Wonders from the Land Down Under: 11 September 2017 Letter

Hello all!

It's been a good, but tiring week in Tuggeranong! I think just because I'm getting used to a new area and slightly different schedule. It has been great though! There are so many promising things happening in Tuggeranong Ward.

One of my favorite parts of the week was going to Cooma, Berridale, and Nimmitabel, our farthest areas that are separate from everything and about an hour and a half away. We drove down with Sister Tan, the most dedicated ward missionary in the world, on Thursday. There are a couple part member families in Berridale. Simone and Andrew, then Richard and Lynda. Simone and Lynda are both members and their husbands are investigating. Simone and Andrew have two kids. One is Desi, a 10 year old, whom we are also teaching. Andrew seems like a really humble, good guy. He needs some more time, but he is willing to read from the BOM and find out if it's true:) Richard and Lynda each have 6 kids from different marriages, so 12 altogether. I think only Lynda's kids live with them. They are both still going through the divorce process with their ex-spouses, but when they are able to get married, Richard wants to be baptized! Our Bishop, Bishop Stuart, is working with them to make that happen. They are a super cool couple who have been through a lot, but want to make things right now:)

There is a puny chapel in Cooma where Sacrament is held once every month. Bishop wants to grow the membership out there so we can have meetings there more frequently, and he says that these two families will be the key to that, so I am excited to keep working with them!

I also loved getting to meet our investigator, Simone, this week who is on date for baptism. She is so cool, open, and honest with us. She is struggling to quit smoking, but we are going to try this 15 step program thing with her. I have never tried it with anyone, but I have hear good things, so pray for the best! She knows the church is true though, so hopefully we can help her get over a couple barriers quickly so she can be baptized:)

I already love the people we get to work with here, they are so awesome! I also love getting to learn to work with a new companion, Sister Monilla, and see the different door approaches and teaching technics she uses. One of my favorites is asking the person who answers if you can ask them one question (like "on a scale of 1-10, how happy are you today?" or "What does your family mean to you?"), then going off their answer by introducing the BOM, which will make their day a 15 out of 10, or the concept of families being together forever through the gospel. With one woman, this worked really well. She was completely not interested when she saw our badges and was about to shut the door, then I asked if I could just ask her one question, the happiness scale one. She said she was about a 3. When we told her about the BOM, her attitude completely changed and she accepted it and said we can come back. It was a miracle because she was almost laughing at us at first. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father knows each of His children and prompts us of what to say to them through the Holy Ghost. It's so cool!

Thanks for reading this really long email. Have a great week everyone and pray for the spirit to guide you in missionary opportunities every day! He knows what He's doing!

Love,

Sister Pace

pics:

1 (above): missionary cars lined up for emails at the national library, haha

2- when the peep hole is watching you, even when no one is on the other side.

3-At transfers last week with Sisters Ockey and Sumaribos, who are now companions:)

4 - the full rainbow outside our flat (we are on the 4th floor, last door!) [Just like the October 2016 General Conference talk by Pres. Deiter F. Uchdorf: "Fourth Floor, Last Door"! . . . lds.org ]