Different language, Different countries, One religion‏

Family!

 

This weeks letter is going to be broken up into 3 different emails so I don't miss anything.  First off I'm glad to know that everyone is doing well and had fun at Zack's farewell.  It was awesome to see all the pictures mom sent.  You are all so tan!  You all look so happy :D I love it!  So this week has been pretty slow as far as cool stories goes.  We had 2 major things that will be explained in the other 2 emails.  One not so funny  thing from this week is that Sister Kennar and I have realized that we are getting fat and don't know why so we made a new workout plan for ourselves to try and get rid of these extra kilos.  We made a plan but we need some ideas of exercises to do (pinterest workouts for upper body and abs without weights).  We used our extra white board and drew a pictureof Fat Girls.

 It's our motivation to really work out in the mornings and not just wake ourselves up with jumping jacks, sit ups and stretching along with running every other day.  Which we only get like 2 ks in anyway when we do run.  Hopefully it will work :) In sacrament the other day we had a RM speak that served in South Africa.  He started out by bearing his testimony in that clicking language.  He said, "I'm going to start by answering questions about my testimony.  No there is nothing wrong with the mic, yes those clicks were coming from my mouth, yes that is a real language and yes that is the coolest language in the world."  It had everyone laughing.  It was soo cool!  I love that the gospel really has reached many parts of the world in all kinds of languages.  I love you all and can't wait to hear more about how football is going for Ben and David.  I know they are tearing it up and making everyone proud.  Keep it up boys!  Josh I hope you have an awesome Birthday this week! Hopefully your letter gets there in time :) Soph just keep being awesome.  It was great to hear all about your pit band and things last week.  High school is so much fun.  Soak it up while you can.  Next Monday is a National Holiday here.  It's the Queens birthday so all the libraries will be closed.  Because of that we won't be emailing until Wednesday next week.  Just so you know :)  I love you all!

 

All my love,

Sister Shayne

 

 

Event #1 from this week.  

On Thursday Sister Lindsay set up an entire conference just for the Sisters in the mission.  We had it at the local stake center and all 38 sisters gathered for a day of training and fun.  We started at 9:30am and were in workshops and break-out groups until we had lunch.  It was great!  We focused primarily on Chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel.  It's amazing how we can read through those chapters over and over again but it isn't until we really break them down and practice them that we see the power that can come from them.  I know that PMG was written by inspired men.  There is no other way to explain how we can become such incredible teachers at such a young age to teach this gospel.  I know I will be a totally different teacher now.  We really focused on using scriptures as we taught, applying the scripture to the investigator, asking inspired questions that provoke thought and insight, and listening to eternal truths they know and building off of those.  It was powerful.  Our Assistant Elder Jordan said, "Christ was our perfect example.  He didn't ask what others knew about the 10 Virgins or the wheat and the tares, He taught them."  There was a lot of little insights like that that I wrote down in my study journal because I didn't want to forget them.  My study journal will be my favorite thing to look back at for my mission.  I learn so much when I reread what I've written in it from the start of my mission.  After our training we went to Kings Park and the Botanic Gardens.  Kings Park is one of the biggest inner-state parks in the world.  It's bigger than Central Park in New York.  It was incredible.  I just soaked in every minute I had there.  It's moments like that that really make me realize that I'm half way around the world.  I'm going to send heaps of pictures because they say more than I can.  It was an incredible experience that I won't soon forget. 

 

Pictures of the city and view from Kings Park

 

 

 

Sister Tanaka!!! She's from Fukuoka! I found her the morning of the conference and just said, "Hi I'm Sister Beckstrand." and pointed at my badge.  She looked and my last name and got soo excited.  She smiled soo big and almost cried.  She talked all about Jacob and how his Japanese is better than hers and how he said his cousin was serving in this mission.  He was in her ward when she got her call. 

 It was so cool to talk to her throughout the day and make her feel a little bit like she was at home. 

She's only been here for 2 and a half weeks.

 

Me and the City :)

 

The City view.  It's just beautiful.  

 

 

 This is a Kangaroo paw.  It is the state flower of WA.  This is the most common coloring but it can be found in yellow/white and nearly black as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This was a cute little part of the park where we all took pictures

  

This is part of the garden area of Kings Park.  The flowers were incredible!  

 MORE FLOWERS!

Huge beautiful walk way of grass and trees.  Everything here is just beautiful and perfectly planted and maintained

 

 

 

 

This is a memorial for all the soldier of WA.

Event #2

Saturday we had the baptism of Sadaf and Monia!  It was absolutely beautiful.  We arrived at 6:30pm and met the girls there.  They had their white clothes ready to go and were ear to ear grinning from the second they arrived.  Earlier in the week we had asked Jonathan Dunlop, one of our ward missionaries preparing for his mission, and Kipling Holder, the Bishops son with his mission call to Milan Italy to preform the baptisms and confirmations.  It was a great experience for them.  We talked to Johns mom earlier in the week and she just cried and told us how a year ago she never thought John would be where he is now and how honored she was that we had asked him to help with the baptisms.  It was really neat to see how one simple prompting to have John do one of the baptisms was able to effect their whole family.  John is 22 and only has his physical left to do and then his papers will be sent in!  It's really awesome.  The program for their baptism was simple.  We had a talk on faith by one of the YSA girls, a talk on Enduring to the end by one of the ward missionaries, and then the baptisms of the girls.  Sadaf told us as she changed that she felt a weight lifted off of her.  When they were changed we met back in the chapel.  Sister Kennar and I bore our testimonies and then invited the girls to bear theirs.  They had both written out their simple testimonies in English and got up and recited them.  The spirit was sooo strong.  I couldn't believe how 2 girls from Iran who have only been in Australia for 3 months were able to escape their homeland just to have religious freedom. 

 

Their story is inspiring.  They were worshiping as Christians in Iran at a friends home.  The government found out and they fled.  The friend is currently in prison in Iran.  They went to Indonesia to flee to Australia where they can worship freely.  When they arrived they stayed with a family members friend who's husband is a member of the church.  There is no such thing as coincidences.  God's hand is in this work.  He provides a way for all of his children who are ready to accept the gospel to be able to.  I've been amazed at how even with a language barrier we have been able to teach these girls.  When apostles and prophets talk about technology being able to help us share the gospel they don't just mean using Facebook and Blogs to share the gospel around the world.  We used translation tools on ipads and laptops to help these girls completely understand the fullness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  I just marvel at the power and wisdom that the Lord has in this work.  I love being a part of it and being able to help others find this incredible happiness.  In the girls confirmations they were both blessed to be examples for their families and friends.  I know that this is just a small part of that promise.  They will be able to do temple work and share the gospel with many of their people.  I love it.  The church is true and I love it.