Bankstown 3 Week 10

Dear Family and Friends,

What a HECTIC week :) it was really awesome and it just FLEW by! My second companion Elder Bartholomew is so awesome! He is from Springfield, Utah, and is such a crack up!! He definitely is a very unique individual, but I just love working with him. My other son Elder Lam (when we train new missionaries, we call them our sons, and they call us fathers haha) and him are very different, but we do just fine together. I think the greatest thing about Elder Bartholomew is when he introduces himself to Chinese people because they have no idea how to repeat his name! It still makes me laugh even though it has happened quite often here. We really are so blessed here though. If you can please keep Susan and Jackie in your prayers that would be great! both of them are preparing for baptism this upcoming September. I wish I had more time to explain their situations, but both of them are amazing miracles in how we found them!

I love hearing of all the wonderful miracles that are happening back at home, Heavenly Father truly is so generous to us in pouring out blessings upon our heads. We received a text from an investigator of ours named Andy last Sunday. We had met with him before church and talked a while about priorities in our lives. He was very concerned with how difficult it is for him to work full-time, study part-time, and continue to meet with us, and come to church. He wants to come he says, but he feels it is hard for him to get enough time studying. Thankfully our Branch Mission Leader is in the exact same position as him and was able to add some personal advice. We talked to him about how the Gospel and our life are not two seperate things, but that the Gospel, when applied into our lives, makes our life so much easier and is a help! We promised him that as he would continue to pray, read from the scriptures, and attend church, the Spirit would be with him to help him study well and be effective in his time. He texted us and said that after our meeting, he felt he had one of the most productive day's of study he had ever had! It was a great testimony to me of how the Lord blesses us with things that are important to us, as we show that He is important to us. Here is my letter to president:

What a great week! Elder Bartholomew is such a great missionary! I can see his potential is immense, he just will continue to need time to bring it all out. It is really great to have such a PMG missionary already on board. He is an incredible addition to our companionship. It has been really enjoyable to help him overcome his fears as well. For him, as is natural with all new missionaries, talking to complete strangers about the gospel is intimidating. But the more that he does, I see his confidence grow and his desire continues to improve by leaps and bounds to share the gospel. It has been very interesting to learn how to transition to teaching, planning, studying, and finding in a group of 3 rather than just with one companion, but once again, the addition of testimony and talent the Lord has placed in Elder Bartholomew is such a great addition to our companionship. One of the greatest miracles we saw this week was in delivering the cookies we made as a branch activity for the less active members of our branch. Last Friday night we had a branch activity at the chapel where we baked cookies and wrote notes to the less active members we would love to see come back to church. We had everything ready to go and were so excited!! Only the Branch Mission Leader showed up for the activity though. At first, i was disappointed that nobody else was willing or available to come and help us with the rescuing effort of their friends and family, but I didn't let it get my spirits down. We did everything we had planned to do and we were determined to have these cookies bring at least one less active member back. Luckily, that evening a couple members showed up for other meetings or activities and we had them write notes to the members that they knew. As we delivered the cookies in behalf of the members who didn't have cars to deliver them, we felt great knowing we were doing something different that would have an effect. After all, who wouldn't love getting home made cookies from a friend of theirs and a hand written note to show some love after a hard day at work!? It was a success! Several members we had not seen in a long time were touched and said they would come to church the next Sunday and I think a big improvement was made to help these members develop friendships. 
This week we have been focusing a lot on effective finding and always, always seeking referrals. Though I still often forget, as I keep trying to improve and remember, I notice more miracles happening. One lady I talked to on the street said very quickly that she "was Protestant and didn't need saving." Though she didn't seem the most warm and friendly, I still felt I should ask if she knew anyone else who would benefit from hearing about Jesus Christ, as she rushed off to her appointment, she yelled back that her land lady only spoke Chinese, and could use help learning English and then gave us the address, before I could finish writing it and saying thank you she was running accross the crosswalk, but it was a great experience for me to remember, that even when people don't seem interested at all to talk with us, they know someone who would, and they may be willing to allow us to talk to them.

It really has been a great week, too many miracles, and too little time to talk about them all. Thank you all for your support, love, and prayers. Love you so much!

Elder Shafer