Another 2 Weeks
Well well well another two weeks have flown by!
Hope you are all doing well!
Fun Adelaide weather:
One day it was 110 degrees. The very next day it was 77 degrees. The following day it was 55 degrees. Kinda crazy weather!
Weekly Highlights:
-We had a lesson with our friend Li Hai Yi (Gatsby)! He is so awesome! He gave both Elder Sun and I amazing compliments and said that I am the first foreign friend he has had! He expressed his gratitude to us! It really warmed my heart! He was planning on coming to church again, but then stayed up all night playing a video game called Elden Ring. We texted him that we were sad we didn’t see him at church. He texted back He texted back "Sorry bro, elden ring ruined my plan. I shall repent for my mistake."
Elder Sun texted back "You remembered Elden Ring not Elder Jones."
Gatsby responds by saying "No way, Elden Ring is just game, but Elder Jones is life."
He will hopefully come play basketball with us on p-day today!!
-We had a beast week! We were going for the triple double and had 12 news and 12 LMPs! We had 8 LMPs by Wednesday! But sadly we didn't get 10 at church! Somehow everyone says they will come Saturday night, but Sunday morning everyone disappears. I don't know what happens?!
-We had a couple days where we just taught lessons all day long! So much fun! I love teaching! We have taught so many lessons and hardly doing any finding but still finding lots of people! So it is a dream situation right now! The Lord is blessing and magnifying our efforts!
-We had a fun lesson with a Chinese guy who bought us Boost smoothies before the lesson!
-We had a lesson with a friend named Eric who was going to drop us. He said he wasn't interested in religion at all. It came out of the blue. We pleaded that he come in one more time! He did and he left interested again and committed to come back! We brought him from our lesson to the ward talent show activity. He ended up getting up and singing Ed Sheeran for everyone and he instantly became the most popular person there! He was on cloud 9 and came to church the next day! All the members love him now haha.
We had a lesson about the Atonement of Jesus Christ this week with him and it was amazing. He said the prayer at the end of the lesson and it was amazing to hear what he said. He said "Thank you Heavenly Father, I feel closer to you now and I have come to know my inner self better".
This really made me reflect! As we learn about Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice, we draw closer to God and we come to know ourselves better!
Whenever I have taught the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our friends have always had the most amazing responses afterwards!
-We had transfers and Elder Sun and I are staying together! Yay!
-The mission always feels like you are on the clock! It is crazy! It never stops! There is no rest!
-We put our friend Ming on date for baptism! Probably the easiest on date I have had on my mission! He was practically begging for it haha. The only problem is that he smokes sometimes...so we will see what happens!
-We had MLC and that was good for the most part. We got to go to the temple afterwards and I was able to receive lots of revelation there!
-On the 110 degree day we were bussing and the bus overheated and so we had to sit sweating in our suits for 10 long minutes before we got going again! The UV index said "extreme" haha. There wasn't even a number to describe how hot the sun was that day!
-We had MLC dinner! And the best part of it was that we got to meet the new Chinese sister missionary! She is straight from China and a convert in China! Amazing! Made my night to meet her!!
-President took us all out for Chinese new year dinner! It was an expensive Chinese restaurant and we got to invite some of our friends along! All the Chinese uni students loved the free feed! It was a great bonding experience with our friends! I loved the pork belly! So yummy! It just melted in my mouth! And the mapo tofu was delicious!
-Met with President on p-day, had stake mcm, and got to see and give Elder Wakolo a hug again! Fun times!
-Had a couple member meals! One was with two recently returned missionaries who just got married! It seemed so surreal!
-Our zone is low key falling apart....kinda stressful haha. Mormon 9:4 is exactly how I feel.
-We are having a great english class and I am always teaching these 3 old Ukrainian Grandmas and 1 Grandpa from Khagizstan. It has made for some fun memories!
-Rundle mall is too much fun! It was perfect weather and I was just really having the time of my life talking to all these random people! We found 4 new people in 20 minutes...they were from Iran, India, China, Mexico. Don't know where else you would meet 4 people from those countries in the space of 20 minutes. We had someone come up yelling at us about Joseph Smith. Elder Sun said "Who?" He said Joseph Smith. Elder Sun said "you mean Joseph Mormon" The guy said oh yes yes I meant that. Then he looked at our book and said, "Isn't that the book of mormon? Wait Joseph Mormon...book of mormon...." He walks away with a confused face. It was so funny! I was dying!
Spiritual thought:
We have taught the gospel of Jesus Christ so much! I have really grown a testimony of how these simple principles can bless our life!
"The gospel of Jesus Christ is how we come unto Christ." Everyone always wants to know how we come unto Jesus Christ. Everyone wants to know the how! Well the gospel of Jesus Christ is the how!
"It is simple enough that a child can understand it. This lesson focuses on the gospel and doctrine of Christ, including faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It also focuses on how the gospel blesses all of God’s children."
I love how beautifully simple and simply beautiful the gospel is!
The Prophet Joseph Smith said “Preach the first principles of the Gospel—preach them over again; you will find that day after day, new ideas and additional light concerning them will be revealed to you. You can enlarge upon them so as to comprehend them clearly. You will then be able to make them more plainly understood by those you teach.”
Everyone always gets caught up in supposedly "deep doctrine.” I believe that there is no such thing. The core simple doctrine is what we need! And the amazing thing is that the first principles of the gospel are so simple a child can understand but can be so deep and complex that the smartest people do not know the full depth and meaning behind the principles!
"The word gospel literally means “good news.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is good news because it provides the doctrine—the eternal truth—we need to come unto Him and be saved. The gospel teaches us how to live good, meaningful lives. The good news of the gospel provides the way for us to be forgiven of sins, be sanctified, and return to God’s presence."
I invite you all to really study the gospel of Jesus Christ! Really let the truths sink into your heart!
Remember that "the gospel of Jesus Christ can change how we live and who we become. Its principles are not just steps that we experience once in our lives. When we repeat them throughout life, they bring us closer to God and become an increasingly rewarding pattern of living. They bring peace, healing, and forgiveness. They also define the path our Heavenly Father has given for us to have eternal life with Him."
Elder Packer said “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the [doctrine] of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior.”
I promise that as you study the eternal truths of the gospel it has the power to transform your life and the lives of those around you! Remember that everything is always centered around Jesus Christ! It is Jesus Christ that makes the Fathers plan possible. It is Jesus Christ that is at the center of the gospel of Jesus Christ! He makes each principle and step possible! Everything is possible because of Jesus Christ for he is full of mercy and truth!
Here are some photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/
Sorry for the long email once again! Hope all goes smoothly this week!
Love you all!
Cheers,
Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)
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