Transfers!

Okay I LOVE my new area and my companion. Seriously they are both amazing. The ward here is incredible; it's entirely Polynesian and so gung ho on missionary work. We are definitely going to see miracles happen in Waikiki this transfer!

Sister Chou Lee and I have really been working on laying a good foundation with the ward. We have been meeting with a lot of the members and offering our service; we decided that our strategy for finding this transfer is going to be through the members. We are starting to really get to know them already and it's been awesome; they haven't had sisters here in years so the ward is excited about us being here.

We set a baptismal date yesterday with T-----, a friend of one of the young women in the ward. Her friend T----- has been so awesome to have introduced her to the gospel. She will be baptized on November 23, and we are going to start teaching her mom as well! We are planning to have study with T---- so that she can help us teach her mom, which I think will be so good. She's golden!

Honestly this week has been so good. We are working on being exactly obedient and completely consecrating ourselves to this work. I have definitely seen a difference in the last few days as I've strengthened my resolve to be a sacred missionary. The Lord will see our willingness to work and will bless us with miracles this transfer; I have no doubt of that. We've already begun to see it.

THANK YOU THANK YOU for the package!! I got it at transfers; it is the best. Those Trio bars seriously save my life. When we got to transfers Elder Cook came and told me I had a package, and it was pretty hilarious when I pulled out pictures of him and he was standing there looking over my shoulder. Our companions had a good laugh about it. Don't worry, Dad, we are totally focused and our relationship is old news here in the APM. We both have earned a reputation as obedient and hard-working, so that goes a long way. I got to see Elder Cook teach at Mission Leadership Council. He is an INCREDIBLE teacher. One of the best I've seen, honestly - I was so impressed. I can definitely see why President is having him be a Zone Leader, train a new missionary, and serve on a leadership council with his girlfriend all at the same time.

Transfers!

Transfers!

I forgot to tell you guys, guess what I ate?! A fish eye. Not a little one; like the size of a quarter. We were at a Samoan family's house and I had to prove myself. It tasted pretty much like a disgusting version of the rest of the fish, but hey, I ate it and gained myself some palangi respect.

Hey Dad, if you haven't already done it I have the scripture I want on my plaque. D&C 123:13-15. If you can fit verses 16 and 17 on too then that would be awesome but if not, no worries. Or if it's possible, verse 13 and then just skipping to 17 would be ideal! If it's possible.

Ah Sister Chou Lee is seriously the bomb. She is SUCH a powerful teacher; I am so excited to improve my teaching skills this transfer! I definitely have a long way to go; serving with such an awesome missionary has definitely humbled me. Not that I was prideful; I wasn't but lack of pride and humility are not one and the same. Ha ha the Lord definitely wants me to be more humble. At church yesterday I was praying for revelation on how I can be a better missionary - I prayed for the Lord to show me through the scriptures what I needed to do, and then I flipped them open randomly to a scripture on humility. I read it, and was like, "ah yeah, I'm pretty humble, no worries." And then I flipped them open again, and it was another scripture on humility. Haha ha so yeah, then I got the point. The Lord definitely has a sense of humor! (: I did learn a lot though, and I studied humility in my next personal study. I learned something - I always thought that pride was thinking you were better than others. That is definitely pride, but the real definition of pride is trusting yourself more than you trust God. I think we do that subconsciously a lot more than we think.

Okay family, well I have to go but I love you all! Thanks again for the package! Tell Jared I say hi and make sure he remembers I'm still older. Give Joseph a big kiss for me!

I am really going to miss Sister Lee-lo! It was so sad seeing her at MLC and not being companions. She's seriously the bomb.

Last P-Day in Busselton!

Opening a new area in Rockingham Zone

This was an incredibly fast week! Oh my goodness where does the time go?! I hit my 6-month mark this week. CRAZY. It's going by WAY too fast.

