Hello All,
My week has been pretty good. It has been starting to get really
hot here in Queensland and I have been drinking water a lot in order to stay
hydrated. It is December and is hot. So
whenever I hear the song in the shops that says it is beginning to look a lot
like Christmas. I think it is insane to play that song. But it Australia it
starts to get really hot when it begins to look like Christmas. My week went
really well. And I am really excited to see what is going to happening here in
Townsville. Both companionship's here have really increased with success. We
just had a baptism and both of us are going to be having baptisms in January, so things are going really well for all of
us. Last Sunday we got a referral from our district
president for his brother in law who is not a member who wanted to start taking
the lessons. They were so excited they had us teach him 3 times in a week. So
it was pretty exciting. He is from Thursday
Island (and island between Australia and Papua New Guinea) and they don't speak
proper English. The English they speak is broken up, so we can understand the
jest of what he is saying, but he can't really understand what we were saying, so
our district president would translate for us. He let us know that he wanted to
be baptized and we had some really good spiritual lessons with him. We were
going to set a date for baptism this week, but they just told us they are going
to move to Cairns tomorrow, so we told the
missionaries up there about them and told them that they are going to be
teaching a really good guy with lots of faith in god. It is going to be
exciting to see what happens. I hope he will be able to get baptized up in
Cairns. It is always exciting to be able to teach people with so much faith.
He was just in a car accident and it was a miracle he survived, so he said only
God was the one who kept him alive and that the gospel is what he needs right
now in his life.
For our other investigator Qayyum, We taught him the
last missionary lesson before he get baptized in January. He
leaves to go to Tasmania this week to go visit some friends for the Summer
Holiday off of school. He is really good and ready to get baptized. He faith
in God is really strong for such a young boy. He told us that he is going to be
reading the Book of Mormon in all his free time while he is away and he is going
to grow as much as possible while he is away for a month. It has been great
seeing him grow and seeing how much he has learned. The first lesson we taught
with him, he knew it was all true after that lesson, so he has loved learning
about the gospel. I wish I studied the gospel as much as he does at his age,
16. I cant wait for him to be Baptized on the 5th of
January.
Then on Saturday we
had our Branch Christmas Party which was a lot of fun. All The Auxiliaries had
to make a Christmas tree out of recycled materials. We made a tree out of wood,
chicken wire, recycled garland and egg cartons. I will send a picture later. It
was really cool. We did not win the contest, but it was definitely the one that
looked more like a Christmas tree compared to the rest of trees that were made.
I also got to sit on Santa's Lap (Our Branch President) I will also send a
picture of that. It was a really good party and I was able to get to know some
of the members a little bit better.
The rest of my week was pretty much
tracting. Anyways. I miss you all and I hope you have a great
week!
Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson