Dec 27 Tommy Pictures

Dec 27

Tommy: Well I have no clue what to say in this email due to having talked to you two days ago.(We skyped with Tommy for 1 hour Christmas night) Yesterday we had a cool lesson with our investigator Claude. We shared the Book of Mormon with him and he commited to read it. We had a wonderful mission Christmas. We got to have a zone conference two days before where we filmed skits and had a great time with President and his wife. Christmas day we went to church and opened presents of course. Later that day we had a zone gathering and got to have food and hang around with the other missionaries. We also watched the polar express at our zone conference.

Drew: Hey tom emailing to tell you I got my drivers license today I thought I would fail but I didn’t the lady who was testing me smelled like 7 million cigarettes I could barely focus on driving it was so bad on my first solo drive I took Ben to his friends house so I’m officially the driving mule of our family good luck out there miss yah lots����

Brent: Drew has his licence!

Tommy: I heard that is scary

Krista: Tell me a bit about the skits and what else you did for zone conference. Who are some of the other missionaries you get along with in your zone? Where are they from. Send me some pictures!!!! I have been busy today doing house type stuff… cleaning drawers, fixing internet, putting a new doorknob on… riveting and exciting stuff! I am tempted to take all of the Christmas stuff down but I am resisting.

Brent: Benny has an iTunes card and it is burning a hole in his pocket. Gotta use it NOW. Sound familiar big brother.

Tommy: haha yeah…….so elder tigafua, elder ivory and elder ward (all in my intake) are in my zone. theres a lot of great missionaries in our zone. For our skit we did “what mission life is really like” so we made fun of that and poked fun at a few missionaries in the process. I’ll send pictures in a second

Krista: So tell me what mission life is “really like”. What did you poke fun at?  I remember Elder Ivory and Elder Ward. Where is Elder Tigafua from? Was he in the Provo MTC?

Tommy: Elder Tigafua came from new zealand mtc and we made fun of the city zone and how they dont have p-day and stuff like they are “too consecrated” for sleep

Brent: It was so fun face timing with you. You look good. You look happy. I know there are tough times but if you can laugh, smile, and have fun you will be okay. Jake just came downstairs, got some White Milk, and disappeared back upstairs. Not much changes here.

Tommy: haha same old Jake

Krista: Is he a New Zealander? What did you do when you were hanging out with the elders on Christmas Day. Did you all bring food or did you have members help? Is everyone back to work now? With the summer holidays there must be some families out of town. Where do people holiday there?

Tommy: Nobody is back to work yet because they have public holidays for a while. We just ate food provided by the senior couples. No he is samoan from Brisbane. Most people go to the beach

Krista: So when you say he is a Samoan from Brisbane or Elder Punou is Tongan from New Zealand, does that mean their families have been in New Zealand and Australia for a while? Were they born there? Are they bi-lingual or just speak English?

Brent: Big plans for New Year’s?   Are you grounded New Years eve.

Tommy: We are grounded and there families are from there but they are born in australia/new zealand. and yes they are bilingual

Krista: It sounds like there are lots of islanders in your mission. Are the wards also pretty diverse or are they more like Sundance?

Tommy: They are more diverse than sundance but the area I’m in isnt very diverse

Brent: Benny bought the new Bourne movie. He spent his $ and feels better now.

Tommy: haha good choice Benny

Krista: OK… I laughed at the guns video! So already learning what to send and what not to send for Christmas… Nerf guns-yes… tree- no since you don’t get them until Christmas Eve. That flat definitely looks smaller but the ocean location makes up for it I’m sure

Tommy: haha we have had fun with them

Krista: Tell Elder Punou that I was impressed with his sharpshooting! Looked like Elder Martin’s aim wasn’t quite as good 🙂 When are your next transfers? I saw that a ton of missionaries went home in December. Are you getting a bunch of new ones?

Tommy: No we aren’t getting a ton of elders just lots of sisters and actually Elder Punou has terrible aim and he got lucky that time. Elder Martin and I have better aim

Brent: Benny also bought Napoleon Dynamite. Now he can practice his bow staff skills and respect the Liger.

Tommy: “girls like guys with skills. nunchuck skills, computer hacking skills, bowstaff skills.”

Krista: As long as you aren’t killing each other… although maybe that is a good thing to get out your frustrations… little better than wrestling and breaking a window. Aunt Joan is having her New Years Party on Saturday this year partly at her house and partly at the church with a dance. Aunt Christina is hosting too so there will be people from our ward. I am happy for Jake. He LOVES going to dances so he will be happy. Because Sunday is New Years we are cancelling the breakfast. Grandpa seems ok with it but I hope I didn’t pressure him too much

Tommy: NOT THE BREAKFAST!!!!!!!!!!!! jokes i get it

Brent: Where did you get your lava lava (sp?) from?

