Last Aussie Easter

Happy Easter!

Hey everyone, another week is in the books. This last week was pretty stellar not gonna lie. We were able to go out to Ceduna with the Whyalla Elders again. That place is so blessed and prepared. I went with Elder Keller for the exchange. There were a lot of tender experiences that'll stick with me for a lifetime. 

The first of these experiences was when we first got to town. All of us went to this place called town camp. It was an Aboriginal community type place. There, one of the Elders friends came out, but along with her whole family. Mind you that it was beyond windy and freezing cold, and they are used to the heat. But they had a desire to learn more about Jesus Christ. So they sat on the ground on the side of our car to shield them from the wind and listened to our message. Every single person was freezing but they wouldn't let that stop them. For me, that was just peak faith and dedication. That Lord asks us to give our all to him and this was a prime example of it. 

It was very eye-opening and just a miracle seeing people so prepared for the Gospel. After Ceduna we spent an afternoon in Whyalla. Lots of miracles were seen, even though their flat is infested with cockroaches. 

Saturday morning we drove to our area to cram in as many lessons as possible. We saw lots of miracles and it was very joyful. The biggest miracle is our friend Racheal. She's been progressing super well and we're so excited for her and her family.

A spiritual thought is on the Atonement! What a gift it is. Treasure it, and use it daily, that is if you want joy. It's the greatest thing that had ever happened so we must use it!

Welp time to close this up. I'm tired from lots of driving and want to eat. Love you all. Email me if you love Jesus.

Studies in Ceduna

Massive pizza in the hotel

Nerd Alert

Lesson

Lessons in the cold

Sunset 

Sunset pt 2

Here we Are

 Heyo everyone!

How are y'all doing? This week was pretty great. There was a part here and there worth noting. Like why does everyone stick their pit bulls on us?! One bit my comp a couple weeks ago, and then when we went to visit someone we were teaching (obviously no longer interested) he sent out his pit bull. But jokes on him, his dog is nice. She just wanted to play. We left just in case her mindset change and then she just ran away. Sorry mate, don't have your dogs come and eat us. 

But on a more exciting note, we had zone conference this last week. Man am I going to miss President and Sister Johansson. I've gotten really close to them this last little bit and am very sad to see them leave so soon. President tested my boxing skills and said I could be a boxer. Found my calling in life I guess haha. But zone conference was so good. I got to conduct and give a surprise training I didn't know about. So very exciting. 

Next up, the exchange we had. So this week I went with Elder Oliphant in their area. Let me tell you, the whole exchange was just miracles. It was so good. 

This week we had so many amazing lessons. We had two with Chin and her family. They are doing great. We also have a friend from the Philippines who is the coolest person ever! We show up for our return appointment (they usually don't show up) and he was there and excited. He bought us all this chocolate to take home and was asking questions the whole time. I'm so excited for him.

This week was super good. This is definitely God's work, because it just works. Funny how that works. Well a little spiritual thought comes from a great song. It says, "I am a child of God, And he has sent me here, Has given me an earthly home With parents kind and dear. [Chorus] Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, Help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do To live with him someday" This song gives so much purpose to life. We are sent here from our Father to learn and grow. That's why we go through hardships, so we can learn and grow a little more. 

Well I love you all! Let me know if there's anything I can do for you. Check out my Facebook post because I hate Facebook work. Don't forget to email me! Adios.

Paulo

Door Knocking

Exchange

Exchange pt 2

Not so Interesting

 Hey fam bam!

This week was pretty not super interesting. But I'll do my best to make this email as interesting as possible. First things, my comp got like super sick Thursday to Saturday. That means we couldn't leave the flat and he slept all day everyday. What did I do? I studied, studied some more, tried to throw a ping pong ball in a cup (I failed), and then studied. So that was a big portion of the week. But don't you worry, we still got stuff done.

Tuesday was pretty stressful. We had transfers and had to move a bunch of missionaries around. Then we had to fill out Stake report forms for our meeting. But to make up for it, President and the APs took us and the STLs to dinner. So I was happy by the end of the day. Oh and Stake meeting was super good. 

Wednesday we had our exchanges. I went to Tea Tree Gully with Elder Ginn! Man did I miss this Elder. Our exchange was super good. We had a few people to visit which was so good. I got to see John again. Miss that guy. Then we stopped by the Rices and had dinner with them. It was pretty great.

Then Thursday-Saturday we had to stay in our flat because my comp was sick. Definitely God was testing my faith and patience. But Sunday came and my comp was all good for church. So we went to church and it was good. Then after we tried to visit all the people we could. But I kid you not, no one was home. It was so frustrating. So we had so much time to door knock. We actually found some super cool people, so we'll see where it goes.

My spiritual thought comes from the Book of Mormon. It 2 Nephi 33 verse 10. "Hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good." 

Well I love you all! Email me! Have a great week.

Exchange

Rices

Car Wash

Spider

End of Transfer

 Hey everyone!

   This week I'll actually send out an email. First things first, last night we had transfer calls and of course I'm staying. I'm also still going to be with my comp which I'm very happy about. But back to the week. It was actually super good. A lot of good, some not so good, but hey, that's part of the fun.

