Thanks so much for such a great e-mail this
week! It's been a really good week for Elder Hirata and I as well. Since
it was the first week of the transfer we wanted to work really hard and
set the standard for ourselves for the other 5 weeks in the transfer to
come. And on a cool little side note, Elder Rafferty is no longer in
Tasmania! After a short 6-week stint in the city of Launceston, he is
back up on the mainland and is now serving as one of the Zone Leaders
over the Pakenham Zone! So that'll be really cool to be able to work
closely with him again and I know he'll do a great job and help the Zone
progress heaps. So also because of that I personally wanted to do extra
well this week to show Elder Rafferty that Pakenham is still doing
well. So we were able to teach a lot of good lessons this week seeing as
it was one of the few weeks were
nearly none of our appointments cancelled or fell through! We didn't
make any spectacular progress with our main investigators but we were
able to provide some good spiritual lessons for each of them. One really
neat thing that we found out this week, is Michael, the new
investigator we found about 2 weeks back, told us that he and his
girlfriend are planning on getting married soon now. That was really
good to hear and we were very happy for him, and also a bit relieved
because that was going to be one of the possible roadblocks in him
progressing to be baptized if he continued to live with his girlfriend
as unmarried. We also mentioned to him that the Bishop is able to
perform marriages as well for essentially no cost and he sounded really
keen to talk to him about it, so that was good! Another really neat
experience this past Saturday, was after we finished providing some
service for a member we were going to go straight to another
appointment,
however, we felt that we needed to do some tracting really quickly
before we did so. So as we were driving along we decided just to stop on
a random street that looked like people were home on. So as we got out
and were going up to the first house on the street a man came out from
the garage to meet us and identified us as 'mormon missionaries' and
then told us that he wasn't really interested. Well anyone we meet that
knows who we are as missionaries we try to talk to a bit to find out
where they know us from, so as we talk to him for a minute he said that
several of his relatives are members of the church and that one of his
cousins served a mission, so that's how he knew missionaries. He also
mentioned briefly that he was just out back trying to fix his lawnmower,
so we immediately offered to help and he thought that was very kind of
us so he invited us in. We didn't end up doing anything with the
lawnmower but just sat down with him and talked and
just found out more about him. In the interest of time, essentially we
learned that he'd recently just come back to his faith (born again
Christian) after he'd hit rock bottom, and he said that if we'd come to
his house any sooner, like a week or so ago, he would've just turned us
away, but we ended up seeing him at the perfect time (let alone when he
was home and not at work) and he felt like we'd met him for a reason so
he really wanted us to come back and talk to him about what we have to
share. So that was a really cool miracle and probably the best thing
that happened to us this week. It also gave us a greater testimony
towards always following promptings we receive. That Saturday night we
had the great opportunity to go to a ward party that they were having in
honor of the Pakenham ward's 1 year anniversary since it was first
formed. So that was a really fun event, and a couple of the people that
we visit (less-actives and 1 investigator) were
there as well. Sunday was pretty good as well, however, our church
attendance for investigators was a disappointing 0, being the lowest of
my mission, so that was a bit of a downer but nothing that could
overshadow the good rest of the week that we were able to have.
Hopefully next Sunday will be able to make up for it, though! Well not
too much else out of the ordinary happened this past week that I can
think of mentioning right now, since it was just a normal week without
either of us being transferred. But we look forward to another great
week ahead, and I continue to be very grateful for all the blessings
we've received, and I've received personally, in this great area. Thanks
for all the love and support you provide which really helps me to keep
pressing forward through all the work! I hope that you have a wonderful
week ahead as well and that the Lord continues to bless you so much!
I'll talk to you again soon!
Love,
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