I am 19! What the heck? That is weird. My birthday was pretty good! We did lots of good stuff. The sisters in the ward found out that it was my birthday in the morning at our MCM (Missionary Coordination Meeting), and they baked a cake for me, and gave it to me at PMG (Preach My Gospel) studies! How kind! And they gave me some Aussie lollies too, accompanied with two random bunny things.... That was random, but appreciated! I heard from the Assistants that my b-day package part 2 is at the mission office. We are going to the office today for a Mission Leadership Council. So I will be able to get it then. Before our MCM we got to play some basketball for morning exercises. It was great! Good times.
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| Birthday gifts from the sisters of the zone! |
You asked me how we decide what we train on for Sister Preach My Gospel (PMG) studies. Well, basically what happens is we will study something with the sisters that we feel they need a reminder of, or something that we feel that applies directly to the sisters. Normally, we will call the Sister Training Leaders in charge of our zone, which just happens to be two sisters in our ward (S. Paki, and S. Harris), and ask them what the sisters may be struggling with, or what they feel would be a beneficial study topic. We got feedback that we should study Christlike attributes, and the Power and Authority of our calling. So that is what we went with. We had great studies.
Update on President Lew
Let's see... What else happened this week.... Oh yeah! An update on President Lew; he is doing better, he is allowed to see visitors now. We had a Stake MCM yesterday with us and the zone leaders of Ingleburn zone (Liverpool and Ingleburn are the two zones in our stake) the bishops, ward mission leaders, stake presidency members, high councilors over missionaries, and President Hopkins, who is one of President Lew's counselors, and he updated us on his health. It will be a slow recovery but he is recovering. He is able to eat, to speak much better, and to concentrate. Which is great! They are still sorting out his other health issues, but he is doing well.
He told us the date that he wants to get baptized on!
We were able to meet with B_ this week. It was fantastic. He is so prepared! We actually had a cool experience getting fellowship for B_. We called up President S_ (I don't remember if I have mentioned him), President Lew's other counselor who happens to be in our ward, and a solid fellowshipper, and he said he was going to try to come. It turned out that he couldn't make it. So, we called up a Brother S_, and he was able to come. And he turned out to be the right fellowship for B_! They hit it off quite well, got along great. And Bro. S_ was able to share his conversion experience with B_, which touched B_ deeply. Once again, we didn't end up teaching what we thought we were going to teach. We just followed the Spirit, and taught according to needs. It was incredible.
B_ came to church Sunday, and he told us the date that he wants to get baptized on! June 14th! Woohoo! How exciting! He wants to make sure he has time to get as much of his family as possible to come to his baptism to see how special it is for him. He is so excited! He is truly prepared! We have two appointments with him this week to help him to continue to progress towards baptism.
They read from the Book of Mormon in Italian with their kids
We also met with M_ this last week. That was awesome! He is a studly cook. We also got to try some of his new desserts for his factory. They were delicious! We had a great lesson with him too. We tried to be non-confrontational with him by focusing on the entire family. We watched Elder Bednar's Mormon Message Patterns of Light, a 3 part series that tells us how to recognize and receive revelation from the Holy Ghost. M_ participated a great deal! It was hectic! He has a testimony. They read from the Book of Mormon in Italian with their kids every evening. He contributes heaps to our lessons. It is just going to be up to him to make the decision to act on it.
How we split the ward with 8 other missionaries
You also asked how we split the ward with 8 other missionaries. We all have chunks of the ward carved out and assigned to each companionship. That being said, our area before was twice as big, but we had to give half of it to Elder Trotter and Elder Perkins, who are walking. and because of that, we have too small of an area for car-drivers. So we pretty much see all of the members (active and less-active) who are looking to advance in the priesthood, or need an advancement in the priesthood, but don't necessarily want it, if that makes any sense. We also take on special assignments from different missionaries, if they feel that we can do a better job teaching people in their area (due to gender, or whatever it may be), and also we receive assignments from our ward's bishop.
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| There is our district! from left to right on top of that is S. Fuatimau, S. Manutulila, S. Bretzing, S. Mano'o. Elders Trotter, Perkins, Winkelman, Bourne, Larsen. |
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| The district again. Elder Naidu on the ground is our district leader. |
Mothers day is coming up! So we have been told that we will be skyping from member's homes, either on mothers day here in aussie world, or the day after, which will be mothers day for many of the families of missionaries here, whatever is more convenient. So just let me know when you would like us to call!
I mentioned that we have Mission Leadership Council today. Basically, what that is is all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in the mission go to the mission office to report on how our individual zones are doing, and to recieve some training from the assistants and President. In this case, we will be recieving training from Presidents Hopkins and Simpson instead of President Lew. Sister Lew will also most likely train us too. I don't really know what to expect. It should be good though!
JJ! What is my favorite thing to do on my mission? Teach people! It is the best! What am I doing right now? Right now, I am emailing you guys!
Ezra! Thanks for praying for President "Rew" (how Jarrad's little brother pronounces Lew) :). That is very kind and thoughtful of you! How was my day? It has been great so far! Thanks!
Okay! That is pretty much my week at a glance. The main highlights and whatnot. Yous have a great week!
Alofa atu!
Elder Larsen
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