Another Week In Australia

Hey everyone! Hope everyone has had an amazing week! My week down under in Australia was crazy like usual haha. Luckily no one wanted to murder me, unlike last week! 

Fun facts about Australia 

-A weird thing with buying anything is that the tax is included in the price! So whatever you pick up is the price! Kinda nice because you don't have to factor in tax when you buy things!

-They have these weird escalators that are like a ramp...no stairs, it is just a slanted ramp that moves. Kinda hard to explain, but it took me off guard the first time I went up and down it haha. 

-Don't know what bird it is, but when it decides to talk it sounds like a dying person. It is the weirdest, craziest bird sound in the world because it sounds like someone is in distress or dying haha. 

-Fun Aussie words "Ripa", "Shenki", and "barking spider". These have become part of my vocabulary haha. I have a video with my Chinese companion where we talk using Chinese and Australian slang. So only people who know Chinese and Australian slang would know what we were saying haha. 

-Binchickens are a weird cross between a duck, chicken, and flamingo. Kinda funny looking haha.

-And it was fathers day on Sunday! Weird having holidays I know on other times of the year. It also meant that we got to push fast Sunday back a week and I was not complaining one bit about that haha.  

There are so many weird Australian things haha. I probably learn a new thing each day! 

You would all be happy to know that I did not crash the car while driving! It was so weird! I did not like the experience of driving on the other side of the road! Australian driving is just a whole different experience! Soooo many roundabouts with different rules than American roundabouts. Then there are no stop signs, just yield signs. And weird one way streets. I was so scared to do anything haha. My mind was trying to comprehend everything! It was weird having to look up at the rearview mirror from the left side haha. My perception of space was all off too. Parking was weird also. It’s hard to explain unless you have driven on the left side of the road yourself. The funniest part is that the window wiper and the thing to signal to change lanes are switched. So anytime I tried to turn on my blinker to change lanes or turn right or left, I out of habit, would always hit the window wiper. The teacher was like, “Oh man the window is really getting clean today!” It’s gonna be hard to break that self-conscious habit that the blinker button is on the right instead of the left of the steering wheel! 

Visited some really cool restaurants this week and ate some good food! 

I love talking Chinese with all the Chinese friends! I am realizing that I have soo much to learn. But they are always taken back that a white American is speaking Chinese haha. 

The worst was this Sunday when I had to help translate the lesson on gifts of the spirit and some teachings of Paul. I was like hmmm I don't know many of these words, but here is the gist of what is going on haha. 

Language study this week was awesome! Here are some cool insights! 

The word for Gospel in Chinese means "glad tidings". That translation really stood out to me and caught my attention this week! This gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of glad tidings and we need to have more joy in living and sharing it! I love the Joy it brings in my life! 

Another cool translation I found was in the Chinese hymn book! The song "I Believe in Christ" is a song I love so much! When I turned to it, I realized that the word for believe was another word instead! It was the word for trust! So when I sing "I Believe in Christ" in Chinese I am actually singing "I Trust in Christ". I loved the mental switch it created in my brain! Trusting in Christ is like a higher level of believing! Many people believe in Christ, but only His true followers put their full trust in Him! I invite everyone to trust in Christ more because oh how it is worth it to trust your whole soul to Him!

I got revelation on prayer this week! It was at the end of a lesson with a friend. We always ask our friends to choose who they would like to say the opening or closing prayer. And at the end of the lesson we asked our friend and he chose my companion. He sighed and was like ok. I then realized that I have done that many times throughout my life when I have been called on to say a prayer. And realized how bad that is. First, that shows our friends what we think of prayer. Second, it shows our Heavenly Father how we think of Him! I feel so bad for any times I have sighed or internally hated being called on for saying a prayer at dinner or at the beginning or end of a meeting! We must do better at being excited to talk with our maker! We must think of it as another opportunity to express our love and gratitude to our Loving Father in Heaven! If we can be more excited to say our prayers, they will become more meaningful and other people will realize that prayers are a sacred and important aspect of our lives! But most of all we will give our Heavenly Father the sign that we are excited and happy to speak to Him and should be so grateful for the extra opportunity we have to say a prayer to Him!

This Saturday we got to bring some of our friends to watch baptisms at 10, 2 and 4 o'clock in the day! Sooo it was a long day of watching baptisms! Very exciting, but somehow I always got called on to do something haha. So far I have yet to go to a meeting where I am not called on to do something without advanced notice. Fun times being a missionary! Keeps me on my toes! 

Sorry no crazy stories this week! Just a good week of getting adjusted to missionary life! Slow but sure! And its funny that my screen time was 5 hours on gospel library this week! Enjoy the spiritual thought! 

Spiritual thought!

This week my focus was on the Holy Ghost/Spirit. My mission president said two things about the Spirit that stuck out to me this week! First, is that "when the spirit touches the heart there are no boundaries." There can be so many boundaries we put up in our lives. However, with the gift of the spirit it can cross those boundaries and walls we may have knowingly or unknowingly put up.

