Bankstown 3 Week 9

Wow! Big news! I was just informed this morning while buying groceries that President Lew would like our area to work as 3 missionaries. Elder Bartholemew, who just landed today from the MTC will be joining Elder Lam and I. I joked with Elder Lam and let him know that President called and wants him to train 2 missionaries, myself and a brand new missionary from the MTC, his jaw dropped and he goes, "are you kidding!?" Haha it was good fun, but yeah..... please keep Elder Bartholemew and Elder Lam in your prayers as both of them will have to suffer from me trying to train them here in Australia. Those poor missionaries. We had so many miracles this week! I will let my letter to President let you know about them. We have to go to our Zone BBQ that we are already late for.... oops! :)

Love you all!

This week was the best that I have had in this area for sure! We saw so many miracles that happened between Friday and Saturday. To start off, our investigator invited us to have dinner together last Friday night to celebrate my birthday. So, I asked him if I could invite a couple of my friends from the branch as well. Since it was my birthday, he kindly accepted! But the greatest miracle was that both of them brought a nonmember friend, and also one of the recent converts that I taught in the city surprised me by showing up as well! It was so great to see many friends gathered together in friendship together. I kept pondering about how I could share a message with these wonderful people since the original lesson I had planned for that one investigator wouldn't be fitting for such a large group. I felt prompted to just share my story of how I grew up, why I came here on a mission, and how each of these people has affected my life so much. After I shared that, the conversation turned to having birthday cake and so forth, but after we finished eating and left the restaurant, one of the nonmembers said that she was really touched by what I had said and she expressed interest in hearing more of "my story." Thanks to good friends, who jumped on the opportunity, she went to church in the city the next day and will be meeting with missionaries up there. The other nonmember brought said that he would like to meet with us again as well! And the original investigator who invited us was greatly strengthened by the friendships made that night. It was quite a success!! 

On Saturday, we had quite a bit of finding time since we are continuing to build our area. There were great miracles that happened! We really wanted to invite all our investigators to Brad's baptism at 2pm, so we started calling and inviting everyone after our companionship study to give them some time, and while we didn't get any of our investigators to come, one of our potentials said she would love to meet with us that day. We met with her right before the baptism and before her appointment which was the same time as Brad's baptism. She is so prepared!! She commited to baptism, to come to church, and to pray daily! On Wednesday we will see her again and set a date and give her a copy of the Book of Mormon so she can gain a testimony of that. After we commited her to baptism she said "the only thing is, I want to make sure I know all the rules and guidelines that come along with being Christian. I don't like to break the rules, so I wont be baptized unless I know what I can and cannot do." She is very sincere and loved church. After the baptism, we came back and continued to find more since our other appointments fell through. Another miracle ensued! A young man named Yang invited us to sit down on the bench with him after we approached him and talked for a minute. At first he seemed to just compare what our beliefs were to his "cultural buddhism." Many people here are that way, they don't truly believe in buddhism, but it is a cultural lifestyle for them growing up, so they naturally follow those beliefs and such. But as we continued to testify and answer his questions, he continued to feel the Spirit more. He also commited to come to church the next day and offered the prayer before we left. I am so glad that the Spirit will lead us and guide us in all that we do. There are so many people in the world that it would be easy to just get lost talking to those who are not prepared yet. But as we continue to follow the Spirit and talk to everyone in our path, the Lord will place those in our path who are prepared, and on special occasions, he has clearly told me who I need to talk to. Each time a wonderful experience has followed. I know that I am only entitled to the companionship of the Holy Ghost as I continue to be obedient, and so I will always do all that I can to make sure I am exactly obedient to His will.