Week 3

Footscray: Jan 25-31, 2016

I got a car!  But as you see, it wouldn’t get us around, so we continued street contacting and met interesting people at Footscray stations. Well, they say this area is either footscary or footscrazy.

We had been preparing individuals and families for baptism. The Hanley family committed to be baptized this coming Sunday, Feb 7. The 3 kids, Alex -12, Ethan -10, Joel -8, were always excited to see us. I thought at first that these kids would be bored or something but they were fun and have a lot of questions,. Great kids! We encouraged them to invite their friends to their baptism. Their mom, Kylie, is a member while their dad, Rob, is not yet a member and said he doesn't want to be baptized because he doesn't want to give up smoking and drinking but he wants to be sealed with his family.. ^_^..

Another investigator, Stephen, looks forward to be baptized on Feb. 13. He quit smoking last year (after 52 years) and stopped drinking coffee for a week now.  Interesting because 2 weeks ago, we encouraged him to stop drinking coffee and he replied that was impossible. Three days after we had that conversation, he told us that one morning as he was about to make coffee, something held him back to open the coffee lid, and so he had not drunk coffee since then.

Remember Janna? Or Gianna. We met her 2 weeks ago but only got to visit her back this week because of tight schedules.  She said that she was expecting us 2 weeks ago and we felt guilty. She shared her experiences about her dad 33 years ago who was not interested in any religion until the Mormon elders came. She has been living alone with her dog Bella. She said that she always has faith in Christ. Yes, she does have great faith and she’s great! She agreed to be baptized on Feb. 20 and we look forward to help her prepare. In church, she requested for Priesthood blessing of comfort. After the blessing, she asked Brother Foster (the one who gave the blessing) how did he knew about her daughter and their relationship. It was a cool experience because no one else knew about it except us, the sister missionaries. It’s amazing how the Spirit works and that Priesthood blessings really do come from God.

A few aussie slangs - Mate, Arvo, Oggin, Sheila, Nikminit..and lots of tropical fruits here!

With the Richmond sisters from Jake Manggakahia's ward

Sis. Albania's bday, Jan 24th, at De Los Santos home

Week 2

Footscray: Jan 18-25, 2016

The weather was weird. I was getting better in knowing the streets, buses and the area although, we still need to improve on using our time wisely especially in catching trains and buses. We also met a lot of interesting people. Last week, while waiting for the bus, one woman told us that saving the planet is a better mission than what we are doing. She said that God can take care of Himself. We tried to explain that if people know about God and that He created all things, then people would take good care of the planet (Doctrine & Covenants 104:15-17). It was pretty interesting meeting her. 

Every time we asked previously-assigned missionaries about this area, they would always say ’you have the best area’ with a grin, sooo very challenging eh? Mostly, Vietnamese live here. Leaders gave us advices like ‘don't get stabbed’ and ‘don’t stay in train stations after 8:30 p.m.’

It was our second Sunday at Footscray Ward yesterday and I think I was doing better in remembering and knowing the members than last Sunday. We already had dinner invites for the whole week and I may have to postpone my diet plans. 

I learned that the gospel is really there for us to have a peace that no one else can have because of the knowledge that the gospel brings.  There is so much to learn from the scriptures that affect every aspect of our lives. I love the peace I get from this work. I am so excited to teach and open my mouth to everyone, ALWAYS. 

We had a worldwide missionary devotional on Saturday that was very inspiring and motivated us to teach people, talk to EVERYONE, not be afraid to share the gospel because EVERYONE deserves the chance to hear it, and we never know who is ready.

Week 1

Footscray: Jan 13-17, 2016

I left MTC-Provo on Monday, Jan 11 and arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday, Jan 13; had a 13-hr flight that was painfully long (only because I can't watch the videos) - from Salt Lake City to San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand (13 hrs) and Auckland to Melbourne (2 hrs). I slept as long as I could. The food was good, really good so I ate it all, even ordered as much complimentary drinks as possible. When I got off the plane, holy hotness, it was so hot, 44 oC.  I got past security quickly, no questions asked, guess it’s my charms. While we were waiting for other missionaries to arrive at the airport, we contacted people, that was interesting. Then we got on a bus to the Mission Office, which is literally across the Melbourne Temple! how cool is that??!

My mission parents are President Maxwell (his dad is/was Neal A Maxwell!!) and Sister Karen Bradshaw Maxwell, formerly of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We had dinner at the mission home, some were too tired to eat but me, I ate all the food served and even got ice cream ..hahha.. 

Then I got my companion, Sister Albania (who has been out for 13 months), got to the flat, planned, went to bed and fell asleep right away. I slept really good, woke up on time and no jet lag at all, that was cool. 

