G'day Family!
How are you all? It
sounds like things are going well and time is flying by! How is school already
over? That is insane! Your road trip should be fun! What car are you taking?
The new Burb? or did dad get his wish to take a few Audi’s or Aston Martins ;)
This is a very wealthy area and we see many Range Rovers, Audi’s and Jags every
day. We saw a pretty amazing Lambo the other day and it makes me think of home
haha I cannot believe Olivia is in Jr. High! Thankfully I will be home before
she gets to High School So I can control all those Rowdy boys!!
The more and more time
I spend here and with the ward members the more I love them. I can't tell you
how much I love this ward. I didn't think I could love an area as much as Taree
but it happened. Bishop Leota is the Best. I love him. Missionary work is
really moving forward. Fast and Testimony Meeting was yesterday and we had many
members get up and share incredible stories about how they have had
opportunities to share the gospel. The Lord really is preparing a way to for us
to share the gospel in our day to day lives. One thing I wanted to commit each
of you to do especially on the Road trip is to give away 1 Book of Mormon each.
Now that is easy as! In 3 weeks, 1 Book of Mormon. K? I will follow up and
can't wait for miracles as you pray and look for opportunities to share the
gospel. Wait till you get home in a few weeks for the real task I am planning
for the fam :):)
I also wanted to
invite you for FHE to watch, Because of Him on mormon.org. It is the
most amazing video. We shared it for a missionary meeting with the ward and
taught a lesson. It was so powerful. Watch that and then think about what you
can do in your lives to come closer to the savior and to be more Christ like.
It is such a powerful video. I love it.
But to this week! Pale
and Karen are doing well! It was what they call State of Origin. Rugby game
when NSW plays Queensland. It is like the Super bowl but in Rugby. (NSW won) SO
we had a lesson planned the night of with Pale and Karen and they called us and
said they forgot about it. Then unfortunately Pale got hurt at work and so we
weren't able to meet with them this week. But we have such strong faith that
the Lord is preparing them to be baptized and to accept the gospel. We are
excited to see this wonderful family enter into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But
this week has been so busy and gone so incredibly fast! We had trade-offs with
the Kellyville 2 Elders on Thursday. That went really well and we had many
miracles... Well after a long day we received a phone call from the Assistants
who wanted to come on Trade-offs with us Friday! We of course couldn't say
no so we did that. I was able to go with Elder Richardson from Utah! He is the
best. I learned so much from him! Oh Trade-offs, are when I go with one elder
and Elder Gibb goes with that Elders comp. We had so many lessons and new and
potential Investigators. Well, that night ended and we received another phone
call! The zone leaders wanted to go on Trade-offs on Saturday!! So we did
haha 3 Days in a row of Trade-offs of training and being trained. Really hard
work. It was amazing though. I was able to get to know each of the 3
missionaries heaps more and especially Elder Arona from Bountiful Ut. He is my
Zone Leader and we got along like Lloyd and Harry. We had so much fun but had
incredible miracles. We set a goal to have a miracle every hour of the day.
Even when there was 2 minutes left of the hour, a miracle would come through!
It was amazing. I will give you an idea of how statistically how we did and how
we accomplished miracles. The mission goal is to Teach 20 lessons a week. We
have been averaging 28 which is pretty good for the area. This week we were
able to teach 53 lessons. So many people were put in our path to serve or to
teach it wasn't funny.
One miracle for
instant, we were walking around this shopping center and the park. We were just
about to leave because no one was out and we hadn't had much luck the last
couple hours. We got to the car and saw a man sitting on the bench. We both
felt impressed to talk to him. We went over and started talking to him. I can't
remember what we said but he replied, I got all the time in the world, Have a
seat. Haha so we sat down and started to talk to him. He had just gotten back
from sea. He is in the navy and has been looking for a church. He ended up
going to Hill Song with a few friends... We had the most amazing lesson and
ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. Now the miracle isn't that we have a
lesson set up soon or that we got his number. He said he would call us when he
gets back from sea in 2 weeks, but the miracle was that we gave him the Book of
Mormon and he tried to deny it. He said we only need a bible and that’s it. As
we had him read the Introduction he got caught... a few minutes of silence
would pass as he read and then he would look up and try to deny it or say it
doesn't make sense to have this book. You could really see Satan trying to get
this kid to deny it and say it isn't real or anything. But each time he would
start speaking, he would all of the sudden go silent and would continue reading!
He did this 5-6 times and read for at least 5 minutes each time. He read a few
chapters in 1Nephi. The Book of Mormon is real. It is a true book and the power
it has is unreal! It was amazing to see the power be unleashed and work on
someone. It really strengthened my testimony of the Book. It was incredible.
I wish I could
describe and tell you how the week went and all of the miracles but it would
take way too long! Haha it was an amazing/challenging week! As it turned out to
be an incredible week it started with Trials and hard things. Heavenly Father
is aware of us and what we can handle. He wants us to struggle so we can lean
on him to get stronger and strengthen our testimony and faith.
To answer a few of
mum's questions... Being a District Leader is awesome. I truly have the best District
in the mission. I love them all so much! Things get easier and then harder each
week. I love the challenges and the new things I am faced with! It is such a
privilege to be a DL right now. The weather as of June 1 is winter. It was
funny because it has been very warm and nice days but right on June 1st it was
raining and cold and humid. The weather isn't bad though. I love it! Just a
long sleeve shirt or a little jumper. The coldest it has been I think is 8
degrees C that is - I don't know what is would be back home. Average it is
around 14-19C. Super nice and cool. Hasn't rained much though! Just warm days
with a nice Cool breeze. I love Australia. Food is great! The members feed us
so much! It was so different coming here from Taree. In Taree we got 1 maybe 2
feeds a week. Here we get so many more! It is awesome. The members are just
amazing. Elder Gibb is awesome. We get along so well!! I love him haha he is
incredible. Really has a desire to serve and to change. He is a very obedient
missionary so that helps with my calling and always having to help other
missionaries. Which of your meals do I miss? of course your Taco Soup
with some big Black BEANS!!!!! YUMMM!! Hahaha just kidding... sorry... :) But
really just all of your meals mum. I miss good home cooked meals haha but it's
alright. The members try. They actually built a Costco in Sydney and so the
members try and get American food and cook it for us haha they are great! The
next answer is You Mum. Of course:) I love you. Everything thing else is really
good though!
I hope you all have a
great week and enjoy the adventure you will be going on! Thanks for the vid of
Leo and Thomas. I thought about grabbing Elder Gibb and kissing him and
squeezing him till his eye balls popped out but then I thought that wouldn't be
alright...Yes I miss those little guys!! They're so cute I'm GONNA
DIE!!!! Have a great week. I love you all so much! The church is True.
The atonement is real and blesses so many lives. Let it bless yours.
Love, Alex
