An Arm and a Leg and a Challenge

I'll tell you one really cool story... Me and my companion had been teaching the whole day and he felt too drained to teach the last lesson so we went on teaching trade-offs with the Zone leaders and so me and this other Elder taught the last lesson to our investigator..... I don't think I've told you haha.. His name is "Arm" haha. We always made dry jokes like... Hey is your brothers name Leg?... lolz we're so sad... but anyways I was pretty mentally drained as well from like 6 hours of teaching haha... but this last lesson was THEE BEST of the day hands down.... we taught the last half of the Plan of Salvation and we set his baptismal date and he eagerly accepted! And once we finished the lesson he prayed on the spot about his baptism.... he asked if this date was the best for him and then paused for a long time in silence.... and then he started thanking heavenly father for giving him this warm feeling and said he knew this date was the best for him! Then he closed and me and the other Elder just looked at each other like...... what. the........ WOOOOOO HOOOO!!! hahahah. It was so cool!

But this week was ridiculous... I don't even remember what happens anymore... We've been the busiest we've ever been... We had like 4 days where we didn't even go outside haha... we just taught the WHOLE day... It's a really good experience though.. we're seeing our investigators increase their desire to come more often to learn...  I'll tell you the challenge I have for everyone who reads this email or my blog etc. So our mission is working on a Christlike Attribute every week until Christmas... So what's gonna happen is... 1. I will give you something to read from Preach My Gospel.... then 2. I'll give you scripture references to study and link together.... and you better do them cause I spent a while finding scriptures that could tell a story hahah. Then 3. Pray every morning for help to use this attribute in your day... then at night report to the Lord on your progress.... And 4. Ask others around you to join in on this..... So for this week it will be "Hope"..... So here we go.... Read this:

"Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you. It is manifest in confidence, optismism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance. It is believing and expecting that something will occur. When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good. Hope helps you conquer discouragement. The scriptures often describe hope in Jesus Christ as the assurance that you will inherit eternal life in the celestial kingdom... President James E. Faust taught: "Hope is the anchor of our souls..Hope is trust in God's promises, faith that if we act now, the desired blessings will be fulfilled in the future... The unfailing source of our hope is that we are sons and daughters of God and that His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, saved us from death."

Now scripture study.... 

1. Romans 8:24-25... Definition of Hope... 

2. Jacob 4:4... Example of those who had hope... 

3. Moroni 7:40-41... What do we hope for... 

4. A blessing of Hope in Atonement... 

5. Alma 30:13,15,39-44.... There will always be opposition against our hope...  

6. 2 Nephi 31:20... Blessing of enduring opposition with hope.... 

7. D&C 138:14.... What we all hope for... 

I put this together in like 30 mins so don't judge me... I'll try to make a better one next week... But your commitment for the week is to do these things! Yayyyyy! Love you byeeee! 

So Solid!

I had never been so excited or ever understood the importance of watching general conference until I came on my mission haha, sad. But goodness, there were so many great talks. But my absolute favorite was Jeffrey R. Holland... I won't even try to quote it cause it's too good, just watch it! And something super super super cool! We had one of our investigators, she came on Sunday to watch the 2 sessions and she didn't really understand much... but after she said... "I didn't understand really anything from there.... but I could understand 1 sentence that the prophet said.... love those that hate you.... so I want to make that my goal because the prophet told us!" THEN!.... She said "My 2nd goal... I want to serve a mission now.... I really want to serve a mission now!".... :O .... Our investigator..... who hasn't even been baptized yet......  what. the. swag ........ mind. blown.

 It was another super busy week of teaching... But I'm super sad, one of our golden X1000000 recent converts, she's moving back to Thailand this Saturday.... Her story is just amazing... she really only came to Australia for the sole purpose of meeting missionaries and joining this church.... she planned to stay for a  long time but now has to go back for some reasons... she's super super awesome though I'm going to miss her! 

But this week was pretty crazy.. things are picking up like crazy! In the past 2 weeks we set 5 baptismal dates with our investigators and they're all SO SOLID! It's gonna be so awesome. And even this past Friday... our zone had 5 baptisms all at the same time... so we got to see them all get baptized... I hadn't felt the spirit so strong in a baptism before.. (duhh cause it was 5X the spirit) lolz.

But I have to go now... but before I go... Read this... Alma 36:3... And apply it to yourself... so for example it starts "And now, O my son/daughter (insert name),.... And then think how you can apply the counsel in your life..

Yelling out from the 27th floor!

