Climbing Stairs/The Work Is Progressing
Well, well, well I am back for another email! And this is 2 weeks in a row which I have not been able to do in a long time!
Weekly Highlights:
-The area seventy had a professional photographer come and video all of our friends at church last Sunday! It was crazy! He had a drone to video us getting off the bus! We call it the "blessings bus" because us missionaries and all of our friends take it to church. Just imagine the local public bus packed with 6 missionaries and 5 new members and 8 friends! It is a sight to see! And we are all on the bus at 9:30am in the morning! It is pretty epic!
Anyways, this photographer videoed us walking into church and also our gospel principles class! We had 35 friends packed into that class with other new members so it was a total of 55 people! The ward and photographer were shocked. He was like wow! He then was able to video the baptism and was even more amazed!
He was videoing for a church article celebrating the church being in Australia for 185 years! The first member of the church in Australia was in Adelaide!
-We got to visit Gatsby's uni apartment and that was pretty cool. He is so much fun! We got to go to dinner with him and Brother Guo! They talked about baptism together! Gatsby is sooo close to committing! His girlfriend is the opposition to him getting baptized! Ugh!
-We had our weekly FHE at the Firle chapel because our city branch was still closed! Thirty minutes before the activity there were 2 loud booms with a flash of orange light out on the street. Two seconds later the whole building's power went out. We all rushed outside and everyone was coming out of their houses. It was hilarious! Normally those neighbors next to the church would never talk to us, but when there is a crisis they are more than happy to come together to solve the problem haha. Funny how the world works.
-Our new member said a prayer and 10 minutes later the power came back on...miracles! We had a good activity and it was an uplifting night.
-We went to Benny's Burger for the first time in a long time. It has such a fun vibe! We then went to the youth mission prep activity and taught all the priests. I forgot about youth activities. It has been almost 2 years since I had been to one!
-We had 2 days where the power in the branch still wasn't on, so we had to climb up and down 7 flights of stairs each time to get to the office! We probably climbed up and down those stairs 6 times that day! We made all of our friends we taught climb up for their lesson haha. It was funny to start the lesson out of breath!
-We had transfers and Elder Sun and I are staying together! Yay!! Only 2 more transfer calls!
-We went to Shanxi as a district which was fun!
-We tried a new street contacting method out and found 5 new people in 30 minutes!
-We had a new member meal with Shawn! He bought us hotpot and we had a good time. Best hotpot I have ever had in Australia so far! It was very generous of him! Shawn is the funniest guy ever! Such a solid new member!
-We put our Japanese friend Ryo on date for baptism! We have 5 friends on date for baptism currently!
-Adam came back from China and we were pleasantly surprised to have him share his experiences of praying in China. This is the first time a friend has returned to China and come back in a better spiritual shape than when they left! He is so close to committing to baptism also! He has such a strong faith in God! It is amazing to see how he has gone from an atheist to a full believer! He has gone from no relationship with God to having a personal relationship with his Heavenly Father!
-We have Danny and Ming that we are working with to overcome smoking addictions. They both are trusting in the power of God to help them! It is incredible to see the changes friends make in their life for Jesus!
-Found a new good Chinese wrap restaurant called Bing Boy!
-Our branch is back! So I am back! I love speaking Chinese! We go to ChinaTown for dinner occasionally and as I walk around I realize I am the only white guy in sight. It is an epic feeling haha. I love it! The waitresses and Chinese restaurant workers are always so surprised I speak Chinese. There was one waitress that came up to take our order and tried speaking in English because they saw me. However, I was in Chinese speaking mode because I was just speaking Chinese with my friend and companion so I responded in Chinese instead of english and the poor waitress couldn't process what she was hearing. Also, my spice tolerance has gotten so high on the mission! It is crazy!
-Had a beast lesson with RJ who is from New Zealand! I love testifying of Jesus Christ's redeeming power and love! It is incredible! The spirit is always so strong! I almost teared up as I testified! I love my Savior!
-Church was crazy like usual, but it was good! We had 2 priesthood ordinations of 2 of the Chinese friends that got baptized last week! We are getting them to the temple this week! We are racing them down the covenant path!
-It is fall time here and the fun thing about autumn in Australia is that some trees blossom in autumn! So outside our flat it smells sooo good because there is a tree that is covered in blossoming flowers!! I am going to miss being on the other side of the world haha!
Spiritual thought:
There are two things Jesus repeats over and over when He interacts with people. No matter who He is with He always asks a variation of these two questions:
Do you believe?
Will you Come follow me?
Belief needs to always be in Jesus Christ! And that leads to faith! And faith is a principle of action and power!
So Jesus Christ always invites people to Come follow Him!! Are we accepting His invitations each and every day? How do we show Him that we do accept?
We must always be seeking Him! We must continue to level up our discipleship! We must not become stagnant or complacent with our worship! We must not stop!
2 Nephi 26:29 And now behold, I say unto you that the right way is to believe in Christ, and deny him not; and Christ is the Holy One of Israel; wherefore ye must bow down before him, and worship him with all your might, mind, and strength, and your whole soul; and if ye do this ye shall in nowise be cast out.
Ether 12:
41 And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen.
One of my most favorite hymns is hymn number #227 There is sunshine in my soul today!
This is a personal favorite of mine because it always brings a smile to my face!
And why does it bring a smile to my face? Because it talks about Jesus showing His smiling face and the joy He brings to our life!
Now there have been many times in my life that I get sad, discouraged, or just don't want to keep pushing forward, but I have found these are the times when my focus hasn't been on Jesus. It is like clockwork. Anytime I am struggling, I always stop and find out/realize that I have lost my focus Jesus.
President Nelson said, “The joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives!”
Brothers and Sisters whenever you are sad, depressed, stressed, angry, struggling, or your circumstances seem too overwhelming...the answer is always Jesus!
I invite you to put a renewed focus on Jesus Christ this week! Turn to Him! The prince of peace and joy!
I testify and promise that as you focus your life on Jesus Christ no matter what is going on you can find joy and have a smile on your face because Jesus is bringing sunshine to your soul! :)
I testify He lives and loves you!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love you all!!
Have a great week!
Here are the photos: https://photos.app.
Cheers,
Elder Jones (zhang zhanglao)
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