How many weeks has it been?

G'day! Yet another week has passed, and it's been great! Here's an update on current investigators:

Monica is still Golden. She didn't make it to church yesterday, but still has a super strong desire to learn more. We taught the Plan of Salvation last week and she didn't have any questions!! It just made sense to her... like I said, golden! 

Doris came to church yesterday, and loved it. The whole ward really fellowshipped and talked to her, which was a blessing on High. She's planning on getting baptized at the end of the month, but we've still got a lot to teach her. Pray that she'll continue to understand everything we teach her!

...and that's about it! Elder Han and I have really been trying to increase our teaching pool, but to no avail. Hopefully after some more contacting this week, we'll have more investigators! I did find a potential last week, kind of a fun story. The Zone Leaders borrowed our car for a day so Elder Han and I were using the train and bus. We were in Strathfield (aka Koreatown) and a little old lady came and sat near me at the bus stop. Elder Han was on the phone, so I decided to give it a try and talk to her. Her name's Ki Ju, she's from Seoul and is so nice!! I tried to speak in Korean and she just laughed, but apparently it made an impression. When Elder Han came over she told him (in Korean, so I didn't understand until later) that she thought I was a cute white boy and so she was going to take us out to lunch later in the week. We grabbed her mobile and met up with her a few days later. This time she was with an even older lady, her 80-year sister (still unsure of her name). Ki Ju's sister was KOREAN AS, it was awesome. Anyways these two ladies walked us over to a Korean restaurant and we had lunch. It was delicious Korean food, but kind of awkward. We all just sat there and ate, whenever I tried to talk the conversation died right away... I felt kinda bad about it because when I asked if we could share a message, they said "Call us and do it", so we didn't even talk to them about the gospel.. However, at the end of the meal, Ki Ju said "I'll take you out again next month!". Elder Han told me after that the Ladies were kind of testing us, and we passed! So I guess that was good! Hopefully we'll get to visit them before next month and practice our Korean.. but there's definitely still hope!

Along the lines of the car being gone, you'd be proud to know that we biked to our last appointment that day, and it was an hour away! I actually really enjoyed it, the biking was really fun (Except I had helmet hair.. haha).

Oh! So this week I had my first Bible-bashing experience! We showed up at this referral's house, he was an older man but seemed really nice. Anyways we sat down and he had his Book of Mormon and Bibles on the table and a paper with a bunch of notes... and for the next hour we totally got smashed. He sat down and the first thing he said was "Okay. Convince me Mormonism is truth. What's your argument?". We told him we weren't here to argue, just to testify, which we did. He went off about prophets and other dumb stuff and we just testified again, but he even challenged our testimonies saying that "You can't KNOW it's true because it's based on feelings, not fact" or something. I think his problem was he just didn't believe you could come to know something only by feelings, but rather by logic (He also happened to have a Philosophy degree... joy). Well we took the advice of Joseph and "Got out of there" pretty quickly. It was funny for me, it actually turned out to be a real testimony building experience. It showed to me exactly how Satan works into people to make them "logic out" the truth, to ignore the Spirit because it's not "intellectually correct". I guess he was just a living example of how the wise are the foolish.

Halloween was fun, not as exciting as in the States. On the bright side, Elder Han and I got a brand new car! Our car was the 2nd oldest in the mission, and so they went and bought new ones so ours got phased out. It's a 2013 Toyota Corolla and only had 50 Ks on it when we got it... not to mention that New Car Smell, mmm.

On Saturday night, I probably had the best experience of the week. Hyde Park, the YSA ward in the city, gave Elder Han and I a list of their members who live in our area. Since we are more mobile than the missionaries in the city (they're stuck in a little area), and the YSA has practically no Home Teachers, the bishop asked Elder Han and I to go visit some of the Less Active members and check up on them. After calling down almost the whole list, this girl named Sabrina answered and said she was available that evening if we wanted to stop by, which was really surprising. We planned to teach her about going to church and how it can help us in day-to-day life, since we figured she was probably just less active. We got to her lesson and began talking to her, and she had such a firm testimony. She had been converted like 15 years previous, and was way more knowledgeable than I was in the gospel... needless to say she wasn't less active and seemed to be strong in every area of the gospel. I had no idea why were there. Then I just felt like I should share D/C 4:2. Elder Han read it, about putting your whole heart, might, mind and strength into the Lord's work. Sabrina looked up from the scriptures and had tears flowing down her face. I don't remember what I told her, but I know that whatever I did say, it was exactly what she needed. She later told us that she was really struggling with some trials right now and was really surprised when we called her, because she had been sinking really low that day and needed help. I then told her that the missionaries will always there to be the priesthood she needs (she's a single lady), and I gave her a blessing. Needless to say we were all in tears and it was a very spiritual experience. It amazed me that the Lord really does know each of us and wants to help us- I had no idea when we went over why we needed to be there, but through us He was able to help Sabrina. It was such a humbling experience to be able to have the Lord work through me to bless someone in need; I guess for the first time, I kind of experienced what it means when the scriptures tell us to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I know that it's experiences like Saturday night that remind me why I'm on a mission.

Well, I love you all lots! Thanks again for all the love and support. The work goes on!

Love Elder Easton

p.s. Spiritual thought for the week: Alma 38:5.

p.p.s. Australian quirk of the week: No one serves ice... like what the heck?!?

Talk to you all in a week!