26 February 2018 Letter

Hello family and friends!

It has been a great week as usual here in Dapto. My new companion is Sister Namalo from Fiji! She has been out 6 months and is the coolest person! She is so easy going and is a wonderful teacher. I am already learning heaps from her so I am excited for the rest of the transfer!

This week we have a couple new investigators we are excited about: Tara and Colin.

Tara is 17 and has heaps of LDS friends, including her boyfriend and a couple of the YSA in Dapto ward, which is great! We met her a few weeks ago when her neighbor told us to visit her because she thought her family was Filipino and sister Monilla is Filipino. She is definitely not Fili, but Persian, so it is a miracle we even met her, and we have been teaching her weekly ever since! She has always wanted to know more about the church and has said that if she comes to find that it is true she will be baptized. She is so wise for her age and very spiritual. She is so great!

Colin is the neighbor of one of our members, Nana Tyson. On Tuesday, he miraculously accepted an invitation to come to an FHE at her home, and it went really well! He is confused by all the different religions in the world and wants to know how he can know what is true. It was cool to share the Book of Mormon with him, and promise that through searching, pondering and praying to know, he can know the truth not only of the Book of Mormon, but of all things.

Another investigator, Pamella (emphasis on Ella), is progressing. She is the mother of a less active member, but has seen great things come into his life from it, and wants to be baptized herself. She has been to sacrament the past two weeks and stayed for all 3 hours yesterday. She enjoyed it and had so much to say in the classes. She always does, lol, it is difficult to even take control of our lessons with her. She is so passionate and wonderful though.

It has been raining nonstop for the past couple days, but we were able to attend a recent convert fireside in Sydney last night and have safe travels even in thick fog on the way home, which was a miracle. Matthew spoke and had a good experience, so it was awesome. He is doing so good. Now, that he is baptized he really understands the significance of the covenant he has made and really wants to be obedient to God's commandments. We asked how he felt after receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He said that he feels good and that every time he feels tempted to drink coffee of tea, he feels like someone is telling him, you shouldn't be doing that. It is cool he is recognizing the spirit's guidance already!

Well, love you all, let me know if there are any prayers any of you may need. Have a happy week filled with gratitude!

Love,

Sister Pace

pics:
1) Above, new companion, Sister Namalo from Fiji!

2) my new district consisting of Dapto ward, Wollongong Ward, and Nowra Branch

3) Sister Sianava:)

4) The sisters in our district 

5)Sister Stetson, who used to serve in Dapto came back to visit and visited one of our investigators, Rebecca, with us!

6) Sister Namalo remembered that I hit my 16 month mark today and I didn't even know lol. She is the cutest!

19 February 2018 Letter

Well, what a week it has been. A lot of people have heard the shocking news about President Bingham's bike accident. The last I hear, he is in intensive care somewhere else in Australia and he is paralyzed from the neck down. This was all so random and shocking to hear. I am not sure what Heavenly Father's plan is, all I know is that He has one, and it is better than the plans we all had for our ourselves, even from President and his family. But keep him in your prayers please! Hoping for a miracle.

 I am happy that I at least got to see him the night before it happened as all the sisters in our mission who could got permission to go to a sisters devotional in Prairiewood (Sydney), where we got to hear Sharon Eubank, 1st counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency speak. All of us sister missionaries had the privilege of shaking her hand before the devotional. I was so happy to see so many of my best friends and fellow sisters there, that I have missed. Sister Eubank is awesome and the spirit was felt bountifully:)

The highlight of our week, however, was getting to witness the baptism of Matthew Lloyd. It was a good program with a good turn out from the ward. Matthew was really nervous before the baptism but he said all the butterflies went away when was baptized. He seemed so light and happy after! He was the last to leave the chapel before bishop locked the doors because he was talking to everyone. It is cool to see that he has a huge ward family now, when he doesn't really have any family close by, as his parents have passed away, and his sister lives in Queensland, and He doesn't have one of his own. Sister Monilla and I sang a rendition of Nearer My God to Thee at the baptism. We both are really proud of him making the commitment and feel that he will be a strong, active member, and will be greatly blessed for it throughout the rest of his life and eternity. It was funny to see that Dapto Ward started choir practices for Easter Yesterday and Matthew joined in, he is just part of the family now! We had no idea he sings.

Unfortunately, Sister Monilla is once again being taken away from me too soon. She is probably my best friend and we intend to live with each other again one day:) She has done a lot of good work in Dapto ward and I feel privileged I get to continue it on and continue to see the fruits of our labor for my last transfer. I cannot believe I am in the last 6 weeks of my mission. It feels bitter-sweet. I am excited to do all that I can to accomplish what the Lord has sent me here to do in this last transfer with my new companion!

Love,

Sister Pace

Pictures:  Matthew's Baptism and Confirmation (and Sister Monilla's last Sunday in Dapto):

       Killilea State Park on Zone P-Day:

Sister Meyer from MTC District:

Sister Monilla is my Valentine:

 Zone Conference:

Zone Sisters:

12 February 2018 Letter

Don't have much time but just wanted to share a quick experience.

