Its a small world after all....

We don't have an email from Elder Shafer yet, but our cousin Corene and her family are living in Sydney and look who they ran into at a Stake meeting.....

Kyle's New Mailing Address

Hi Everyone!

Now that Elder Shafer has left the MTC he has a new mailing address.  We will always update the sidebar with his most current mailing address, but just so everyone notices...here it is.

He had two mailing addresses.  One for letters, one for packages.

This is his mailing address for letters:

Elder Kyle Brandon Shafer
Australia Sydney Mission

PO Box 2723

Carlingford, New South Wales, 2118 

Australia

Thank you all for your love and support!

Kyle Leaves the MTC!

Hello!

 

I just wanted to drop a couple more lines today since I have time to do so. The laundry is in the tumbler and I've got about 15 minutes before I need to get it and finish packing.  I am SO EXCITED to get on that plane! :) These past 12 weeks have been absolutely amazing here! As you can see from the pictures, We said goodbye to our teachers and the rest of our district last night (saturday for the teachers.) It was bittersweet because I feel like I'm leaving some of my best friends here since I spend at least 10 hours a day with my district and even more than that with my companion. But luckily, I will be seeing Elder White probably here in about 6 weeks. He's pretty nervous I think to have me leave because he doesn't feel really comfortable in his language yet, but he will get there! So I talked to my mate from Melbourne, AU yesterday and he was telling me about the "heaps of Huntsmans." Those are the spiders as big as a grown man's hand. He comforted me in letting me know they were everywhere :b I've actually come to grips with it though. I'll love Australia even though it has spiders almost as big as my face haha!  I'll give you my address for sending letters so you can put it on the blog in case anyone cares to send me some snail mail :b. I really hope sending mail isn't too spendy though! But I do want to hear from my close friends about their mission calls and their lives, so if you could get that up on the blog ASAP Michelle that'd be great, thanks!!! :) 

Last night we had the COOLEST recital. The BYU Men's choir came here and performed a Christmas recital. They are the world's largest men's choir, and all combined, weigh over 16 tons hahaha :b That's just some facts they gave us. Also, one of the people we taught for TRC is in the Men's choir and he gave a little 5 minute personal story of his life. He served in Hong Kong, but unfortunately, his Dad was pretty against the Church and his mom was fine with it, but didn't support him a ton. He talked about when he was a sophomore in High School, he met with the missionaries and gained a knowledge and testimony of Christ and wanted to be baptized but his Dad wouldn't let him. So he waited for over a year and then when his dad asked him what he wanted for Christmas the next year, he said : "Dad, the only gift I really want, is for you to let me be baptised." His Dad honored his request at that point and the rest is history! :) It's so great to hear of other people's conversion stories like that! Makes me so excited to bring others unto Christ so they can experience the same happiness and joy I experience from knowing what He did for me and being able to grow closer to Him.

We also had another really cool experience last night. In saying our goodbyes, we wanted to have a testimony meeting. There is always some time alloted after the Sunday night meetings to share with your district the things you learned and experienced that day, so we all decided to read "The Christmas Orange" story and share a christmas orange. Thanks for that package BTW Mom, I loved it!!! :) But anyways, after reading that story I was just sharing with them how grateful I was to have my family, my friends, my health, my life, and all the other things I have been so blessed to have. Not going to lie, I turned into a wreck talking about how what this little orphan boy wanted most was what I get to experience every single day of my life and how I feel so unworthy of all that I have been blessed with. Then for some reason, the idea came to my mind to talk about my beliefs regarding those who commit suicide. It was a completely random thought that I had no idea why it popped into my head, but I have learned that when the Spirit brings ideas to your mind, to always follow them. So I talked about how I dont believe a loving God and the Savior of the world, that either of them, would not be waiting with open arms of love to welcome those who take their life because of severe unhappiness and distress in this world. I just cant imagine from what I have come to know about Christ and My Father in Heaven, that they would punish those who take their own lives because of this depression and sadness. I didn't know why I had that thought, but later, when Sister Wright spoke up, she said "I didn't know I could have any more respect for you than I already did Elder Shafer, but I do now. I have had 3 really close friends who have commited suicide, and you have helped me receive comfort regarding them." Needless to say, I was really glad I followed that idea and talked about that subject even though it was really random. I want you all to know how much I have loved this experience here! Thank you all for your love, thoughts, and prayers in my behalf. I have seen the blessings that have come from your love and prayers toward me. I am so excited to be able to take this wonderful message of hope and peace to all the world. Sister Tai really touched my heart when she said goodbye and told us "I want to personally thank you for having the desire to learn MY language, and teach MY people. They need and deserve this gospel so much in their lives." She is such a kind person and has really helped me to love the Cantonese/ Chinese people! Can't wait to go out and serve them for 22 months!!!!!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS SEASON! I dont know when I'll be able to write in AU, but I'll send ya'll a letter when I can!

