New area, new people, new everything!!!

Here are two pictures sent by Rebecca's friend from Halls Head.  :)  Thank you Angie!!!   

Ok, so Melville...

It is beautiful!  Not quite the same as Halls Head, but still beautiful in a different way.  You  know how someone told me that Melville is a ghetto place? Well our area is actually pretty flash. The homes are gorgeous and big, just like our area.

We have been lost a lot in this past week.  We have a mapbook, but there are a couple pages missing...important pages for us.  It's been fun though, We've just been enjoying ourselves and adventuring all over Melville/possibly some other areas when we get lost.  (Is adventuring a word? It sounds a bit funky now). 

The ward is great!  The complete opposite of Mandurah though.  It's more elderly and Aussie where Mandurah has a lot of young Kiwi families.  It was a bit weird for me at church on Sunday because it was soo quiet and much smaller.  Everyone is soo kind.  And we live right next to a chapel, so a lot of people know the church and know the missionaries here.  Unfortunately, the chapel we live by, (literally we are separated by our back fence) is not in use, or they are just using it for genealogy work and storage.  So we have to drive into the city to go to church. I don't know what it is, but people seem to be more open to us here.  Knock on wood ha.

Oh and our car is flash too.  It's the nicest, newest missionary car.  And there aren't kangaroos to hit ha.  Sister De Vera has been here for 6 months and she's never seen a kangaroo! But yeah, back to the car, we couldn't figure out the dumb odometer, but it turns out it tells you how many ks until you run out of gas!  Maybe that's not that special, but I thought it was really cool but at the same time a bit frustrating because we have to write down the daily and monthly ks each night and it tells you that instead of how like a trip B function where you can keep track of the monthly ks. I know, no one cares haha.  Just sharing one of the struggles of missionary work.  Just kidding 

We've met some characters since we've been here.  One lady we met has had some major hardships in her life--she's lost a lot of family and had some other struggles.  She lives on her own and she is almost fully blind.  She got in a car accident years ago and she lost any memory from 5 years of her life before the car accident.  During those 5 years apparently she was baptized, but she doesn't remember it. When she met the missionaries again though, she told them all about Joseph Smith and surprised them and herself haha.  She is the sweetest woman ever--she is very independent and has such strong faith in Christ.  

Picture of a Huntsman spider - not hers.
She has a huntsman in her kitchen (the really big hairy spiders), but she only kills the poisonous ones, so she named it Boris and is keeping it as a pet.  She also has a talking watch and clock and the coolest magnifying  glasses/things that are attached to a visor that help her see a bit more.  She forced me to wear one of her jackets because it was cold and I didn't have one.  I kept saying I was fine, and we were leaving, and she said, "young lady, don't you move." And went and got a jacket and put it on me haha.  It is incredible to see what she has gone through and then to see her independent attitude, strength and generosity.  I have no room to complain about anything, ever.

We also met the sweetest woman who also has major health issues, but is so giving and kind.  We went to visit her this morning to pick up something for another member, and when we left, she loaded us down with all of these frozen meals and foods that she can't eat. As we were leaving, we started talking to her neighbor who we had met on the way in.  He is going through a really rough time, and we ended up giving a lot of the food to him, and as we were leaving, he told us that he had been praying for food.  Heavenly Father answers prayers through other people, and when He works through us, we are so blessedto be a part of it.  We really can never sacrifice enough to thank Him--He always blesses us more even as we do give something up.  So really we don't really sacrifice, we just have opportunities to serve and get more blessings. 

I have to go--this has been a funky pday, but it's been great!  Sorry if this email doesn't  make much sense...but basically I am doing really well! I love this area and the people and Sister De Vera.  I'll have more info for ya'll next week.  Love ya!  Have a great week!  

Oh, quick answers to your questions:  President and Sister Lindsay go home this month 

We are much closer to Perth, the elders actually cover most of the city though.  Yeah mum can you find out where Uncle Steve's friend is?  Because if he lives around the city, if he isn't actually in our area, this is probably the closest I'll get to him. 

Love,
Sister Formica