After a week in Sydney, I was sent to Adelaide, So. Australia. On the way I stopped in Melbourne for four hours, then to Adelaide. Elders Potter and Ferrin were there. Elder Potter took me out to get me started tracting. He went with me to the first three doors, then left me alone. Those three houses were the only ones where I was ever with a companion tracting.
Missionary work was very new and different from anything I had ever done, but it was interesting. Adelaide is a well-laid out city on the square, like Salt Lake, with wide streets and lots of parks, and I liked the place and the Saints, but I had to go on.
On Dec. 19, 1919 I left Port Adelaide on S.S. Zelandia for West Australia, a four days' sailing. There was a railroad strike on, which forced me to go by boat. I was very seasick, but when I recovered I was very well.
The boat docked at Freemantle, about fifteen miles by train to Perth. No one was there to meet, so I found my own way to the elders' house and climbed through a window and waited for Elder Louks and Elder Cook to come home.
Elder Louks was the older missionary and Elder Cook the new. On February 18, 1920 Elder Louks left for home, leaving Elder Cook and me in Perth alone, 2700 miles from the mission headquarters -- the two youngest elders in the mission.
There were about fifty members, none holding the Melchezidek Priesthood. Elder Cook was conference president. The mission president came twice a year if lucky. When I wrote a letter home it took nine weeks at best to get a reply.
I sure hated to see Elder Louks leave. I did not have many companions, and Elder Louks was the one I loved like a brother.
Elder Cook and I settled into a routine. I would usually tract in forenoon, while Elder Cook visited Saints or took care of any details or sometimes tract. After noon, we sometimes went together to visit members or investigators and in the evenings we held cottage meetings or visited friends or members.
Elder Cook mapped out quite a large section of the city for me to tract. It took several months. One day when I was nearing the end of my area, he asked me if I was nearly through, and he told me that when I got down to King William Street to tell him and we would start another area. He said that the area across King William Street was lower-class and so we should leave it. In a few days when I got to King William Street, I didn't feel right about leaving the area below not tracted, so I deliberately did not tell Elder Cook. The next morning I started tracting below King William Street, and the third house I called at I found Hoyles. Mrs. Hoyle [FSID: KWC5-6Y2] answered the door. She was heavy with child, her first. She felt embarrassed and was glad to accept the loan of a book with a promise that I would be back in two weeks. When her husband came home, he saw the book and cursed a little that she should accept such stuff. In a few days he was home awaiting the birth and picked up the book and almost forgot about the impending birth. He told his wife that when that man came to make an appointment so he could see him. After the
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