So we got our transfer calls this morning! Sister Lee-lo and I are both leaving Busselton. She is going to be a Sister Training Leader in Southern River Zone, serving in the Thornlie ward (with Elder Cook). I am going to be opening a new area in the Rockingham Zone, and will also be a Sister Training Leader for that zone and possibly for Bunbury as well. My new companion is Sister Chou-Lee. SHE IS AMAZING. Okay if I could have personally chosen my next companion, it probably would have been her! She is such, SUCH a good missionary! She's been out for over a year and she seriously knows her stuff...we went on exchanges two weeks ago and it was incredible. Seriously this next transfer is going to be AMAZING!!! Ah I am so excited!!! I know that I have so much to learn from Sister Chou-lee. I'm going to grow a lot this transfer.

One thing that is really cool...before we got our transfer calls, Sister Lee-Lo had a dream she was companions with Sister Arnold - who is her new companion. And about a week or so ago, I had a dream that we got our transfer calls and we were both leaving and both still Sister Training Leaders...and bam. Happened. Revelatory dreams people.

I am so sad to leave Sister Lee-Lo, we have gotten really really close. She is amazing and I know we will be friends for life. She is going to come to Utah after the mission and stay with me and I'm going to go to her wedding in New Zealand in a few years. (:

Okay so this week we went out to Kalgoorlie!! We drove up to Perth with the A.P.s Tuesday night and spent the night in Perth with Sister Beckstrand and Sister Kennar, whom I adore. Actually I adore all the sisters in this mission. The next morning, we hopped on a train at seven a.m. and trained seven hours to Kalgoorlie. It was so cool, we got to see a lot of the Australian Outback. It's definitely the bush. It is very beautiful and unique to every other area in the world, I think.

On the way to Kalgoorlie!

I know it's really dark...but this is me sitting on the train listening to someone bash America and not turning around and arguing with them about. Family, I have grown so much. You would not believe my new-found ability to keep my mouth shut when people start talking politics. It's superhuman.

Training to Kalgoorlie.

This was our reaction when we got off the train from Kalgoorlie and the Elders weren't there to pick us up. (:

Kalgoorlie was amazing. It has kind of a St. George-y look - a lot of red dirt. The sun is very harsh. I was with Sister Atkinson, who is amazing! She is seriously so funny, and a wonderful missionary. We taught a great lesson to two African men, which was really neat. Exchanges are always fun, it's so good to get to know other sisters and to see other people's teaching styles. I always learn so much.

While we were in Kalgoorlie we stopped by this massive gold mine. Holy smokes. It's amazing the lengths mankind will go to to get a little bit of shiny rock. Seriously, how many schools and hospitals and churches could have been built with all that labor?! It was really neat to see though.

Sister Atkinson

Sister Atkinson

Us standing in a massive dirt scooper at the Gold Mine.

Exchanges in Kalgoorlie with Sister Atkinson, Sister Lee-lo, me and Sister Donaldson.

I am definitely sad to leave Busselton. It's paradise. Its always scary to leave an area, especially when your companion is leaving as well. What about our investigators?! Elders are getting doubled in. We are leaving the salvation of our investigators in the hands of 19 year old boys?! Nah they'll be awesome I'm sure. It's really the Lord's hands that they are in.

Tracting in the Bush.

Our last Sunday at our little Busselton Chapel/old Catholic Nunnery

I'm definitely going to miss making pancakes with Sister Lee-Lo!

Yeah the MLX's have been great!! We've gotten to work a lot more closely with the members. We won't be able to see much of the long-term results since we are both leaving, but it is definitely working. The branch is becoming more involved in missionary work. I'm sure the Elders will keep it up. We have two set baptismal dates coming up, so I am anxious to hear what happens with them.

Well family, it's been real. Sorry this was brief; we have a lot to do before transfers. I love you all! Keep choosing the right and stop getting injured!

I am really going to miss Sister Lee-Lo. I hope we get to serve together again. It happens!

Loved General Conference!

Wow those pictures you sent are beautiful!! It's so weird that you are going into Fall there, yet it is springtime here...crazy. Fall in Utah is definitely the best.

