Week 4

Footscray: Feb 1-7, 2016

What a busy and joyful week!  The baptism of the 3 kids of the Hanley family on Feb 7!  The kids invited their friends and they came. Remember their dad, Rob, who doesn’t want to be baptized but wants to be sealed with his family?..^_^...yes, he came to the ordinance wearing a WHITE SHIRT and a TIE along with some of their non-member relatives. What a joy! I always delight in seeing families who are brought together by the gospel.  (Photos below)

Alexandra, 12, Ethan, 10, Joel, 8. Behind them are Dad Rob and Mom Kylie. Beside Alex is Elder Rands, our zone leader, who will baptize her and Joel.  Behind me is Elder Roberts who will baptize Ethan.

We are also preparing our invesigator, Stephen, for his baptism on the 13th.  He showed a lot progress in the Word of Wisdom.  A bit camera shy.

Wednesday, Feb 3 - our Golden Review. The January Goldens, not Greenies, haha, or the missionaries with whom I came to Melbourne last Jan 13^th, nine of us, took the challenge of writing the 22 Principles with scriptures the fastest. Well, I'm very competitive in nature and I took the challenge seriously. My companion and I practiced writing on the mirror using the erasable markers. Well, you can say our efforts paid off. I got a Crunchie chocolate –prize, oh, and I found out the different kinds of Cadbury chocolates, never seen them before anywhere else.  However, the real prize was that I was able to familiarize the Principles and know what scripture to use during teaching.

Melbourne Temple

Thursday, Feb 4 - our Zone Conference, a recharger! I love the training during zone conference. T’was from 9am-5pm but it felt like it was cut short. I wanted to learn more. I was reminded of the promise that the Spirit will always be there when we teach people (as long as we are worthy, obedient...and more). Sometimes I forget that promise when I shouldn't. If I don't believe or have confidence on that promise, then giving promises to the people we teach won't be as effective. I want to rely on the Spirit. Sister Maxwell also did a wonderful study session. Sometimes during personal study, I stumble on words /phrases /doctrine /history that I want to learn more and I think to myself that if I am back home and I have access to the internet, I can learn more things to guide me in my personal studies. However, Sister Maxwell reminded me that we can learn so much from the scriptures, if we just know how to use the index, topical guide, bible dictionary, etc. It was a very uplifting zone conference. Lunch was provided. After the meal, the zone stood up and sang "Called to Serve" to the Relief Society sisters who prepared the meal.

After church, we attended Missionary Fireside at Deer Park around 7 pm where missionaries with their recent converts and investigators gathered to listen to President Maxwell.  I met Elder Saran, from Malaysia, and he said that Elder Concardas is his trainer/dad and if ever he meets someone who used to live in the Philippines and is now Canadian somewhere, to say 'Hi'. So Elder Saran finally met me yesterday and said 'Hi'..haha..

Every opportunity to share the gospel is golden. I met a recent convert named Holly and she shared to us her conversion story. She said that she used to tell the Elders that they were devil worshippers etc. But the missionaries kept coming back, kept following up on her. She said that she felt the Spirit, the feeling was so strong that eventually she got the answer to her prayers and decided to be baptized. 

Time flies on wings of lightning. Have a good week every one!. Remember CPR. It will save your life. Church. Prayer. Read the Scriptures.

In our flat

Sister Albania cooked spaghetti.  I ate!