This week has had lots of miracles. Throughout the week, I was feeling like I didn't know how to explain the gospel to people in a way that would help them understand that it is applicable to them and something that will really help them! Sister Monilla reminded me that I am saying the right things, but everybody has their agency, and sometimes people don't use it the best way they can. But we had a cool experience on Saturday during park and embark. We had 4 people ask us the same question: why do bad things happen to innocent people? The first two times ,we explained it but the people would not accept our answer. At the end of the night, however, we met an atheist who asked the same question. We explained, after refining and simplifying our explanation throughout the day, that if God intervened in every bad, or unfair thing that happened, not only would he be denying people of their ability to choose, but he would be denying everyone of the opportunity of growth that could come from that difficult trial in their life. We also explained that the purpose of our lives is to have joy, and that the extent of pain and sorrow we experience in life, we are then able to experience that much joy because of it. It was cool because it was like Heavenly Father had been preparing us to meet that man (Dave) all day by helping us think about that question. Dave's heart was softened and we were able to share most of the restoration with him. By the end, he miraculously accepted a Book of Mormon!

I just really loved that tender mercy Heavenly Father gave to us after a day when not so many people were prepared to receive us.

pics: 1- a couple pdays ago

2- Faite and Moala, two beautiful but naughty little girls in the ward:)

3- When Sister Monilla made me cut her bangs (commonly called fringe here)

4- when we witnessed the saving of an echidna from under a school fence.

5- Jessica a less active YSA came to stake conference on Sunday. Miracles do happen!

6- My fun tan lines

7 -pray for my sunburt neck. It is a result of talking to a guy for almost an hour under what felt like being an ant under magnifying glass.

 8-9:  Companions and Friends:

5 February 2018 Letter from Companion

Emmalynn has had a lot of BYU (registration, etc.) deadlines come up this week.  Here is her companion’s update on their week.  From Sister Monilla:

Hello Pace family and friends!

Sister Pace is doing very good. I think she's happy. I'm doing my best to keep her happy and stable. She's just figuring out her university application. But here are some of the details of our week:

1. We had trade offs with the Wollongong sisters. Sister Pace went to Wollongong with Sister Sianava. Sister Matau and I stayed in Dapto. We had heaps of fun and saw heaps of miracles! We met Toni who said that she's open to learning more about the Gospel.

We visited Matthew before he went to Melbourne. We followed up on his coffee and tea. He joked around and told us that he had coffee in his home and offered some to his friends. But he really didn't have any in his home anymore. I was relieved. We read the Book of Mormon with him and he understood it well. He closed our visit with a prayer. In his prayer he said, "Heavenly Father, please help not to drink coffee and tea?" I just saw how much the Spirit touched his heart. He now just willing to follow. Tender mercies!

2. We had a lesson with Pamella, a part member. She told us that she loved how the church is focusing on families. She saw how much difference the gospel has brought to her son who didn't want to do anything with religion before. She had so many questions when we taught her about the Restoration but she understood it nonetheless. She has been wanting to come to church but she has been sick. We're going to see her again this week and share a little bit more with her. She's one of the cutest people here!

3. We were able to teach Anthony, a potential investigator. He said that his mum met missionaries when he was younger. He also met missionaries a year ago. He's probably met missionaries 6 times in his life now. He used to have a Book of Mormon in his home. We taught the Restoration with him and he just accepted the Book of Mormon. He's still interested in learning more about the Gospel which is good!

4. We had a short and productive visit with Rebecca. We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she said that she really wants to quit smoking again. She's super awesome though! We likened her life with living and applying the gospel. She learned the colors/shades for painting and applied it by actually painting on a canvas. We told her that that's like the Gospel, we would know if it's true when we learn more about it and apply it. She's willing to do it! She wasn't able to come to church because she was sick.

5. Park and Embark days are always so miraculous! We just commuted the whole day and opened our mouths in the buses. Some of them weren't interested but some of them were. We will be following up on them this week. We had an appointment with one of them today!

6. We knocked on the door of one of the potentials that we have but as the woman opened the door, she said that those people didn't live there. We introduced ourselves instead. She said that we could come back another day. She asked us where we are from and I told her that I'm a Filipino. She said, "There are Filipinos in that red brick house!" We told her that we'd try to come and talk to them then.

We did! They weren't Filipinos. They were Persians. The daughter, Tara, stayed to talk to us. She said that she has heaps of Mormon friends. One of them was from Wollongong ward even. She even told us that she's open to learning more about our church but she's never actually told them. We shared our purpose with her as missionaries.

As we were talking, her neighbor came and talked to us. We invited him to come and talk to us. He did but Tara went inside of her home for a bit. He told us that he read the Book of Mormon already. He knows about Joseph Smith. We told him that we could share more with him and answer his questions at another time. He then gave us his address.

Tara came out with her boyfriend. She told us that her boyfriend is a Mormon. Her boyfriend told us, "Convert her." Tara said, "I told you, I'd be baptized if I have a testimony of it." We set a return appointment with them!

What a tender mercy! Sister Pace and I praying so hard to find the elect. We were led by the Spirit to be in that specific time and place.

We've been very busy but we love it! We love you all!

Alofa,

Sister Monilla and Sister Pace