Lots of Traveling (Weeks 68-69)

4/8- Hello everyone how are you doing? I hope you all had a great week! This week was very interesting and busy for myself and my companions! We have been pretty busy planning for training's and MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) which we will be doing the training for in a couple of hours. We gave a training for the new arrivals, the new missionaries in the mission on Friday.  That was my first training as an assistant and today is the next one.  

Tomorrow we will fly to Darwin and as soon as we land we go to the chapel and begin zone conference.  We will give another training there. This week will be very busy for sure, After a couple of days of being in Darwin we will then fly to Alice Springs and then present another training at their zone conference.  We will then fly back to Adelaide on Sunday. Lots of traveling, but it will be exciting to see Darwin again and to be able to see Alice Springs. We have been able to do a lot of traveling already. I have been to the Modbury zone which is up north and Marion zone which is down south. That has been really fun getting to see different parts of Australia.

We also got to watch general conference which was super amazing.  The solemn assembly was a great experience to be a part of, I love the talks that were given. Especially the two in the last session by Elder Uchtdorf and the presiding bishop," Behold the man" and "It is all about the people" It was a great conference and continues to motivate me to go out and save God's children. I hope you all have a great week and I am sure that there will be lots of stories for me to tell from Adelaide to Darwin and to Alice Springs :)
 I hope you all have great week and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

4/15- Hello Everyone, I have lots to share this week. On Monday we had MLC and  I had to conduct that meeting. We were able to talk about and counsel on different topics among the leadership of the mission. Also to help resolve concerns and help the work progress which was a great experience. Then on Tuesday morning we woke up and went to the airport and we flew out to Darwin. It was really good to be able to see some of the members and the other missionaries. As we arrived in Darwin we went straight to the chapel and started Zone Conference. We had to give like a 5 hour training on which was fun and a lot more simple than I thought. We ended around 10:45pm because it was a boot Camp training. It was like a crash course on a lot of things. After that we stayed in Darwin for a couple of days. We were able to go on splits with the missionaries and I was able to proselyte with Elder Dickson and Elder Fiu which was great to be able to do with them again out in the Outback.

Alice Springs

Darwin Sunset

 

On Friday afternoon we flew out to Alice Springs! It was a pretty interesting place to go. I finally got to see mountains, it has been a while since I have seen mountains ha-ha! I then went on splits with a couple of elders. We ate some Korean noodles and they were called Atomic spicy noodles. It was good that I have had a lot of spicy Hot Pot back in the city to get used to spicy food, ha-ha! The other Elders were sweating bullets! We then taught an aboriginal family and it was very fun. The aboriginal kids are a blast, they have so much energy. They want to write in your planner, they want to swing you around and one of them said that they liked my face ha-ha! 

Alice Springs Spider

Alice Springs from the Airplane

The next day we had their second part of zone conference! President and Sister Parker flew in early and left early due to meetings. We had to do our part on Saturday, which went until 6:00pm, but it went very well, We then attended church at the Alice Springs branch which was cool and was a pretty good size as well. After Sacrament we went to the airport and there was this really nice couple from France.  The Husband recognized us as missionaries and he said he loves the missionaries.  We had a good conversation with them. When they left for their flight a couple Americans came up to us and started talking to us about how much they miss Mexican food ha-ha! 

Elder Miller, Elder Picket, couple from France, and I

 

A long wait at the airport turned into a short wait as we talked to some very nice people. After we arrived from Alice Springs to Adelaide, the Senior Couple Elder and Sister Withington invited us over for dinner to celebrate Elder Miller and Elder Pickett's birthday.  We had a very good English dinner ha-ha! Overall it was a great week and very busy! I hope you all have a great week and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

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Sincerely,

               Elder Ethan Salcedo

New Call ( Week 67)

4/1-Well do I have a weekly update for all of you ha-ha! We just had emergency transfer and I was.............. transferred! I am still technically in the city zone, but now I am one of the Assistants to the President! I must say it came out of no where and was a shock to me when I first got the call, but it has been an exciting week for sure. It is so much different than anything I have done so far on my mission. First off, I am in the mission office heaps now doing lots of things on the laptop, like assignments that President gives us. We prepare for zone conferences and different leadership training's, that WE will give. I felt nervous, but I'm starting to feel more comfortable now.  I am still not even close to knowing everything that I need to do. 

 My two new companions are Elder Pickett and Elder Miller. I have served around them before, so it is great to be able to serve with them and have them mentor me. I am also excited to be able to work closely with President Parker, last weekend he was called to be a Member of the Seventy when his mission ends in July.
 I will be able to work with him closely and learn a lot from him as well.  It has been different for sure.  Yesterday a missionary had his tire explode so we had to drive out to Modbury which is north of Adelaide.  It was cool because I have never seen that part of the mission before.  We also had a missionary fireside last night. The mobile gospel display sisters were given the wrong address where the fireside was, we had to drive back out to Modbury to help them pack and move out the displays.  Then we helped the sisters move and unpack it at the correct chapel in Firle.  It has been an interesting past few days and I am excited to see what more I will learn and experience. 


