Bankstown is a bit run down, ghetto and sketchy... I love it!

Wow! Y'all are awesome!  I am overwhelmed by all that has happened. Man! there is so much that I would like to say to you all!

Bankstown... is a bit run down, ghetto and sketchy...  I love it!

I am sure that you all want to know about Bankstown....... Well, I will tell you. Bankstown itself is a city in the Greater Sydney area. The area I am working in extends to the outer suburbs of Bankstown. For the most part, it is a bit run down, ghetto, and can be sketchy. Kinda like the neighborhood by the LA temple. And it is a fruitful place for missionary work. I love it!

Elder Tai and Elder Larsen

The members here are amaaaaaaaazing! They are sooo good to missionaries. Funnily enough, there was an Elder Larsen that served in this ward like 2 years ago, so I got to have fun with that in my testimony. I told the ward that I got plastic surgery, a change of hair colour, and got sent right back to the mission field to serve in their ward. I got a lot of sympathy laughter for my lame joke. The majority of the ward is islander, with a great diversity within the ward in the minorities. Our Bishop (Bishop T_) is the MAN! He is probably 30, very young and very very keen to help the missionaries and to have the missiionaries help him! And his family is so cool! He has a few kids, oldest is 9, who love the missionaries. But for islanders, that is only part of the family that you need to associate with them. We met aunties, uncles, cousins, sisters, nephews, nieces, and pretty much every other title of family member while we broke our fast at Bishop's wife's sister's house. Wow.

Elder Tai is our designated "GPS"

I have already seen miracles here! But before I tell you about those, I will tell you about my companion. Elder Tai is the man! He is from Hong Kong, like I mentioned last week. His English is great! He speaks Cantonese fluently, English very well, and a fair amount of Mandarin Chinese as well. He has been serving for just a bit longer than myself, and he has been a zone leader for 1 transfer. We have a lot of fun. It is funny to serve with him. He has a great sense of humor. He is our designated "GPS", and often refers to himself as such. Bwahahaha!

The Lord has his timing!  Goodness!

Okay, some miracles. One of my favorites happened last week, probably the second or third day I was here. We were contacting some less-active members in our ward, and we decided to knock a few doors after we made contact with one. We found a Korean kid that seemed pretty keen. That was great. Then, as we continued down the road, there was a Tongan woman walking inside her house. Elder Tai, my inspired companion, called out to her, and we started talking with her. She mentioned she was in a rush. Then a few of her younger brothers walked outside behind her, one looked about 18 years old and strangely familiar, the other two like 11 and 9. The oldest of the bro's said "Oh hey, its missionaries!" And we started talking with them.

Eventually, this young man mentioned that his girlfriend is Mormon, and simultaneously gestured back inside the house. We asked if she was there. She was, so he went and got her. And she came out with him. Guess who it was? Selena A_! From Canberra!!!!! What the heck?????? Man it was crazy! She was there visiting for that day, and we just happened to be there. Whaaaa??? And then I remembered meeting the boyfriend when he came to visit her in Canberra once. He is the man! He told us that we could come back anytime. (BTW, he is not a member... but pretty keen on learning. We will follow up this week with him). That was such a testimony builder. The Lord has his timing! Goodness!

Overwhelmed with happiness

We were also able to set a baptismal date with two investigators last night. That was awesome! They are an older couple, from mainland China. They speak English fairly well, but don't understand gospel terminology, which made Elder Tai's Mandarin come in handy. The Spirit was strong. And we extended the invitation to be baptized. They accepted. And then we invited them to prepare for August the 2nd. After we helped them understand that they don't need to know everything, they accepted whole-heartedly. Miracles! Elder Tai was so overwhelmed with happiness that he was brought to tears. Wow! It is neat that the Lord knows what we need. All of yesterday (after Mission Leadership Council, MLC) we were unable to contact pretty much anyone. Then to have that awesome lesson to finish our day was inspiring.

You asked if there was any other missionaries in my zone that I knew beforehand. Well, in the same ward again is Sister Bushnell. That's pretty funny. And one of the missionaries (Elder Bourne) was one of our District Leader's companions in Liverpool. He is the man! He's from Samoa, but he speaks English like an American! He's a stud!

What we do.

Well done my fellow missionaries!

Well done my fellow missionaries! Sounds like you are doing aweeesome missionary work back home! Awesome! I am so glad that you all are being the member missionaries that I would want in my ward while serving a mission. Keep up the good work! Mojo, good job with that Book of Mormon! Man! I sent you a separate email, but I think that the next step would be to talk with the missionaries in your (our) ward. Ask them if they can send your friend as a referral to the missionaries in Bakersfield. Or they may have other ideas. And as for the other missionary efforts, you all are amazing. Gooooood work!

Ezra, missionaries have to go far away from their families so that they can help other families to be together forever. I miss you too, buddy!

JJ, I am excited for your birthday! You better save me some cake!

Kaysie better save me some mullah from her job.... Mwahahaha.

Oh yeah, MLC yesterday! That was awesome! President and Sister Back are amazing! They are so funny, yet inspiration flows from their mouths. I received a fair bit of personal revelation concerning our zone, and I look forward to helping the missionaries to become the best they can be!

This Friday, our stake (Mortdale Stake) will be having a stake-wide mini-mission. So we are going to have a lot to do this week. We have zone training meeting this thursday instead of friday, so we have to prepare training for that. And in the program for the mini mission thing, we (zone leaders) have to give another training. So there is a lot of preparation that needs to be done. Sweeeeet.

I will probably send my camera card home today, if we have time. We will see.

I love you! Hope you's have a fantastic week! Oh yeah, some homework..... This week, collectively as a family, will you look for and recognize 17 miracles? And then share them next week? That is something that we may invite our missionaries in our zone to do....

Okay! Ofa'lahi'atu!
Elder Larsen