Week 21: More Investigators

The tripanionship is no more. Elder Nelson got transferred to the city mid-transfer because Elder Chic finished his mission. We miss him very much.

So now it is just Elder Lan and I. We get along well.

This week we found more new people than the rest of this transfer all combined. One of our investigators is named Bella. I found her in a train station. We had a lesson with her and she brought 2 friends. All of them had Christian background, which is super rare for Chinese people. All of them were engaged in the lesson and seem interested. We will meet with them again this week.

Students from China that come here for University sometimes stay in a home-stay or home-share. We found this home-stay that had 2 less active members. We had a lesson with both of them, and had a lesson with one of their parents too. 

We are also teaching these other 2 investigators who share an apartment. They are from Malaysia. They set up a time with us because they wanted to practice English. We practiced English with them, had a lesson and set up a return appointment with them. 

So things aren't as slow as they were before. We had Zone Conference, which means that we got to see the mission president, hear a bunch of trainings, and see some of the city Elders. We learned a lot from the trainings and talks.

We also did exchanges this week and I got to spend a day with the missionary that trained me, Elder Wang. It felt just like old times when I first got here. 

Today is zone p-day. I think we are going to the chapel, playing board games, and having a potluck. We will go there in a couple hours. 

We got a referral from a member. All she gave us was an address. The person was not keen, but we tracted (knocked the doors on) her street, and the adjacent street. We were about to go home, and I said the next house will be our last house. We knocked the door, and our ward mission leader opened the door. We did not know it was his house. His kids came to the door too. That was super weird, but he was happy to see us and told us some houses we could try next time.

I love you family. Until next week.

Week 20: A Good Week

How time flies. It seems like I opened my mission call yesterday, and in 2 months it will be my 19th birthday, which will be the one year anniversary of opening my mission call.

Anyway, we had a good week. We finally found a new investigator. His name is Bruce and he is a high school student. It's a little odd teaching someone so young, but I know a couple of people who were taught by missionaries when they were in high school and they are very solid members right now. 

Our zone leader in the city Elder Chick is going home in a day or two, so there is a high chance our tripanionship will be broken up.

We had splits with the zone leaders this week and they taught us so much. From the beginning of our transfer, we have done almost all of our finding at Box Hill mall. He taught us the value of members and the ward. We missionaries from the city are not used to having a ward and all of this. So we are going to visit and teach more people on the ward list, and ask for referrals. We have already started doing this, and have received a couple of referrals. Referrals from members are much more likely to accept our message. 

Since it seems like everyone in Box Hill Mall knows us already, we have also started to try finding in train stations, which has also been successful. 

So these new methods are effective, and it feels like we got a breath of fresh air because we can use more methods to find, and not just stay in one place the whole day. 

The weather here is starting to get pretty cold and rainy. Yesterday it was pouring. We were driving and we were lost and I couldn't see the lines on the road. I'm not used to that. We always get lost when driving the car because we need to use a map book to get everywhere. 

Week 19: Conference Week

The highlight of our week this week was Conference. We had the opportunity to watch the whole thing. Here are a couple of things that I found had a lot of meaning:

-Giving a fast offering is like succoring the Lord.

-Money is not evil, it is the love of money that is evil.

-The Holy Ghost is the source of all righteous desires.

-The praise of the world meant nothing to Jesus.

-Satan will never have a family or be a father. This is why he wants to destroy the family.

-What will I change in my life from watching this conference?

Our area is super slow right now, so we have continued to diligently try to find people to teach.

Yesterday we went to the hospital and gave a lady a blessing. They were not from our area. Some elders asked us to help them out because they were double booked. It was super cool though. In the hospital, a member was getting treated in the room next to the lady. She was a non-member, and she wanted a blessing too so Elder Nelson gave her a great blessing of comfort and healing.

A couple of days before that, we visited a family that had just moved in. They made us a great dinner and we dedicated their house for them. The dad who was less active participated with us. We shared a Mormon message on their TV about building your testimony. The Mormon message related building a testimony to mining for Gold. If you're only looking for gold nuggets, then you will miss the flakes, and the flakes are what can make you rich.

I was super happy to get the package from my family last week! The package was shaped like a huge Easter egg, and everyone was amazed that it got delivered without any problems. haha. The snacks inside were great. Thanks.

I would like to thank my Mom for the blog she puts together for me too! The link is below.

Most of the street contacting we do in this areas is at this outdoor/indoor mall called box hill. We can only contact in the outdoor part. I will try to get a picture soon.