Tommy: a member in the ward. the same ysa who gave me the tie

Krista: Don’t worry … it will be back next year… and I’m sure forever after. It just was tricky this year because of Sunday.

Tommy: Is that hockey I see on? (I took a picture of the brothers doing Napoleon Dynamite poses and the TV was behind them)

Brent: Yes. World juniors. Canada beat Russia 5-3 yesterday. Playing Latvia today. Just started, no score.

Tommy: I miss hockey and the cold, I know it sounds weird but I do

Krista: Do your companions skate? Did you ever go to that rink you were talking about?

Tommy: turns out the rink went out of buisness

Krista: You would get tired of it pretty soon. It hasn’t been too snowy until this week but we had two weeks of VERY cold weather. It hasn’t been that bad in a while. The next package I sent you has a can of “snow” from Indigo… don’t know what that means but I will be curious when you open it. I wrapped a bunch of candy but as I was taping it up it sounded like they all fell out of the container… could be interesting!  Drew was looking for his new speaker… he just turned it on and lets just say we ALL know where the speaker is now. It was a good thing we did the Nativity this year and I got a spiritual boost. It is impossible to get respite on Christmas or New Years so I will be missing church two weeks in a row. Returning just in time to start teaching D&C . I am excited for that this year. I love the church history stuff.

Tommy: I love it too

Krista: What is with the bird in the car?

Tommy: oh we found the bird on the side of the road abadoned by its mother so we brought it to a member

Krista: Ok… what did the member do with it? What kind of bird is it?

Tommy: a little australian miner bird. it ended up dying over night but they buried it …it was gonna die so we figured what the heck we might as well try.   I have to go but I’ll try to share the other photos with you. love ya. bye

 

 

Dec 11 – Ninja Turtles!!

Photos explanation from Tommy –  the 5 photos are 1-2) Xavier Upton and us being ninja turtles (his request) 3) Ned Upton wearing my glasses (I wasnt allowed to have them back until I took a photo) 4) Elder Punou and I got advent calendars 5) looking skux (Australian for cool)

Hey Mom and Dad,

This week has been pretty uneventful. We moved into our new flat (not as nice as the other one). Having a huge area has been a struggle. We find that it is so hard to be able to see all the people we have in one week especially with km restrictions. But we have got lots of finding in. There is a train station just down the road from our flat and we go there all the time to contact people. I always wonder what they must be thinking when the see us coming. Everybody just assumes we work there. This week I actually had the weirdest experience in the mission so far. Since Elder Punou had been called as district leader he had to go to Firle for some training. So Elder Ivory, Martin and I went out together. We were at the bus stop contacting and I asked this man how his day was going and then I said “it WAS nice to meet you”. He immediately started questioning why I used the past tense. I just moved on and started talking to him. He continued to tell me that he was part of the iluminati and was here to teach people the truth (I was thinking to myself thats what we do!). But the biggest mistake I made in that conversation is I asked him “how did you come to know that the iluminati was true?”. He got really mad and was threatening to fight me so I just said have a nice day and walked away. #crazy. Other than that my week has been pretty normal.

love you

bye

Brent – Don’t fight the illuminati! They have people everywhere. They may come get us here! I am a big train station fan. We used to go to central station in Stockholm all the time. But most of our finds would end up in someone else’s area. Mom is at the Stake Center getting ready for Carolfest. So you are stuck with Dad.

Tommy – haha all goods. Seriously they are everywhere. He was so ready to come at me. It was quite ridiculous

Brent – So do you like the new apartment better? How close are you to the ocean? Mom made a Koala bear ornament for you today and put it on the tree. So your presence is felt. Yesterday Jake made Drew sit and watch him name all the ornaments over and over.

Tommy – I can see the ocean from the flat. Its nice because its all carpet but very small. We go down to the ocean area at least once every 3 days.

Brent – I am ocean jealous! So I only have one more Sunday when my meetings start 6AM. Last Sunday of the year is Christmas day. Then we move to 11 AM. So my meetings will start at 8 AM. Plus three more weeks of early seminary. Drew has release time 2nd semester.

Tommy – oh hallelujah. I dont feel that sorry for you cuz I’m up at 6:30 everyday

Brent – Good point, you probably aren’t the guy to complain to :). Do you have any Christmas events coming up. Are you using the Light The World advent calendar from lds.org? There is a big push for it here.

