G'day everyone!
Well
this last week flew by! On Friday I really was like blown away at how
quickly our week was coming to an end. I'll just give a recap of how
this week went and explain the subject of this letter.
On Wednesday President and Sister Lindsay flew up to spend the day
with us. We went to lunch to celebrate how amazing our Zone is doing.
In the Bunbury Zone we had never had more than 4 baptisms in a
month. The first week of December we had, I believe, 6 baptisms in our
Zone. With Kalgoorlie contributing to that with a baptism just before I
came up. President wanted to come let us know how much he loves us and
let us know that we are not forgotten out here in Kal. After lunch with
them we all went to the chapel for a District Meeting. President and
Sister Lindsay told us the Christmas story from the bible. It was
touching and just filled the room with the Spirit. We had an awesome
meeting. Each of us got a point to teach each other. We have a great
unity in our small little district. President had interviews with us
after the meeting. I love President Lindsay. He would do anything for
us. I love having interviews with him because I can just feel his love
for me in everything we talk about. It really was just a boost I
needed. I printed out a 6x8 of the St. George temple picture you sent
with it covered in snow and put it in a white photo frame for President
and Sister Lindsay for Christmas. Sister Lindsay LOVED it! It was nice
to have something small to give them for Christmas since they do
everything for us.
Then we got into the work of the week. We had some great
appointments set up, great plans of inviting people to be baptized, and
we were excited to see some great growth in our teaching pool from the
tracting that we had planned to do. Well long story short all of our
appointments fell through. They were either called into work, going out
of town, forgot, or just weren't home. We hit 39C (102F) degrees
yesterday. I thought it was awesome but everyone else hates it. I'm
just grateful to finally have a summer. Everyone says that these next
couple weeks are going to be the hottest. We got in the car and it was
just hot and I felt at home. That is something I've surprisingly missed
about home. Not have a summer for more than a year is awful. The down
side to it being so hot is that tracting is miserable. Not only is it
hot and sweaty but people don't want to open their doors and let out the
cool air. If they do open it they don't like to talk because it either
requires them to let us in (which only one person did this week) or
close the door. The latter happened a lot. When I say a lot I mean
that we tracted for at least an hour and a half everyday and only found 1
person this week that was willing to let us come back and share more.
We were able to share the story about Christ's birth from 3 Nephi
1:13-14 at a couple of doors though and that was nice. They didn't want
to hear any more but at least we got something in. Kalgoorlie is
unlike any other place I've served yet. Normally when tracting other
places if people aren't interested they would make up an excuse or just
tell us "thanks but no thanks." Here people seem to have more to say
and it's not usually anything nice about religion. After a full day of
no results I just drove home in tears. I have been praying really hard
for patience and perseverance. I won't let it get me down but it's been
a rough couple of days. There isn't a whole lot of love out here when
tracting. Thankfully our ward members love us and take care of us.
There was one cool thing that happened while we were tracting.
There was a house that was down this long as driveway behind
another house. We just passed by and were about to go to another house
when I got the impression that we needed to go back. As we walked down
this driveway I couldn't help but think, "This is going to be a family
that wants to hear what we have to share. It's has to be. Because we
almost missed it there must be someone here that wants to hear our
message." Sure enough a big Maori dad came to the door. We gave our
little door approach and he let us come in and share our message with
his 3 kids around the dinner table as they ate. It was really cool.
The mum and dad were on their way out but they said we could come back
after the holidays and share more with them. They are going to Perth
for Christmas. That's what most of Kalgoorlie is doing for Christmas
haha.
I hit my half way mark of my mission! I can't believe that I've
been gone for 9 months. Time flies soo fast when you are on a mission.
Our Sister Training Leaders called us on the 13th and sang, "Happy
Halfway to you! Happy Halfway to you! Happy Halfway Sister Beckstrand!
Happy Halfway to you!" It was awesome! I couldn't help but just laugh
at their creativity. It made my day :) The STL's are coming up today
and will be with us all day tomorrow. It will be nice to have them
here. Not only will we be able to teach more people but we will be able
to double our finding efforts as well.
