Wow Australia is amazing! It's totally different than what I
expected and exactly what I expected at the same time. It's crazy. The
sky goes on forever. Not a mountain in sight. The sunsets and
sunrises are remarkable. Clarkson is remarkable! The town is soo
pretty. I've been blessed to start in this area. The ward members and
leaders are so into the work and are very loving and supportive. I've
loved getting to know the members. Our ward is very diverse. We have
heaps of Kiwis in our ward. I can't tell if I'm picking up the Aussie
slang or the Kiwi slang sometimes. It's fun.
I have to make a point as to how the bike riding goes.
1. Riding a bike in a skirt is really quite challenging.
2. The wind is every sister missionaries worst enemy.
3. Bike shorts are the greatest invention known to man.
4. You can never sit on the bike the perfect way. You always have to adjust your skirt as you ride to keep modest.
5. The cars here drive on the left side of the road. The
significance of that is that when you approach a road you have to look to
the right to see oncoming traffic, not the left like you would at home.
Sister Peivi keeps laughing at me as I look the wrong way. She kept
laughing until I almost got hit because of it. Luckily I was almost
stopped and I have awesome breaks on my bike.
6. Riding in the rain is awesome. Poor Sister Peivi however
totally got pedal slapped by her bike the other night. She went off a
curb in the rain and it was dark. The pedal slammed into her calf and
gave her a nasty bruise. She's been wearing her long skirts the last
couple of days to cover it up.
7. Blessings of being a bike missionary is that your legs are
going to be fit but your tush is always going to be sore. I don't think that will ever go away. haha
8. Gears are the 2nd greatest invention created after the bike
shorts. I don't know how those gears work but when you hit a hill they
are a life saver. We have nothing but hills in our area. The view
though is totally worth the pain of the uphill.
I found out that Sister Peivi's last name is actually Nanai. She
changed it right before her mission. Peivi is her dad's first name. He
has 15 siblings and she wanted to be special and not be just another
'Sister Nanai". Kind of interesting.
Alright miracles from this week. On Tuesday we went to visit a
less-active named Madi. She was baptized about 3 years ago and has a 7
year old son. When we visited, we met Dominic. He is a boarder at her
house. He ended up talking to us for about 30 minutes and asked us
heaps of questions. We were able to testify and answer all of his
questions. He ended up saying, "You know, how about you come back and we
will talk more." So we set up a return appointment for today.
Hopefully we will have another good lesson with him and start teaching
him. Fingers crossed. The other mircale that happened on Tuesday was
with another less active. Her name is Alexis. She has two daughters.
When we pulled up to the house her 8 year old ran in to get her mom.
Alexis came to the door and said, "Go away, I'm not interested." Sister
Peivi asked is she was Alexis. She said she was but didn't care for
what we had to talk about. We were impressed to tell her that we were
new in the area and that did it. Her heart was like instantly
softened. Apparently being a member wasn't her choice. She said she
was "forced to be baptized" and didn't care for the church. We were
able to visit with her for about 20 minutes. As we left she told us
that we could stop by and chat anytime we wanted to. It was crazy how
one little statement changed her entire demenor.
On Friday our district came over to our flat at 1 to do a district
blitz. I love our leaders (district and zone). We had mentioned that
we were struggleing and they pulled forces and our whole district
tracted different parts of our area for 2 hours. It was a huge
blessing! We ended up recieving about 10 different potential
investigators from it. I love tracting. Dead serious. I absolutely
love it. Sometimes you get nice people who listen, sometimes you get
nice people who chat and politely decline, you meet people that open the
door listen and shut the door, you have people that open the door see
the badge and slam the door, and you hit a lot of empty houses. It's
all a challenge but you really get to see the power of the spirt guiding
you to the home of those that are truely ready and prepared to have the
gospel in their lives. It's awesome. I wouldn't trade tracting hours
for anything. I appreciate being a lifeguard at the top of the slide as
I tract. When you knock on a door you count to 15, knock again, count
to 15 and then leave if no one answers. It's like sending kids down the
top of the slide. Not that counting to 15 is hard but it just made me
laugh when I realized the similarity the other day while we were
tracting.
I'm learing some incredible self control. I really know the
different between needs and wants when it comes to shopping. My wants
never get bought. I think that is a major blessing that I'm learning on
my mission. Every teenager should go on a mission to learn how to
budget.
We got a text from President Lindsay Saturday night about President
Monsons wife. It was a really tender text to read. We got it right as
we got home for the night. I know that every missionary over here was
praying for President Monson in a special way that night.
Sunday we were able to teach sharing time in the primary. I loved
it! I got choked up when the little kid gave the opening prayer in
junior primary. There is a very special love and spirit with those
little kids. We made the connection with the senior primary that when
they get paid to do their chores and then pay their tithing they are helping build temples because the money from tithing helps builds temples. I think
a lot of chores are going to be done this week at the homes in our ward
hahaha it was great to see the lightbulb go off in their heads. I
loved it.
I hope all is well with all of you. I think about you daily and pray for you all the time. Keep the faith,
Sister Shayne
ps I can't figure out pictures so I will try again next week.
Our library is closed on the 3rd so we should be writing home on
the 4th so don't freak out if the next email gets to you late on monday
if not tuesday like at 1am or whatever.
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