Canberra Zone Week 8

Dear Everyone,

 

This week was great, have to drive for 3 hours now, Love you all!!

 

Sorry that this letter may be a bit shorter, we are typing it up quickly before we have to travel up for Mission Leadership Conference here in about 20 minutes. This week was fantastic!!! Honestly one of the best, if not the best week I have had in Canberra. Though it was a mad house figuring out how to move flats, split the area so that we all have equal work to do, and trying to organize Belconnen Elders with work as well even though they need to temporarily live outside of their ward area, it has been great indeed! I have learned so many lessons just in this week alone. One of which is how to help people help themselves. To often I feel when we are not sure of what we do, we immediately go to someone else for help instead of going through what is the right process. We should take just a minute, and think of what we should do. Seek guidance through prayer, and then look to others for help if the matter is not resolved. Another lesson I learned this week is the importance of budgetting and setting up a reserve. At the beginning of the month, we were not expecting this big change to happen of moving flats and transporting other elders to where they needed to go, and as such, my companion and I had to be quite stingy with our kilometers and it put us in some situations that would have been dealt with easier had we set aside a "reserve fund" of kilometers and mission funds. But I guess if we could live life backwards, we could do it perfectly. All lessons to be learned and applied in the future! :) Elder White and I have already seen some great miracles together.  I am not sure if you know, but Elder White and I were actually companions in the MTC for 6 weeks. When I had been there for 6 weeks, he came in and replaced my other companion since he had just left for Hong Kong. So when I saw we were companions again I knew we would have great success together. He is SUCH a hard worker. He also is really humble and LOVES being a missionary. I know he will do great work down here leading the Canberra Zone. His first few days were as crazy as mine but we have seen some great miracles already. Like we called and informed you; the lady named Noni who looked on mormon.org and requested the address of the meeting house said she would be baptized on the first meeting! She commited to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know it is true daily, to attend church in 2 days time, and to meet us again at a members home this coming Wednesday. She also mentioned she had a sister who she would ask to come and join us next time. Seeing her come to church yesterday with her 2 little kids was fantastic! She has 2 little daughters, a 2 yr old and a 4 yr old. The ward just latched onto her really well and welcomed her with open arms. Her older daughter loved the nursery, and the younger one..... well she was a bit noisy but I was happy that Noni still stayed for all 3 hours and really enjoyed it. But wait, theres more!! She texted us that evening saying that she would love to bring her sister along to church this following Sunday! :) We are so excited for her! I wish there was more time to tell you in detail about the miracles, but in short Tenari (the Samoan investigator who's step-father is a minister up in Sydney) said she would read the Book of Mormon everyday and that her step Father's heart is softening towards her coming to church with us. The Chinese family we are working with came to our lesson right before church and were planning to stay but then the husband got called into work and they left before letting us know so we could figure out a ride... that was a bummer, but they were all there and ready! :) Another miracle that came from them as well though was their friend Heiting came to the lesson, and though the family did not stay for church, she did! So many miracles are happening down here President, Elder White and I are thrilled to be working down here!

Canberra Zone Week 7

Dear Family and Friends,

 

This week has been a big change in a lot of ways, but things are going really well. There are always ups and downs in life, but thankfully, the gospel of Christ is always constant. There is much that I wrote to President today that is specific for him, so I will not copy my email to him this week. I am doing well, and things are going great here now. I am back being companions with Elder White, my companion from the MTC, and will write more next week. He has already finished emailing and the other elders are waiting for me to go. Love you all so much! :) My testimony has definitely grown this past week and I am grateful for the testimony that I have!!!

 

Love you,

 

Elder Shafer

Love at Home

Here is Elder Shafer singing Love At Home with a few other elders in Canberra.

