Rocking the boat again!

Hi there, everybody! Have I got news for you!

This week has been great! I've been really getting to love this area- Us and the sister missionaries have been working together, as well as the zone leaders, and suddenly we've got more people to teach coming out of the woodwork! I think there are serious miracles beginning to happen here. Let me give you a few things that have happened:

1. We have A BAPTISMAL DATE! David Tanenui, Ella's husband, is going to be baptised on November 2nd! We met with him and his wife, and told him that we really felt that he was ready for this. He's got a strong testimony, and he is SOLID on keeping commitments. He's been taking his book of mormon to work to read every day, etc. Coming to church each week. We also told him that once Edward and Vitania were ready, he would have the priesthood by then and would be able to perform their baptisms. He asked us, "Well, can we set a date then?" He told us that this had been on his mind for quite a while now, and he was really eager to go through with this.

I'm so excited!

2. We've been able to get in touch with Teresa again! We've got an appointment with her this Wednesday. Solid, this time.

3. We've got two new investigators! Almost. A lady named Suzy, who has been taught by the sisters for 2 years, is finally being baptised! She and her husband have a marriage date for the 7th of December. Here's the cool bit- one of her good friends, named Elizabeth, is a nonmember, and the mother of a less-active member in the ward. Since Suzy has been coming to church more often now, and is progressing, suddenly Elizabeth has started showing up as well, with her children! The sisters went and talked with her, and she wants to be taught! Referral!

4. A girl named Mica, (pronounced Meesha) is good friends with a member in the ward. A couple of weeks ago, she talked to the bishop and told him that she really wanted to be baptised! She hasn't been taught by missionaries much yet, but she already has a really strong testimony that the Book of Mormon is true.

And all this, happening in our areas! Woohoo!

Now, a bit of sad news;

Today is Transfer calls! And guess what? I'm being shifted out! Elder Iumalo is going to be the new district leader, and training. I am going down to Rockingham East! Where Iumalo was before! (I swear, I've spent so much time in that district. Kwinana, Rockingham West, and now the other half! Woot.) Rockingham is awesome, though, so that's all good. I'll be with Elder Tipene.

So yes, that's an update about what's happening with me. Hope everyone's doing well back home! Love you all! Stay safe, stay happy! I know the gospel is true :)

Love,

Elder Daniel Reeder

Exclamation Point!

Wasn't Conference just awesome?

I think some of my favorite speakers were Elder Bednar, on Tithing, and Elder Scott, on the Atonement. Then again, all of the things that were spoken on were very powerful. I liked what President Monson mentioned at the end, that he'd never been in a more inspired conference.

I took lots of notes, and I hope you all did too! Exclamation Point!

This week, we've been working with the members! We've got a new thing the mission's trying this month, called an MLX, or Member Lesson Xtreme! Exclamation Point! Basically, a lesson at a member's home, but in and out within 20 minutes, having shared a gospel principle, two scriptures with it, left a commitment, and asking who they know that could benefit from the message that we've shared. They're pretty cool. We've gotten a referral this week, too! His name is Tony. He's the husband of a member in the ward. Nice guy, loves to laugh. He hasn't been religious for a very long time, and has been having a bit of a hard life. But in recent months, he told us, he's been thinking that he should be paying more attention to God. So we've begun teaching him :)

Me and Elder Iumalo are still working hard with the Turners and with Teresa as well. The Turners came to Conference Sunday Morning, and really enjoyed it! We went over that evening and taught Vitania the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She is really interested in learning, and has had some really good insights into what we've taught. We hope that the spirit will touch her and Edward and they will take the steps neccessary to be baptised.

We're a bit baffled with Teresa. We haven't been able to see her in a month. Appointments keep falling through, etc. Hopefully we can get in touch with her soon.

Well, seeing as how our Zone has achieved the standard of excellence for last month for baptisms, and beat it, President Lindsay is taking us all to a place called Nando's. Nando's is like Maddox Chicken, but Australian. It is AMAZING. Exclamation point! But we have to be there very soon, so I will be signing off for this week. I love you all! My prayers are with you :)

Love,

Elder Reeder

Exclamation Point!

