We left the MTC Monday October 3rd at 12:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Melbourne, Australia at 11am on Wednesday. Our longest flight was 14.5 hours and it felt like forever!!!
A little story about our trip at the airport.....On our flight out of Salt Lake we were on a teeny tiny plane to LAX. Before we got on we met a really nice couple from Brisbane Area (the Young's). They were actually on the same flight to Sydeny with us and turned out to be a real blessing. The airport at LAX was huge and we had no clue where to go to catch our next flight but we saw brother and sister Young and they just told us to follow them and they would get us there. So 5 missionaries followed brother and sister Young and they led us right to our next flight (which seemed impossible to find on our own). They were so sweet and kind and we talked with them a lot both before our flight and during our flight because they were sitting near us. It was really cool :)
We got to Melbourne and met our mission president and his wife. We also met up with 3 other missionaries who had just arrived from the New Zealand MTC. Went and had lunch at the mission home and took pictures by the temple. After 2 days on planes the last thing we wanted to do was take pictures looking the way we did but it was fun, and the temple here is really beautiful. We went back to the mission home and had dinner and a meeting and then went to our flats around 9pm. I don't think I've ever been so tired.
So I've been here for a few days but we've had some really interesting experiences in that time. We met a man from Ethiopia who told us he and his wife had had missionaries over to teach before. We set an appointment to meet back with him at 7pm on Saturday but he wasn't home (we found our they had a family emergency). My companion (Sister White-she's an Aussie from Brisbane) went up to a man who was walking with his daughter and began to talk to him. He is from India and his wife is Indian but I think she's an Aussie. we talked with him for about 20min and he told us to come to his house, that his wife would like to hear from us as well. We talked with them for a while, and they had a lot of questions for us. I remember his wife telling me that they were looking for that light and that they see that light through us. I told her that we wanted them to have that light for themselves. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and they seemed very interested and willing. We also talked to them about living prophets and because General Conference was broad casted here this weekend (because of the time difference) we invited them to come with us. They came to the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference and said they felt that peace and we asked if we could come and continue to teach them and they were very happy about that. There is not enough space or time here to tell everything they asked us, but they are a wonderful family and are very close to each other-there is the mother father and a daughter and son. Please keep them in your prayers, they are incredible people.
Also, the other day we went to an inactive members house and shared a message with her and her children and we decided to track a little in her area we met a very nice Aussie man who was in his 50's and he was very welcoming, we stood outside his door and taught him a little about the Plan of Salvation and gave him our contact info. Last night we taught a young man in his 20's and his sister (at separate times because she got home late). initially we went to teach the sister because she had met with missionaries before but only her brother was at home. We had just knocked on the door and the brother answered and we wouldn't have been able to go in except the mother and her other son arrived and invited us in. They are from the Sudan, the son is Catholic but doesn't really practice and the mother is Muslim. We shared a message with them, but mainly towards the son and asked him to read the Book of Mormon, he accepted and asked how he would feel to know if it was true-I love it when people ask good questions. We talked to the mother a little bit-she doesn't really seem interested in our message so she told us a little about the Arabic language. It was interesting, I learned something new about a different language :)
Her daughter came home and we were able to teach her. Previously she had accepted a Book of Mormon but wouldn't read, after talking with her we asked her to read and pray and she said she would. The Spirit was really strong, I could feel it. i just always hope our investigators can feel it as well. Please keep her in your prayers as well :)
So that's where we are. It's p-day, we're at the library in Dandenong (we are moving to Geelong in a few weeks) Google it if you want to, it's right on the coast (but it's not tropical-it's cold :)
Have fun, and pray for the missionaries, you have no idea how much we need and appreciate it :)
No comments:
Post a Comment