And so we meet again...

F is for Families :)

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful week!

Our week started off great as a new companionship. We had dinner with the A family and I asked the dad how he felt about his kids, especially ___ since he is 8, being baptized. Without any hesitation he said, "Yes! Teach him, baptize him, I want them in the church!" So you know what that means...MY FIRST BAPTISM!! :) But more importantly, we are going to start teaching ___ this week and he will be baptized this month! SOO exciting! The mom called us last night and said "Yeah, we watched the Restoration video as a family and ___ has some questions, he is really excited!" Keep in mind we didn't even ask them to watch the Restoration, that was all them. Also, we took a Christmas candy countdown and put little things for each day like...name 3 things you're grateful for...sing "I am a Child of God," etc. And she said they have started doing it altogether as a family! It worked! We weren't sure if they would do it or not. I'm so proud.

It is so refreshing being able to speak Chinese with someone again. Sister Bambrough's Chinese is so good, I just can't compete, good thing she's on my team. I'm slowly getting back into the habit of speaking Chinese, we know there MUST be a reason we've been put in Medowie, even though currently there is not one single Asian for us to teach. We WILL find them!

One of our investigators is giving us a Christmas tree to put up in our apt! She is so sweet, and it was an answer to my prayers, I've been praying for a Christmas tree :) We have one about the size of a coke bottle in our apt already but it's just not the same. I'm so excited to put it up this week! Sister Bambrough and I are going to take Christmas pictures and send out Christmas cards so prepare yourselves. The A family invited us over for Christmas lunch too so that will be just lovely. 

Funny story, so when Sister Weeks left she took all of her CD's too so we have ZERO music to listen to in the car. But we found a couple CD's in the glove box so we were like alright we'll see what it is...apparently Polynesian Elders served before us so we are thinking it was their CD's they left behind because we put it in and it stars off this beautiful piano and poly guy singing this really pretty hymn...and then unexpectedly in comes this total R&B beat........hahaha Sister Bambrough and I look at each other like...what is THIS?? We laughed for about an hour. The CD should probably be snapped in half...I mean it was a hymn but I think Usher did a cover of it. haha, the things that will make a missionary laugh.

Well it's official, Sister Bambrough killed her first cockroach :) hahaha I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. We had to get out the vacuum, chase it down for a half hour and we finally got it. Classic. We're getting in to a pretty good routine, I'll get the shoe while she is on lookout, I'll take my post outside the door just in case...etc. It's working pretty well for us.

We are teaching a new investigator and he gave us these souvenir books from the Great Barrier Reef. It had some "fun facts" in it. (cough) Did you know....that Koalas and humans fingerprints are so similar that even a microscope can barely tell the difference. Also, it's a Koala, not a Koala Bear. They are not a bear. I've been set straight. Did you know...that a Red Kangaroo can leap 26 feet in just one leap? Amazing right? I have yet to see one but everyone here in Medowie says it's like seeing deer, they are everywhere? Still have yet to see one in the wild.

I am becoming quite the cook, I made a coconut curry chicken (mom's fav) and it is DI-VINE! so yum. I feel like a full fledged chef. However, I don't know if I'll be making it again any time soon, it is so HOT here I could die. So the last thing we want is spicy hot food haha. Literally, we are roasting alive over here, and our apt doesn't have A/C. So when we were doing our 3 hour weekly planning session on Saturday, just pure roasting, 5 fans blowing on us in every direction and it's not even helping, we got a knock on the door and it was our neighbor Shawn! He brought us Popsicles! Sweet, tender mercy miracle. He is so nice, not interested in the church but that's okay.

The past couple nights have been really crazy lightening, thunder storms. I've never seen anything like it! Literally lightning strikes every second, literally. It's like a giant strobe light. Super neat. But all is well in Aussie :)

Hopefully all of you got to focus on patience a little last week, I love Alma 34:41. "Be patient, the Lord is with us. And the day will come when we will rest from all of our afflictions". Won't that be so great? With hope comes patience, if we didn't have things to hope for, wouldn't life be boring? With hope brings desires of our heart. It's important we have the ability to do God's will and accept his timing. (that's the hardest part I think...) His ways our higher than ours, and his thoughts as well. That's in the scriptures somewhere, I'm not a scriptorian yet alright?

This week we are focusing on Humility :) I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Also, we met a man the other day and he talked about how his mom was killed in a car accident a long time ago and he said "Any God that would allow that to happen I want nothing to do with." I have heard that a lot lately, people either don't believe in God or don't care, or I get the classic question "If God existed then why would he let bad things happen to good people." I've never figured out a good answer for that, but I was reading a conference talk today that I would recommend all of you to read, especially if you have asked yourself this question. The talk is called "Songs they could not sing" by Elder Cook. Amazing talk and it really helped me, it may not answer the question completely but it's enough for me. Please read it this week. I love you all and pray for you often. I would love to hear from you! Have a great week!

Jiao!

Rui Jiemei!

This is the "Postie" - he is the mailman.  The flags on his helmet is to
keep the  birds from attacking him.  Hahaha, LOVE the postie!

The RS Christmas party; Herrold is the little old lady in front -
love her - she is so cute, she has leopard print shoes :)

Look how they spell "curb" - hahaha

Nelson Bay - so beautiful!  We are knocking on doors
right on the water!  So pretty - we can visit here.

My current district.