 I also get to go to Darwin again in a couple of weeks with President Parker which is exciting.  After that to Alice Springs and that will be very exciting for sure being way out in the Outback. I hope you all had a great Easter! The city branch had a special play that they did about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It was great to see all of the recent converts act that out.  The city branch brings so much joy into my heart. It is great to see all of the progress that they are making. Elder Miller and Elder Pickett and I went together to have some dry hotpot . It was so delicious and hot and spicy. Which is good because the place we ate at is called Hot and Spicy Kitchen ha-ha! It was a good Easter weekend.  I hope you all have a great week and I love you all!!!

Me with Elder Pickett and Elder Miller Eating Hot Pot

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

Operation Blue Hand (60-62)

2/11- This week was very busy! On Wednesday I drove down to Katherine for a trade off with the elders there and it was a fantastic experience! I was able to work worth them in the area and it was fun biking around to the different aboriginal camps and visiting with them.  We got to eat with the branch president down in Katherine! They made us spaghetti and it was very delicious! The next day it started to rain and we were biking in the red dirt and I got red dirt all over me which was really fun! We then drove up to Darwin with the Katherine elders for zone conference.  It was raining very hard and I only had the solid white line as a reference point to see where I was driving,  that was really fun ha-ha! The assistants to the mission president stayed with us for most of the week. We split off with them and got the work done ha-ha! We then had zone conference on Saturday. We talked about an operation that stared up here in Darwin. We are going to spread this operation to all of the missionaries in the mission! It is called Operation Blue hand. It is the complete use of the Book of Mormon and tying everything to that and giving it out as a gift! It has proven very effective and has brought a lot of success to the mission! The best part is acting devastated and surprised when someone has never heard of or read the Book of Mormon.  From their reaction they understand how important the book is and they want to meet again which is great! Then Sunday we had District conference and listened to a broadcast with great talks from Elder Pearson and Elder Stevenson! This morning we also had interviews with President Parker, it was great to be able to talk with him! I hope you all have a great week and I Love you all!!!

Big day for Elder Salcedo he's known for not eating his fruits and vegetables

Elder Dickerson, Elder Fiu, and Elder Salcedo

2/18- Hey everyone hope you all had a great week! Before I start I know that my brothers birthday was this past Thursday, but I just wanted to wish him a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! He is the best brother anyone could ask for! Love you bro!!! This week was a very good week! We found quite a bit of new people to teach one of which is progressing so fast! His name is Mohamed and he has such a great spirit! He has been meeting with us this past week and his testimony in the message has grown tremendously.  He has said that it just makes sense! He has even brought one of his high school friends to meet with us and now his friend wants to be baptized as well! We are just planning to baptize Darwin High ha-ha!  We had a fun sports night on Saturday and we just played basketball with quite a few people. It is a struggle for me because 1- I suck at basketball and 2- I hate basketball ha-ha! But I try to have fun so that's good! It still rains on and off a lot here in Darwin! There was a crazy monsoon in the city on Wednesday while we there!  The Lightning actually hit on the same street that we were on and you just see a flash of blue light accompanied by the loudest noise I have ever heard! It was like that for a good 20 minutes and the rain was pouring! It was an interesting experience! We also saw that the cafe shop was trying to close, but the workers were afraid.  We ran out and cleaned up all the tables and brought their tables and chairs inside! They appreciated it so much and tried to offer us Coffee, but we told them that we don't drink Coffee. They then offered hot chocolate, but we still declined, they were very persistent I must say ha-ha! Anyway that was my week, it was very interesting for sure! I hope you all have a great week and once again HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my awesome brother and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

2/25- This week went by really fast for me!  We just did a lot of finding especially in the city! It was the Chinese new year last week. There were lots of  Chinese and other people in the city for the events that were going on, like the Lion blessing dance that they did at the different shops, that was cool to be able to see! We also did some service this week.  We were able to do service for an aboriginal member who was baptized last week. We cleaned up her yard and cleared out all of the trash! It was great to do that for her because she is a nice sister who always dot paints missionaries scriptures for free.  We also went to a members home to do service and it involved us preparing the soil for them to plant banana trees.  We pulled weeds and loosened the soil.  The big project was taking a tree out of the ground and I must say those trees roots were far into the ground ha-ha! We eventually got the tree out and they fed us some food which was great! I also went on tradeoffs with the elders in our flat to see how they were doing, that was fun.  Elder Fiu and I went with Elder Siaw  and Elder Dickson went with Elder Mcdonald! It was a nice little trade off that we were able to do! Other than that we just did a lot of finding and it took us until Sunday to find 2 new investigators which was great!  We are going to continue teach our investigator Mohamed and prepare him for baptism next week! I hope you all have a great week this week and I love you all!!!

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Sincerely,

               Elder Ethan Salcedo