Everywhere at Once

AAAAAAAH!

Sorry, that's what's going on in my head right now, because today, a lot of things are happening at once.

So Elder Fowdy and I have been spending this past week up here in Noranda! Basically, we've been temporary caretakers of the area, because the previous missionaries here went home a bit early. It's been an interesting experience. Unfortunately, the flat and area book weren't left in Stellar condition... (couldn't Find the area book at first.) So it's been quite the adventure picking up the pieces. Zone meeting was fun. Nobody seems to know what's been happening in regards to these shifts.

Also of news this week is that we had interviews from our mission President. President Lindsay missed us down in Bunbury, due to our early departure, but he came by our flat Friday night to interview me and Elder Fowdy. I like having interviews with President. He's really trying hard to help every missionary in WA, and trying to make this mission better than ever.

Sunday, at church, a lady comes up to me: "Are you from Logan, UT?" No, but nearish. "Well, you're related to me!" Oh! Are you related to Brother Hancey?(Another member in Perth) Turns out they're cousins. So I've yet to work this out, (but this wonderful lady is going to bring a copy of her family history chart), but guess what, Reeders? We've got aussies in our family! At least I hope so. That would be Epic.

Elder Fowdy and I spent Sunday night with the Ellenbrook elders. Nobody knows when transfer calls is supposed to happen, because it keeps changing. So suddenly people start getting calls this morning. I've yet to receive any word on what's happening. All we know is that we'll in all probability be going somewhere else. In the meantime, I log in to email today and the whole world appears to have emailed me. Or family, at least. I love my family :)

So that's the story this week. In weather news, this week has been incredibly rainy.

Hopefully we'll find out what's going on soon and we'll be able to get back into the swing of things!

I love you all, and hope you're having a good week. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers :)

Elder Reeder

Upside Down

G'day, folks. What a week, down here in Auz!

The work's been continuing at a slow pace. Elder Fowdy and I have been having a good time going out to Collie with a member, brother Van Dijk, who is the elder's quorom president. We're organising some activities to try and help bring the members there out of the woodwork, bring them back into contact with the rest of the ward. Everyone's feeling positive about it.

Tuesday, we had a dinner appointment with an older couple in the ward. While talking with them, they told us they've been on 3 missions as a senior couple! And the husband was on the temple presidency for a while, too. It was really cool to get to know them.

So, the big news of the week: As of 3pm, we will no longer be in Leschenault! Short explanation: President Lindsay is doing some shuffling around in preparation for Transfers next week. So, Elder Fowdy and I are being doubled out, to spend this week up in Noranda, in Perth. Noranda is about 2km from the mission home. Wow! A bit sudden. I'll miss a lot of the members down here, seeing as how I already knew half of them and their families from other areas. Noranda, coincidentally, is a part of Elder Fowdy's first area, so he knows many of the people there :D After this week, we're not sure what's going to happen.

So that's my crazy week. I hope you're all doing well, what with thunderstorms back home, etc.

IT IS FREEZING DOWN HERE. Like 5C at night! Lucky for us we have a heater. and jackets.

Love you all!

Elder Reeder

P.S. Just forgot to add an update about our super amazingly awesome newspaper article, that was to be published in the local paper!

We were so excited. It was going to be great! A short article about the missionaries here in Bunbury, what we do, offering service, etc. and a picture of us all. Woot!

Here's what ended up: A 1" x 2" paragraph of text, without a picture, about Elder Fowdy, from the UK, doing voluntary service as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

But hey! We got a couple comments from members.

Good Morning Australia

Hello, and welcome to this week's installment of "Missionary: Australia!"

Guess what? Our article's getting published in the paper! This week, The Bunbury Mail will have an article about the missionaries here in Bunbury (10 of us), that will go out to the 80,000 people in the paper's distribution area. We didn't get to write the article ourselves, it was written by a reporter, but it's from information that we gave him.

We're looking forward to seeing what happens with it, and we've been talking about it with many of the ward members here in Leschenault Ward, encouraging them to share it with their friends.

