The Revelation Room

Cheeeheee.  This week's been pretty packed.  Three trade-offs, Special Training, and Temple P-Day this morning.  We'll try to capture some moments.  

• Taught Rebecca and her son Kevin (recent converts) at Bishop’s house.  Focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of repeating it’s principles throughout our lives.  Kevin (9 years old) just started cooking bacon and eggs, so we likened it unto that.  Real fun.  
• Combined Special Training was good.  Talked about things we can do to help ourselves obedience wise, and also things we can do to help our investigators progress.  The Special Trainings go off of three zone regions: Harbour North/South, Penrith/Baulkham Hills/Hebersham, and Central Coast/Newcastle North and I realized that I’ve been all three, so that’s cool.  
• Went on trade-offs with this Assistants in Macquarie Uni, this time with Elder Bush.  He’s from LA, loves the Lakers and the Dodgers, and is very familiar with Monrovia.  We had a lot of fun working together, and had a cool revelation during our exchange evaluation, which included a door approach pattern, and also including “we help people to change” when speaking to people.
• Got to work with Elder Flake again in Minchinbury (Elder Dransfield became the designated driver this week - no particular reason, so it worked out).  They have some cool people they’re working with rn.  
• A few weeks ago with Elder Usua, we met this lady up in Springwood and got to follow up with her this weekend.  Unfortunately, she said she hasn’t convinced her husband yet…  But.  I feel like she’ll receive the Gospel one day.  
• Worked with Elder Alonzo, one of the Leura Elders yesterday.  He’s from the Phillipines and trained at Pacquiao’s gym for a bit.  Mean conversion story and fun to see how he works.  
• AND the temple.  I now know why it’s good to get their early.  Our bus arrived 30 minutes after it was scheduled to, so it was a bit rushed.  But it’s been a year and a few months since I’ve been to the temple and it felt great.  Had a few things stick out to me this time, and it just felt really peaceful all morning.

Mean.  Got work ahead of us!  

Love you's heaps.

Elder Muh

Elder Gualco

Elder Neiufi and I rockin' the same Connor tie (sorry, the one with his eyes open was heaps bright)

Elder Clark (Claremont Elder)

Elder Usua trying on Elder Dransfield's hat hahaha 

Steakhouse dinner with Elder Flake

Warrimoo or Warrimuh?

Trade-off with Elder Alonzo

The comp: Elder Dransfield

Look at our dab 

'Gator Hunt'in

We're on that search for happiness.  And also for people to teach who are looking for that happiness.  If any of you's need it, feel free to hit up the missionaries, cuz they will gladly share it with ya.  Man this week seemed to be much, much, much, more enjoyable than the past two.  We now have a decent amount of people to follow up on, and pray that we can begin teaching them soon.  

1.  Went on a trade off with Elder Usua this week and man it was fun.  I realized that 3 of my previous companions are in the Zone (him, Elder Kumar, and Elder Fake).  Pretty cool stuff.  Reminded as always of Alma 17:2.  Gotta love the brotherhood (and sisterhood) of the gospel.  

2.  Had dinner with the Aperaamo's, Uncle Kevin's cuz.  Mean fried rice and some sausages that low key tasted like Portuguese sausage.  Aloha and mahalo.  

3.  Met this dude tracting who is friends with the Halavaka's son on the mish.  Gave him a BofM.  Great stuff.  

4.  Potential investigators on fleek this week.  Also, met a DNV (do not visit) who wasn't actually a DNV.  

5.  Tracted into a Catholic guy who accepted a BofM, but wanted some time to study it, so our return appointment is July 1st (next transfer but all goods!)

Lots of pics this week, enjoy! 

Also, we got a TEMPLE P-DAY next week, so emails on Tuesday. 

Love you's heaps!

Elder Muh

Tip toe'in' in mah Jaaah'z

Meeean bus stop in Glenbrook 

Dessert at the Aperaamo's.  Used them won ton spoons for a little taste of home 

We found a poinsettia tree.  I guess they exist.  Christmas in May?!

Reppin' tha #808

Little lookout point at the bottom of a street we tracting 

Been wanting to take a picture with this like my whooole mish #mooo

Going

This is probably a very Aussie thing to say because we greet each other by saying "how you going?"  but in response right now, I think I'd say things are going, or it's going.  Very slowly, but we're going.  It's pretty easy to say that this is a hard area.  It's been known to be hard by the missionaries, and the members aren't really shy about that fact either.  They are quite stoked to have "the zonies" in their Ward, but it's put a lot of pressure on us to do well.  I think the stress has gotten to me a bit.

BUT.  There were a lot of positives to pull from this week and that's what I'm trying to focus on.  I think I might try this in future weeks as well to really simplify things.  

1. MLC was pretty mean.  As always, it's great to see the other missionaries.  It's also really exciting to meet with President and see him in a different setting.  You get the feeling that he really trusts us and just wants us to do all we can to help the missionaries we serve.

2. We had dinner with the Gollan family that same night.  They lived in Hawaii for a bit and have some ties there.  One of the dishes she made was sweet and sour meatballs and oh man it was heavenly.

3. There's a single mother recent convert in our Ward named Rebecca.  Her son Kevin was baptized a couple months ago.  Man she is so solid it's incredible.

4. There's only like two Poly fams here but all goods because the other fams are heaps cool as well.  One of the Polynesian fams, the Halavaka's bought us El Jiannah's this week #boizzz.  See picture below.

