Dear Shanell,

How are you doing? I'm doing great! We have three new people in our teaching pool. All of them are doing quite well. I am trying to learn the new discussions. They aren't very hard to learn, but there is a lot of information to accumulate. It should be pretty hard for me because I don't have very many brains to store the information in!

South Australia is going to be 150 years old in 1986! They will probably have a great big party here in the city for it! In the town square, there is a big marble thing that says "Only 6 months to go!" The whole city is counting down the months until 1986! I'll get lots of pictures while I'm out here. What did you think of the giant rocking horse? Pretty neat, huh.

In the letter-writing contest you are still winning. My family has 23 and you have 28. Please write again soon.

Love,

Elder Wallentine

Dear Shanell,

As you know by now, I don't have a bicycle anymore. Oh well! Life goes on in the mission field! We do have the new discussions and they are definitely different! It will be a unique experience to teach with them. We are not using them until August 1, 1985.

I have written almost 2 pages in my journal every day! Not bad, eh! I hope you are writing in your journal very often. Some people use the excuse that nothing exciting ever happens to them. Well, I can assure you that if you write every day, your life is exciting. I'm not lecturing you because you are the person that got me writing in my journal again!

We got two new investigators! One is named Jeff and the other is named Lynn. They are both interested, but Jeff asks questions like, "Where did God come from" and "If God is perfect, why did He create sin through Satan?" Well, we know the answers, but it is hard to explain them without talking an hour on it. He loves to argue! The missionary work is going quite well in Australia. We are all still alive.

You're the best support I could ever have.

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Hello Shanell,

On Wednesday night we took Inatio Ben to an open house at the mission home. It was really good! We borrowed the AP's car and picked him up. He enjoyed that. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read in it. His is from the Gilbert Islands which are SW of Hawaii and NE of Samoa.

We celebrated the 4th of July by going to the Buroughway's house and having a pizza party! They don't really celebrate Independence Day in Australia. The US is 209 years old today! At the party a fat lady from a crazy gram place showed up and stripped down to a swim suit in front of Elder Byington. She was sent by Susan Burroughway, one of the girls that lives in the house, to embarrass him. It was highly inappropriate and he was embarrassed.

On Friday the day was not going so well. My companion got a flat, nobody would talk to us, none of our call-backs were successful, and we got more garbage from people than ever. Then at 4 pm we visited an investigator named Diane. It was good to talk to someone friendly. At 7 pm we went to Inatio Ben's and taught him the 3rd discussion. His wife, Lyn, also listened in and even her son, Andrew. That shocked me! He is very polite, but he is in a hard-rock band called "Delusion" and has real long hair. He showed a little interest, so that was cool. When we were teaching Inatio, he said, "I know I will join this church. I feel it is the right way." Elder Fusselman and I jut about dropped our jaws! Inatio has already stopped drinking alcohol and coffee and he is trying to stop smoking. We haven't even gotten to the discussion on the Word of Wisdom yet, and he is already trying to live it. We talked to him about tithing, too. They asked questions about tithing and polygamy and we answered them and they seemed pleased.

On Saturday we visited the Ben family again. The we dropped Elder Fusselman and Byington off at the Lees to teach and then Elder Call and I drove to downtown Adelaide. After we picked up Fuss and By we all went down to Hindly Street just to see what people here do on the weekends.

On Sunday Inatio said he would be baptized! We are so excited! He will be the first person who I started with and ended with baptism. He thinks his wife will follow, too. We had dinner with the Hortons and then played UNO with them. Then we went to Jasna's house and played a game with Jasna, Debbie, and Morven. Debbie and Morven are brats. Morven slapped me for no reason and I was ticked off.

On Tuesday we had a tea date at Sister Hayes home. The McCallisters (the senior couple) and Sisters Grey and Gardikis were also there. It was a great meal with chicken, veggies, potatoes, and peach cobbler. Elder Fusselman got a letter from President Wells saying that a member told on us for buying Coke, but we didn't.

It is getting chilly at nights here. Sometimes it gets windy


A while back I was struggling with mission life and felt like I just wanted to quit and go home. That has all changed and I want to stay here and keep teaching the gospel! I am in the greatest mission in the world and I'm so happy to be out here. I owe you more thanks than I could ever give to you! Thank you for encouraging me to serve a mission and supporting me.

Here's our theme for July: Baptize!! Don't stay dry in July!!



Remember the baptism we had scheduled for July 16th? Well, we were teaching him and his wife the law of chastity and we found out that they weren't married. We asked them if they want to get married and they said, "Yes". So, they are applying for marriage tomorrow, but they have to wait for one month to get married. We have postponed the baptism until August. That is too bad. He was excited and so were we.

We got the new discussions on Friday and they are pretty neat. I think they are much improved. I am so thankful that I will be one of the first chosen to use them. They are truly inspired.

Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Wallentine

Dear Shanell,

For p-day last week we did our laundry and then lifted weights and played racquetball. Then we sat in a hot tub. It felt nice. At noon we had a trade-off and Elder Larsen went with Elder Fusselman to play cricket and I went with Elder Hendrix to chop some wood for an elderly lady. She tried to pay us, but we told her cookies and pop would be enough. It felt so good serving her! I had a great time chopping wood with Elder Hendrix. He is a great elder! After we left there we went shopping at Rundle Mall which is a giant outdoor mall with outside escalators. We had a district meeting later and it was good! I am having a hard time out here. Missions are not easy and I've wanted to come home many times. I talked to President and Sister Wells about that problem and the helped me come to the conclusion that I should take one week at a time and see how I feel. I love my mission, I just feel very down and depressed right now. We went tracting for an hour today and taught one discussion to Hoa, Chung, and Hien. They are Vietnamese and don't speak much English. We also got one new investigator whose name is Karen. She is living with her boyfriend's family and wants to take the discussions.

On Friday I set a goal to get along well with all of my companions. I know this will help me in all aspects of my life. Elder Fusselman and I went tracting and got 3-4 call-back appointments. Then we taught a discussion to Karen.and the Spirit was there.

On Sunday we took the Sacrament to Grahm in her home and went to visit Lilly. She is the lady that has the friend that told her not to read the Book of Mormon. She asked us not to come back, but when we went there she invited us in. It was nice talking to her and I think she'll let us come back.  We also ate tea at the Griffins and it was great! Then we taught the "Ben" family and showed them "Families Are Forever". They enjoyed it.

Monday was "motivation day" to motivate every companionship to baptize in July! That is the mission goal. We had some other elders over to have breakfast together and everyone helped. We played softball and soccer and then had homemade root beer and sloppy joes at the party. It was fun! After we ate, we had a bunch of skits put on by each zone. Ours went quite well. We did a skit of 2 greenie missionaries learning about how the mission is really run. We used slides with it. It was quite funny! After the skits, we watched "Victory". It was an excellent movie! We ended the day by teaching the Ben family the 2nd discussion and having tea. It went well.

We weeded Jasna's front yard and visited Karen and Josey on Tuesday.

Love,
Elder Wallentine