The cold winds and the frost have come... and with it, several places in Oz have started to snow! It hasn't snowed in Tamworth since 1984, but hey, there are always miracles!!
Besides the bone-chilling weather, Tamworth has continued to be the best place ever to serve.
This week we had lunch at the Greens- Brother Green is the one who recently lost his wife. Anyways he used to own a pizza/burger joint, and still has the knack for making the best burgers in the world. He made us his famous "Super Stud Burger" and boy was it delicious- it had all the classic Australian toppings, from beetroot to fried egg, and his special ingredient- french fries!! Needless to say it was a burger to match the likes of Five Guy's... and that's saying something.
Besides gorging myself on giant burgers, we also had a trade-off with the Zone Leaders this week. I was with Elder Bardsley; he's from Perth. Awesome elder. The exchange was pretty great, and my favorite part was the evaluation at the end. Now usually they are the most awkward part- those evaluations are a time for the leader to chastise the missionary on disobedience or other problems, and if there is no big issues or anything, then when it come times to suggest an improvement, it becomes a period of silence and, well, awkwardness- but Elder Bardsley provoked a conversation that made the evaluation a lot more meaningful. When the question came from him- "What can I do to improve?", the usual response followed- "Uh, I dunno. You did everything really well". He then said something that really hit me- "Well what didn't I do that the Savior would've?" It made me think a little more. We hadn't done anything wrong or bad, but I'm pretty positive that the Savior would've done it better. Since that's so, we talked about ways we could improve not only WHAT we do but HOW we do it- the refining process isn't just meant to turn bad from good, but good to best. Since then, I've been thinking more about what it means to have the name of Jesus Christ on my badge- to really and truly to my best to represent Him in all I do. It has definitely put a lot more meaning into my missionary activities.
In the latter half of the week we had zone conference down in Newcastle! It had been cancelled for us due to the long drive, but they called last minute and told us to reschedule things so we could come. It was a blast! I'm not sure which felt weirder- to see more missionaries, or to drive down a road with cars in front of and behind me, and to have to wait at stoplights.. it just felt wrong. I remember driving through Newcastle on the way to Tamworth at transfers and thinking how small and bogan that town was. It's so funny to realize that now I feel like Newcastle is HUGE! I can't even imagine what it would've been like to be back down in Sydney, haha.
The Conference was wonderful. It was on June 27, which was the anniversary of the Martyrdom of Joseph Smith. For the musical item, our zone sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to the tune of "Come Thou Fount". On the 3rd verse we hummed while an Elder recited the First Vision. The spirit truly was manifest- it was a powerful feeling to sing about Joseph, and about the Restoration. It confirmed to me again the truthfulness of the gospel, and how grateful and amazed I am that a man such as Joseph Smith died so that we could hear and embrace the message of the Restored gospel. I'm so thankful to be able to show that appreciation by sharing the message with everyone here. How blessed we are.
On Sunday we brought the sacrament to the Greens and had another great visit. We were talking to Michelle, Brother Green's daughter, about her mom and the spirit world. Michelle mentioned that my Grandma was probably looking all over for Michelle's mom, Sister Green, so she could ask Sister Green about me and how I was doing on my mission, since Sister Green is probably the most recent person to have met me that is now on the other side of the veil. As Michelle said that, it pricked my heart and made me feel really warm. I believe that what Michelle said is true, and it made me feel very quietly happy.
For a spiritual thought, I'd like to invite you to take a look at Mosiah 5. It talks about baptism- how they made a covenant with God and are now "Children of Christ". Becoming a child of Christ involves not only taking upon yourself His name, and the responsibility of upholding that name- but also the promise that you will take upon yourself the characteristics of Christ, that quite literally you will be able to more freely develop Christlike attributes. Everyone who's been baptized is entitled to that spiritual strength.
And lastly, an Aussieism: I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this, but Australia has HEAPS of "Big Brother Cameras" aka speed cameras. They're all over and sneakily take pictures to determine if you're speeding or not. There's only 1 in Tamworth so they haven't really bothered me, but going down to Newcastle I realized how many more there are! Not that I speed or anything... but it can be annoying, for sure. They're always watching!
Love you all and have a great week,
Elder Easton
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