Sydney Week 25

Ran out of time because we got to the internet place late today :( We went and saw the kangaroos again and we got back later than expected. This week was amazing though! John is getting baptized this Saturday!!!!! :) Please keep him in your prayers! :) Love you all so much!

Hello! Thank you for the opportunity to meet and have an interview earlier this week. I felt greatly uplifted afterwards and continue to apply your advice daily in my life. This week was absolutely amazing. We accomplished and superceded the member present goal that I mentioned I wanted to have and I have seen how it has paid off so well. I don't want to just have that goal be a one time thing, but I know that as we continue to achieve that goal weekly, our investigators will continue to progress. We have seen that recently. Elder Yoshizawa and I have noticed that when we don't see our investigators more than once per week, they progress very slowly if at all. It is extremely difficult to make progress with them at the rate that we need and so we changed our game plan. Every time that we meet with someone we ask them if next week at the same time would work well for them to meet again. Then, we go about setting up another appointment time before that appointment next week. Most often people's schedules are the same for work or school, and so planning a week in advance gives them enough time to make sure they don't schedule other appointments with friends. We have found great success with this. Also, we have implemented a new 48-hr fellowship planning program as well. We try really hard to have all of our fellowships planned at least 48 hours in advance. This has helped us to minimize the amount of times members cancel last minute or are unable because they didn't have the time to plan ahead. I am very excited to see how this new pattern will continue to grant us success!

My core experience with God this week was in finding and teaching Bonnie. We were in the right place at the right time. She had been out on the streets looking for a church, when I walked up to her and talked to her. She agreed to come and see the church right then, we met with her, set up return appointments, discussed baptism, and commited her to come to church. She is meeting with us again tonight and has committed to be baptized on the 22nd of this month when she comes to know that the Book of Mormon is true. It was such an amazing miracle to find her and to help her in her life. She asked what made me talk to her, and I had to be honest. She was just the first person there when I turned around so I talked to her. It was a great lesson for me to learn that often times we won't have these large spiritual promptings, but the Lord has guided our footsteps to be in the right place at the right time. I don't believe in coincidences since I have seen way too many "perfect timing" instances in my life. The Spirit led me to be there at that time, and it did the same for her. I am grateful that as Mosiah 4:9 states "believe that man doth not comprehend all that the Lord doth comprehend." This is so true for me.

One way I can be more Christ-like this week is to continue to be more loving and charitable. As I have continued to show charity to my companion even though we already have a great relationship, I have seen how the blessings continue. I am anxious to see how close we can grow together as we continue to serve the Lord with our whole hearts.

Thank you for all you do. Excited to hear from you and Sister Howes in training this week, and I might reccomend someone else to say the blessing for the food this time :)

Last time at conference, they asked me to pray for the food and I said "please bless the food it will give us strength and noursihment, and wont make us sick." Afterward, President Howes said "glad you are so confident in my wife's cooking Elder Shafer :)" hahaha They still get a kick out of it today from what the Assistants tell me :)

Love you heaps!!!

Elder Shafer