   Something that made this week so good was we were just packed with lessons. A little stressful, but it's a good thing to be stressed about. A lot of our friends are progressing super amazing. Our friend Michael is still on date for baptism, which we are so pumped about. We're planning on inviting a couple other people soon, so stay tuned the next couple of weeks. There's one family we're teaching who I absolutely love. The mom doesn't speak much English, so I translate for her using Google translate, or her daughter will. Right now, they just have one thing stopping them from coming to church, but they're so close! I absolutely love teaching them. 

   Right now we are also working with heaps of less active families or part member families. They've been doing really good, they just have to stop being silly and go to church. On another happy note, one of our new members has started the stop smoking program and will be able to go to the temple soon. We're so excited about it. But yeah the works been going super great. I've been super happy and thriving. So yeah, that's the updates. 

   A little spiritual thought, is finding the eternal perspective in all things. It's hard when we view the world through our natural eyes. Bad things happen, yes it's hard, but is it the end, or define us? No, of course not. This life is a fraction of eternity. When we look at the world and our trials through God's lens, it's so much happier, and more comforting to get through trials.

   Well I love you all! Have a stellar week. Email me if you want.

Fav members

My guy

Knockout

Short Email (You're Welcome)

This week was pretty good, but low-key don't feel like writing an email. So y'all get what you get and better not throw a fit.

Something cool this. We went to a gang house they had a sign that said beware of dog. We ignored and went in. Right when I turned the corner there was this 200 pound pit bull, I said, "oh fetch". My comp screamed and ran and the dog ran past me and ate his arm. So I did what I thought was best and punched it. Then we went to the doctor and got my comp stitched up because it was gross. So yeah that was cool. 

Our friend Michael is on date for baptism. He came to church this week and absolutely loved it. So pray for him. We have some other friends who are progressing super well. We have transfers next week so pray I don't leave because I love this area. 

Well I hope y'all have a good week. Spiritual thought is the church is true and the books are sometimes blue. If y'all need me, you know where to find me. Love yous.

Church Crew

My Guy Charlie

Missionaries

Bowling

The Outback

 Ok seriously, this week, was the literal best ever! We were able to do exchanges with the Whyalla Elders. With the exchange we went to their outlining areas to get the work moving there. The first was Ceduna, and then we went to Port Lincoln. There was countless miracles and I've never been in a place so prepared for the Gospel. I'd like to apologize in advance that this email might be long. But let's get to it!

So Tuesday was just driving to Whyalla. On the way we got crocodile burgers which was not bad. Then we drove for the remainder of the day. Day 2: We started our exchanges, I was with Elder Larsen for Ceduna. We drove up and on the way stopped at some members and gave them the sacrament. Such a cool experience because they live in the middle of nowhere so they don't get the sacrament too often. But after a lot of driving we made it. We got to our Motel and went out and visited a friend named Josephine. We talked for a little and scheduled a time to go back the next day. After that lesson we met this guy named Zac walking. He was super chill and just started following Christianity. We were able to answer his questions and share a message. By this time it was late, so we went to this pizza place and got this humongous pizza. Took it back to the rooms to find out how spicy it was. Holy dang was it hot. After some tears from the food, we hit the hay because it was very late and we were very tired. 

Day 3: Woke up and got the breakfast the place provided. Which was just cereal and toast, but better than nothing. We then went a saw a member and gave her the sacrament which was great. Then we went to this indigenous art gallery because one of the workers is someone they're teaching. Let me tell you, it was the most amazing art ever. Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures. But, we had such an amazing lesson with Yana. I also bought one of her paintings which was super cool. After that we went to the beach because there were heaps of groups of indigenous people. So we just started teaching. Elder Larsen and I went from group to group teaching. It was such an amazing experience. We did see a fight or two and some people get arrested, but hey, all part of the work. But no joke, these couple of hours we had on the beach was probably a top highlight for my mission. It was such a good experience. So after a couple of hours of teaching we went and met up with the other Elders and had a lesson with some of their friends. The lesson went so amazing. After that we went to this Aboriginal land and had a lesson with Mr. Smith. It went pretty good, so cool to be in the Outback. After Mr. Smith we went back to see Josephine and her family. We had an amazing lesson with them. And they asked us if they could be baptized! Like what, that's our job haha. Obviously we said yes and scheduled that. Then we had to scurry to the motel and hop on a zoom for our meeting. Overall, today was so great!

Friday: We started our second exchange. Elder Keller and I were together for Port Lincoln. I got to drive this one. We drove for 4 and half hours. On the way we stopped at a members house who literally lives in a house made of wood pallets out bush. Sickest thing ever. Then we stopped at some indigenous friends and had a lesson with them. Then finally we got into Port Lincoln around 8pm. Holy crap this place is beautiful. A very much like Hawaii and Seattle had a kid, that's Port Lincoln. We got food with the other Elders and moved all our stuff into our room. 

