This last week has been awesome. We got to meet so many of
the members and are continuing to teach. We met a family in our ward who are
from the States. The dad is from North Carolina and he served in the US
military. He knows where Ft. Campbell is and told us that he almost ended up in
TN but decided to stop serving in the military so he could be with his family
more. It's odd, but it was kind of nice to meet people from the States :)
We were also out of a car as of Tuesday so we have been
walking a lot :) We had to drop our car in Melbourne to get fixed because there
is a dent in the side-(not us...the last Elders who had it dented it). and we
had to take the train and buses back. 3 1/2 hours later we got home-wow.
We also got the opportunity to do service this week for a
man in our ward. We were (and still are) working on helping him clear out his
backyard. It was pretty messy but really great to be able to serve. Fortunately
the Elders had plans to help him too so we were able to catch a ride with them.
So there are a few things that are said quite frequently
here that I might end up saying when I get home and I thought might be fun to
mention :)
-"heaps" .....as in "there were heaps of them
-"She'll be right".......means "it's
alright"
-"rubbish"......trash
-"bench".......as in "clear off the
bench" (bench means counter)
-"the tip".....the dump
-"trolley"......as in "grab a trolley
(shopping cart)"
and of course "no worries" and "g'day"
oh yes, and my companion always says "crikeys"
Oh yeah, my brother Dallin asked me about any poisonous
spiders and or snakes or wallabies that I have seen.
Well, I haven't seen any snakes, and if I do it is probably
poisonous......because pretty much every snake here is poisonous. And I have
not yet seen a wallabies or koalas (but they do live here, so maybe I will) .
As for spiders, um yeah....they are everywehere and I have seen some pretty
dangerous ones. They have this one called a whitetail and I have found two of
them in our flat and lots more in the yard of the man we are doing service for.
Their bite is similar to that of a brown recluse.

The backyard that we are doing service in is crazy full of
spiders. I have now seen a TON of red-back spiders and they will put you in
hospital if you get bit. So we squish them. Also the member we are doing
service for has a ton of sheds in his backyard and Elder Guymon found a
huntsman spider in one of them. They are HUGE. They aren't poisonous but they
have really big fangs and thier bite is supposed to hurt like mad. Also, they
are FAST. Elder Guymon poked it and it was on his glove in less than a second-I've
never seen a spider move that fast. Needless to say, I've also never seen Elder
Guymon move that fast either-he flicked the spider off his hand towards
us......we still don't know where that spider ended up.

This last week has been spent following up on investigators and meeting the members. We now know quite a few people in our ward. I want to get to know everyone!! I'm usually terrible with names but I've been working at it and I only forgot one person's name from last week. Pretty good considering we met something like 40 people.

We headed up to Melbourne this last week for a mission president meeting. On the way there Elder Rawnsley directed us to get there in a way that took us right through the center of Melbourne. It's a really pretty city, but the driving is crazy. Most roads here have 4 lanes (2 right, 2 left). However, people can park in the left lane-and it's totally fine except for when you have to quickly get over to the right lane because there is a car parked in your lane. The city was like that, but if people don't want to wait they just go around you-doesn't matter what you are doing. Other than that the driving is good-no one speeds because they have cameras that mail you a ticket. Even if you go 3k's over the limit you could get a ticket, and they start at around 130$. Very expensive.

The meeting in Melbourne was nice, I got to see part of my MTC district, (except for an Elder who is serving in Tasmania-it's too far to travel). It was nice to see everyone again and learn more about how to be effective missionaries.

This week we also followed up with a lady named Anaka and her husband Frank. They are in their 80's and she is from Croatia and he is from Hungary. We shared a little about the gospel but mostly listened to her. She has had a tough time and does not get on well with her children. We talked with her and cried with her. She is so sweet and we asked if there was any service we could do, she said that she just wants us to come back and see her again :)

Meeting people from all over the world, some of them do not speak English well and some of them have very strong accents. I find that when I listen very hard, even if their English is not very good, I can understand them enough to know what they are saying. Anaka said the prayer before we left and even though it was in Croatian I knew what she was talking about. Not in the sense that I understood what she was saying, but that I knew what her prayer was about. There is an understanding of peoples that comes with the Spirit. :)

Speaking of languages. We met a lady the other day and set a return appointment to see her with her husband so he could translate. They are from the Congo and she speaks Swahili and a little French. Her husband's main language was French but he also speaks Swahili and pretty good English. When we first got there for our appointment her husband was not home so we taught the children and then taught her a little. Her English is not very good and my companion asked a question that she didn't understand. I was able to translate it into French-and thankfully she can understand my French. Whew. When her husband was there he didn't understand the name of our church so I explained it to him in French and he understood better. It was pretty cool, but my French definitely needs some work :)

To end: My mom asked what languages I have encountered and I thought I would list the ones that I have come across thus far:

Arabic (lots of Arabic)

Sudanese

French

Croatian

Hungarian

Samoan

Swahili

(a couple African dialects that I can't remember the names of)

Mandarin-Chinese

German

Cambodian-Tamil

Yeah, there's a pretty good mix of people here. Some of them speak English perfectly and others barely speak it at all. It's really difficult when you initially try to talk to someone and then realize that they have no clue what you are saying because they don't speak English.

