January 16,2013

Hello,

 

I am writing a couple days late because we spent our whole P-day taking a bus to Cairns. Since our car is still in the shop after 6 weeks. (It takes so long because insurance likes to take their time approving the repairs, and then the people repairing it take forever because of the Australian Lifestyle, of kicking back and getting work done when they get around to it. I about to go to the shop and give them a tip and maybe it will motivate them to fix it a little bit faster. We are hoping to get the car back this week. Anyways. It was a great 6 hour bus trip up to Cairns. We went there to have training given by the mission president and Elder Watson of the Seventy. It was a really good training and I learned a lot of things. He talked a lot about the Godhead and how important it is to understand and know that they are three separate beings. It was a good training and it was also good to be around other missionaries again. After being banished in the middle of nowhere it was nice to be around 10 missionaries instead of just the 4 of us in Townsville. It was a good time and  learned a lot. And now I can say I did missionary work in Cairns because I helped them teach a lesson on Monday night. The training was on Tuesday and now we are back in Townsville today.

Now for the work last week. It went really well. We broke a Townsville record of teaching 16 lessons in one week!! We set a baptismal date and we are hoping to set another baptismal date this week! The one that we set this week was with a 18 year old named Pierson. He is really good and solid. He got an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, now the hard part is getting him to come to church. Investigators always make excuses at the last second right before church starts so we cant do anything about it. But we are hoping that we can have him come to church this week! We set the goal for him to be baptized on the 24th of February

We have also taught lots of less active members and are hoping to get some of the reactivated because there are 270 inactive households in Townsville. when only 150 people come to church. Elder and Sister Miles are making their whole mission in Townsville dedicated to finding these people. 

We just started teaching a Cook Islander boy named Thomas. He is the nephew to our Relief Society President and he said that the church his family goes to is not enough and that he wants to be baptized into our church. So we are going to teach him all that he needs to know and then we are going to baptize him! I am excited to set a date with him. It will be good!

The Chinese family we started to teach is moving and we are also teaching a lot of people who aren't really progressing, but we are going to try our hardest to get them to progress!

That is about the work for the week. It is going really well and I am glad that we are starting to have some more success in this area. I miss you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyler Powelson