Questions, questions…

I asked Josh a bunch of questions in my email to him this week and he just answered them right out of the email. Here they are …
Where are you? 
I am in Merimbula. It is the southernmost part of the mission. I was in Canberra for a few days, but only because of the zone meeting and traveling.
What is your flat like?
Our flat is nice, but old. (Although the architecture here seems older than back home everywhere). It’s just a couple of rooms, but we don’t spend much time in it. Just sleep, breakfast, study, and dinner. The outlets here all have power switches, so you have to remember to turn on both the appliance and the outlet. The toilet is in a different room than the bathroom (standard for Australia, just like the outlets). It’s a little hard to get used to, but I think I’ll manange.
Do you cook at all?
A little bit. Breakfast is cold cereal, lunch is stuff like sandwiches, but we occasionally cook dinner. Elder Phillips does most of the cooking, and so far, its mostly been chicken and noodles (They don’t sell ramen noodles down here, suprising eh?) We eat alright, and we’ve been over to a couple of members houses to eat (I’ve already had to eat eggs and rice, I guess the universe is out to get me, but I ate both with a smile (and really did eat them, not hide it -Emily I’m looking at you… figuratively))
Are you always driving or do you have bikes?
We mostly drive, but we have taken out our bikes once… in the hilliest place in the entire world I’m pretty sure. We only have so many kilometres we can drive each month, so we try our best to keep it down, but we have one of the largest, if not the largest areas in the entire mission to cover. When we had to travel back to Canberra this week, we took a five hour bus ride, and that was not fun at all.
What are the members like? Are you serving in a Stake or in branches?
The members here are really nice. We serve in a small branch of about 35 active members, and about 70 total members. The members all over seem to adore missionaries, although because a lot of them are part member families, we sometimes have to deal with the not so enthusiastic non members when we go visit. Some are nicer than others, but it seems like they’re tired of having missionaries over all the time.
How big is your district?
Our district is made of up of four or five companionships of Elders, and two companionships of sisters. We don’t get to see them very often, being so far away from them, although the rest of them see each other all the time. I really enjoy being able to talk to Elder Weller, a missionary that was with me in the MTC, and all the islander missionaries are a blast.
Have you seen the ocean? 
I live approximately 75 yards from the ocean. Today for morning exercise, we took a run on the beach (the sand was freezing, and all the sea shells really hurt to run over). We may be able to go fishing in the ocean some time for P-day, and is actually considered a decent finding tool out here (everyone fishes).
Do you have any investigators?
Only one we’ve actually seen so far. We have tried to make contact with more, but the only other ones we have gotten to have either not shown up where we planned to meet and then seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth, or have been going through family emergencies that require their immediate attention. The one we have seen is a little bit special, but seems to really like the missionaries, and we have set a date for him to be babtized (they now recommend that you extend the invitation to every one you teach on the first lesson, and it always makes me chuckle a little when I think about it, because “we probably shouldn’t record these numbers because Elder Calhoun challenges every one he meets”).
What are your days like?
So far, a lot more paperwork than I thought. We spend hours planning and doing paperwork, so we can only plan to see three to five people each day. We wake up, exercise, eat breakfast, shower, get changed ect. then study for two hours. We then usually take care of a little business, and then start our day going to see the people we planned. if they aren’t there, we tract. We do that until dinner, then more paper work, planning then bed.
Are you used to the time change and weather?
The time change is really strange. I haven’t had a problem going to bed or getting up, but I think that’s because my body thinks it’s way later over here than it really is. It’s a little cold, but nothing like Utah winters, so I impress the other Elders at how not cold I am.
What is the strangest thing you have seen?
Giant spider. Smaller than a Tarantula, but not by much. We were helping move some stuff as service, and one of them was right next to my arm as we were moving it. Ironically, those big spiders are just about the only thing here that won’t kill you.
What is the church like there?
Pretty much like it was back at home, but on a much smaller scale. The people here are a little more relaxed, and discussions are actually more open to talking.
Are you doing well?
Pretty good actually. It’s been a little of an adjustment, and I still think about things at home every now and then (I keep having dreams that I am home all the time, it’s weird to wake up after that). I am really enjoying myself out here, and am trying harder every day to lose myself in the work.
Love you all
-Elder Shelton

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