I don't want to write much today. I'm not bringing many things home, mostly treats. That way they won't become more stuff in the house, and food is more memorable anyway :)
We ran into this beautiful girl our age by her car who told us she's Muslim but her brother would want to talk to us, so we went and met him in the house, and he brought out this stack of books two feet high he's received from various people who have come proselyting--he has a Book of Mormon, good news Bible, a big red Bible, several other Bibles, a Bahai publication, etc. He gave each of us a Qu'ran, which I was really excited about because I've been wanting one for a few years now, and I was very inspired by his passion and reverence for his scripture. I think all missionaries should have such an experience near the start of their mission so they can incorporate such excitement into their speaking of the Book of Mormon.
Catherine told us this week she didn't want us to come anymore :( and John didn't come to church like he said, but he's still in the game.
People say that if you just say do it quickly like ripping off a band-aid, saying goodbye is easier. But this hurts a lot more than pulling off a band-aid. One less-active lady we've been visiting said she feels like she's losing a daughter, and Garren and John wanted hugs and I had to tell them no, and after my talk on Sunday Bishop Skibbe thanked me and my companions and told everyone we've been very committed sisters. (I sometimes wish I could see this myself; we often feel acutely our weaknesses and mistakes more frequently than what good we've done...) This beautiful little 3-year-old girl, daughter in a family we're teaching that is returning to church, the one who called me Mr. Mousen, glued some feathers and puffball things onto a page for me.
We've found a LOT of new investigators this week, which is what I wanted so I could leave the new sister that's coming in with lots of appointments and things to do so she'll be happy in the beginning of her mission (Sister Fangupo is training someone new). One is Anne, a lady from Vanuatu. When I saw her walking down the road I wasn't sure whether she was an Indian man, hehe, and it was tough to grab her, but we got an appointment and had a great lesson with a member on Friday night. The member was perfect--she's just what we've been hoping for. She invited Anne to church, and said she wanted her to come over for dinner, and asked if she could just stop by sometimes, and shared a very personal testimony of the Book of Mormon. Another new investigator is Daniel, son of Julie Fraser, the lady who believes Christ has visited other people around the world and who fought against our church being built here.
We're going to play roller hockey again (it was great fun... ummm... I'm not going to claim that I've discovered a hidden talent) today so it's time to go. I do want to say though my gratitude is bubbling over for this strange wonderful enchanting agonizing enabling experience I've had for the past year and a half in the Australia Melbourne (East) mission. My trainer, Sister Wang, wrote me from China last week and reminded me that I'll be connected to these people eternally. Having responsibility for their welfare has etched them into my heart... I guess I know a little what Christ meant when he said "I have engraven thee upon the palms of my hands" because I can feel that too. I know a little more how it works. I feel that I know my Saviour much better, and I know how to serve Him. I have received knowledge that no man can dispute about the truths of eternity, about the way God chooses prophets and gives them authority to teach us and allow us to make covenants. The prophets God calls, from Joseph Smith to Thomas Monson now, hold the key of power from God. God is our Father, our Heavenly Father, and there is no selfishness in him. He wants our happiness. These holy truths comfort the soul.
I'll see you in Denver on Wednesday afternoon!
I love you.
Sister Nilsen
Monday, April 21, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
one last week
I just found out I'll be speaking in church, reporting on my mission, in Longmont at 9 AM on 27 April, the building at the intersection of Alpine St and 17th Avenue, on Sunlight Dr or Red Cloud Rd or wherever it is. Come and see! :) :)
Hi, I'm going to write this fast because I just found out we're going to Dandenong to go roller skating, roller hockey to be specific. Ha, I had a dream a couple of days ago that I went roller skating. I'm preparing to be embarrassed. That's not new by now.
My last zone conference was so nice. Someone from the Church missionary department visited our mission recently and saw that we need more practice crying repentance. Our zone leaders, Elder Standley and Elder Levin, did a training and I was captivated. I didn't want them to stop talking. They did a role play where Elder Levin was the investigator, a man, Catholic, devoted to his family, and Elder Standley explained that what keeps families from being together forever is sin. It was so powerful because usually missionaries sit with the investigator and explain the steps of repentance, but this time there was some actual spiritual work going on because Elder Levin, even as a posing investigator, was actually making decisions to change. It was sooooo powerful and made me want to have an intense, deeply personal lesson with the people we're teaching. I also had to do my departing testimony, which took me by surprise. I knew I would do it, but when it was time, it felt so foreign.
Later that day we ran into a Swedish-Australian girl and I was looking forward to hearing a good Swedish name (because I feel part Swedish), but she said her name is really personal to her and she wouldn't tell us. Just after that we met Kim, an Aussie with an American accent, a mother with two small boys who's going through a divorce. Her husband moved in with someone else... she said she's at a time in her life when she'd be receptive to the message, so we're excited to get to know her.
We didn't get to teach John this week because his wife didn't want us to when her dad was staying with them. Arrrgh.
General Conference. I hope I will always remember standing with the Australian saints to sustain President Monson and the other General Authorities. Elder Holland fulfills my ultimate image of what a prophet is, and it was so nice to see Elder Bednar speak after meeting him last month and knowing him a little more personally. He repeated teachings I'd thought he'd told only to us. :) . General Conference always refreshes my spirit. I wish it happened every three months. Nikki, Nakia, and Hailey came to the Sunday afternoon session. We didn't think we'd had any investigators attend, which was really disappointing since there were 4 sessions we could have had people at, but as we walked out, a cheerful little blonde person with two long braids had her little arms around me. It was such a happy moment.
So, that's it for now. I will probably write again next Monday for my last time.
See you next week!
Sister Nilsen
Hi, I'm going to write this fast because I just found out we're going to Dandenong to go roller skating, roller hockey to be specific. Ha, I had a dream a couple of days ago that I went roller skating. I'm preparing to be embarrassed. That's not new by now.
My last zone conference was so nice. Someone from the Church missionary department visited our mission recently and saw that we need more practice crying repentance. Our zone leaders, Elder Standley and Elder Levin, did a training and I was captivated. I didn't want them to stop talking. They did a role play where Elder Levin was the investigator, a man, Catholic, devoted to his family, and Elder Standley explained that what keeps families from being together forever is sin. It was so powerful because usually missionaries sit with the investigator and explain the steps of repentance, but this time there was some actual spiritual work going on because Elder Levin, even as a posing investigator, was actually making decisions to change. It was sooooo powerful and made me want to have an intense, deeply personal lesson with the people we're teaching. I also had to do my departing testimony, which took me by surprise. I knew I would do it, but when it was time, it felt so foreign.
Later that day we ran into a Swedish-Australian girl and I was looking forward to hearing a good Swedish name (because I feel part Swedish), but she said her name is really personal to her and she wouldn't tell us. Just after that we met Kim, an Aussie with an American accent, a mother with two small boys who's going through a divorce. Her husband moved in with someone else... she said she's at a time in her life when she'd be receptive to the message, so we're excited to get to know her.
We didn't get to teach John this week because his wife didn't want us to when her dad was staying with them. Arrrgh.
General Conference. I hope I will always remember standing with the Australian saints to sustain President Monson and the other General Authorities. Elder Holland fulfills my ultimate image of what a prophet is, and it was so nice to see Elder Bednar speak after meeting him last month and knowing him a little more personally. He repeated teachings I'd thought he'd told only to us. :) . General Conference always refreshes my spirit. I wish it happened every three months. Nikki, Nakia, and Hailey came to the Sunday afternoon session. We didn't think we'd had any investigators attend, which was really disappointing since there were 4 sessions we could have had people at, but as we walked out, a cheerful little blonde person with two long braids had her little arms around me. It was such a happy moment.
So, that's it for now. I will probably write again next Monday for my last time.
See you next week!
Sister Nilsen
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
sometimes the ups outnumber the downs
On a mission you don't have time to breathe, by the way.
I appreciate so much the responses I get to what I write. My emails are so personal and often revealing and sometimes I feel hesitant to share things that may not mean as much to someone else as they do to me. So thanks.
Let's just walk through the week.
Thursday we watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD with Catherine--from Chile but verrrrry Australianised--and her four children. Children are so lovely and trusting. I think I'll need to watch that DVD every week for the next 40 years. It's so comforting.
If all Church members were like Dieter Lawrenz, an old German convert in the ward, every member and most nonmembers would be looked after. He came with us to visit Steve Farrell, the recovering alcoholic who lives in a shed in someone's backyard and plays the limbo song, who wasn't up to a lesson, and who hadn't read his chapters. But that didn't deter Dieter; he proclaimed we must keep working with him and he is a child of God with a few problems. It was such a relief... sometimes I get protective of my investigators because of some peoples' reactions to them, but I don't need to worry about that with Brother Lawrenz!
Thursday we were meant to have dinner with an American couple who moved to Australia soon after their marriage 50 years ago. She's a member; he's not. She wasn't feeling well so he wanted to meet us at Hungry Jack's (this means Burger King). He'd made it clear that he didn't require a lesson at every visit so we just sat and talked to him about his life and experience as a peacetime naval radio operator, and I tried to remember anything about the battle of Coral Sea that I did a paper on a few year ago so we'd have more to talk about. On Saturday we learned from Joy, the wife, that he'd had a great time--he's terrified of missionaries, and this visit helped soothe his fears.
