Monday (1.11.16)
On schedule for Preparation Day today was
lots of great visiting. Elder Rolfe is being transferred from Cranbourne to
Wangratta so we went on the goodbye tour for him.
Elder Rolfe's farewell tour...
... No farewell tour is complete without pizza and a farewell hymn. :)
.
We are blessed to have some
amazing people in this area and it is hard for missionaries to leave! We
visited Monica, the Teremates, and then we went to President Valdes’ (he is our
Stake President) home and after that we finished up at the Mulipolas:) It was
an awesome night! I especially loved just spending time with all these great
families in their homes. Earlier in the day we helped some elders clean their
flats and then I helped Elder Rolfe pack up his stuff to leave on Tuesday.
Tuesday (1.12.16)
This was our very first time doing
Transfers the new way the Missionary Department wants us to. We don’t have a
centralized transfer meeting anymore and the zone leaders handle it all within
their own zone. It was an interesting experience for this first time, but I
know it will get smoother the more we work on it. This first time though, all through
the weekend I felt like I was a travel agent responsible for getting lots of
people where they need to travel to…….ha ha! First of all, we had to get all of
the Elders and Sisters that were being transferred to their new area and then we
had to find out how our NEW Elders and Sisters were going to get into their new
areas in the zone. So, we basically just traveled around and shuttled
missionaries ALL DAY LONG! It made it a little more complicated this time
because my companion, Elder Rolfe, was being transferred up to the Bush (Australian
Outback) so that added a bit of complication and a very long drive. We started
off the day picking up some Elders in Pakenham and then driving them to
Frankston to pick up another Elder and then we made our way to a place called
Hastings and then we went to the mission office to drop off another Elder and
then made the long drive back to the half way point to pick up Elder Johnson and
drop off Elder Rolfe. At the end of the day I added up our mileage and we ended
up driving about 500 K's! So it
turned out to be a big road trip day. But it was really great because I was able
to spend some really good time getting to know my new companion, Elder Kim. I
will be training him to be a zone leader and he is a really great Elder. He is
from Korea and he is super humble. He is learning English and I will help him
with that but I know I will learn a lot from him too! We have a lot of mutual
respect for each other and I know we will be able to accomplish great things
together this transfer. We made it home just in time to start planning for the
next day!
Meet my new companion... Elder Kim from Korea.
Wednesday (1.13.16)
This was one of the hottest days I have
experienced on my mission. It got up to 43 degrees Celsius! (which is 111
degrees Farenheit) However, looking back now, I know that it was just a tool
for the adversary to use to try to make us give up and not work as hard. Well
guess what Satan…..it didn’t work!!! We were blessed to see a lot of miracles
on this very hot day! Even though it was such a hot day, Elder Kim and I
decided to let the Spirit totally guide us and that way we could make sure we
were doing the RIGHT thing and what Heavenly Father wanted us to do. To start
the day, we began tracting on a street that we knew a Less Active member lived
on. We tracted and worked for about 2 hours and we weren’t able to contact
anyone. We had NOTHING after two super, sweaty hot hours! The only person who answered their door
was a real joker who said, “Hi, are you the two guys I ordered from the agency?”
Elder Kim was confused and looked at me and asked, "What did he say?"
I was like, “Ehhh ,don’t worry about it. Just a guy trying to be funny….haha I
guess that is one of the perks of being a language missionary…..some of the
rude things people say just go right over your head!
Then we went to the next street we had
planned to go to and we followed up with a lady named Michelle. She was happy
to see us but as we talked I knew I needed to bear my testimony of how valuable going to
Sunday School is for children and testify to her about the Restoration
of the Church. When I was finished bearing testimony, she told me, "I know
that it is really hot out here but you came to me at the right time, and at the
right place to share the right message. I am someone who needs to reconnect
with God." I was shocked and it was a MIRACLE!!! :) I knew that the Lord
was really just testing our patience and obedience on this very hot day. By now
it was 43 C (111 F) and we still had had another street to tract. BUT we were
able to find an Iranian lady named Leyla that seemed quite interested in what
we had to share. We invited her to
come to church and she said that she would ask her husband. The Lord really did
bless us all day long and we were especially blessed to go to the Teremate’s
home for dinner. They are an amazing family who take such good care of the
missionaries. Their home has such a wonderful spirit, it is a haven for us and
we love to be there with them. After dinner we met with Hayes and taught him a
great lesson. He is learning so much and doing really well. We are just going
to keep teaching him even if it goes slowly. It was a hot but amazing day that
was filled with great experiences:)
I hit the 17 month mark today... I can't believe how fast it has gone.
Thursday (1.14.16)
Our day started out by rushing to Maccas
(Aussie for McDonalds) to get breakfast for the new Cranbourne Sister
missionaries. They called us first
thing in the morning and asked us where the store was because they didn’t have
anything for breakfast! I was crushed that I had messed up and didn’t check
their flat to make sure they had food after they moved in! You can be sure I
won’t ever make that mistake again! Then it was off to our DLC (District Leadership Council meeting).
