Elder Jaren Bryner A LDS Missionary Down Under in Adelaide Australia: First email from Australia

Email #11
Area: Grange area of the Firle Zone
Companion: Elder Hamilton

Excerpts from Mom's email:

Sorry about not being able to email on Monday, so that might happen on occasion. My time so far here has been really really good. I can definitely say that this is the mission I was meant to be in. It is so different from California in so many ways I couldn't even name them all. Pretty much the basis of missionary work is the same, but everything else seems/feels different. The people here are not what I was expecting either. They are a very nice people, but they are not accepting of religion most of the time. They will want to talk about literally anything else except for religion haha, but that's okay we find our way around that. The culture here in the city is a lot of Aussies, but there are a lot of Chinese, Indian, and other cultures from around the world. Something very different than in California is that we do door knocking. That takes some practice, because they just open the door and then bang, you have to try and have a conversation on the spot and try not to bring up religion right away. Everyone we talk to we try and build a relationship first and then slowly bring in the gospel. We have much better results if we do it like that, instead of jumping into preaching to quickly.

Now the Australian accent... Haha that has been so fun hearing all the time. I hear it so much now that I think some of my words are changing slowly, its very weird. I have a feeling I might talk differently when I get home for sure. Maybe not a full blown Aussie accent, but an accent for sure. Maybe even come mothers day, I might have some changes. The biggest relief I have had is that the spider problem here is not as bad as I thought. It is pretty rare to see a huge spider around, especially in the city where I am at. I have seen a pretty decent sized spider compared to what they were at home, but not even close to some other well known ones here look like. Another new thing to me is driving on the opposite side of the road. My companion, Elder Hamilton, is the driver so I'm safe for now. I did have a chance to drive my first day here on my driving test and I passed with flying colors, so I might drive in the near future. For now though, Elder Hamilton will drive and most of the time we will ride bikes. The main reason we ride bikes is to talk to people on the street. That is a lot of fun actually. I thought I would hate riding bikes all the time, but I actually enjoy it. I wish I could track how far I am going everyday because we definitely do a lot of K's (Kilometers).

Don't worry about me here because trust me, I love it here. I know there are some challenges, there definitely is, but nothing I can't handle. The Lord knows that, that is why I am here in the first place. I am happy here way more then I thought I ever could be. Doing the Lords work, especially in Australia, is a joy beyond words.

I love you so much Mom and I'll talk to you very soon on Monday.
Elder Bryner

Excerpts from Dad's email:

My birthday was really good, my companion bought me lunch and we went out for dinner. Later the sisters also brought me a cake. Plus we picked up a really super solid investigator, so it was a good day. We have a ton of investigators in our area that used to be two last transfer, so we are always busy. So we already went to the temple and went to the mission office to pick up a few things. After emailing we are heading to the shops then to tea (dinner) and then out finding. Oh we might go bowling or to the park for basketball.

Something cool is Adelaide is known to be the city of churches, because there are church buildings all over the place. The weird thing is that not many Aussies are religious any more, I hope we can change that haha.

Love you dad so much!
Elder Bryner