My first day, Thursday, we GQed (street contacting) and since we didn’t have a car, we rode the bus, train, and tram everywhere, it’s actually cool! 

Our area is Footscray; this place is hot, big and full of people from all over the world! It is like a treasure hunt to find people who are ready, but that's what makes it fun! Also, on Thursday we went to the city for district meeting.

We did finding for 2-3 hours daily; we knocked on doors and shared the gospel. Most of the people were not interested but we had 2 new contacts last week. We met Janna and Wilma's family.  After church, we got to  share a lesson with Wilma's family; she's from Sudan, lived here in Australia for almost 8 years, has 4 kids, committed to attend church next Sunday and also to read the Book of Mormon.  We will be teaching her again on Thursday. I also found some calamansi trees, haha knocked on someone’s door and asked for calamansi- she said 'no' to our message but said 'yes' to the calamansi, so I picked 5 calamansi (next time I’ll bring a big bag).

But yeah, that was my week in a nutshell! Church is great, the members are nice.  Of course, I got asked to bear my testimony, then there were cupcakes after the Relief Society meeting. I look Vietnamese, they say, can't escape it.. haha, anyways, I love the gospel, the church is true and I love talking to people (getting there) and sharing my testimony!! I love becoming better everyday!

MTC, Provo, UT

Missionary Training Center (MTC), Provo, UT
Dec 30, 2015 - Jan 11, 2016

Dec. 30, 2015 was the first day of my mission and my first day at MTC.  I love MTC, had so much fun and fellowships with fellow missionaries, learned a lot of things in classes and workshops, was assigned by the MTC presidency as Missionary Leader, and got the chance to attend Provo Temple. With many lovely memories, I left MTC for Australia Melbourne mission on Jan. 11, 2016.

Notes: 

I met the Branch Presidency and missionaries where each one said something about self and shared testimonies. Oh, and most of them were 18s and 19s, there was one 20, and I was the youngest. ^_^. The branch presidency was nice. My companion, Sis Burden, and I, were assigned to be the Sister Training Leaders for the branch. There were 5 elders and 2 sisters in our district for Australia Melbourne Mission. There were 4 missionaries in our residence and we would always go by four - me, Sister Burden, and Sisters Ysasaga and Marzarella (for California Rancho Cucamonga Mission). I always had my room key, name tag, MTC blue card (which was used to access buildings and cafeteria) and my companion with me.  It was a bit weird at first but I got used to having a companion 24/7, sight and sound.

I met missionaries such as Sis Alcober and Sis Arcilla from the Philippines who will be serving in South Korea mission, Sister Ferreira from Brazil who will be serving in Canada Toronto Mission (my home mission), and more elders and sisters who will be serving in Philippines Cebu and Tacloban Missions.  I would sometimes speak to the Tongan missionaries in Cebuano!

We had gospel classes and workshops. Our teachers were Brother Kottcamp and Sister Badham whom we learned more about the Preach My Gospel. During classes we did some role playing, studying, role playing, writing, role playing, highlighting and did I mention role playing? Also, I learned more about our purpose as missionaries which is to invite others to come unto Christ and help them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost and endure to the end.  Also, one of our new teachers was Sister Bodine who just returned from Canada Toronto Mission, my home mission. In the People and Your Purpose workshop, we met actual investigators. It was fun. The investigators had a lot of questions and just when the discussions were going fine, the workshop was done.  One time we taught an investigator from a lesson prepared for another investigator and it was chaos.  We felt bad, discontented and humbled by that experience.  We learned how the sons of Mosiah (Alma 17:2-3) prepared when they went on mission. 

Each week when missionaries arrived (400ish or 500ish), we got the chance to welcome the new missionaries belonging to our zone.   Together with the zone leaders, we toured them around MTC. We also had a mission conference with the Director of International MTCs (Kelly and Kathy Mills) and watched Character of Christ by Elder Bednar, apostle, and learned that Christ always turns outward in contrast to the natural man who always turns inward and become self-centered. We also had a devotional with Dean Davies, 1st counselor of the Presiding Bishopric and learned that God does not give challenges that will impede our progress, sometimes challenges come because it is the only way to learn and grow.  I also learned that success comes by the power of God through us and that the Book of Mormon has answers to our questions.

We also had yoga and kickboxing classes /exercises. I sweat a lot in the kickboxing class.  On new year’s eve, we got to see some fireworks outside our window around 10 p.m. and slept at 10:30 p.m. Mealtime was always a surprise.  There were different menus everyday and tempting. Could have tried all of them!