 

Love you!

 

Elder Kyle Shafer

All of us at the Christmas light's on our last night together.

My two teachers, sister Farr (The white one :b) And Sister Tai (obviously, the native)

The pictures at the Map you requested! :)

Just saying our last goodbyes last night the Good ol' Tuhngbuhn (companion) way :)

This is how I wake up my companion if he doesn't get up on time ;) His mom sent him these blow-up hammers in order to keep the zone in control :b

Last time for Elder White and I at the temple here together. Sorry the pic is kinda weird, had to take it one handed because we couldn't find anyone at 7 Am in the freezing cold while it was snowing to stand outside and take a pic ;b

Week 10

Hello Family! :)

 

This week has been another REALLY great week here! I'm definitely ready to go!  I think (I will know for sure on Tuesday), but I think I hit my weight goal! I've lost over 15 lbs here and I feel GREAT! :) That may just change with Michelle sending me the delicious treats she did this week though! :b Thanks for that!! I love the treats but even more than that, I loved the family pictures!!!! So I got my flight Itinerary.... :) I still wont know if I have my visa yet until maybe Thursday or Friday, but they told me, no news is good news! So I'll be hoping and praying that it comes through because there are a lot of Elders that have to wait for visa's and that would be rough. So here's how my flight will go...... see if you can do the math and figure out how long it will be because I don't know the exact time difference between here and AU. But I leave SLC airport at 5:22 pm. Stop in LA at 6:30 then get on the Flight to Sydney at 10:30! That will give me a lot of time to talk to people there and maybe hand out a pass along card or a copy of the Book of Mormon! :) Then I will arrive in Sydney at 8:40 on December the 12'th. So I think I lose a day because of time change, and I think I'll be traveling for well over 24 hours, but maybe if one of y'all could find out exactly how long I'll be in transit that'd be great because I wont know until I get my flight ticket next Monday. But I'm sure it will be a LOOOOOONG flight to say the least! I'm glad I get to go to the airport in the afternoon though rather than 4 AM like the Hong Kong Sisters. They get picked up here at the MTC at 4 AM. that would be REALLY rough haha! Especially because their flight isn't all that short either, it's pretty comparable. I will be calling home from the SLC airport I think. So I will call y'all at........ I'm not sure exactly when..... Because I get picked up by the Shuttle at 1:30 here... then about 30 mins to the Airport. maybe 45-1 hr for check-in and Security? so maybe call you about 3 pm my time (MDT) or so? That sounds about right to me. So if you could try to be at home about that time that would be good, and then If something comes up, at least you'll be at home and I can call later before I jump on the plane. If worst comes to worse, I will call in LA about 6:30 pm your time. But I will really try to call in SLC so I can chat with you ASAP :) Have any family that want to be there please be, but any friends they encourage me to not talk to, so its best if it were only family there :)  Today I'll need to be doing some packing and cleaning up my shoes and stuff, so I apologize if I don't send any written letters to family until maybe in AU because next Monday will be even more packed with me trying to pack the last couple things and make sure all is in order. I think this was all the "business" portion of my letter :) The Christmas Devotional was awesome!! I definitely was thinking about Mom and Dad being up at Laurie Kinsey's! It was really good though! Everything here is! :) My companion I can tell is starting to stress out about me leaving. For some reason he thinks he may not be able to function without me helping him with Cantonese and such, but he will be just fine! :) The language is really coming along well I feel like for our whole group. All 6 of us are really progressing because we are really dedicated and I attribute much of it to the prayers I know you are all offering in my behalf. I am really excited to have my first conversation with a true native Chinese person! :) I'll most likely choke up and forget everything I've learned, but I hope not! Also, try to think of some random sentences you may want me to teach you or you can try to test my language ability :) also, Mark, Mom, Dad, and Chris: I would love some ideas of casual conversation starters for on the airplane, in the airport or just mingling with others. Preferably what would you say if you only had 1 minute to get to know someone and invite them to meet with you? I'm not afraid to talk to people, I just want to make sure that I am saying the right thing and allowing them to make an educated decision whether or not they would like to hear more you know? So any help here would be greatly appreciated! I've gotta jump off, please make sure you don't send me anything past Thursday because I wont get any dear elder's past receiving the ones from Thursday and the Mail, I wont get anything past Saturday. So just no more letters or Dear Elder's after Thursday okay? :) Otherwise, you'll just be paying for extra postage hehe.

