The Long Walk

The Long Walk" is a pretty cool book. It also accurately describes this week. We pretty much spent it tracting. And Tracting. And then, when we had an appointment, it'd fall through, and we'd tract some more, because that's really all there is to do.

The whole district is really needing new investigators. We've been going all over our area, trying different streets, and talking with everyone as often as we can. There have been quite a few interesting experiences we've had while doing this, too. We went past a house with a trampoline in front. There were two small kids, about 6 years old. They started talking to us, something like this;
"Hey, what are yous?"
"Missionaries!"
"Oh, ok. Well I'm Brian, and this is Jayce!" (Jayce is eating the foam from one of the poles.)
"Hi there."
"This is my house, and I have a trampoline!" Then Brian does a superman jump onto the ground and runs over to his dad, who just came out.

I love little kids :D

We've made some really good, postive contacts with a lot of people. Nobody to teach yet, but we're still working on it.

Friday, during district meeting, it was us, the Kwinana elders, and the Rockingham West elders. Really small meeting. One of the sisters hurt her back from a bike crash, and the doctor told her to stay home for a while. The zone leaders went and heart-attacked their house, just to cheer them up :)

Saturday, I went on exchanges with the zone leaders. Elder Reid and I had a good day together, and we got some good work done in their area.

Aaand... Yep. That's pretty much how my week has been. On the plus side, in a bizarre turn of events, it is currently quite cool during the day. (Cold front). Oh yes, Tuesday and Wednesday, we had the storm of storms! Elder Bangerter and I found that we could lean our whole weight into the wind, and stay upright. Boo yah. And then the clouds dumped. And Dumped. Kwinana actually had a flood warning going on for a few hours.

So, I hope everyone is doing well :) Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Reeder

Things are heating up!

Literally. It was about 27C yesterday, with warmer weather in the future. And it's barely spring!

Elder Bangerter and I have been doing a lot of tracting lately. And contacting. Mission President came up with a new key indicator to report how many people we contact each day. (Basically, anyone that we talk to, and try to share the gospel with, whether or not they accept, is a contact.) I think everyone's really excited for it, one- it's a really big number, and two- the more people contacted, the more new investigators will be found to teach! Elder Bangerter and I have already seen some cool things come from this. The first day we found four people who were interested! Two were at bus stops, and the bus came before we could get their names, but still! It's awesome.

We came across a less-active member this week, as well. Guess what his name is? Daniel. (Serious.) He's nice. Originally from NZ. He wants to get himself sorted out, and regain his faith. We're going to meet with him again this week :)

District meeting went pretty well. It was a bit of a shock, though, when President Lindsay showed up and said, "Mind if I join your district this morning?" O.o He sat through the meeting, got involved in our discussions, and gave us some great training as well. We all enjoyed it. President is awesome.

This week, hopefully, we'll have more work to do. The whole mission is focusing on finding new people to teach this week.

I love you all!

Elder Reeder

Kwinana Banana

So here I am now, in the town of Kwinana, in Western Australia. More specifically, in Leda suburb. Leda is a very quiet place. And I mean QUIET. Right now, we have I think 3 investigators.

Our area is actually split into two areas right now (due to a lot of new missionaries coming in a while back), so I'm in a four-man flat. With me are Elder Bangerter, Elder Ariki, and Elder McNamee. Elder Bangerter is my companion. He's pretty cool. Very quiet. He's been out just longer than me. Also, this is Elder Ariki's last transfer.

And I'm district leader. So far it's been ok. Kind of a trial-by-fire thing. The zone leaders came by and explained how to do some things, and what my responsibilities are. Then, last night, I did correlation with the district. Ouch. It's pretty tough if you don't know everything you're supposed to be getting. It's all good, though. All figured out.

There is a lot of responsibility involved in this. I need to be an example for the other missionaries in this district, and to be able to help them in their efforts as well.

This coming week we're going to be working a lot on finding new people to teach. Our goal is to make this area "where it's happening." ;)

So, new week, new place. I hope you're all doing well :)

Elder Reeder

A New Horizon (for everyone!)

Guess what? This week has been AWESOME. Mostly.

So, Tangate's boyfriend from QLD flew out on Tuesday. His name is Pat. Long story short, he is a new investigator! We've been very careful to make sure that he wants to be baptised for the right reasons. He does. Yesterday everyone came to church, including Pat. He really enjoyed it (Fast and Testimony Meeting. Very good), and then we went over after church, and taught the restoration to him. He prayed for the first time there, too!

Also, Leon received the priesthood! And Tangate, Leon, Alisha, and Sis. Hembrow are all going to the temple on Wednesday to do baptisms! I think everyone's on a spiritual high right now, it's great.

We've been working a lot with less-active members this week, too. One story- We ran into a lady at the train station, who'd been in the area for 2 years, and didn't know there was a chapel around! We got a ride for her and her son, and they stayed for the whole 3-hour block. She seemed pretty happy. And the son loved having sunday school with us. Cool.

So. in other news, This past week was my 6-month mark! Wow!

Also, this week is TRANSFERS. I think the whole district was pretty excited for it, seeing what would happen, who's going where, etc.

And pretty much everybody is going everywhere!

Elder Beck and Elder Evans are being doubled out, both going to Kalgoorlie! Elder Templeton, a Zone Leader, is going to be training, with another zone leader as well. This means there will be a 4-man companionship! Holy Cow! Elder Iumalo is staying in Kelmscott.

Guess what's happening to me?

I'm going to Kwinana! (I have no idea where that is. Near Rockingham?) And not only that, I got a call from President Lindsay. I'm going to be in Kwinana, serving as District Leader. :O

Wow. I'm excited, and nervous.

Man, I've been in this area for 6 months now! I'm going to miss it. But There'll be some good work to do out in the new area, as well :)

So that's the week out here :) Still working hard! Happy Fathers Day! (It's this week, here.)

Love, Elder Reeder

Oh, by the way, I got a new camera. I actually found the exact same one at the store. So. :)

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