Day 5: We planned with the other Elders who was going where and what was happening. Then we went out. Elder Keller and I went to visit an indigenous friend but some guy came out and was not happy. So instead we felt like we should door knock. We talked to this hammered guy (literally noon) but it actually went ok all things considered. But we then felt so strong to knock this one house and Suzanna came out. She is someone who really needed a visit. We talked to her for about an hour just on her front porch. She's super keen to take the lessons and grow spiritually. Definitely a miracle. After that we met up with the other Elders to visit a member who turns out wasn't home. So we went to visit other people taught in the past. Then we had a lesson with Sheila and Tim. Sheila has a leg infection but she wants to be baptized more than anything. Just gotta wait for the leg to be better. But the lesson went so smoothly. They had such good questions and agreed and accepted all we had to say. It was so good. After that lesson we went and saw the Smith's. The wife and her sister are members, but not the husband. I talked to Brother Smith a lot and for the first time he stayed for the message. Of course we had it set to teach him and it went very good. After that we had dinner with them and for the first time, I tried watermelon with salt. I always hear about it so we all tried it together. And let me tell you, dang it was good. The flavor was so strong. And get this, for dessert we had ice cream, but with black beans! Apparently that's a thing. It tastes like you'd imagine. After dinner we went and saw Brother and Sister Bartsch. They really needed the visit because they are as sick as can be. It was good for us to help them. 

Last day of the trip: We finished our exchanges and went off to church. It's a small group who rents out this senior citizen club. There were 9 members this week which was very good. We had sacrament and Elder Arnold and I got asked to teach Come Follow Me. Then after we had lunch. This was probably my favorite church experience in my entire life. It was so good. We had to take off sadly because we had a 7 hour drive back to Paralowie. After an hour or so Elder Arnold had to switch because he was so tired. So I drove the way home. Fun fact, the longest I've driven before this was probably 45 minutes. It was a good drive but let me tell you, I'm exhausted from the week.

This week was so good and again I'm sorry about how long the email is. But it was such a good week and I'm terrible at journaling so this will help me remember. 

A spiritual thought comes from a talk I read this week. The quote is, "Hard makes us stronger, humbles us, and gives us a chance to prove ourselves." We need hard things in life to grow and improve. It would be kind of boring if we stayed the same and never grew. So in short, hard is good. Easier said than done haha.

As always, I love you all and appreciate everything. If you're bored, then you know my email;). Talk to y'all next week.

Ceduna

The View

The Elders

Lessons...

Put a Hole in the Wall

 You know when you have a dream of like catching something and then you wake up to your arm moving. Yeah well I had a dream like that, and it resulted to me kicking a hole in the wall. But wait, that's just the start of the story. So I just went back go sleep because oh well can't fix it at 2 a.m. But when we looked at it in the morning, there were termites all inside. So we had a pest control guy come and it looks like they are everywhere. So we'll probably be moving because they'll probably just have to knock this house down. So in conclusion, I don't feel bad whatsoever about what I did to the wall.

   Also this week, we had a meeting literally every single day. We spent hours having to fill out all this forms and sheets and what not. I literally was going insane. But we eventually got through it. And it's all worth it because this next week we'll be going out to a place called Ceduna with some other Elders. We'll leave Tuesday and get back Sunday. Super excited for it and for the work this week. It'll be good. 

   But this last week, it was beast. The most beast day was probably Valentine's Day. This day we were crazy busy. We got a lesson about ten minutes early so we decided to door knock. And first door, he opened and let us in. His name is Sokol (probably spelled it wrong). We actually talked for a while and were late to our next lesson, but totally worth it. He's super keen on coming to church once we get back next week. Then after Sokol, we had a lesson with a family we've been teaching. We were able to get a member who we've been working with on returning to church. The lesson went so amazing. Then we took that member and saw more of our friends we're teaching and door knocked with him for like 20 minutes. Then all three of us walked to another one of our friend's house, got him and walked to our members Ryan and Karen's house. And there we had a barbecue and were able to have a lesson. It was so good. 

   We had another lesson with our friend Gaynor who is progressing very well. She's been reading the Book of Mormon and has been loving it. We also saw a lot of less active families and a lot of them expressed interest in coming to church. So we're so excited for that because our ward should be a branch. It's tiny. 

   This week was just packed busy so I was very happy with that. I love working and helping people progress. It's what brings me the greatest joy. 

   Some random things this last week, I found the closest restaurant to Chipotle. So we went twice. Had exchanges with Elder Oliphant and that was so beast. I clamped our waffle iron on my finger, so yeah that's all that's new in life right now. 

   A thought I have is actually something President Johansson said in a meeting: We came to Earth to see less and believe more; because before we came we saw everything and believe less. I absolutely love this. We are here to exercise and grow our faith. We chose to go through the veil and forget our pre-earth life. We were given the veil to set us free. Free to choose whatever we'd like. Our future is up to us, and how we live it. This is all because our Father in Heaven loves us.

  I hope y'all know how great you are. I appreciate all of you. Love ya, talk to you all next week.

Barbecue

Exchange

Meetings

Sokol

Just Some Funny Business