The Missionary Evening Post

Hi there, it's another week in the world, and I'm still here :)

We have 3 baptisms coming up now, this Sunday! Tangate Green, and her two youngest children, Leon, (15) and Alisha, (13) are totally excited! We began a "Stop Smoking Program" with Tagate on Wednesday, and she's completely committed. She goes around the family and makes jokes about it sometimes. "Oh, I going to go have a smoke," etc. It's funny. Leon wants to serve a mission when he's 19, too! President Lindsay said he'd try and be at the baptism as well.

Daniel, the oldest, hasn't been to church yet. So he can't be baptised yet. We're trying to figure things out for him.

It's amazing, the faith that they have. They've been having a bit of a rough time at home, with their dad. But they're determined to see it through. Sister Hembrow's been a big help in fellowshipping and teaching. Honestly, we've seen a few small miracles during the past few weeks.

On Tuesday, we had a visit from President Hamula, area president for Australia. He had some really cool training and things to say about finding people. Pretty soon, we're going to be working a lot more with the part-member families in our area. There are a lot of families out there with nonmembers in the family. And a lot of success comes from working with these families. We've seen that a lot so far :)

In other news... Guess what? I don't have a camera anymore... it's my fault. I opened it up to try and clean inside the lens (dirt? inside), and the power/shutter button snapped. So... I'm trying to superglue it back together right now. Wheee... I sent my camera card home this past week, though! Expect it within a few days :) Also, Elder Iumalo and I decided "Hey! Let's write to each others parents!"

The mission-wide prayer is showing really cool results, already! We've been getting lots of referrals and work to and from other places, all over WA! It's exciting.

And that concludes the Monday Morning edition of the Missionary Evening Post. (I'm running out of funny email subjects now.)

Love,

Elder Reeder

Kirribus

I'm really quite happy right now. And my companion is, too. In fact, you might say we're really excited. Guess why?

Remember that family that we met, from Kirribus? (near Fiji)

They're getting baptised.

on August 25th.

Woohoo! We've had a very busy week with them, going over to teach them about the gospel. The mum, Tagate, wants to quit smoking, so we're going to help her start quitting tonight. They all came to Stake conference yesterday, and really enjoyed themselves. They got to meet the bishop, and President Lindsay, even! (Or I guess you could say that President Lindsay got to meet her.)

All sorts of small miracles have been happening with this family, helping them out. We've all been blessed by them. Thank you all for your prayers! They help so much you don't even know :)

Yep, so Stake Conference was this weekend. We were privileged to have our mission president come and speak to everyone, along with his wife. They were awesome.

Grandpa Roberts, in answer to your question, YES. It is Indeed Rainy Season. Perth is not getting hardly Any of the rain that it needs this year. But it's bucketing down often, so I don't know what they're talking about XD Sunday was pretty funny, though. It was pouring Sunday morning, but stopped during conference. Then one of the speakers said that she was really grateful for the rain they'd gotten, and it began pouring again immediately after.

So, yes. It's raining here.

This month, the entire mission is kneeling down at 10 Pm, every night, in prayer, to have the opportunities and faith to find new investigators to teach. It's pretty cool, all 117 of us missionaries at the same time, praying.

So that's my week. It's been busy. and hectic. And fun as! Boo yah.

Until next week!

love,

Elder Reeder

Once there was a snowball

Hi, all!

So apparently in parts of Perth, it actually frosted over last week! Some other missionaries managed to make a single snowball out of the frost on their car.

How cool is this? We have 4 new investigators. Yes. 4! Sister Hembrow is an awesome missionary. Remember that lady from Fiji I mentioned last week? Her name is Tagate, (pronounced "tahng-ah-tay"), and she is from Kirribus. She has 3 children, Daniel, Leon, and Alisha. They are all Totally eager to learn about the gospel, and come to church, and everything! Elder Iumalo and I will be going over tonight to teach them again :D Tagate is so funny, she has pretty much adopted sister hembrow as her daughter. And she'll threaten to "get the stick" when someone doesn't do something right. She loves being with the missionaries, she says that she doesn't feel worried or as stressed when she's around us. The spirit is a wonderful thing.

So, interesting experience. Elder Iumalo, the armadale elders, Daniel Luland, and I went to do some service for a lady on Saturday. We were cleaning up her yard, clearing away the weeds, debris, etc. Did you know that Palm Trees have really spiky bits at the base of the leaves? They do. So we had to be careful. One of the leaves I picked up slipped, and jammed right into my finger. And broke off. Today is Monday, I still have that thing stuck in my finger. Last night sister Hembrow (who is a nurse) tried to get it out. After an incredibly painful 20 minutes, she put some stuff on it that would help work it out, bandaged it up, and told me it would be out tomorrow. Oww... It's in really Deep.

So how's the Olympics going? All I know is that the Queen jumped out of a helicopter with James Bond, and that Australia has 1 gold. :D We might be organizing a sports night, and inviting people to come and play rugby. Members could invite their friends, and get to know the missionaries, ask questions, etc. And play rugby (which everyone likes. Or AFL.)

Happy Birthday, Dad! And Happy Birthday to mom, on the 9th! Did you do a nice barbecue? In the summer evening? Was it good weather? Did it rain? I wish I could've been there for that Pie you made, it sounds delicious. If it didn't rain, I think it came here instead. We got DRENCHED. Again. We had to wring out our socks every so often, it was that wet. I loved it.

So that's pretty much my week! We had a Lot of biking involved. Lucky for us, it's a flat area ;) Hope you're all having a great week as well!

Love, Elder Reeder

Woohoo!

Good evening!

I don't think transfers had anything to do with it, but this week has been pretty slow. a LOT of people we visit and teach weren't around. Or cancelled appointments. So we did a lot of tracting. We met some interesting people though.

Elder Iumalo is awesome. He came out at the same time as me. We've had a lot of fun teaching lessons together so far, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the transfer. He is originally from Samoa, but grew up in New Zealand. He joined the church about a year and a half ago, in Sydney, and gave up playing Rugby there to come on a mission. He has an amazing testimony of the gospel, that we've shared with some of the people we teach. He's one of the overall happiest people I've met here. Part of our studies in the morning includes language study, so he can improve his English. It's pretty fun, and I now have sympathy for my English teachers :D

Tatiana was baptised! It was such a great evening. Elder Iumalo and I biked up the hill to the chapel (this was a Serious hill) to start the font. I turned on the water, and suddenly there was a BANG! and a spark. I called the ward mission leader, he didn't know what it could've been. Turns out the water heater gave up. Whee! It was a very spiritual experience, though. We even had a couple of nonmembers show up! I got to baptise her. She was really happy. Afterwards, they went to dinner at Sizzlers.

And then the whole family showed up for church on sunday, for the confirmation. Even better :)

I'm so excited! I had my first baptism!

Oh! Last monday we went to a Dairy farm! and got to milk cows. Really! We got to milk cows. And drive a quad (four-wheeler.) and drink REALLY FRESH MILK. In Australia. It was awesome. A couple of ward members work there, and invited us over.

Hmm. Yeah, so that's pretty much this week. The Flu has hit Perth, officially. 3 of our investigators, and a lot of ward members caught the bug. Really slowed us down. But we're pushing for a great week this week! We have a Family Home Evening lesson tonight, with Sister Hembrow, her children, and a friend she just met, from Fiji! Sister Hembrow is totally into missionary work now :)

All right! Hope you all have a great week as well! Love yous :)

Elder Reeder