Also, a side note about the weather. Everywhere I have lived people always say that the weather changes quickly. Like "If you don't like the weather just wait til tomorrow." Okay, never again can anyone say that in any place I have ever lived. The weather here is crazy. If it's sunny all day you just got super duper lucky. Because it will seriously be super sunny and warm and 5 min later be pouring rain for 10 min then back to sunny for an hour then grey, then rainy and cold, then sunny and warm again. All in one day but like 3 times a day. I've never had weather like this......Oh,. it will also be super calm and then you will get a roaring wind that lasts for days. It's lovely here but the weather is very sporadic. It sounds bad but it's really not :) I really like it here you just have to be prepared for literally any kind of weather when you go out :)

Until next week -Sister Edmunds

This last week has been so busy! Tuesday was very interesting, we went to contact people in Dandenong Plaza and talked with a man named Glenn who was sitting in his car. He is an Aussie and is Lutheran but he has worked with missionaries from the Church before and has actually been to Utah before-random :) We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he said he would read and pray. As soon as we were done taking with him my companion saw a lady named Shadia that we were going to go visit, just standing in the Plaza with her 2 children. So cool! If we had gone to her house at that time and had not been in the Plaza we would have missed her. While my companion was taking to her I had 2 different people walk up to me, one of them was a young man who asked for 2 dollars for the bus, I gave him 2 dollars and talked to him about the gospel. He said he was looking to get his life in order and thanked me. We walked along the plaza and met another man named Luke. He was very interested in our message and told us that he had just overcome a Heroine addiction and was looking for direction in his life. (He is currently being taught by the Elders). This experience made me realize that by being where we should be we will placed in the path of those who need the Gospel. Meeting Luke made me think too, that the Gospel is not for perfect people, it's for everyone. For people looking for direction, for families, everyone :) I love that!

On Wednesday we went to our District meeting in Narre Warren, while we were there I felt like we should visit a girl that we had taught named Ragina. The last time we met with her she had said that she would not be around much the next few days so we were not really sure if we would see her again before they moved us to Geelong. We decided to stop by later that evening and tracted around our flat in the meantime. Almost right across the street from us we met a man named Reese. He had grown up Catholic but doesn't really practice. He was very interested in the restored gospel and how the Spirit testifies of truth to us. We asked him to read Helaman 5:30 and Moroni's promise and he really liked it. When I say he really liked it it sounds kind of lame to me-his eyes lit up and he could feel the Spirit. He said that he has felt it at times but that it never stays for long. We told him about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how we can always have that to be wtih us. You can see it in their eyes when they understand and want to learn more :)

Later that evening we dropped by Ragnia's and she was home!! We talked with her about concerns she had. It was really nice.

On Thursday we met with Jess and Naite and their children Sama and Jaemin-the family we started teaching. Jess asked us when we first met him what the next step was, what was that link. We talked with him about covenants and how they bring us closer to God. We talked with him about prophets because they came to General Conference last Sunday and Jess said that right now it was easier for him to believe on our words that there are prophets until he comes to that knowledge for himself. He has placed a lot of trust in us. We had the Elders with us for this lesson and it was interesting that Jess said, if we had been young men he would have never let us into his home. He has gotten to know the Elders and knows that they are good and trustworthy. But I really thought about what he said, it is true that there are homes that are more open to Sisters than to Elders. We also talked with Jess's wife Naite while the Elders talked with Jess and talked to her more about the BofM. She understands Moroni's promise and is very excited to pray and know for herself if it is true. When we talked about covenants with them and baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost Naite's eyes lit up. She is always telling us that she sees light in us and through us and we told her that it is the Holy Ghost and it is something that we are blessed with when we live according to our covenants. She wants that light :)

This last Saturday we moved to Geelong. We were sad to go but we will be here for a while. The office told us that we would not have electricity until Tuesday but we really wanted to be down here for Sunday so that we could meet the members in the ward. Because it is a new flat for missionaries we had to move everything out of our old flat. The AP's brought the mission van and trailer and loaded our stuff up. We went to the zone leaders flat and dropped off the GPS............and headed to Geelong just using our map. Ummm, what should have taken 1 1/2 hours took about 2 1/2. We got lost in Koala country.......no, I did not see a Koala. Thankfully we were not as far out as we originally thought we were, but we had to stop in the middle of nowhere at a winery to get directions and figure out where on earth we were.