Second, is that the spirit made a big sacrifice not to have a body! At this point in time the spirit has to give up the chance to have a physical body! I have never thought of it like this! We should really be thanking our Father for the Gift of the Holy Ghost and the ability it has to dwell and reside in us and testify of the Savior! It is truly an amazing gift we all take for granted!

-The Holy Ghost is the only way you can know Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Alma 5:45 Alma had seen an angel, but that is not what converted him or gave him his testimony. It was after he worked hard and labored much in the spirit that he did gain a testimony. Laman and Lemuel saw an angel, but that did not convert or give them a lasting testimony. It is only by the spirit, touching our hearts and minds, that we will gain a testimony and allow us to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God! 

-"The Holy Ghost binds us to the Lord. We must be confident in our first promptings. Sometimes we rationalize; we wonder if we are feeling a spiritual impression or if it is just our own thoughts. When we begin to second-guess, even third-guess, our feelings—and we all have—we are dismissing the Spirit; we are questioning divine counsel. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that if you will listen to the first promptings, you will get it right nine times out of ten. Now a caution: don’t expect fireworks because you responded to the Holy Ghost. Remember, you are about the work of the still, small voice." -Elder Rasband! 

I love the sweet words of Elder Rasband! May we all do better at recognizing the promptings! Sometimes we struggle or stress with recognizing the promptings. 

This thought from Elder Bednar is helpful "We as members of the Church tend to emphasize marvelous and dramatic spiritual manifestations so much that we may fail to appreciate and may even overlook the customary pattern by which the Holy Ghost accomplishes His work. The very “simpleness of the way” (1 Nephi 17:41) of receiving small and incremental spiritual impressions that over time and in totality constitute a desired answer or the direction we need may cause us to look “beyond the mark” (Jacob 4:14). I have talked with many individuals who question the strength of their personal testimony and underestimate their spiritual capacity because they do not receive frequent, miraculous, or strong impressions." We must remember the Holy Ghost is a still small voice (Helaman 5:30) It teaches most often line upon line and precept upon precept! (2 Nephi 28:30). 

Elder Bednar has given so many talks and devotionals on the spirit and recognizing the promptings it gives! And I have listened to many of these talks over the years! Time after time he says something along the lines of: If you are being a good boy or a good girl you will have the constant, guiding, directing influence of the spirit. He then always explains to "quit worrying about it" Stop worrying about whether it is the Holy Ghost or yourself! If you are being a good boy or a good girl then you can be confident that the thoughts and feelings you are having are under the influence of the Holy Ghost and you must act on the Christ like promptings you receive! Then as you act on them you will receive more! If we are being faithful to our covenants then I can promise that we are under the guidance of the Holy Ghost! We must learn to use this gift! It is the gift that allows us to receive personal revelation!

"Both the history of the Church and our personal lives are replete with examples of the Lord’s pattern for receiving revelation “line upon line, precept upon precept.” For example, President Joseph F. Smith explained how this pattern of revelation occurred in his life: “As a boy … I would frequently … ask the Lord to show me some marvelous thing, in order that I might receive a testimony. But the Lord withheld marvels from me, and showed me the truth, line upon line … , until He made me to know the truth from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, and until doubt and fear had been absolutely purged from me. He did not have to send an angel from the heavens to do this, nor did He have to speak with the trump of an archangel. By the whisperings of the still small voice of the spirit of the living God, He gave to me the testimony I possess. And by this principle and power He will give to all the children of men a knowledge of the truth that will stay with them, and it will make them to know the truth, as God knows it, and to do the will of the Father as Christ does it. And no amount of marvelous manifestations will ever accomplish this" -Elder Bednard.

I testify that this is how I have gained my testimony! I cannot tell you of a singular experience that my testimony is based on. I recently created a personal conversion timeline and that was really beneficial! It was very incredible to see from the time I was baptized to now all the times where I have felt the spirit and have seen the hand of the Lord in my life! I was honestly quite shocked how long the list was. Off the top of my head, I can usually think of a couple spiritual experiences. But when I took the time to really think and look back at my life and write down the times I have felt the spirit, received revelation, or seen the Lord's hand in my life I realized that it was a lot more than I thought! And it is the culmination of all these little small experiences where the spirit has touched my heart, that has built my testimony of the Savior and the gospel! I invite everyone to make their own conversion timeline and you will be surprised at how many small experiences you have had where the Spirit has touched you personally! 

I am soooo grateful for the spirit! I am still striving to understand how he speaks to me! I do know that I have felt the spirit on multiple occasions and I am so grateful for those testimony building experiences! I am still learning line upon line and precept upon precept! I am excited to continue getting to know my Savior more through the Holy Ghost and I will make sure I thank my Heavenly Father for this incredible gift! Now we must all choose to receive the Holy Ghost into our lives! He is just waiting to help and guide us! 

Here is the link to lots of fun pictures! Didn't realize how many I took this week haha. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NMoHxNaUHm6izA9bA

Love you all!

Until next week…

-zhang zhanglao (Elder Jones)