Did I mention that I saw some camels in a field, as well as my first wild kangaroo, a couple of weeks ago? Oh, and we met a less-active member with some Scottish deerhounds, these beautiful, gentle, mystical-looking dogs. Their uncle was in the latest Harry Potter movie. I don't know what's wrong with me. I used to not like dogs at all but now I would kind of like one. The only problem is all the breeds I like happen to be Australian rancher herding dogs and they would be bored in suburbia. (I don't blame them.) Anyway.
Funny quote of the week: "I thought Canada was like on top of Russia." --a teenage less-active girl after I drew her a map of the US to show her where I live :)
We taught John Romero on Friday night, FINALLY, and brought up some questions of the soul--does God answer prayers? What does God expect of us? and tried to help him recognise the answers he's already received, and invited him, again, to be baptised, to take a leap of faith like in Indiana Jones when Indie thinks he's going to fall into that crevasse but the pathway is there. We think he'll have stronger spiritual experiences and really feel his answer once he makes a decision and takes a step toward it. John said "no, not yet," and assured us he'd be at church but he WASN'T. Sunday was a hard day. We'll get to that.
On Saturday the ward had an activity for the whole family called "afternoon tea with a bushranger" about family history with ancestors' food and costume, and it was a little disappointing because 1) not many members came 2) the Steele family didn't come, but Russ came (that American man discussed earlier) and we felt like we were there for him. We ate Joy's amazing peanut butter brown sugar fudge. We watched a video presentation about the new familysearch.org and I am feeling SO inspired and excited about family history...haha. Really though, the new system is powerful and I'm beginning to understand what that guy meant a couple months ago who said "Mormons are the most powerful people in the world... because of their family history database. Knowledge is power." I laughed a little but now I think so too. I think it would be a cool profession to specialise in a certain type of family history, like Scandanavian or African-American. Detective work + travel + making people happy. Sounds nice, but I don't know if I could do it.
We saw Jay Pilai and his wife on Saturday evening. Usually our visits are pretty dramatic and frustrating, with him asking us seemingly innocent questions but then citing scripture theatrically to illustrate our error. This visit was nice though, and I have a new strategy to avoid conflict: "oh, good question, you should look for the answer in the Bible." Last night he asked some questions, and listened, and found that he is theatrical in other ways, like in imitating a black preacher he once saw. Anyway, we hope he comes to Conference this weekend. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!
So, Sunday was hard. It was April 6 and fast Sunday and we were expecting big things, but then George Steele, father of our dream family, called to cancel our appointment for that day and future visits, and we felt so devastated. They might still come to conference though and want to see the chapel. Huge disappointment. Then throughout the day we ran into people and had unpleasant experiences, like this lady explaining what she believes about reincarnation then suddenly going into a storm: "why are you looking at me like that? that's really annoying!" and stomped off. I felt so bad because I was just trying to listen to her. John didn't come to church. Then for the beginning of the testimony part Bishop spoke and I noticed tears coming out of MY eyes unexpectedly, and they didn't stop, and Sister Carabajal hugged me and gave me a tissue, and made it worse. I didn't expect to get so emotional for my second-to-last sacrament meeting. Then we didn't have an invite for dinner. Again. :)
Monday was GREAT though. We took the Pereira girls with us to an appointment with Kodge, and we had so much fun. We went to contact a different new investigator, but she wasn't there, but this intelligent funny vibrant 22-year-old Philipina was there and invited herself to be taught.
gotta go!
Savanna
I appreciate so much the responses I get to what I write. My emails are so personal and often revealing and sometimes I feel hesitant to share things that may not mean as much to someone else as they do to me. So thanks.
Let's just walk through the week.
Thursday we watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD with Catherine--from Chile but verrrrry Australianised--and her four children. Children are so lovely and trusting. I think I'll need to watch that DVD every week for the next 40 years. It's so comforting.
If all Church members were like Dieter Lawrenz, an old German convert in the ward, every member and most nonmembers would be looked after. He came with us to visit Steve Farrell, the recovering alcoholic who lives in a shed in someone's backyard and plays the limbo song, who wasn't up to a lesson, and who hadn't read his chapters. But that didn't deter Dieter; he proclaimed we must keep working with him and he is a child of God with a few problems. It was such a relief... sometimes I get protective of my investigators because of some peoples' reactions to them, but I don't need to worry about that with Brother Lawrenz!
Thursday we were meant to have dinner with an American couple who moved to Australia soon after their marriage 50 years ago. She's a member; he's not. She wasn't feeling well so he wanted to meet us at Hungry Jack's (this means Burger King). He'd made it clear that he didn't require a lesson at every visit so we just sat and talked to him about his life and experience as a peacetime naval radio operator, and I tried to remember anything about the battle of Coral Sea that I did a paper on a few year ago so we'd have more to talk about. On Saturday we learned from Joy, the wife, that he'd had a great time--he's terrified of missionaries, and this visit helped soothe his fears.
Did I mention that I saw some camels in a field, as well as my first wild kangaroo, a couple of weeks ago? Oh, and we met a less-active member with some Scottish deerhounds, these beautiful, gentle, mystical-looking dogs. Their uncle was in the latest Harry Potter movie. I don't know what's wrong with me. I used to not like dogs at all but now I would kind of like one. The only problem is all the breeds I like happen to be Australian rancher herding dogs and they would be bored in suburbia. (I don't blame them.) Anyway.
Funny quote of the week: "I thought Canada was like on top of Russia." --a teenage less-active girl after I drew her a map of the US to show her where I live :)
We taught John Romero on Friday night, FINALLY, and brought up some questions of the soul--does God answer prayers? What does God expect of us? and tried to help him recognise the answers he's already received, and invited him, again, to be baptised, to take a leap of faith like in Indiana Jones when Indie thinks he's going to fall into that crevasse but the pathway is there. We think he'll have stronger spiritual experiences and really feel his answer once he makes a decision and takes a step toward it. John said "no, not yet," and assured us he'd be at church but he WASN'T. Sunday was a hard day. We'll get to that.
On Saturday the ward had an activity for the whole family called "afternoon tea with a bushranger" about family history with ancestors' food and costume, and it was a little disappointing because 1) not many members came 2) the Steele family didn't come, but Russ came (that American man discussed earlier) and we felt like we were there for him. We ate Joy's amazing peanut butter brown sugar fudge. We watched a video presentation about the new familysearch.org and I am feeling SO inspired and excited about family history...haha. Really though, the new system is powerful and I'm beginning to understand what that guy meant a couple months ago who said "Mormons are the most powerful people in the world... because of their family history database. Knowledge is power." I laughed a little but now I think so too. I think it would be a cool profession to specialise in a certain type of family history, like Scandanavian or African-American. Detective work + travel + making people happy. Sounds nice, but I don't know if I could do it.
We saw Jay Pilai and his wife on Saturday evening. Usually our visits are pretty dramatic and frustrating, with him asking us seemingly innocent questions but then citing scripture theatrically to illustrate our error. This visit was nice though, and I have a new strategy to avoid conflict: "oh, good question, you should look for the answer in the Bible." Last night he asked some questions, and listened, and found that he is theatrical in other ways, like in imitating a black preacher he once saw. Anyway, we hope he comes to Conference this weekend. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!
So, Sunday was hard. It was April 6 and fast Sunday and we were expecting big things, but then George Steele, father of our dream family, called to cancel our appointment for that day and future visits, and we felt so devastated. They might still come to conference though and want to see the chapel. Huge disappointment. Then throughout the day we ran into people and had unpleasant experiences, like this lady explaining what she believes about reincarnation then suddenly going into a storm: "why are you looking at me like that? that's really annoying!" and stomped off. I felt so bad because I was just trying to listen to her. John didn't come to church. Then for the beginning of the testimony part Bishop spoke and I noticed tears coming out of MY eyes unexpectedly, and they didn't stop, and Sister Carabajal hugged me and gave me a tissue, and made it worse. I didn't expect to get so emotional for my second-to-last sacrament meeting. Then we didn't have an invite for dinner. Again. :)
Monday was GREAT though. We took the Pereira girls with us to an appointment with Kodge, and we had so much fun. We went to contact a different new investigator, but she wasn't there, but this intelligent funny vibrant 22-year-old Philipina was there and invited herself to be taught.
gotta go!
Savanna
Thursday, April 3, 2008
there's a storm a-brewin
The weather is so weird today. So windy. We've seen tree branches everywhere on the road. The power went out in Moorabbin and this factory outlet I've been planning to go to there for months, and finally got permission to go there, was closed and a bunch of unhappy women were sitting in the chairs just inside the entry. :)
Today we and the Dandenong sisters, Sister Wakeley my old companion and Sister Melendez from the Phillipines went to have lunch with Richard and Jackie and say "see ya sometime" to them. It was so sad. I was doing fine but then Jackie had to go and he asked me for a hug and I couldn't give him one and then I realised that saying goodbye to everyone and this mission and this land is going to be really difficult. I hope to see them again in China or in America someday soon-ish. They make the best food, by the way. Wow.
We found this wonderful family--I think I may have written about them last week. The Steele family. The father, George, requested a Lamb of God DVD for his children and we had a great conversation with them. They have this amazing, beautiful 9-year-old daughter Stephanie. She's just enchanting. We brought over a children's Book of Mormon stories and she read aloud to us the first chapter, the story of Joseph Smith and how we got the Book of Mormon. I asked her to tell the story to us in her own words and she gave this beautiful, detailed recitation of the whole thing. Her father was astonished. I then asked her how she felt while she was telling me the story and she said simply "I feel that it is true." How powerful is that, for a father who's just being introduced to these ideas to see his daughter do that.
There's this less-active family here who once were very strong members but some tragic things happened to them and they didn't do very well in coping with it all and they feel unwanted and jaded... they have three children who haven't been baptised yet. We were assigned by the ward leadership to visit her and just help her find strength, so we gave her a project, to read 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon we selected for her and then write a one-page summary on the Atonement. I wish I could express how I feel toward her, but I can't. I just want for her to find the healing she's looking for. Our next project for her is going to be to make a scrapbook page of her testimony, because she's a super-scrapbooker and we think that would be the most personalised way for her to review who she is and what means the most to her.
John Romero came to church on Sunday with his son Adrian, so things are looking up for them again. We went and saw Steve on Tuesday and gave him a Book of Mormon (Steve is the alcoholic man who lives in a shed in a guy's backyard) and he is so cool. He's like "Maaaaaaate, you can't go! You have to stay in Australia." I'm glad at least someone wants me to stay.
Yesterday we were walking around in Pakenham and ran into this lady. She's between 18 and 27. Vague, I know. Rachel. She was wearing a purple beanie and purple pants. It was a pretty cool day. She'd heard about our church and our book from her church. It was evident that she was very nervous to be talking to us because her voice was just shaking, but she was doing well at still being confident. It was also evident that she thought we were very mistaken and very misled, because she asked to pray for us. Just before she did, I shared with her my personal experience of seeing one of the original copies of the Book of Mormon and how I knew so deeply that it was true, and there is only goodness in its pages. (this was strategic) She prayed right there with us, and it was actually quite sweet. She felt responsibility for us as we did for her. The whole conversation I had a prayer in my heart that she would feel our love for her and that she wouldn't feel the need to be so nervous. After her prayer she said, I asked if I could give her a hug, and I did and Sister Fangupo did. Rachel took a Book of Mormon and walked away. Sister Fangupo told me she'd had the same idea, to give her a hug, so I know it was inspired. I just wanted her to feel loved, and not intimidated, and that she didn't have to be scared. It is a strange story to relate, but it was a powerful experience for me. I can't believe still that I can have feelings of love for people whom I don't even know, or even for people who are rude to me, or for people that mock us. It's hard sometimes but sometimes it works.
Another small victory yesterday: we ran into this proclaimed atheist, and I perceived throughout our conversation, which was mostly him acting as if we are fools for believing something we can't see, that he really wanted to believe in God but just couldn't find it within himself to believe. He did finally listen to one of my explanations: you are a physical person, and you are a spiritual person. You need physical evidence to learn physical things. You learn by sight, touch, hearing, by reading, by someone else who knows. You learn spiritual information only in spiritual ways. It was another conversation that would have been very difficult without the gift of charity which I know didn't come from me, but which was actually rewarding and easy when accompanied by concern for his welfare and peace.
It's time to go.
thanks for reading.
I look forward to seeing you!!!!!
Love
Sister Savanna
Today we and the Dandenong sisters, Sister Wakeley my old companion and Sister Melendez from the Phillipines went to have lunch with Richard and Jackie and say "see ya sometime" to them. It was so sad. I was doing fine but then Jackie had to go and he asked me for a hug and I couldn't give him one and then I realised that saying goodbye to everyone and this mission and this land is going to be really difficult. I hope to see them again in China or in America someday soon-ish. They make the best food, by the way. Wow.
We found this wonderful family--I think I may have written about them last week. The Steele family. The father, George, requested a Lamb of God DVD for his children and we had a great conversation with them. They have this amazing, beautiful 9-year-old daughter Stephanie. She's just enchanting. We brought over a children's Book of Mormon stories and she read aloud to us the first chapter, the story of Joseph Smith and how we got the Book of Mormon. I asked her to tell the story to us in her own words and she gave this beautiful, detailed recitation of the whole thing. Her father was astonished. I then asked her how she felt while she was telling me the story and she said simply "I feel that it is true." How powerful is that, for a father who's just being introduced to these ideas to see his daughter do that.
There's this less-active family here who once were very strong members but some tragic things happened to them and they didn't do very well in coping with it all and they feel unwanted and jaded... they have three children who haven't been baptised yet. We were assigned by the ward leadership to visit her and just help her find strength, so we gave her a project, to read 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon we selected for her and then write a one-page summary on the Atonement. I wish I could express how I feel toward her, but I can't. I just want for her to find the healing she's looking for. Our next project for her is going to be to make a scrapbook page of her testimony, because she's a super-scrapbooker and we think that would be the most personalised way for her to review who she is and what means the most to her.
John Romero came to church on Sunday with his son Adrian, so things are looking up for them again. We went and saw Steve on Tuesday and gave him a Book of Mormon (Steve is the alcoholic man who lives in a shed in a guy's backyard) and he is so cool. He's like "Maaaaaaate, you can't go! You have to stay in Australia." I'm glad at least someone wants me to stay.
Yesterday we were walking around in Pakenham and ran into this lady. She's between 18 and 27. Vague, I know. Rachel. She was wearing a purple beanie and purple pants. It was a pretty cool day. She'd heard about our church and our book from her church. It was evident that she was very nervous to be talking to us because her voice was just shaking, but she was doing well at still being confident. It was also evident that she thought we were very mistaken and very misled, because she asked to pray for us. Just before she did, I shared with her my personal experience of seeing one of the original copies of the Book of Mormon and how I knew so deeply that it was true, and there is only goodness in its pages. (this was strategic) She prayed right there with us, and it was actually quite sweet. She felt responsibility for us as we did for her. The whole conversation I had a prayer in my heart that she would feel our love for her and that she wouldn't feel the need to be so nervous. After her prayer she said, I asked if I could give her a hug, and I did and Sister Fangupo did. Rachel took a Book of Mormon and walked away. Sister Fangupo told me she'd had the same idea, to give her a hug, so I know it was inspired. I just wanted her to feel loved, and not intimidated, and that she didn't have to be scared. It is a strange story to relate, but it was a powerful experience for me. I can't believe still that I can have feelings of love for people whom I don't even know, or even for people who are rude to me, or for people that mock us. It's hard sometimes but sometimes it works.
Another small victory yesterday: we ran into this proclaimed atheist, and I perceived throughout our conversation, which was mostly him acting as if we are fools for believing something we can't see, that he really wanted to believe in God but just couldn't find it within himself to believe. He did finally listen to one of my explanations: you are a physical person, and you are a spiritual person. You need physical evidence to learn physical things. You learn by sight, touch, hearing, by reading, by someone else who knows. You learn spiritual information only in spiritual ways. It was another conversation that would have been very difficult without the gift of charity which I know didn't come from me, but which was actually rewarding and easy when accompanied by concern for his welfare and peace.
It's time to go.
thanks for reading.
I look forward to seeing you!!!!!
Love
Sister Savanna
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
this week
Maybe if I just write about yesterday it will be a good enough email.
After district meeting, Sister Fangupo and I took the train out to Pakenham and had a strange, fun day. Just outside the station, we met a guy who was drinking in a park pondering on his life and had a nice talk with him and promised him that if he kept the commitments we'd ask him to make, he would be able to overcome his problems and be a better father and give up alcohol...he said he'd be willing to do anything for his kids because he loves them so much. We contacted a former investigator who wasn't interested and asked for referrals. He said "Steve wouldn't be interested. He's an alcoholic. He's hard to talk to" We said "who's Steve?!?!?!" and went to meet him--he was living in a shed in Lawrence's backyard. He was actually really nice and wanted us to come back later. As we left his house, we heard Steve playing the limbo song. So hilarious.
Then we saw another former investigator who said he receives communcation from the holy spirit and records it on a tape and that he knows where God lives.
We went to visit a former member that President Lindley had met and asked us to visit. He has concerns about the origin of the Book of Mormon. It was very strange. He got angry and offended about our mission rule that we couldn't come in with just us two, and then the conversation was a little normal and he asked us to send some elders, who could come in. I was addressing his concern about who wrote the Book of Mormon, and I said something that I never would have expected would offend anyone: "no one has ever proven the Book of Mormon is false," trying to say that you can't prove its authenticity in any way other than reading it and praying about it, but I didn't get to that because he got angry and said "no one has ever proven it is true either! Don't ever come back!" Strange.
We went to the train station to catch the 8:13 train and got the 8:11 instead... after a few minutes, we looked around. "This train is really nice... it's going pretty fast... is it an express? it's not stopping at any stations... there goes the Berwick station... there goes our car... there goes the Narre Warren station..." ha, it was a train into the city, and we're defintely not allowed there because it's out of our boundaries. The train stopped in Dandenong and we got a late walk around downtown. So funny.
I have about a minute left.
Cameron dropped us.
We've been doing a LOT of finding lately, and have gotten several new investigators. I realised yesterday that sometimes Heavenly Father sends missionaries to people who just need love, even if they aren't ready for the gospel. He cares even if we have a hard day.
BYE
Sister Nilsen
After district meeting, Sister Fangupo and I took the train out to Pakenham and had a strange, fun day. Just outside the station, we met a guy who was drinking in a park pondering on his life and had a nice talk with him and promised him that if he kept the commitments we'd ask him to make, he would be able to overcome his problems and be a better father and give up alcohol...he said he'd be willing to do anything for his kids because he loves them so much. We contacted a former investigator who wasn't interested and asked for referrals. He said "Steve wouldn't be interested. He's an alcoholic. He's hard to talk to" We said "who's Steve?!?!?!" and went to meet him--he was living in a shed in Lawrence's backyard. He was actually really nice and wanted us to come back later. As we left his house, we heard Steve playing the limbo song. So hilarious.
Then we saw another former investigator who said he receives communcation from the holy spirit and records it on a tape and that he knows where God lives.
