Howdy y’all!
So if you no longer decide to suffer through one of my weekly email chapters… you may want to reconsider this week’s 😉 cuz some crazy things happen in Bathurst haha
1. We had a “Sons of Mosiah Day” this week! Where the entire mission was exactly obedient(: so we spent the day teaching lessons and meeting random people who we asked to take a photo of us doing push-ups in the street! Haha it was a great ice breaker and allowed us to have conversations about what we do here in Australia.. and it was a fun finding idea given to us by the elders in our district. ‘Twas most excellent.. and the photo collage is below, lol some cute canines made it nigh impossible to do it at the Child’s home haha 2. We had an… umm.. interesting…. snack the other day… especially considering I am proudly a “crazy former vegetarian aussie” (shoutout to my cali mate!) me and my lovely sri lanken/australian companion fried up some LAMB BRAINS!! and yes… oh ye of little faith… I did eat them.. in fact I ate a whole hemisphere! (Tbh: not a fan…. *insert throwing up emoji here*) It was hilarious how the whole event played out…it started a week ago when Sister Cramer is all like “hey! we should fry up some brain for the missionaries at District Training Meeting (DTM)!” and I was like “Heck yeah!! that’ll be hilarious!!” haha when in rome right?? well we went to one butcher and they said they didn’t have any so we butcher hopped around Bathurst until we found one that said they’d order some in from the abattoir (slaughterhouse).. GREAT! so on Wednesday we got a phone call that went like this:
“Hello, this is Brad from the Butcher. Your brains have arrived today!”
“Oh, fantastic! Thanks Brad! what time do you close?”
“6 o’clock”
“great we’ll see you just before to pick them up!”
“no worries”
*hangs up phone*
“Our brains are in! Yes!!”
*high fives*
It’s safe to say that never in a million years did I expect to receive a phone call like that… ever… it was great. So we went and picked up our brains. Now imagine two sister missionaries in dresses walking up to a butcher shop and picking up 6 lamb brains that we planned to fry and eat…. such a strange occurrence, but yes folks, it sure happened! We then went to an appointment and had to rush out afterwards because we needed to get our brains out of the hot car and into the fridge… on thursday we prepared them. Well sister cramer prepared them.. because this “crazy former vegetarian’s” stomach was not as strong as she thought it would be.. haha but I did the frying bit, cuz at that point they just looked like nuggets haha So the next day at DTM we served them up as “nuggets” (up to interpretation.. haha) and watched… well for like 2 mins because I unfortunately have no skills in the poker face department and am 100% incapable of keeping a secret… soooo the news eventually came out and the brains were sampled by the bravest of the OZ missionaries. Ugh.. so if you ever want to try brains, let me tell you, they are exactly like a meat gusher.. 😕 thought you ought to know haha but that is officially the craziest thing I have every eaten on my mission or in general… what’s yours??
3. We had an incredible (and incredibly steep) hike after DTM (and our brain fiasco) on Friday, for Zone Pday! We hiked down Mt. Canobolas in Orange, NSW mates… Australia is like pretty much the most gorgeous place on the planet! see the pics below! it was interesting because the trailhead for this hike was actually at the top of the mountain.. and we hiked down to “Federal Falls” (so pretty and a cool cave you can go into!) and then back up rather than your usual up and then back down! and the hike was a steady/sometimes dramatic downhill descent.. which definitely was a challenge on the way back up haha but we did it! not to mention my old lady shoes I ended up buying at an Op Shop (thrift store) cuz I’d forgotten to grab my runners.. awk.. but we survived! And we were actually the first ones up(: so fun!
4. This is the sad point…. We had transfers. And my beloved, only begotten daughter was transferred away from me… Sister Cramer is nearing the end of her time in the ASSM and about to move on to greener pastures in Brazil so she had to go to Sydney to be close to the office in case they needed her in the process of her Visa. What a sad day it was to drop her off in Sutherland, Sydney yesterday.. but she’s such a champ I know that she’ll see miracles in the short time she has left here(: My new companion is Sister Heimuli, from Tonga! 🙂 She seems really great! I know we’ll have fun this next transfer!
5. We got Elders again! Elder Agreda and Elder Densley are here(: Elder Agreda and I came together from the MTC! It’s so fun to see him again and to be able to work with him in Bathurst!
6. We set a baptismal date!! With our dear Leoni.. it’s just a goal for now. But we are excited to see her progress and see the gospel take a hold in her life <3
Well… I think that’s about it this week (: it’s been a crazy one.. pray for Bathurst!
Love y’all always,
Sister Swan
Australia Sydney South Mission
Notes on the undisclosed pics: we drove behind a huge tractor on an 100k/h road at 20k/h for awhile haha that was fun.. we had some fun times taking pictures with the lovely Sadler family(: lol no one told us it was supposed to be a serious picture! 😂 and finally… I’m only a little “trunkey” hahaha jokes jokes.(#trunkedouttayomind #butnotreally)
