Sawyer's adventures in Australia

Hey everyone, this week was pretty eventful. Midway through, I got transferred to a new area called Ryde, which is about an hour north of where I was before and just outside of the main city of Sydney. It feels like I'm a new missionary all over again. But it's been good and I'm excited to be working in a new area. This one has a full Mandarin ward so I am learning even more Chinese. I'll start off with some experiences that I had in my old area, both finding, teaching and saying goodbye to the people I had met there. We said goodbye to our friend Sidney last week when he returned to China. We met him his very first week in Australia, become his first friends, and had a great time with him when he would come to church activities like our basketball night. We missed Sidney, but not for long. Just a week later, I saw a younger guy on the street wearing a Lakers jersey. I asked him if he liked Lebron James and that seemed to be the only English he knew. He got real...

Hey everyone, Great week. Just the trio of 2 Chinese guys and one American balling out here in the Down Under. You never know what type of situations you will run into as a missionary, but looking for ways to come in handy always results in something interesting. This week we went to a community garden where a bunch of old Chinese people spend their days happily weeding and caring for their vegetables. None of them speak any English at all, it's like their own mini-China in this place. We were talking with some of them, each of them wanting to show us their new plants, when we had an old guy come over to us and start waving his arms: "Need English!" He had us follow him across the garden to his little plot, where we were coldly received by an old lady from Nepal who barely spoke any English, and definitely no Chinese. The old man wanted our help because the Nepal lady was upset with him, but he didn't understand why. She kept yelling "Not Nice!" an...

Hey everyone, Another awesome week in Australia. Lots of great experiences. I saw my FIRST KANGAROO this week... dead on the side of the road. But it's a start.  Last week we went to a national park and I learned that in Australia they have jellyfish in the rivers and the wild birds will land on your shoulder. When I found a dock over the river it was really tempting to send it and do a backflip. We went back to 90 year old Yaermela's house to do service for her and it turned into one of the most unique series of events on my mission. First, we knocked on the door and after a while she appeared at the window, frantically exclaiming that she once again couldn't find her keys. She was locked in the house. She tried in vain to open the window and then went back to looking for her keys. Elder Feng, apparently not getting enough of the climbing from last week, decided that the best course of action would be to scale the fence and investigate her backyard. As...

Hello from Australia, where I am 16 hours ahead. How is Sunday night? Right now it's Monday morning. This week we formed our trio. Elder Feng and I drove a few hours to pick up our new companion Elder Yi. Elder Yi and Elder Feng already knew each other, so I learned a lot of slang as these two friends talked in some crazy fast Chinese. It's been a little overwhelming this week listening to them because they talk so fast, but my understanding skills are really improving.  We also got a lot of new missionaries this week, so it was fun to meet them and help them feel welcome. And remind them that a 16 hour flight requires more than just a few days' recovery, so no worries. Even though I've only been here 6 weeks, I feel like I've made the most of that time and learned a lot. Meeting the new missionaries helped me see how much I've grown in my first transfer, and allowed me to encourage and motivate them. It's awesome getting new people. We're all on...

Hey everyone I hope you are having an awesome week. So my email is coming out on Tuesday since we have transfers this week. Every 6 weeks everyone gets really excited because you will get a picture sent to your phone which tells you if you are staying in the area, if you're moving somewhere new, who your companion will be, and all that.  So for the next 6 weeks I will be staying in the Bankstown area. I'm really excited because we have a ton of people that we are working with and we honestly have been building this place from the ground up. I'm getting a new companion and also keeping my old companion. That's right, I'm going to be in a TRIO. Just like in the MTC. It's going to be pretty fun. The new companion is Elder Yi from China. So now I have 2 Chinese companions. I can't wait, I'm going to be learning a lot more Chinese. Anyway I'm hyped to be here for another transfer, especially with my same companion. Him and I have been smashing the work ...