 

Love you all!!!

Elder Shafer

Elder Phelps and I.  He's going to the Philippines and is SUPER good at basketball.  He taught me a lot :)

Week 9

Hey Hey Hey! :)

 

It's such a great day! :) Today is my 2 month anniversary here! Feels like it's barely been 2 weeks though, time is flying so fast! So I will get my travel info this Friday hopefully, but if not this Friday, next week for sure. That way I can let you know what time I'll be able to call home and all that jazz! :) I'll probably just call you in the SLC airport since almost everyone here is Mormon anyway and I can save my time in the LA airport (almost all missionaries going to AU fly out from there) for proselyting and giving out the stack of pass along cards and copies of the Book of Mormon I bought that I won't use much in AU because I'll be giving out Chinese ones! :) So yeah, sorry if you only get one phone call, but you will probably be bored after about 10 minutes of talking with me anyways because there's not a whole lot that is new in my life. 

Except, this Thanksgiving was the best I've ever had in my life. Elder Holland came. He wanted us to tell our parents that we are officially in his family now, so he's sorry to tell all the parents they have 1 less child in their families, but he formally adopted all of us hahaha! :) Many of his grandchildren came and they performed some really good songs and piano solo's. He talked about how blessed we are to live in this dispensation because it is the only dispensation from the creation of the world that will not end in apostasy and how all the Prophets of old have looked to this Dispensation for solace since they knew that their dispensations would all end in apostasy until this one. I thought that was a very interesting insight! He also talked about just how blessed we are in general to have what we have in this day and age and for the way that we are currently making history with the missionary work we are doing and how many lives we are changing. 

I keep getting letters from my Mission President (just the weekly mission update/report) and it makes me want to leave right now! :) There are some other Elders leaving for AU today as well and I want to just jump on the plane with them! :) But it's okay, I am content with where I am at for now. I definitely don't have the jitters others do about staying here. It's an amazing experience and I'm so glad to have it, but I also and very excited and ready to get out and start serving and changing lives. Our lessons here have been really really good! In our TRC, we had someone new this week we hadn't seen before, and our teacher said that before he came in, he was frustrated with something and a little upset, but through our lesson, he felt the spirit, and received revelation on what he needed to resolve the situation he was in. Perfect since our lesson was on receiving revelation through the Book of Mormon! :) Also, my lessons with Kim have really settled down and I am able to teach her well now I feel. It was a little rough getting my bases set when I started teaching her alone because I had to go over some things that we had taught in the beginning that she didn't understand and had to figure out how the best way to teach alone is. But i worked out the kinks and now she is really progressing well! It still is quite weird to think of how unique my whole situation here is at the MTC. Pretty sure if people heard that I taught alone in a room with an investigator they would think I am the worst and most disobedient missionary in the world haha but I'm just doing what they've said I need to do, so it brings comfort to know that I'm obeying the rules! :) 

