Happiness Down Under!

Monday (1.18.16)

We went to the trampoline park for Zone P-day and it was a lot of fun! We have a really great zone and we all work hard so it was fun to play hard together too! We had to start really early so our outback missionaries could get home in time. 

Zone P-day at the Trampoline Park. Look at me... I'm Samuel the Lamanite!

Sponge blocks rock!

Hangin' with my Gippsland Zonies.

They have a long way to travel because our zone extends so far into the Australian Outback. After our P-day activity, Elder Kim and I were blessed to go to the Teremate’s home for a family home evening. They are always so kind to the missionaries and they enjoy having us spend time with them. They tell me having the missionaries in their home brings back good memories for them. I love them a lot and we were able to share a message with them on Hope and why it is so VITAL that we have hope in ALL that we do!

Tuesday (1.19.16)

I had an amazing personal study this morning! All of my study time is amazing however during my study this morning I was blessed to understand how important it is to have HOPE in all we do in life and to expect things to happen! I love how when we expect great things to happen they happen! I have really been able to implement this ideology into my missionary work and it is incredible how much the four letter word HOPE has changed my mission! Today, we had District meeting and then Language study for Elder Kim so by the time we were able to actually hit the pavement it was 2:00 pm.  But I didn’t let it bother me too much because I KNEW Heavenly Father would bless us for completing our duties! 

Elder Kim's family sent him some Korean medicine....
I'm not quite sure what it does, but since it's in a red, white and blue capsule,
it must help you learn how to speak American!

We went and tracted the street we had planned and nothing really came of it to be honest EXCEPT... We met a lady who had experienced a recent death in her family. She didn’t want to meet with us but we were able to give her the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and I KNEW God had sent us to her for that specific reason! Then we went to a man that we had tracted into a while back who was upset with God. His two year old son had died and he felt like God had taken him away and made his life bad.  It was amazing because we were able to purely testify that we hadn't experienced the level of pain he was going through BUT the Savior through the Atonement knew EXACTLY what he was feeling and going through! This knowledge seemed to resonate with him in a different way than anything had ever before regarding the sadness and grief he is experiencing over the loss of his precious little boy. After that we were walking and we met an African American man from New England. As we were talking with him he didn’t believe I was an American too……he thought I was Australian. I know my mom will be happy that I am getting an Australian accent.  haha! We were able to get his info and hopefully we will be able to meet with him soon. After that we were invited to the Young’s house and we had a great night with them! We shared an awesome message and the spirit was really strong. We were able to commit them to read the Book of Mormon as a family every night:) I know this will bless their family in amazing ways. Then we jumped on the tramp and I did some flips (in my church clothes…ha ha) to show the kids my mad tramp skills!  To finish the night we went and shared a quick message to Laz and Hayes!

Wednesday (1.20.16)

To be honest this was just one of those days that can be frustrating for missionaries when what we had planned didn’t work out. But that is all right because then the things that happen is what the Lord wants to happen.  Anyway all of our appointments fell through and we were stuck going to our back up plans and they didn’t really seem to work out very well either. Elder Kim and I both tried to stay positive and it was a great learning experience as we chose to just be happy doing the work of the Lord. 

You can always count on pizza and prayer to pick you up after a rough day.

The one highlight for the day was we were able to meet with Mick. He was the referral that we visited for the first time about two weeks ago. He originally slammed the door in my face. But last week he called and asked us to please come over and teach him! He is fighting some addictions and he was a bit tipsy when we went to his house to teach him. As we chatted with him we found out that he will be moving out of our area very soon. So we won’t get the chance to teach him very much but it will be alright and because we have planted the seed other missionaries will be able to work with him! It was pretty cool however, when we taught him how to pray and right after he was finished he told us, “As I prayed I became instantly sober and I could think very clearly!” It was a real testimony builder for all of us on the power of prayer!   Another amazing thing that happened was we were driving to another area and I was pondering about where we should go and then this street sign just flashed into my mind and the name of it was Friendship Close.  I had never been there before but through the Spirit I knew without a shadow of a doubt it was in our area! We were blessed to find a lady on that street named Helen!

