Baptisms!

Goodday everyone! Hope all is going well! I have had this email typed up for the past couple weeks, but haven't sent it haha. So these are delayed updates! It will be a quick update! Next week I will give you all an update on my last couple weeks! And also who and where I will be for my last transfer! We find out this week! Crazy! 

Weekly highlights:

-First off, we had a great week of baptisms! Miracles abound! There is no unhallowed hand that will stop this work from progressing! The Lord is literally doing His work for us! I am just making sure that I am not in the way! I feel so blessed to be an instrument in His hands! 

We had a long 2 weeks of preparing for this unprecedented baptismal service! I was constantly messaging our Bishop. We had to borrow baptismal suits from other chapels. We were doing baptismal interviews like no tomorrow!

The day of the baptism arrived and all the hard work paid off! We had 6 friends baptized! And better yet we had 6 other people baptizing them! So we had 12 people all dressed in white! It was a sight to see! For Australia, this is almost unimaginable! We had the Stake President and the Area Seventy President in attendance! 

In Marden ward we have now had 17 people baptized in the past 4 months! 

We had 4 Chinese, 1 Japanese, and 1 Australian baptized! They were very prepared! Our Chinese friend Jimmy was baptized by his friend Leo who he had brought to our first lesson and ended up getting baptized 2 weeks before him haha. It was so amazing. Leo received the priesthood in Elders Quorum and then 20 minutes later baptized Jimmy! Jimmy's testimony after was incredible! He had an amazing story and made everyone laugh as he told it. He had first rejected Elder Liao and Elder Hansen, but then 2 weeks later he had gotten stopped by Elder Sun and I in Rundle mall. And the rest is history!

It was hilarious! Everyone got up and was like "So I was in Rundle mall...."

Our Japanese friend was able to have the ordinances completed in Japanese which was meaningful for him! I never thought he would be baptized! It was a multilingual baptismal service in all aspects! Bishop even shared his closing testimony in Chinese! The chapel was so packed with people that they almost had to open the overflow! I could not stop smiling! Putting a baptismal service together is so stressful, but so rewarding! Elder Hu made a really awesome video of all the past baptisms this year and then at the very end of the video added the picture that we had taken of everyone right before we baptized them all. It was pretty awesome! Then he added: To be continued....

-Cloude who I had baptized a year ago was able to receive the Melchizedek priesthood which was amazing! 

-In sacrament all the Chinese speaking friends, missionaries, and members were able to get up and sing I am a child of God in Chinese! The ward is being overrun by Chinese people now haha. It is so awesome! The Australians feel a little outnumbered haha. So heartwarming to see this little ward that was just created and struggling become the top performing ward in all of South Australia in terms of everything! You can just feel the spirit of excitement! Baptism has turned into the "cool thing to do" for the Chinese friends! After Jimmy got baptized he was talking to our Chinese friend and asked "when are you going to get baptized? I want to baptize you.” So awesome! We are able to retain all of our new members and so the ward is just growing so much! 

Church was also awesome because all the new members got callings and were blessing and passing the sacrament. It is also incredible because everyone wants to sit in the front. So the front row had like 13 Chinese guys crammed in. I couldn't even sit up straight because there wasn't enough shoulder room haha. 

-We were able to go to the temple with 7 of our new members this week! Seeing their faith by going to the temple on a Friday night to do baptisms strengthened my faith! 

-President Paton invited us over for dinner and Tom brought his girlfriend so that was a very amusing night! 

-We were able to have MLC and that was good! Had some fun dinner conversations!

-On p-day, President approved after much convincing 2 zones to have a basketball competition. So I was picked from our zone to be on the 6 man team to travel to Modbury to play the other zone! We all piled into a van and made game plans on the drive up! It was an intense game of full court basketball haha. President himself showed up and we had a member referee it! We played 3 games and our zone won all 3 games just barely! Fun memories! Felt like I was playing J-Jazz for a minute!

-Took a picture with Akbar and gave him 5 dollars. It was a tender moment that I won't forget. My Rundle mall friend...

-We got to have hotpot at our new member Shawn's house! He is so lonely and loves our company! 

-We had stake conference and so we got to broadcast it from the city branch. We then ate lunch and played games with everyone after. I think the Chinese friends enjoyed it. It was really random.

-We gave Elder Kershaw a blessing for his concussion and witnessed a pretty cool miracle! 

-Got to experience some true Chinese culture with Cedric and his girlfriend! They had lost face at dinner and so they had to make up for it by inviting us over for dinner at their place! I felt really bad, but learned a lot about Chinese culture! 

-Speaking lots of Chinese, eating lots of food, and grinding away! It is an adventure every single day! Excited for the next couple weeks! The work continues to press forward! 

Well my weekly highlights kinda cover my spiritual thought, but I can share a quick thought before I go. 

What I have loved the most on my mission is watching Jesus Christ change people! His power is very real! I testify that He lives and is actively changing lives! 

When someone has faith centered on Jesus Christ miracles happen! When someone's faith in Jesus Christ is strong enough they will move mountains and walk thousands of miles to follow Him! They will change their lives unlike they ever thought they would! They repent and change their very heart, desires, actions, thoughts, and who they are! 

They will have a desire to make and maintain a personal covenantal relationship with Jesus Christ! They will be baptized and then work towards deepening that covenantal relationship at the temple! They will keep coming every week to church to make a covenant each week with God! They will do all they can to help others feel the joy they feel! 

It all is on Jesus Christ! When someone trusts and loves Jesus Christ enough remarkable things happen! Things that would only happen if Jesus Christ was really real and lives! 

"Although we are imperfect and may fall short again, there is more grace, love, and mercy in Jesus Christ than there is failure, flaw, or sin in us. God is always ready and eager to embrace us as we turn to Him and repent (see Luke 15:11–32). Nothing and no one “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39)." PMG

"As we rely on Jesus Christ and His Atonement, He can help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with joy, peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ."

Jesus came to set the perfect example for us. He did so perfectly. And He showed us exactly what we need to do to become like Him and His Father! Because we are Heavenly Fathers children we all have the potential to become like Him!! And Jesus Christ is the one that allows our potential to become a reality! He is the one that makes it possible! Without Jesus we would never reach our divine potential! He showed us the path to walk! The path to happiness in this life and eternal life in the life to come! There is no other path that will lead us to pure joy, perfect purpose, and inner peace! 

I testify that Jesus is actively changing me and those I teach, each and everyday that we turn to Him! Oh how I love Him! 

I Invite you to take the prophet Jacobs invitation to heart: 

Jacob 6:5 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts. 

I promise that as you reach out to God with everything you have, you will find Him...because He is already reaching out to you! 

Love you all! 

Find the joy of saving souls!

Here are the photos for May:  

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dLoFNxEZfYQWvZWC7