Tommy -yeah we are pushing it hardcore. Basically shoving it down the members throats. We have our ward christmas party on the 17th

Brent – The missionaries were at our party. ‎We were singing carols and I’ll Be Home For Christmas came up. One of the missionaries shouted out “I won’t be”. Someone then pointed out it says even if only in my dreams. Everyone laughed and the missionaries got some warm handshakes and another round of zippy punch. Coy just came to pick up Miles. He was here partying with Ben and Joseph. He was unimpressed with the 50 degree difference between you and us. I’m asking for Mom. Do you have a dinner appointment on Christmas day? Do Australians make a bigger deal of Christmas eve or Christmas day. Do they have some different traditions?

Tommy – haha do your missionaries come to pec and ward council and stuff? They make a bigger deal of christmas day. Depending on what the mission wide plans are we will have meal appointments for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Brent – They come to Ward Council. Sometimes to PEC but that is just once a month. We always talk missionary work first. I think I am more mission conscious. I put all the missionaries emails on the back of the Sacrament program and encouraged people to write our missionaries for Christmas.

Tommy – ok because we go to ward council twice a month plus pec

Brent – Same here, though sometimes they leave early because they cover our ward and Somerset. Sometimes one of them is in Sacrament meeting and the other goes to Somerset PEC

Tommy – oh ok I forgot they cover two wards

Krista – Hey love I am here at the Stake Carol festival so don’t know how much I can say…. but I think it is a rite of passage to have someone want to fight you on your mission. Does your flat have two bedrooms or are you all in one? How is the new elder?

Brent – 3 meal appointments in a day!? Sounds awesome! You Elders deserve it!

Tommy – it has two rooms but we all have to sleep in one because of mission rules so we turned one into a study

Brent – Mom doesn’t know the rule about sleeping in the same room as your companions :). Gotta be patient with her because she makes everything better.

Tommy – haha well now you know

Krista – Tell me something about the new elder . What is his personality like? His Family? It is Steed palooza here. Jenny-Lynn Katherine Lyndi Betsy and Grace are all playing a number. My greatest regret that I wasn’t a tiger mother about my boys practicing 😂

Brent – We don’t need no Momma Tiger. I like how you turned out. Drew is voluntarily on the choir.  So Mom must have done something right!   Do his suit pants and jackets match? 🙂

Tommy – He is from Sydney and is an only child. He is very relaxed about everything and really a lot like me

Krista – Oh that is great working in a group of three is challenging enough I am glad you all get along . How long has he been on his mission? Are you starting to get ready for Christmas? Will you have a dinner appointment?

Brent – I think Sister Parker will take very good care of all you Elders.

Tommy – He has been out almost a year and we dont have any plans from sister parker yet so we are just waiting

Krista – What is the area like that your apartment is in? Were there elders in it before

Tommy -yeah Elder Martin was in it before with his old companion. It is what is called hallet cove where we can see the ocean from our flat

Krista – So cool!!!! Got to go 😘

Brent – I’m out too. Gotta drive to Carolfest. Have a great week. Love you!

Tommy – ok love ya

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dec 4

Hey mom and dad,

This week has been a pretty normal week. So transfers came around and I gained a new companion, Elder Martin from Sydney. We are now in a trio. They also doubled the size of our area and we are moving flats. I also got a new suit for only 150 (killer deal). This week has been fun. We had a chance to teach Cliff again and to teach a new investigator Sam. We found Sam door knocking and he is an 18 year old boy who is really interested. So hopefully we can continue to teach him. Those drinking straw glasses are skux (cool). Its supposed to be really hot this week so time to drink lots of water. Oh ya I forgot one thing, this weekend we got to do what is called mpc. We had a preist age young man come and live with us for the weekend and we trained him on how to be a missionary. I loved it. Oh and look at 2 samuel 12:7 the first line (favourite scripture)

Krista – So, just got the email… Does that mean you stay with Elder Punou but you get another Elder with you. Where is your area now? Does that mean you are in the same wards?  Where is your new flat? Have you met Elder Martin yet? Is he new?

Tommy – So there used to be two sets of Elders in the ward but now there are just one of us, a trio. Elder Punou, Elder Martin and I. We cover what used to be the other elders area and our old area, so alot.

Krista – That’s cool about the MPC… what did the priest think about it. Was it a little shocking to live with the missionaries?

Tommy – Elder Martin is from the other companionship but has just joined us and our new flat is in the other side of our area.  Yeah the  young man didn’t realize we laugh so much

Krista – That will be nice to have an expanded area. It will give you more opportunities to teach. Is the new flat far away? Will it just be the three of you in that flat. Do the other set of elders stay in your old flat?  That’s great. What an interesting idea to get young men used to the idea of mission life. I have never heard of that before. I wonder if it is unique to the Adelaide mission. Will it be strange working as a group of three? I sent a present to you and your companion but I didn’t think about 3…. you will have to share 🙂  I’m glad you got a suit. What color is it? Do you need to have it altered?

