A Good Name

Welllll this week was awesome blossom! We had some awesome experiences!! So we've been going around trying to meet everyone on the Ward List.... but the Ward List is pretty out of date so we go visit Less Active people and they'll turn out to actually be active hahah vice versa. We actually had  an exerience like that.... but it was pretty miracle!! We were trying to find this family, the N's, the ward list said they were active but we never saw them and we could never find them... so we were intending to find this other L.A. family ... and we met them and they were super cold and didn't talk to us hahaha, but then out of the same house comes this guy and is like "Hey Elders come in!" And we've never met this guy but we were like... welp... yeah lets go! haha. And we didn't want to be rude like... "so who are you?" So we start visiting with them as if we knew them hahaha and he started talking about his mission etc... and he showed us his badge.... "Elder N" and in my mind I was like... (WHAAAAAT?!?!?!) Hahaha and we had a SUPER good visit with them and they said they haven't been to church in a while but they were planning to come back next week and they told us we inspired them to stay strong in the gospel! It was sooooo coool!!! The Lord knows his children and we were able to cross paths by his mercy! 

 

I was on trade offs with the AP, Elder R, he and I set the goal of getting 2 new investigators and so we started at 10am and were finishing at 6pm.... so we worked hard the whole day.. talking to everyone visiting less actives and members trying to find referrals and it came to 5pm and we prayed to find 2 more souls to teach.... so we go to our last teaching appointment and lo and behold.... our prayers were answered! Our investigator brought 2 of his friends to sit in on the discussion with us!! And there was a super favorite of mine.... his name..... get this.... right.. get this... his name... was.... Caleb.... ^_^.... So I was like "I like you... that's a good name... you know what else is a good name? Jesus Christ... now take upon yourself his name and be baptized..." Hahaha and so MIRACLESSS we added 2 more precious souls to teach.... Twas swell.... Faith can do anything.

 

Another insight I've found this week.... Before my mission I remember always hearing RM's share an experience and say "This was 'THEE' reason why I was sent here".... And it always seems like there's that 'one' reason.... that 'one' person waiting for you..... But something I've greatly realized.... It may sound harsh... but it's true.... If you can only find that 'one' reason why you were sent on your mission.... you didn't work hard enough... Now I'm not saying I've worked the hardest compared to other beast missionaries... but as I've been giving my best effort and my heart to the Lord.... He's revealed to me countless reasons of why I'm here on a mission... Like when I first came out the question I constantly pondered was "What is 'THEE' reason that I'm here for?... Why Sydney?".... And as I seeked for it everyday.... I realized I was asking the wrong question.... The correct question was.... "what are the 'REASONS' that I'm here for?" After asking that..... countless reasons and experiences were given to me... All you have to do is give your best and keep your eyes open.... Something I've been doing is what President Henry B. Eyring suggested.... write in your journal everyday.... and ask yourself the question... "How have I seen the hand of God in my life today?".... And in result.... I'm no longer searching for security of why I'm on my mission.... I've already had many.... and know there are only many more to come! I thought that was something interesting so I thought I'd share it with you.

Missionary Work is the Absolute Best!

Nowwww for this week! This week included all phases of missionary work, tracting/member work/service/rejection.... but most importantly.... MIRACLES!!! WOOOO!

