I have a nice life.

Missionary life is really nice. I'm happy.

It will be worth your time to read the entire email this week. :)

Interviews with President Lindley were last week. I'm feeling embarrassed about it. It was basically him asking me about my plans are for when I get home (I'm still very vague on what to do for the first year) and then saying "you know what your next great important work is, right?" If you haven't guessed, the important work I have to do next was marriage. The conversation was uncomfortable. Ha. Besides that, we made some goals for the end of my mission and he promised that I'd have wonderful experiences if I do these three things consistently: exercise in the morning for 30 minutes, search for the promises in Preach My Gospel, and outline at least one lesson every day with my companion during companion study. To Sister Erickson he gave specific study plans, including to memorize The Living Christ, so we pretty much had it memorized by the end of the next day. I love having projects to accomplish. We're still working on refining it, but we have it done.

We had a good day yesterday. It was for no specific reason, but we rode bikes (it hurt; it was hot) and talked to everyone we ran into, and found some potential investigators. Some guy was walking eating a sandwich from KFC and I really felt like scolding him because he thinks everything he has he got himself, and that he doesn't need anyone. I asked him where he got his sandwich, and how he got to work, and how he breathes, and how he was born. He does need people. He does need God. We also visited the mother of a less-active family (she told us some updates on the Australian Open. By the way, I'm pretty sure I saw Roger Federer play in Athens 2004. He was on one of the small courts. I was a few feet away from him. :) ) Anyway, we visited her and she hadn't had missionaries over for a few years. It's a really sad story--some of her children made some bad choices and some people reacted in a way that really disappointed them, so they chose not to come back for a while, but she still has such a pure testimony and the family lives all of the commandments that they can. I think we can help them, if they don't want to come to a church building yet, to reestablish gospel habits so they can be a stronger family and feel the influence of the Spirit.

We also saw Garren yesterday. (The one Sister Wakeley and I were teaching last year in Moorabbin, and he recognized us when we found him tracting here in Berwick...don't deny that that's a miracle!) I feel like he's MY investigator. He doesn't keep commitments too often, so it would be easy to just give up on him, but he loves our visits and I'm starting to see that what we're teaching him is becoming more a part of his life. We read the Living Christ with him because we suspected that next we need to find out if he has faith in Christ and we needed to help him get some. Tomorrow we're going to bring him a book, like a journal, where he can write about instances he has that help him understand that God really is there and really does help him, something as simple as seeing something beautiful or having an easy drive to work, or someone being helpful to him. Garren really responds to principles that help him understand his potential, both where he came from before he was born and what he can expect to become after. He said it's changing his perspective. It's just so nice to see him retain and ponder what we've taught. I love listening to him talk and hearing his ideas on life.

Oh yeah! News on Kaila! On Saturday we took her to a child-of-record baptism and afterwards our ward mission leader invited her to be baptised, that he'd love to baptise her because he'd baptised her mum, and Kaila accepted. She seems so happy now. She made invitations for her friends and family (including me--it was so cute). It's happening Sunday after church.

Kyle and Jenn--THANK YOU... that was the most amazing gift. I didn't have any idea that such footage even existed. I have shown my baptism DVD to Kaila and Jessica, two of my investigators, as well as the elders at district meeting. You were right--it is helping with the Lord's work. I was such an awkward kid (according to my perspective), but I knew what I was doing.

Sister Wakeley and I got to work together again on Monday. I went to her area for exchanges. I've always loved working in Dandenong. It's got to be the most multicultural area in the mission. We taught several families from Sudan, one guy from China who'd been in Australia for three days, some Croatians, a few Aussies, some Cambodians, the inevitable Indian. We found one new investigator, an old German man named Bill who really wanted to come to church. As we were about to leave, he said "you made my day" and I felt really humble and guilty for not always loving tracting. Selfish!

I really loved church on Sunday. I just sat in sacrament meeting and thought about how I appreciated all the members there. They're such strong examples. I called the Bishop that evening to find some information on the ward mission plan and was unprepared for all the jokes he made... on the list of plans is to help four families join the church, which he said was anywhere from 8 to 100,000 people. He wants us to find a family of 400 with 4 generations living under one roof. I said we'd have to find a Japanese family. So now he says he's expecting us to find the 4 Japanese families with 400 members each, hiding somewhere in the rural suburbs of Pakenham. He's a German guy whose parents live in my first area. They were the first members I met in Australia. The grandmother told me that evening I look like a stranger, then about a month later she said "you look no more stranger." I still felt a little stranger.

Here's Savanna's favourite missionary joke of the week:
(I'm sorry; not everyone will get it.)
I'll present it as a dialogue. The characters are me and my new zone leader, Elder Levin. He's from Provo. We were talking about patriarchal blessings.
Elder Levin: "I'm from the tribe of Judah."
Me, pointing, urgently: "Gather him!"
Elder Levin: "But I'm already gathered!"

And my favourite Australian joke of the week:
Sister Erickson and I, for some reason, were reading the dictionary.
"Be careful not to confuse FLOOR with FLAW"
In America the pronunciation isn't even close but I guess in Australia you have to be careful not to tell someone to wash the FLAW.

The end! Transfer news come in a week. I suspect Sister Erickson will be moved, but she thinks she's staying.

I'll be home in precisely three months from today.

Love you!
Savanna