The temple and other things

Hello, all :) Elder Reeder here again, reporting fresh from the bush.

Sorry for the lack of newsletter last week. The queen had another birthday, and our P-Day got moved. And then it got moved again! So we ran out of much time to email. But I'm still alive :)

Last Thursday we had the opportunity as a mission to go to the temple! It was the first time I've been able to see the new temple film. It was wonderful, and I really felt the spirit throughout it. Some of the recent converts in the ward, Tom and Myles, are really wanting to go to the temple to do baptisms. they are such solid members, I'm happy for them!

Our investigator, Teresa, as well, wants to go to the temple. She just needs to be baptised first :) Which we're working on. We haven't been able to meet with her in a long time, which is sad. We keep seeing her at church, though. I'm also excited for conference this week! General conference is always something to look forward to. I love listening to the Prophet and Apostles, and their counsel.

This week, Elder Iumalo and I have an addition to our companionship! Rockingham Stake is doing Mini-missions again! We've been joined by Sam Peihopa, who is actually waiting for his own call! It was pretty cool, Sam's been with Elder Iumalo on a previous mini-mission, and since we both served in Rockingham recently, we already knew him really well. Whee! so we've been having a good time serving with him. He's a great teacher already.

Well, we're running short on time again this week. I love you all, and pray that all is ok. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers as well, they do help.

Love,

Elder Daniel Reeder

Spreading Out

Hi, Family and friends! this week has been pretty cool, in some ways!

First of all, it's been raining all week! That keeps the heat away. (I'm pretty sure that constant rain has ceased to be news to yous anymore. hahaha)

Second, the zone is doing awesome! Dianella zone has had 5 baptisms this past weekend. We're planning for another one in our ward this weekend, an investigator of the sisters' named Tom, from Thailand. He is so cool. I had the privilege of interviewing him yesterday, in preparation for his baptism. When the sisters began teaching him, he had no knowledge of who Jesus Christ was. Their first lesson focused on Faith in Jesus Christ, and really hit him. He has an amazing testimony now, and is very excited for Saturday.

We just had an amazing ward council, too! We brought up that we need more people to teach. So what's in the plans now is the ward is going to work together with us to fill our days up. We had some really good ideas brought forward, and I'm excited to see what happens in the next few weeks.

We had a great lesson with the Turners this week. We taught them the Law of Chastity. We're working with Edward, who has decided he would like to get married. We also taught his girlfriend today, and she found it interesting as well! We may have another baptismal date soon. But for now, they're postponed until the marriage. :)

Teresa is doing pretty good as well. She came to Myle's baptism on Friday, and was really impressed with it. she's gaining courage, and told us that she feels like she's really ready this time, now that she's seen a baptism.

Well, we've got 5 months left, and Elder Iumalo and I are going to be working really hard to get things moving in this area! I love seeing the gospel in action. Seriously, I can't describe in words what's going on with these families. It has to be seen, and experienced, what changes are going on in their lives.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Daniel Reeder

Another week :-)

Hello, family and friends, it's another new week here in Perth, Australia. This past week went by pretty eventfully.

Normally, Transfers are on Wednesday, but due to some miscommunication of sorts, our transfer was Today! Elder Iumalo came up from Rockingham and spent the night with us, and this morning, Elder Swoboda departed on his bus to go down to Bunbury.

Iumalo and I are excited to be together again. We all went over to the Turner's home last night to have a family prayer with them. David and Edward are really going to miss Elder Swoboda. But they like Elder Iumalo now too, so that's good :)

We've been having a great time with them! David and Edward are solid investigators. Edward, especially, has made a huge change in his life. They're so willing to live the gospel, and do whatever it takes.

Sunday we had Stake Conference! All 5 wards in Dianella Stake gathered together at the chapel next to the temple. We seriously had a convoy going on on the way to the chapel- Us, the Turners in their two cars, then our Ward Mission leader got behind us, and then a couple other families as well! It was awesome.

There were some really good talks during the conference, including from the stake patriarch, and the temple president and matron :) Really cool. Edward was really struck by how important marriage was in the church. :)

Teresa is doing good. She knows the church is true. She's just got to make that step, have the courage to go for it despite her family. We're continuing to encourage and support her. She'll get there.