First miracle.... so we have this Less Active named Sister T. she has been less active most of her life and her son is less active AND has a non-member girlfriend. We went to see the girlfriend this past week ... she looked down as! And she told us she barely just got back from work and was so tired.... so we just had a good casual chat on how she was doing, then we started to share a message... and we felt impressed to share Alma 58:9-13.... And the moral of the story is.... in times of fear and need.... Pray! We shared that with her and she started crying and opened up to us saying she's been having this guy at work hassle her and being very threatening to her safety and she said, the last thing I thought to do was pray..... and she said... quote... "I know for a fact that this message was for me.... whenever I need help in life... you know what Heavenly Father does?.... He sends the Elders to always knock on my door when I need His help! The Elders are always there for me!"...... I was so humbled when she said that.... It just brought a huge realization of the sacred power of our calling... to be an instrument in the Lord's hands... being guided to the right people in the right time.... And what is even cooler!!! We had dinner at their house last night! And Sis.T has been exposing her son's girlfriend to the gospel this past week... and she asked us HEAPS of questions at dinner and so we set up a return appointment to have the discussions with her! Now here's what the crazy part of the story is.... She's met missionaries in this ward from Me (current).... to Elder Menzie (served here 2 years ago)... And they all have planted seeds... but now finally after so long... she's been prepared... and we're the lucky ones that are able to harvest! WOOOOOO!

Soo this week... for the first time.... I taught...... CHILDREN!!!! WOOOO!!!! Oh.my.goodness. They are SO EASY to teach! Compared to like bashy evangelists and stubborn english people (no offense mum)... But they are just so precious and absorb everything so easy! This Less Active lady, Sis. E.. she has two kids ages 9 and 10. She wants both of them baptized... so we taught them and as we did so... their mum sat in on the lesson and we could tell she was feeling the spirit big time! So it was a double whammy! It was just super humbling though being able to teach children! Their childlike mind is so funny! I was teaching about the priesthood... comparing the authority the prophet has like the authority of a drivers license... without the drivers license.... the person can't drive.... it's like the prophet... without the priesthood... he can't speak to god and guide the church! Then one of the kids goes "So the cops uniform gives them authority to shoot people?" Hahahaha, I was like..... yes.... yes it does... hahha jk. So they are super cool! And we did heaps of service.... just to give you an idea of what went down... shoveled like 1,000lbs  of compost across this garden...Set up a billion games and tents for this country fair at a public school... and last but not least.... went to a sketch house and mowed half a lawn before we had to leave due to domestic violence and cops showing up... how lovely... But this week was legit! As every week is! Missionary work is the absolute best! There's nothing better anyone could ever be doing, not school, their dream career or anything...

Tender Mercies

We had so many tender mercies of the Lord this week! We're really striving to do our best in this area and we've been seeing some results now! I'll give you some examples... This guy  has been coming to church and we had a lesson with him and it turns out... he actually knows this is true... but he just doesn't know it yet... he came to church by himself... and is real into everything! He's reading the Book of Mormon and even one of the members invited him over for dinner with us on Wednesday... and he was like "nah I cant... I'm going to Institute" hahaha. So we're going to have dinner with him on Thursday instead... And this other kid is preparing for a mission... he brought his brother who's a nonmember to church! And his brother hasn't been to church in 1.5 years since his brother was baptized! So that was a huge miracle! And this lady  pulled us aside and wanted us to teach this 10 year old who wants to be baptized!! ANDDDDDDDDDDD to top it off..... We had one of the biggest miracles since I've been here.... mabye even in my whole mission.... We were tracting and tracted into this elderly lady and we didn't get to know her a lot while we talked but surprisingly she invited us back!! So we went back just on Saturday and we asked her why she invited us back.... And she told us "I had a dream that I was talking to 2 young men and I yelled at them.... then God told me to talk to them and I yelled at Him to go away.  Ever since that dream I feel like God hasn't been near me or loves me... and when I saw you 2 young men... and I saw your bright smiling faces, I knew that I couldn't turn you away.. and I knew God was trying to speak to me!" Take in mind she told us this as she was crying... and the spirit was just so strong and we assured her that God loves her and this was not a coincidence that we knocked on her door that day! And then she went on to say she had never shared that dream she had with ANYONE... so we asked why share it with us... and she said again crying "Because you two are so pure.... you're the truth!!!" ....... o.O ..... :O ..... We were seriously so shocked..... when we got into the car after the lesson we just drove back to our flat just smiling and didn't even say a word to each other.... It was..... ridonkulous...! This increased my testimony of Doctrine and Covenants 123, the last verse..... It says "... let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God and for his arm to be revealed".... If we do all we can... which isn't much... God will grant us miracles.... just because we are trying, means everything to him.
I went on another trade-off with my zone leader Elder A... my same zone leader from the city... so it was awesome! We went from going on trade-offs in the city teaching in this building and street contacting to tracting and teaching in people's homes! We taught this awesome guy (we found him a couple weeks ago) and he's so good! He'll get baptized... he told me "You have no idea what you've done to me 'all'! <-- (he cant pronounce my name right so he calls me "all") Ever since you've knocked on my door, I've been searching high and low in my garage for that Book of Mormon I owned! I've been dying to read it!!" And so we gave him one and asked if he would read it and hahahaha he looks at us stern -_- "Are you joking!? Will I read it?! you think I wouldn't read it?!" then he goes on sarcastically - "Yeah just searched my garage for 2 weeks... YES I'LL READ IT!" Hahaha, he's so cool! 
 So this week.... yup... it was insane!

