Beast Week

哈喽啊！下午好！I hope everyone’s week was a good one! This week was super busy and crazy for me! There are no such things as “boring, slow, uneventful days” in the city of Adelaide… The nice thing about being in the city is that there is something crazy going on at all times! I don’t know what the weather is like back in Utah right now, but it is nothing like Adelaide.  Some may think Utah weather can be unpredictable, but that nowhere compares to the unpredictable weather of Adelaide.  For example, Tuesday it was a scorching 107 degrees and I felt like the air was burning. There was literally no one in the city because it was so hot! Then on Thursday it was a high of 65 and it was pouring rain all day long and so we were all wearing jackets haha. Then the next two days were around 60-70 degrees and it was the most beautiful weather in the world! 

Fun Australian things:

-Everything in Australia is trying to kill you…we saw a bullet ant this week! Kinda crazy! And at this point I don't give a second thought of spiders making a home in my home haha. There are just spiders everywhere.  Let’s just say there are many spider stains on my journal from smashing spiders…

-On the traffic lights there is a cage around the green light. I have no idea why there is a grated thing over the green light. I wonder if they are trying to make it harder to see so people focus on the red and yellow lights more haha. 

-There is an Australian dessert called kitchen in a bun because it is literally just that….all the sugar and oil and flour that can be found in a kitchen in a bun.

-No such thing as a bbq here it is always called a sausage sizzle because they always eat sausages…they call them snags. A piece of bread, a hot dog, some tomato sauce, and then some onion. And they eat those by the handful haha. They love their sausage sizzles!

-And while we are on the topic of food…Australians love meat pies! It is so funny. They also can eat those by the handful!

Weekly Highlights:

-Being lead ZL is tiring haha. 

-A bird finally pooped on me…it was about time being around all these pigeons.

-We teach some people and we have discussions that I never thought I would have on a mission. For example, we were teaching this one 25 year old Chinese guy named Jason on Tuesday and he somehow was asking us if we knew what quantum entanglement was and how that tied in to what we were teaching.  When we started talking about the plan of salvation he started bringing up different dimensions….lets just say we were firing on all cylinders haha…the list goes on and on…he is a tough one to get to focus on what we are teaching.

-We had a beautiful lesson with xuefeng li and after the lesson we pointed out that the spirit was there…and he was shocked for a second and then when he stopped and thought and then he realized that he was indeed feeling the spirit and there was something different! Sometimes we need to stop and feel and listen to the spirit. We need to acknowledge his presence and help other people recognize it also! 

-Update on Dean! We had another awesome lesson with Dean! We taught him both the word of wisdom and tithing.  I was a little nervous because I didn't know if he was going to have a problem with either of those commandments, but thankfully he did not! He has now been taught everything! So if everything feels right at the next lesson we are planning on inviting him to be baptized on March 2nd! After the lesson he took us out to a fancy burger restaurant and paid for our burgers! It was a sit down restaurant and the cheapest burger was 26 dollars…so he paid for mine and my companion’s 27 dollar burger!! So nice! We are truly good friends! 

-We had a lesson with Dom and that was fun! We had ice cream and hot chocolate as we watched a BYU devotional together! 

-We are teaching a catholic couple right now! They are awesome and we taught them the whole restoration this week and they really enjoyed it! They even texted us after the lesson telling us how much they enjoyed spending time with us and the good conversations we have! So cool to see their open-mindedness and willingness to learn and seek truth! 

-It was Australia day this week! So it was fun celebrating their national holiday! We had a branch picnic in the park. And Australia parks are awesome! The park was named marshmallow park and it had the playground and everything in a large grove of trees! I had to play their national anthem in church haha.

-Helped Robert move houses.

-And the last update is that I got a brand new car…or I guess the mission did and they entrusted it to me to drive! Yikes! I am petrified to drive it! When I got the car it only had 30km on it and still had the dealership wrapping and stuff on it. And it is a really really really nice car. Nicer than any car I drove back home haha. The warning “you better not be the first person to call us telling us that you scratched the car…” still rings in my ears….

Spiritual thought:

Where do your priorities lie? Where do you put your value or your trust? Many people say money when we talk to them in the mall. They say that you can buy anything with money. Money may bring temporary happiness, but it will never bring lasting happiness.

