunburned, but not bad.

Saturday morning we were playing basketball at 5:30 am. I jumped to get a rebound and came down on someone’s foot and rolled my ankle and its purple and blue. It hurt to walk on it the first day, but it’s getting better. The young men of this ward love me and Elder Iino. We always are laughing when we do something with them.

That was basically our week. So it wasn’t busy with like teaching, but it was with everything else like service and making connections.

Love,
Elder Newman

Burragorang Lookout near Oakdale, NSW:

Week 4

Well this is my second week in Australia. I'm doing good. I am starting to get the hang of things as a missionary. My trainer is awesome. His name is Elder Iino. He is from Japan, and he speaks pretty good English. There are times that he is hard to understand, but we are both still learning. He is pretty new also. The food is pretty similar to home, a lot of meat and potatoes, but there are some new things here. I'm going to try them, and I will let you all know how they are.

There is a famous rugby player in our ward, like he plays pro rugby, and we are eating at his house this Wednesday. His name is Sam Perrett. Like almost all of Australia knows him.

Yesterday I blessed sacrament because they had no priests to bless, and then before I sat down I was asked to introduce myself, and that wasn't too hard. But then we got to elders quorum, and then the Stake Presidents wanted me to teach the lesson. I was about to, but then another elder helped me out, and we started to talk about conference talks, so I was like picked on all day.

And then we got a new investigator yesterday which is a good thing. He is really interested in a girl that goes to our ward, so he is willing to basically do anything. He wants to join the ward choir even, because she is in it. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and he said that he would read it and mark any confusion he had. We didn't even have to invite him to read it; he just said he was going to read it. He also said that he prayed for the girl he likes in sacrament meeting. He is from Pakistan, and he is in Australia working. He is a pastry chef, but does cakes mainly, so he baked her a cake. He is really persistent. I hope it works for him, because that would be a cool story.

But that's basically everything that has happened this week.

Signing off.
Elder Newman

Week 3 - Australia!!

It was a long flight. The first day in Australia I got sick. I think it was a combination of jet lag and sleep deprivation, but I'm alright now. I got sleep that night and woke up feeling great.  

It's pretty similar here, but the food is different. There is a lot less sugar in the food, but I am gaining heaps of weight. It's a pretty big culture shock here, but it's all good. I'm adjusting well. I miss our home foods, even the mayo tastes different, and everything's expensive here.

There was a lizard that got into our flat, and there are heaps of spiders. I haven't seen big ones, but there are heaps of them, and they are scary looking. Haha.

 

My trainer is Elder IIno. He is from Japan. He is so cool. He turns 24 pretty soon. I'm having so much fun here. Everyone loves my accent. Haha, I'm not the one with an accent, but okay. They like Americans here, which is good for me. 

Thanks for everything. I love you guys so much!

Elder Newman

Week 2

In my zone there are 12 other kids going to my same mission and like 24 going to Australia. When I said I had a bad day, I meant as in I didn't teach very well. It wasn't like I was missing home. I love it here! I am in charge of 8 missionaries right now, but we are leaving today at 11:30. I have seen Riley a couple times. Everyone thinks it's cool that we are twins. I have probably seen him like 5 or 6 times. 

I have taught my first real lesson to an actual non-member. The first lesson was kinda awkward.  It was like he didn't want to listen to us. And then the next lesson we kinda just got to know him and then share a quick message with him, and we could really feel the spirit. I felt like he was progressing a lot, but I have only met with him like 4 times. He will take lessons from other missionaries, so it's all good.  I hope he watched conference like we asked him to because it answered a lot of the questions he didn't know he had, I felt like.

Love,

Elder Newman

This is today's pic.