Firebird...BOOM!

My companion was sick most the week... so I just studied... But the 2 days we did work, it was pretty sweet! We ran out of K's in our car so we walked like 10 miles the whole day I think... we just walked around visiting people, tracting etc. OOOOOOOO!!!!! GET THIS!.... (and tell chantry!) we were walking down the street and I saw a FIREBIRD (chantry's car) in this driveway! And I was like NICEEEEE!!! So I went and knocked on the door.... we knocked like 3 times and no one answered.... So as we were walking away this older lady answered the door... And so I explained her the situation "Heyy how are you! So... we were walking down the street and I saw your Firebird... and I haven't seen one since I was in Arizona, my best friend owns one! So I thought I should come and talk to you!" Hahah, then we started talking and she has even met missionaries before! And she says she prayed every night but hated religion or didn't really know who she was praying to etc. Then as we got talking she opened up that she didn't know if God was real because her mom died of breast cancer and she got cancer and broke her collarbone and she couldn't bare all this pain that happened just in 6 months and so she gave up... And as we reassured her God loved her and explained why bad things do happen etc. she warmed up to us and invited us back over! And so we're going to visit her tomorrow! We shallst see how it goes! But thanks to Chantry... if he never had a Firebird I probably wouldn't of knocked on her door. BOOM! Chantry <3

So Legit!

Hahaha yeah so it was crazy! At church we were in Elders Quorum and it just finished and I met Brother Brown... So I was like koo, koo, nice name. And he said he was from NZ and I was like, Awh I lived in NZ for a bit!... He was like where?... Wellington.... Where in Wellington?.... Paraparaumu.... :o.... You know my brother!!! Hahaha, so yeah it's Albies brother! And I was like, I even stayed at your house and met your sister, Lizzy! He was just like?... Lizzy?... Cmon.. we just call her "girl".. its much simpler hahaha. He's crack up as just like Albie. But yeah I got transferred to Gosford... But it's in the Newcastle Zone... So yeah they are 2 different places!...

But yeah I shallst tell you about my area... we're basically starting from scratch. But it's a good challenge... and we already saw blessings of working hard in just 1 week! I'll share with you some experiences:

Tuesday: So Elder U (from Hamilton, NZ) and I were going to Newcastle to go on trade-offs with the ZL's and we missed the train by like 1 min! So the next one wasn't for an hour... so I was bored as... It's completely different from the City... hundreds of people to talk to down to none hahaha. So I saw this 1 guy in the whole station so I was like SWEET! Let's talk to him! And it turns out.. he actually slept in and missed his stop so he was there for an hour too... During that time we got our scriptures and full out taught him a lesson right there on the train platform! It was so legit! Then we grabbed his number and jumped on our train... then the next day

