God Loves All His Children

So lately me and my companions (plural) hahah. We've been talking about how the more diligent we are and the more we align our will with the Lord's and show him we're willing to sacrifice things etc... then will he entrust us with more of his children (more people to teach)... And so we've been trying to do that lately to be more diligent and this week we saw some major results!!! So just some background.... M... he's a super golden investigator we met a month ago and we committed him to baptism the first lesson.. but the next week he went to Melbourne for travel and we lost contact with him for about a month.... Then another investigator J..  left to Korea  last week..... But this week we got a call from M after a month of no contact and he said he was back and wanted to meet with us still! And we met up with him and he was still KEEN AS! He remembered everything we taught him the 1st lesson, he was praying.. and still wanted to be baptized!!!#Miracle.... Then during our English Class we got a call from an unknown number... so I stepped out for a sec to take it and it turns out... J... right before he left... he told his friend if she could do anything for him... it was to call us and go to our church... And so here we were on the phone with her! And she was Korean so I gave the phone to my companion Elder J... and he was confused like "Do you want to learn about English?"... And she replied "English?!... What English?! I want to learn about the church!"... Hahahah it was so insane!!! And along with her we met another guy named D and set baptismal dates with both of them that same night!.... The Lord's been pouring out blessings upon us.... But like anything in life... Sacrifice brings blessings... In football.. that guy who stays after practice doing sprints and reviewing plays etc. will prosper in gameday... such is the same in missionary work... as we've been diligent and sacrificing some necessary things we've been prospering in the Lord's work... And nothing left is to say but..... WOOOOOOO! Haha.

Usually we have baptisms every Saturday night but the branch changed it so it's only twice a month now...So now we have nothing to do on Saturday nights... So we go finding!!! It's super sketch cause all the drunk people are out... But we convinced my companion Elder O (the one on crutches) to come with me and Elder J to go finding at Belmore Park.  But anyways... I was finding and started talking to this homeless guy.... He first asked me for the time so I told him "6:45" or whatever and was walking away... but then I felt impressed to talk with him and at first I was like... What the heck I don't wanna talk to a bogan hahaha. But that morning I read a talk "Be Anxiously Engaged" And "Consider the Blessings" in the last general conference and so the first talk said every day we should ask ourselves "Have I done any good in the world today?" "Have I helped anyone in need" And "Consider the Blessings" talked about being an answer to other peoples prayers... And so I prayed that morning to help someone... so as I went back to talk to him, he opened up like crazy and said how his life has been a failure and he's an alcoholic etc.. And I taught him the plan of salvation right there and he just stopped for a second and smiled and was like "Thank you.... thank you so much!! I really needed this!" And I gave him my number and invited him to church and left... And so I left the park that day with such a good feeling... And being able to answer "yes" to those questions at the end of the day.... God loves all his children... even if they are bogans... haha.  

A lot of good things happening

This week was swell... A lot of good things happening... This past Wednesday I went on Trade-Offs with this fresh as missionary.. He's only been out 3 weeks, but it was super fun! Our theme for our trade-off was setting inspired goals... And so we set the goal of pulling 2 people off of the street to show them the church (equivalent to tracting and having 2 people let you in to teach)... So we were busy the whole morning and we had little finding time... but it was getting near the end of the day.. And we had 1 hour left to pull 2 people off.... So we said a prayer and the moment we walked outside the Teaching Center we saw this Japanese guy looking a bit lost so we went and talked to him.. and turns out he had heard about our Church that we teach Free English here and wanted to learn more about it... AND... he was waiting outside for his friend to come with him!!!.... So we talked to him and his friend came and we showed them around church and taught them and accomplished our goal!!!! That testified to me that God has a will.... and if we align our will with His having faith to accomplish it... it shall be done... So it was a really cool experience especially for him as well... a brand new missionary... and now he learned the importance of setting goals in faith! 
Now for story time... So this Saturday J... was baptized!!! But it was so funny for real... because he was so nervous I was just using that to my advantage hahaha, cause obviously if you're sympathetic in this situation it's going to make it worse... so I would just make random comments... Like we were entering the chapel and there was a black cat... I was like "Ohhh J... you know what that means?..." What?... "That's bad luck, maybe we should go home!"... And he just started laughing out of nervousness hahah. And I told him "Ohh J... did you know... last year someone died in this baptismal font.." Hahaha. But he got over his nerves and was fine... But it was really cool... our Elders Quorum President gave a talk saying 13 years ago he was baptized and the missionaries were 40 minutes late so the water was freezing cold.. and he related it to Wilford Woodruff when he was baptized... They broke open a frozen river and he was baptized in there and he hugged the other person and said "I don't feel the cold brother... I don't feel the cold"... And he said when he was baptized he felt immediately warm when he went into the water.... and the spirit of promise confirmed to him that the ordinance was true.... And the same happened to J!!.... Before we entered the water I read him Alma 7:15, And that was so cool because that's one of the scriptures that helped him get over his fear... and then we actually did what it said at the end!.... and we entered the water and it was COLD AS!!!..... But once he was baptized and we went into the changing room he just started laughing and hugged me and was like "I feel so hot!!!! I'm so happy!!!!" And he got down and started doing push ups and was just laughing and was seriously on a happy high hahaha, he even told me he wished he never postponed his baptism because this feeling was so incredible!.... It was such a great experience though to witness!!!.... He's a such a good guy! 

