Whaaaat is up, ye fair elders and maidens of Israel!?
This week has been crazy awesome! Like every week. We have had so many teaching opportunities! Our teaching pool has expanded greater than I ever thought that it would! We have surprise opportunities everyday to share the message of the Restoration of Christ's Church. It is gooooooooood to be a missionary! I am constantly tired, but that is a good thing! It means I am not slacking off. :D
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| I want to smuggle a sign like that out of the country when my time is up... |
The heavens have opened up!
The coooooolest thing that happened this week happened yesterday. When we left our flat, we were walking to an appointment, and we decided to cross the road at a place we don't normally cross in order to walk a more shaded route. We walked on the outside of this Caravan park, along a fence. Out of nowhere, a man came up to the fence and asked us "Hey, are you Jehovah's Witnesses?" We replied that we were Mormons. He said "Oh. Do you have a Bible?" We said yes, and then asked him why.
He told us that he had been going through some rough times, and he thought that if he had a bible that he would have extra strength to overcome these trials. We asked him if we could go inside the park and talk to him. We did. We talked to him a bit more, and he told us more about his problems. I won't go too much in detail, but basically his immediate problem was that he had just moved down with his partner to Queanbeyan from Harvey Bay in Queensland, hoping to rent a room.
That morning, he went with his stuff to move in, but the lady apparently yelled and swore at them, told them she was raising the rent, and that if they couldn't afford it to get off her land. They couldn't afford that price, so they left and came back, and were setting up a tent again, just as we walked by. He then expressed that he needed some direction and purpose in life, and that he didn't know where to turn. So we gave him a Book of Mormon, read the third paragraph of the Introduction, talked to him about how the Book of Mormon brings comfort, peace, and direction. He accepted it graciously. We then asked them what they ate. They kind of brushed off the question. We invited them to come to a members house that night for a feed. They said that they would call us and tell us if they would be able to make it.
So we left, and went about our day. No call came, and they didn't pick up, so we went to our appointment for dinner. The members that we had dinner with made lots of extra food, and they gave us some to take to this family. So, right before we went to our flat, we stopped by this Caravan park, and gave them the food. They were ecstatic! So thankful for the food. He said "the heavens have opened up!" We felt really good about that.
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| Text message received. |
Monday evening through Tuesday, Elder Searle and I went on a trade-off, meaning that we were together instead of with our normal companions. It was great! It was cool to see how far that we had both come as missionaries, since we came in at the same time and have only been in the field for 3 months. Although saying 3 months sounds like a long time.... We had a very productive trade-off. We were able to see many people, and set up good appointments.
We met this atheist dude on the street who stopped, read our name-tags, and said "Oh, sorry, I thought you were Mormons." We told him we are, and then he said "Oh! Okay, I wish I had 3 hours and a bottle of wine for this..." and then he went off and tried to convince us that religion is bad, that the idea of a God is narcissistic, and he begged us to look outside of our faith. He also said that we were wasting our time, and that for every person we convert, he was going to make another lose their faith. We kindly smiled at him, and went on our way. Remember, everyone, "dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." That guy was definitely a trial of our faith. But my faith remains unshaken. Tell me, after I have had so many spiritual experiences and have witnessed the hand of God in my life and the lives of others, how could I be shaken?
"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12No tempests nor whirlwinds in the form of persons trying to get us to deny our faith, or other forms, can shake us if we build our foundations on the Savior, His teachings, and the words of His prophets.
Another baptism scheduled
Wednesday, we had a couple really good lessons with Jo___ and Ja____. We committed Ja____ to be baptized!!! Yay! And with Jo___, he loves everything that we teach! We are going to get him into a Addiction Recovery Program pretty soon to help him make changes in his life.
Another random experience that Elder Cocker and I had was when we were walking around Southern Queanbeyan, when this dude came up and started interrogating us about the influence of Christianity on Aboriginal people. We told him that we didn't know about it. So, he clapped his hands together, cocked his head to the side, said "Learn that." and walked away. What??
I also went on a trade-off with Elder Pedersen this past week. It was really good too! We met lots of new people, and I learned a lot from his example.
Last P-day, we went to the National Museum as a district to see all of the things that we missed (and the sisters had not been there yet). It was really cool! We all knew it was going to be the last P-day that we would be together as a district. Someone or some people were going. So we had a blast with the time that we had!
Friday, we had our district meeting on top of a hill at the National Arboretum in Canberra. That was awesome! It is so pretty! We knew it was likely to be our last gathering as a district before someone/s left. So we wanted to make it a memorable one, as we have grown very close. It was a good meeting, the training was great, and the place was gorgeous! Good times!
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| If you can't tell, we are sitting on like the digger part of a giant, ancient tractor. |
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| I think that is a giant model of Australia. |
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| The Cabin! |
Okay, now for transfers.............. Saturday, we got our transfer calls........ Elder Pedersen got transferred, and he is now in a Spanish ward in Sydney. Elder Searle is staying; he is currently up in Sydney, getting his new comp who is apparently in the hospital for reasons unknown to me. Sister Parr and Sister Bushnell are both staying..... Elder Cocker likewise is staying......
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| And there is Elder Cocker the night before transfers:) |
So, Sunday was Pedersen's last day here. The ward was sad to see him go. But on a brighter note, the Tongan boys came to church with J____!!! That was awesome! They really liked it a lot! Also, we picked up a new investigator at church, who I had the opportunity to teach while on trade-offs with one of the Tongan boys, because E. Cocker had to go to a different class for some reason. It was a great experience for this boy. Now, this new investigator that we have came to church with one of the members of the bishopric, who is awweeeesome about missionary work. He (our investigator) was very interested. We talked about the Book of Mormon, and Joseph Smith. So basically the Restoration. And he soaked it up! He wants to come to church next week, and he will read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. And I think we are going to meet with him this week! So many blessings!
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| Creepy men in the back... Or are they in the front? |
That is pretty much my week!
Now for some question-answering
The K_____ family are currently on vacation. But the date still stands! February 15th. They are doing well, though we haven't been able to meet with them.
I did get the package from the Chico 2nd Ward. It was awesome! I love the book with all of the pictures and testimonies. That was really cool. Thank you!
JJ, I am sending the package this week. I finally have everything together, so I can do so:)
I like that motto. "We do hard things." I am definitely doing some hard things, but am enjoying every minute! Don't get discouraged by hard things, guys!
Sounds like all of you are well! That is good. Thank you for your letter! It is really good to hear from you all.
I love you guys! Have a fantastic week!
Ofa'lahi'atu!
Elder Larsen
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| It is a spider-fly crossbreed, or something...... We saw it as we walked through a tunnel on the way to an appointment. |
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| The Telstra Tower seen from the National Arboratum (District Meeting). |
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| The location of the last district meeting of the transfer. |
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| Palm fronds are growing out of my head!! |
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