5. Got to go on trade-offs in Claremont this week.  The new Elders are Elder Ngatuvai and Elder Clark, who is being trained.  Elder Clark is Samoan born in NZ but from the Gold Coast in Queensland.  He is the man.  It was a pleasure to be back and awesome to serve with Elder Clark, who is open to learn and keen to smash the work.  

I think that's about it for this week.  I'll let the picture tell the rest of the story.  Happy Mother's Day to all the great madre's out there.  

Love you heaps!

Elder Muh

Literally like a kilo of chips.  Lebanese chicken with garlic dip, ohhh wow!

Elder Jung.  I came in with this brothah, so it was mean to be flat mates last transfer.  Unfortunately, he had to head home a few months early for ACL surgery, but I heard from him today and we're praying for the best.  Speedy recovery homie!  

Found some kangaroos today in Glenbrook.  And yes, there's a joey in mum's pouch.  Sooo cool.  

'll send this one too because kangaroos are legit

And yeah we hiked in proselyting clothes because #whynot

I really like this shot  #churchistrue

Elder Heu is up in Port Macquarie now, serving as a District Leader.  He sent me this one this week.  We balled up with Brother Jeffree here a few times.  

Up & Down the Mountain We Go

So the area isn't as big as I thought it was gonna be.  A lot of it is just the green on the map that needs to be covered by somebody.  But we have suburbs all over the mountain which I really like.  There's actually a lot of families that live in the suburbs up there which makes it pretty fun.  Also, since it's cool to talk about the weather, last night we got 12 degrees up in Blaxland, which is about 60 Fahrenheit.  When we hit 10 or below, I am gonna get so excited.  

Anyways.  We've been doing a lot of finding this week.  To be honest, this area's been kinda dry for a while, so it's gonna be tough for the next few weeks.  We went through the Area Book, hit the trains, and even tracted, which I feel like I haven't done for a long time.  Elder Dransfield's spent a lot of time up in the bush, so he actually prefers tracting.  Now we're just tryna get creative in our approach.  

Emu Plains Ward is one of the smaller one's in the Stake, but I think it'll be good for getting to know everyone quickly.  Some of the members are real keen to feed us too, so that'll help heaps.  We blessed the sacrament yesterday, which I don't think I've done since Taree.  And I think I witnessed the best Elder's Quorum lesson ever yesterday, simply because of how personal and thought out it was.  For those familiar with the jokes about High Priests Quorums, EQ's are pretty much exactly the same, just with younger dudes.  "Alright brethren, take out your manuals and turn to..."  The EQ President based his lesson on President Monson's Conference talk a few years back that's associated with the "Dare to Stand Alone" Mormon Message.  He posed the question "what do we stand for"?  And the participation was unreal.  

MLC and trainings this week, plus more finding.  Let's geeet it.  

Love you heaps!

Elder Muh

Sending off Elder Maea

Elder Lutovio on transfer Tuesday

This person didn't choose the right... 

Some Australia. houses have names.  I believe this one is "thank you's" 

Took me 19 months to find Chex in Oz

Terrible shot, but the leaves changing color up here yeee

And if you look out in the distance, you will see... The city! 

The comp: Elder Dransfield from Idaho

Time for Change

Well, it's been a pretty cool final week.  The big news is that the Zone Leader area is moving to Emu Plains (same Stake, area is about 20-30 minutes over, but we live in Penrith which is 10-15 minutes away).  We actually were given this news back in Week 3, so there were no surprises on the transfer call aside from who my new companion is, which is Elder Dransfield, from Idaho.  

It's been interesting because normally during Week 6, you start to transition and set things up for the following transfer.  Although we have been setting up, we had no idea who we were setting up for.  When you area gets "shotgunned", meaning both missionaries leave the area, you write up a Shotgun Report.  Usually, missionaries have a couple days to do so, so the report doesn't give much.  We've had much more notice, and have tried to put down everything we know about the people we're working with, so the transition will be smooth.  

We have good news to report with the Brybag Family, who have set a baptismal date for the 17th of June!  Their youngest son turns 8 the week before, and Sue has been saying all along she'd love to go with the whole family, so it's perfect.  We found out this week that she's going through the Book of Mormon for the second time now #wut.  Now it's all up to Gus!  He totally knows it's true.  Hopefully having his wife and two sons baptized as well with bring him confidence too.  

I got to work in Emu Plains this week with Elder Lutovio who is so fresh it's funny.  He often reminds me of Elder Young Yen.  The Emu Plains Ward is one of the smaller wards in the Stake, but it covers quite some ground.  The border runs near the base of the Blue Mountains, so it should be a bit colder than it is down in St. Mary's, which I am stoked for.  I've only been in Claremont for 6 weeks, but it'll be hard to leave behind everyone that we were working with.  Now that I've gained some finding confidence though, I'll need to apply it with Elder Dransfield so we can build up that teaching pool.  

Transfers tomorrow.  We got some good missionaries coming in, which I'm excited about.  Also, I'll be living with Elder Usua again (HAHA!). 

I apologize to everyone that I haven't replied to the past two weeks, we've had some busy P-Days.  I'll try my best to get to everyone next Monday.  

Love you's heaps!

Elder Muh

Rest of the pics from the Blue Mountains trek last week: planted some American flags out there. 

Final DTM this transfer