Transfers (March 25, 2013)

I just got the transfer calls. I am leaving North Coast Zone to go down to Melville in Southern River Zone. I know last week President Lindsay was not sure how many sisters were coming because of visas, but I think most of them ended up coming after what I have seen with transfers. We are being doubled out and sisters are replacing us. Another set of elders in the district are being doubled out as well and sisters are replacing them. It will be weird to leave North Coast Zone because I know the area pretty well, but it will be cool to go to a different zone and meet more missionaries.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, it was probably the strangest birthday ever. My companion decorated the flat while I was sleeping.Then two other elders came at lunch and decorated it even more with streamers. Then we went to Hungry Jacks ( the Australian version of Burger King) for dinner as a district. It felt really weird having it be my birthday, and not our birthday, but it was still really good. It will be a bit weird to be going to a new area again and have to learn all of the members and investigators again, but I am excited.

New Ward Mission Leader (March 18, 2013)

Last week we got a new ward mission leader, I just forgot about it. He was in the stake presidency that was just released. I was excited because if I was going to choose a new ward mission leader it would have been him. On the stake level he was always really involved with the missionaries. It is also exciting because of how he is magnifying his calling. The way he is approaching this calling is amazing and I really wish all ward mission leaders would have the same attitude about the calling. I have had good ward mission leaders, but none like him. He is basically a mission president at the ward level, which is how it should be. He is calling more ward missionaries, and making the auxiliaries responsible for the missionary work. It is also great because he was just on the stake presidency everyone has respect of him, so he is using that to our advantage. I really hope I stay in this ward for a while. I may not see the direct results from what his vision is, they will probably happen after I am transferred, but I want to learn as much as I can from him and be able to apply what he is doing to other wards I will serve in.

Thank you for the birthday present, I love it. I opened it, but decided not to wear it until my birthday. Thank you for all of the birthday wishes. I am excited to be 20. Ashley and I realized that this is our first birthday being apart physically, but now the days are apart as well. Weird to think about.

This has been a good week. We were able to find a bunch of people. I was on exchanges when they found the most promising investigator. He was a little drunk and waved them down on the street and asked if they were Mormons. He then told them he wants to change his life, so they had a good lesson with him there and gave him a Book of Mormon. I was a bit sad to not be a part of that, but on the same exchange I had a great lesson with a less active in the other area. It was really cool to feel the Spirit prompting me what to say, and to see the results of it on her. She wants to come back to church, but had been blaming her kids for fighting against her, but by the end of the lesson she took responsibility and said she will have to show her kids her example. We did not tell her this, but she got it from what we were talking about. You could feel the Spirit there, and then after the lesson she texted us thanking us again. I always love seeing the Spirit work through me.

A Good Week (March 11, 2013)

It has been a pretty good week. There is a family from South Sudan who we teach English to the mom, and we invited her to attend a baptism and she came. It was really good for her. Our goal is to help her with English so we can teach her about the Gospel. She goes to a Baptist church and the kids have been taught and really loved what we taught, and I guess were asking about baptism with previous missionaries. We always share quick lessons from the Bible or the Book of Mormon with them, but I think we need to start focusing on the kids more. We also learned that a part member family we are teaching will hopefully be baptized soon. They are not married, but are moving that up to next month. Their original plan was to get married in October, but now they are going to have a small marriage in April and have a ceremony in October with their family. The mom is the nonmember and she wants this so that her husband can baptize her which will be really good. The kids also want to be baptized, but I guess they want to wait until May or June when their mom has a baby because lots of their family will be there. I hope we can have them be baptized all together, and hope that I stay here next transfer. They are an awesome family and already act like members, they just need to be baptized. They only went to sacrament yesterday because the mom was too uncomfortable with the baby, but they went home and read scriptures together as a family. They are so awesome and am glad I have been able to teach them. The family we had a baptismal date with I still have not seen, but I did meet the daughter briefly at the door. We keep trying, so hopefully we will be able to catch up with them soon. It has been a good week, and look forward to this coming week and seeing how I can improve and help others change.

Another Week (March 4, 2013)

This week was Stake Conference, and the current Stake President is
moving to Saudi Arabia, so they had to choose an new one. The new one
is the Bishop of the Mindarie ward so it will be interesting to see
who the new bishop is going to be. I also had a flat tire for the
first time today, exciting. Not really because I had to walk for about
2 hours back to the flat after I was tired from P-day. This week was
good, still trying to catch up with some of our investigators. We had
a baptismal date, but we dropped it this week since I have not met her
yet. She has just been really busy and her kids sick. Hopefully we
will be able to see her this week. Besides that the area is pretty
much the same as last week.

This week I was thinking and there is someone I admire so much in the
ward. It is a 16 year old who lived in Heathridge but moved up
Mindarie ward the week before I did. He has been at church every week
but is not a member. He wants to be baptized, but is waiting until he
is 18 because is step dad is against it, and I don't think his parents
know he comes to church. It is amazing to see the effort he puts into
coming to church. Down in Heathridge he was a better missionary then
most members, and he is not even a member himself. He bore his
testimony one Fast Sunday, and it is amazing to see how the Gospel has
changed him, and he realizes that and wants to keep moving forward. It
has been so great to be able to get to know him, and it has really
made me realize how I cannot take the Gospel for granted in my life,
when there are those who need it and want it.




I am glad everything is all good back home. the picture is of my
district plus another companionship from the zone. Thursday we did a
blitz of all of the areas, and this is during our lunch break. My
companion is the one you can barely see, the one in front of him is my
last companion, and the one behind him is my companion two times ago,
the one you saw at Christmas