27 Feb. 17 Letter

This week has been a really good one! We saw so many miracles and received lots of tender mercies. The highlights include:

Stuart's baptism: the elders in Belconnen ward have been working with him for years. He is the best and was finally baptized on Saturday night. Our potential investigator, Ali, came to the baptism! Ali found us after we talked to his friend, Korosh. They are both from Persia. Ali called us like right after we met Korosh wanting to learn more and have a Persian Book of Mormon! Heavenly Father really blesses us with tender mercies when we work hard and are obedient! After, we taught Ali the Gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). We usually start teaching people with the restoration but he was confused about baptism and it was good to teach about it directly after he had just witnessed one. At the end of the lesson we asked if he would follow Jesus Christ’s example and be baptized if he came to know for himself if it was true, and he said he would. We are so excited about Ali! We usually refer to him a Prince Ali (not in front of him), and Aladdin songs are sung regularly around the flat.

-Ali and two other investigators, Facree and Bree (lots of e's) all came to sacrament meeting! Facree is an older Arabic man, he is so cute! He doesn't speak very good English, so it is hard communicating with him. We only were able to teach him one lesson so far, and it only worked because his son-in-law could translate. We are not really sure how to proceed with him so if anyone knows a member who speaks Arabic that we could Skype into lessons let me know lol. Bree has been learning about the church for a long time. His partner’s family, (the Amosa’s) are strong in the church but he is not. We have Family Home Evenings with her at the Amosa’s almost every Monday night. Recently her house burnt down which has been really hard for her and her two daughters. The church has been a big help to her through it all though-- so she has been coming to sacrament meeting almost every week. I think she knows it’s true but she doesn’t believe that she can change. We are going to start meeting with her at her new house now as well so we can help her more personally than at the FHE’s.

-We had a missionary work themed sacrament meeting in Ginninderra ward yesterday. One of our less active YSA, Paita, gave a really good talk on her conversion story and how she needs to continually be converted. Brother Loney gave a great talk as well, as did Elder Jensen, one of the YSA missionaries in the stake. All of the 7 of the full-time missionaries in Ginninderra ward plus the 5 YSA missionaries did a musical number. There were twelve of us singing the EFY medley “As Sisters in Zion-Bring the World His Truth”. I think it was pretty powerful and encouraging to the ward to see so many missionaries that they have at their access to strengthen our ward. I feel like good things are coming in the coming weeks and months in the Canberra Stake, and I’m excited to be an important part of it!

-I have been feeling a lot of support and appreciating from our wards lately, especially our awesome ward mission leaders. It is good to know that our work is bringing about something good, and I see that happening as we are bringing more investigators to church and are helping them progress towards baptism.

I have been praying a lot this week to have patience and to overcome my pride as Sister Nilsson and I try to work through minor differences that keep us from being completely unified. I think it is working and it has been a humbling process so far. I love and admire Sister Nilsson so much and I’m glad that we are able to work through little things like this.

God is so good and His way is always the best way and the winning team.

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Sister Pace

Pictures:

(Above):  We had dinner with the Vuki Family the other night. They are the ones who have 7 daughters, 1 son, and they feed us HUGE plates of watermelon after HUGE meals. I always hurt after.

 1- I just got all these beautiful watercolor paintings from my older siblings, haha. I definitely have the coolest wall.

2- Tradeoffs with Sister Bird in Woden ward on Tuesday. The other two are her companions SIster Haretuku and Sister Bergoyne.

The following didn’t come through (maybe next week J):

1-We got Greek pitas from a food truck for lunch

2-missionaries trying to get their tan on by pools they can’t swim in.

More museum pics

Pics from the Australian National Museum last P-Day

Heaps of Books of Mormon and Potentials

Hello good people. Coming at you from Canberra, Australia after another solid week.

The highlight of this week included singing at the Canberra Multi-Cultural festival on Sunday with most of the other missionaries in our zone. We sang at the pacific islander stage and we sang "Called to Serve", "The Spirit of God", "Humble Yourself", and a missionary medley which ended with us singing "I am a Child of God" First in English, then in Tongan, Samoan, and Maori. After, they wanted an encore so we sang "Armies of Helaman". It was so good and fun! I love how many opportunities we receive to sing and preform as missionaries. If you want to see the performance, I was told that a Tim Kalinohea uploaded them to his FB page. I'm not sure if they will be public for anyone to see but its worth a shot. It was such a great experience to invite the spirit and share our testimonies at a festival with thousands of people there and many stopped by to listen.

