Up in a tree, 6 meters up
Okay, so the K______ family I've been telling you about. We went over to their house this past Saturday to do service for them. We were going to use a chainsaw to cut branches, but chainsaws don't seem to like us very much. So instead, we had to use machetes. Hence, Elder Cocker ended up in a tree, 6 meters up, swinging a machete..... Cool beans!
After the service was done, they fed us dinner. Which was fan-flippin'-tastic! They fed us lamb curry without the chilies, which was delicious, along with fried rice, cassava, and naan bread. It was sooooooo good!!!!
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| Elder Cocker... high up in the trees with our Ward Mission Leader waiting to catch him! Elder Cocker had to use the fence behind the tree, and then Elder Larsen's shoulders to get up there. |
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| Elder Cocker chopping down branches. Yay for service! |
The best part of the best part was when we talked about baptism. The father asked why he needed to be baptized again. Our ward mission leader, is the man! He drew on the analogy that the father gave us to explain the importance of Authority, and of the Baptism by Fire (the Holy Ghost). The family got sooo excited when they understood that! The father said that he was going to go tell all of his friends that they have had only half of a baptism and that they need to get baptized the "Mormon way" for it to be God's way! And then we set a solid baptismal date! February 15th!!!!!!!! Woohoo! soo coooool! That whole experience was one of the best I have had on my mission thus far. They have been prepared sooo much!!!!
They couldn't make it to church yesterday, but that doesn't faze me. They are progressing so much!
A minister for another church came to ours!
Church yesterday was fantabulously awesome-ish! The [Indian] family was not able to make it, but we have had incredibly awesome experiences this week with them. Everyone else came to church yesterday though. It was awwwweeeesommmee! Many of the less-active members that we have been working with came.
One of our Tongan investigators came to church (I don't think I have ever told you guys about him). He is a minister for another church. And he came to ours! Woohoo! During the third hour, we taught him a lesson. Which went very well, apparently.... it was all in Tongan. But I did notice that there were a lot of head nods and smiles. Elder Cocker tells me that he is very accepting, and that he WILL be baptized. He (our investigator) has had good experiences with the Spirit, and is gaining a testimony of the truthfulness of the message we share, and expresses that (in Tongan).
A motherly influence...
Church was great! Oh, the Tongan boys came too! Since we now have church at 1 pm, we went over to their house around 11:30 am and woke them up, ironed their shirts, and basically mothered them to get them to church. And we are so glad that we did. They had interviews with the bishop for priesthood advancement and apparently for a Patriarchal blessing for one of them.. They are super excited about the gospel now and are progressing heaps!
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| The missionaries last night after an amazing lesson! |
How else have I gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon? By reading it. By pondering the message it contains. And by "ask[ing] God, the Eternal Father, if these things are...true" through prayer. Every time, without fail, the Spirit confirms the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon to me. Every time! Cada vez! There is power in the promise given in Moroni Chapter 10 verses 3-5:
"3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."Because of the Book of Mormon, I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is Christ's church once again restored to the earth. And you can all come to know the same thing, by gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. If the Book of Mormon is false, then Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet. Then everything the church stands for is a lie. But likewise, if the Book of Mormon is in fact the word of God, which I testify that it is, then Joseph Smith was and is a prophet. Then he truly saw God the Father and Jesus Christ. Then we know that the Prophets, Apostles, and other leaders of the church truly have been called by God. Then we know exactly what we have to do to gain eternal life.
So much weighs on this one thing. It is crucial for us as members to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, because without that, we have nothing. We have no religion. That is the message that missionaries around the world boldly share. That the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and was translated by the power of God by Joseph Smith as an added testimony that Jesus Christ Lives! He atoned for our sins! We have a prophet who tells us exactly what Christ wants us to know! And anyone can know that just by simply reading the book, and praying sincerely to know if it is true! I encourage anyone who does not know for themselves that the Book of Mormon is true to try the promise given in that scripture. I know that you will receive an answer to your prayer if you are sincere, and ask in faith. Do it! I dare you!
Roos are old news!
