Birthday Week!

Good day mates! Hope everyone's week went well! My week was good! Fun times! Lots of ups and downs and the weather is crazy! There are like 20 degree differences between days! Some days I am sweating while wearing short sleeves and then the very next day I am shivering in a coat. Very weird! 

I heard that the weather is getting cold in Utah! Hope everyone has a good halloween! Australia just skips halloween and thanksgiving and goes straight to Christmas. There is a full on Christmas pageant and parade next Saturday in the city! There are Christmas decorations in the shops and Christmas posters everywhere haha. Weird to have Christmas starting in October and have the weather getting warmer not colder….fun experiences.

Australian things! 

-Alright the mailman or mail people in Australia are different then America! They don't drive cars, they drive these bright yellow scooter things. It is like a tricycle that is motorized and bright yellow. Then the mailman wears a bright yellow suit or jacket with a yellow helmet! It is so weird. I feel bad because they have to do their job in the heat or cold. 

-So in Australia everything has a health star rating. So when you go to the store there is a health star rating on about 90% of the food. Everything is rated out of 5 stars. It is like amazon ratings, but for food. And the ratings are for how healthy something is. I don't know how you can put all the food in the store on a 5 star rating scale. Sometimes I pick something up and I am like wow 1 out of 5 stars! Don't know how that is possible! Not buying that! Then I pick something up and I am like wow 4 out of 5 stars and it looks like candy! Lets go! Must be healthy haha. The best is when I pick up something that is supposedly healthy and it is like 2 out of 5 stars and I just stand there scratching my head at what makes it 2 stars. It is funny to compare everything! I was thinking, if someone wanted to be healthy they should just buy only 5 star health rating things! 

- Chewing gum in Australia is called “chewy”. 

-Well McDonald's has a new nickname! To all my high school friends who may be reading this…you can sound Australian by calling McDonald’s by a new nickname! In America McDonald's has a good nickname. However, in Australia the nickname used is maccas. So everyone just says, “Hey let’s go to maccas”. It is funny! 

Highlights for the week!

-I was a detective yesterday and was figuring out what kinda creepo was stalking the sister missionaries! It was pretty fun to be a detective.

-Testimony building experience! Yesterday we hopped on the bus to go back to our flat. We end up sitting across from a creepy pirate guy. He had a rag or bandanna wrapped around his head. He had all his front teeth knocked out except one little mini tooth directly in the middle. Don't know how that happens, but it was very halloweeny. He had lots of tattoos and wore some kind of skirt thing. Being missionaries, we tried to be friendly. He seemed really uncomfortable. He was muttering to himself and we tried to get a conversation going. We asked him what brought him joy or happiness. He then got super loud and pretty much shouted out all the most horrible sins or bad things someone could do. I could feel the spirit leave that bus like a lightning bolt. It was crazy. He then was trying to control himself; he was like twitching. He shook our hands and then just kept muttering to himself. I just stared him down haha. Finally, he just couldn't take it anymore. He had to get up and leave. His evil spirit couldn't stand our righteous spirits and presence any more. It was crazy. He angrily got off the bus an hour before he was supposed to hop off. He would then have to wait another hour for the next bus. He then made angry signs at us as the bus drove away. It was just a testimony builder to see how he was so uncomfortable around us that he had to literally leave the bus to get out of our presence! I think this is how the wicked will feel in the presence of the Lord. They will not be able to stand in the presence of God. They will just be so uncomfortable! Imagine that! Keep repenting so you don't have that experience someday in heaven ;) And I don't know why I always run into the creepy people on the bus! 

-Finding in the city was rough this week! We literally had like 5 hours of finding one day and only found 1 person. Everyone just rejects us. It is really sad and depressing sometimes. We call it a reject day because everyone rejects us haha. I didn't find a new Asian friend this week which made me sad. I have a conspiracy theory that the Asian population has a secret group chat and they told everyone to not talk to any people in white shirts asking about good places to eat food. Because wow the people really have started to do everything they can to avoid eye contact or get away from us. We have made our presence known in the mall I guess! Spending hours in the mall every day will do that I guess.

-The Rundle mall is beginning to feel like home though. It is probably the most wild mall ever. Here is a typical walk through…We have people singing or swearing at the top of their lungs, have people playing the drums, violin, banjo, guitar, electric guitar, weird Asian instruments, then we have religious people with signs who are yelling/swearing at the top of their lungs, we have pigeons flying from all corners swooping and dive bombing at us and surrounding our feet, we had someone carrying a massive wooden cross through the city, have people dressed up as random things, have fully dressed mannequins crossing the mall, armed policeman with machine guns walking around, people digging things out of garbage cans, drunk people, different smells every five feet (some good some bad), a million different languages and cultures, homeless people, and every walk of life trying to make their way down this Rundle mall without getting killed. We do this walk up and down probably 30 plus times a day.