Rely=Action verb. We must learn to rely more on the spirit. Without faith we can't do anything and without the spirit we can’t do anything. The Father sends the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost bears witness of what the Father and the Son and all they do. Let the spirit fulfill His mission through us.

There is a well known quote from President Nelson that says, “In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”

This quote was given in a talk in 2018…so that means there are no more “coming days”...these are the coming days! The time is now! We need to stop looking forward! Don't put aside the Holy Ghost! We need every part! The guiding, the directing, the comforting, the constant influence of the Holy Ghost if we are to survive spiritually in this crazy world! 

I can testify of this need! I talk to so many people each day from all over the world! And there are so many disillusioned, lost, and confused people! They don't know where to find truth and they don’t know the role of the Holy Ghost in testifying of all truth! 

The Holy Ghost is a necessity in life now! If you don't have it, you won't be able to survive. Repenting allows you to have the Holy Ghost as your continual constant companion. Let us do the work to have the special gift that we have been privileged to have! 

Jesus is the embodiment of truth! Absolute truth! There is an objective absolute truth in the world! There is no going around it! Truth is truth! Truth is objective not subjective. It can be viewed subjectively, but that does not change that it is objective. Jesus is the standard, He is the law- 3 Nephi 15:9. The adversary wants to deceive and trick us into making something or someone else our “law” or standard that we go by. Let us be sure that we keep Jesus Christ as our law and standard.

When you pray with real intent it means that once you receive a witness that you will go and do. Heavenly Father will not likely answer, if you are not ready to act on the answer you receive. When friends aren't getting answers it is because they are praying to know, not to do. We must pray to know and to do! There is action required!  

“The central purpose of all scripture is to fill our souls with faith in God the Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ—faith that They exist; faith in the Father’s plan for our immortality and eternal life; faith in the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which animates this plan of happiness; faith to make the gospel of Jesus Christ our way of life; and faith to come to know ‘the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom [He has] sent’ (John 17:3)” (D. Todd Christofferson, “The Blessing of Scripture,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2010, 34)

“One thing I have learned in life is how frequently the Lord answers our questions and gives us counsel through the scriptures. … Let us then go to the Lord in prayer, pleading for help or answers; and those answers will come as we open the scriptures and begin to study them. Sometimes it is as though a passage hundreds or thousands of years old was dictated specifically to answer our question” (M. Russell Ballard, “Be Strong in the Lord, and in the Power of His Might” [Brigham Young University fireside, Mar. 3, 2002], 5, speeches.byu.edu).

One interesting analogy for those people who enjoy science! Some food for thought…everything denotes that there is a God and everything typifies of Him! And you always can relate everyday things to the gospel…

My companion and I were listening to a general conference talk and then we discussed this interesting concept…

Take a Blood cell. In an environment with too much water it expands. If there is not enough water it shrinks. If we live “in the world” we can’t expect to maintain our virtues. Worldly things, ideas, and viruses will seep in slowly without us realizing that we are expanding like a red blood cell would in water. And instead of water we are expanding with worldly things and we become more like the world. However, If we live the gospel of Jesus Christ then Christ like attributes, virtues, ideas, actions, thoughts, and who we become will seep in and our favorite sins will seep out. The membrane cell is what allows things to move in and out. The environment you are in matters. When you live the gospel, you let things in and other things leave and seep out. You have to choose to live this way and allow the change to happen slowly. Then you can obtain homeostasis (tendency of a system to safeguard internal stability). The only way we can obtain “homeostasis” in this life is by living the gospel of Jesus Christ! Then you will find internal stability! And you can become more like the Savior because when we are like the Savior we will obtain homeostasis between our spirit, body and mind. We become one with God. We will be stable in who we are and who we are becoming... 

I testify that living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the best way to live life and it can change a person for the better! I have seen people change and the change is marvelous! If you seek to change and become someone new, I invite you to turn to Jesus Christ and I promise that as you do so you will find your weaknesses turned into strengths and you will find new horizons and beginnings in your life! 

Have a great week! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YCARYPy9KQCu5AaM6

Cheers,

Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)