Teaching, tracting, finding new and less actives, giving training. People welcomed our presence and accepted our invitations. In Tasmania, lots of original Australians and Nepalese, a bit different in Melbourne where I met heaps of Polynesians..also snow in the mountains and crazy fun mix of rain, hail and sun as we went about..A great week!
Oct 10, Monday - It took us 3 hours to get to Hobart, capital of Tasmania, from Launceston. The weather was crazy fun - rained, hailed, sunny and vice versa. Seemed like the big dark cloud was following us, haha..The view was magnificent; there were lots of sheep.
We ate dinner with my comp Sister Tupu's aunt and her husband. They are not LDS but her aunt was active in recording family history while Nigel accepted our invitation to search his family as well.
We spent the night with the Glen Huon Sisters. They got a cake from one of the members' birthday party.
Sister Ligica from Fiji, Sister Haenga from Brisbane
Oct 11, Tuesday - This view was taken during our early morning exercise..brrr soo cold, colder than Launceston; also a pose from one of the rivers ..
Then we attended the Zone meeting with Hobart District. A split zone meeting for Hobart and Devonport Hobart was held.
SisTAS which means Sister missionaries in Tasmania..haha I gave the sister group name. L_R: Sister Ligica, Sister Roberts (Florida, Sandy Bay area), Sister Tupu, Sister Haenga (Brisbane, Glen Huon area), Me, Sister Pratt (Golden from Layton, Utah, Sandy Bay area) Sandy Bay sisters were Chinese program. Just awesome Americans speaking Chinese.
My companion and I gave training about Family History as a powerful finding tool. People that we meet might not be interested about our message but in family history.
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| HOBART District |
Then we went up Mt. Wellington for lunch with the Glen Huon Sisters. It was snowing up the Mountain and saw a wallaby.
After lunch, we returned to Launceston and had dinner with Sister Taylor. Sister Taylor had a big property but alone because her husband passed away 3 years ago. He used to be the CES Coordinator. We shared the Plan of Salvation and encouraged her to invite friends to the Ward Talent Show and start gospel conversations using the Family history Card and the Family Proclamation to the world. We were excited to follow up.
Oct 12, Wednesday - Visited Sister Birell, 90, active and pretty independent. We read with her Mark 9, the scripture of the day for the Stake Scripture Reading challenge.
This is Balfour St., the steepest street I think. Challenge if we can run straight from bottom to top, so far, can't even hike up without wheeww..out of breath!
We then ate lunch at Park City, where the monkeys were but couldn't find them. Sister Tupu prepared tuna and ham sandwich. When it started hailing, we ran back to the car and grabbed dessert snowcones to our next appointment.
Also visited Sister Byrne but seemed like no one's home, this is her property..soo beautiful and big.
We also visited a few less actives in the ward list and found Brenda while tracting. She talked to us and offered to pay for the pamphlet we gave her. We told her that it's free and she agreed that we come back and share more.
We had dinner with the Kauwhata family with Justine, Peta (YSA student staying with them) and David (non-LDS friend of Justine and Peta, a Chinese from Malaysia). We taught David the Plan of Salvation and invited him to be baptized. He understood that following the gospel of Jesus Christ will help him go back to Heavenly Father's presence.
Also met Jamuna and her family from Nepal, a bit hard teaching them because of language barrier. Sister Tupu and I managed to teach and read to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The family invited us to Jamuna's brother's wedding next week.
Oct 13, Thursday - Stopped by this small pier on our way to the Read family.
Read family is Scottish, I loved their accent. A view of their property from the kitchen.
Sister Read prepared pasta, yummy, and ice cream for dessert. She shared her conversion story, how when she was 16 years old in Scotland, she visited the church and asked a member if she was allowed inside. The member smiled and said, yes, then called the missionaries and introduced her to them. She was looking for a church and felt the Spirit here. Brother Read was with the British Air Force during the war and had a cabinet full of model airplanes..soo cool!
We then attended Ward Council and I got to meet for the first time the auxiliaries and Josh, the ward mission leader.
Oct 14, Friday - After our DLC over the phone, we visited Allison, Emma and Shirelle. Lunch at the Gorge.
This is Grandpa Jack, 92, very active, joined EVERY church activity, including Women's Broadcast, attended both Esk Ward and Tamar Ward. He had a big family, always greeted members at the door, and opened the door for everyone. He bought us dinner today, fish and chips.
We also visited another family, Vinen. Sister Vinen's cat slept on my lap, not sure what to do..haha. We shared Prayer and she said that it had helped her in life.
Oct 15, Saturday- We did service today by painting a room in Sister Bec's house. Her house was flooded months earlier. I was very excited to do painting, something different from my previous areas where we weed. She had 2 lovely kids.
We visited Anne, a former investigator, whom we called yesterday to make today's appointment. (Her name kept popping up days earlier. I saw a letter addressed to her from previous missionaries in the car and I wondered who Anne was.) Anne showed us her birds. We had a good discussion about living prophets and said she would read the Book of Mormon. According to her, three of her kids were ministers of other churches and she would go to Flinders Island every 2 weeks. We hope we could catch her again despite her busy schedule.
The Challis Family gave us dinner today, such cool and funny family!. Brother Challis just retired from being principal in a school. Brother and Sister Challis were Sunday School teachers and preparing to serve a mission. They enjoyed family history works and travelling, would be going to Europe for 5 months next year.
Oct 16, Sunday - I got to meet the members in Tamar Ward. I was invited to share a missionary moment at the opening of Relief Society. I shared about how we met Karen and how smiles and prayer helped us find people to teach.
Later, had dinner with the bishop and his family who lived near Perth. While in the area, we visited a few less actives. We met Bro. Daniel and he gave us each a Footy ball and his son, Isaac, taught us how to throw the ball properly. His wife and children had been attending Catholic church and school and he didn't want to confuse them with different religions. He said that one day, he would come back to LDS.
