Driving Adventures And Transfers!

Good day everyone! Hope the week has been great for everyone! It has been another crazy eventful week for me! Soooo much happened! Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas weather and polluted air hehe. I am breathing in the nice ocean breeze everyday! But I am missing the snow a lot! 

Fun Australian things! 

-Now that it is getting hotter in Australia, people are biking more! However, it is so funny to watch because of the crazy birds everyone wears zip ties coming straight out of their helmets! It is so hilarious! The most bizarre thing! The zip ties ward the bird attacks away from the head haha. The news was broadcasting that someone had gotten their eye poked out by a bird…yikes!

-Australian drivers are crazy! They are honkers and it is just insane! Any little gap between cars they will take! You have to be very assertive when driving here. 

-Tim tam slams! So an Australian treat is Tim Tams! They are these thin chocolate bars with some chocolate toffee material inside. And Australians have created what they call a Tim Tam Slam! Very very Aussie thing! What you do is you get some milo (which is the different Australian version of hot chocolate) and you heat it up and then you bite off the opposite corners of the Tim Tam and then you stick it in the warm hot milo chocolate and suck up the hot milo chocolate! And wow it is soo good! The hot chocolate melts the bar from the inside out as you drink up the chocolate through the Tim Tam! Probably the funnest treat I have ever had! Going to miss it when I come home….gotta love Australian treats! Very, very creative I must say! 

Highlights of the week!

-Well transfers were yesterday! And I am staying with Elder Gardner as the Nephi Zone leader! So happy and excited for this next transfer! 

-Well my companion Elder Gardner sprained his ankle really bad and stayed at the mission home for a couple days….so that meant I was in charge of the area and zone for a couple days! I dragged Elder Sun everywhere haha. And the craziest thing was that I had to drive!!! I can officially say I drove without any assistance in Australia! The left side of the road is epic! I hadn't driven in 5 months and then was just expected to drive 30 minutes around Adelaide haha. I drove safely and didn't get any speeding tickets! Phew! Fun times! It honestly wasn't that bad! I have made the mental switch over and now driving on the right side of the road seems weird now! 

-Had a combined Christmas zone conference! And that was super fun! Good, good stuff. I love President and Sister Johansson so much! We got fed a lot of food and it was the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner I never got! I chowed down! I ate so much food and we got some fun pictures! Very relaxing and it was so spiritual. Fun times! They gave us a nice Christmas gift which warmed my soul!

-We had our branch Christmas party, and I had to play the piano for 60 plus people to sing to! It was kinda stressful, but it turned out great thanks to many years of piano lessons from my amazing piano teacher! Lots of friends showed up and it was a great success! 

-Elder Sun and I went crazy in Rundle mall on Wednesday and got so many phone numbers and a lot of new people to teach! It was hype! 

-So much more happened this week, but these are the main highlights! Lots of friends, food, and fun! A really random week, but now that Christmas celebrations are over I am excited to get back to routine. Hopefully, people are excited for Christmas! 

Spiritual thought time!

A nice little quote from President Nelson: “He will lead and guide YOU in your personal life if you will make time for Him in your life–each and every day.” 

Make sure there is room in your heart for Jesus. 

Is there room in your heart? Are you allowing yourself to open your heart to Jesus? Or is it set upon the things of the world? Jesus will never force you to open your heart to Him! It is your heart! However, He desires a broken heart and a contrite spirit. The law and commandments are what we stand on to walk to Christ! The Lord does not want us to sacrifice animals or other things as was done in ancient times. He wants and requires a broken heart and a contrite spirit! A broken heart can symbolize you breaking down the door to your heart to allow the Savior in! The Savior is at the door knocking! Just open it and let Him in! Make room for Him! 

Singing is part of our worship! My mission president is by no means a singer, but he knows how important singing is to our worship! We sang Joy to the World and he made us stand up and re-sing the song because we weren't singing with joy! In D&C 25:12 it states, “For my Soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.” I challenge everyone to sing the hymns! Get to know the hymns! They are part of our worship! Sing with joy!

What think ye of Christ? This is a simple question! Our mission made a six minute video of everyone in the mission saying one line answering this question! Each missionary took the short video in a unique spot that they were serving and all the videos were compiled! It was very powerful to see all the short one sentence testimonies of Christ from all the missionaries! I want to extend an invitation to everyone that reads this email! Get your whole family and extended family to video themselves wherever they are in the world answering this question. Then compile all the videos and send it out for the whole family to watch! It will be powerful!

A simple scripture that my mission President loves - 2 Nephi 33:6 states “I glory in plainness; I glory in truth: I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.” 

Take a second to ponder this scripture! Is this what you glory in? Has the eternal truth of Jesus Christ sunken deep into your soul? I am still striving to have these truths sink into my soul! 

Belief=power! Faith=power! This is absolutely crazy! As you have belief and faith in Jesus Christ you will see power come into your life! Just ponder on your personal belief and faith in Jesus Christ!

Some insights about the well known story of the ten virgins. First off, they were all virgins and all knew what was expected of them. But the difference was they all acted differently. Is your lamp filled with oil or not? Imagine that you believe you know everything but you actually don't…and are carrying an empty vessel. You are the vessel! Fill yourself!

What is the oil? It is the truths of the gospel! It is the light and truth of Jesus Christ! And what is burning? It is the spirit. If there is no oil aka “light and truth” then the spirit can't burn within you! And you don't want to be found without oil at the last day because that means the spirit of God won't be burning within you! The second coming can come at any time. When you die your time is up. There is a time and a season for everything. For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.” Alma 34:32. 

The Lord will be at the door! No servant will be employed! “and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel (Jesus Christ); and he employeth no servant there; and there is none other way save it be by the gate; for he cannot be deceived, for the Lord God is his name” 2 Nephi 9:41. 

The Lord who we profess to serve will either open the door or close the door to eternal life. This is serious!! Why do some people say that Heavenly Father is so hard on Judgment day? It is because He has given us every opportunity to turn to Him. Don't make a mockery of Him! Don't mess around with things of eternal importance and consequence! 

There will be some who say “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us.” 2 Nephi 28:7. And many will say that “All is well in Zion- and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.” 2 Nephi 28:21.

This is not something to think or talk lightly about! These are the reality of things! The purpose of this life is to receive a fullness of Joy and be proven to see if we will obey all of God’s commandments. And if we fail to have the spirit burning within us and have sufficient oil for the spirit to continue to burn like fire in us, it will not be well with us. Please take the action and change you need to do in your life to make sure you are prepared to meet God!

Regarding the Savior, ask yourself this question…Do you love Him? On judgment day I wouldn't be surprised if the Lord asks us the same question that He asked Peter- Did ye love me/Do you love me?

How will you answer that question? The Lord will see your heart and thoughts so you will have to answer sincerely and truthfully. This question is something that gives me more motivation to do better and be better! I want to be able to fall down and bow myself before the Savior and tell Him I loved Him with all my heart, mind, and strength….

What will your answer be?

As you have extra time this Christmas season, take a second to ponder what you know and believe in…take a minute to ponder the Saviors' Atoning sacrifice and take a minute to ponder how you can show Him that you love Him more!

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas! Next Monday will be Christmas for me and it will be my p-day! So that will be fun! Do some laundry and maybe go find some people to teach haha. Who knows what we will do….

Here are the pictures from this week! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/sz5fqHmqCgcsRkL8A

Have a blessed week and keep Jesus Christ at the center of your Christmas! I love you and miss you all! So grateful for my Savior and His birth! And I am grateful for everyone also and all your love and support! Thanks for everything! 

Cheers

-Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)