There were lots of good finding opportunities this week with the Multi-cultural festival and orientation week at Australian National University. Brother Loney (the Ginninderra ward mission leader) organized for us to get a booth at their "O-Week" Markey Day! We were next to booths of other churches and religious groups and we basically tried to stop people and pull them in for a minute to share more with them or give them a Book of Mormon. We ended up handing out over 50 Books of Mormon and getting over 40 potential investigators! It was crazy but really fun too. I love the missionaries in my district and zone. I am so glad I get to be here and meeting so many great people!

As for our investigators, we are excited about one named Awak. She is from South Sudan. She has two adorable little girls and her partners name is William. We have taught her twice and met William once at the door. He said he had started reading the Book of Mormon, out of curiosity after we gave it to Awak. We hope to be able to teach both of them next time! Awak said she would come to church yesterday  but she and her daughter ended up being sick and couldn't come. We pray that she will continue to have the desire to come this week, and to read from the Book of Mormon so we can help her progress.

On Saturday, We met a Persian man sitting on his porch named Korosh. He has no family here and he has to work all the time to provide for his family back home. We told him about the gospel and how our wards in church are like families that support and love one another. He seemed interested. When we got home, we got a call from his friend, Ali. I guess Korosh had given the Book of Mormon we gave him to Ali and Ali wanted to learn more! We are meeting with him on Thursday and they are hopefully both coming to church on Sunday! It is going to be a good week and I will keep you updated!

Besides that, we had a super awesome zone conference on Friday. The trainings were exactly what I needed to hear and in the perfect order. Heavenly Father is constantly teaching me what I need to know to make me a more consecrated missionary. He answers our prayers when we pray with faith and humble ourselves. We got to hear the testimonies of the 5 missionaries who will be departing after this transfer. IT was so tender to hear the refined testimonies of those who have experienced everything missions bring. I love our zone and I am excited to reach our goals this transfer. Sister Nilsson and I really are working hard and trying to prioritize our time so that we are doing what is most important in all of the things we could do covering two wards. I know that we will find the right balance and help investigators to progress eventually, if we continue to have faith and be exactly obedient.

I hope everyone is doing well and loving life. I am! Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Pace

Two weeks of news!

Feb 6, 2017 Letter

This week was really good! It started out with a multi-zone missionary conference where they broadcasted a worldwide missionary devotional where Elders Oaks, Anderson, Bednar, Sister Oscarson, and a few other general authorities talked about applying our purpose of teaching repentance and baptizing converts, how to teach and live according to that. They also talked about the new missionary schedule and how we will now only report on 4 key indicators. After they talked about them on the video broadcast, all of us missionaries had a discussion about it. Basically the benefit of the schedule change is that we get to practice our agency with how we want to organize and spend our time instead of it being an exactly set schedule. The main benefit of the key indicators (now we only report on baptisms, new investigators, and investigators who attend sacrament meeting) is that it is focused more on the progression of those we teach instead of trying to get a high number for lessons taught. I really like this change already because it has helped me build stronger relationships with those we teach rather than just looking at our visit with them as  a number.

It was a really motivating conference! I also got to see my past  companions SIster Ockey and Sister Fotu, and another MTC bud Sister Howard. It was so good to see them all again! Sister Fotu goes home back to Tonga this week, which is so crazy to me! She is so sweet and I’ll miss her. She gave me a photo album of pictures from last transfer, which I absolutely love!

Today is actually the start of another transfer. Sister Nilsson and I are still together! The other day, Sister Back called us and said they were contemplating taking us out of one of our wards because there is too much work to do. We said we were handling it pretty well but that it might be nice to just focus on one ward. Now Sister Mills and Sister Kapu, I think, are moving in with us. We have flat-mates, woohooo!! I guess they will be mostly working with the YSA because they are trying to form a branch, I think. Basically the YSA is really weak here and needs help. We are not sure if they are taking one of our wards or not yet, so we will see. I hope they do because recently it has been a bit overwhelming trying to visit and work with all the people we want to. Especially the less active members, there are SO many here.