Wednesday: Me and my ZL were trying to get to our appointment (only like 3 min walk away) and it took us 20mins! We were always stopped by people talking to us! The first girl stopped us and she was like "Missionaries!!" And we talked to her, she was from Chile and her parents were Mormons...but she wasn't baptized... we were like "we can help you with that" :) And she even knew a Less Active family in their ward in Newcastle so she said she could invite them to come and go with her! Re-activate a family and baptize someone = WIN! Then on the way back from our trade-off we were on the train back and my companion was on the phone... then a phone rung in my pocket... and I looked at it.... looked at my companion on our phone... then was like... ah heck... this is the Zone Leaders phone.... So we lived like 1hour 30mins away from them and didn't know how to organize it... but after thinking, we were gonna get off at the next stop and have them drive to this stop to pick it up.... As we were waiting to get off... I was reading my scriptures and I heard this posh as English acccent "What book are you reading?"... And I looked up and I was like.... The Bible..... And he was like.. "No duh... I know the Bible.. what scripture?"... Hahaha I told him it was Corinthians and he was like "My favorite is proverbs" hahaha, so I told him about missionaries and right before we got off, I got his number so he can meet with us! Then as we were waiting in this town called "Cockles Creek" this punk teenager came and he said he ran away from his boys home hahaha, so we just helped him and make sure he didn't get killed and gave him a pass along card lolz. But on the way home this Canadian girl got on and she was going to the city and I gave her the address to the church in the city and she said she would go! Yayyy!!! so I was just surprised that in the bush there's still so many people that are interested... so it was really cool!

So one cool miracle we had Thursday: We were walking home in the rain about an hour and a half away... and our dinner appointment was in 45mins... so we stopped in the middle of the road and said a prayer that we would get there in time! And just as we said amen... we walked for about 30secs. and this guy was like "Elders!!! Get in I'll give you a ride!" We were like YUSSSS!!! And it turns out he's Seventh Day Adventist but he grew up with Mormons and he gave us his number to come and speak to all the youth at this program he does! WOO! ... but yeah this area is legit! We even went tracting in the rain for 4 hours with no umbrella, WIN!

No Regrets

The last week of transfers everything right happened.... We were able to take an absolute dead area and build it up with people to teach, miracles and baptisms.... We were able to teach Y's Father and his girlfriend! We got to work with this member who had been struggling recently and seriously out of nowhere told us she decided to serve a mission and put in her papers! And everything was just going great.... On the morning of transfer calls... I read Alma 5.... And I personalized it to myself.... in verses 14-20 alone.. he asks 11 questions... all in which I personalized.... it asks like could you lie before God saying your works were righteous?... And I changed it... Can I lie before God saying I gave my all in this part of His vineyard? etc... And at the end of finishing it.... I knew I was leaving.... I had had no regrets... I gave everything I could and served the best to my ability..... And so had my fellow Zone Leader, ... and my Trainer, Elder A....At the time, I was on Trade-Offs with my ZL... and he told me about transfers before anyone else.... and we just cried.... not tears of pure sadness... it was mixed emotions... but because we had given our all in this area... In Mosiah 4:24 or 25.. I forget, it says... "I give cause I don't have... but if I had, I would give.."... And everything we had to give.... the Harbour City YSA branch has..... it's hard to explain... but at the same time... I knew it was time to move on... Because the week before in interviews with president... I asked him like "I feel like I'm not living up to my full potential president.... How do I fully lose myself?"... And he smiled.... and now the Lord has his hand in it. And so with that question I asked president... and even the Lord countless times... He has answered my question.... He's giving me challenges so I can live up to my potential.... leaving the City absolutely killed me... I have so much love for all the members there... every single one... but everything was inspired.... And the answer to my question came by being shotgunned into Gosford in Newcastle. It's got the most beautiful scenery!! But yeah I'm excited for this new area... IT SHOULD BE REALLY EXCITING! I get to work with families and stuff now! One of the reasons why I wanted to come on a mission, so yayyy!! I'll definitely have some stories next week.... I EVEN GET TO GO TRACTING!.... It's been 7&1/2 months and I've never knocked on a single door... I'ma go tracting like 8 hours a day to make up the time hahaha.

