No Electricity - Miracles Abound

Last transfer! I have only 5 weeks left! Crazy! I can't even begin to think about coming home haha. I am having too much fun out here! So much is happening! The work of the Lord is exploding over here in Adelaide, Australia and I feel so honored to be a part of it!

Let's get into one of the best weeks of my entire mission!!

Fun Australian thing: There are no folding chairs in the church buildings. Very random, haha. All the chairs just stack!

-On Monday we had dinner with Wincent and Zhihan! That was fun! Us city Elders then got to walk back from Chinatown to our flat in the dark! It is so peaceful and quiet in the city once 6pm hits haha.

-Transfer calls happened! Drumroll! Elder Sun is now AP! I am still the zone leader in the city with Elder Hu!!! Yay! I have served around him my entire mission! He came in only 1 transfer after I did! We are the oldest companionship in the mission! We have wanted to be companions our entire missions! And now my very last transfer we get to be companions! He is from Taiwan and the most humble, nice, and consecrated missionary in the mission!

-The last day with Elder Sun was crazy and all over the place! I am going to miss being his companion!

-Well the night that Elder Sun left the power in our flat went out. We don't know why, but we came back to the flat with the AP’s to pick up Elder Sun's suitcases and the power was out. We tried all the breakers and everything, but to no avail. I guess when the Sun is gone the light goes out haha.

Anyways....there were a couple outlets that still worked. So we plugged lamps in. But between the senior couples and the landlord it took 5 days for an electrician to come fix it! It went out on Wednesday and now it’s p-day and we just got a call that it will get fixed today!

Wow, we made some funny mission memories. We had to take cold showers! And wow cold showers in the freezing winter is no fun! Imagine already shivering in the cold flat and then having to take a freezing cold shower! Just miserable haha. I have never been so cold in my life! Chilled to the bone! By the 4th day we had an idea to boil water and dump it into a big bucket and take a shower by dipping a pot into the bucket and pouring it on ourselves haha. Elder Hu had washed his clothes the day the electricity went out, but he hadn't dried them. So he finally hung all his clothes haha. Then we had a mission wide zoom call and we were sitting in the dark and President Standley said “Wow, those Elders are living in primitive conditions over there.”

Mission memories for sure this week because of this little situation haha.

-We had a counsel of the city Elders and swapped a lot of our friends around after transfers! So many good things are happening!

-We taught Cedric and Sherry! They are a Chinese couple who want to get baptized, but have to get married before they can be baptized because they are living together! We taught them the law of chastity and we got the bishop to join the lesson! They said they would get married in a year, but after the lesson and learning that Bishop could marry them.....Sherry told Cedric that she wants to get married next month!! Crazy! We will see what happens!

-Our branch building might be closing!! The unknown is so hard! We had to do a deep cleaning before an inspection this week!

-Our zone has 20 missionaries! And 8 of them are leaving this transfer! So my whole goal as zone leader is to keep the positive momentum going and to not let all those missionaries become trunky haha. We had a zoom meeting and Elder Hu and I had a fun time preparing and doing it together!

-We had the craziest Sunday ever! Miracles! And just the Lord fulfilling my mission in so many small ways! He is truly in the details!

-First, our zone had the most friends at church ever! We had 38 friends come to church and 30 of them were in just 1 ward! It was amazing to look behind as I was singing and just see the chapel packed with friends and new members!

-Secondly, the Bishop invited everyone over to his big house after church! So we got all the new members and friends over to his house! It was a party! Two friends were put on date at his house haha. All the friends and new members were fellowshipping together and making connections. At the end of lunch the City Elders were all standing together in awe and just looking at everyone sitting and talking amongst themselves. No missionaries were involved! It was just members and friends growing relationships! Everyone was happy and smiling. My joy was full to witness it! There were over 60 people at Bishop's house with 15 non-members! All the recently baptized friends also were there and it became everyone rejoicing together!

There was a church videographer from church headquarters that had come to Adelaide 2 months ago to film what is happening and to celebrate the church being established in Australia! He finally finished the video and everyone got to watch it together! A lot of the new members made the video and you can even see me in one of the church scenes! The Bishop showed the video for the spiritual thought at his house and everyone was cheering and shouting when they saw themselves or their friends on TV haha! My joy was full to see them so joyful! The Bishop was so happy! President Standley was so happy! And there couldn't have been more happier missionaries!

-Our previous ward mission leader came up to me and said “Wow, you and Elder Sun did it. I remember a couple months ago when we sat down and talked. And now look at what has happened! You achieved it. You switched the mindset and vision of the missionaries and members! They can see what is possible now!"