We went to visit a former member that President Lindley had met and asked us to visit. He has concerns about the origin of the Book of Mormon. It was very strange. He got angry and offended about our mission rule that we couldn't come in with just us two, and then the conversation was a little normal and he asked us to send some elders, who could come in. I was addressing his concern about who wrote the Book of Mormon, and I said something that I never would have expected would offend anyone: "no one has ever proven the Book of Mormon is false," trying to say that you can't prove its authenticity in any way other than reading it and praying about it, but I didn't get to that because he got angry and said "no one has ever proven it is true either! Don't ever come back!" Strange.
We went to the train station to catch the 8:13 train and got the 8:11 instead... after a few minutes, we looked around. "This train is really nice... it's going pretty fast... is it an express? it's not stopping at any stations... there goes the Berwick station... there goes our car... there goes the Narre Warren station..." ha, it was a train into the city, and we're defintely not allowed there because it's out of our boundaries. The train stopped in Dandenong and we got a late walk around downtown. So funny.
I have about a minute left.
Cameron dropped us.
We've been doing a LOT of finding lately, and have gotten several new investigators. I realised yesterday that sometimes Heavenly Father sends missionaries to people who just need love, even if they aren't ready for the gospel. He cares even if we have a hard day.
BYE
Sister Nilsen
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Elder Bednar came!
Hi, this email won't be as organised because I didn't write my customary list of things to address in my planner.
Transfers! For five more weeks I'm with Sister Fangupo, from Wollongong, New South Wales. An hour south of Sydney on the coast. She's not far from home. She's a tall, fast Tongan Australian. In other words, she's my physical opposite. :) I feel like I've been exercising for the past week. She has a strong personality and character--all the sisters in the mission do. If missionaries were princesses, she'd be Xena the Warrior Princess. I told her that last night when I was supposed to be going to sleep and we cracked up. She's tall, dark, and fearless. And she has a short blonde sidekick. I think I would be Belle from Beauty and the Beast--"with a dreamy, far-off look and her nose stuck in a book." Belle sometimes tells off Beasts and likes to work by melting hearts. It's going to be a good final transfer.
Anyway.
Elder Bednar came to visit our mission, and it was a lot different to how I thought it was going to be. It was verrrry interactive. He is SO confident and has a great sense of humour. He wanted us to learn how to learn, and to learn how to help others learn. "We are not in the business of dispensing fish," he said when relating this teaching style to the proverb "give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime." His most important lesson was that you cannot learn independent of acting. Remember in the Doctrine and Covenants, it says seek learning by study and also by faith? Joseph Smith said that "faith is the principle of action and of power in all intelligent beings." Which means if you're going to learn by faith, you're going to have to learn by taking action and then feeling that it's true. As the last hour or so of his visit, he invited us to ask questions and said that a good question is prompted by the Holy Ghost and suited particularly to the experience of the person you're asking... so don't ask weird questions, in other words, because you won't get much out of it. I asked him a question, and was the only sister missionary to do so. I won't write what my question was right now, because it was very personal for me. But as part of his response he said that he's disappointed when people continually refer back to their missions for their best spiritual experiences ten years after they finish. He said to always have a current strengthening experience.
At an Australia-wide broadcast, Elder Bednar gave some advice for marriages. I'm not married, I hope, but I think it's so valuable for any human relationship. He quoted the Proclamation on the Family, saying "gender is an essential part of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose." A male spirit and a female spirit were created to have eternal differences. We should not try to minimize these differences nor resent them, but see how the two genders complement or complete each other. Each has capabilities and a nature that the other doesn't have. I guess that means to celebrate the differences. I guess it also means that one cannot be complete or perfect without the other.
I love meeting interesting people. While eating lunch in the park the other day, a Mr. Peter Weare came to the rotunda we were under measuring for a wireless security camera. He engineered the clock tower in the park and it keeps getting vandalised. He was born in the UK in 1941 and remembers the air raids. He worked as a district nurse but somehow got introduced to model trains or something and found that he was a natural engineer. Then he got his pilot's license and was introduced to helicopters. He found some new genius way to install and remove equipment quickly. Now he's an artist. He doesn't believe in God but loves learning about what others believe and was hesitant to take a Book of Mormon that he wouldn't believe in, but I told him I'd be honoured to give him a copy. And he was similarly honoured.
We're teaching an 18-year-old Sri Lankan Hindu (his language group is an ethnic minority there) named Kodge. We took him on a chapel tour on Monday and it was such a good experience. His parents asked him what we're doing and he assured them he wasn't planning on converting. I think he's a little conflicted because he keeps all his commitments and wants us to keep teaching him. I wonder if he wonders why he keeps meeting with us.
Andrew and Jessica (Andrew's a recently reactivated member; Jessica's not a member. She's Fiji Indian like Sister Kumar. We've gotten to know them quite well.) had their baby, Katelin, a few days ago. She's so beautiful. It was hard to not be able to hold her! Nikki was meant to have had her baby as well yesterday.
We went to do an endowment session at the temple this morning and I did one of Sister Lindley's family names. I chose one from Norway. Both Sister Lindley and I have a lot of Scandinavian heritage. :)
Yesterday we went on a trek with Bishop Skibbe to teach a lady who's been less active for 42 years! She's been getting letters from a lady in the ward for years but has never responded. She feels she has a calling to return to church, but she isn't sure. Her town is an hour away, a little country town, and she and her husband constructed their house out of mud bricks they made themselves and timbers from an abandoned bridge. On the way over we noticed it was her birthday the next day so we stopped and bought some gifts and she was so appreciative. Cherie still remembers everything about church from 42 years ago when she joined and was very involved for a few years. Her husband said he's not interested in the Church, but he's very interested in family history, so we reckon that's the path to softening his heart.
Our investigators have been slipping away a little. We taught a great lesson to Cameron, friend of the Pereiras, on Monday night. We invited him to attend Ken Russell's baptism (an investigator of mine from the Frankston area) and he said he just wants to stick to the reading for now. Poor guy, he probably thought we were inviting him to HIS baptism. We have a few appointments with new people over the next few days though, and I think it's only fair that I should expect some great miracle to occur during my last transfer. Even if the miracle is just that I survive the heat. (This has been the hottest March on record. It's been 39 degrees or hotter the past week, which is over 100 Fahrenheit.)
Okay, I think I need to go home and get a little rest. No rest for the weary! Ciao, please write... and maybe this isn't fair but sorry I haven't been able to write back. Love you heaps! (to use an Aussie word)
Bye.
Sister Nilsen
Transfers! For five more weeks I'm with Sister Fangupo, from Wollongong, New South Wales. An hour south of Sydney on the coast. She's not far from home. She's a tall, fast Tongan Australian. In other words, she's my physical opposite. :) I feel like I've been exercising for the past week. She has a strong personality and character--all the sisters in the mission do. If missionaries were princesses, she'd be Xena the Warrior Princess. I told her that last night when I was supposed to be going to sleep and we cracked up. She's tall, dark, and fearless. And she has a short blonde sidekick. I think I would be Belle from Beauty and the Beast--"with a dreamy, far-off look and her nose stuck in a book." Belle sometimes tells off Beasts and likes to work by melting hearts. It's going to be a good final transfer.
Anyway.
Elder Bednar came to visit our mission, and it was a lot different to how I thought it was going to be. It was verrrry interactive. He is SO confident and has a great sense of humour. He wanted us to learn how to learn, and to learn how to help others learn. "We are not in the business of dispensing fish," he said when relating this teaching style to the proverb "give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime." His most important lesson was that you cannot learn independent of acting. Remember in the Doctrine and Covenants, it says seek learning by study and also by faith? Joseph Smith said that "faith is the principle of action and of power in all intelligent beings." Which means if you're going to learn by faith, you're going to have to learn by taking action and then feeling that it's true. As the last hour or so of his visit, he invited us to ask questions and said that a good question is prompted by the Holy Ghost and suited particularly to the experience of the person you're asking... so don't ask weird questions, in other words, because you won't get much out of it. I asked him a question, and was the only sister missionary to do so. I won't write what my question was right now, because it was very personal for me. But as part of his response he said that he's disappointed when people continually refer back to their missions for their best spiritual experiences ten years after they finish. He said to always have a current strengthening experience.
At an Australia-wide broadcast, Elder Bednar gave some advice for marriages. I'm not married, I hope, but I think it's so valuable for any human relationship. He quoted the Proclamation on the Family, saying "gender is an essential part of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose." A male spirit and a female spirit were created to have eternal differences. We should not try to minimize these differences nor resent them, but see how the two genders complement or complete each other. Each has capabilities and a nature that the other doesn't have. I guess that means to celebrate the differences. I guess it also means that one cannot be complete or perfect without the other.
I love meeting interesting people. While eating lunch in the park the other day, a Mr. Peter Weare came to the rotunda we were under measuring for a wireless security camera. He engineered the clock tower in the park and it keeps getting vandalised. He was born in the UK in 1941 and remembers the air raids. He worked as a district nurse but somehow got introduced to model trains or something and found that he was a natural engineer. Then he got his pilot's license and was introduced to helicopters. He found some new genius way to install and remove equipment quickly. Now he's an artist. He doesn't believe in God but loves learning about what others believe and was hesitant to take a Book of Mormon that he wouldn't believe in, but I told him I'd be honoured to give him a copy. And he was similarly honoured.