Beautiful Australia. (:

So this was a wonderful week, of course! We went on exchanges with the sisters in Kwinana, Sister Chou-lee and Sister Kim. It was amazing. They are stellar missionaries and I learned a lot! How to make sushi, among other things. (:

Exchanges with Sister Kim from Adelaide/Korea and Sister Chou-lee from Sydney!

We did something that we call spiritual tracting. Ah it's so legit. So what we do, is we all go into separate rooms and hard-out repent. Then we come back together and pray over a map for a specific area to tract in. When we all have the area, we each individually write down the names of 5 streets. Afterwards, we compare, and the streets that have been selected the most we go and tract. Seriously, it was unreal....we found 6 new investigators just on one street. It was so neat. Miracles always happen on exchanges! 

Dinner with the district.

General Conference was AMAZING!!! I agree with you Dad, it is hard to decide which talk was my favorite. I really really loved Elder Maynes' talk; that was amazing. I loved the part where he said - I'm not exactly sure how he worded it - you don't get in good physical shape by watching basketball on tv, and you don't get in good spiritual shape by just watching conference on tv, either. It's SO true! And I have been so guilty of that in the past! I've always loved watching General Conference, but just watching it isn't enough. You have to apply it! David M. McConkie's talk was amazing as well. Ah they were all amazing. I love conference. I especially love the hard-core talks where they call us to repentance. Like when Elder Bednar called those who aren't paying their tithing to repentance...ah I love it.

Yes it is very possible/probable that Sister Lee-Lo and I will be split up. Which is so sad because she is amazing and we have a great companionship. No contention whatsoever. It's the best...one of the saddest parts of my mission is splitting up with companions that I love. And so far I've only had lovable companions! I'm gonna keep it that way.

My little mission family - My mom (trainer) and my dad (District Leader). How cute are we?!

OH MY GOODNESS. When we were up in Kwinana we saw the most MASSIVE SPIDER. IT WAS THE SIZE OF A SMALL CHILD. Hahaha no just kidding it wasn't that big, it was the size of....okay it was like the size of my pinky finger in diameter. Yes just let that sink in for a second. Family it was huge. And Sister Chou-lee was the man and destroyed it. I shudder to think what would happen if I found one of those on my own, with no one brave around me to kill it. Snakes I can do. Serial killers I can do. But spiders; not my thing.

SO we were supposed to have a baptism this week..but he got anti-ed and dropped us. He had a spiritual experience! He KNEW it was true! How sad is that? Ah it was heart-wrenching and one of the hardest parts of my mission so far...we just WISH people could know what we know! If they had the perspective that we had, everyone would get baptized! But they don't, and the world is confusing. Satan is cunning. Ahh it's just hard because you get so emotionally invested in your investigators' conversion.

This week we are going to Kalgoorlie!! We are SO excited! It's going to be so fun! The sisters out there are very isolated, so we are going to do our best to cheer them up and make some miracles happen. It's going to be amazing. I hate to leave our investigators for four days, but I realize that as a Sister Training Leader, the sisters in our zones our part of our responsibility just as much as our investigators are. So it will be good. I always learn so much from exchanges.

Okay can I just say for a second, President Lindsay is AMAZING. Seriously he is an incredible mission president. He handles this mission so deftly; with the perfect balance of love, discipline and authority. It's amazing to see and exactly what this mission/every mission needs. We've gotten to work more closely with him as a part of our calling and that has been one of my favorite parts.

Well family, I'm glad you are enjoying the fall and stuff, don't forget to write me and stuff. You can carve my face into a pumpkin if you want. (: I love you all!

Got to Go to the Temple

I'm sure General Conference was amazing! I haven't actually watched it yet, Australia doesn't get it until this weekend. So we will be watching it October 12 and 13 and we are STOKED.

This week was AMAZING!!! One of the best parts was, we got to go to the TEMPLE!!! It was seriously SO GOOD. Going to the Temple is one of the things that I miss the most! It was amazing. The Australia Perth Temple is so beautiful.

