Times in Tamworth 9

Another week gone by!

 

The Conference in Newcastle this week was wonderful! It was so fun to see other missionaries, and Elder Haleck and his wife spoke on getting the members involved with the missionary work. Really good stuff. The driving was pretty long, but thankfully I wasn't the driver that time!

 

Speaking of driving, Elder Ripley and I head out to Armidale this afternoon and will be there until Wednesday for some exchanges. Thursday we've got the Zone Leaders coming down from Coffs for another exchange, so it'll be a pretty busy week.

 

This week we've done a lot of tracting.. but it's been great! I really was blessed to only street contact in Sydney, it's totally a different ball game to knock doors, but still good. We got about 4 new investigators from it, which is a miracle- hopefully they'll all follow through with their return appointments!

 

Speaking of investigators, Matt came to church yesterday!! Miracle!! He brought two of his daughters, and they stayed for Sacrament meeting but his youngest daughter was too restless to stay for the other parts. It's okay, baby steps. He said he really liked it though, and he's planning on coming next week! Yes!!

 

Another miracle came from seeing a less-active girl, Andrea. Andrea's 13 and got baptised last year along with her sister, Helena (14 yrs old). They went Less-Active straight away, however, and Helena started having some problems with depression and such- she now only stays in her room, and never comes out- not for school, not to eat, nothing. So it's been a pretty serious thing for her family to deal with. Andrea's still good though, and we drop by and see her about once a week. Well anyways this week something incredible happened- out of nowhere, Helena came outside and talked with us! She was laughing and having a good time. I'm not sure who was more surprised- us or her mom! But either way it was a big step towards Helena's healing, and we were blessed enough to be a part of it.

 

As for one final miracle, I am really excited about this one. There's a boy named Tyson in our ward who's 18 and preparing for his mission. He comes out with us several times a week- let's just say he's the best! Anyways Tyson has a friend named Adam. The missionaries have known Adam about 5 years, and Adam comes to us occasionally and asks us gospel-related questions, but hasn't really shown interest. He comes to church sometimes with Tyson, and has become good friends with missionaries in the past and present. I think missionaries have always been cautious to not push Adam, like they wanted him to come to us when he was ready to learn, because he's got a lot of potential and they didn't want to ruin it. Well I think all along all we needed to do was ask! On Sunday we were at Tyson's and Adam came over. Adam asked us a question about Heaven or something, and it spurred into an impromtu Plan of Salvation lesson. At the end of the lesson, I boldly said- "Adam, did you know we have a set of lessons we teach people about the basics of our faith? We really would like to share them with you- would you like that?", and Adam adamantly agreed- he even set up a time for us to see him next week! I realised that while we all had been waiting for Adam to come to us, he had just been waiting for us to go to him- pretty embarrassing to think it's taken all this time to invite Adam to officially investigate. But thankfully, the ball's begun rolling, and I'm excited to see where we can help Adam get on his progression. This work is so real!!!

 

As for a spiritual thought- the scripture Helaman 3:27 has been really sticking out to me lately. It's a beaut.

 

And lastly an Aussiesm, this one has a pretty funny circumstance around it. In Ward Council yesterday, we were looking over our Progress Record and began talking about a Less-Active member we've been working with, who is working on quitting smoking. Bishop turned to me and said, with a completely straight face, "How's he doing with the fags?". I was shocked- what the heck?!?! Why would Bishop say that, and in Ward Council? Plus last time I had checked, this man wasn't gay.. It took me a few moments before I said, "What?". Everyone began laughing as they realised the miscommunication- The Primary President pointed out to me that in Australia, they call cigarettes "fags", and then explained to Bishop that in the states it's kind of an offensive and dirty word. Needless to say we were both embarrased, but had a good laugh about it. I learn new things everyday!

 

Well, love you all heaps. Have a great week and God Speed!

 

Cheers,

 

Elder Easton