I've realized how important it is to teach to the investigators needs, AND their learning style. I hadn't thought about that much, but people have different learning styles, and once you can figure out how best to present the info to others, it really helps them to understand, and to think about what you are presenting, so that way they can feel the spirit. I dont know exactly how the Spirit works, but I do believe that when people understand enough to have more questions and to ponder what we are teaching, the Spirit speaks to them more. For example, I came up with a really good example of how we cannot clean our own sins from our lives by using a hankey (thanks Dad for making sure I had those! :)) that I rubbed a rolo all over so that it was very stained and dirty, then handing Kim a "tide-to-go" pen which is renowned for removing stains I asked her to clean the hankey so that it was white again. She wasn't able to get much of the stain out at all and that is when I talked about how this white hankey is like our soul. Throughout our lives, we will accrue "stains" by sin and in order to return and Live with God, we need to be pure and perfectly clean, Thus, we need to take this hankey to someone who has the ability to get the stains out. This is our Savior Jesus Christ. I was pretty excited about how she was much better able to understand the need for our Savior because she asked. "how can Christ help me today, as you have promised, when He lived 2000 years ago?" Anyways, I just wanted to share that little example of how object lessons, drawing pictures, relating to modern day life and teaching simply enough for a child to undertsand the lesson brings the spirit in a lot more and helps us to truly help the investigators to come unto Christ. 

This week has been absolutely amazing! I had the Best Thanksgiving of my life since I have never felt so rich, blessed, and filled with the spirit in an entire day. I also received a great package on Friday, and will get one from Michelle today I'm assuming so I'm really excited! :) Packages are pretty great, but they are going to be very expensive to send to AU im afraid, thus, when I leave, I decree that ya'll cant send me any more packages kay? Cool, glad that's settled! ;) For Christmas, I just want a picture or two and maybe 1 christmas Orange from Mom and Dad. I LOVE THOSE THINGS! :) Also, if you do send the Christmas Orange, please also send the Christmas Orange Story since I pretty much cry every time I read that story. It's true :b Mom, regarding the Music. I LOVE Mormon Tabernacle and any piano music you can find at Deseret Book that is good I would love, but really, dont feel like you need to :) I love you all SOOOOOO much. This gospel is all about Eternal Families and I have the best one every created by the Master's Hand. I love you all so much!

 

With great Love,

 

Elder Shafer

Me at the Service Project. We made about 2500 Education kits and 4500 Health Kits for the People of Ouelessebougou, in Mali, Africa! :) It was pretty cool stuff!





This is Elder Lynch and I, He and I grew up together and then His family moved to Walla Walla when I was...... 8? Not sure exactly, but He's a pretty awesome missionary!





My first bite of some amazing treats Anika sent me for Thanksgiving. THANKS!!!! :) They are delicious!








My little Thanksgiving turkey! :) We all made them as a class quickly to write some things we were thankful for.





They set up a little Nativity set, so I had to get a picture by it of course! :)




Just chillin out by the Christmas lights after dinner :)





I also got a nice packet of straws and some more Tim-Tams from Anika, so now I can use the straws when I need to "suck it up." And I can keep those Tim Tam Slams a-coming! :)

Week 8

Hello!!! :)

 

Another absolutely fantastic week here at the MTC. Can't believe it's only 3 weeks from today until I'll be leaving for AU! :) :) :) Time is absolutely flying by! This week we have very exciting news! For Thanksgiving they are doing a very special day and having a bunch of humanitarian projects and all that jazz going on, but also.... we are promised an Apostle will be here for Thursday morning devotional :) We've had Elder Bednar come before so this will be my second Apostle I'll see. We are planning to wait in the building and just study and talk about the things we are thankful for, so we can get seats as soon as we can so we can, hopefully in the second row.  As you know, I'm very quick in moving through crowds (safely, i promise! :)) and so I think we have pretty good chances of snagging the second row seats. I've gotten them before when members of the 70 have come. We had Elder Shane Bowen and Elder Echo Hawk of the 70 come this past month or so and I was really close for both of them. So I'm pretty excited! :) 