We are starting into week 5 of the transfer. CRAZY. This transfer has absolutely FLOWN by, and Sister Lee-lo and I both consider it one of our very best transfers so far. It's been so neat to be able to go on exchanges with other sisters in the mission. We haven't had as much time in our own area as we used to, but the Lord has definitely blessed us and made up the difference. We have found some awesome families to teach and we are really excited. (:

Well mi familia, I'm afraid this is a really lame letter this week...because I just emailed you like 3 days ago and not much has happened! Oh I know. President Lindsay is having us do this new key indicator called MLX - Member Lessons Extreme. We have to be in and out in less than twenty minutes, share a message from Preach My Gospel, share two scriptures, not eat, extend an invitation, and ask for referrals. It's hardcore and it has been AWESOME!! We've done a few and it's been great, we've gotten to know the members more and gained more trust. It has been really neat. It is so important to coordinate missionary efforts with the members. Because we are ALL missionaries! Family you really should do some missionary things. There has got to be at least ONE non-member in Highland, I just know it. I don't know where, but seriously there has to be at least one. (:

Remember my health kick? Well it is still happening. Oh ye of little faith. Sister Faivakimoana lent us her juicer, and we juice. That's right, we juice. Fruits and vegetables. It is seriously the best thing ever! I don't know how much juicers are, but I am seriously considering buying one when she wants hers back. And for SURE when I get home.

Lets see....Sister Lee-lo is amazing. We have friendship bracelets. She is my best Polynesian. I seriously always get the best companions!

BFFs ...

Things got a little crazy after planning one night ...

We love cooking. We don't really have recipes so we just experiment. Maybe you should send me a cookbook. Mhmmm. Yep that would be muy bueno. BUT, it has to have recipes that can be made in less than an hour.

Well family, I hope that everything is going wonderful and that you are counting your blessings! I love you all!

Meeting "Old Friends" at Mission Leadership Council

Okay so something really great happened this week. We went to follow up with a former investigator, and she wasn't home...BUT, we met a woman named I-----, who is GOLDEN. We taught her, and set up another appointment for yesterday. Yesterday, we taught her a SOLID restoration lesson AND, committed her to baptism!!! She is seriously SO golden. She obviously still has a lot to learn before she gets baptized, but she is on the path!! It was so awesome.

Last week was Mission Leadership Council. We got to set mission goals for the upcoming month, and it was really neat to be a part of it. We set very high goals for us missionaries that are in leadership positions, because half of the mission's success has to come from us. Sister Lee-Lo and I have our work cut out for us this month! But in the strength of the Lord we can do all things. (:

Lets see, who else was at Mission Leadership Council...? That's right, Elder Cook. It was great to see him, he is an awesome leader and contributed a lot to the meeting. I will admit that I was very nervous leading up to the meeting. But that was NOTHING compared to how nervous I was during it...especially since Sister Lee-Lo and I had to model teaching an investigator at the end. Which we did, and it was fine. But seriously. Just imagine how weird it is, sitting in a meeting for 3 hours with your mission president and your boyfriend who isn't really your boyfriend because he's actually a zone leader in your mission.

Afterwards, we all went to a delicious restaurant called Nando's, and we had a chance to talk for a minute. It was good, very missionary-y. We snapped a picture, and I'm sure you can see that we didn't feel as awkward as we did in the first picture we took.

Sister Lee-Lo and I had the chance this week to go down to Augusta, which is about an hour and a half south of Busselton. There is a woman there that we really needed to visit, but until now we haven't had enough kilometers to make the trip. Augusta is BEAUTIFUL, and while we were there we got to see the lighthouse. Australia is gorgeous.

We went on exchanges with the sisters in Murdoch; Sister Turvey and Sister Tanaka. It was SO fun....I love all the sisters in this mission. They are the elect. (:

Alright family, I hope you have a wonderful week!