Week 10: Getting Transferred

I'm getting transferred! We just got transfer news, and this transfer is going to be crazy. My companion said this is the biggest transfer he's ever seen. It's odd. Some people stay in places for 5 transfers in a row, and some people get transferred very often. We have transfer meeting tomorrow at the mission office, and that is where we find out what part of Melbourne we are being transferred to, and who is our new companion. I really don't know where I'm moving to, but I will miss Footscray, and my companion Elder Bassett.

This morning I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Second Nephi Chapter 2. That chapter explains why we need an atonement, and that chapter in particular talks about agency as well. There is a large Islamic population here. The ones I have talked to while street contacting have said that they believe in Jesus, but not that he was God's son. I had a good conversation with this one Islamic man about Jesus.
He said something like "Why would God sacrifice his son for us? I have a 3 year old son right now, and I would not sacrifice him to save other bad people".
It is intersting to look at the atonement that way. The God sacrificed his first born Son in order for us to be able to be forgiven and return to His presence again some day. What a great sacrifice and huge sacrifice. The cleansing power of the atonement is such a great gift, and I am working on using it more often.

Another thing I am going to do next transfer is to set goals and make plans for as many things as possible. We already set goals for a lot of things. The key is setting goals and making plans to achieve our goals. We set daily goals, weekly, monthly, and revise the goals often. Setting goals and making plans is one thing I have really improved on during my mission.

Oh yeah, last p-day we went to the Shrine of Remebrance and the Botanical Gardens. That was super cool. The Shrine of Remembrance is a large stone building that you can go inside and on top of, and it is to remember all Australians who have served in war. The botanical gardens were good, but they didn't have a bunch of tropical fruits like the botanical gardens in Encinitas (CA).

I apologize for how this letter jumps all over the place, but someone asked me if my tech skills have come in handy during the mission. Other than changing watch batteries, I don't think so. Our mission is very very low tech. We all have very old Nokia cell phones. And if you're a district leader you get a . . . wait for it. . . Fax machine! Wow! They told us we might get iPads soon, but people aren't counting on getting them soon.

Someone asked me if they celebrate Valentine's Day here. They do, but apparently they don't celebrate Halloween.

Until next week.