Canberra Zone Week 6

Dear family and friends,

 

As you will notice, my letter to President was much longer today than normal. I am having a great day and just felt like writing heaps to him I guess. Normally I don't write in quite the same depth to him as normal, but I just felt like getting my thoughts out onto paper I guess, so my comments outside of the letter to him probably wont be all that long. It was a great week though :) The missionary work down here is just fantastic. This month alone we will be having 50 new missionaries coming in...... that will be almost half as many as we already have! So many new, fresh missionaries that will definitely need some training, but will add such excitement to the mission. I am already stoked for it! :) General Conference was last weekend in the states, but they re-broadcast it here this Saturday and Sunday, so I will wait until this weekend to watch that. Really excited for it!! :)

 

Things are great here! :) Glad to hear things at home are good as well!!

Here is my letter:

The weeks continue to fly by! I can hardly believe it is already General Conference again this upcoming weekend. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the time goes, just as you state almost everytime we are gathered in a group of missionaries. This week we didn't see a lot of lessons taught since so many people are either gone for the holidays, or preparing for their finals coming up. It seems almost every reply is "I'm busy until the end of October." But we don't let this dissuade us, we will keep pushing on and finding the Lord's elect :) This week, as we called you and shared, we were able to have our first baptismal date! Amelia, the referral we received a couple weeks previous committed to be baptized on the 24th of November. Her partner, who is a member up in Sydney, will be moving down in November and so we wanted to set the date to where she could be baptized by him while he is down here. They are planning to be married in the near future, and so we look forward to seeing this family be sealed in the temple within the next year and some months. What a great blessing it will be for their family! She is so awesome! I will relate the teaching experience of the night:
We went over with the Larkins, the Senior couple who run the Institute and YSA activities down here in the Canberra area since we knew that she would be involved in their activities and institute as well. They were more than happy to come and we all enjoyed a nice discussion on the floor together (her furniture hasn't come in yet, but we were able to sit on this 1,000 year old tongan mat made from a special tree bark which was painted and really cool. ) Although we were sitting on the floor, she wasn't in any bit of a hurry. We started with prayer and then she mentioned that she had done some research online about the Book of Mormon which we had given her a copy of on our first visit. She had found one of the mormon messages about a Bishop in London and his testimony of the Book of Mormon really inspired her. So she decided to write it down and read it to us! :) As she related his testimony, there were several verses, including Moroni's promise of how we can know the book is true which had really touched her and she mentioned that she felt the book was full of very powerful teachings. As we continued to explain The First Vision and more about Joseph Smith restoring Jesus Christ's church to the Earth, the Spirit was present and she was very excited to start reading the Book of Mormon to gain a witness for herself of it's truthfulness. Toward the end of the lesson, we invited her to be baptized on the 24th of November and she said that she would. After the lesson, Sister Larkin stayed and helped Amelia download the scriptures onto her ipad since she wanted to have a copy of the Bible, and Book of Mormon, and Elder Ah Fook and I literally were jumping and running back to the car shouting "We set a date! We set a date!!" We were so excited that she was going to be baptized I think we may have gotten a little carried away, but it was just such an exciting time for us! We have struggled the whole time we have been together to commit anyone to be baptized on a certain date. Everyone we meet we invite them to be baptized, but then they are not willing to commit to a date, but she was different. She is very prepared and we are privileged to work with her.

