Back in Adelaide (63-66)

3/4- I must admit this week went by really fast! Not too much exciting happened this week for us, but it was a great fast Sunday yesterday! We were able to hold evening sacrament for a couple of investigators yesterday.  Which was great to see that all though they couldn't make it to church they still desired to progress and partake of the sacrament. The commonwealth games are held here in Australia. They did a baton run through all the cities in Australia and on Friday it was in Darwin.  We went to the city and there were a lot of people, but knowing Darwin it rained out the run.  They had to drive around with it because it was pouring rain and lots of lightning, which made it very interesting! I also found out this week that I must be allergic to some types of Indian food! The past couple of weekends I have had a rash all over my body and it was itching everywhere and my lips swelled up which is annoying.  I noticed this second time that it happened when I was eating Indian food from a certain restaurant, so I think I am allergic to that! I must say it was not a fun experience ha-ha and for my parents I am OK! I have gotten everything under control with the help from Elder and Sister Lea who were able to get me medication for it ha-ha! We also had an activity this week and it was a fast starter that the branch held which was really fun and a cool idea. They had a big feed and there was lots of people that came which was great.  Overall it was really good! I also found out that Salcedo is a very important name in the Philippians. It comes from a very rich family that conquered the Philippians. There are a lot of people with the Salcedo surname  and there are buildings, streets, and cities named after too, so that was cool to learn ha-ha! I hope you all have a great week and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

3/12- Sorry for the late reply everyone ,but I hope you all have had a great week! We just had transfers and it was the biggest surprise ever! I was transferred........ BACK TO ADELAIDE CITY!!!!!!! I am back home in my only other area I have been in and I am zone leader with......... ELDER CHEN!!!! That's right elder Chen who trained me when I first got to the mission is now my zone leader companion. We are companions again which is awesome! It is so great to be back, I really do love it here in Adelaide City and I find so much joy serving here! Yesterday, I flew in from Darwin and we attended Family Home evening! I was able to surprise a couple of my recent converts that were there and they were so happy to see me and a lot of the members as well. I also got to see a lot of the missionaries in the zone that I knew and it filled me with so much joy!!!!!  Today I had leadership training which is why I am emailing so late!  Last week when I was in Darwin we did a lot of things! We went to the Palmerston elders in their flat to see how they were doing.  We wanted to surprise them so we hid in a room, so we could monitor and see how they treated each other and did studies. While we waited we discovered an outbreak of Black Mold covering their whole ceiling in their sleeping room!!! I will get back to that soon. We ate at GyG a Mexican restaurant that I love and Elder Fiu left his cup on the table. When they arrived they turned on the lights and saw the cup. They thought someone broke in and they searched the flat.  We were able to give them a good scare, but it defeated the purpose of why we went, but we still got to do studies with them! Now back to the black mold, because of that we had to do an emergency move out and had to take out all their stuff. We moved them out of the flat, which was crazy. We were all wearing masks so we wouldn't get sick, but it was crazy! It was an exciting week because there were two baptisms in the zone by two other elders, which was great to attend! I will miss Darwin for sure it was very fun, but I am filled with so much joy to be serving back here in Adelaide City in the City branch!!! I hope you all have a great week and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

3/18-It was great to be back in the city zone this week! I have been filled with so much joy and happiness and it is not dying down! It was a very busy week full of meetings and a lot of errands that we have had to take care of!  We did a lot of finding on the street and found a couple of new investigators to be able to teach! We also got new missionaries in the zone and we have been helping them learn and apply the mission culture into their mission! When I arrived the flat was very messy from the elder who just went home, but we have managed to clean up everything and make the flat look nice and clean! It is also interesting  being able to wear dress down clothes while proselyting and for other meetings as well! It was such a joy for me to be able to see all of the members and converts again and to see how they are doing. Its been nice to see my recent converts that I worked with and  to see there progression in the gospel and the example they are to others and to me as well! I found out that a couple days after I left Darwin a cyclone hit Darwin head on which is crazy, the last time a cyclone hit was 1970! That was a big shock, but all of the missionaries are OK. Just quite a bit of clean up to do from what I have heard. It should be another great week this week! We also had hotpot on Friday, which is great to be able to eat again.  The weather has been cold which is a nice change from the humid Darwin climate ha-ha! I hope you all have a great week and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

3/25- Hey everyone, I hope you all have had a great week! My week once again went by really fast for me! I have just been really busy with finding new people to teach and taking care of the missionaries here in the city zone, which has been fun and great! It has been interesting getting back into the schedule of this zone and going back to Mandarin class for sure! The funny thing is I had not really spoken Chinese in a long time up in Darwin, but for some reason when I started again a lot of the Chinese speakers have said that my Chinese has improved. I don't know how, but I know it is a tender mercy from God for sure! I also was able to go out and eat with one of my recent converts Liang Chu and we had Gyg like the only Mexican place in Australia ha-ha! It tasted really good! Other than that not much else has happened, just finding and teaching. I was able to attend 3 district meetings which makes it nice and packed for our schedule. It has been great fun and so much joy and I can not believe that it is already week 3 of the transfer! Pretty crazy thing, there was an investigator that came up to me from another companionship after church and said in his broken English that I look like the famous soccer player Lionel Messi ha-ha! I guess to people here I look like Dave Franco and Lionel Messi! I am still loving it here in the city and I am so glad to see it continue to grow! I hope you all have great week and I love You all!!!

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Sincerely,

               Elder Ethan Salcedo