The work is progressing like wildfire here in Tamworth. Here's an update on some of our investigators:
Matt- What a beaut. He is still coming along well. His family has decided to start feeding us weekly, which is a huge blessing and a great opportunity to begin teaching and inviting the family. Another great part? One of his daughters has begun inviting friends over to the dinners as well, and we've been teaching the friends as well. It works out pretty well because they are all in the same circle as one of the young men in our ward, Montell. Miracles!
Amy- She's still on date for August 16th. We taught the Plan of Salvation this week and she really liked it. Unfortunately she didn't make it to church (seems to be the snag for most people), but we still have a few more weeks to help her get into that habit before her baptism.
Chris/Amanda/Patrick- We didn't get a chance to see them this week, but on Saturday we got Chris and Patrick to the ward party, which they really enjoyed. Chris had to work on Sunday, and Patrick tried to come to church but didn't make it until after church was finished. Too bad. There is some great news with Patrick, however; he's been telling his friend, Tyler, about the church and the Book of Mormon, and on Saturday Tyler came to the ward party as well. Anyhow Tyler came up to us that night and said "Pat's been telling me about you guys, and I was wondering if I could get baptized?". Does it get any better than that? The Lord is truly preparing His pastures. We're seeing Tyler tomorrow, and we're hoping to get him baptized with Pat and his family. That would be really special. Where there's a will, there's a way, right?
Jacob- Jake's the soon-to-be-9-year old we're teaching. We shared the Restoration with him, and holy smokes he blew us away. For only having been to church for a few months, he already knew the entire lesson and even shared his testimony with us. He loves church and loves learning about Jesus... he's really an example and reminder to me about the Lord's admonition to "Becometh as a child". I hope one day to be like Jake. The highlight of the lesson was definitely an insightful comment from Jake: "During scripture in school, they teach us that God and Jesus Christ are the same person, but I know that's not true". He already has a strong enough testimony and understanding to tell when the Christian teachers are teaching false doctrine! He's a pretty admirable kid, that's for sure.
Colin- So Colin is new on the scene. He's a former investigator we picked up, and this week he accepted the commitment to be baptized August 30th! Wo-hoo! He is a cute little man, he's a bit mentally handicapped but has a heart of gold and really desires to be baptized. We cleared it with our President and are working with the bishop to see to it that Colin is ready for baptism, but we're confident we'll be able to get him there. Exciting times!
Overall, Elder Tavalea and I think it's safe to say that the Lord is blessing us immensely. Who knew there could be this much work in Tamworth? It reminds me of Jacob 5, the allegory of the Master and the vineyard. The Master tells the servants to plant in the nethermost part of the vineyard, on the poorest and driest spot of land. Well the servants are confused but do it anyway, and the tree flourishes. When the servants ask him what happened, the Master essentially responds that He knew it was a poor spot, and yet nourished and blessed it to become the tree it is today. Elder Tavalea and I are certainly seeing that promise, that real-life application come to fruition in Tamworth. I'm learning that in missionary work, and I can assume for life, that it doesn't really matter where you go, but what you do. As a missionary, we need to do our very best no matter what part of the vineyard we're in, and the Lord will nourish that which He will.
This week the English class went off well. Tyson and Adam came to help, and Alex from Taiwan came as well as two new faces, Gaston and Maria from Argentina! It was a bit tricky because Alex's English is very basic and Gaston and Maria's is super advanced, but we made the most of it and I think it turned out fairly well. After the class we invited them all to the ward party, which they all came to!
Speaking of the ward party, it was a great activity. The theme was Christmas in July, and the American couple here was in charge of it- they set up a 9ft tall Christmas Tree they got from Taipan Trading, and it looked fit for the Festival of Lights, no joke! The food was wonderful, and it was even cold and rainy to get that real wintry-feel going. We had a great turn-out, including several less-actives and 8 investigators, which was a huge miracle! The best part of the evening was Greg, one of our investigators (the one that comes every week, but needs to get married first). We asked him to take us to pick up Chris and Patrick, and he jumped at the occasion, taking several opportunities throughout the night to bear his testimony to them, and invite them to various things. It was all a missionary could ask for- a "normal person" sharing and solidifying what we've been teaching and inviting them to do. What a huge blessing for Chris and Pat's progression.
Saturday night was topped off with Elder and Sister Killebrew, office missionaries who came up to drop off some things for us- new mattresses, a slow cooker, rice cooker, a kitchen table, several other appliances and tools, and two packages from home!! Hallelujah! It truly felt like Christmas.
And I would just like to mention that yesterday I cooked my first ever pork roast, and I didn't fail! Miracles!
For an Aussieism, I would just like to briefly mention a cool thing about la toilette. Now I still haven't figured out if they flush round the other way because I forget which way they go in America, but one interesting thing is they don't have flush-handle-things, but two buttons on top of the toilet. At first it really confused me because I was never quite sure which button to push, but I found out they are for water conservation and one button is for a light flush and the other button, a more full flush... so basically a flush for number 1 and a flush for number 2. I thought that was pretty funny. Hey, it's all for the environment, right?
Well I love you all and hope you enjoy the sweltering heat!
Elder Easton
Photo: check out that dinner! Yum!
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