Guess what? There were 10 baptisms this past week. Barriers are being smashed here. :D It's so awesome!

I love you all! Thanks for the prayers :) I love being out here, I'm happy to be able to share this wonderful gospel with the people around me. I love to see the change it's making in so many people's lives.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Daniel

Woo Hoo!

Hi, fambly and friends! Today is Monday, 9 September, 2013. It is a new day. It is a new transfer. I'm feeling happy! Guess why?

First off: We have 2 baptismal dates! It was so cool, we went over to Virginia's family on Sunday. They're doing so good. I love them. We shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them as a family. It really made sense to David, especially, what it means to repent. After we'd finished, Edward asked us (no prompting from us) "Who do I have to talk to to get baptised?" Holy Cow! He really wants to be baptised. Ella was in tears, he's becoming a new person ever since he began coming to church, etc. David, too, committed, but wanting to continue learning first :) We set a date as a goal to work towards with them, the 28th of September.

The whole zone is doing awesomely- Right now, there are 12 dates! Miracles are happening in Western Australia. Wednesday evening was good as well. The sister's investigator, Miles, had been telling his mum about a blessing we'd given him earlier, to help him with some challenges he was having. She became interested, and long story short, we were able to give her a blessing as well, and she wants to start taking the lessons as well!

Sister Jeffrey is very sad, because she goes home tomorrow. She and her companion have been doing great things for their area, and she doesn't want to finish.

Teresa is doing ok. She's still having struggles. We're trying to help her through them. Her date's postponed.

Now, for the other awesome part of today!

We got our transfer calls this morning. Elder Swoboda is going down to Bunbury. I'm staying here, as District Leader. But I'll be with Elder Iumalo! Again! Hahaha, he called me last night to tell me the news. We're both really excited to work together again. :D

So that's the news of this week :) Today we're planning a zone pday, we're all going to hike up to the waterfalls and have a barbecue.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Reeder

18 Months

Can you believe it?

I can't.

This week, we've had some progress occurring in the district! Right now there are 4 baptismal dates. I'm excited!

Elder Swoboda and I went over to Teresa's on Wednesday. We taught her, fully, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong in that lesson. Afterwards, we set a date with her, for the 14th of september! It was pretty cool, actually. We wanted to help Her come up with a date that she felt comfortable working towards. When we suggested the 14th to her, she told us that that's the same date that she'd been feeling as well. She's had some real hard times making it to this point, but it's helped build her faith along the way. She came to church sunday, and another sister mentioned to us "She takes notes during relief society! Who takes notes?" (She was joking, but wow, she's really solid!)

Virginia and everybody are awesome. They've been coming to church the last two weeks now, and they're committed to continuing. We went over on Wednesday to teach them again, and straight up, before we could ask, they told us that they've been doing their best to read scriptures together, and to pray individually and as a family! Molly's partner, Pita, has been coming to church along with everyone, and he has been showing a lot of interest as well. We hope he becomes an investigator soon.

President Lindsay came to our district meeting this Tuesday, and joined in. It was good. Afterwards he took us out to lunch, and had a chat with us :) After he dropped us off at our flat, and had a quick look around (never been to this one before). Apparently it's been used by the mission for a VERY long time, and it's getting pretty old. So the next day the senior couple that does housing came by and said "We're moving you to a new flat in a few weeks!" Sudden. It's probably for the best, though, since our plumbing just quit working this morning. Anyway.

Saturday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders, Elders Hall and McNamee. I went with Elder Hall in their area, and elder Swoboda stayed in Greenmount with McNamee. It was a lot of fun, and Elder Hall and I got a lot of good work done in their area.

Hahaha! We were talking to a less-active member, and one of their kids came up to us, (about 8 yrs old) and asked us where we were from. I told him I was from America, and he seriously said "You're not from america! You're not black!" This, from an 8 year old. XD

So, it's the last week of the transfer! Suddenly, more and more missionaries I Know are finishing. Scary.

I love you all! Please stay safe, and everyone gets a hug from me :)

Love,

Elder Reeder