I will try to take a good photo of just me in my suit for the Stake board and I'll send that today. The map picture will definitely be on it's way as well. That's a tradition here as well to take a picture in front of that, so I will get around to it before I leave.  Also, thanks so much for the packages sent this week. Michelle and Dad mentioned they were shipped off so we will see which one get's here first! :) the race is on! :b Really, all the love and letters mean so much! I have no idea how long it will take for packages to get to AU and I know they will be much more expensive, so I don't want any sent at all. Same for my Christmas and my birthday in the future. I don't need anything that the Lord hasn't already given me. I was actually thinking about that yesterday. Why in the world is my life so fantastic?? It seems that I dont have any of the trials and troubles you hear of almost every day here. I have a perfect family, I have many friends and associates who love and support me, I have no worries about my financial future or health problems I can forsee as being problems in life, I have the opportuninty to BE A MISSIONARY!! :) That's a big one. but just the Gospel in general...... Why was I blessed with SOOOO much when it seems that so many others I hear of face tremendous trials of deaths in the family, abuse, severe depression, injuries, health problems and the list goes on and on..... I really can't explain why I am so blessed but I try to be grateful that I am and I try to be humble but I'm afraid I am in desperate need of more humility and some more refinement.  

I really love my time and experiences here. If I'm already having such a great time here I can't even fathom how it will be in Australia! I really hope my companion and I can serve together in the field because he is honestly just awesome! He's really humble (a great example to me) and is willing and ready to work every day. He's also a pretty funny elder as well so that's always nice also. His family life is very good and he mentions often how much he loves them. I think it's extremely hard for missionaries to leave home when they have younger siblings. I know that it would be way harder on me if I had younger siblings to leave so I greatly respect those that are willing to make that sacrifice. It was hard for Mark to leave because he's been my best bud from before this life and in it, but I didn't think about how much harder it must have been for you Markus :) Glad you manned up and served your mission because you're an amazing example to me!! 

Last night we watched this amazing 8 minute clip about the NY, NY south and North missions and all the actions they are doing with regard to hurricane Sandy. They showed it last night as part of the fireside and it was really touching to see how much of an effect the missionaries and the LDS members of that area are having. It's interesting and a blessing to know that the Lord always sends relief so quickly. I was really impressed as well about the reactions others had regarding to church. They interviewed many of the residents and although not a single one seemed like they knew much about who we were, they were touched by what we were doing and I think some major seeds were planted. Of course this isn't the only reason I'm sure of why we should perform service like this, but it reminds me of President Joseph Smith's quote about "service being pure religion." Or maybe that was Brigham Young..... oops! :) Perhaps you all can find that one out ;)  Love you all so much!! Thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts in my behalf. I'm so caught up in the work here that I don't even really think about the letters or expect anything, and that's why it's always a very pleasant surprise! :)

Love,

Elder Shafer

I love taking a picture of the temple each morning after I attend on Mondays, so you'll likely get some random scenery pictures :)

Like SO :)

And a goofy picture of my current District

Week 7

Hello Hello!!

 

This week has been an absolutely amazing week! I can't believe im starting week 8 here at the MTC!!! They do weeks in an interesting fashion since my first week technically started from day 1 in the MTC so it was only half a week, and week 12 will be the day that I leave, so I only have 4 more weeks here! Time has flown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thinking about leaving to Sydney in less than a month gives me a mix of emotions. Part of me wants to jump on a plane right now so I can preach what I know to be true and see the change in others' lives, while another part of me thinks I need to stay and learn how to be a better missionary and learn the language better. I know that I am progressing well and the language continues to come at a steady rate. My teacher and I recently had an interview ( they do that about every week or so in order to make sure we are progressing well and counsel with us) and she mentioned that she has seen my learning keep on a steady climb which she felt was a very good thing because when she was in the MTC, her learning ebbed and flowed. So I guess that's good right?? :)  It's hard to see the amount that I am learning from day to day, but every once in a while I will get a glimpse of how much I have improved. For instance, last Saturday, we had TRC where volounteers come in. We taught 4 volounteers who spoke very good Cantonese since 1 is from Hong Kong and the other 3 served there, and I understood a LOT of what they said. I was very surprised! It was good to see the improvement and the blessings that pay off from hard work, but I know i still need to remain humble and all of the thanks and glory go to My Father in Heaven. 

