Long Week

Well it has been another crazy week down under! Each week so much happens! It is absolutely wild! I hope and pray that everyone is doing well. I appreciate everyone's prayers for me. I can feel the support and strength given from God in behalf of your prayers! Much gratitude and appreciation for your faith and prayers!

Fun Australian things:

-Silent disco- This is something that is really weird and it blows my mind. It has happened the last two Saturdays in the mall. Silent disco is exactly what it sounds like….silent disco….

There is a group of about 15-30 people and they all have headphones on. There is a lead person who apparently changes the music and tells them what to do. They all will dance, shout, whistle, scream, sing the lyrics, and just have a big dance party….the crazy thing is that only those 30 people can hear the music and what is going on. So everyone else just looks at them with wide eyes. They get a lot of heads to turn as they walk through the mall and stop to have a dance party.  They are all very well dressed like they are going to a dance. It causes quite a disturbance when they come through the mall. Everyone is like what is going on and so they look over to see what is happening and all they see is just a group of 30 people dressed in really nice clothes singing, dancing, shouting, and having a party to what seems like no music. It is the most bizarre thing ever. 

-There is the literal great and spacious building in Rundle mall! There is this large nice building above one of the local stores in the mall. It is kinda floating above the rest and looks down on everything. I have no idea how someone gets up to this building, but on Friday and Saturday nights it is filled with people on the balcony and they all are laughing and drinking. It is all wealthy people and they are dressed in fine clothes and they look down at everyone walking through the mall. They are usually pointing and laughing at things. I have looked up many times as I walk back and forth in the mall and see them all on the balcony drunk and laughing and pointing fingers at what seems like me haha. It totally reminds me of the great and spacious building. And then everyone else in the mall is walking in the midst of darkness. They know not where to find truth and light. And then there is my companion and I who are pressing forward on our invisible iron rod and are inviting others to come and join us! But so many people don't want to! So sad…

-The person who sings the song Unstoppable (Sia) is from Adelaide! There is a street named after her and one of her songs. 

Weekly Highlights:

-I got to go to the beach on p-day and relax! First time being at the beach and not doing missionary work haha. Felt really weird. I can’t be in a place and not feel like I should be talking to people! The beach was so fun! We played spike ball and threw around a football! We were all laughing and having fun! It reminded me of the scene in Top Gun Maverick where they are all bonding and having fun on the beach before they go out to battle! And that truly is how I feel sometimes! I dipped my toes into the ocean and was surprised at how warm the water was! It was very very warm! It felt like pool water that had been in the sun all day! Everyone got sunburned…I got burned everywhere I didn't put sunscreen on haha. Like literally I could tell if I missed a spot because it had a burn mark after haha. 

-Tuesday was transfer day. The President and APs had a lot of different assignments for us to do! It was crazy! We had to help 6 new missionaries spend the day in the city and learn how to street contact while they waited for their 4 hour plane flight up to Darwin the next day. It was the most wild day! Being around new missionaries is tiring for some reason…and it brought back memories of myself being a new missionary! 

-We get a call from the President who tells us that a missionary who had been out for a while was going home and that he would stay at our flat for the night and then we would drive him to the airport at 5:30 in the morning!! I had not gotten up that early in sooooo long! The rest of the week I was just exhausted because I missed an hour of sleep and I haven't gotten less than 8 hours of sleep in 6 months haha. I love the missionary sleep schedule! We met up with President and his wife and we ate breakfast together and then walked and waved bye to the missionary as he walked onto his plane. A very strange and interesting experience.  It felt weird to be back at the airport and wow airport parking is so hard sometimes haha. 

-Wednesday we had exchanges and that was fun! We worked hard and found lots of new people that day! We were so blessed to walk to one person after another and have them be interested! 

-The rest of the week was busy with random things and I was so tired! The Elders got a picture of me slumped over my Book of Mormon fast asleep during personal study on Friday haha. I was just so dead tired. I have been going 100 plus miles per hour ever since I became a zone leader a couple months ago! I couldn’t keep my eyes open so I closed them for a second and I was out like a light!

-I drove 200km this week and there is yet to be a scratch on the brand new car haha.

-I love all the pink parrots and the green, yellow, and blue parrots that fly around our house! They are always so happy and squawking! There is also a dead possum hanging from one of the trees…

-The biggest and most exciting news of the week I saved for last!! We put Dean ON DATE!!! It was the most beautiful lesson ever on baptism and our covenant that we make! At the end of the lesson we read 2 Nephi 31 and after the verse where it explains that Jesus set the example for us, I turned to Dean and asked if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and…..the rest is history haha. He is set to be baptized on March 2nd! The cool thing about this day is that it is my sister's birthday and she will also be getting baptized then! (give or take the time differences haha).

