First week has been really awesome! I'm in an area called Manly Vale, it's really really really diverse! I love it! My ward is lots of Polynesians and a few Asians and Australians. The church is really weird, it's so small but the members sing so loud!! My one tiny ward sings louder than 5 of our stakes back home! Thats kinda sad. Me and my trainer really hit it off! His name is Elder Russell and we actually lived just down the street from each other at home! Crazy!! We have so much in common! Yup you read that right, Elder Russell and I are companions! President Simmons prayed a lot about it but each time he was told that the Lord wanted us to be together!! So awesome! I don't have my camera on me right now :( so I'll have to send some pictures later to prove it. Today we are gonna go see some sights and stuff. Sydney is so much different than I imagined! It is literally like a jungle, so green and so many cool animals and birds. There are hills everywhere!! way way cool! The spiders are HUGE!!!!!!ewwwwwwwww they tend to keep to their trees though so I haven't had one crawl near me yet... This area hasn't really had a real progressing investigator in about 4 months so it's tough to say the least! However, yesterday Elder Russell and I placed a BOM to a guy from Nepal, our first BOM placed in this area the whole time he has been here.
Thats awesome to hear about the job at Tanner Clinic! I hope you can get it! I'll be praying for you! Yeah I just read Johns email! Thats such an awesome call, he will love serving in Boston, it's so historical and beautiful! Keep up the bunny killing brothers! thats awesome that the Jazz won! How is their record now? are they still kicking butt? People out here like the NBA but they are more about Rugby, they call it football. Our american football out here is called Grid Iron, and they actually really like to watch it too! I'm happy that Katie is doing well, you'll have to keep me updated on her recovery. I'm sure both grandmas will be very happy to have their work done for them :) thats exciting!
My cold is actually just barely going away, it has been really really really rainy here, which was nice because it wasn't so hot, but it is pretty sunny today. Yeah I want to see some of the facebook posts! That sounds pretty funny hahaha I haven't gotten any money on my missionary card yet and dont get any til thursday still so Elder Russell and I are trying our best to conserve money. Everything is so expensive here! I ate McDonalds my first day hahah there is no such thing as a value menu, just combos and Dinner Boxes, and its like 12 dollars for a combo! They dont measure food with calories, its all kJ... kilo Joules! hahaha! I ate fried octopus two days ago with some fish n chips, it was actually pretty darn tastey! i blew up my toothbrush charger.. i plugged it in but forgot to switch the power to 50W so it was 1600W, i few minutes later i heard a loud pop and saw it kinda smoking.. so I'm using normal toothbrushes right now till I figure that all out!
When I teach about the Book of Mormon sometimes I forget that I'm in Australia and when I say that it was the record of the people HERE in the America's... but its not here anymore.. I'm on the other side of the world!
Well, I'm sure there is a whole bunch of stuff I'm forgetting, but I'll have two years and eternity to tell you all about it! hahah It's great to hear from everyone and know of stuff going on back home! I'm loving it here, it's hard work but so worth it, the Lord has helped me out a ton with the transition strait to the mission. I don't think I've skipped a beat getting to work.
Oh yeah, this is my mail address. Post it and tell people to write me!
Elder Kuyler Thompson
5C/31-33 Quirk Road
Manly Vale, NSW 2093
Australia