There are a lot of Chinese people here, but it seems like most of them have met us before. We do a little bit of tracing too. We need to find more areas to find people. We are still trying to meet with that investigator Bless but his boss always calls him at the last minute to move furniture.

If you haven't had a chance to watch conference yet, I would encourage you to watch or listen to it!

Until next week!

Week 18: Easter

Happy Easter!

Wow this has been a great week. Yesterday was Easter Sunday for us in Australia. Church was great. We got to hear a new convert bear her testimony. Unfortunately, our most progressing investigator, Bless, was not able to make it to church. But later that day a family had us over with some other missionaries, and Bless was able to come with his girlfriend! After the dinner, we all went to a mission president fireside, where we learned a lot about the Savior's ministry and the story of his resurrection. I think this was great for our investigators. The fireside was at the mission office, and a lot of missionaries from the city came. It was good to see them since I haven't seen them since I was serving in the city. 

The dinner we had was at the Roti family's house. They have a ton of little kids. They are a really cool family. The main course was Lasagne, and for dessert we had this Aussie thing called Pav, or Pavlova. It is like a super sweet crunchy angel cake with fruit on top. I'm a fan. After that the zone leaders taught a lesson and showed the church's Easter video. The video was super simple and too the point, which I think was good for the kids, Bless, and everyone else. We always strive for simplicity in our teaching. 

There was a partial lunar eclipse a couple of days ago. That was cool. For a few hours, the moon went almost completely dark.

Everyone is super excited to see conference next week. Even though it has already happened in the states, we have it a week later for some reason.

We had to go to an internet cafe today since the libraries are closed. All of the computers are super nice, and there is a bunch of people playing LoL. haha.

Until next week.

Week 17: Transferred to Doncaster / Box Hill

Kangaroo Crossing

So I have been transferred to a really interesting zone called Doncaster / Box Hill. 

Besides Tasmania, I am now in the only Chinese zone outside of the city. I am also in a tripanionship now. I like this new area and my new companions a lot. One of my new companions I actually met in the MTC. His name is Elder Nelson. He is from Bountiful Utah, he is very good at piano, and he has been out for 3 months (in the field). My other comp is Elder Lan. He is also the district leader, so we will get to go on a lot of exchanges. He is from SiChuan China. He can cook really good SiChuan food. He has more experience than the both of us, and he is a very good missionary.

Missionary Cooking

Outside of the city, everything is different. We are now in a ward (not a small branch) and in a church building (not a rented office building level). It feels a lot more like home here because there are a lot of members and families. It is right next to the mission office and temple. They do a lot more lessons here and a lot less finding. We teach lessons almost everyday. I think you can see the fruits of your labor a lot more easily when you are teaching lessons than compared to finding.  The first day I got here, we went on splits with members and visited less actives. Yesterday was fast Sunday. Elder Lan and I bore our testimonies. It was a great church meeting. 4 people signed up to feed us next week, more than I have had on my whole mission so far.

This area has a few good investigators. One is named Bless. We had a good lesson with him this week. We reviewed the history of the Book of Mormon. He asks a lot of deep questions. One issue is that he works for a moving company, and they call him in when they need him, so it is hard to schedule things with him. But he is super cool. Since he moves furniture, he is a pretty big guy.

We had an interesting experience the other day. This area has a car, and apparently I am the "designated driver". We were in the car. I leaned back in my seat (while driving) and I felt a sharp pain on my back. Then a bee flew from my seat, and around the car. Then it flew out the window. So I got a bee sting in the car. I was a little scared because in Australia people say "everything is poisonous". But luckily it was just a regular bee. 

We had dinner at a Colombian family's house yesterday night. The Narvez family made us some delicious Columbia food. They also brought a friend and we watched the new LDS Easter video (which is super cool), and shared a message about the story of Jesus Christ. It was a very good lesson. And their friend will come to church on Easter Sunday!

Elder Lan, my comp from China, is a convert. When he bore his testimony, I found out that the first time he came to church was when his friend invited him to attend on Easter Sunday. I think that testimony may lead the members to invite their friends next Sunday. 

We also got to go to the baptism of a new member, sister Narval. I can't say I really know her since I just moved in here, but I always like going to baptisms. We sang a musical number for her.

My old companion Elder Bassett finished his mission. I wish him good luck.

Oh yea, and this week I officially hit my 6 month mark. 

With the Sister City Missionaries

Found in our apartment