Some other things that happened this week: We had zone training meeting last Friday and afterwards, I had the privilege to go and work with Elder Pederson and Elder Roberts. Both are still in their 12 weeks training program and are being trained by Elder Farley. It was so great to work with them! New missionaries are my favorite to work with because they always have energy to go and work and always want to know how to improve. They ask heaps of questions and seek advice and so it allows me the opportunity to relate miracles to them. I have come to learn more and more that honestly, there are no tactics or skills that can make up for just opening your mouth with faith. One of the most common questions I get is in the form of "what do I do if....." For example, "what do I do if someone is walking away from me." or "what do I do if they respond this way....." and so on. Many times, in our quest to be more effective, we are trying to find the "one right way" Well, the more that I have shared with them, the more I realize that there is no "one right answer" there is no perfect question, perfect scenario or perfect approach. The simple answer is that in every situation, you open your mouth, and have faith that the Lord will fill it. Sure, there are things that over time we learn what may be bad questions, ineffective approaches and such, but by and large, everything that we do and learn comes from experience in following Preach My Gospel and following the Spirit. I have read Preach My Gospel several times and have yet to find a phrase that states "when tracting and the door opens, begin by saying....." Or "in response to someones questions about the afterlife explain...." This is what I have come to realize I need to continue to focus on and help others in the zone to become better at. Study Preach my Gospel so the Spirit can teach us how to be more effective. Then when you are out on the Lord's errand, trust that you will know what to say and what to do. While on trade offs, we were down in the city before and after grabbing some lunch. While walking on the street, I like to hand out pass along cards as an easy way to hopefully start a conversation or to at very least allow someone an opportunity to learn more later when they can look on the website.  Elder Roberts was quite funny as he kept giving me challenges to see how I would go and approach someone. It was a great opportunity for him to learn as well as he kept giving me specific people to go and talk to and for him to see that no matter who it is or whatever the situation, we can open our mouths and share the gospel. My favorite one was when we were waiting at a light and a group of about 8 people starts walking up behind us, he turns to me and says "Okay, I want to see how you would do this, go and talk to that group." While I didn't get a chance to talk to all of them, I was able to talk to several while walking and then one of them and I had quite a good chat until she had to follow her friends the other direction. While I was talking to her, he and Elder Pederson were able to talk to the others in the group and it was a perfect teaching opportunity. Thankfully, I have come to the point where I am not afraid to talk to people and I love to help others come to that as well. As we open our mouths in love, we find that all fear is gone.

Many of the members we associate with are afraid to open their mouths in this respect, and so I hope to help them also come to find that opening their mouths to share the gospel should not be a frightening thing. In my time here as a missionary, I think I can honestly say the less than 1% of the people I have talked to have responded in an angry or negative fashion to me and so I know that our friends and neighbors and family will not either. If they truly respect who we are then they will not disrespect what is dear to us and our invitations to them. I sometimes think of invitations to learn about the gospel like inviting a friend to a favorite movie of yours. Perhaps they will not be interested in the genre, perhaps they will have other plans, perhaps they have already seen it and do not want to watch it again, but then, perhaps they will say yes and will enjoy the movie with you and afterwards be very glad you invited them. You never know until you invite :) The same with learning more about Jesus Christ's restored gospel and church.  Perhaps they are not interested in Him, perhaps they are too busy at present, perhaps they already have been to church or met with missionaries and do not want to learn more, but then, perhaps, they will accept and be very grateful that you helped them to come closer to Christ and find more happiness in their lives. I hope I can continue to start and fuel the fire of missionary work here in Canberra. The world desperately needs the gospel of Jesus Christ, and so I am glad I can be a part of helping it spread to every soul who will accept it.

 

 

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Shafer

Thought you would like some pictures we took recently as well.

 

We had a zone p-day up at this mountain which looks over all of Canberra and decided to make a giant pyramid. It was intense and awesome! :)

Canberra Zone Week 5

Dear Everyone,

Yesterday was Labor day in AU, so that is why we had to email today since the library was closed for the National holiday. Also, we drove up to the mission office yesterday (a nice 3 hour drive) so that we could have mission leadership council last night. All of the zone leaders and the training sisters gathered together and we discussed how we are doing as a mission. The meeting was 5 hours long but very beneficial! Plus, Sister Lew's (our mission President's wife) made some DELICIOUS Butter chicken. I ate two giant plates of it plus naan bread and an ice cream to top it off. I felt about ready to pop afterwards, but it was worth it! Anyways, it was a great meeting, and well worth the drive. Now, we are about to drive back so I had better make this letter short, but just wanted to send you my letter I send to President Lew each week:

This week has been a great one! It seems like we have spent a lot of time in meetings and trainings since we had Preach My Gospel studies with both companionships of sisters in our zone in addition to Zone Conference, but in all situations we have been uplifted and learned a lot so it has been great! We Also witnessed a fantastic miracle in regards to our relationship between the Bishop and missionaries improving. In the past, I guess the relationship between missionaries and the Bishop has been a little shaky, but when the Bishop invited us over for dinner at his home, we made it our number one objective to help him realize we are here to work and serve him and his ward. We saw great success with it! During the dinner, we were discussing problems that he is seeing in the ward and talking about how we can help to overcome them. After a while he finally slowed down and said "well Elders, what do you need help with?" I took this great opportunity to explain that we are here to help him. We are not here to add to his previously describes list of problems, but we are here to help him fix them. We mentioned we have a great desire to continue to teach and bring many of the less active members back to church and he replied that he had actually just earlier compiled a list of specific members that he felt would accept us into their homes and that could be benefited by more help from the missionaries. This is a great way for us to not only help the members, but also to show the Bishop that we can be trusted and accomplish his goals and desires. The next day, he invited us to come early in the morning and play basketball with the ward as part of their ward activity. We showed up and continued to increase the relationship with members in a more casual way. For me, these two events were great miracles in helping us to grow closer to the members. Because it is the capitol, most members work for the government and are VERY busy with their careers and family. Our desire is to help them see that missionaries make their lives less stressful and more enjoyable, and I think that we are starting to get that message across. This excites me because as President Monson has stated: Member work is the most effective way to work. The ward is starting to get excited for missionary work and we know that this will continue to grow as we continue to serve and fan the flame of missionary work. Another great example is when we had dinner at a newlywed's home. During dinner the wife was asking what miracles we had seen this week, what was the best part of missionary work and so forth. We can see that she is very excited to be involved. When we asked who she knew that could benefit from the gospel she replied "well, our neighbor next to us is a pretty lonely man, just living by himself. Our neighbor across from us recently had someone pass away in their family I think, and there's another friend I have who has asked me a question or two about the church." We were so excited to see these wonderful opportunities to allow others to have the gospel in their lives. Knowing about life after this blesses us with peace and comfort. The Gospel brings hope and love to those who feel alone in this dark world. I am so excited to be a missionary and I pray I can continue to help others gain that same desire and energy to bring about this work of salvation among Heavenly Father's children.

As for the status of my planner. I think my planning abilities have improved a lot while being down here in Canberra, but I wouldn't say I quite have a celestial planner yet. One thing I would like to improve is my hand writing and neatness. The information is there, goals, names, addresses and lessons, but I need to take a minute more time to make it look neat and organized. This has been a goal of mine and one that I have plans to fix. With the help of my companion, I can accomplish it. He has been willing to help me to re-learn how to write neatly haha. It actually has been a good experience for us to do together, just practicing how to write neatly.

Love you all!

Elder Shafer

Canberra Zone Week 4

Hello Everyone!!

 

I wanted to announce that I have a new mission call!!! I have been called to labor in the Sydney Australia South mission for the next 12 months! No, I didn't really get a new mission call, but I have been thinking a lot about how I can avoid the tendency that many missionaries get to just "cruise" at about 1 year out. Many times I hear of missionaries who become complacent with their lives because they are experienced and know how to find, teach, etc.... so they just cruise for a while and then 6 months before they go home they realize... WHOA I go home soon, I had better kick it back into gear and work harder than I have. So, I have decided to just restart. I am not half way finished with my mission, but I am just starting my new mission. It is only for a period of 12 months, and so I have a lot of work to do in such a short time! I really dont want to let my past successes and accomplishments allow me to "take a break" and just relax for a bit, so I am going to trick myself into thinking that I am just starting over again. It's time to restart new study plans and goals, time to re-evaluate my teaching skills, how I am doing in developing Christ-like attributes, and the list goes on and on! :) I am excited to start my "new mission" and accomplish as much as the Lord has for me to do in this short amount of time.