Elder Whilte, my new companion is the BEST!! He's everything I've been praying for and more. This Elder has humility like nobody else I've ever met. The first night here, i was helping him review some things and teaching him a couple pointers to help out and he stopped me and said "Elder, I think I need to pray before I can learn more." So we knelt down and he offered the most pleading and begging prayer I've heard in my life. It was as if he were bowing at the Lord's throne and pleading for help and mercy. The spirit infused my sould and I knew that this elder was called to be here and that the Lord expects me to help him. I had the greatest desire to help him in any way that I can and I realized how special this Elder is to the Lord. It was a humbling experience for me as well as for him. 

I have a testimony that the Lord calls his missionaries when are where they are to be called. There is no coincidence here in missionary work. Our investigators are coming along well. Please pray for us and Fuhng Taai. She's had problems with her husband being supportive to her receiving the lessons, and she is ready for baptism, but she can't receive it without his approval, and she greatly fears if she talks to him about it, he will leave her and her daughter. From what she has said, he doesn't sound like a very good and supportive husband, but we have no idea how to proceed right now. When she mentioned this, I told her to not talk to him yet, but that we would fast for her and that when we meet next Tuesday, we will discuss what the Lord's will is. I still don't know what I am to say to her after having fasted and prayed greatly, but I trust in the Lord that he will inform us through the Spirit in the moment of our need. Michelle, I wanted to say thank you to you and Chris for your desire and efforts in helping the missionaries! Having members present is such a wonderful tool to use in the conversion process of investigators! I really want to do that when I get home. I hope I will always be missionary minded even after my mission. I LOVE THIS WORK!!

 I am having such an amazing and life changing experience out here on the Mission. Thank you so much for your constant thoughts and prayers. I have been praying that the Lord will bless me by blessing my family and friends back home but I keep seeing blessings being showered upon me. I pray and say something like "Father, I have more than enough, please, other's need my blessings more than I do, bless them instead of me," but I have a hard time believing He's honoring my request since I keep seeing blessing upon blessing poured out upon me. But I guess this is because you are all praying for me and He honors your prayers. I have developed a much closer relationship with my Father and encourage all to do so. Pray is an amazing tool and I feel so close to my Father when I address Him in prayer. I love the song "A child's prayer" where it states "pray, He is there, Speak, He is listening." because I know that is 100% true. He listens to our pleas and answers with more love and admiration I ever thought possible. I love you all and love my Savior Jesus Christ for granting me this opportunity to serve Him and become more like He is.

 

Love,

 

Elder Shafer

He was also able to send us a few pictures! (He is just so cute, but I am just a little biased!)

The first couple are with my Cantonese District and the Older District. Sister Larson is the small one that always does peace signs, Sister Palmer has the long dark hair, And sister Ainge is the other Cantonese Sister. Elder Staheli is my old companion ( he doesn't smile a whole lot, but is a pretty happy guy still! :) ) and then there's Brother Fogt and Sister Black, they are 2 of the teachers here.  We have a new teacher, Sister Farr, and guess what? She's Emma Smith in the new Joseph Smith movie playing at SLC temple square!! I think that's pretty cool! The other teacher isn't shown here, shes a native though. Anika has a picture with her in it when we met the Ambassador from Australia and Sri Lanka to the U.S. You can ask her to scan a copy of it and email it to you, we felt like royalty :) My new companion, Elder White is shown in a couple with me. and the other random people are English Elders who really like me (for some reason) and so they wanted some pictures with me.