Week 16: Another transfer, but working hard.

Later today we are in charge of Family Home evening at the church building. They do it at the church because most of the students are here alone. I am sharing about why we celebrate Easter. I am also going to share the "Because He Lives" website. This is one of the church's campaigns. So we also have matching cards that we hand out, with the hashtag #BecauseHeLives.

Well we got transfer news. I am getting transferred again, and Elder Eyring is staying. I have been transferred every 6 weeks since I have got here. It is a hassle to pack up, but it is cool to see all the areas. President said he may put us with native companions to help our Chinese. 

We worked very hard this week, and we got the highest numbers we have gotten this whole transfers. We had 7 lessons, and got a bunch of new contacts. There are 2 places that we street contact at. One is a university called La Trob, and the other is Preston market. Both of these places die down around 6:30, so after that we have been visiting less actives. Most of the less actives shared a house with other students, and then moved. So most of the less actives moved somewhere or went back to China, but we still got to talk to a lot of Chinese households. That was cool. 

So we got to teach a lot of lessons this week, but not everyone is interested at first. We taught this guy at McDonalds right next to his bus stop. The busses come about every 15 minutes. In the middle of the lesson, he saw his bus and ran off. That was a little odd. 

The Golden Investigator, Bonnie, is obviously not going to be baptized this transfer since it ends in a couple of days. She is still doing well. She has a very very common concern. She has to study so much that it is difficult for her to travel to the city every Sunday for 3 hours of church. We will keep teaching and praying for her. 

Well we got a lot to do this p-day. Clean the car, pack, teach Bonnie. 

See ya later.

Week 15: Another Great Week

Another great week. Transfers are coming up. Elder Eyring and I work well together so I would not mind staying. The only bad thing about our area is that our "flat" or apartment is a little suspect. We spent all morning today cleaning it. I fixed a leak in it yesterday.

The church held a BBQ since almost all of the people that left to China for the summer are back now for school. It was a lot of fun. We had a potluck, and played some games. Then the missionaries and the members did a little comedy play, which illustrated how we need to get ready for church on Saturday. It was pretty funny. I had a small part in the play. Then there were some great singing performances, a slideshow, and a talk by our branch president. We invited a ton of people to this, but only a couple came at the end. It is quite far from our area.

Our progressing investigator Bonnie is doing very well. We had to move her baptismal date back because she had tons of assignments things for school. When we told her about this, at first she was like "What What, Shenme yisi?" But then she said that would be so much better for her. The issue was that on the weekend we had originally scheduled, she could not take two days off in a row, a day for the baptism and a day for confirmation at church. The students here are so busy. The other thing is that we may get transferred before she gets baptized, but it is more important that she is able to attend church and do her schoolwork on Saturday.

Oh yeah, and I taught her this week while on exchanges. She found a injured crow in the road and some stranger put it in a box for her. She wanted to find a shelter for the crow, but she said she would just come to the church because we had to start our lesson. So she rode the train and came into the church with the injured crow. We had a long conversation, and finally some other missionaries agreed to take the crow to drop the crow off at the botanical gardens. Then we were able to start the lesson. We basically had two lessons. The first half, we taught her the rest of the commandments we had not taught, and then the second half we went over the baptismal interview questions. I think she is ready.

The president came to our branch and did interviews. The interviews were super short. President Maxwell is super busy. But it is always uplifting when him and his wife came. While waiting for the interview, we played missionary jeopardy with his wife. That was fun.

The Formula one races happened this week. Though we could occasionally hear the racing and the fly-overs, we couldn't go. But today is going to be a fun Zone P-day. The activity is still to come, but they don't tell us what the activity is.

This library computer has 30 seconds left until it shuts down. Until next week.

Week 14: Subway Station Scare

Well this was a good week. We set a baptismal date with Bonnie. She will probably get baptized in a couple of weeks. She's a very good investigator. This is the first investigator that I have actually taught All the lessons too. I get transferred so much, that the other investigators I had, I never taught all the lessons too.

This week I got to do first exchanges. The first one was with the Zone Leader Elder Shum. We street contacted in the city and it was super super crowded and I can't say I particularly enjoyed that. He said our goal was to get someone to come back to the church with us, and I was able to do that. We taught her the first lesson. I don't think she was super interested though. After the exchanges we do a review, and Elder Shum gave me a lot of good advice on becoming a better missionary.

I also got to do splits with my old MTC companion Elder Padilla. It was super good. He is super good at street contacting. He got about half a page of phone numbers.

Something interesting happened a couple of days ago in the subway station. A lady decided to jump off the platform onto the tracks when a train was due to come in a couple of minutes. There were no workers around. Someone pressed the emergency button. We went to the front of the station to wave at the train. I felt wind coming out of the tunnel at the speed it usually comes out, so I was a little scared. I also remembered that awhile back the trains were delayed because someone got hit. Anyway, the train came super slowly, and stopped in the tunnel. Then the lady started walking into the other end of the tunnel. The train honked its horn super loud, and there were other trains backed up in the tunnel that were honking too. Eventually a worker got the lady out.