This simple comment from Shaun Scott made my year. He has always been telling us about the glory years he had in the city branch and all the success there was 10-15 years ago. He would always tell us about it. He is a very intense guy. Elder Sun and I had that vision to make what he experienced a reality again! And to have him be impressed and make that comment truly made me so happy! The Lord is doing so much! The Lord is at the head of this work! I have worked my entire mission to see and witness and experience what I am right now! I had this vision and goal! I have prayed, and prayed, and worked, and worked, and texted, and texted, and sweated, and sweated so much to make this dream become a reality! The Lord has magnified our efforts! There is more accomplished than I ever thought could be accomplished! There have been so many ups and downs! It has been a wild ride! But wow, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have opened up the windows of Heaven and are pouring out blessings upon this little ward in Adelaide, Australia! It is becoming famous for the insanely crazy growth and the member missionary work! I take no credit! I give all glory to God! I pray many prayers of gratitude for being given the opportunity to be a part of this great work! I am so grateful to have been able to serve and work with everyone that I have. I feel so incredibly blessed to see the fruits of my labor. My words can only express a small part of the joy I feel! The joy of saving souls and inviting them to come unto Jesus Christ is real!! The Lord truly blesses His humble servants! But man it didn't come without a lot of hard work!

-Elder Hu and I gave a zone training and gave a spirit led invitation and promised blessing! We promised them that if they did our invitation they would have a personal experience testifying to them why they are here at this time! We got a call from Elder Solomon telling us this crazy story of a friend he just met and a crazy experience! He said that he did the invitation and already experienced the promised blessing! I won’t go into the story, but let's just say Jesus Christ is real and is having the greatest manifestations of His power in the last days! "I am real.”

-And lastly, but not least I achieved a secret personal goal of mine that I have had since my second transfer! A triple double!!!! Truly so much effort into all the key indicators! The Lord truly is in the details of my life!

Spiritual thought:

We taught Souvik, our Indian friend, and that was a spiritual experience. He was unsure if he was ready to be baptized. He expressed his worries. We then just testified and testified and were very bold. We taught him with power and authority and the spirit was present. We testified again, and gave him an invitation and promised blessings. Then he was like, “Wow I feel so good right now.” We got quiet and slowed down and asked, “Do you know what that feeling is?” He gave a couple answers, but then I was able to tell him that it was the Holy Ghost! That God was giving him those feelings and testifying to him that what we said was true! He described it as warm, and a very strong sense of fulfillment. More than if he had just had a successful day, or completed a big job or something. He said he had never felt that before. He left on cloud 9! He even texted afterwards and said “Wow, I am making so much progress guys! Thanks so much!”

This was a testament about how powerful and important the spirit is. It can calm down this hyper friend and help us teach in a way that he justifies everything we say. Then testifies what we said is true and gives him an undeniable witness that he can't help but tell us what he is feeling! It was incredible!

Souvik has changed so much!

Jesus Christ is real! He is actively changing our friends’ lives! We give them an invitation and they come back changed and have improved more than we ever could have imagined! The atonement of Jesus Christ is real! I don't know how it works, but I testify it works! The friends I teach are living testaments to it!

I read one of the first talks President Nelson gave when he became prophet. The last couple paragraphs really stood out to me! He says everything better than I ever could! His messages are so important especially in the crazy world we are currently living in!

“I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”

Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that the Father and the Son are giving away the secrets of the universe!”

Nothing opens the heavens quite like the combination of increased purity, exact obedience, earnest seeking, daily feasting on the words of Christ in the Book of Mormon, and regular time committed to temple and family history work. To be sure, there may be times when you feel as though the heavens are closed. But I promise that as you continue to be obedient, expressing gratitude for every blessing the Lord gives you, and as you patiently honor the Lord’s timetable, you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek. Every blessing the Lord has for you—even miracles—will follow. That is what personal revelation will do for you.

I am optimistic about the future. It will be filled with opportunities for each of us to progress, contribute, and take the gospel to every corner of the earth. But I am also not naive about the days ahead. We live in a world that is complex and increasingly contentious. The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation.

Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.

My beloved brothers and sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. Let this Easter Sunday be a defining moment in your life. Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.”

I testify that our prophet is called of God to lead and guide us in these last days! Oh how grateful I am for a prophet!!

Hope you all have a great week!

Here are the photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QBYLVRcQGiLBCYPF6

Cheers,

-Elder Jones :)