-It was my birthday this week! The Lord gave me 6 back to back lessons! So I was teaching all day long! From 10:30am to 7pm at night. With a quick 20 minute lunch break! It was crazy and exhausting! But pretty epic! My birthday felt like a usual day, but I loved all the birthday wishes everyone sent me! Meant a lot! Love you all! 

Spiritual thought!

Let me start out with a scripture- Mosiah 4:30- There are divers ways to commit sin- “But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.” 

This scripture shows how we must truly watch ourselves! The time we live in is a time where we can easily fall into traps that the adversary has built for us. You must continually be checking yourself to make sure you haven't fallen into one of these small and simple traps, but they can have devastating eternal impacts if not properly addressed! Enduring to the end is the hard part! Many of you may know and have a testimony, but enduring to the end and continuing to keep faith and to keep trusting and to keep pressing forward is the hard part! But oh how sweet will be the reward! 

To give you an example, read this brief quote I came across…

Melvin J. Ballard recounts a brief moment of dream that really touched me! Listen to this and see how it makes you feel! 

"If I shall live to be a million years old, I shall never forget that smile. He (the Savior) took me into his arms and kissed me, pressed me to his bosom, and blessed me, until the marrow of my bones seemed to melt!...The feeling that I had in the presence of him who hath all things in his hands, to have his love, his affection, and his blessing was such that if I ever can receive that of which I had but a foretaste, I would give all that I am, all that I ever hope to be, to feel what I then felt!" 

Oh how I love this quote! There is a certain feeling to be in God’s presence! And it manifests itself in a fullness of Joy! It is a sense of ultimate belonging! Don't we all want to have that feeling someday!?! Don't we all want to hug our Savior and Redeemer!?! We should really do a better job of remembering Him and creating a mental picture of what it will be like. As we remember Him, we will gain more confidence and strength to do His will! Because we will remember His love and promises to give us all that the Father hath.

“Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysterious of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.” D&C 6:7

Who wants to be rich? I do! And the richest thing you could have is eternal life! Who wouldn't want that! For there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation! Salvation is the greatest of all the gifts of God! 

I challenge you to fear not to do good! 

I love this comforting scripture: “Fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they ( your trials, troubles, the adversary) cannot prevail.”

This is the Lord’s church! Nothing will or cannot stop its progression. I hope and pray that everyone will stop beating around the bush! Just go full send with Jesus! If you know it’s true then do and act like you know it's true! Don't question things! Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith!

And remember President Nelson's words… I will paraphrase…the joy you feel has little to do with the circumstances of your life and everything to do with the focus.

I promise that as we turn our whole focus to the Savior we will have joy. And the joy will be satisfying! There is no other source of truth or no other thing we can have that will bring us as much satisfaction or joy as will focusing on Jesus Christ will. The more I focus on Him in everything I do, the happier I become! And who doesn't want to be happy?!

Faith in Chinese is 信心. And if you translate it directly it means to have confidence or trust. So when we ask our Chinese friends to have faith in Christ we are really asking them to have confidence and to put their trust in Christ! Are you putting your confidence and trust in Christ? Sometimes things don't make sense or you may be worried. However, if you put your trust and confidence in Christ or have faith in Him, then life can become less of a hassle and more happiness! We want to have a deep trust in God! We want to trust Him enough to follow whatever He commands and humbly submit to His will and timing!

There is also another Chinese word called 渴望. This word means aspire/desire. However, it has a deeper meaning. The first character is the character for thirst or thirsty. So when we ask our friends if they desire or thirst to be baptized or if they desire or thirst to change, or desire/thirst to follow the Savior…it is really powerful! 

I can flip the question right back on you! Do you desire the Savior? But do you desire Him enough to thirst after Him? Thirst is the way the human body tells you that it needs water. We all need water and we all need the Savior. We must thirst after Him! Because He is the only person who will be able to “quench” our spiritual thirst! And we can't go a day without water and not have major side effects. Three days without water and we are practically dead! It is the same with our spirits. We must quench its thirst every day by praying, reading the scriptures, going to the temple and so forth. The Savior will give you the water to fuel your spiritual growth and survival! And I hope we don't go three days without some water for our spirits or else our spirit will begin to “die”. 

Well sorry for the long email! I cut it back on the haha’s so hopefully that was a nice change ;) 

Hope everyone has a great week! Love you all! 

-Pictures -https://photos.app.goo.gl/iL2mhQBXxRT7wLuC8

-Until next week!

-zhang zhanglao (Elder Jones)