Geelong is right along the bay and we can see it from the chapel which is a 10min walk from our flat. We don't have electricity but a member from our last area let us borrow some emergency flashlights and a candle so we've been okay. We have running water and thankfully gas becuase that means we also have hot water-something that would really be difficult to live without. Also, I love Australia, I really do, but I have never seen more spiders in my life! Never. We squished like 20 around our flat yesterday and one of them fell off my bed.......I keep all my sheets tucked in very, very well now. The members told us that there is really only one kind that you don't want to get bit by here-the whitetail. They told us what it looks like and if I ever seen one, it's dead.

Well that's all for this week, the ward here is awesome and they are very excited to have sister missionaries. I really like Geelong. It's close to the country and supposedly there are Koalas around here-I will keep my eyes open.....

-Sister Edmunds

Hello from Melbourne!

We left the MTC Monday October 3rd at 12:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Melbourne, Australia at 11am on Wednesday. Our longest flight was 14.5 hours and it felt like forever!!!

A little story about our trip at the airport.....On our flight out of Salt Lake we were on a teeny tiny plane to LAX. Before we got on we met a really nice couple from Brisbane Area (the Young's). They were actually on the same flight to Sydeny with us and turned out to be a real blessing. The airport at LAX was huge and we had no clue where to go to catch our next flight but we saw brother and sister Young and they just told us to follow them and they would get us there. So 5 missionaries followed brother and sister Young and they led us right to our next flight (which seemed impossible to find on our own). They were so sweet and kind and we talked with them a lot both before our flight and during our flight because they were sitting near us. It was really cool :)

We got to Melbourne and met our mission president and his wife. We also met up with 3 other missionaries who had just arrived from the New Zealand MTC. Went and had lunch at the mission home and took pictures by the temple. After 2 days on planes the last thing we wanted to do was take pictures looking the way we did but it was fun, and the temple here is really beautiful. We went back to the mission home and had dinner and a meeting and then went to our flats around 9pm. I don't think I've ever been so tired.

So I've been here for a few days but we've had some really interesting experiences in that time. We met a man from Ethiopia who told us he and his wife had had missionaries over to teach before. We set an appointment to meet back with him at 7pm on Saturday but he wasn't home (we found our they had a family emergency). My companion (Sister White-she's an Aussie from Brisbane) went up to a man who was walking with his daughter and began to talk to him. He is from India and his wife is Indian but I think she's an Aussie. we talked with him for about 20min and he told us to come to his house, that his wife would like to hear from us as well. We talked with them for a while, and they had a lot of questions for us. I remember his wife telling me that they were looking for that light and that they see that light through us. I told her that we wanted them to have that light for themselves. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and they seemed very interested and willing. We also talked to them about living prophets and because General Conference was broad casted here this weekend (because of the time difference) we invited them to come with us. They came to the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference and said they felt that peace and we asked if we could come and continue to teach them and they were very happy about that. There is not enough space or time here to tell everything they asked us, but they are a wonderful family and are very close to each other-there is the mother father and a daughter and son. Please keep them in your prayers, they are incredible people.

Also, the other day we went to an inactive members house and shared a message with her and her children and we decided to track a little in her area we met a very nice Aussie man who was in his 50's and he was very welcoming, we stood outside his door and taught him a little about the Plan of Salvation and gave him our contact info. Last night we taught a young man in his 20's and his sister (at separate times because she got home late). initially we went to teach the sister because she had met with missionaries before but only her brother was at home. We had just knocked on the door and the brother answered and we wouldn't have been able to go in except the mother and her other son arrived and invited us in. They are from the Sudan, the son is Catholic but doesn't really practice and the mother is Muslim. We shared a message with them, but mainly towards the son and asked him to read the Book of Mormon, he accepted and asked how he would feel to know if it was true-I love it when people ask good questions. We talked to the mother a little bit-she doesn't really seem interested in our message so she told us a little about the Arabic language. It was interesting, I learned something new about a different language :)

Her daughter came home and we were able to teach her. Previously she had accepted a Book of Mormon but wouldn't read, after talking with her we asked her to read and pray and she said she would. The Spirit was really strong, I could feel it. i just always hope our investigators can feel it as well. Please keep her in your prayers as well :)

So that's where we are. It's p-day, we're at the library in Dandenong (we are moving to Geelong in a few weeks) Google it if you want to, it's right on the coast (but it's not tropical-it's cold :)

Have fun, and pray for the missionaries, you have no idea how much we need and appreciate it :)