This week was a pretty good week. It was the 2nd week with my new
companion and we worked really hard. We have some new investigators we are
working with and are hoping to set some more baptismal dates. On Sunday we had another Baptism. One of
Sandy's kids turned 8 last month, and she was really excited to be baptized.
Sandy is doing really great! She is active and she is going to be going to the
temple to do baptisms for the dead in a couple of weeks. Her kids really like
the youth program in our ward and really enjoy being with all the other members
of the church. Her daughter Tijnara got baptized and she was nervous at first
but we helped her build up the confidence to get into the water, and she did a
really good job getting baptized. I was the one that confirmed her. A member
in our ward baptized her. His name is Floyd and he leaves on his mission to
Adelaide next month. Most of the people that go on missions here stay in
Australia for their mission, or they go to New Zealand. Not many people go
anywhere else around the world. He has been coming out with us all day
everyday, and has been a really good help for us and being able to get a lot of
things done.
This week we also had a mini missionary. A mini missionary is someone who
lives nearby in a different stake and they come and spend a week with the
missionaries to see how it is. Floyd's brother Brandon also came out with us a
lot and we went on splits almost all week. Most weeks we only get 5-8 lessons
in, but this week we had 16 lessons between the two of us going on splits, so
lots of things got done. The members are starting to like the missionaries here
more and we have started to get lots of referrals from the members. We got
a referral for a Samoan family, who doesn't speak English. In a nearby area we
have a missionary from Samoa and he is going to teach the family the lessons and
then we will have someone translate for them at church. Another big thing this
week is we received a Media referral which means that someone went to mormon.org and requested the missionaries to come and
teach him. We were able to teach him one lessons and we are going back to see
him tomorrow and try to commit him
to be baptized. He was really receptive to everything that we taught him and
hopefully he will start to progress. I am really excited to see where he goes.
His name is Nick.
Another good experience that happened this week is when I went tracting
with the mini missionary. I didn't know where to go to tract, so I gave him the
map and told him to pick a street to tract. So he picked a street and so I
drove to that street and we started to tract. Across the street from where we
were tracted there was a house with screaming kids running around, and something
kept telling me to go across the street and tract into that house. So a lady
answered that door and listened to everything we had to tell her and we set a
return appointment for tomorrow,
so I hope all goes well with her because it was a good experience.
We are also working with two couples who aren't married, but want to get
baptized. So we are trying our hardest to have them set a marriage date or
start to try and get married, so they can be baptized. I hope they start to
think about getting married soon. A big problem with people in Australia is
that they think it is OK to start a family and live together without getting
married, but they have to be married if they want to get baptized, and some
people don't understand why. We will keep working with them and we hope good
things start to happen with them soon.
As for conference, it isn't shown in Australia until next week, so we cant
watch it until then. We did hear about the missionary age lowering. That is
pretty crazy. I would have gone on a mission a year ago if I was able to. I
like how women now have a chance to go when they are younger. So go on missions
everyone! It is a good experience and you can feel all the blessings that come
from it. On my mission is the only time I will receive blessings for waking up
at 6:30 every morning. The blessings are felt by yourself and you family at
home. Since the age requirements were changed I would like to see more of the
women going on missions.
So those are the good experiences I have had this week and hopefully I will
have some more experiences soon. I miss you all and I hope you all have a great
week!
Love
Elder Kyler Powelson
