Boy I miss the cold weather! The last few days it
has been so hot! Saturday it got up to 46 C (114 degrees F) here in Burpengary! The relief
society president and her husband came over and bought us two pedestal
fans and a small mobile air con unit. The unit we had was pretty useless
and we only had one pedestal fan which we termed "franken-fan," because
it was put together from several fans that had gone the way of all the
earth. That day we were doing weekly planning so we had to be in the
flat for that and most of the houses here in Queensland have walls
approximately the thickness of paper. I don't think there's much
insulation. So our flat was like a big oven. We went to teach a
less-active member that we had an appointment with that day and we got
there and she was swimming in the pool with her family and canceled the
appointment on us after we had biked there in the boiling heat. That was
nice.
We have had a pretty good week aside from the heat though. We
finally had a couple of our investigators come to church. They were two
ladies we had tracted into before. One of them we set a baptismal date
with her for the beginning of February and then invited her to church
that afternoon. She loved it. The other was a lady who has studied
religions for a while and was interested in hearing about ours. She has
been tough one, pretty stubborn and set in her own opinions, whether
they are scriptural or not. She seemed to like church, but she's going
to take a little more time and help from the Spirit before she gets baptized. The Book of Mormon is so key! I think one of the best things
to learn before a mission might be to learn how the Book of Mormon is
the keystone of our religion, and how crucial it is to a testimony of
the truthfulness of the Church and Gospel. There are so many questions
that missionaries get asked, and there is really only one answer to them
all: Is the Book of Mormon true? And after careful study, research,
thought, and prayer, I know without a doubt that it is divine. I know I
can stand on that wonderful book and never fall, and it is because it is
the word of Christ. They are things that He said and things He caused
His servants to say. The second lady I mentioned hasn't quite understood
the role of the Book of Mormon in conversion yet. We're still working
on that.
Elder Barrientos and I have been doing fine. He is a good worker
and teacher. We've
got along great.
I promised I would send pictures this week
but unfortunately I left my camera at our flat so they'll have to wait
'till next week.
So
the lady we set a baptismal date with sort of came out of nowhere. Her
name is Suzanne. We were actually following up with her son, who was a
potential investigator. We had an appointment to come around and we took
a YSA named Logan with us. This poor guy. He told us every time the
missionaries have brought him to a teaching appointment it has fallen
through. So we went to see the potential and his mum answers the door
and says he's not home. Usually she has been friendly enough to us but
hasn't been interested in talking to us. She has a lot of Jehovah
Witness material that she's read and it seemed like she just wanted to
bash us with that. So she told us her son wasn't home but invited us in
for a cold drink, since it was so hot. We sat down and started talking
to her about how her holidays went and everything like that. Then she
started asking questions about the second coming, and how the things she
has read have scared her a little bit. The reason she has ended up
getting lots of stuff from the Jehovah Witnesses is because she has been
looking for the truth for a while. She had a rough upbringing and a
hard life, and has been looking for a way to change her life. She has
been looking for forgiveness and turned to Jesus in her search. We
taught her about the Atonement and about ordinances and the priesthood.
We basically just told her straight out that we had authority from Jesus
Christ to baptize and give the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She asked where I
got it and I showed her my line of authority. It was so cool, she just
lit up. We asked her if she would like to be baptized by someone holding
priesthood authority. She asked, "Would you do that?" We said, "eh,
yeah, I guess we could do that for you." At this point we still have a
bit to teach her and she needs to give up smoking and coffee. If you
could include her in your prayers that would be awesome. She is very
humble and her family and home desperately need the Gospel. We hope that
her sons will also be willing to accept the Gospel eventually.
I am the assigned driver this transfer. I enjoy getting to drive again.
Last week, one day it was so hot that the mission president sent
out a text to the mission counseling us to take a break every sixty
minutes and get indoors. That's the first time I've seen that happen. I
have been taking cold showers morning and night lately.
Happy New Years! I can't believe it is already 2014!
I love you all!
Elder Thieme
No comments:
Post a Comment