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

Rain Rain (56-59)

1/14  Hey everyone how are you doing this week? This week flew by really fast up here in Darwin. We had the assistants and President and Sister Parker fly up today for zone conference which was super exciting to see them!  We had trade offs with the assistants and they lived in our flat for a couple of days which was very fun and learned lots from them as well! We had the zone conference on Friday ,which was super cool to learn and receive training from the Presidents assistants.  The big counsel we had from President, is to help the branch grow! Then on Sunday there was a big announcement from President. Since he is in charge of the district in the northern territory, he announced the split of the Darwin branch into two branches. We now have the Darwin branch and the Palmerston branch! That was very big news and he announced the presidency for the new branch.  The President of the new branch loves missionary work, so the branch  will be very missionary focused! They also announced a new District Presidency. It was all just exciting news and brought me back to memories of when our ward split a while back. I got to finish off the week with interviews with president which was also very exciting  :)  I hope you all have a great week and I love you all!!!

Picking up President Parker and his assistants for Zone Conf

1/21

Hello everyone, I hope you all have had a great week! It has been a busy week that has gone by very fast! We have been working with our investigator, Ricky.  He came to church and is excited for his baptism this Saturday, so please keep him in his prayers! He has been fighting addition and we had the opportunity to fast with him yesterday, so that he could receive that spiritual strength! It was such a great opportunity to be apart of.  We broke the fast together and we made some Honey Mustard beef with rice and took it to his house!  A member gave Ricky a kitten for free and we have been able to see the kitten every time we go over.  We have been teaching him everyday.  He has a dog that goes crazy every time she sees us and we always leave with muddy paw printed shirts ha-ha! We also had a member referral yesterday which was a member's brother and his girlfriend.  They have a desire to quit their addictions and be baptized. We will work with them to be able to prepare them for that!

 We also went to the hospital yesterday to give a blessing to a member from Katherine.  That was a neat experience to be able to do that :) We also had a meal appointment with some members this week which was nice. It was only my 4th or 5th one on my mission ha-ha! We also got pretty soaked this weekend and my pants looked like spandex from all the rain that it soaked up ha-ha!  I got a really nice soccer jersey on P-day for my Birthday. Unfortunately, it is from a team that I am not a big fan of, but the jersey is really nice. I will send pictures! I hope you all have a great week and I love you all!!!  

1/28   Hello everyone I hope you all have had a great week! We just had transfers and both I and Elder Dickson are still here in Nightcliff.  We are finishing the training of a missionary in our zone Elder Fiu from Brisbane! It should be a great transfer here in Darwin! It has been raining mad hard non stop for the whole week and will be for like that the whole next month! The thunder and lightning are crazy especially at night! Two days ago we had like 10 inches of rain in one day! It has been different for sure ha-ha! But other than that just have been doing a lot of teaching and finding more people to teach! 

We had two meal appointments on Saturday which was pretty crazy.   I actually have never had that happen before ha-ha! We ate with the Brons family who I have been over before.  They absolutely love the missionaries. We also ate with the Hazlet family who just came back from traveling for the holidays.  They are both awesome! It was also great because it was my birthday on Saturday, so I guess in a way it was a great birthday gift! I can not believe that I am 20 years old that is pretty crazy! I mean honestly it's  just like any other year. I feel the same, but it is weird to think that I am 20!  I hope you all have a great week this week and I love you all!!!

We all have birthday's in January

2/4   This week went by really fast for me and that is because it has been jammed packed with meetings! We had MLC this week , leadership training, and combined district meeting this week. On top of that we made a very long  road trip! The elders who serve in Katherine were up here in Darwin because one of the elders was transferred.  Elder Justin who came with the Elder who was transferred needed to get back to Katherine.  The problem was that no one could drive because their licenses aren't valid and the bus that drives people down canceled all tickets for the week because of flooding on the road. They had no way to get back to Kathrine and it is a 3 hour drive from Darwin. So we made a big drive all the way down to Katherine to be able to get them to Katherine in time for the baptism!

 After leadership meeting I drove a car full of elders down to Katherine for 3 hours in a storm with slippery roads and big vehicles that splash water all over the place and I must say it was a fun drive ha-ha! I got to drive fast because it was the highway, but it was fun driving in those conditions and was an interesting drive! Katherine was cool.  I was with  Elder Fiu while Elder Dickson went to do the baptism interviews and we just contacted in the small town.  The town is mostly aboriginals. There were interesting conversations to say the least! Some even asked us for money and we gave them pass along cards instead! Some also asked us to pray for them, and we did. We stayed the night then drove back to Darwin the next morning and had district meeting. It was a very busy week. The funny thing is that I am driving back down to Katherine this week again for tradeoffs. But other than that working in a trio is pretty fun and an interesting experience.  Elder Fiu is a great missionary and it is fun being able help to finish his training! I hope you all have great week and I love you all!!!

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Sincerely,

               Elder Ethan Salcedo