hello

hello family and mates! (yes i started saying that habitually)
i got lots of questions from dad, so i'll answer those first.

Have you been able to see all of the sessions yet?
no i havent, in fact, i havent seen any of them, so all of your references to the talks and stuff are great, but i have no idea what you're talking about.
Tell us how conference is handled in Auzieland.
well, it was fast sunday. that was it. people can watch general conference online, but for those who dont do that, in about 3 weeks, the church will send the DVDs of conference and we'll watch it at a chapel somewhere.
How is your comp's shoulder?
its getting better. he still is having to rest it frequently, but its less painful, and he's able to do normal work. needless to say we're not allowed to ride bikes for a while.
Did you get out and about this week?
yes we did. we only had to cut things short once, because we were tracting and elder bartelt forgot his sling, so his shoulder started hurting, but other than that, its been a normal week.
How is Patonu doing?
he's doing well. he's starting to get really into the Book of Mormon. I showed him the war chapters yesterday at church, and he thought it was really cool, and started reading them during priesthood because we were in committees and he couldnt do too much with that, so he read for an hour and loved it. we've also kept having short lessons with them, and it's great to see him go from, "ok it needs to be quick, i have to leave soon" to "ah, dont worry about it, i can leave whenever." that makes us happy to hear that from him.
also, dad asked me about the priests here. they havent been very active that i can tell, but they do have scouting here, and they are all very active in that, but we havent had a ward mission leader til just this last week, and he was released as the young men's president, so he's pretty gung-ho to involve them.
Are you well?
yup! :)
Did Swine flu hit your area?
yup! i didnt get it though. my comp had it right before we came here.
Have you seen the Biskey's?
nope. brisbane is a big place. i dunno if you can contact them, but if you can, tell them i'm in forest lake. if they look online, its one of the furthest south suburbs right next to ipswitch, but still techincally in brisbane city.
anyway, this week was good. we had 3 dust storms, so only one of them made it so that we had to stay in, but it was pretty funny to see everyone washing their cars 3 times in one week. we got a kick outta that.
so this last week, i have been trying hard to watch what i eat, (mom i know your jaw just dropped, dont worry its nothing drastic) because i actually have started gaining weight. not that that's bad, and its still not much, but i realized that not eating healthy has been a contributing factor to why it's been so hard to stay energized and whatnot. so i'm starting to watch it, and eat more fruit and stuff, and it's actually working. imagine that. :P
Also, i dunno if i already told you this, but i started translating the book of revelations, using all the cross references and JST. that book is loaded with stuff. i highly recomend it. Also, this is something that my comp does, if there is anything that one of you want me to study, and then tell you about, like deep doctrine stuff, or whatever, tell me, and i'll do the study, and then let you know what i come up with. :) Also, for those of you that send snail mail, you can send it to:

81 hampton Rd.
Durrack, QLD 4077
Australia
send stuff there until november 1st
well, my time is running short, so i'll wrap this up.
i love you all so much! i am always praying for you!
love,
Elder Tayler Christensen