Our weekly planning session this week was fun! We drove north of Queanbeyan, out into the bush, and found a spot to plan! I took some pictures. Oh, and we saw a black kangaroo! That was random! There are sooooo many kangaroos here in Canberra. The weird thing is, apparently some missionaries from my intake still haven't seen a kangaroo... Now roos are old news!
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| Us four, exploring the Bush... |
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| BUSH! |
We went and visited the Bordertown family also this week and took our ward mission leader and his wife, who is in the Young Womens program. They are awesome!! We had a great lesson with them, and look forward to meeting with them further. And I finally found out their last name! I will still call them the Bordertown family. No way that is going!
Last week we met this dude in the park who is a ventriloquist. He had his leprechaun puppet with him, and his puppet talked to us the whole time. It was cool! Then we sang him a hymn (which we have been doing in pretty much every lesson setting) and he said that we should sing to him more if we find him in the park again. That was really random, but cool!
Prayer chains
Okay, now for debate-ably the coolest thing that happened this week. So our wonderfully inspired zone leaders gave us an idea to help us out during our day to day proselyting. They encouraged us to do prayer chains within the zone, meaning calling other missionaries and asking them to pray for us as we are about to go into lessons. They promised us that as we do this, that we will witness more miracles, especially as we ourselves offer mighty prayers in faith. So, Friday evening we decided to put this to the test....
So what happened is we were going to try and see an investigator, who we haven't seen in aaaaaaaaaggggeeeeeessss (ages). So, we called the zone leaders, and asked them to pray for us to have a miraculous experience. They agreed, and we went and knocked on [our investigator's] door. He was clearly home, made obvious by the open window, the loud television, and the noise of dishes clanking. But he didn't come to the door. We were there for literally 3 minutes, knocked four times, but he didn't answer. That confused us. Didn't we say a prayer, having faith that the Lord would answer it? Didn't we ask for extra prayers from the zone leaders?
As we were walking away and thinking things like that, a thought popped into my head; maybe we should go talk to the people who live in the government housing not far away, the same one where we met the crazy tie lady. I told Elder Cocker, and he agreed. So we went over there, and talked to the people that we talked to before, including Crazy Tie Lady. That was good, but nothing really came of it. We were walking away, when one of the ladies stopped us and said "Oh, I forgot, my brother lives over there. He is trying to change and become sober, and he wants to go to church. Wait here, I'll go get him!"
We waited, and she and her brother came back. We talked to them about the Atonement and the Book of Mormon, and set up a return appointment for the next day. Man, she is awesome! Faithful prayer is awesome too! Gosh, our leaders are awesome! We live on a world of awesomeness!
Anyways because we prayed and followed the counsel of our leaders, we met john and are now teaching him. We have invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. God is good, my friends. But honestly, it was a huge testimony to me that God watches over his children, and answers prayers. It was so cool!
Answers to questions
How did I celebrate the New Year? By going back to our flat at 5 pm and then going to bed at 10:30 pm! woohooo! It was nice to have a bit of time to relax, but it would have been nice to stay up and watch fireworks or something...
What are my goals for this year? I want to become more Christlike, and to always remember who I represent as a missionary. I have made some plans for how I will accomplish this, but that is the just of my goals.
Will the dynamic duo stay together? Unfortunately, I don't think so. I really want to stay here with Elder Cocker. In the past week, so much has happened, and things are just starting to pick up. I want to stay here and be able to help harvest the seeds that we have sown. But everyone seems to think that I will be training next transfer... That is an intimidating thought!
Moriah (Jarrad's cousin) is engaged????????? What?! That's crazy!! Hopefully he is a good guy! Looks nice enough. Do Aunt Kim and Uncle Ken approve?
Why did I get a new watch? My nice watch stopped working, so it needs to be fixed. In the meantime, I bought a cheap 10 dollar watch to tide me over.
It sounds like things are going well at home. I love your letters, by the way! It is good to hear about what is going on back home.
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| Selfie (pukana)!! |
Wheeeelllp, that is pretty much it! I hope you guys had a good week and have a good week. Transfer calls come this Saturday, and I am nervous for that. But the work is hastening! The Lord is preparing the hearts of His children!
I love you guys! talk to ya next week! Be good!
Ofa 'atu!
Elder Larsen
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| Da bush and river north of Queanbeyan. |
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