We're teaching an 18-year-old Sri Lankan Hindu (his language group is an ethnic minority there) named Kodge. We took him on a chapel tour on Monday and it was such a good experience. His parents asked him what we're doing and he assured them he wasn't planning on converting. I think he's a little conflicted because he keeps all his commitments and wants us to keep teaching him. I wonder if he wonders why he keeps meeting with us.
Andrew and Jessica (Andrew's a recently reactivated member; Jessica's not a member. She's Fiji Indian like Sister Kumar. We've gotten to know them quite well.) had their baby, Katelin, a few days ago. She's so beautiful. It was hard to not be able to hold her! Nikki was meant to have had her baby as well yesterday.
We went to do an endowment session at the temple this morning and I did one of Sister Lindley's family names. I chose one from Norway. Both Sister Lindley and I have a lot of Scandinavian heritage. :)
Yesterday we went on a trek with Bishop Skibbe to teach a lady who's been less active for 42 years! She's been getting letters from a lady in the ward for years but has never responded. She feels she has a calling to return to church, but she isn't sure. Her town is an hour away, a little country town, and she and her husband constructed their house out of mud bricks they made themselves and timbers from an abandoned bridge. On the way over we noticed it was her birthday the next day so we stopped and bought some gifts and she was so appreciative. Cherie still remembers everything about church from 42 years ago when she joined and was very involved for a few years. Her husband said he's not interested in the Church, but he's very interested in family history, so we reckon that's the path to softening his heart.
Our investigators have been slipping away a little. We taught a great lesson to Cameron, friend of the Pereiras, on Monday night. We invited him to attend Ken Russell's baptism (an investigator of mine from the Frankston area) and he said he just wants to stick to the reading for now. Poor guy, he probably thought we were inviting him to HIS baptism. We have a few appointments with new people over the next few days though, and I think it's only fair that I should expect some great miracle to occur during my last transfer. Even if the miracle is just that I survive the heat. (This has been the hottest March on record. It's been 39 degrees or hotter the past week, which is over 100 Fahrenheit.)
Okay, I think I need to go home and get a little rest. No rest for the weary! Ciao, please write... and maybe this isn't fair but sorry I haven't been able to write back. Love you heaps! (to use an Aussie word)
Bye.
Sister Nilsen
Thursday, March 13, 2008
the Rescuer Down Under
I'm feeling everything at once right now. Six weeks left. Sister Erickson's moving. I'm staying. I have no idea who's coming. I have no post-mission plans, which I guess means my options are verrrrry open. Here's some events, some more significant than others.
1. Joy and Russ White, Americans in the ward, took us today to the Healesville Sanctuary about an hour away. It's in another stake, so we had to get permission from President Lindley, so I felt special. The place is basically a small interactive Australian zoo. The zookeepers come out at appointed times to do feedings and shows. The best was the birds of prey presentation. The barking owl (really, they sound like dogs) swooped right over our heads for a few minutes, to the delight of the audience. The falcon caught food when the guy threw it in the air. The buzzard picked up rocks to break open a plastic egg they gave her. Sister Erickson and I were hurrying to see the platypus and we ran literally into a flock of pelicans who somehow knew it was about to be their feeding time. When I was in third grade (I think), we studied endangered species and I chose to study the platypus. Ever since then I've wanted to see one, and today I did. Little girls' dreams really do come true :) I saw flying foxes, or fruit bats hanging in a family--Stellaluna! We went into the night animals exhibit. It was so dark. I kept running into Sister Erickson, even though she was standing right next to me. I couldn't see her! We saw all types of animals from the Rescuers Down Under, including Joanna the goanna and Frank the frilled lizard.
2. I received a letter from my mission president yesterday that was REALLY nice. I'd written him to ask for suggestions on goals for when I go home. He said some things about how he felt when he finished. His suggestion was to make goals regarding study, planning, and scheduling, but his specific advice was to make sure that I am socially active so I can be a good influence on my peer group--not for the sake of getting to know or dating young men. I didn't expect that.
3. Somehow Sister Erickson and I together are a recipe for horror huntsman stories. She was cleaning out her closet last night--I was standing by her talking--and she made some dramatic noises... in the back of the closet was a huntsman mother nurturing her hundred babies. Why!?!?!?! This happened last year, and as far as I know, it hasn't happened to anyone else. Even though it was about 10:30 pm, we called the elders and asked them to come rescue us from the invasion. They came. They captured the mother and sprayed the babies. These spiders are vile. They're not dangerous, but they look like tarantulas. We couldn't sleep with those in our room. We caught them just in time, too...
4. Somehow, our teaching opportunities keep expanding. There's this guy, Dave, the friend of Garren. We've been trying to get him to let us teach him since forever. He's the one that's colorblind and asks us to help him coordinate his outfits :) Friday we had Vilma with us for an appointment that didn't work out and we wanted to help her have a good experience so we tried Garren though we didn't think he'd be home. Dave was home, he let us in, we watched the Restoration DVD, and by the time we came back a couple of days later, he'd read a significant portion of the Book of Mormon. He lost the card we wrote his assignment on, so he read a lot so he wouldn't miss the part we gave him. We were amazed!
Another guy, Cameron. I think I already wrote about the Easter initiative, but maybe not... we're helping members choose friends to give Finding Faith in Christ pass-along cards to as an Easter gift. The El Salvador family, the Pereiras, started talking about this good friend their dad has that talks to him about the Church, reads the Book of Mormon, wants to participate in service projects... we're thinking, why don't we know about this guy!? So we went to talk to him, and he's so wonderful, and he wants to learn more!
I need to go, tomorrow's a big day and we have people to visit before Sister Erickson leaves. All these blessings are pouring in and I know I'll be so busy during these next few weeks. I'm trying to put everything into it. I adopted as my motto "the time that is left is worth as much as the time that's passed." President Lindley said if I make this the best transfer of my mission I will carry that energy with me into post-mission life. I will. Please pray for me!
:)
Lots of love
Sister Nilsen
1. Joy and Russ White, Americans in the ward, took us today to the Healesville Sanctuary about an hour away. It's in another stake, so we had to get permission from President Lindley, so I felt special. The place is basically a small interactive Australian zoo. The zookeepers come out at appointed times to do feedings and shows. The best was the birds of prey presentation. The barking owl (really, they sound like dogs) swooped right over our heads for a few minutes, to the delight of the audience. The falcon caught food when the guy threw it in the air. The buzzard picked up rocks to break open a plastic egg they gave her. Sister Erickson and I were hurrying to see the platypus and we ran literally into a flock of pelicans who somehow knew it was about to be their feeding time. When I was in third grade (I think), we studied endangered species and I chose to study the platypus. Ever since then I've wanted to see one, and today I did. Little girls' dreams really do come true :) I saw flying foxes, or fruit bats hanging in a family--Stellaluna! We went into the night animals exhibit. It was so dark. I kept running into Sister Erickson, even though she was standing right next to me. I couldn't see her! We saw all types of animals from the Rescuers Down Under, including Joanna the goanna and Frank the frilled lizard.
2. I received a letter from my mission president yesterday that was REALLY nice. I'd written him to ask for suggestions on goals for when I go home. He said some things about how he felt when he finished. His suggestion was to make goals regarding study, planning, and scheduling, but his specific advice was to make sure that I am socially active so I can be a good influence on my peer group--not for the sake of getting to know or dating young men. I didn't expect that.
3. Somehow Sister Erickson and I together are a recipe for horror huntsman stories. She was cleaning out her closet last night--I was standing by her talking--and she made some dramatic noises... in the back of the closet was a huntsman mother nurturing her hundred babies. Why!?!?!?! This happened last year, and as far as I know, it hasn't happened to anyone else. Even though it was about 10:30 pm, we called the elders and asked them to come rescue us from the invasion. They came. They captured the mother and sprayed the babies. These spiders are vile. They're not dangerous, but they look like tarantulas. We couldn't sleep with those in our room. We caught them just in time, too...
4. Somehow, our teaching opportunities keep expanding. There's this guy, Dave, the friend of Garren. We've been trying to get him to let us teach him since forever. He's the one that's colorblind and asks us to help him coordinate his outfits :) Friday we had Vilma with us for an appointment that didn't work out and we wanted to help her have a good experience so we tried Garren though we didn't think he'd be home. Dave was home, he let us in, we watched the Restoration DVD, and by the time we came back a couple of days later, he'd read a significant portion of the Book of Mormon. He lost the card we wrote his assignment on, so he read a lot so he wouldn't miss the part we gave him. We were amazed!
Another guy, Cameron. I think I already wrote about the Easter initiative, but maybe not... we're helping members choose friends to give Finding Faith in Christ pass-along cards to as an Easter gift. The El Salvador family, the Pereiras, started talking about this good friend their dad has that talks to him about the Church, reads the Book of Mormon, wants to participate in service projects... we're thinking, why don't we know about this guy!? So we went to talk to him, and he's so wonderful, and he wants to learn more!
I need to go, tomorrow's a big day and we have people to visit before Sister Erickson leaves. All these blessings are pouring in and I know I'll be so busy during these next few weeks. I'm trying to put everything into it. I adopted as my motto "the time that is left is worth as much as the time that's passed." President Lindley said if I make this the best transfer of my mission I will carry that energy with me into post-mission life. I will. Please pray for me!
:)
Lots of love
Sister Nilsen
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Elder Bednar's coming!
Last week I tried golfing for the first time with the other members of my district. My ball mostly hopped rather than sailed across the course. I thought it would be easier...
