Stormy Weather Ahead

G'day, everyone! Yet another week has gone by here Down Under, with me and Elder Richmond experiencing the fullness of an "Aussie Summer." Saturday night, at 9:30PM, it was 36C. During the days, it's been very humid this week. And yes, we're on bikes. Oh boy.

But we've had some things happening here, which is good!

We were riding around, and were nearby where Jake used to live with his friends. We thought, "Why don't we go by and say hi to the friends?" (They like us missionaries.) So we knocked on the door, and guess who? Jake, who just happened to be there for a visit, opened the door. How cool is that? He's moving to Millar's Well this week, and still wants to meet with us again. We offered to give him a hand when he does move, which he accepted.

We didn't have a chance to see Elizer, and he didn't turn up to church. But we got a call from him apologising. We're going to try and meet up again soon.

Saturday, President Lindsay, and one of his counselors, President Websdane, flew up to Karratha, to meet with the branch and us! We both had a good interview with him, and were able to discuss some of the work that's going on up here. We also found out, that apparently, this transfer is short! Since the MTC is shortening the time missionaries stay there, All the missions have to cut a transfer one week shorter to keep in sync. (So it's 5 weeks this transfer, not 6.) Wow. Also, next month, we will be having 20 new missionaries coming in. 16 are sisters, and most are 19. (Are you as excited for missionary work as I am?)

We had a branch activity Saturday night. The youth from Port Hedland happened to be down at the same time, so that was fun. We got some nonmembers showing up, too! There are a lot of French guys around here, and elder Richmond befriended a couple. They came to the activity, and really enjoyed themselves. They even said they might come to church the next day, but didn't make it. Also, an 11-year old kid named Zayden showed up with his older brother, James. They've met with missionaries in the past. Zayden came to church the next day, and told us that he wanted to be baptised! We went with Brother Otto after church to meet his mum and discuss it. Long story short, we also went by this morning. She's happy for him to be taught, and she agreed to listen as well. Awesome.

Right now, there is a cat4 cyclone named "Rusty" heading for WA. It's projected to hit somewhere between Karratha and Broome tomorrow. It'll probably miss us, (again) but we've got some nice clouds because of it :)

I love you all! I'm looking forward to this week!

Love,

Elder Reeder

Kiwis

Kia ora!

It's becoming more and more apparent that when you serve a mission in Australia, you also get to experience the culture of several other countries. Most noticeably, New Zealand. We've met a Ton of Kiwis up here in Karratha.

This week has seen some obstacles but some blessings as well!

We tried to go over to visit with Jake again, but his friends had some bad news. Details aside, he's moved out to somewhere else. However, he might soon be moving to the same street that we live on... We really want to get in touch with him again! He was so interested in learning!

We have another high point as well: We were going through our area book, and found a former investigator named Carlo. We felt that we should go and meet him, see if he was interested in meeting again. When we went over, he was tired, but let us in. He told us that he'd been meeting with the missionaries a few times before, but that he'd been very busy with work (manager at a local restaurant). We asked him a few more questions, and discovered that he had a desire to be baptised! We committed him right then! He's still a bit busy with work, but we're going to help him as much as we can, and make sure he's prepared. :) Exciting! The March on March has begun. Things are happening!

Yesterday, Sunday, Sister Pilkington approached us after church and said, "Elders, I have someone for you to teach." (This is the part where I was jumping up and down in my head.) Ok!

Sister Pilkington has a friend, whose son began asking her questions like "who was Jesus?" This led to a conversation with Sis. Pilkington, and she invited her friend to meet with some missionaries, who can help answer those questions. The friend said "ok, sure." Hooray! So we're going to go over to meet the family soon.

We had a few new faces at church yesterday, as well. A Korean man walked in just before it started; he's a member from korea, and just came over to WA to work for a year. He's learning English. It was awesome to see many of the branch come over and greet him. One of the families invited him over for FHE.

In a couple of weeks, President Lindsay and one of his counselors, President Websdane, will be coming up to Karratha for a couple of days.

And so that's my week :) It's becoming very evident that sincere faith, combined with prayer, and a lot of hard work, come together to bring blessings.

Love to you all!

Elder Reeder

Are you happy? Notify your face.

Just one of many things that were told to us by Elder Pearson.

So, I'm back up in Karratha. Apologies for not being able to write last week, by the time the plane landed and we got back home, we ran out of time.

Training was awesome, though! Sunday afternoon we flew down to Perth, and stayed the night with some other elders. Most of Monday, we were at the chapel, listening and receiving training from Elder Kevin Pearson, of the Seventy. Prior to his address, President Lindsay told us that it would be a "Pivotal point for the mission." I'm sure that every participant in that meeting received revelation and inspiration on things that we could improve, needed to change, etc. in the way we are doing our work. Also, another cool lesson: Faith comes from obedience. When we obey a principle, we receive a blessing, which strengthens our testimony of that principle. (D&C 130:20-21) So if we're continually and consistently obedient to the gospel, it will continually and consistently lead to an increase of our faith.

Coming up, the mission will be having a "March on March." We're putting our faith, And all our efforts, into setting a new standard for the mission. Elder Richmond and I are in a zone now, and our zone has been praying and asking for a baptismal goal to work towards. We're certain that if we can give it our all, we can achieve this new goal.

Last week, we found a new investigator! His name is Jake. We prayed before we went tracting, for help in bringing us to some one's door who was prepared to hear the gospel. Every door we knocked turned us down, or didn't open, until the very last one. It was already open, and Jake invited us in, right then and there, to talk with him! This week, when we went by, we were able to meet his friends that he lived with, as well. They had some questions too, and Jake had a referral of another friend who lives nearby! This was a wonderful blessing, that we really needed.

The branch is really beginning to focus on their missionary work as well. The mission leader is creating a meal roster, so that we can meet with the members more often at their homes. They'll be focusing on inviting a friend along to join them, that we can meet :)

What else happened these last few weeks... We had another "cyclone." (cloudy day)

So, yep. That's my week. As we were doing our weekly planning, we felt positive about this upcoming week.

Love,

Elder Reeder