We also had an awesome zone conference this last Friday! President came down, along with the assistants, and two elders from up in Butler (furthermost north point in the city of Perth) to give us some aweosme training on making the most of our planning. It'll help us in the future in helping investigators progress. Heh, there was a bit of a fun side to it, as during the practice sessions, we planned to help investigators such as Frodo Baggins, the Malfoy Family, and Bruce Wayne, come to church, etc.

The rest of this week has mostly consisted of finding finding finding. :)

In an interesting turn of events I have made some discoveries this past week, such as cousin Micah Wood, in Armenia, was companions for a short time with my companion's best friend!

So yeah, fun :)

Thanks for tuning in, sorry it's such a short email. It was a short-email type week.

I love you all! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers :)

Love,

Elder Reeder

Temple!

Hi there!

This week has been a bit rockier than usual, I have to say. However, there were some upsides.

Thursday we got to go to the temple! Wednesday night all the elders in the district stayed the night at the Zone Leaders' flat, (sisters at another sister's flat). We got up a bit after 5am, made a big district pancake breakfast, and drove the 3 hours up to Perth :) It was great to be able to go to the temple again.

This week Elder Fowdy and I have really been looking for ideas on finding new investigators. We came up with one particular idea that only seems to have been tried a couple of times before, by other missionaries. We called up a local newspaper, the Bunbury Mail, and now we're working on getting an article published in the weekly paper about the missionaries down here :) Last time missionaries tried this, they got heaps of phone calls from people for service, etc. So hopefully we'll get the same. We're working together with our district, so that it'll benefit all the missionaries in Bunbury.

We've got no car, suddenly! Long story short, Elder Fowdy isn't able to drive anymore, so we no longer have a car in our area. Unfortunately, it's cut out a lot of work, since Collie is only accessible by car. We're hoping to work with some of the members to get out there a little bit, still. However, we're already seeing some new progress since that Leadership broadcast! The ward is suddenly a lot more focused on doing missionary work, and I'm eager to see the results in the coming weeks and months. A lot of less-active members are suddenly being made a priority as well, including those in Collie, which we're excited about.

This Friday, we have a zone conference! President Lindsay is coming down to Bunbury, to meet with us all. It'll be a lot like a big district meeting, since the zone only has one district.

So this has been yet another week in the life of an Australia Perth Missionary. Love to you all :) and Happy 4th of July!

Love,

Elder Reeder

Hastened

Dear Family and friends,

Hi there! Today is Monday, July 1st, 2013. We have had an interesting week.

Wednesday we went to help out a member shift some sand from his yard. He was planning on replacing it with good sand from a field a short distance away. We loaded up the trailer, drove his 4WD over to the pit, revved up a hill. It started sliding in the sand, so the member backed down again, and got stuck there. At that point the 4WD got completely bogged down in the sand, and we ended up spending a while digging underneath, deflating the tires, etc. to get it out. Eventful day.

Thursday was good as well. We went out to Collie with our Elder's quorom president, Brother Van Dijk, to visit some less-active members. There are only two active families in that town, and one of them is a recent convert. The ward's focusing its efforts on re-activating more of the members out there, and hopefully one day it'll be strong enough to support a branch of its own.

On our way back, Brother Van Dijk saw this awesome sign on the road, and had to get a picture. (attached)

Sunday was awesome! For one, Jake Watson was confirmed a member, and his father was there! We're all sure that he really felt the spirit there as he watched his son receive the gift of the holy ghost.

Also, we got to see the Leadership broadcast! It was played in leu of the last two hours of the block, so most of the ward was there for it. It was very inspiring, and I'm excited to see all of the changes that will be coming here, in regards to member missionary work. I know for certain that one member, who we'd just talked to that morning, had a concern answered through that broadcast.

Heh, I'm also excited for the new changes in missionary work (namely, iPads, etc.) It'll be awesome to use that instead of trying to decipher bad handwriting. And no, my handwriting is not this bad. :D Missionary work is changing, for the better! I'm so happy to be here at such a time, to be a part of this "Hastening the Work of Salvation."

Thank you all for your thoughts, emails, and prayers :)

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Reeder