We were so hyped up after the lesson! This is the first person that I have taught from complete start to complete finish. I remember stopping him and our conversation in Rundle mall and now after months of lessons he is ready and prepared to be baptized and oh how he is excited and determined to keep this covenant! We are good friends and it makes me so happy to see him praying and reading the scriptures! And now I am even more excited to see him enter the waters of baptism!  

Thanks for everyone's prayers on behalf of Dean! It has helped a lot!

 

Spiritual thought:

Jesus did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves. He is truly the captain of our Salvation (Hebrew 2:10) 

There is no other name under heaven whereby we may be saved! (Mosiah 3:7) Jesus is the path to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come! Without Him all would be lost! 

Gethsemane means "press down". Olive/wine press. It is all very symbolic … and one of the reasons why the consecrated oil used for blessing and anointing the sick is olive oil because it symbolizes Jesus Christ's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane in the “Olive Press”. D/C 19: 16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; 17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; 18 Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink.

Jesus Christ descended below all things...everything. One of the reasons He did this, was so He may know how to succor us! 

Succor means to run to you in your hour of need–when you make a covenant you bind yourself even more closely with whom you can find peace, rest, and power! 

Succor=grace= enabling power

It also can mean “Provide relief in times of distress/to run to desperately.” He can run to all who He has spiritually begotten! 

Alma 7:11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. 

This shows how He took upon Him everything we have and will ever feel and go through! All the punishment and consequences for sin…and what does He ask us to do? To take His name upon us and change and become like Him because He took all of us upon Him...

When we choose to repent and follow Him we are expressing our gratitude for Him and all that He has done for us!

President Russell M. Nelson explained several ways in which the Atonement is infinite: “His Atonement is infinite—without an end. It was also infinite in that all humankind would be saved from never-ending death. It was infinite in terms of His immense suffering. It was infinite in time, putting an end to the preceding prototype of animal sacrifice. It was infinite in scope—it was to be done once for all. And the mercy of the Atonement extends not only to an infinite number of people, but also to an infinite number of worlds created by Him. It was infinite beyond any human scale of measurement or mortal comprehension. “Jesus was the only one who could offer such an infinite atonement, since He was born of a mortal mother and an immortal Father. Because of that unique birthright, Jesus was an infinite Being.”

2 Nephi 25:13 “healing in His wings” Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke of the need for the healing effects of the Atonement—not just for forgiveness of transgressions, but for all of life’s hardships:

[The Savior] has risen from the dead ‘with healing in his wings.’ “Oh, how we all need the healing the Redeemer can provide. Mine is a message of hope for you who yearn for relief from heavy burdens that have come through no conscious act of your own while you have lived a worthy life. It is based on principles embodied in the teachings of the Savior. Your challenge may be a serious physical disability, a struggle with lingering illness, or a daily wrestle with a life-threatening disease. It may have roots in the death of a loved one, the anguish caused by another bound by sin, or abuse in any of its evil forms. Whatever the cause, I testify that lasting relief is available on conditions established by the Lord.”

He did it-He has done His part! And He has done it completely and beautifully! Now it is up to us! Will you receive the gift? The greatest gift the world has ever known? 

Old meaning of carpentry also includes masonry- So Jesus was also probably as good at masonry as He was woodworking- symbolizes that He knows how to work and shape something as hard as stone or wood. And oh how sometimes our hearts are as hard as stone or wood…if we can be humble and turn our hearts and minds and our all over to the Savior He can mold and shape us into the person He and His Father knows we can become!  

Something to ponder on…where Jesus was He was present- This is evident in the story of the women with the issue of blood. He was already in a hurry to help someone else but He remained in the moment and helped this lady. He took the time to have a special tender moment with one of the daughters of heaven and say “thy faith hath made thee whole.” 

I sometimes wonder in our world of fast paced things, phones, social media, and other things we don’t take time to be in the moment! I invite everyone to be present wherever you are.

Here is another acronym for everyone: CDD-contention, distraction, discouragement

These are tactics of the devil to destroy us and to drive away the leading and comforting guidance of the Holy Ghost…

I invite everyone to choose one of these 3 main tactics of the adversary and work on removing it from your daily life. They can creep in so easily if we are not careful. 

I invite everyone to ponder on Jesus Christ atonement and what HE did for YOU! Take the time to do something that will show your gratitude for Him and what He has done for you! 

Here are some fun photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JKv3pe3nPc5y3o7f9

Hope everyone has a blessed week! Keep Christ in your thoughts! 

I love you all! I think about and pray for your success! 

Until next week…

Cheers,

-Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)