Week 14

Footscray: April 11-17, 2016

        This Monday's cottage meeting was about the Word of Wisdom taught by Brother Foster. The Word of Wisdom was revealed through Prophet Joseph Smith and recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 89. It is a set of rules given to us to keep our bodies healthy.

      Before the cottage meeting, we had dinner at the bishop's house.  He gave us an apple pie to bring to the meeting.

Stephen recited his favorite poem.

Brother Foster showed us his missionary planner.  In the photo (back row) are: Bro. Phillips, Sis Wilma Delos Santos, Bro. Foster, Sis. Phillips, Bro. Delos Santos; (front row) Sister Santos, Ayesha and Sister Daroy.

      This week, we tracted and visited homes in Brooklyn.  We also visited Sister Tracy Ibrahim who was very nice to us but said that she will not be coming back to church.  She was upset about the new rules of children of same sex marriage who cannot be baptized until age 18. She was also upset that that one of her primary students before was denied missionary service because he was gay.  She then decided to join her husband's Orthodox religion. She had a lot of church books and evidently of strong faith but left the church because of this new instruction.  I believe that it is important to trust God fully even though we may not understand why things happen or why it has to be this way at this time.  Trust God because He knows what is best for us. 

Zone Meeting: The emphasis was on being exactly obedient.  Just like Moroni and the Title of Liberty, we signed our names on the Zone Leaders' polo shirt (they both tore their polos apart..haha..)

During the week, Sister Barnes invited us for dinner and served lamb, salad and pomegranate.  

Sister Nessa also made us palitaw.

On Sunday we had a workshop with the Stake President.

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At the Museum on Prep Day

Week 13

Footscray: April 4-10, 2016

Can you make a cross from a piece of paper by doing only one straight tear?

Brother Lucon Foster gave the object lesson, then shared the story of the journey of Lehi and family from Jerusalem to the Americas. Then after tearing it once and making the cross, he shared the atonement of Jesus Christ.

Then we played games and enjoyed the food that the Delos Santos family prepared for us. There was a game in which whoever rolled the 4 and 6 dice will need to wear cap, scarf, gloves and use fork and knife to eat the chocolate.

Present during this cottage meeting were: (back row) Uncle Bob, Stephen, Lauren Barnes. Bro. & Sis Phillips, Adam; (middle) Delos Santos family; (front row) Sister Daroy, Sister Santos and Brother Foster.

Mini zone conference with the Mission President.  President Maxwell emphasized the importance of striving to be exactly obedient.  After the conference and while waiting for our turn to be interviewed, Sister Maxwell introduced the PMG jeopardy game.  There were 2 teams against our companions who should complete the statements from the Preach My Gospel handbook.  My team lost by 10 points but it was still fun because we learned a lot and we definitely should reread the handbook.  We then had role plays with the assistants each companion.  I roleplayed with Elder Eyring (grandson of Elder Henry B. Eyring) giving importance to the steps - Teach, Testify, Invite, Promise Blessings, Follow up. 

After the zone interview, we joined the Relief Society Sisters (Sister Lauren and Sister Rasmussen) for temple trip.

On other days, we visited Debbie, Stephen, Leha family, Hanley family and Tishna. Brother Glen from Melton Ward remembered that Debbie's daughter, Nicole, was already baptized. Debbie wants to be baptized, too, just in case she has no baptismal records.  About Stephen, we taught him about the priesthood.  He shared his testimony and is now on Helaman 4 of the Book of Mormon.  

We visited the Leha family as part of our "Zone Game Changer".  I saw them during my first Sunday with Footscray Ward, then no more.  When we got to their place, we saw the kids playing outside the house, then we knocked at their door.  Sister Rebecca opened the door and her husband invited us in.  We learned that Sister Rebecca was a novelist (pen name was Belle Hale) and she gave us a free signed copy of her published book.  We shared a short message with their family and Brother Leha shared his testimony.  He said that they always prayed as a family and that he needed to set priorities so they can come to church.  I was thankful to my companion who persisted so we were able to share a message.

On Saturday, before the morning session of General Conference, we first met with the Zone Leaders about our area, the area book, the challenges and the success stories. Then we went to Debbie's place to ask her to come to Gen Con but she was not home.  Tishna lived across Debbie's place and so we asked her to come.  She said to call her at 12 noon to confirm if she's coming.  She did join us during BBQ lunch and the afternoon session.   

                                         

Sister Santos, Tishna, Sister Daroy

Uncle Bob, Sister Daroy, Sister Santos, Stephen

Tishna, Sister Daroy, Jennifer, Sister Santos

The Sunday General Conference:  Stephen, Adam and Tishna came.  They said they loved the conference except for Adam who left earlier in the morning session because he did not like to listen if the remaining messages were about families or fatherhood.  He said it's painful for him because he did not have a perfect family.  He said he would come back for classes but there were no classes.

President Thomas Monson's message: "May we choose to build within ourselves a great and powerful faith which will be our most effective defense against the designs of the adversary."

Elder Jeffrey Holland concluded the afternoon session of the General Conference with his message "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you."  Earlier, he made light comments that he was the only one standing between the members and the ice cream. 

We did have ice cream brought by one of the members.

Sister Aileen Newlassie brought homemade ice cream, Mango and Nutella flavor, chocolate cake and delicious meatballs.  She and her husband loved to cook.

  

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Sister Manosig. Sister Daroy, Sister Paulo, Sister Santos, Sister Tuhod

Week 12

Footscray: March 28 - April 3, 2016

The Savior provides His gospel as a Light to guide those who choose to believe and follow Him.

This week's preparation day, Sister Santos and I had the company of the Latrobe Sisters, Sister Wora Anu and Sister Tuhod, and we refreshed ourselves with nature at the Botanical Garden and the Pier. This P-Day happened to be Easter Monday holiday in Australia.

In this pier, there are seaplane exhibitions and ferry tours.

March 29: Met with Tisna whom we found last Sunday while tracting.  She opened the door and let us in immediately, quite surprising. 

She said she had been investigating a few churches but has not really found what she was looking for.  She accepted our invitation to come to church.  She has 2 kids, Ariel (17) and Miriam (11) but were not home when we came.  Across Tisna's house is Debbie's house but she's not home.

We also visited Wilma to follow-up on her preparations for baptism.  She said she is happy and excited but she didn't have her husband's consent.  Her husband allowed her to continue to come to church but without the kids. Nyageith was sad because she loved to come to church.  We invited her to fast and pray about her baptism and to soften her husband's heart.  

March 30-31: We met Adam and shared about Keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  He said he enjoyed church, agreed with the teachings but bothered that he still lacked belief in God. We shared some scripture and bore our testimony. We reset his baptism to April 16.

April 1-2: We visited Wilma but she still doesn't have her husband's consent.  She said she fasted and prayed and that amazed me. We reset her baptism to April 16.  Nyageith, even though she's still 6, always brought along her Book of Mormon even if she can't read yet. We read with her and she always prayed before the lesson with our help.  

The Delos Santos family treated us with Sister Nessa's shrimp recipe - shrimp boiled in Sprite, sauteed in butter and garlic, then simmered in tomato paste. Really good.

April 3: Adam came to church today.  Bro. Ammon Wilkes taught Atonement in Gospel Principles class. Later, Sister Rawenata, YW President, gave us a ride to Heidelberg Chapel to watch the General Women's Broadcast. (Sister Rawenata loved to snowboard and had been to Vancouver, Japan, etc. to snowboard.)

General Women's Broadcast: I like how the speakers focused on Service.  I also liked the quote by Sister Neill Marriott, "Love is making space in your life for someone else."

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