Wonders from the Land Down Under: 10 July 2017 Letter

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNEMARIE! 23 today (in Australia anyway)! And happy birthday to Matthew on Saturday! And happy belated 4th of July to everyone! What a happy time! I loved the family reunion pictures I got from the family's beach trip for the 4th. It looks like it was heaps of fun! If serving the Lord wasn't so fun, I would almost be jealous! haha I love you all so much!

Elder Kenworthy, one of the Elders in our branch, really wanted to celebrate the 4th so he looked everywhere and finally found sparklers. We all surprised a couple members in our branch, Tony Magick and Luen Burgoyne, and made them celebrate with us even though they are not American. They are so great though, they bought us pizza and apple pie to celebrate haha. so that was a fun little unexpected thing this week! I will send pictures.

Well, The biggest miracle this week was that our investigator Paul was baptized on Thursday morning! He is so happy now! Especially since receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. It has been amazing for Sister S. and I to literally see his countenance change. What a miracle. I feel so privileged to have been able to take part in his process of accepting the full gospel of Jesus Christ. His baptism was actually quite funny. Maybe that is irreverent of me to say, but I couldn't help myself!

I was privileged to give a talk on faith and repentance, then Sister Mackey gave one on baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. When he and Elder Kenworthy went down into the font, you could tell he was pretty nervous. When they got into position, Paul was about to just go down so Elder Kenworthy was like, "No, I need to say the prayer first". Then, after he said the prayer, Paul sticks his right arm straight out in front of him, but it was too late, Elder Kenworthy was already lowering him. So he had to push him down so much deeper than he should have needed to, just to make sure his outstretched arm went all the way under. Paul kind of freaked out and stood up by himself, gasping for air! But the good news is he went all the way under and didn't have to repeat it, and now he is completely cleansed from past sins! It took everything in me not to bust out laughing though, haha! Then he bore his testimony. We were so scared that he would talk for like an hour, but he was good and only spoke for about 5 minutes. We made the mistake, a while ago of telling him our first names, Emmalynn and Havens. Now, even though we have tried to correct him, he always calls us "Sister Emmaline and Sister Heaven". Even though that is not even how you say either of our names, we just let it be. So when he referred to us in his testimony, all the members were looking at each other like "Who is he talking about?" lol. He is so funny. Whenever Sister S and I think about it, we get a good laugh.

Now that both Paul and Patrice have been baptized in the past week or so, we are trying to help our other investigators to progress and accept a baptismal date.

In the past week I have been realizing how important it is that the Holy Ghost is a trio with my companion and I. He is the one that guides us to the pure in heart as we call upon His help and diligently seek for a miracle every day. We have really seen Him lead us to those as we have done this in the past week. My testimony that this really is The Lord's work grows all the time.

Lastly, we met the Bingham's this week (New mission President) and they are great! We love them already and are excited to see what new things will happen in the mission!

I'm out of time, but love you all! Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Pace

Pictures:

1 and 2- Coldest 4th of July of my life!:

3 and 4 - Us and Paul and Sister Mackey at Paul's Baptism:

5 - The members at Paul's baptism. Whenever I look at this picture now, I cry laughing because The Molloy's look like mobsters, or like Michael Jackson and his body guard. Just look for it hahahaha.

6 - Paul wanted a picture of all of us to go on the front of his baptismal program so this is it haha:

7 - We finally have a Branch Mission Leader! Brother Smith was called on Sunday. He is the funniest man in the branch and he reminds me of my Grandpa Pace. :) He talks your ear off though, so MCM's should be interesting.: