Monday, February 4, 2013

February 3rd, 2013


G'dayyyy MATES.
I guess it's a good thing we don't watch the news, but I've heard Australia's been having an interesting week! I know we have had a interesting week as well! We are teaching an older woman named _____, she was born and raised Jewish and the missionaries have been visiting her for years. She loves missionaries and members of the church. I realized the missionaries had never really invited her to be baptized or taught her much doctrine, so Sister Nauta and I taught the plan of salvation and invited her to be baptized. She paused...she said she will need a week to think about it. She has grandsons who are Jewish and believes if she were to be baptized, she would no longer be able to see them. Such a difficult thing, we are keeping her in our prayers and we know that God will be with her to help her. 

Once a week we visit a less active member, _______, he is from the Philippines. He has a major smoking addiction, smokes up to 2 packs per day. We've been trying to help him quit. We shared a spiritual message with him and committed him to quit smoking and to live the word of wisdom. As we are driving away from the lesson, Sister Nauta says "ah! look! ________! He smoke!" I turn and look and sure enough...he's smoking! haha literally 3 seconds after we JUST talked about overcoming his addiction! haha..we had to laugh a little. We'll continue to work with him...haha.

We went tracting the other day and we came to a home where the lawn was all torn up, weeds everywhere. It almost looked like a junkyard. We get to the door and there is a sign that says "welcome to hell".  Sister Nauta and I look at each other and she says, "what's hell?" I'm like, "Seriously? C'mon, you know hell....it's...where Satan lives...." and she goes ":O oh..no........" hahaha  She's so cute. But we felt slightly uneasy, no one ended up answering the door. But the ironic part was the next door we knocked on had a beautiful garden, nice red brick pathway over a little bridge, and the door had a sign that said "Welcome!" haha  We laughed. I wish I had more to the story, like the littlest, nicest old lady lived at the house with the "welcome to hell" sign, but sorry. We just found it funny and ironic. 

Anyways.....we kept knocking doors and we met a young guy, he's 18. He said he had been recently thinking about religion and his beliefs. He isn't sure what he believes, but said he would love for us to come and teach him. We see him on Saturday. Then we went next door and met another young guy, he's 17, just dropped out of high school. He used to go to a Christian church but said he got mixed up with the wrong friends and stopped going. He said he'd really like to find Christ again, and asked us to come back - we see him tomorrow :)  So awesome, we were so excited. There are so many just waiting to hear the gospel, and by the Holy Spirit, we are lead to them.

Last night I ate kangaroo for the first time!  Yes...kangaroo. I have to admit it was quite lovely, but just the fact it was kangaroo...I had a hard time finishing it. It's a very dark, chewy meat... :/ So aussie...

We got another heavy rainfall on Friday, some of the intersections were flooded. It was crazy! But it was all dried up by the next morning, crazy weather. I know there has been flooding up in Queensland. We don't watch the news so all of our information is based off of other people. Apparently it's been pretty bad? :/

We also visited ______ this week, bless him. He is a recent convert, he ALWAYS wears a really nice dress button down shirt, and then tucks it in to his sweatpants. hahaha... He's so great, really sinking his teeth into the gospel, always wanting to learn more. He's amazing. He was an alcoholic most of his life, really struggled for a long time until he met missionaries.

It's official, our zone has gone on a diet together. I was nominated zone nutritionist haha, because I've done the personal trainer thing before. I gave them a good meal plan and we are all starting it today. We all went out for Chinese the other day after our zone meeting. We have so much fun and everyone works so well together. Our zone leaders come to our area at least once a month to knock doors in our area, just to help out. It's really good.

I forgot to post the BOM reading for last week sorry, but this week is Jacob 2- Omni 1, I hope you are having a chance to read with me. I LOVE the last few chapters in 2 Nephi, especially 2 Nephi 28:32. There are many people who turn away from Christ at some point in their lives, or turn away from his teachings, but in this verse we read how much Christ really loves us, enough to where his arm is ALWAYS outstretched to us, even after we have turned away, he is there...patiently waiting with open arms. He loves us SO much and just wants our happiness, the gospel is how we can have that happiness. He has laid it all out in front of us, what we need to do. He says to "come follow me". I am so blessed to be a representative of Jesus Christ, not just for these 18 months but for the rest of my life. Miracles happen every single day, we just have to be open and aware to recognize them. I love you all so much, have a wonderful week!
Sister Raitt

1 comment:

  1. Kangaroo meat! Does that come under your new diet plans?? It's always so good to read your blog. You sound so very happy and positive - keep up the great work you're doing. Sending you love - Dean & Jennie M.

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