Australia Week 4

Hello Everyone,

Well this week is already over! I felt like I just emailed yesterday, so I'll just try my best to update you on this past week! So New Year's eve was fun we had to return to the flat at around 6:00 pm.  We just hung out and scavenged on the food we had ha ha! So glad it is preparation day today, so we can buy more food!!

 I gave a talk in church about the Book of Mormon and prayer and how it is essential to come to know that the Book of Mormon is true through prayer, because then everything else in our church falls into place! It is no exaggeration that the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion! The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ and is just an amazing book to learn and to help you grow closer to Christ as well as understand all of Christ's doctrine and principles taught! I extend the same invitation that I extended to the Prospect Ward here in AUS and to whoever is reading this weekly update. I challenge you to pick up a Book of Mormon and read it from the beginning to the end and to pray about the truthfulness of the book every time you read it, and if you don't have one I strongly encourage you to obtain one. You can download the Gospel Library app on your phones and the Book of Mormon is on there! I encourage you to read one chapter a day to start out or read as much as you like, but I promise you all, if you decide to take this challenge and read and pray about the truthfulness of this book God will manifest the truth of it unto you, so pay attention to the feelings you have! You have until the end of the year! I thought it was perfect that I gave the talk on the 1st of January. It literally gives everyone a full year ha ha! 

This week we have just been talking to a lot of investigators and people interested on the streets! We had dinner at a members home (The Burges) and they fed us heaps! First, I walk in and there is a huge plate with salad and chicken, so I am like OK cool seems filling, halfway through sister Burges brings out fish (seabass). It was so delicious and I was feeling stuffed! But no that was not all Sister Burges then brought out these rolls filled with pork and beef and they were so good! A satisfying dinner to say the least! But that was still not all we then had a caramel cheesecake for dessert and halfway through that Sister Burges brought out a full tube of Ice-cream (I had to say yes to ice-cream!!!)! Needless to say it was a big meal that I really enjoyed, but then we had to bike all the way back to the city going up steep hills on a full stomach. Lets just say we are lucky we didn't throw it all up ha ha! 

 We also received our language study books and I had my first language study class with my zone to learn Mandarin Chinese! It is very difficult, but fun. We focused on the tones used when you speak, so there are four tones and each one can make a word mean a different thing. So ma using the four tones could mean mom, horse, clothes, and a way to rebuke others ha ha! It will certainly be an interesting experience! Luckily my companion Elder Chen is the teacher of the class so he is able to help me ha ha! I hope you all decide to take this challenge if you are Mormon or not.  I just want you all to remember that I love you all and I wish you a Happy new Year!!!


Sincerely,
                  Elder Ethan Salcedo
                  Adelaide, Australia Mission