G'day everybody!
We had an awesome week. Lots of good
things happening here in Burpengary! The weather has still been nice as
well. Nice cloudy, windy days. It has been a very mild summer for the
area, which I am glad for. For this transfer my first trainee, Elder
Christensen, went up North to Townsville. Hopefully he's not dying in
the heat up there. I can't believe it is February! It feels like we just
had fast and testimony meeting! It was funny because we had two
investigators last month who came to church for the first time on fast
Sunday. Luckily we have an awesome ward and no one stood up to bear
testimony about Kolob or exaltation or anything like that. There's
always one or two people who, when they stand up, you sort of cringe and
watch your investigator closely and hope the Holy Ghost filters out all
but the simple testimony.
I can't imagine 20 F right now. I put on a jumper if it gets down to 20 C!
How has the smoker been working? How does it do for ribs? I haven't had good barbeque ribs since I left home.
Aaronic Priesthood camp. I think the things I remember the most
from those is the fun being with all the boys and the close time with
the leaders. Also, now that I'm thinking back on it, I loved when we
went to that camp site with the little cabins and everything, and then
we cleaned up the whole place. I think things like that taught me to
love to work and to serve. It may not have been the funnest part of the
camp, but it was probably the most fulfilling part. That and the
testimony meeting. I guess it's sort of like the way our mission
president had his Christmas party thing set up, the same as he does it
in his family. They start out by doing some service, helping out someone
else, then they do something fun, then finish with something spiritual.
I think young men and women preparing for missions need to understand
the balance thing. On your mission you do more for people than you ever
could any other way, you work harder than you have before in your life,
you have some of the most fun times of your life, and you grow
spiritually in a way that you couldn't anywhere else. I think something
good for potential missionaries would be to learn the balance between
hard work, spirituality, and fun.
I was always pretty useless at trying to plan activities. I hope
all goes well and you get lots of boys there. We must have a huge young
men's group now. Will you do it at the same place they have had it
before? What ideas do they have for activities at the moment?
Actually,
my companion is about my height and isn't really the sport type. He's
more the video games and animae type. That is probably Elder Henson, and
yeah, he's a baller. He plays pretty well. We do basketball Saturday
mornings with people in the area. We'll have an investigator come this
weekend to play with us at the chapel. I love to play.
We had a bit of a cool experience this Wednesday. It was the
evening after P-day and we had a couple lessons planned. First one was
with Patricia. We taught her about Moroni's promise. We had been
inviting her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon since the start,
but I think it finally clicked with her why. When it did click, she was a
bit afraid to ask, because an answer in the affirmative would mean a
lot of change. We testified and invited her to read, ponder, and pray
sincerely. We left that appoinment and went to go see Suzanne, who is
still working to quit smoking. Had a good lesson with her. She's
improving, and this week we were finally able to include her family in
our visit. Before, her 14 year old daughter and 21 year old son would
sort of avoid us. We went home after that lesson and we were having a
late dinner before we planned for the next day. Then my companion got a
call on our phone. Patricia called us that night and told us God had
spoken to her, and that she knew the Book of Mormon was true. It was
amazing. You always hear stories like that, but when you see it happen,
it's just, wow, you don't have words for it. We were pretty excited
about that. Now she is a bit scared of the commitment, but we're helping
her to see the blessing that are in store for her. She needs as much
support from the ward as we can possibly get, and I'm sure a few prayers
in her behalf would help as well.
We had another sort of funny experience with a potential
investigator named Ross we had tracted into and given a Book of Mormon.
When we first met him we hadn't had a lot of time to explain everything
about it, so we just told him to read it. We went to follow up with him
one morning and accidentally woke him up. He had had a late night with
work. He came out of his house looking pretty tired. He also brought his
book out, and by the way he was holding it I could tell he was going to
give it back. Your heart always sinks when you see that because you
know what an amazing gift they're rejecting. He handed the book to my
companion and said he didn't like it because of what he read about when
the boy Joseph saw the angel Moroni, who told him to get the plates, and
Joseph didn't question why. He is a very intelligent person and was
raised to question everything. To ask questions with honest intent. I
explained to him about how the Book of Mormon was a further answer to
Joseph Smith's original question regarding the destiny of his soul and
where to find the truth. So he didn't question the command to get the
record because it was an answer. I stopped talking and he just looked at
me and thought for a minute, then looked at my companion, and all of
sudden grabbed the book out of Elder Barrientos' hands, went quickly
back inside, shut the screen, said come back in two weeks, and closed
the door. Me and my companion and just sort of looked at each other for a
second, not sure what just happened, then walked away. I love the Book
of Mormon so much. I have seen the blessings it brings into people's
lives, families, and homes.
I love this work! I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. Thank
you for all you have done for me. Hope to hear from you soon!
Love Elder Thieme
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