18 months in the Outback!: Are you pumped?!‏

G'day!

This weeks email's subject is brought to you by our Zone Leaders, Elder Jordan and Elder Mason. On Monday we had our Miracle Monday where we saw heaps of miracles within our zone. As a zone (24 missionaries) we found 12 new investigators and set 3 new baptismal dates! On Tuesday for p-day all of us went bowling to celebrate. It was great, we played 3 games. Sister Tomaki had never bowled before. If you look at our scores she did pretty dang good for her first time. Our district was crowned winners of the Monday Miracle Madness competition. We were pretty pumped. Then at Zone Meeting on Wednesday we walked in and the Zone Leaders had written on the board, "ARE YOU PUMPED?!" We did an activity where everyone blew up 2 balloons and on them wrote things that pumped us up to go do work. Elder Jordan asked Elder Poole, "Elder Poole, if you stood on your 2 balloons would they hold you up?" To which Elder Poole replied, "No, I'm too fat!" Elder Jordan said, "Do you all think that if we combined our pump that we would be able to hold us all up?" We were pretty skeptical that it would work. They had us throw all of our balloons to the front of the room. Then the put one of those big church tables on it! The balloons held the table totally fine. Then Elder Jordan in all of his excitement and enthusiasm fully jumped onto the table! Not a single balloon popped. He looked at his companion and said, "Elder Mason are you pumped?!" Elder Mason is of course super pumped and jumped up on the table next to his companion. Elder Jordan then proceeded to ask each district leader if they too were pumped. Then they added the Sister Training Leaders as well! There were 8 people on that table that was still being upheld by the balloons that they rested on. We couldn't believe it. We added Elders until the balloons finally popped. It was a really cool object lesson.

The District Leaders :) This is them on the table. The Zone Leaders are behind them.

Then on Thursday the Zone Leader came and dropped of balloons to our flat that had things about us written on it that they admired and that pumped them up. It was accompanied with cookies :) I had a water bottle sitting on the counter while we were weekly planning that Sister Tomaki just laughed at. The bottle company is called PUMP! We took our lunch break to create these for our Zone Leaders. The Sister Training Leaders took them to the Zone Leaders flat when we did an exchange with them. We thought we were clever.

From the Zone Leaders :)

From us :)

I just wanted to share a few stories that really pumped me up this week.

#1 We had a lesson with our investigator named Faith. Faith had a baptismal date but her husband said she couldn't be baptized and won't let her come to church. Well with Sister Tomaki being brand new we decided it would be good to go through the lessons again with Faith so that she can have a refresher and so Sister Tomaki can practice teaching the lessons. Well this week we taught her the Plan of Salvation. We really emphasized the need to have faith, repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong! She realized that she can't get to the celestial kingdom and live with God or her family unless she is baptized. It was amazing to see a new determination in her to do that right thing. She committed to read and pray daily to build her connection with God again. She said that she would start praying for her husbands heart to be softened. I loved seeing the light from her start to burn again. It was beautiful.

#2 Our District Leader Elder Eti last week told us that there was a part member family that just moved into our ward. Sister Williams is active and all 4 of her boys are active and have been baptized. Her son Helaman actually gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday and I couldn't help but think, "he is going to be an amazing missionary some day." They are a great family. They are from Samoa. We had a dinner with them on Friday night. Brother Williams is not a member. He as incredible faith in Jesus Christ though. He has always been really religious. We shared a message with them and then Sister Williams said, "My husband just has a lot of questions." He denied her claim but after a few more minutes of talking he said, "Okay I only have a couple of questions." We smiled and asked what they were. He wanted to know about the Kingdoms of Glory, the Godhead, the apostasy and the essentially the fact that the church needed to be restored. He has golden questions! We set up another time to go back and answer his questions. I can't wait for our lesson with him on Wednesday. I'm so grateful that I've studied up on the Bible so that I can show him all of his answers in both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I'm fully confident that he is going to be baptized in the next couple of months. He is going to be a mean member of the church!

#3 The Fiti family. I told you a little about them last week. The mum has been wanted to come back to church for a while now but didn't have the support or drive. The dad was baptized only a few years ago and then fell away pretty quickly afterwards. We went around last week and shared a message about how we all want to be ready when the Savior comes again. We set the daughter Kaya on date to be baptized on the 31st of next month. Well we had a lesson with them on Saturday that fell through. We make things happen though and Sunday night after dinner we said a special prayer that they would be home. They were home! They had only gotten home about 10 minutes before we showed up :) Prayers are answered. We shared the Restoration with their family and had the mum, dad, and older brother talk about how they've felt the Holy Ghost in their lives, the importance of a prophet to them, and how needed the priesthood is. It was powerful to hear them bare their testimonies on things they haven't been aware of for a while. After reciting Joseph Smith's first vision the 10 year old son said, "Is that a true story?" I responded with, "that is for each of us to find out for ourselves." Kaya said, "I think it is." I looked her in the eye and just smiled as I said, "I know it is." Sister Tomaki and I were able to bear powerful testimonies of how we know that this church is true. You could have cut the spirit in that room with a knife. We talked more about the things that we needed to do with them leading up to Kaya's baptism and how we wanted to help their family. They all committed to read and pray daily. On the way out the dad said, "We've been a little slack lately but then you Sisters always come and make it happen." I've been incredibly humbled by the miracles that we've been able to be a part of here in Golden Bay. I'm grateful that Heaven Father trusts me with these precious children.

Lastly, I was reading in John chapter 9 this week. The greatest moments I reckon is when you are studying the scriptures and the things you read bring you to tears. This chapter did that to me. As we've been reading through the 4 gospels I was getting kind of bored to read the same stories over and over again throughout Matthew, Mark, and Luke. John however is totally different. I've been touched by everything that I've read over the last few days. I love being able to put myself into the scriptures and seeing how they literally do apply to each and every one of us. I love the scriptures. I'm grateful for the power that they bring into our lessons and into our individual lives. I hope you are all reading daily. Whether it be from the Bible or from the Book of Mormon. The word of God is there for you. Trust in it and let it lift, inspire and bless your life. I love you all and hope that something this week pumps you up :)

Much love,

Shayne

Bowling photos and scores

The outlook by our house.

Me and my companion

The Lord's vineyard of WA :)

A servant in the Lord's vineyard :) I thought I was funny.

ANZAC day dawn ceremony. This was really cool. We went and met up with the youth from our ward and their leaders at 5:30 in the morning. The ceremony is to remember all of the soldiers of war here in OZ and in NZ. It started with a "Welcome to the land" by one of the aboriginal elders in the community. He played the didgeridoo :) It was amazing. It was a great experience that I'm glad we sacrificed our sleep for.