If you don't believe in Jesus you are not Muslim

Hey guys!

Hope you are having a great week! Sounds like you are all having heaps of fun in the USA. Thanksgiving is coming up! How exciting! That is one holiday that I will miss for sure!

We teach people, not lessons

I am pretty sure that I told you about Y*n, the man from Papua New Guinea. Well, he is doing really well! We had an appointment with him yesterday. And that was really good! Our plan was to go in and teach the Plan of Salvation, using the Book of Mormon. But that is not what ended up happening. It is incredible how the Spirit can direct you. We are counselled in Preach My Gospel to teach people, not lessons. And that is what we did. Y*n has such strong faith in Jesus Christ. We taught a lot about covenants, and about how they help us to draw nearer to Christ. That is all that he wants to do. Draw near unto Him. We read about the Savior instituting the Sacrament among the Nephites in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 18), and verse 11 really stuck out to him, as it speaks about remembrance. He is awesome!

Something that he didn't understand fully was the necessity of proper priesthood authority from God to administer these sacred ordinances and covenants. So, we testified and taught what he needs to know about authority. He is committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to know whether Joseph Smith is a prophet. And he has committed to be baptised when he knows that it is true. How exciting!

Quite a few less-active members came to Church yesterday. M*sui, the man we have been working with every day almost. B*n and J*n, B*n is a 9-year-old recent convert who was confirmed my first week here. The M*eva family (I will share an experience later). It was great! Zh*ng was supposed to come, but apparently when our Elders Quorum Pres. went to pick him up, he had visitors. Y*n should be coming next week hopefully.

Sunset!

Wherever the Lord needs me, I will go

You asked if I will go another shift in Bankstown. Well, that is a great question.... We talked to President Back last night about the Mission and possibilities for the upcoming transfers. There are a few problems that the mission is facing. Firstly, the Mission will be losing 4 companionships in number next week (16 missionaries go home, 8 come in). Some wards have too many missionaries (ours has the most in the mission). So there will definitely be big change. In our zone, 4 missionaries go home. Crazy!

Other things that are going on: there is need for good leaders to go and fix problems. President has already been releasing leaders so that they can go and help out on a different level, oftentimes more important. And even more problems, there are some Tongan/Samoan wards that really need missionaries too. So, basically, there is a good possibility for change next transfer. I don't know what will happen. It will be interesting. I don't know whether I will be a zone leader any more, I could get released. I am ready for whatever the Lord has in store for me. If I stay, great. There is great work that will continue to progress here. If I go, great. There is work elsewhere. Wherever the Lord needs me, I will go.

Something exciting that happened this week: We traded in our Corolla for a brand new Holden Cruise (Holden is an Aussie car brand with nice-as cars). So we are riding in style :D. Good stuff!

Massive-as spider we saw this week!

5 things I am thankful for

Okay, in the Spirit of Thanksgiving, here are 5 things that I am thankful for:

1. My Savior Jesus Christ, and His Atonement
2. My family
3. The Book of Mormon and modern prophets, through whom the Gospel has been restored
4. Air conditioner
5. Good health

These are the things that have been the greatest help to me over the past year and a bit. I have come to appreciate more and more the blessings that Heavenly Father has given me.

If you don't believe in Jesus you are not Muslim

You asked a great question about the reactions of the people that we teach when they hear about Christ. Here are the reactions (generalized) that we get. Muslims always, always are sure to tell us that they believe in Jesus. They say that if you don't believe in Jesus you are not Muslim. But they always say that it doesn't make sense that a God could die (We usually testify of the eternal principles of Justice and Mercy). Buddhists often are interested in why we believe in Christ but uninterested in learning themselves.

Least favorite experience of the week

Least favorite experience over this past week? Probably not getting any reply to texts/calls from some of our new investigators. Favorite experience? Probably teaching Y*n. We have been teaching Zh*ng, and a few other investigators as well. But Y*n shows the most progress.

Well... That is pretty much my week! Hope you all have a safe and fun Thanksgiving! Eat heaps of food for me!

042,
Elder Larsen

PS - Oh yeah! We had zone training this past week too! That was good! Elder B and I trained on the "10-10-10" Which is all about faith, diligence, and using time wisely. We also invited the Sister Training Leaders to train. They trained on finding. It was a powerful meeting. Our missionaries are all more motivated to go out and preach the gospel! We are all on a spiritual high! Hope to share more experiences we have over the next week!