Australia Week 1

 

Hello Everyone,

 This has been a busy first week! I am serving in the Richmond Area of the City Zone, which is near the center of Adelaide by the airport. The city is really nice it is totally different from Surprise. There are tons of people walking around!   My new companion is Elder Chen from China! Elder Chen has been a good teacher, so I am continuing to learn and grow and improve. Every day has been busy I have had plenty of lessons to teach and plenty of people to street contact which was super scary at first, but I am slowly getting comfortable with it. The City of Adelaide has super strict rules with Missionaries which is much different from Surprise and Phoenix! We don't have a car in this mission, so we are biking all day. My thighs are burnt out the bike smashed me! Ha!Ha! I am out of shape it turns out with bike riding.  Trying to get back in shape to catch up! I was able to attend the Prospect Ward's Christmas party it was interesting they gave everyone "money" that you spent on food at the different market stalls.  That was cool and we had lamb which is pretty good. Their primary(children's Sunday school) is super small like 20-30 kids and in Gospel Principles (adult Sunday school) the missionaries made up like half of the class Ha! Ha! It is  a nice little ward(congregation) and the church building is so much different from the ones in the states!

 It has been a great spiritual experience for me and we have a baptism this Sunday for a brother named Andy. While I am on the topic our main focus is on the Chinese people in the area, so we street contact mainly Chinese or just Asian people, I might have to learn some Mandarin Chinese from my companion, so that will be very interesting indeed Ha Ha! I am trying to learn some of the slang like "smashed",  "Heaps" and "Ayy"so it is slowly making its way into my vocabulary.

 I am rooming in a flat (apartment) with three other elders, Elder Smith, Elder Pickett, and Elder Chen they are all awesome missionaries! We have a small microwave and washer/dryer.  Elder Smith and Pickett do the grocery shopping because the grocery store is in their area.  So, far we have had dinner in the city, but it is very expensive, so most the time we wait until we get home and the four of us make something to eat. A dozen Krispy Kreme donuts is $27. We only have one dinner scheduled this month and its tomorrow with our Ward Mission leader.

Kitchen in our Flat

My Desk

 Elder Duckworth my companion from the MTC, is serving in the Darwin area, north coast of Australia. It is a five hour plane ride from Adelaide. I hope to serve with him again. Here are a couple pictures from my last day at the MTC.

 If any of you would like to email me my email address is: ethan.salcedo@myldsmail.net  I can only respond once a week on my P-day which is usually Mondays (your Sunday). Overall it has been a great experience so far. I love you guys!

Sincerely,
                 Elder Salcedo