 

We are about to go and have a district P-day so I will close with my letter to my mission President:

 

This week has been a fantastic week for sure! We saw so many miracles as we kept working on always inviting and opening our mouths. One of the greatest experiences was when we were going to visit a less active man. We walked into his apartment building and another man was walking down the stairs with his bike, we said hello, he saw our badges and said "Oh, go to that door right there, they need God in their lives!" then hurried off while we shouted back to him a thank you. We were pretty surprised, and so I feel bad we didn't get a chance to talk with him more, but we knocked on the door that he pointed to and they invited us in! They laughed when we told them their friend pointed us to them and said he was always playing pranks and jokes on them. I guess this was supposed to be another one of them, but as it turns out, they really are needing some change and help from God in their lives. The boyfriend recently had 3 friends and a brother pass away, and the girlfriend was really curious about where we go after life as well. We shared with them pamphlets on the Plan of Salvation and bore our testimonies of life after this. The boyfriend was really talkative, I think because he had been drinking a little bit prior to us coming, so we didn't get much of a chance to teach, but we set a return appointment with them for the next day and committed them to read the pamphlets we gave them. When we came back, it was only the girlfriend home so we couldn't go in, but she said they had both read the pamphlets and would love to have us come back Tuesday. It was a great miracle we were able to experience :)

Also, this week we have had great blessings come in regards to referrals. We received 3 referrals from Church Headquarters. One of them, Amelia, is so prepared! Her partner who lives in Sydney is a member, and encouraged her to go to Mormon.org and request missionaries to come and share with her about his beliefs. They are preparing for marriage, and upon us meeting her, she said that she "wants to convert, but wants to understand what it is that her future husband believes and make sure she believes it as well." We were really suprised to hear such a great answer, pure, simple, and true. Often we forget how much of an impact our examples can make. She loves this man and wants to be with him, but also wants to make sure she has the same beliefs that he does. She is really sincere and said she would be baptized when she knew the Church is true. I am so grateful for the people the Lord has prepared to receive of His gospel at this time. There are many who are prepared, and the Lord is in the work helping us to find them, or for them to find us. 

Love you all!! :)

 

Elder Shafer

Canberra Zone Week 3

Dear Family,

 

All I have time for this week is to post my email to President. We had to clean the flat and then got here as quick as we could, but still only had about 25 minutes to read and write emails.

 

This week has just flown by! Elder Urbina and Elder Tilini are great additions to the ward and they are getting accustomed very quickly. This week we saw a great miracle in a recent convert of ours bringing her non-member friend to a lesson and she became our new investigator! We were planning to meet with Lois, our recent convert, and when we got there she said "Oh, I brought a friend along today, is that okay?" We were so excited to see her! She is just great! She has attended a Christian school for 10 years in Hong Kong, and so she understands who Christ is, but lacks a testimony that He actually died and was resurrected. She had been preparing for baptism in another church previously, but fell out of contact with her friends in that church, and said that she would like to prepare for baptism again! It made us very excited to see such a great miracle, especially when we are striving hard to find new investigators and to ALWAYS seek referrals. It was a tender mercy for sure.

This week from studying PMG chapter 1, I learned more about my role to help full families come into the church and how we can help even the young single adult members we interact with determine how the Gospel will play a role in their family life. So many of the less actives we have were baptized when younger, then married a non-member whom either is not interested, or does not support them in their church callings and beliefs. This awareness has made me think more about how I can continue to encourage the young single adults we have to share the gospel more with their family and friends, and for the families we talk to also to invite families, not just individuals, to activities, church, and other ways in which their whole family can enjoy the blessings that come from living a Christ-centered life. One thing that stuck out to me is just that plain and simple truth, that "happiness in this life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the principles of the restored gospel." I have seen it time and again, how much hope, happiness, and peace comes from the knowledge that we have about the restored gospel. The purpose of this life. What happens after this life, and how we can be more successful in this life. It is such a precious gift I would like to share with everyone!

Sorry this letter will be a bit shorter, we have to go and teach a lesson in 2 minutes to a former investigator. Or, also known as our next baptismal candidate :)

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Shafer