Sister Erickson and I found a new finding approach: reverse tracting! Ha, we've gotten a kick out of telling people about this. We ordered a pizza for lunch. Sister Erickson got a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet ready and made sure she looked especially missionary-like for Jason the pizza guy to arrive. After we opened the door and he asked for a pen so Sister E could sign the receipt, I took an extra long time finding a pen while she taught a short lesson and gave him the Book of Mormon. He said he was agnostic, open minded, and took the books. He probably went to work and talked about what happened. Something will come of it, someday. We figure if it's successful, we can get a lot more money in our allotments so we can do it every day! (that was a joke.)
During fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, a woman our age said she wasn't sure that she wanted to be in our ward and didn't understand why her family had to be moved there, but then she met Sister Erickson and me and knew she had a purpose here. It was so sweet. They're a Spanish-speaking family from El Salvador. The Spanish ward was just disbanded so all the families had to relocate to English wards. Last week in someone's closing prayer, the brother expressed thanks for the fine sister missionaries in the ward and for the sweet spirit they bring. He was talking about us! It was pretty special to hear those words of appreciation.
The Romero family is doing fine. They're reading the Book of Mormon. John came to church alone on Sunday. We're going to teach them tonight. When we taught them last week, John said that he felt starting to pray is a huge change for him. They're still progressing slowly. The key will be helping Maria feel the embrace of other sisters in the Relief Society. When we've got Maria convinced, we've got the whole family.
The Area Presidency here is doing an initiative for the Easter season. They're doing a kind of media blitz (everyone's seen the ads), but at the grassroots level we're giving out Finding Faith in Christ pass-along cards to members to give to their friends. It's a unique phone number, so when someone calls to order the DVD, the Church will know that they got the card from a member friend. We exchange a card for a name that they give us so we can help them by following up to see if they've given it out.
And now my most exciting news: Elder David A. Bednar, who was called as an apostle just a few years ago, is visiting our mission next week! President Lindley promised us that if we prepare ourselves well, it will be a life-changing experience. This visit is a surprise and I'm thankful I'll get to meet an apostle while on my mission. I was thinking it wasn't going to happen! We've been reading all of his General Conference talks and thinking about his calling as an apostle of the Lord. The preparation President Lindley spoke of is having effective morning study and having a more focused missionary effort throughout the day. I really want to be ready. I can already feel how important it's going to be.
A few of our investigators have dropped us this week. We found Geoff yesterday tracting. He's around 20 years old and we were excited at getting a couple of new investigators. By the time we got home, though, we had a message from his mother saying that there's no reason for us to come back and she doesn't want us in her house. Hmm. Brett wants to call us in a few weeks and Betty said her husband doesn't like us coming over. I want the next six weeks to be verrrrrry busy, so we'll keep up the search.
Monday I went to work with Sister Zhang in the Dandenong area for a day. Sister Zhang is a convert of just over a year with an amazing story. She's from China, Szechuan province. She's 27 or something. A former missionary visited China with his family and, trying to keep the law that doesn't allow proselying, said something as simple as "the gospel blesses families" and she was hooked. She flew to Hong Kong, learned all the lessons, and was baptised--all in one day. Her mother then was baptised. Her father died probably 10 years ago. She arrived in Australia a few months ago not really speaking English and now she is very understandable, though she doesn't always catch what people are saying and is far from picking up nuances. We had a great day together. In the morning, we did their usual service, helping at a farm where they teach disabled kids to ride horses. I had to hold a kid's foot in place the whole time while he walked his horse around the arena. It was really rewarding actually.
Hmm... if I had to say what it is I've been thinking about, it would be how amazingly difficult this work is, speaking from a global perspective. Helping people of every nation, kindred, and tongue come to a unity of the faith is a perplexing endeavor. Somehow, as it says in the Book of Mormon, the "Lord... is able to do [his] own work." The work is done through the weak things of the world. That's me. The work must be real, because I've felt both deep love and deep sorrow for people I've only just met, and people I only barely know.
So it's time to go. If you who read this intend to send a letter during the rest of my mission, you have about a month to send it with guaranteed arrival...
Dear family...and friends... I love you, and sorry I can't write back personally to everyone who sends a message, but I do hugely appreciate hearing from you and think of you often.
Yours,
Sister Nilsen
Sister Erickson and I found a new finding approach: reverse tracting! Ha, we've gotten a kick out of telling people about this. We ordered a pizza for lunch. Sister Erickson got a Book of Mormon and a pamphlet ready and made sure she looked especially missionary-like for Jason the pizza guy to arrive. After we opened the door and he asked for a pen so Sister E could sign the receipt, I took an extra long time finding a pen while she taught a short lesson and gave him the Book of Mormon. He said he was agnostic, open minded, and took the books. He probably went to work and talked about what happened. Something will come of it, someday. We figure if it's successful, we can get a lot more money in our allotments so we can do it every day! (that was a joke.)
During fast and testimony meeting on Sunday, a woman our age said she wasn't sure that she wanted to be in our ward and didn't understand why her family had to be moved there, but then she met Sister Erickson and me and knew she had a purpose here. It was so sweet. They're a Spanish-speaking family from El Salvador. The Spanish ward was just disbanded so all the families had to relocate to English wards. Last week in someone's closing prayer, the brother expressed thanks for the fine sister missionaries in the ward and for the sweet spirit they bring. He was talking about us! It was pretty special to hear those words of appreciation.
The Romero family is doing fine. They're reading the Book of Mormon. John came to church alone on Sunday. We're going to teach them tonight. When we taught them last week, John said that he felt starting to pray is a huge change for him. They're still progressing slowly. The key will be helping Maria feel the embrace of other sisters in the Relief Society. When we've got Maria convinced, we've got the whole family.
The Area Presidency here is doing an initiative for the Easter season. They're doing a kind of media blitz (everyone's seen the ads), but at the grassroots level we're giving out Finding Faith in Christ pass-along cards to members to give to their friends. It's a unique phone number, so when someone calls to order the DVD, the Church will know that they got the card from a member friend. We exchange a card for a name that they give us so we can help them by following up to see if they've given it out.
And now my most exciting news: Elder David A. Bednar, who was called as an apostle just a few years ago, is visiting our mission next week! President Lindley promised us that if we prepare ourselves well, it will be a life-changing experience. This visit is a surprise and I'm thankful I'll get to meet an apostle while on my mission. I was thinking it wasn't going to happen! We've been reading all of his General Conference talks and thinking about his calling as an apostle of the Lord. The preparation President Lindley spoke of is having effective morning study and having a more focused missionary effort throughout the day. I really want to be ready. I can already feel how important it's going to be.
A few of our investigators have dropped us this week. We found Geoff yesterday tracting. He's around 20 years old and we were excited at getting a couple of new investigators. By the time we got home, though, we had a message from his mother saying that there's no reason for us to come back and she doesn't want us in her house. Hmm. Brett wants to call us in a few weeks and Betty said her husband doesn't like us coming over. I want the next six weeks to be verrrrrry busy, so we'll keep up the search.
Monday I went to work with Sister Zhang in the Dandenong area for a day. Sister Zhang is a convert of just over a year with an amazing story. She's from China, Szechuan province. She's 27 or something. A former missionary visited China with his family and, trying to keep the law that doesn't allow proselying, said something as simple as "the gospel blesses families" and she was hooked. She flew to Hong Kong, learned all the lessons, and was baptised--all in one day. Her mother then was baptised. Her father died probably 10 years ago. She arrived in Australia a few months ago not really speaking English and now she is very understandable, though she doesn't always catch what people are saying and is far from picking up nuances. We had a great day together. In the morning, we did their usual service, helping at a farm where they teach disabled kids to ride horses. I had to hold a kid's foot in place the whole time while he walked his horse around the arena. It was really rewarding actually.
Hmm... if I had to say what it is I've been thinking about, it would be how amazingly difficult this work is, speaking from a global perspective. Helping people of every nation, kindred, and tongue come to a unity of the faith is a perplexing endeavor. Somehow, as it says in the Book of Mormon, the "Lord... is able to do [his] own work." The work is done through the weak things of the world. That's me. The work must be real, because I've felt both deep love and deep sorrow for people I've only just met, and people I only barely know.
So it's time to go. If you who read this intend to send a letter during the rest of my mission, you have about a month to send it with guaranteed arrival...
Dear family...and friends... I love you, and sorry I can't write back personally to everyone who sends a message, but I do hugely appreciate hearing from you and think of you often.
Yours,
Sister Nilsen
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
my mission in Pangea
Sister Erickson and I have been teaching a lot lately. It's so fun. I'm having the time of my life.
Greetings from "Victoria's largest and most vibrant municipality."
I've decided lately to come to a renewed sense of commitment and in return I think I've received a gift of eagerness. Along with a lot of gifts of many people to teach. I'll explain a few.
But first, two funny stories.
At dinner, a family asked me if we have any pets, and I began to tell the many sad tales of tragic animal deaths in the family. They were nearly on the floor laughing about, for example, how Alise decided to give Crystal's Christmas hamster a bath in a cup of Sprite on the day she got it. It didn't survive.
Next, (allow me a moment or two of immaturity) we had an appointment with a lady who has missed her last few appointments. We could hear someone home and impatiently waited for them to come to the door. I said playfully "let us in by the hair of your chinny-chin-chin" and Sister Erickson replied "I don't want to be the big bad wolf!" That must have led me to huff and puff and get ready to blow their house down. At the moment I'd taken in this huge breath, the guy answered the door and I was left to awkwardly exhale while Sister Erickson, surprised, tried to make conversation. It was near the end of a very long, strange day when none of our appointments actuated in a lesson, so we needed a good laugh.
