Sounds like the last week has been a success! Congrats Dad on winning third place in your age division of the 5K race! That is awesome! :) And all the pictures are lovely :) Scott i love your hair like that with the side swoop! It looks awesome!
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| Local wildlife in Park Ridge |
We are continuing to teach the lovely Cherilee! Sister Alifipo came with us and we shared about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. it went great, at the end we sang "Lord I would follow thee" and the Spirit was strong, it was lovely. Cherilee wants to be baptized but she still smokes and isn't married to her partner, but she has a testimony of what we teach her. She always comes to church now and always speaks so lovingly and highly of Sister Cocker and I. But i was thinking the other day in church, when Jesus came, how some listened and some didnt, and how he said so boldy and simply, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." We can praise the Lord all day but if we arent trying to really do what He asks, we dont truly love him. What a hard and amazing truth.
That night we went and taught the PM Maile family. The kids are great :) Sister Maile is a member but less active and Brother Maile was baptized a long time ago but now he drinks and doesnt attend. He was so nice to us. He came in at the end of the lesson and told us how much he appreciates and loves missionaries and his own children and how he wants to give up drinking. He is Tongan and all his kids have super tongan names that are hard for me to say haha. Kafoa, Tokie, Ate, and Loka. And Maryanne. Lovely family and home.
On Thursday we taught an investigator Colin who has been having lessons since the dawn of time. The lesson was all over the place but he talked about how the Lord has blessed him with peace of mind which he hasnt had for a long while. We committed him to ask in prayer if the Book of Mormon is true and he did.
We also saw the less-active Elkington family! Man less actives are like my favorite for some reason, i love sharing messages with them. We got in the door because i had to use the bathroom. We shared a little thought on prayer and prayed with her, Sister Elkington who is a member and her daughter who isnt. On Friday we taught Zhadee again who is doing good, we have to keep going over book of mormon and prayer with her because she is struggling in recognizing and answer to her prayers.
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| I asked Sister Schaelling for a picture of kangaroos hopping ... here ya go! She said there are "kangaroo crossing" signs all over the place |
We went to dinner with a kiwi (new zealander) family in our ward, the Wall's. They're Maori and awesome. We sang "My Heavenly Father loves me" at the end of our message and i love singing with my comp and the other two sisters. My companion has a beautiful islander voice that brings the spirit. It was lovely.
On Saturday we started the day off by attending a baptism! A boy in the ward was getting baptized, childhood record. It was so lovely. Baptisms are so special. Cherilee came with us and was just crying when the little boy, Nico's older brother was giving a talk about the Holy Ghost and baptism. His brother was like 9 or 10 and his talk was so sweet and simple. Cherilee wishes she could have raised her children in the church. Then we did lots of tracting. Something about the Australia Brisbane Mission is we are required to do 14 finding hours a week. This is a little hard for me because i love to visit people, less actives, potential investigators, ect. and i wish we had more time to do that. Finding hours is knocking on doors or GQ'ing (street contacting) people which isnt the most effective, but we do it anyway because thats what were supposed to do. Also, tracting is how we found like all of our progressing investigators, so obviously it works :)
That night we taught the Virtue's! i wish we could teach them more than just once a week, but hey. So we followed up oh how they liked church but they said they liked theirs better, sadly! We taught about prayer and receiving and answer to prayer. James feels that many churches are true and God loves us all so much. Which is mostly true. We have been trying to explain that through Joseph Smith the Priesthood was restored, so the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church with the fulness of the gospel. He isnt really understanding too well but we will work with him, Jasmin, his wife read some of the book of mormon :) Brother and Sister Ngawaka came with us to teach and bore solid testimonies. So good to have members out with us, it makes me feel like i dont have to do this alone :) Were a team, the members and the missionaries :)
That night we had HANGI (pronounced hung ee) for dinner! Brother Stockman our WML did a fund raiser. So hangi is a islander/maori feast where all the food is cooked in the ground. So it was chicken, stuffing, corned beef, potatoes, fry bread and delicious food. so. good. i will send a picture!
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| HANGI--chicken, stuffing, corned beef, potatoes, fry bread all cooked in the ground |
Church was lovely as always, Cherilee came. After i had a chat with a recent convert, Norman, about the Holy Ghost and sacrament and prayer. Recent converts are still so new and need our fellowship and prayers.
Family i love you all! This week i also got bit by a bull ant while talking to a lady at her door, wow! That hurt, thankfully she gave me some ice. This is the last week of the transfer sadly! i do hope i stay in Park Ridge with Sister Cocker but odds are slim. We have like 16 new sister coming in and Sister Cocker is a boss trainer so i bet we get split so she can train again. we shall see!
much love,
Sister Schaelling
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