Church yesterday and just all of our Sabbath was amazing. At
church our Ward Mission Leaders assistant bore his testimony about
missionary work. He talked about how it is the ward members that need
to be reaching out and saving the lost. He talked about rescue visits
and how important they are. Everyone was touched. He reminded me of
Brigham Young's conversion story about hearing a testimony of a man
without eloquence. Brother Paia'aua is from Samoa and his English isn't
perfect but Mate, he spoke with power. Then in Relief Society
we talked about the word reflect. We reflected on a particular moment
in our life that we remember really vividly. I thought back to state
swim 2012 after I finished the 100 freestyle. It was just something
that I could remember really well. She compared how we reflect in our
lives and how we can reflect upon the life of the Saviour and how we can
learn from His life. I was incredible deep in thought when we heard
the primary children in the room behind us start singing time. I heard
the most angelic choir come from those little kids. They sang,
My life is a gift; my life has a plan.
My life has a purpose; in heav'n it began.
My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth
And seek for God's light to direct me from birth.
I will follow God's plan for me,
Holding fast to his word and his love.
I will work, and I will pray;
I will always walk in his way.
Then I will be happy on earth
And in my home above.
I am so
incredible grateful for the plan that God has for me and for each one of
us. I'm grateful for my Saviour. I'm grateful for this Christmas
season of which we have to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I'm
grateful for the atonement. I know that by focusing on the Saviours
life and teachings we can learn soo much. I have grown so much closer
to my Saviour these last 9 months. I'm grateful for the attributes of
Christ that we can adapt into our lives. Take time this week to read
the account of the Saviours birth and many of the miracles that he
performed in His ministry. President Hinckley said, “This is the
wondrous and true story of Christmas. The birth of Jesus in Bethlehem of
Judea is preface. The three-year ministry of the Master is prologue.
The magnificent substance of the story is His sacrifice, the totally
selfless act of dying in pain on the cross of Calvary to atone for the
sins of all of us. …“There would be no Christmas if there had not been
Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without
the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact
of the Resurrection.” I testify that that is true. Make Christmas all
about Christ this year. Start off the new year more devoted and
dedicated to God and the Saviour. It will bring more blessing into your
life than you could ever imagine. I love this gospel and know it is
the only true church on the face of the Earth. The Priesthood is real
and has been restored. The Book of Mormon is word of God and Thomas S.
Monson is God's prophet on earth today. That's my short and simple
testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I hope you were all able to watch the 1st Presidency Broadcast. If
you haven't, watch it. It was inspired. We were able to watch it at
the chapel last night. After we were spiritually fed by that, a sister
in the ward came up to us. Sister White's daughter Emma is 10 and has
not been baptized. They have been waiting for the dad to be worthy to
baptize her. Well their family is ready for her to be baptized. Sister
White said that her husband was baptized 7 years ago on the 24th of
December and if at all possible they would like to baptize Emma on
Christmas Eve. We couldn't believe what we were hearing. We have an
appointment with them on Tuesday to see how we can get her ready to be
baptized. She has had all of the lessons several times over the last
year. We are going to go through the baptismal questions with her and
then play her program and get things all sorted out. If everything goes
well we should be giving their family the best Christmas present ever.
God answers prayers! He does in His time and in His way but every
prayer is answered. "Pray He is there, speak He is listening. You are
His child, His love now surrounds you." I love being a missionary.
Life in Australia is amazing. The work is moving forward and
individuals and families are coming unto Christ. I am grateful for you
all. I've been blessed with the greatest family on the planet. I love
you all and think about you all the time. Can't wait to see you next
week :) Until then know I love you. You are the best.
Much love, Sister Shayne
I went through and printed pictures from mum's blog and taped them to the wall near my bed. I love em.
We found this not so little guy in our kitchen sink the other morning.
Note: Our dishes were done minus those two cups in the picture. Windows
were all closed and the bench (countertop) was clean. We have no idea
how he got in but Sister Viaula took care of him. Haha I tried to smash
him and missed and ran away like a little girl hahahaha I just couldn't
do it.
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