It was a great DLC meeting because we really have great District Leaders now in
the Gippsland Zone. Elder Johnson will be great up in Sale because I know if
anything happens up there we will hear about it from him because of my great
relationship with him. It was truly an answer to prayer having him transferred
down there:)
After that the time had come for Weekly
Planning! I have to be
honest……Thursdays are really my least favorite days because we have to stay
inside until we get our planning finished. BUT I know that it all works out in
the end. After planning, we were able to go to visit an investigator named Matt
and teach him about the Restoration. It was great because his son, Matti and his
friend Seth were both there to listen to the lesson as well. The kids really
seemed to enjoy the lesson, they even got a little more into it than their Dad.
We invited Matt to be baptized but he told us that he isn’t prepared to make
that decision yet. But his son said that he wanted to go to church and get
baptized! The only problem is that he has to ask his mom who is not religious
at all. However, as I have learned many times on my mission….. this is the
bonus of being on the Lord’s side!! If it is something the Lord wants and the
timing is right it will happen. After that, we went over to the Clarkes for a
dinner appointment. They are a really awesome family and they really love us! They
told us we are welcome to come over anytime! Then we were able to go teach some
great investigators, Monique and Yvette. Except before the lesson, Yvette pulled
me aside and said that until she is ready to come to church and participate
fully she doesn’t want her kids to be baptized. It made me so sad to hear this
because the kids are so ready and really want to be baptized! We taught them the
Restoration lesson and they are so prepared. They have studied and they know
EVERYTHING!!! Aaghhhhh! But I know the Lord will help! I am just really glad
that their mother told us how she was feeling because now we know that we just have
to keep strengthening her testimony:) I know that it will all work out!
Friday (1.15.16)
Today we had another district meeting
and we headed up to Pakenham once again! It was an awesome meeting because they
have a great district. Following
the district meeting we went and did service for a neighbor of one of the
member’s in our ward in Cranbourne. She is in her 70's and it was really great
to help her. It was hot again and so doing hard work like mowing lawns and
weeding and stuff can be hard. But today I didn’t mind because she really need
the help and it was nice to show her that we truly want to serve and help
people. It helped her to see the church in a good light and that was nice. We
were there for a little longer than I had planned but I just kept seeing other
½ finished projects and I knew we just couldn’t leave until we got her in good
shape and I really wanted to just help her finish everything. She was really appreciative and she
even accepted a Book of Mormon. It took most of the afternoon but it was worth it
and it meant a lot to her. We finished the night off at the Bishop’s house and
he was really impressed at the work we had done in the area. It is nice because
he has really come to trust the missionaries and he really likes me! He is
awesome and I am so glad that we are able to have a really great relationship
with him and his family.
Give service... be Happy!
Saturday (1.16.16)
This day was another day of INTENSE
miracles:) It all started when Iain and Suzie rescheduled their appointment to
around 12:30 pm. It was
unusual for them to change their lesson time to the afternoon but it just shows
HOW MUCH the Lord is in this work and he will arrange things so that other
things can be accomplished. We had a good lesson with them and then right after
the lesson a guy named Mick called me. He was originally a referral from a
member and that is usually a good thing but when we went to his house for the
first time two weeks ago, he just yelled at us and slammed the door on us. But
I had a prompting to leave a pamphlet with our phone number at the door and BAM! he called us today (2 weeks later) to say he was
sorry for how he reacted to us and ask if there was a time when we really could
meet! It was truly amazing! And if
that was not good enough... We went to Leyla’s house (She is the Persian woman
that we met on
Wednesday) and this time her husband was home and we were able to sit down
and teach a VERY POWERFUL lesson on the Restoration to both of them! The spirit
was so strong and they both KNOW that what we taught them was true:) We also
were able to set both of them on a baptismal date for February 13th! Wow! The
miracle of being diligent and being led by the Spirit on a hot day was really a
blessing!
Ginger beer float... cool, refreshing and always Word of Wisdom approved!
Sunday: (1.17.16)
Church started at 9:00 am and by 9:05 am none of the
people we had invited had made it to church. Agghh! I felt sooo sad but I KNEW
that Heavenly father wanted them at church. I was determined not to lose hope
and by about 9:15 am, five people we had invited to come to church were there! We had Monique, Jordan, Brother Young, Leesa
and LEYLA!!! We were so happy she came and she LOVED it!!!! I was also blessed
to be asked to speak in church so it was a great way to see that the Bishopric
trusts the missionaries. After the church meetings we had to go around picking
up a couple things and then we were able to give a blessing and then we went to
our Lunch/Dinner appointment. It was a little earlier than normal because the
Stake President wanted to get all the missionaries together for a Devotional!
So we picked up some of the Elders and Sister missionaries but it all worked
out! The devotional was very good and it was great to be with some of the Gippsland
Zone missionaries and the Stake President! :)
Visiting with Stake President Valdes and his family.
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