Thursday (1.21.16)

We had District Leadership Council this morning and it was really good! After that we set off to meet with the lady we met yesterday named Helen. We just had one problem. She was going to be the only one there and the mission rules say we need at least one other person when our investigator is alone. It was the middle of the day and it can be hard to find someone home at that time.  However, we weren’t about to give up. We knew Heavenly Father had led us to Helen yesterday and we were going to teach her about Him and the Savior today no matter what! So we said a prayer and knew we should go find Laz. He is one of the less active 18 year olds we are working with. When we pulled up he was outside with Liam and Hayes and we just stopped on the curb and said “Laz get your shoes on we need you!”  He said, “Hell no! (remember hell is not a swear word in Australia!) I am not prepared!”  I said, “Laz, just get in and come with us and I promise you it willl be alright!” AND HE DID! Haha! I can tell you it was a complete miracle!! When we got to Helen’s it turned out she had a friend with her who is a member of the church in a different ward! It was really awesome because we all had lunch together and we taught a bit of a condensed Restoration lesson and it was really powerful. It really had a big effect on Laz and changed him as well. After the lesson he was a bit different which was really special to see:) After leaving Helen’s home we were able to go visit Monica as well and it was great because she introduced us to a non member that is going to move in to her house soon. So hopefully we will be to start teaching her as well! :) We finished up the night with Ward Correlation meeting with Geoff! It is always awesome to be there with him and learn from him. We are really getting pretty close and it is great! :) 

Friday (1.22.16)

We got a call and found out that there was going to be an ET (emergency transfer) in our zone and we needed to help out with it! So the morning was spent going to the office with Elder Wach who was leaving and picking up Elder Matewai. It is always good to be able to help out other missionaries because I KNOW that after we do so Heavenly Father blesses our area! Then we were able to go over to Mick’s house again with the member that gave us the referral for him. Unfortunately it was much different this time because HE WAS SMASHED!! We taught him the best way we could but we cut it pretty short because he was struggling to understand us and we weren’t really getting through to him. He is moving tomorrow so we will continue to pray for him to overcome his trials and that the missionaries will be able to teach him. Then Elder Kim and I did our weekly planning. After that we were able to go teach Yvette, Jordan and Monique:) We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they are super awesome! Monique really wants to be baptized so we are just working on her mom now! I KNOW that it will all come in the Lord’s time! It is good for Yvette to get the lessons again and have a great review. We can all learn more about the gospel as we grow closer to our Savior. We finished up teaching Heather’s granddaughter, Aliagh. She is an awesome girl and hopefully she is getting baptized on Saturday! Then went to pick up some of the Elders from our zone because they are sleeping over at our flat so they can attend the missionary broadcast with us tomorrow!

Rollin' with my brothers in the gospel... all we need is some Mo-Tab with a beat!

Saturday (1.23.16)

It was amazing to be able to participate in a part of church history! We were blessed to participate in a World Wide missionary Broadcast! This has not happened in over a decade! I was able to learn SOOOOO much from it! It was amazing!! We were basically trained by Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks, and Elder Anderson for about two hours and things were really able to make sense to me and the Spirit was able to help me know how to become who HEAVENLY FATHER  wants me to be! By the time it was over and we got the Elders on the train back to their homes in Pakenham it was about 3:00 pm.  Then we went to teach Iain and Suzie! It was really good. We were able to teach them a bit more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are just really stressed and the adversary is really working overtime on them but I know they will get through it though! After that we were blessed to be able to go on splits with brother Teremate. We love him so much and we were also able to visit a family that I have been trying to get into for WEEKS! They are the Havili family. They are very close to going to the temple and hopefully we will be able to help them come back and get going in the gospel again. Then we went and had dinner with the Teremates! I love being in their home and spending time with them!

Sunday (1.24.16)

Monique was the only investigator that was able to come to church. AjJ and Leyla’s daughter was sick and it was sad that they couldn’t come but they really love coming to church and they told us they want to keep coming:) Then in the Devon Meadows ward SIO Uini came!!!! He told his grandma that he needs to go to the Mormon church! The feeling I had when I saw him walk into the chapel was so amazing!!! Aghhh it was the best! My joy was indescribable! Also, my brother Elder Seiuli came back to visit and it was nice to see him! He was my AP and I learned so many things about being a missionary from him!

Me and Elder Seiuli.

After church we went for lunch at the Lotua family! They said that missionaries had not come in awhile because they were struggling with some things but during our lesson we all felt the Spirit and the tears flowed. The Spirit was sooo strong! The gospel is TRUE everyone! Then we went to the Uini family and watched the restoration and right after that I went to stake choir practice and I saw Sister Perry there! I absolutely love the Perry family! They were a big part of my happiness in Doncaster and I am so happy they moved to Gippsland! This was a great Sabbath!

Elder Kim, Sister Perry, and Me... getting ready for choir practice...