Besides that, the week was pretty average. We met with Steven again and had a good chat. He acknowledged that he is moving at a snail's pace but that is just how he is. He reads the Book of Mormon a lot and understands the concepts of each chapter really well. He is not ready to step out of his comfort zone and come to church yet though. He does have some mental or social anxieties so it will just take a little longer with him. I think that he will eventually accept the gospel though.

We met with Jason again, the less active we found. He has forgotten most things in his 14 years or so away from the church, when nobody knew where he was. We noticed he had some word of wisdom issues so we taught him about it and he immediately was willing to live it again. That same night, when Brett, our ward mission leader, and one of the elders went to visit him on splits, he dumped out a big jar of coffee in front of them and made them call us to tell us that he did it. He is so funny but has so much faith!

The good news is, school is back in now after the summer holiday so people should be more reliable! We went finding at UC (University of Canberra) on Friday and found lots of potentials! People there are much more open than door knocking. One night this week, our night appointment fell through so we door knocked a neighborhood that ended up being super crusty. We got told to buggar off (which I was told is a very bad word) by one lady and another called us disgusting. We didn't get discouraged though which is probably what those people needed to teach me. I know I can do anything now because I can door knock a crusty neighborhood after dark! I know I will be protected from physical harm and I don't have to be offended because it is not MY message I am declaring, and they reject it because they are not prepared for it yet. I am coming to learn that no matter what the situation, I can always chose to have a happy attitude.

Overall, I am loving doing the work of The Lord all day, every day! It is all I have to worry about! And I know that I am making a difference in people's lives, no matter how small it may be, just by showing them love and inviting them to Jesus Christ. Have a great week everyone!

Love, Sister Pace

The pics are of our zone water fight we had last pday! The other sisters in the one picture are L to R: Sister Whaanga, Sister Haretuku (New Zealand), and Sister Alofoki (Tonga).  [These pictures didn’t actually come through this week.]

 

Driving to go email with our new flat mates!  

13 Feb 2017 Letter

This week was really good! We have flat mates now! Its fun being with more people all the time. Their names are Sister Kapu (from Hawaii) and Sister Mills (from Idaho). They have both been out on their missions much longer than we have so I look forward to going on trade-offs with them and learning from them. They are just working with the YSA here. I think it’s under the direction of the area presidency. They want to form a branch for the YSA here (which  is a small ward).

With this new transfer, there are a lot of changes in our zone. There are a lot more missionaries because we have three trios of missionaries instead of companionships and there are extra missionaries working with the YSA. Canberra was one of the smallest zones, now it is almost the biggest! There are three greenies (brand new missionaries) as well. One of them was in my institute class when I was in a BYU ward right before I left for my mission, which is cool! Her name is Sister Hampton.

This week was the hottest of my life. There was one day when I didn't stop sweating throughout the whole day. That night, we all pulled our mattresses into our tiny living room to sleep with the AC. It has cooled off though now, hopefully for good but it will probably keep getting hot until the end of Feb.

The highlight of the week was stake conference! Elder Johansson from the quorum of the 70 came and he is so cool! He is from New Zealand. In the adult session on Saturday night, He talked about how one thing that our church lacks is that we don't talk about Jesus enough. Some churches only know a little about Him but they will say a lot, whereas our church knows a lot about Him but we only say little. We get embarrassed when people are very vocal about their love and admiration for Him, but that is how we need to be! He kept saying "Hallelujah!" I loved it. He also said that latter-day saints need to be more joyful. He said that we should be the happiest people in the world because we know that through Jesus Christ, we can be happy in any situation. I know that that is true! Especially living on my mission where there are a lot of long days. I can always choose to be happy!

President and Sister Back were also at conference and president announced that the new mission president, starting at the beginning of July, will be President Bingham. He lives in Montana right now. It will be interesting to see how the two are different. I will sure miss the Backs. They are so cool and down to earth!

Not much to report with our investigators but Overall, the week was really good. I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Sister Pace

Pictures with Sister Nilsson and Jason

 

To the Pace's, From Australia!

The Tim Tam Slam:

#1:  Prepare a cup of hot cocoa.

#2:  Take a Tim-Tam and bite off a little bit from one corner, then from the corner opposite.

#3:  Suck hot-coco up really hard by putting one bitten side of the Tim-Tam in and sucking through the other one. (You have to suck hard or it won't work.)

#4:  Shove the Tim-Tam in mouth before it breaks into your cup.