Good morning,
It's been raining pretty heavy all morning, but then I thought...well at least it's not cold and snowing... :) This week was really good, but a little stressful - it's nice to be over with. We had our Sisters Conference on Thursday and Friday with Sister Campbell and I giving a good portion of the trainings. It went from Thursday morning starting at 10 am until 9 pm that night with all 34 Sisters in the mission sleeping at the temple accommodations. We started early Friday morning at 8 am and ended at 8 pm that night. It was full on! But it was so good to have all the sisters together, even the sisters in Grafton got to come, which is a good 10 hour trip on the train for them This was a pretty special event for all of us. The trainings were basically all centered around Preach My Gospel and preparing the sisters to all be training here in the near future. We have 17 sisters scheduled to come in December. We're pretty excited but not so sure how it's all going to work out! But the Lord knows and that's all that really matters, we just need to do our part and prepare.
We were able to make it back to the city in time to see a baptism in our ward, his name is ________ and he is from Vietnam. Pretty amazing, his friend, D_______, has been a member for about a year now and they have grown up together since they were young, but ________ went to Melbourne University and D_______ came to Sydney so they've been separated for a few years. But ________ made the decision to move to Sydney, and after being here for only one week, D_______ brought him to our ward. He met the other sister missionaries here, they started teaching him and two weeks later (yesterday) he was baptized! D_______ baptized him and also gave a talk at his baptism, it was so cute! The sisters and I sang "Nearer My God to Thee" at the baptism. D_______ says I would become famous if I started a singing career in Vietnam, he offered to be my manager/coach. If you knew how D_______, sings you would think it's pretty funny :) I just might take him up on his offer.
Sunday was quite the miracle day for us. Despite the pouring rain, we had three of our investigators come! I woke up Sunday morning and I just had this feeling like, "I've gotta find an investigator at church today," which is weird because it's not exactly common to find an investigator at church who isn't already being taught by one of the 13 other missionaries. But after sacrament ended I walked to the back to talk to anyone who I didn't recognize. After meeting a few nice visitors, I went over to a guy who was sitting by himself in the corner. I asked him where he was from, etc. He said he's from Melbourne, just graduated from Melbourne University and moved to Sydney last week to find a job here. Then he tells me that he's been learning from the missionaries in Melbourne, they would meet weekly...so then I asked..."have you been baptized?" He said, "Oh no, not yet, but I want to!" After doing ten back hand springs, I told him that my companion and I would be happy to continue to meet with him and teach him and help him prepare for baptism. We exchanged numbers and we're meeting with him on Wednesday! He's also from China, just a little side bonus. He is so prepared, and to think that his very first week in a large city like Sydney and he comes in the rainy weather to find the church and come on Sunday, what a miracle.
Another miracle, Wednesday night Sister Campbell and I were out finding and talking to people and we were walking through a bus station. There weren't too many people there so we were heading to another area and we passed this Asian guy sitting down and he was on his phone. We just kept walking but of COURSE the Spirit nudges me saying "turn your little self around and go talk to him..."..ugh...okay fine. So a little embarrassed, I turn around and walk up to him and ask him what bus he's waiting for (it's the best thing I could come up with without looking like a stalker). Anyways, we start talking and he's from Malaysia, his name is ________ :) We spoke Chinese for a little bit and he asked what I do as a missionary. But of course, his bus comes and he says "I'm sorry that's my bus..." So I hurry and give him our number and tell him to give us a call, and then he left. As soon as the bus left, Sister Campbell and I look at each other and are like, "yeah...he'll call". We quickly found a quiet spot and said a prayer of thanks for us to meet ________. I think I checked our phone every 5 minutes for the rest of the night. I was about to give up but at 10:15, we get a text from him saying, "Hi, this is ________, I met you two at the park tonight. It was very good to meet you, I hope we can meet again soon." Sister Campbell and I were SO thrilled! Doing cartwheels in the house....haha...not really. But we were happy :D We called him yesterday and we're meeting him later this week, he is SO nice.
Well, this is the last week of transfers, we will know on Saturday if we are leaving or staying. I PRAY that I am staying or I will be just devastated. BUT...we'll see. All is well...like I said it's raining today so all of us are going to play games inside and I'll probably take a real nice nap. :) I love you all, this week is gonna be GREAT! Talk to you soon.
Love,
Sister Raitt
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