Monday, January 16, 2017:
This week has been pretty
good. Sister Nilsson and I are still trying to figure out what works and what
doesn't in planning and working with people. I think we are getting a little
better every day though. I am trying to work harder to make good relationships
with ward members and investigators, instead of just jumping straight into the
lesson. Sister Nilsson and I have a great relationship and we are trying to
help each other understand what we need to work on, as we are both new.
Overall, things are going good! We are trying to get our investigators
progressing, so that is one of our goals this week. We also have some
potentials that seem really golden that we are excited about! I am still trying
to figure out how I can really lose myself in the work and be as happy and
positive as I can be, but I am praying for those blessings right now and things
are already improving.
That is what I sent to my
mission president this week, to give a brief overview of how it went. But to
add a few more details:
-On Monday night, after
p-day, both our appointments fell through which we were sad about but it was ok
because we got to meet Mohsen and Jason! Two different occasions, but we gave
each a Book of Mormon. I invited Jason to be baptized if he ever found out for
himself that the Book of Mormon was true, He said " sure I'd be baptized
again!" haha, apparently he has already been baptized twice in to two
different churches. He's a character, but he's so nice. Mohsen was really cool.
He said that every Christian religion claims to have the truth and the only way
to salvation. It was really cool to be able to testify that the Book of Mormon
is proof of the true restored gospel of Jesus Christ!
-On Wednesday, we visited the
Vuki family, because sister Vuki just got out of the hospital. Sister Vuki is
Samoan and Brother Vuki is Tongan. They have 8 kids all 13 years old and
younger, 1 boy and 7 girls! We went to see if she needed help with anything.
Turns out her kids are all well trained in their specific roles and jobs so
they ended up serving us. They gave each of us a huge bowl of watermelon and we
had a good chat and spiritual thought. We got to talking about missions, all
the girls were saying what year they will serve their missions in. It was cool
to see that they were all planning on going and already being missionaries to
their friends. It made me re-appreciate how cool it is that I get to be serving
my mission RIGHT NOW! Every minute of my mission is precious and I need to be
using all of it as productively as I can in doing the work of salvation.
-Thursday President and
Sister Back came down to Canberra for interviews. It was so good to get to talk
to them, know them better, and talk about how we are feeling. It was so good to
get motivation from them, to recenter on my purpose as a missionary and the
joyful part of the work. They are so encouraging and kind to us! I will be sad
to see them go back home to Sandy, Utah in July.
-Friday we had trade offs
with the Sister Training Leaders. Sister Whaanga (pronounced Fanga) came to my
area. She is from Auckland, New Zealand and she's really cool. All the
islanders eat a lot and not a lot of healthy foods. Sister Whaanga kept asking
me "do you ever eat?" or "are you on a diet or something?"
haha I always thought I ate a lot but I guess not. It was cool to learn from
her. She is really natural with people and she always knows what to say. We had
an interesting experience following up with a potential, Stuart. His roommate
Jeremy was there and he immediately started telling us about all of his
"spiritual experiences" a.k.a. his exorcism practices and how his
friend is a shape shifter... It was hard to get a word in, but eventually he
was just talking at Sister Whaanga while I gave Stuart the briefest
overview ever of about the Plan of Salvation. I'm not sure how successful it
was because it must have been really hard to feel the spirit. Hopefully Jeremy
will be sober next time.
-Sunday we got to teach young
women's in the Ginninderra ward! It was really fun, we taught about setting
meaningful goals that our Heavenly Father wants us to set. I think I'd like to
be a young women's teacher someday.
I don't know if I
mentioned, but Sister Nilsson, my companion is from Raymond, Alberta, Canada.
We work well together and I love her! She is super sassy and we have a lot of
fun.
We weren't able to have
lessons with our investigators Steven or Elwyn the past week, but this week we
will and we are excited about them!
I hope everyone has a
wonderful week! Remember to put the Lord first, then everything else will fall
into place.