Seek Guidance From The Lord

Holaaaaa! I'm emailing a little early because we're going to see kangaroos today!!!! Transfers are actually this week and we went to the temple last week!! We had interviews with President this past week.... I could just tell he was vibing me out and receiving revelation to where I'm going..... I think I'm amen this transfer... probs going to the bush or something...

Anywho this week was seriously miraculous! Our whole zone has been down in morale for some reason and even members in the branch are depressed and the work has been going pretty slow as well.... and I had just read a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from ages ago... about 1999... He talks of the exact situation we're in now.... Right before things get good.... the adversary strikes... Such as the First Vision.... not long into Joseph Smith's prayer.. the adversary had held him bound... seeming he would be doomed for destruction... but then exerting his strength to call upon God... a pillar of light came down..... Another example... Moses... He saw God face to face... and saw the whole earth and every spirit as God could see.... then Satan came and impersonated Jesus saying he was the only begotten and to worship him..... Moses began to fear and called upon God as well.....And then Satan was commanded to depart..... Satan ALWAYS knows when the most good is about to happen and will do everything within his power to stop and discourage whoever it is... whether you are preparing to go on a mission or anything... Likewise for this week.... we realized our teaching pool was super low... and there's either 2 ways you can react from realizing you have no one to teach... #1.... Be depressed and let the adversary work on you and fall into a hole of self pity..... or #2.... Seek guidance from the Lord.... And I picked #2 :) So I was making calls to try and set up appointments when I realized we had no one to teach... so I prayed and asked what I should do.... The thought came into my head "Well don't just sit there... go out and do something..." And so I prayed to know where to go!... And the distinct impression came.. "ELIZABETH STREET!"... So I told my companions, "GET UP, WE'RE GOING FINDING!" And mind you it's like 8:40pm... we only had like 20 minutes... so we all went and 5 minutes in... I found this Japanese guy that wanted to come... so I was pumped as, like WOOOOOOO!!!!! As he was writing his number down... I got a text from our Golden Investigator- ... She basically texted us she didn't want to meet anymore... So with this bittersweet moment I just wanted to cry hahahah. It's like... great.. my prayer was answered... but now our baptismal date just bailed on us... But it didn't phase me I still had faith we would get her back... later during the week... long story short.. we met with her and...... SHE AGREED TO KEEP MEETING WITH US! Yayyyy!!! The spirit really worked on her and even though her natural man didn't want to meet with us... she searched herself and realized this has been making her the most happy she's been.... Miracles!!! And I even had one crazy experience....

We were finding for about 2 hours at UTS and then came to Chinatown... I was standing at a stoplight and straight across the street was this girl that stood out and I felt I should talk to her.... but as I waited for the light my companions told me to come another direction so I couldn't talk to her..... now about an hour later I stood at that same stoplight... AND SAW THE SAME EXACT GIRL STANDING THERE!... I was like... :O.... Deja Vu!.... And so I quickly went to talk to her once the light turned green and it turned out she was keen as!! She grew up in a catholic school but hated it and felt God was somewhere else... and was still trying to find Him... So I got her number and we set up an appointment later this week...

Later on during the day... I met this guy!!! Straight from saying "Helllo" to him we just hit it off... he was so super friendly and just awesome!! And so I invited him to come and see the church and we gave him a tour around... and we had a lesson with him and during it we taught the whole restoration.. introduced the book of mormon.. and committed him to be baptized.... Without even hesitating.. he said "I really don't have a choice.. If Jesus told me to follow Him... I must do that... And I would love to!" And he even already believed in the Book of Mormon! Hahaha it was just miraculous!... And so this whole past week everyone was depressed and going through trials... Satan knows how to work with people... but if you call upon God and keep working and pressing forward... that's when the good happens! Remember that ;)You have to overcome the bad first before you can experience the good... that way Heavenly Father knows he can trust you.... Love you byeeeeeeee!!!