Thanks
for the e-mail this week, I really enjoyed it! This past
week was a really great one and we saw a lot of success! I think,
though, that you could title this past week "Melbourne Mission Episode
5: The Bike Strikes Back." Let me explain...so on Monday as we left the
flat to go to e-mails and without getting very far the back tire of my
bike just pretty much exploded (a bit of exaggeration there) and I was
brought to a halt. So we walked back to the flat which was close since
we didn't get far, and called Elder and Sister Laycock (the senior
missionary couple) and Elder Laycock helped us take the bike down to one
of the nearby bike shops. It got fixed pretty easily and quickly and we
were back on the road again. Well, later in the week on Friday my bike
still had a few tricks up its sleeve and as we were riding towards an
appointment with an investigator (this time about a 30 minute ride from
the flat) the front tire popped and within a few seconds was completely
without air. A bit frustrated we decided to walk
over to a petrol (gas) station that was fairly close to see if we could
fill it up with air and it would hold until at least we could get to
our appointment. However, the bike tire wouldn't hold anything so we
called one of the members (because the Laycocks were in a far away land
visiting a less-active member) who was very kind to help us out. Bro.
Key, the member, brought one of his bikes over to the petrol station
where we were and took my bike to another bike repair shop. It was in
the night time then so the bike shop was closed and we'd have to pick it
up on Saturday morning. Bro. Key's bike worked great though for the
time. So we got my bike back from the shop and went back on our merry
way the next day. However, my bike must've been created by the adversary
himself because it hadn't had enough tormenting us yet. We rode to
church yesterday and everything was fine, but at the end of the meetings
when we went to get our bikes I quickly found out
that the back tire was flat again! So after brainstorming all sorts of
ways that would cause the bike the most pain for its actions, we read a
few scriptures on forgiveness and decided that the best thing to do
would be to give the bike one last chance to prove itself worthy. So
since Bro. Key was still there and had his bike still in his truck, we
just did another swap and he was going to take it in today to the shop
for us again (we've paid for all the repairs by the way, we haven't
obviously had Bro. Key pay for them) and will hopefully get it back
someday today. So that was the funny/frustrating series of events for
this past week! Well I think I probably should talk about how the
missionary work went now. This past week was great as I mentioned before
because we were able to have 3 more investigators come on date for
baptism, which was a true blessing and all credit to Heavenly Father
blessing us with these people. Two of them are aboriginal girls
in their mid 20s who we taught for the 1st time this past week with
Elder Laycock there to help us (who is a really great teacher! he
actually served his mission in France too Mom! who knows if it was the
same mission or not) and they grasped everything and had a strong desire
to learn more and progress towards baptism. Their date is for the 17th
of August so we hope they'll progress and be ready for that. Lastly, the
other is a girl named Nikki who's in her 20s and has 2 young kids. We
actually found her just tracting and she doesn't have really any
religious background at all but is still very interested in increasing
her faith and finding out if God is really there. Her date is for the
24th of August. So we feel very blessed to have several people to teach
here that seem very solid and we know that the teaching opportunities
will only increase as we continue to work hard and maintain exact
obedience. This past week we also had a district meeting
(which unfortunately we don't have each week up here since everyone
lives a bit of a distance from each other) in a city called Shepparton.
Our district contains of the Elders who serve there, Elder Matu'u and
his companion, us, and then Elder Hasson (who I served around in
Geelong) and Elder Ogles (in my MTC district) who serve in a city called
Albury which is on the border of New South Wales. It was great to see
the other missionaries and also receive some great trainings and
guidance. The mission goal for this next quarter is 163 baptisms, and
their focus for being able to reach this is to work really well with the
members, especially after having that broadcast about member work. I
know that it will be the key to success if we're able to effectively
work with the members here and help them to find joy in the missionary
work. So that will be a big focus for us here, even though we have just a
handful of active members to visit, we know we'll still be
able to see miracles from them because they all have great faith. So
unfortunately I'm out of time for this week, but I hope that you have a
great week this week and see many blessings and miracles at home as
well. I love you heaps and I'll talk to you again soon!
Love,
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