Rob

G'day family and friends I have some news. On Friday the 6th I got a call from the APs telling me that my plane to Rock Hampton left the next day at 4:40. Transfers is on Tuesday the 10th (tomorrow) but for those who are getting transferred 'up north' the APs contact on Friday and I leave on Saturday.
So on my Birthday I was saying good bye to everyone in Waterford and on an hour plane trip north to Rock Hampton Australia. Everything is here is different than Waterford. The worst part is that everyone up here is white, I’ll get used to it. I was in Waterford for 6 months, so coming up here on a plane feels a bit like coming on a whole different mission. Being 'up north' in our mission is a bit like being banished. haha.
We never see other missionaries except for about twice a transfer (6 months)
My new companion is Elder Paki. His name is Maori but he is pretty much Australian. He grew up in Sydney and his mom's Australian and his dad is part Maori. When he and his previous companion Elder Smith picked me up from the airport I didn’t think they were missionaries. I'll have to send you a picture of what they looked like that night.

The mission is just different up here. We don’t go to district meetings, zone conferences, transfer meetings, pretty much any meetings for that matter. I’m going to miss Elder Cook's mission Tour because we don’t get to go back down to the kangaroo point chapel in Brisbane for that, and he not coming up North. I’ll miss the mission basketball tournament tomorrow at the Karawatha chapel. All the zones are competing against each other. I had to leave heaps of stuff at the mission home because you can only bring one bag with you on the small airplane.

The thing I was probably most disappointed about is that Mi'i Haletema, the little 9 year old that we were having a baptism for on Saturday got baptized at 5:00 about 20 minutes after my flight left. So I missed our baptism. It was hard saying good bye to Fiona and her family, they're the best. They made me a slide show of there wedding and at the end it had a message that said see you at the temple in a year. The mission president lets us go with people we've taught to see them go through the temple for the first time and get sealed. I’m looking forward to that. They are actually moving right now too, up to Redcliff, the ward that I was trained in.
I am now in Rock Hampton Branch. First branch I've ever been in, and we have senior couple missionaries in our ward from Layton Utah, there names are the Wallace’s, they're cool. Elder Paki and Elder Smith are great. We just saw Elder Smith off at the airport about an hour ago this morning to go back down to Brisbane. I was sad that he had to go. I was all ready used to being in a 3 companionship for last transfer, so it was a little weird when we left the airport this morning and it was just Elder Paki and I. We're not going to see other missionaries until president comes up here for Zone conference. Apparently my MTC companion Elder Hogg is the zone leader up here in Cairns. I wanted to go to Cairns but if you come up north you don’t move around up north, you just go to one area up here for 4 and a half months and then you go back down to Brizzy.
It’s hot and humid up here. But we have a Camry instead of a Corolla and a pretty nice flat with ceiling fans and air conditioning. So I have nothing to complain about.
I like my companion; he seems like a good guy. I am picking up a lot of Aussie things from him. It will be a good couple transfers.
Can you guys email me some pictures of John's families Halloween outfits and Kyler's missing tooth?
How have all the chapel cleaning jobs gone? Anymore work?
Tell the Stratton’s I say congratulations on their Mission call and thank Sis. Stratton for being a solid Sunday school teacher.
Tell the Dabczynski’s and the Brown’s I said congrats to their kids.
It sounds like the weather this past year in Utah has been great. There are mountains here in Rocky, something I haven’t seen for 7 months.

Elder Neilson of the quorum of the 70 came on a mission tour here last week. I talked to him and got a picture with him and his wife since he knows you Andrea. His wife is a crack up, they both had good talks. He opened a question and answer session to us and I asked him a question.
How is your project on the storage room going Dad?

Happy Birthday again Matt! How did yours go?? I spent mine on a plane. But guess what! I turned 20 before you!! ha! I’m older now! I've been 20 for way longer than you! I just needed to get you back for never letting me forget that you're 8 minutes older than me. So yes, I am older than you now.
Matt how do you like having a Tongan comp? Is it hard to communicate? I loved being with Elder Finau - he was the man and I learned a lot from him.
Thanks for the news on Travis mom. I haven’t heard from him in ages. Mom, what did you and Dad do for Halloween? Did you go to any parties or anything fun? Did you get many trick or treater's?
How much snow do you guys have there now? We are coming into summer here. It will be the hottest summer I've ever had with temps probably in the 40's (that’s Celsius)
Oh yea, I almost forgot. I need to give you guys my new address. Mail – doesn’t make it up north much. Actually they don’t send packages up at all. My new address is:

1/235 Dean st.
Rockhampton QLD, 4700
Australia!

Stobbe’s - if you haven’t sent that package to me yet, send it to this address. If you've all ready sent it then I probably won’t get to open it until I go back down to Brisbane in approx. 4 an half months. Thanks though.
Tell Sister Aldous thanks for forwarding Travis's Email. It was good to hear about him, sounds like they're having baptisms out the Wazoo in Madagascar.
Matt did Kalisi end up getting baptized? Have you personally baptized any people yet? How is your teaching in Tongan going? Congratulations on Micholo and Rich Getting baptized.
I'll try to send the pictures next week. It’s going to be an interesting week getting used to things here in Rocky.
Love Elder Prina, AKA ROB