(In response to the news about the lowering of the Mission age....) YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so so so so so excited!!!! Obviously we're like you in NZ, we have to wait til next week for General Conference... but someone texted us last morning and I read it and literally screamed, I was like WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! For real, you probably already know this but this is going to be a milestone in church history.... This is a sign of the second coming for real... I'm no prophet but now we're going to have more missionaries that will be going forth spreading the truth til it has penetrated every continent and ear... And this is especially huge for girls... for example... Remember that member I met from Taiwan that was looking for the church? Well she's 18... and I was talking with her and she started crying cause she was so happy she didn't have to wait 3 years to serve, she could now go in 6 months!  And tell all my friends Ash, Tiffany, Callyn etc. that they should go! :) YAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! So happy! Hearing that makes me want to serve a mission then I'm like... PSYCH! I'm already serving!!!
There's a quote that goes something like... "It is true intelligence of a man to unfold something so great and mysterious so that a child can understand" <-- it's in PMG chapter 10 'teach for understanding' I think... but meaning that the better you get at teaching simple doctrines so that people can fully understand... that's when the spirit can more easily come in and smash them.. Anywhoooo... This week was pretty dang awesome! We did SO MUCH teaching... and thats every missionaries dream to just teach all week haha. We got to resovle a bunch of our investigators concerns so say hello to entering into the covenant with the loorrrrd :)  Here's a simple but powerful quote... "It may be small, but if it's your all... It's enough" Something I learned on my mission super quickly.... is this right here.... when I came out I was super focused on smashing numbers and baptisms etc... but then being disappointed when you put in so much effort and receive little results.... The Lord won't base the success of your mission on your numbers.... but more importantly on your sacrifice... "It may be small, but if it's your all... It's enough"
(In response to me telling him that people in 7 countries read his blog)
And goodnessssss... So many people reading my blog... welp... might as well do some good with this opportunity as they're reading.... REPENT.... REPENT!!! REPENT AND BE BAPTIZED!!!!..... hahaha we live on the 27th floor and some nights I just open the window and yell that out to the city...  But for this weeekk..... This week was a super cool reminder of how fortunate we are to have this priesthood restored to the earth once again.... So far on my mission I haven't given many blessings really... maybe just to my companion but that's it.... this week out of nowhere.. everyone asked me for a blessing it seemed... I had really cool experiences but I'll share one.... It was Ray.... It was preparation day and we were out shopping (I needed a shoulder bag)... And he calls us and says he's really sick and needed a blessing... And he has heart problems so his health is up and down a lot... So we ran over to the chapel to give him a blessing and we get there and his face was super pale and he was just out of it... I even questioned if he should go to the hospital... But we went in and got ready to give him a blessing.... and 2 things I was grateful for at that time... 1... being a worthy priesthood holder capable of giving a blessing.... 2.... having consecrated oil on me... But we gave him a blessing and it was just super spiritual.... by the time I finished he was crying and we just hugged... We then left to go home and change back into proselyting clothes... and came back like 30mins later.... we then saw him and he was 100% normal.... And the only thing I remembered saying in the blessing was that he would be "restored and made well".... And what do you know... he was.... And that makes me think of D&C 121:36.... "The rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness"... We are entitled to the powers of heaven if we exercise our priesthood in righteousness... it's just up to us if we want to rob ourselves of those blessings or not... Anywaysss I have to go!! Love youuuu! Bye!

Awesome Blossom!

But gahhhhh.... Tell Ashley, Callyn and Tiffany I'm sorry for not writing yet... Next P-Day I'm seriously planning the WHOLE p-day to do nothing but just write so I can reply to them... and Sundays... pfft... You wouldn't believe it... That's supposed to be the most relaxing day of the week right? For missionaries it's the most hectic/stressful.. I barely get to enjoy sacrament meeting haha. We have to call all our Recent Converts and Investigators for church and have fellowships for each of them then some fellowships dont show up so you have to take care of like a billion people... Then we have Missionary Coordination meeting, then district evaluation, then weekly planning, then calls for setting lessons during the week... and down time doesn't exist here... they give you 9:30-10:30 to unwind etc. but in the city we have to keep making calls and planning... It's tough work but I love it... we have more miracles with the more work we do. And I was reading in Preach My Gospel this morning and found something hilarious I've never seen before! Hahaha, "The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hands. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all. (No wonder that the word of wisdom was revealed to us, for how could the drunkard or the addict feel such a voice?)" BOOM! I LOLed when I read that.
This week was super awesome though... we got this AWESOME investigator... she's a referral from one of our golden recent converts. But we were meeting with her on the 3rd visit and she pulls out her Book of Mormon all marked with notes everywhere and bookmarks and came willing to learn... She even told her mom in China she was learning about our church and so her mom is going to go to Hong Kong to pick up a Book of Mormon to read!!! MIRACLE! And we also met this awesome girl  from Norway but her mom is from Philippines so she visits every year... and her uncle is the Bishop there, so she's learned before and willing to learn again! So cool! We also have this super cool golden awesome blossom amazing golden member who said he will give me subway for free for a whole year when I visit him in Guangzhou after my mission, I'm essited! We got a lot of good things happening right now so we're trying to keep it up! We're so so busy though! Usually we struggle to get our investigators to church and baptismal services etc... but this week we had 7 investigators come to the baptism and church! o.O And we broke a zone record of investigators who attended sacrament meeting! It was 28 before and we got 30 yesterday! BOOM! Love you byeee!!