Wonders from the Land Down Under: December 2017

Well Christmas is coming very quickly, its already the 12th!

This week has had some disappointments, but of course many miracles as well, enough to overcompensate for the disappointments.

The main disappointment was that the mother of our 18 year old investigator, Jake, came home from jail and told us that he is not interested and that he had just been too kind to say no. We know that that is not the case, but that he also does not want to disappoint his mom now that he has her home again. We are not sure where to go from here, but his fellowshipper, Aki, who is a returned missionary went around to his place to see how he is and invite him to church. He said that the mother was kind enough to him but that they were just busy this week. I am thankful that he is still in contact with Aki and hopefully he can help him to have the courage to keep learning and progressing towards baptism should he want to.

A miracle this week was our 11 year old investigator, Piripi, came to church on his own this week for the first time, even though his mum, who is a less active member was not well enough to go! He came with bishop's wife and two kids. Bishop gave him permission to go to young men's because he turns 12 soon and there are more friends his age there. He is so good!

The Halak family from Iraq was not able to come to church yesterday, but hopefully we will be seeing them soon.

Another miracle was that we both felt that we needed to try a former investigator, we only dropped last transfer named Quoc. We both felt that we hadn't given him enough effort before dropping him because the difficulty was simply meeting up. We stopped by on Saturday and miraculously he was home and brought some chairs outside for us all to sit on. We ended up sharing a lot about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was talking about how people are more blessed when they are not compelled to believe. Both Sis. H and I thought of Alma 32 that we had studied together just the night before about more blessed are those who are humble without being compelled to be by their circumstance and Sis H related it to baptism. After sharing that, he said that we convinced him, that he knows he needs to be baptized even though he already has been in a different church, and that this is the right step for him on his journey of faith. He is amazing! I don't even know how it happened because it was basically as though he talked himself into it without us realizing. Unfortunately he is going out of town until January, but we are excited to help him to be baptized soon!

We also had unexpected interviews with President and Sister Bingham this week, which was greatly needed to be uplifted and strengthened by them. I am grateful for this area and the wonderful things happening in it ! I am especially grateful for Sister Haretuku who really makes up for where I lack. I am so grateful that we are put into companionships!

Hope you all have a great week! Light the world wherever you are this week!

Love,

Sister Pace

Beautiful sunsets outside our flat window happen so often, but they my camera usually can't do them justice:/

We discovered Christmas St at the right time! Christmas card coming soon!

Sister Haretuku hit her 1 year mark on Friday:)

4 December Letter:

Hello and happy December! I love this month, especially when I get to share about Jesus Christ, and really focus the season on Him.

This week had so many miracles once again!

The highlights were setting a baptismal date for our investigator, Evone for January 6^th! Unfortunately she still did not come to church on Sunday, though she said she would be there, so hopefully we can help her understand the necessity to keep commitments so that she will really be prepared for that date.

Another huge miracle was running into a family that I met at the bus station at the end of October. I had forgotten that I had their number, and I didn’t recognize their name that I had written in my planner then, so during weekly planning, we decided that they were one of the potentials that we wanted to follow up on this week to see if they were still interested.

On Friday, after we were following up on different potentials in Calwell that the previous sisters had found, we were headed back to the car. Then we saw the father, Qusay, and two little children, Ragheed and Roz, of this family I had met in October walking back from school. We said hello and they remembered us and he invited us to his home down the street where his wife was waiting as well. They are from Iraq and speak Arabic and not much English yet, but they are learning. The wife, Wasan, communicated to us that she is Catholic but has been looking for a church to attend since they arrived in Australia in October. They had their name and number written on a card and I realized that it was the very family that we had intended to call that week! It was like Heavenly Father really needed us to come in contact with them last week and he knew it would be much easier to communicate with them face to face in their home!

We arranged a ride to church for them and they came on Sunday! They came with the Best Family, who miraculously speak a little Arabic because they lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years. Sister Best was able to translate a little while we taught the Restoration to them during the second hour, with the help of the Arabic pamphlets we found in our cupboard. We are excited to bring them Arabic and English Books of Mormon tonight! I just pray that we can overcome the language barrier until their English improves. This experience just confirmed to me that God’s hand is in all the little details of our lives, and He is at the head of the work of salvation.

Besides those miracles, we had a great ward Christmas party where lots of non-members and members alike attended. There are lots of exciting things happening and I am grateful to get to be a part of it here in Tuggeranong ward.

Have a Merry Christmas season and if you are not already doing the light the world 25 days of service challenge, go check it out on Mormon.org. Sister Haretuku and I are going to do it so we can try to become a little more Christlike this Christmas.

Love,

Sister Pace

Titan and Edlin, Belinda's kids who are two of my favorite little ones in Tuggeranong Ward :)

28 November Letter:

I can't believe how fast time flies, it is already the end of November! Btw I think I missed a few birthdays: Happy Birthday Joanna and Tanner! And happy actual day of birth for my new baby niece Nora!!! The pictures I saw are already so cute, which is impressive for a new born. Congrats Ammie and Tanner!

It has been a really productive week. We were able to have several first lessons with potential investigators. A lot of them seem pretty interested and will hopefully become new investigators this week! Sister Haretuku and I were able to set goals for the coming transfer that we truly believe we can reach but will also really stretch us. We have already seen miracles in doing all we can to reach them and praying for the Lord's help in making them happen. We are really excited for a great transfer and to be together again!

Well, I'm out of time I spent too long obsessing over Baby Nora. Have a great week everyone!

pics: We set up a sparse Christmas tree in our living room that we still need ornaments for. Christmas is here!!!!!

(Emmalynn just got this in the mail, but hasn't opened it yet. Shhh. . . . .)

It has been raining so much the past week and I love it! It feels more like Christmas time than when it is deathly hot.

(Letter we just got in the mail from Emmalynn, along with her endorsement on the back of her tax refund check which, ironically, has already been back and forth to Australia TWICE!)