Feb. 21 What a wonderful week

I've realized since coming to Australia that I'm not a huge fan of Indian food. We had a few experiences this week with different kinds. Unfortunately, some experiences are better than others. We had one time where the food was so spicy, and so different to anything we normally eat, it affected us so badly for the next 2 days. But the people are really nice, and just want to feed us out of respect and love.

But we had a baptism this week! That is such an amazing time, and the whole day and week is blessed by it. 3 of the girls we've been teaching were ready to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized (John 3:5). The feeling you get seeing someone make a promise to follow Jesus Christ is so wonderful. But my very favourite part is hearing their testimonies at the end. The feelings they get come straight from God. The commitment is not to join a church, but to feel the love of God more in their lives, and to access His gospel. It is so great to see that change in someone, and it's always a change for the better :)

I don't know if you can tell, but sometimes I run out of words that are positive enough to describe how I'm feeling. Let's just say really really happy. This is the work of God, helping his children come closer to him. I love my Saviour Jesus Christ. I know that his example is the way we can feel true happiness in this life. Sometimes we feel like we are happy enough with where we are at, but there is so much more that can be felt, and that is through Jesus Christ.

Feb. 14 Staying in Mildura

It's the start of another transfer, and I'm here in Mildura! So is Sister Tamana, which is amazing, she's been here since last June :) But of all the places to stay for that long, this one is definitely the best. We had a miracle this week with the prospective elder! We have a neighbour with a CTR tattoo behind his ear, and we've kind of had the feeling that he knows more about the church than he tries to let on. (And they're really good neighbors, his wife made homemade tomato jam and gave some to us) Anyway, we knocked on his door this week and we randomly asked if he knew what the priesthood was. Not at first, but as he started talking and saying different things he'd done at church, he definitely had the Aaronic priesthood. And he kind of remembered what a stake president was, and he knew about P-days :) So we asked him if he wouldn't mind having a visit with the stake president when he came down, and he said all good! That was a really good testimony to me of the prospective elder, and really trying all we can to find them. Especially here, there are members just hiding out, not on the records at all. But once we find them, that can start the process back. I love this work, and know that there are great things ahead as we are diligent in seeking the Lord's hand with everything we do. That's a little bit of my email to President, sometimes I use that in my group email as well. Those are generally the longer emails :) But not this week, cause most of my email was about my new assignment, as a Sister Training Leader. It's so crazy, especially because I haven't even trained yet. But I'm still with Sister Tamana, so we get to do it together, which should be fun. I'm so happy and excited for the future!

I don't know if I sent this photo yet, but I really love it. That happiness is real :D

February 1, 2016 What a doggie week

What an interesting week! I think the heat here is affecting everyone, though we've had a couple good days with rain. On one of the hot days, a member fell asleep at our lesson! We were teaching a 9 year old girl, and we were all giggling a bit, without actually mentioning what had happened :)

If anyone was wondering about the title of my email this week, we had a few interesting experiences with canines this week. First, we met a beautiful husky, whose owner at first was trying to shut the door on us. But this persistant pooch let us have a good conversation with him :) Not long after, we came across a Labrador who was wandering around looking lost. We improvised a leash and tried to look for it's owner. Someone said the dog had followed them from a few streets away, so we gave up and let her free. But, she really wanted to do missionary work! She started following us around, as we were knocking on doors. We would think she was gone, then up she'd walk and try to go into peoples' homes. Poor thing, we were so sad to leave her. Then there were some pretty scary dogs that luckily were on a chain....

I had some pretty authentic Polynesian food this week. One of the dishes they make in Tonga is lamb wrapped in taro leaves, and you eat the leaves as well! We had a really amazing Family night with bishop and his family and Losana, and then we ate dinner after :) They also have something called cassava, which is kind of like a potato, just a lot more starchy.

Something I forgot to mention about last week, we had a family come to church that haven't been for at least a year. We've been teaching their daughters Morna and Tainai, and now they've come to church 2 weeks in a row! The girls can't wait to be baptized :)

1. Morna and Tainai, with their siblings (whose names I don't know how to spell..)

2. Shuwen (really amazing investigator from Malaysia) and Sister Tamana

I love these people :D Have a great week!

February 1, 2016 Grapes and companions on appt!

There are a lot of farmers here, or people who work on farms. It's grape season right now, and EVERYONE gives us grapes all the time. We freeze them, it's a really delicious snack. But here's a photo to demonstrate. We get bunches like this at least 3 times a week.

President and Sister Parker have been here for the weekend, and last night they came to a teaching appointment with us! I was so nervous, it was a little rough, but the spirit was there, so that's important :)

January 24, 2016, The miracles of Mildura

Sorry for my lame explanation of the area where I am now serving. I love it here! And Heavenly Father has truly prepared people here for us to teach.

