"It's been a good week, we've had lots of lessons again and have 3 new investigators, so that's great!
Last night we had a lesson with A. where we taught a few different things, including the Word of Wisdom. It was so good because before we had even said what it contains, he realised from a scripture we read about the body being a temple that it is bad that he smokes and said that he needs to stop. When we taught the full commandment he accepted it and said he wants to live it. At the end I asked him if he had any cigarettes in the house, and he decided to give me his last packet. I took them with me when we left, screwed them up and binned them, it felt good. He's going to need a lot of help but he has the real desire to change, which is fantastic.
We didn't have anyone at church unfortunately A. couldn't make it and the others all had different reasons why they couldn't come."
"Zone Conference was really good! I had about an hour that President had given me to deliver training, and he didn't give me any guidelines, just to do whatever I felt inspired to. So we had some role plays about the the different stages of the process of someone becoming an investigator, with contacting, starting the first lesson, and giving a baptismal invitation. Usually in role plays they always use the senior couples as investigators, but I decided that because we rarely teach that demographic that I would use missionaries that are converts to the church, as they know exactly what it's like to be an investigator. It went really well and we learnt a lot from all of the conference.
And it was the last one for the Freestones as next month we won't have ZC, instead we will all have extra long interviews with President Freestone!
Today on the way to church on the metro, I saw the biggest insect I have ever seen. I don't know what it was but it was the length of my hand-span! A woman went crazy trying to kick it and kill it until she managed to stomp on it, it was the strangest experience.
It was to the point where I wouldn't have wanted to stand on it because I didn't want it to be all over my shoe, it was huge
My Interview with President was good, we mostly talked about the zone and how people are doing in different areas, and about the plans for zone conference. He asked how I'm doing but everything's fine so there wasn't much to talk about! I also report to him every week in emails so it's not like he doesn't know what's going on week to week
Today we'll be shopping, and then doing a whole lot of cleaning, woo! Not a very exciting day but it has to be done"
"Yeah someone had just painted straight over their door bell and the name tag with it, it was funny."
"And the other one is a basement that was just ridiculously full of stacked up wood, it was like Aladdin's cave
Oh yeah it's so hot now!
Yeah we have to stop if we need to, to have water and cool down"
"We had a lesson with J. We talked about the restoration and Joseph Smith and it went extremely well. We taught simply and to the point and then when the moment felt right I came straight in with the invitation to be baptised with the restored authority of God. He said yes! We set a date for the 20th June, and he said if he has received his answer then he will be baptised. I’m grateful for his humility and willingness to change if it is God’s will for him."
"We had a man come up to us on the Metro and ask what the book that we were carrying was. He then proceeded to read the introduction and gave us his number so we could talk more about it.
We had a presentation about using technology safely. It was the training that missions have before they get iPads. We won’t be getting them anytime soon, but the idea is for us to have the training whilst we are on our mission and go home to be responsible users of technology. It was really good, with things like to not turn a device on without a goal as for what you’re using it, to avoid wasting time. When we arrived at the street we asked a couple of old ladies if they knew where the house was and they just told us it was a shame to see ‘beautiful young men’ like us as missionaries for a false church."
"The mother of the family kept telling her son that if he reads the Book of Mormon and the Bible he can grow up to be just like us, and she wants him to learn English as well as she said it is necessary to get anywhere in this world. I’m grateful for the wonderful new family we have to teach."
"Today at church we had the headsets set up for translation as the Perry’s had been assigned to give talks in sacrament. I sat at the back with the microphone translating into Greek. It was my first time using the system and it went really well, it was a lot easier than whispering into someone’s ear."
"In the evening we had a lesson with A. We taught about obedience, prayer, scripture study and following the prophet using 1 Nephi 31 and it went really well. That led on nicely to us teaching the Word of Wisdom which he accepted and ssaid he will try. At the end of the lesson he gave us his last packet of cigarettes which we threw away after the lesson. He is changing so much and has a real desire to learn. We can also see that he really loves us and trusts us which is great. I’m grateful for the opportunity to help people change and become better."
