The Best Two Years: Birthday Brownies and Reunitings

Man this week was pretty much incredible. Full of miracles and great opportunities. We started the week off helping the Cattell's and their friend in their yards. At one point that morning, we helped pull some weeds out, including one they call a bindi, which has some pretty rough thorns. I still have no clue if Bindi Irwin is named after it or not, so y'all can try to figure that one out.

Anyway, the whole time, I kept thinking of one of Dad's favorite lines: "it's a weeding out process, son". I remember hating that line, but now see how true it is. Life brings us hard things, and in order to get better, we just gotta keep moving. It's the same thing in the Gospel. The only way we'll ever progress is if we endure.

So I mentioned this week had some miracles. I think we had three pretty big one's this week:

First. You remember we visited a less-active named Sister Vanderkroft. The older one with the massive Joseph Smith Bible? Well, about a transfer ago, she disappeared. We knew she got sick and her kids were cleaning out the house, but could not make contact with any of them. Well this week, we finally drove by when one of her kids were there, got to introduce ourselves, and figure out what's been hap'nin.

Second. We were out tracting and it was the 5th door of the day. This guy named Josh answers the door and we talked to him for two whole hours on his doorstep. Mate had so many questions, we taught him different principles from all the lessons. It was definitely a testament to me that the Lord prepares His people. We just need to go out and find them.

And third. On trade-offs with Elder Bell, we hit up the river walk for some street contacting and met a dude who's brother had recently passed away. He said he had prayed the night before for a sign. He had no idea what he was looking for or what he was expecting, but was pretty shocked that "we turned up". We gave him a Plan of Salvation pamphlet and again got to testify to him about the truthfulness of that message.

Zone Conference this week was awesome. I've found that the longer you're out, the more you enjoy them. I remember not knowing anyone at my first Zone Conference, and it didn't really excite me that much, but now, it's a totally different story. President Checketts used Elder Bednar's April Conference talk for his training, which explains the connection between baptism, confirmation, and the Sacrament. He used a spiral staircase to show the progression we want to make in this life. Always moving forward and upward.

On Saturday, Elder Kumar got to do some body work on Kate's car. He sanded down the scratches, filled them and then painted it back. It was pretty cool to see him so in the zone. I spent the day painting some of the inside of her house and helping in Sister Vickers' garden.

It was Elder Bell and Ephraim's birthdays this week, so I made the oatmeal-chocolate-peanut butter brownies (is there a legit name for them?). They turned out pretty good, but the heat source in our oven comes from the top, so it was a lot more difficult than I expected.

Well, it's that time again. Week 6. I told President I'm treating this week like the 4th quarter of a crucial game. I wanna come out with the big win and say that I gave it my all. Got no idea what transfer call is gonna be like, so I'm expecting this to be my last week (as much as I'd love to stay here longer) and we'll see what happens Saturday night.

Hope you all enjoy Conference Weekend and I look forward to hearing about your favorite talks that I should look for in two weeks time!

Love you heaps,

Elder Muh

Kookaburra in our backyard

Zone Conference was on the 23rd, our intake's one year in Australia mark. Three of us are in the Newcastle North Zone (Sister Munoa, Elder Blake, and I) and Elder Ball is one of our Assistants