Missionary work brings happiness!

This week was really good. This coming week is the last week of my second transfer, which blows my mind! Thursday I hit my three month mark. Time is flying and it really makes me want to appreciate each moment! Thursday was also Australia Day. It was fun getting to say "Happy Australia Day!" to everyone met, especially the ones who rejected us at the door. Yesterday, I was thinking about my plane ride here, and how it took me 15 hours to work up the nerve to talk to the man across the aisle from me (granted, he was sleeping pretty much the whole time). But now, that wouldn't be nearly as hard for me. It's amazing what wonders the Lord can work in us when we let Him by stepping out of our comfort zones and into our growth zones. I still get a little nervous introducing my religion to random people, but it is so much easier now.

We had to do a lot of re-evaluating this week, of which of our investigators are actually on the path towards progressing, and which ones we need to drop. It was good because we are focusing our time where it will be most beneficial.

Steven is still reading and praying, but he said he is not in a rush to get baptized into another church. We invited him to pray about baptism specifically, and if he should. We really need him to get the desire for himself. If you want to include him in your prayers, that would be good.

We were able to have another lesson with Chloe (12) and Leland (10) the other day finally. We taught them the restoration of the gospel by putting together a puzzle of a picture of Jesus Christ, with each point being a different piece. I love the faith that kids have. We have seen that a lot. Many adults are just so hardened because of the trails of life, but kids are so trusting and full of faith. At the end of the lesson, I was inviting them to baptism by saying, "if, when you pray about these things, you find out that it's true..." then Leland stops me and says "it IS true!" It surprised me. I love that!

This Wednesday, we have a multi-zone conference where they will teach us more about the new schedule for missionaries and different key indicators. Usually, for key indicators, we count all of our lessons. Now it is more just counting the major things like baptisms, new investigators, and investigators who attend church. I think I will like this because I am always stressing about getting a lesson in with people even when it feels forced or unnatural, just so that there are numbers to prove our efforts for the day. Now I think it will be easier for me to focus on building a good relationship with people before we dive into teaching, which I think will benefit all of our missionary work. There are so many good changes happening in missionary work and I love it!

A few other cool things happened. One night, we were knocking doors in a complex of flats. After talking to one lady for a while, we contemplated going back to the flat to do half an hour of our first 12 weeks training study, but we decided to knock one more door. A man named Adam answered. We got into as long conversation (mostly him talking) about how there is no evidence of God in history or science and how religion is just a way to make the powerful more successful and put the poor in greater poverty. It was hard for us to get a few words in even though we felt like we had the answers to every question he had! When we got little chances to speak we mostly just testified. I really felt Gods' love for this man, and knew how much He wants him to come back to Him. Eventually, it all came down to the Book of Mormon because that is our "proof" of our faith. He ended up being really nice and got us water because he felt bad for making us stand there in the sweaty stair well for so long. He's just really passionate about what he believes. He said we could come drop off a Book of Mormon the next day because we didn't have one. We may never know what came of that night, but we hope that He reads it and feels the spirit testifying that it is true.

We also had a cool old guy answer his door one day and immediately invite us into his back yard to teach him about our message. he said he had heard it before but had recently had a stroke and forgotten lots of things. Then his neighbor came over. Turns out he is a catholic priest and she comes over often to get counsel from him. We had a good conversation with both of them. We purposely left the BOM on his table when we left. when we were putting our next destination into our GPS, he came out to our car and tried to give it back. We assured him that we wanted him to have it. He looked happy to keep it after that. We are excited to follow up with him!

Besides that, I am happy and having a great time! It is so so hot here. President is allowing us to have a zone water fight at the lake later today because today is especially hot. I'm so excited!

Love,

Sister Pace

1-We see incredible sunsets so often!

2- CHezzels and ginger beer from one of our favorite members, Joy.

3- when we were stranded outside the chapel, eating dinner.

Also, if the videos come through, one is of our FHE with the Amosa family last week, the other is my first time experiencing vegemite because Sister Ireland made me. I was avoiding it, but I think I like it!