I can't believe it's 2 weeks since I updated. Where has this year gone? Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes in the post or on facebook.  Here are the 2 emails from 23rd and 30th July. We will be on holiday next week so I will be posting 2 emails the week after as I don't think the campsite has Internet and our laptop is on it's last legs so not worth the space in the car!

23rd
Hey Guys!!!

howdy diddley doo! man my first email as a twenty year old :P, This week has been pretty good, we've mostly done service, my back hurts from moving someone accross the street and playing Oz tag (tag Rugby) and someone's lawn broke our lawnmower hahaha. My birthday was really good I didn't tell many people till the day so it was a kinda off the cuff thing,  Sister Tupaitau got me a cheesecake from the cheesecake shop and we went to Macdonalds after practicing for a fireside which I'm singing at. It was great spending time with the Branch President  and family and some other few, we had the cake at the Orro's the day after because we always go to their house for dinner on Thursday. Oh also thank you for the package it arrived this morning mmmm minstrels, send my love to everyone in the Alnwick branch. I really liked the cards from the priesthood and the pen is lovely, thank you.

well anyhoo, thanks for all your emails and whatnot I loves you all,  bye!
Elder John Kay. xxxx

30th
This week was good, we were mostly seeing less actives again but we did contact some people and gave them a pass along card and told them to visit the website. They aren't in our area, well, they technically are, they live in Ayr (a town with it's own branch about an hour south of here) but they dont have missionaries so it's kind of in our area, but we never go there. We would love to get floating missionaries in a town called Bowen about 2 and a half hours south that can cover Bowen and Ayr and Airley Beach (which is in the Bowen branch - called the Whitsunday branch) everything is just so spread out.  Elder Latu and I went to Bowen yesterday (Sunday), they are a small branch who are mostly Tongan but most of them were working yesterday. I think one of the biggest challeges is reactivation.


I hope everyone is doing well

love Elder Kay

18th July 2012
It's Elder Kay's birthday today. Or I should say it was as it is already 19th July in Australia. He is going to tea with Sister Orro and family and she is going to bake him a birthday cake. I emailed her a list of all the people who wished him a Happy Birthday on Facebook, since missionaries aren't supposed to go on Facebook so he wouldn't have seen the messages.

Here are some excerpts from his last few emails

25th June
Hows it going? This week has been a bit slow tbh because of moving (which we still haven't finished). We also got the news from our investigators that they don't think they will go to church again because of their kids, but  they are still receptive to us, so when they get back from camping we'll teach them the Plan of Salvation and they might be touched by the Spirit. Moving has been a faff, we have the keys to our flat but the Townsville West elders don't (we're getting split into 2 separate flats) so we cant move out till they do cos they need the fridge etc then they will get new stuff delivered to their flat I believe.
I gave two blessings this week;  a couple of members were sick. Sorry theres not much to say, hope you are all well, much love
P.S. talofa lave means hello in Samoan

2nd July
Hey,
I just wrote a whole email and then the browser closed and didn't save my draft.
Sorry I dont have a lot of time. This week's been good we gave a blessing which was really touching. We're moved now. Thanks so much for your emails, I hope you're all good, I'm fine.
much love Elder Kay.

9th July
Hey All,
Apologies for last week's short email. It turns out I might have to buy a new suit with my birthday money :/ I'm getting abit big. I think I'm 75 kg's but I'm exercising and I can see a bit of a difference, I dont think I'll ever be as small as I used to be, unless I get really sick and lose heaps of weight, I've been wearing different trousers with my suit for two weeks of church now because I cant physically fit my suit pants, i'm going to see if I can get them let out a bit by one of the members before I buy a new one....

So, this week we completely got shot of our old house, turned out we needed to clean better, so we enlisted some help and got it squeaky clean, we also had to mow the lawn, (thank goodness we dont have one in this flat). We did quite a bit of service this week so we haven't done a whole lot of proselyting but we saw a less active member, who hopefully will come back to church and maybe we could teach his non member family, We can also contact a guy called Rhys.  He does security work and was doing alot of overtime wor a V8 race that was in town over this weekend called the Sucrogen Townsville 400. It was a huge event and you could hear the roar of the cars all day for three days, it was kind of annoying in the end. Last weeks fast and testimony meeting was really good, a new member of our ward spoke of his wife's experience when they moved up here and how much the branch presidency supported them, it was touching as she lost her baby :( but he has a strong testimony and I think they will be great to work with.

Thinks for all your emails btw, I got heaps this week.

One annoying thing about Australia is that it takes so long for mail, but I guess it keeps me focussed.

I hope your all doing well, The church is true, Jesus is the Christ,
 love you all

Elder John Kay

P.S the weather here has been unusually wet as well

16th July
Hey Guys!!!!

Hows it going? I hope everyone is all good! Thanks for all your emails It's great to hear from you all, thanks for the birthday money mum, and dont worry that my card will be late, I dont really have any plans, I wanna work hard on my bday.

Well this week has been pretty good but we've not been able to see any of our investigators. We found two new people and taught a doorstep lesson to one. When she offereed to say the prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for sending the missionaries because she wanted to "know about what the mormons believe". Hopefully she will gain a testimony of what we share with her :)

I also gave a blessing to the second councillor on the branch presidency, he said the blessing he received was just what he needed, I couldn't even remember what I said, the Lord truly speaks through us.

Elder Abel and Latu went to Bowen (about a two hour drive south) so me and Elder Fox were on a trade off from Thursday till Sunday, it was pretty good. 

love you all

Elder Kay