Tommy – The other elders are staying in the old flat and we are moving to a flat about 15 minutes away and Elder Punou got called as district leader.  The suit is black and no it fits well

Krista – Oh… that’s cool! Are you feeling like this is enough change to give you some more inspiration? Does the new area have anyone that you will now be teaching?

Tommy – we have absolutely no idea

Krista – So explain skux to me….. ??????? Australian thing?????

Tommy – Australian and New Zealand slang for looking cool

Krista – Do you get Elder Martin today? Are you moving this afternoon? Do you just take suitcases?

Tommy – yeah we get him at about 2 and yes we move after

Krista – I’ve never heard of that . Is it pronounced skucks??? Boy the things you learn with a foreign missionary!  What is going on with your Christmas stuff? Can you get your tree?

Tommy – Yes that is how its pronounced. I doubt I can get the christmas stuff early because Sister Parker is crazy busy right now

Brent – Hey buddy, my plane just landed and we are rolling to the terminal. Sorry I am missing our weekly chat. Mom will be glad to have me home and get a Jake break!

Tommy – no worries Dad

Krista – That is fine. Next year I will know not to send decorations… just presents. I guess you will just have to put up your tree for a couple of days.  Do you have any details yet about when you will be calling at Christmas? Do you skype??? Facetime??? We were at Stake Conference and when we went in it was warm enough that I went in without a coat but by the time we left there was about 3 inches of snow and a snowfall warning. Winter has officially begun!

Tommy – We are organizing with a member to skype home but I have no clue what time yet because we dont have the schedule

Krista – I will have to become reasonably techie before then. I can’t believe we are so close to Christmas. We have our ward party this week. the Stake Carol Festival ( which I have Girls playing bells), my concert, a wrestling tournament for Benny and the MEssiah… Drew is not thrilled but I am insisting!

Brent – Looks cold and s.owy outside the plane windows. No snow in Toronto. We are getting off the plane now. Have a great week. I love you.
Or maybe not, there is a plane at our gate. Maybe we should double park?

Tommy – haha tell Drew its good for him and that he should look up that scripture

Brent – Still waiting. So three in a companionship. I did that in the MTC. Make sure to make the new Elder feel welcome. There is danger of 2 vs 1. You will do great.

Tommy – we will don’t worry Dad

Brent – And now we are pulling into the gate.  Stay awesome superstar!

Tommy – will do

Krista – I notice that older brothers always think it is good for little brothers to do things that are “good for them”. You will be happy to know that Drew has tried to take over your role of using Benny as his personal servant/object of job delegation… not working too well for him so far but I think he is hopeful.

Tommy – haha I had it mastered

Krista – Yes… poor Benny he has no one to delegate to. I guess there is always Joseph but somehow I don’t think Joseph will be keen for that possibility.  We already almost had world war three about who was putting what ornament where on the tree. And for a while the angel was missing and we weren’t quite sure what we were going to do. Luckily angel found and we only had to criticize each others placement of said angel  5 times…. oh the joy of brothers!

Tommy – haha sounds like our flat sometimes but we just joke

Krista – So what jobs usually get delegated to you? What jobs do you try to delegate to the other elders

Tommy – usually I do all the cooking and washing of clothes and they clean the flat

Krista – I think that sounds like a fair deal. I would way rather cook than have to clean. And knowing how you are my son I’m sure it is the same.  That’s actually quite funny because right now I am doing laundry and making shortbread cookies instead of cleaning the bathrooms and washing the floor which really need to be done.

Tommy – haha thats the same with me

Krista – oh oh…. you better marry someone who is not like us or you may be in trouble. Are you becoming a good cook?

Tommy – yeah I can do some recipes by memory now

Krista – I am impressed. Do you want any more recipes? Or instructions?   Benny wants to know if you got the animal facts… and as usual he says loving your bed lolololoolol.  We keep telling him that he should claim it as his now, but he is loyal to you

Tommy – yeah I dont know why he still calls it my bed  –  and sure that would be awesome but preferrably recipes that can be made and eaten in under an hour

Krista -Ok I will think simple and summery. That will be a nice challenge in the -17 weather this week.  Ben and Drew went to sing at Grandmas home today with Steeds and Jenny-Lynn, Betsy and Walters family. I think some of the younger Prendergasts went too. I decorated Grandma’s room and if I do say so myself it looks pretty good.  Will you all be in one bedroom in your new flat?

Tommy – I have no clue we havent been there yet

Krista – You will have to take pictures. I am curious. Is it further away from the coast? Do you know the area at all?

Tommy – it’s in an area called trott park near the coast

Krista – That’s cool! Dad would be jealous. He LOVES the ocean! Does that put you closer to the chapel?

Tommy – no it’ll keep us at about the same distance

That is all for this week …