Happenings in Harbour City 6

This week has been one of the busiest of my mission- including Special Training, Temple Day, Zone Leader Exchange, Travelling Elders Exchanges, and General Conference- it's been go, go go! But that's definitely how I like it.

An update on some of our investigators. We unfortunately had to give Rob over to the Summerhill Elders. Thankfully, it went smoothly, and he still seems to be on track for baptism. We'll miss him, for sure- hopefully we'll be able to go to his baptism next month! As for Joyce, we saw her this week and it was pretty disappointing- she seemed pretty disinterested, and spent the whole lesson zone-ing out, yawning and checking her phone. Isn't it just the most frustrating feeling when you want to share something with someone, and they won't listen?! Haha, certainly it's a lesson for me in patience... But she still wants to meet and have lessons, so of course that's a good thing.

Miracles in K-town. On Thursday, Elder Ko and I saw Nuri and her sister, Soul (the less-active Korean). We had a pretty good lesson, and they even brought cake for us to eat. The veeeeery best part, of course, came on Sunday- when Nuri And Soul came to church! Hallelujah! When I saw them walk in it literally made my heart burst. We set General Conference up for them in Korean, and they seemed to really enjoy it. 

On Friday we went finding in Victoria Park. I really do enjoy finding, but I struggle doing it in the park- for some reason I just really hate walking up to people sitting down, when they can see me approaching and can prepare a defense in their mind (I definitely prefer the 'surprise' approach of chatting on the street). Anyhow I was walking around the park and was about to go talk to someone standing nearby when I saw a girl sitting down underneath a tree... and had the prompting to talk to her. Oh no, I thought... now I have to do the thing I hate. Remembering the conditions of being a successful missionary, however, I sucked in my pride, did my best to put my trust in the Lord, and walked up to talk to her. Honestly it couldn't have been a more inspired prompting- the approach led into a 20 minute conversation of developing a closer connection with God, and the message of the Restoration. How grateful I am for the prompting to not only stretch myself but bring someone closer to Christ.

Later that day we were down the road from the chapel doing some street contacting. I was waiting nearby for my companion to finish talking to a lady when a Japanese man walked by. I took the opportunity to ask him for some help, and eventually it spurred into a conversation where we were explaining the reasons why we were in Sydney. I invited him to go up the street with me for a chapel tour, and for seriously the first time in my mission, someone accepted it! I was so surprised, but so happy, and we walked up together and gave him a tour. We found out that Hiro (that's his name) went to a Christian College and really wants to learn more about 'this Jesus Christ'. Certainly the Lord's hand is in every part of this work.

Now of course General Conference was AMAZING, and I feel as missionaries, it becomes a particularly special time to receive guidance and revelation for our areas. Last weekend was certainly no exception, and I just felt so spiritually fed. I loved all the talks, of course, but some that really resonated with me included the talks given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins, Elder Jorg Klebingat, and the Priesthood talk by Elder Uchtdorf. I'll definitely be reviewing them in the future. One positive I'd just like to mention about Conference in Australia- we got to print off all the talks beforehand, so it made note-taking and impression-taking a breeze!

But probably the most spiritual experience for me this week came from a conversation I had with the Travelling Elder. A quick background- President Howes has assigned two elders to go around and try to go on tradeoffs with just about every companionship in the mission. One of them is the old Assistant, and these are his last two transfers in the mission. Anyhow Elder Marshall and I were with him, Elder Richardson. While we were waiting for a lesson I asked Elder Richardson how he's been able to increase and purify his desires for missionary work. Essentially, he shared that pure desire to do missionary work comes from loving God- i.e. we want to help the old lady cross the street because we love God and we know that He loves her, and that helping her will make Him happy (Mosiah 2:17). But how do we develop that love? Quite simply, it comes from understanding, applying, and appreciating the Atonement. Like Elder Bednar's talk in Conference, when we experience something that helps us, it instills in us a desire to share that with others- just as Elder Bednar's son wanted to put the ointment on all of his friends. It reminds me of Alma and the sons of Mosiah, who, once repentant, would cringe at the thought of anyone suffering from not receiving the blessings of the Atonement. They desired to share because they first felt. Missionary work is an outward expression of our inner conversion- putting faith and trust to application. It really doesn't have a thing to do with numbers or success, but everything to do with having an "eye single to the Glory of God", which glory is the Atonement. I realized that if I want to show God that I am grateful for the Atonement, that I love my Savior- then I need to refocus my efforts, my actions, on desiring to make Him happy, to accomplish His will. Having a personal agenda is vain ambition, and that disqualifies us from the power and authority of our calling (D&C 121). 

Basically, to become a better missionary- and, I suppose, to become a better person- we need to grow our understanding of and gratitude for the Atonement of Christ. This come through becoming "really really good at repenting" (Elder Klebingat's talk) and having joy, happiness, excitement, in the opportunity to change. This has changed my outlook, as now I feel like I am finally understanding what I can do to improve myself, that is far more effective than any other technique or skill I could perfect. How grateful I am.

Love you all and have a great week. 

Elder Easton

P.S. I can't forget an Aussieism... at General Conference, everyone brought heaps of snacks and treats- my favorite. A classic Aussie lolly that everyone brought was "Jaffas", or small round chocolate balls, covered in a bright orange coating. They taste a lot like m&m's, and boy are they delicious! Haha.