Elder Barnett's Australian Adventure: Golden Grove, it's on FIRE!

Jan 4, 2015

From Elder Barnett's Mission President's wife:

The missionaries are all fine. None of them live up in the effected area. One companionship was close for a minute and had to leave for a couple of hours, (not Elder Barnett) but are back in their flat now. It's the small towns up in the hills that have been in danger. There is really only one road in and out of the Adelaide Hills and so for firefighters the access ability is virtually non existent. Even with that, the firefighters are doing a wonderful job. There has been no loss of life, just some injuries and they have been mostly firefighters. It really looks much worse in the news than it is and for Adelaide it is devastating. Any fire is, especially when homes are lost, but compared to the fires we have in the states this one is pretty small. Luckily they don't have the population or it could of been much more tragic.

Elder Barnett will probably give you and update (or not, boys are not great with details) and try not to worry too much. We will watch out for your Elder.

Love,

Sister Carter

Goodaye family!!

Yes I am still alive and the fires haven't killed me....yetSo this past week has been crazy and I know you want to know everything that has been going on so I will try my best to let you know what has happened. So I was transferred to Golden Grove which is in Modbury. My companions name is Elder Rawlings and he is from North Ogden Utah and he is just a little bit shorter than me but he is about 15 kilos lighter hahaha.

So I was praying that I would get sent somewhere south for the heat of the summer and I was really hoping to get a car as well...ya that didn't happen. Golden Grove is hills on hills on hills and is just a biking area. The first day I got here we biked to a dinner appointment and by the time we got there I was on the verge of passing out from dehydration and exhaustion plus a little bit of heatstroke. Speaking of heat it hit 43 degrees the other day and seriously was the worst thing I have ever experienced. Every time you took a breath it felt like you had your lips wrapped around a blow dryer on the heat setting...

The bush fire here is crazy and no we haven't been evacuated yet but the sisters that are just a little bit North of us were evacuated and had to spend the night at the chapel. Unfortunately we were told that we aren't supposed to volunteer to help fight the fire which sucks cause I was really looking forward to doing that. The fire is still raging and they called in firefighters all the way from New South Whales to help put it out but they haven't stopped it yet. It has claimed like 12 or 14 houses already but there haven't been any fatalities.

So my companion is pretty cool, he went to Utah State before he came out on his mission. He studied computer engineering soooooo, ya. But we get along well. The only thing that bugs me is that he isn't clean and yes I did have to overhaul the house cause there were ants crawling everywhere and there were dishes climbing up the wall. Its heaps bigger but the air con isn't as good.... so we take the beds out into the lounge and sleep by the air conditioner! hahaha!

The hardest thing that I have had to deal with in this zone is disobedience.... There are 2 places in the mission that everyone knows are apostate and those two zones are Modbury and Elizabeth. Lets just say, it does live up to the expectations. Everything here is a party and missionary work is SLACK. Im not a leader by any means but I try my best to keep working because when youre not working time goes by really slow. This past week has been the slowest week by far just because there wasn't much working because Elder Rawlings is sick and hasn't gotten better. We are probably going to go to the doctors this week to get him checked out cause he has been crook for about 2 weeks now. I don't have a picture of me and Elder Rawlings yet but I do have one of the fire at 5:30 in the morning and it looks sick.

Yes I do miss Semaphore heaps and I still am in contact with Maylani and the whole Touli fam:) Golden Grove is like 45 min from Semaphore so its a whole new library....wayyyyyy nicer and no the district leader drives us. Everyone has a car but us....

I am trying to get on a diet to start bulking and get back into shape. I really want to put on some more weight but the only problem is my pants are getting really tight around my waist....:/

Im here for another 40 min probably. HAHAHAHAHA Man that video is awesome!! I feel like I should be right there with them!! Allie just emailed me but will you just forward the one I sent to you to her? I feel like such a crap brother but I cant email everyone separate letters.

Sending a photo of Elder Autele and I when we were on trade off. He was my zone leader and he is from American Samoa!! Peyton Davis is in his home ward!! Samoans treat missionaries like kings....literally so I reckon he is goin alright. I would kill to serve in Samoa or New Zealand. I miss islanders. Hopefully I go to Mildura which is a massive branch of just Samoans and Tongans and Kiwis

New Years was crap and all we did was sleep. I miss hot rock and sparking apple juice. Nick hasn't emailed or talked to me at all so I have no clue whats going on with him. Have you got my letter yet? The video of Drew is CRACK-UP and I downloaded it to my hard drive!! I will get what I need but Im not gonna spend a lot of money. I wanna wear my black shoes till they are just rubbish so I can send them home!!

btw You need to see all my aboriginal dot paintings I got done!! I need to send them home! I got my scriptures painted as well and I didn't show you on Skype!

We are leaving right now!!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

-Elder Barnett

-PO Box 97 Marden, SA 5070 Australia

Welcome to my new area GOLDEN GROVE. It's on FIRE!