Brett is a guy we met outside near a less-active member's house. We went and told him about the Book of Mormon and he was so excited to read it. He said he would read it in a week. We shouldn't have expressed our doubts, but we told him it might take him a little longer than that--two weeks. He has read some of it and he wants to attend church. It's just so fun when we find people who are willing to just try it out and see for themselves. I really think that anyone who reads the entire Book of Mormon, having an honest heart, will be certain of its truth by the time they reach the promise at the end.
The Romero family, the friends of the Gallardos, came to church again, but this time without their children. We taught them last week and invited them to prepare for baptism. They said they'd discuss it as a family. They must have liked the idea, because they're still into learning. They're coming to the stake swimming competition in Frankston on Saturday, which means we get to go and cheer for (or, in Aussie, barrack for) our ward team!
We went to visit a teenage girl with less-active parents, Nakita, on Monday. She had two friends over--one named Sesame, pronounced seSAHme, Jamaican/South African, and one named Pritika, Indian. After a little while of just chatting, they started asking questions about how our church is different from, say, the seventh-day adventists. We taught them the first lesson about the Restoration of the gospel right there. The girls were so enthusiastic and curious about learning, and both of them took a copy of the Book of Mormon that Nakita gave them. This encounter led me to recognize that so many more friends of members than we realize are curious and willing to learn.
On Sunday, at the request of the sister teaching Relief Society, we did a presentation on Preach My Gospel. One of the young single adult girls, Charlene, was listening intently, which confused me because I thought she wouldn't have cared too much. After, she told us the person she's currently staying with (she's in between homes) is interested in the Church. His name's Harley. We went to teach him last night. He has so little knowledge about Christianity, but he's in the process of changing his life. His ex-girlfriend (I think) just had their baby daughter a few days ago and he wants to be better and be able to be there for her.
The other day we visited a potential investigator, an old Croatian Catholic, who was drinking wine out of a huge liquid measuring cup. He offered us some and said "you won't go to heaven if you don't have any of this wine." So funny.
During study on Sunday morning, I was thinking about that echidna I saw last week. It was confidently crossing the road, but when I approached, it changed directions and hid its head in a pile of leaves, curled up pretending to be dead. If another echidna approached it, it probably wouldn't have done that. I learned from this local Australian species that the other local Australians--the humans--have a similar tendency. They curl up and defend themselves from invasion when the missionaries walk up. For some special people, we can do what we do on our own, but for most Aussies, they don't like confrontation. I desperately wanted the members here to realize that they are our most powerful source for finding people to teach. They are already in the hearts of their friends. I made a mental list of things I wish members knew about missionary work (including myself in this category; I'll be a civilian soon enough), which led to an unfolding of ideas. We're making a member missionary packet called "becoming a Preach My Gospel member." President Lindley keeps talking about all the things that need to happen if we're to see the work really progress here: we need Preach My Gospel missionaries; we need Preach My Gospel church leaders; we need Preach My Gospel members. So we're going to help the ward members here become Preach My Gospel members. I wrote a personalised letter to them, and we collected some relevant articles, and made a "what do I do now?" list. It sounds simple, but I think it will be powerful to anyone willing to apply what apostles have said and what missionaries have learned by experience.
And in the spirit of a side note, I love our German bishop and his family.
That's all for now! Love you! Thanks for reading!
Savanna
Greetings from "Victoria's largest and most vibrant municipality."
I've decided lately to come to a renewed sense of commitment and in return I think I've received a gift of eagerness. Along with a lot of gifts of many people to teach. I'll explain a few.
But first, two funny stories.
At dinner, a family asked me if we have any pets, and I began to tell the many sad tales of tragic animal deaths in the family. They were nearly on the floor laughing about, for example, how Alise decided to give Crystal's Christmas hamster a bath in a cup of Sprite on the day she got it. It didn't survive.
Next, (allow me a moment or two of immaturity) we had an appointment with a lady who has missed her last few appointments. We could hear someone home and impatiently waited for them to come to the door. I said playfully "let us in by the hair of your chinny-chin-chin" and Sister Erickson replied "I don't want to be the big bad wolf!" That must have led me to huff and puff and get ready to blow their house down. At the moment I'd taken in this huge breath, the guy answered the door and I was left to awkwardly exhale while Sister Erickson, surprised, tried to make conversation. It was near the end of a very long, strange day when none of our appointments actuated in a lesson, so we needed a good laugh.
Brett is a guy we met outside near a less-active member's house. We went and told him about the Book of Mormon and he was so excited to read it. He said he would read it in a week. We shouldn't have expressed our doubts, but we told him it might take him a little longer than that--two weeks. He has read some of it and he wants to attend church. It's just so fun when we find people who are willing to just try it out and see for themselves. I really think that anyone who reads the entire Book of Mormon, having an honest heart, will be certain of its truth by the time they reach the promise at the end.
The Romero family, the friends of the Gallardos, came to church again, but this time without their children. We taught them last week and invited them to prepare for baptism. They said they'd discuss it as a family. They must have liked the idea, because they're still into learning. They're coming to the stake swimming competition in Frankston on Saturday, which means we get to go and cheer for (or, in Aussie, barrack for) our ward team!
We went to visit a teenage girl with less-active parents, Nakita, on Monday. She had two friends over--one named Sesame, pronounced seSAHme, Jamaican/South African, and one named Pritika, Indian. After a little while of just chatting, they started asking questions about how our church is different from, say, the seventh-day adventists. We taught them the first lesson about the Restoration of the gospel right there. The girls were so enthusiastic and curious about learning, and both of them took a copy of the Book of Mormon that Nakita gave them. This encounter led me to recognize that so many more friends of members than we realize are curious and willing to learn.
On Sunday, at the request of the sister teaching Relief Society, we did a presentation on Preach My Gospel. One of the young single adult girls, Charlene, was listening intently, which confused me because I thought she wouldn't have cared too much. After, she told us the person she's currently staying with (she's in between homes) is interested in the Church. His name's Harley. We went to teach him last night. He has so little knowledge about Christianity, but he's in the process of changing his life. His ex-girlfriend (I think) just had their baby daughter a few days ago and he wants to be better and be able to be there for her.
The other day we visited a potential investigator, an old Croatian Catholic, who was drinking wine out of a huge liquid measuring cup. He offered us some and said "you won't go to heaven if you don't have any of this wine." So funny.
During study on Sunday morning, I was thinking about that echidna I saw last week. It was confidently crossing the road, but when I approached, it changed directions and hid its head in a pile of leaves, curled up pretending to be dead. If another echidna approached it, it probably wouldn't have done that. I learned from this local Australian species that the other local Australians--the humans--have a similar tendency. They curl up and defend themselves from invasion when the missionaries walk up. For some special people, we can do what we do on our own, but for most Aussies, they don't like confrontation. I desperately wanted the members here to realize that they are our most powerful source for finding people to teach. They are already in the hearts of their friends. I made a mental list of things I wish members knew about missionary work (including myself in this category; I'll be a civilian soon enough), which led to an unfolding of ideas. We're making a member missionary packet called "becoming a Preach My Gospel member." President Lindley keeps talking about all the things that need to happen if we're to see the work really progress here: we need Preach My Gospel missionaries; we need Preach My Gospel church leaders; we need Preach My Gospel members. So we're going to help the ward members here become Preach My Gospel members. I wrote a personalised letter to them, and we collected some relevant articles, and made a "what do I do now?" list. It sounds simple, but I think it will be powerful to anyone willing to apply what apostles have said and what missionaries have learned by experience.
And in the spirit of a side note, I love our German bishop and his family.
That's all for now! Love you! Thanks for reading!
Savanna
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
i am so happy.
This week has been so beautiful, one of the best of my mission. Oh and thank you for the package. I got it today. Sister Erickson is turning mental wheels trying to find a way to get to the Olympics in Beijing. We'll see how that goes.
Remember Ebony, the 7-year-old little friend of Kaila? We finally got to meeting Natalie, her mother. Natalie asked us what we teach and we got to introduce her to the message of the Restoration. She was a little suspicious at first but we showed her how it's what was taught from the beginning of time, but that it's been fragmented and lost, but restored now, and now Ebony tells us that her mom likes it and wants to come to church. Ebony said the sweet sweet sweestest prayer, thanking God that her mom could learn about Jesus Christ and asking that she could learn more and come to church and have fun and see that church is a fun place to learn.
Also, Brother Gallardo in our ward brought a new family to church--this was the second Sunday in a row. The father of this family, John, grew up with Brother Gallardo (Luis). They're both Chilean. John had the discussions about six years ago kind of as a favor to Luis but wasn't interested really. This time John called Luis and asked him if he could come and they've been talking a lot. Luis told John he's going to have to turn the matter over to us. Sister Erickson and I taught the Sunday School lesson on Sunday (the lesson was the Fall of Adam--kind of an intense topic if it gets out of hand, but it didn't, and we centered it on how through Christ's Atonement we can be redeemed from the effects of the Fall). When we asked if anyone has any questions, John said, "I don't have any questions. I just want to know more." I told him he's in luck because he was talking to the Church's professional teachers of nonmembers :) John has a wife, Maria, and four children. It's just perfect. This is the way it's supposed to happen. We're SO excited to teach them tomorrow evening. We think about them all the time.