Fun fact: the subways here are not computer operated. The conductor does basically everything. Sometimes they miss the platform, and have to roll up while the doors are open. On the older trains, you can also open the doors when the train is moving if you push hard, so we have seen some people do stupid things while street contacting in the train station.

My companion and I like to play street basketball on P-days in the city. At first I was hesitant, but it's a ton of fun. We play with random people. A lot of them are students. The courts are super nice too and they're right in the city, on the campus of this university. Here is a picture

This week we are having a BBQ for the students who left for China and are coming back for school. That is going to be a pretty big event, and we are inviting a lot of our investigators.

Week 13: Elder Bednar Speaks to the Missionaries

So much happened this week. I will try my best to cover the high points.

We still have that one solid investigator named Bonnie. She came to church this Sunday, and told us she had been keeping the word of wisdom! A couple of less actives also came. The church meeting was probably one of the most uplifting ones I have been to here in Australia, and it was exactly what our investigator and less actives needed. The first hour was a solid fast and testimony meeting. Then we had a really good lesson second hour on why the atonement of Jesus Christ was necessary, and essential. Many people don't understand this concept, and it was taught very simply. Then third hour was combined, and we had a lesson, or more of a discussion, on why we live the gospel, and get baptized and come to church. Many members testified how the gospel, and being baptized had changed their lives, and that really helped Bonnie and our less actives. He also asked people what their lives would be like without the gospel. This made me think a lot, and remember how blessed I am. The gospel has really blessed every aspect of my life, from my conduct, to my education, to my relationships with others.

ELDER BEDNAR talked to all of the missionaries in Melbourne! Actually it wasn't as much of a talk as it was a discussion. Similar to when I saw him in the MTC, he spoke about how during the creation, God created things to act and things to be acted upon. He was going to let us act, and participate in the discussion. He asked us missionaries some questions, and let us ask him some questions. I had a few questions, but other people happened to ask them,or I got my answer through other things he said. The same thing happened when he did a Q and A session at the MTC. There were also 4 people from the quorum of the 70 in the meeting, and Elder Bednar had them and their wives answer some of the questions. Here are some of my notes from that meeting;

-Whom the Lord calls he qualifies
-The atonement made us agents, to act
-Acting as an agent, we can chose to exercise our faith, and receive witness.
-Q: Am I feeling the Holy Ghost or my own feelings? A: Don't worry about it. If you are living the gospel, both should influence you to do good.
-Be persistent, but don't press a testimony. This applies to your own and other peoples' testimony.
-You don't need an apostle to receive answers to your questions. You can receive your own answers from God through his messenger the Holy Ghost.
-If you share a testimony building experience during church, share a recent one.
-Treat investigators as agents. Ask them inspired questions.
-How do we prevent spiritual roller coasters on our missions? That is part of life. (I personally found that reviewing my spiritual notes and journal helps me when I am down)

I have some more notes, but I do not have time to type them all. I wish I would have taken more notes. Elder Bednar had another similar meeting for the church leaders in Melbourne, and a leader took notes on that and let me have a copy, so I also got to see the questions asked and answers given for the other session. The way Elder Bednar conducted the meeting (Q and A) was similar, but the content was quite different. The leaders asked questions about things like balancing their family and church responsibilities, and about helping the youth.

Just a super good week.
I miss you all.

Week 12: Happy Chinese New Year!

Wow so much to say and so little time. I will have to keep it short and sweet this week.

xin nian kuai le (Happy New Year)

We had an activity at the branch to celebrate the Lunar New Year. It's a big holiday in China. We had a big party at the branch with food and a dragon costume. Unfortunately none of our investigators were able to make it.

Our area is pretty slow right now. We are in a suburb, and though we like to talk to everyone, it's hard to find Chinese people. All of the college students (many of which are from China) seem to be busy right now. I do like this area though. It is a little out of the city, so there is more nature. I saw a "kangaroo crossing" road sign a couple of days ago. I will have to get my picture by that before I leave. Apparently people run into kangaroos here and it's pretty dangerous.

I went door knocking for the first time. That was interesting. I don't like it as much as street contacting. Everyone here has these "do not knock" signs on their door, and Aussies will vocally let you know that they don't want to be bothered. Though a couple of people did let us into their home, and we had a couple of good lessons.

We have this one investigator named Bonnie. She is from China, and she came here to study. She likes to talk on the phone. A couple of days ago she called us because she had a good experience with prayer. She lost her wallet, which had cash and other important documents in it. She said a prayer, and a college teacher ended up finding it in one of her classes and returning it.
My companion and I work together very well.

The weather in Melbourne is crazy. This morning the sun was blazing, and now it is pouring rain.