Love,
Sister Pace
1&2- The district
Ginninderra and Belconnen wards. Sister Nilsson and I are in both and the
Elders are split between the two. Front Row: Elders Ross (Washington), Whitlock
(Utah), Miller (Utah), and Smith (Utah)
Back Row: Me, Sister Nilsson
(Canada), Elders Lee (New Zealand), Dereag (Utah), Flandro (Philadelphia), and
Farreira (Brazil)
3-Our sweet ride
4-me, trying to take more
pictures
5-Sister Nilsson is the
cutest
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Monday, January 23, 2017:
This week was super good and
super-fast. It’s amazing how fast time flies when you are trying to work as
hard as you can. I'm sorry the email last week didn't send through, I have no
idea why but I sent it again so hopefully you will be getting double this week.
We got to have another lesson
with our new investigator, Elwyn, finally! His girlfriend Bindy was there but
we still sat on his back porch steps because he just moved into his house and
doesn't have any furniture yet. He has a lot of super deep questions and
sometimes we don't know what he's talking about but we do our best to answer
by the spirit and he's always satisfied with what we give him. We wanted to
teach the plan of salvation, but ended up only talking about the atonement. We
talked about how Christ has experienced every trial and feeling, so he can help
and comfort us in every situation. It was really good. Bindy participated too.
We are hoping we can keep teaching her as well. He always jokes with us and
sends us really sketchy and confusing text messages, but he just reassured us
that he just likes to tease like an older brother. In his prayers, he refers to
us as "my sisters here".
We also had a good lesson
with our investigator, Steven, this week and his mom, Elizabeth, who is already
a member. She is from Papua New Guinea(if that is how you spell it?) We started
teaching him the first couple commandments and he received them well. We tried
to emphasize keeping the Sabbath day holy and helping him see why coming to
church is important, as that is the only commitment he is having trouble doing.
He still didn't come on Sunday. We think he has some sort of social anxiety.
But Brett, our ward mission leader said that he is going to try inviting him to
his house and hopefully their friendship will help Steven feel more comfortable
coming to church. I think the lessons are good for Elizabeth too, as she is a
convert of 4 or so years and struggles to understand the Book of Mormon, which
we read and discuss a lot.
As for our
"investigator" Jason, I was flicking through the ward list after we
had a really good first lesson with him on Tuesday, and right there on the
Belconnen ward list, I see his name! We were flabbergasted. After talking to
Brett about it later, we found out that he was baptized into our church 15
years ago but had disappeared soon after. He has a few mental problems and it
might involve his memory. We are sad that we don't have such a solid
investigator anymore, but we're happy that we found him and will hopefully be
able to reactivate him. He was at church on Sunday:)
Another Miracle was, our
long-term investigator Bree came to church on Sunday! We have family home
evening with her and her partner's family, the Amosa's, a Samoan family in our
ward, every Monday night. Her partner is not very supportive though and we
think that is what really holds her back. We had a really good FHE last week
where we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and encouraged them all to
find something they could try repenting of. Usually, no matter how hard we try,
she never comes to church, so that was a miracle. We have another good lesson
planned for FHE tonight so hopefully we can keep making progress with her.
I am really trying to be more
bold and loving with those we teach. Sometimes the things missionaries invite
people to do can be hard for them, but I still need to invite them to make
commitments with the Lord, because that is what will bring them closer to Him,
and bring them greater happiness and peace than they have yet experienced. I am
usually way too apologetic in my invitations but I shouldn't be because it
really is simply what the Saviour would invite them to do out of love for them.
This is the work of salvation, so we don't need to be apologetic or scared!
Lastly, this week, I am
grateful for the scriptures. Especially the Book of Mormon. Our new schedule
allows us more time to ourselves in the mornings and in the evenings. President
encouraged us to use a little of that time reading a chapter of the BOM in the
morning and before we go to bed. He thinks this is way more likely to develop
into a life-long habit than just 3 straight hours of scripture study in the
morning ever could. I am not perfect at it yet, but already, I see the benefit
it brings my days. The Book of Mormon was written by prophets called by God
specifically for the challenges we would face TODAY. We can learn so much from
it if we take it slow and pray for the spirit to teach us what Heavenly Father
wants us to learn. I love the BOM!
Thanks for all the constant
support and love, Its what gets me through the rough times!
Love,
Sister Pace
The pictures are of last
p-day when we went to the Australian war memorial in Civic (the Canberra town
center)
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