I first want to tell you about a wonderful Tahitian family that moved into the ward at the same time as me. They are such great missionaries,  and she loves coming out teaching with us and sharing her experiences. And on their first Sunday in the ward they brought the daughter of their friend who wanted to come to church! Her name is Mika, and she is an awesome 17 year old who we are now teaching.

Then, later this week, we found Losana. She is truly a miracle. We were talking to a family who were outside their house, and they said that maybe their neighbour, a Fijian lady, would want to talk to us about God. We went over, knocked on her door, and as soon as she saw us she invited us in. Turns out, her ENTIRE family back in Fiji are members, and she was even taught by some missionaries there. But then she moved to Australia, and hadn't been to church. Also, her brother is serving a mission somewhere in America right now, and she emails him every week. She wanted to learn from us, and she also wants to be baptized next month! What a blessing, and especially the random way we found her. I'm so grateful for all the experiences I can have while I'm here.

Yesterday after church we had another amazing experience. We pulled over to talk to someone who ended up not being interested, but we were near a park so we just decided to walk around and see who was there. One lady sitting on a bench really stood out to us, and we approached her. We could see that she had been crying recently, but as we talked to her she shared how much more peace she felt just from talking with us. We ended up having a lesson with her and shared a lot about prayer, touching a bit on the Plan of Salvation. Unfortunately we couldn't get a return appointment with her, but she had our number so we were hopeful and excited about the great lesson we'd had. Then just 20 minutes later (after having another lesson with a couple at the park) we see a man sitting on the same bench. We went over to talk to him and he ended up being the previous lady's husband! We also had a good lesson with him, and he really opened up a lot to us. We have a return appointment to see him and his wife, now that we know them both individually. Heavenly Father truly prepared them and placed them right in our path.

I love you all, and hope you have a miraculous week! (Big or small, miracles are still miracles, and we can see God's hand everywhere in our life)

Sister Tamana!!

January 17, 2016, Greetings from...MILDURA!

Transfers this week, and I am now in Mildura, Victoria! So much has happened this week, it's kind of crazy. Let me start with a little bit of background. We found out last Monday that I was being transferred, and so we spent the day packing up and I said goodbye to Catarina, which was pretty hard to do. But, we know I have to get transferred sometime, it's part of the job :) So we drove here on Tuesday, and it takes about 6 hours. I finally got to see the Australian countryside! I was driving, and it was so flat but so beautiful. The weather here is even hotter than Adelaide, but it was really weird on Wednesday, my first day here, we had a dust storm! So crazy, seeing these red clouds appear, then it was just like eating the dust, it got everywhere! Then the next couple days were raining and staying around 80 degrees, which I loved :D But now it's back to normal, 100-110 is normal weather.

The people here are wonderful, but more on them next week.

A quick note about my new companion, Sister Tamana. She has been here for almost 9 months, and really knows the area well. Such a great example, and her teaching is awesome!

Have a great week!

 Goodbyes to Catarina and Sister Quinton

Solos and Indian Food

We were on tradeoffs with Allenby Gardens this week, and I got to be back with my MTC companion Sister Rougeau! We went to a member's home for dinner, and apparently they have a tradition there for new missionaries.... which they waited to tell me about til after we had eaten and had dessert. The tradition is that the missionary must sing a solo, 3 verses of a hymn of their choice, with the whole family and friends watching. Oh and just maybe be recorded while doing it. Sister Rougeau knows how to sing, so I was really trying to get her to sing with me, but that was a no. I got to sing that solo all by myself.

Funny finding story from this week. We were riding our bikes down the street, on our way to visit someone, and there was this really strong smell of Indian food. We kept going down the street, and our friend wasn't home. So riding back up the street, we were thinking, "If they're cooking, they must be home!" We basically sniffed them out, trying to determine which house that heavenly smell was coming from. It was so funny, but it worked! We found this family, who invited us in and we got to teach them about God.

So we're on bikes a lot. I'm used to it now, but sometimes it can still be challenging. Saturday night we had stopped to talk to this lady parked on the side of the street, and parked our bikes on the footpath (sidewalk). Before we were done, one of my companions had walked off to talk to another family, so 2 of us were left with 3 bikes to push down the street, with the neighbours watching us and then wondering, "Why is this weird girl coming to talk to me?" But that's the fun part of missionary work :)

Sister Craig, my first companion, is going home this week, and so she's been staying her with Sister Goisisi and I. Fun to have both of them here.

And this photo is one of the beautiful sunsets I got to see this week, Australia is really such a gorgeous place. So lucky to be here, doing the work of the Lord.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and are able to recognize the little miracles God gives to us every day :)

Sisters Goisisi, Craig, Townsend