Humbled

This week was really good!! Transfers were yesterday, I keep on dodging bullets, I'm still in the city with Elder J and Elder O. So I'll have been in the city 7 1/2 months after this one so I'm pretty sure this is my last transfer here so I'm gonna try to work hard as. And something I thought was pretty cool, in the 6 months I've been in the city I counted all the lessons I've had with different nationalities.... And these statistics alone will prove to you that I got sent to Asia... not Australia hahaha. Chinese:114/ Thai:105/ Korean:49/ Aussie:38/ Vietnamese:18/ Russian:6/ Taiwanese:4/ English:4/ French:4/ Peruvian:4/ Indonesian:4/ Italian:3/ Brazilian:3/ Japanese:3/ Filipino:3/ Canadian:1/ Hong Kongese:1/ Norwegian:1/ Kiwi:1..... With a total number of lessons to 366. So only 38/366 lessons have been with Aussies.... so if Ashley or anyone is expecting me to have a "hot Aussie accent"... expect more like broken English when I come back hahaha.

So we have this investigator named J from Korea... And he was supposed to be baptized 2 or 3 weeks ago but got scared and backed out.... We set another date for January 12th and have been preparing him.... until he said AGAIN he was scared and didn't want to.... So we had a lesson with him and we spent the WHOLE lesson... like 45 minutes just trying to resolve his concern... and I don't exactly remember what was said... but I know the Lord put in our mouths what we needed to share with him... And mind you we have done this a few times before.... and I shared with him again Alma 7:15... (that scripture smashed him) He said he knew God was speaking to him and the spirit testified to him that he needed to be baptized and he was ready.... And finally he accepted!!!! And it was so funny, one of our recent converts L.... he yelled out "FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!" And in between our conversations with him L was smashing him!!! He was so funny, he was so frustrated just yelling at him "OH MY GOODNESS! YOU'RE NOT GOD! YOU'RE HUMAN BEING, YOU AREN'T PERFECT!!! JUST GET BAPTIZED, GOODNESS!!" hahahah, and he even added in this which came out of nowhere..... "COME ON!!! DO YOU WATCH MODERN FAMILY?! THE COLOMBIAN MOM? SHE'S HOT GIRL!" And I was just like.... WHAT?!?!?! hahahahaha.... and even though it may sound funny and not really spiritual.... everything together just mixed together so well.... like the whole lesson wasn't just serious and us being stern.... And that testifies the quote by Richard G Scott "A sense of humor is an escape valve to the pressures of life and will invite revelation" And so even with the laughing... it invited a spirit of peace... not contention... we never contended with him... we just showed our love to him and our desire for his salvation.....  and finally he was humble enough to act on the answer that he received.... That is what 'Real Intent' is! When you act on the answer you receive! And so it was such a good lesson! And so now this weekend Saturday! J will FINALLY be baptized!! :)

But this week was actually a really good week in regards to finding people who NEED the gospel.... We found 2 people in particular.... I'll start with C... she's an older Korean lady.. around her 40 or 50's.... and she's actually getting abused by her partner we reckon... she hasn't told us specifically but she strongly implied it... So she's turning to God at this time because she needs comfort and so we've taught her twice and she's so good and so sincere! And another is this 16 year old Aussie named J... When we approached them on the street... he was with this older guy in his 30's that was drinking and smoking and J was just sitting there... So we talked to him and turned out that guy was his uncle... But we talked to J and he was a genuinely nice kid... he just had SUPER BAD influences obviously... and he had the best questions... because his Granny died and he had been wondering where she is... why do bad things happen to good people and which church was true! And we read with him some answers out of the Book of Mormon right there on the street! And he opened up to us how he needed this because he had been depressed and showed us his wrists and he had been cutting himself trying to feel happiness he said... And so we'll meet with him later this week hopefully.. But it really humbled me that there are TONS of people out there in need... and I have the opportunity to go and help them with the gospel of Jesus Christ which after all brings true happiness.... But I shallst keep you updated on them as we continue to teach them.