Early this week we also taught Betty. She's 74. When she opened the door to our knock, she looked at Sister Erickson and announced that they already knew each other. (They didn't.) I've been learning (as we all are throughout our lives) how to recognize direction from the Spirit. One of the ways it works with me is I see myself doing something. I hadn't done it for a while, but I recited "I saw a pillar of light..." and I felt it, and I'm pretty sure she did. That was the first time we met her. This week we came in and taught her the plan of salvation. We got only as far as the pre-earth life and that we all lived with God before we came here and she said whenever she talks about these things she feels an energy going through her. It was such an awesome lesson. And true to the commitments we made to President Lindley at zone conference (I'll explain in a minute), we used the word "baptism" and rather than saying she didn't want to, or she already has, or another common thing that disappoints us, she said she's not ready. That's fine, we can help her get ready. Betty is so wonderful; she's 74 years old but doesn't share the common assumption many of her age have that she's too old to change, too old to learn. She recognizes that her life isn't over yet and has recently decided to take back the control of her life that she has often allowed others to have. I love that, we'll help her regain freedom.
Oh. We had another couple of super hot, super humid days. I'm in the mode of rediscovering the joys of summer.
One of the elders gave us a CD that has only one song on it that we think is acceptable for missionaries to listen to. It's called "Healing Waters." We put it in on Saturday and I put it on repeat because we didn't want to listen to the others. I wondered, just for fun, whether we could stand listening to it all day long. We did, and we listened to the same song through Sunday and Monday until district meeting Tuesday morning. It helped me get really excited about baptisms.
We saw an echidna while driving the other day. We pulled over and took photos of it. They're so cute and poky. Ha... but it curls up as soon as you approach it. I can't see that being much of a defense, except that it looks really spiny.
Zone conference happened on Wednesday last week, which is why I was on the email a day early. We made the following commitments to President Lindley and to Elder Catton, one of the assistants to the president.
1. Use in our teaching the DVDs that President Sybrowsky gave us. It has four talks from the October 2007 conference--Elder Ballard's "Facts, faith, family, fruits" about members' responsibility to define ourselves and to prevent misunderstandings; Elder Nelson's "Scriptural witnesses" about the purpose of the Book of Mormon"; Elder Holland's MASTERPIECE about the Godhead "The only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent"; President Hinckley's last General Conference address "The stone cut out of the mountain" http://lds.org/conference/sessions/display/0,5239,23-1-775,00.html
2. Assign investigators 15 chapters from the Book of Mormon to read in one week in a power reading challenge, after which they need to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ
3. Read the Book of Mormon daily
4. Use at least the word "baptism" in every lesson [We've been doing this, and it actually makes the work a lot more fun, engaging, and effective]
5. If we're not good at anything else, become really good at inviting people to be baptised. Practice by role plays and study about the blessings of baptism during companion study
6. Plan lessons for every dinner appointment we have with members, and come with an objective, something to accomplish
Also at zone conference President Lindley played "If I were a rich man" from Fiddler on the Roof just for this one line about if he were rich, Tevyeh could sit in the synagogue and read scriptures for seven hours a day. He gave us this quote from Elder Holland about becoming God's investigator. It's really helped my study.
I have officially memorized both The Living Christ and The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I got a sticker for it from my companion. :)
Today for p-day we went to the temple. Sister Lindley organized for all of us to go to her Chinese investigator's milk bar (convenience store) and show the DVD with President Hinckley. Sister Zhang, from mainland China, shared her testimony and conversion story. The investigator, George, told her he knows it's true. He has a baptism goal date for next Friday. After that we all went to the mission home and made lunch and played games. I'm really impressed by several of the elders. I wonder how I can have children like them someday......... agh!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of someday, I need to find a job and a future. Any ideas?
Thanks for your readership, O little audience!
:)
Love you heaps ;)
Sister Savanna
Remember Ebony, the 7-year-old little friend of Kaila? We finally got to meeting Natalie, her mother. Natalie asked us what we teach and we got to introduce her to the message of the Restoration. She was a little suspicious at first but we showed her how it's what was taught from the beginning of time, but that it's been fragmented and lost, but restored now, and now Ebony tells us that her mom likes it and wants to come to church. Ebony said the sweet sweet sweestest prayer, thanking God that her mom could learn about Jesus Christ and asking that she could learn more and come to church and have fun and see that church is a fun place to learn.
Also, Brother Gallardo in our ward brought a new family to church--this was the second Sunday in a row. The father of this family, John, grew up with Brother Gallardo (Luis). They're both Chilean. John had the discussions about six years ago kind of as a favor to Luis but wasn't interested really. This time John called Luis and asked him if he could come and they've been talking a lot. Luis told John he's going to have to turn the matter over to us. Sister Erickson and I taught the Sunday School lesson on Sunday (the lesson was the Fall of Adam--kind of an intense topic if it gets out of hand, but it didn't, and we centered it on how through Christ's Atonement we can be redeemed from the effects of the Fall). When we asked if anyone has any questions, John said, "I don't have any questions. I just want to know more." I told him he's in luck because he was talking to the Church's professional teachers of nonmembers :) John has a wife, Maria, and four children. It's just perfect. This is the way it's supposed to happen. We're SO excited to teach them tomorrow evening. We think about them all the time.
Early this week we also taught Betty. She's 74. When she opened the door to our knock, she looked at Sister Erickson and announced that they already knew each other. (They didn't.) I've been learning (as we all are throughout our lives) how to recognize direction from the Spirit. One of the ways it works with me is I see myself doing something. I hadn't done it for a while, but I recited "I saw a pillar of light..." and I felt it, and I'm pretty sure she did. That was the first time we met her. This week we came in and taught her the plan of salvation. We got only as far as the pre-earth life and that we all lived with God before we came here and she said whenever she talks about these things she feels an energy going through her. It was such an awesome lesson. And true to the commitments we made to President Lindley at zone conference (I'll explain in a minute), we used the word "baptism" and rather than saying she didn't want to, or she already has, or another common thing that disappoints us, she said she's not ready. That's fine, we can help her get ready. Betty is so wonderful; she's 74 years old but doesn't share the common assumption many of her age have that she's too old to change, too old to learn. She recognizes that her life isn't over yet and has recently decided to take back the control of her life that she has often allowed others to have. I love that, we'll help her regain freedom.
Oh. We had another couple of super hot, super humid days. I'm in the mode of rediscovering the joys of summer.
One of the elders gave us a CD that has only one song on it that we think is acceptable for missionaries to listen to. It's called "Healing Waters." We put it in on Saturday and I put it on repeat because we didn't want to listen to the others. I wondered, just for fun, whether we could stand listening to it all day long. We did, and we listened to the same song through Sunday and Monday until district meeting Tuesday morning. It helped me get really excited about baptisms.
We saw an echidna while driving the other day. We pulled over and took photos of it. They're so cute and poky. Ha... but it curls up as soon as you approach it. I can't see that being much of a defense, except that it looks really spiny.
Zone conference happened on Wednesday last week, which is why I was on the email a day early. We made the following commitments to President Lindley and to Elder Catton, one of the assistants to the president.
1. Use in our teaching the DVDs that President Sybrowsky gave us. It has four talks from the October 2007 conference--Elder Ballard's "Facts, faith, family, fruits" about members' responsibility to define ourselves and to prevent misunderstandings; Elder Nelson's "Scriptural witnesses" about the purpose of the Book of Mormon"; Elder Holland's MASTERPIECE about the Godhead "The only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent"; President Hinckley's last General Conference address "The stone cut out of the mountain" http://lds.org/conference/
2. Assign investigators 15 chapters from the Book of Mormon to read in one week in a power reading challenge, after which they need to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ
3. Read the Book of Mormon daily
4. Use at least the word "baptism" in every lesson [We've been doing this, and it actually makes the work a lot more fun, engaging, and effective]
5. If we're not good at anything else, become really good at inviting people to be baptised. Practice by role plays and study about the blessings of baptism during companion study
6. Plan lessons for every dinner appointment we have with members, and come with an objective, something to accomplish
Also at zone conference President Lindley played "If I were a rich man" from Fiddler on the Roof just for this one line about if he were rich, Tevyeh could sit in the synagogue and read scriptures for seven hours a day. He gave us this quote from Elder Holland about becoming God's investigator. It's really helped my study.
I have officially memorized both The Living Christ and The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I got a sticker for it from my companion. :)
Today for p-day we went to the temple. Sister Lindley organized for all of us to go to her Chinese investigator's milk bar (convenience store) and show the DVD with President Hinckley. Sister Zhang, from mainland China, shared her testimony and conversion story. The investigator, George, told her he knows it's true. He has a baptism goal date for next Friday. After that we all went to the mission home and made lunch and played games. I'm really impressed by several of the elders. I wonder how I can have children like them someday......... agh!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of someday, I need to find a job and a future. Any ideas?
Thanks for your readership, O little audience!
:)
Love you heaps ;)
Sister Savanna
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
news from the ends of the earth
G'day. I'll just jump into it. The past week has seen a verrrry cool change, including occasional rain. I think of it as a divine gift just for me to help me survive and do my work.
On Sunday we went to some members' house for the family-and-friends potluck dinner following their baby's blessing. It was fast Sunday, and I didn't think it was going to be too hard this time, but it didn't go too well. My brain decided to slow down while tracting that morning and it was all I could do to try and think about something other than bed all through church in the afternoon. At the dinner I just felt sicker and sicker and all these moms started fussing over me, and after eating I felt even worse. The mother of the new baby reacts similarly to low blood sugar and described it as feeling like she's about to go into a coma. :) Anyway, I'm telling this story because just before we left to go to a teaching appointment I got a blessing from a patriarch and a member of the temple presidency--a Polynesian named White and a white Aussie named Brown. Brother White made the joke that President Brown got his name. Heh. I feel silly for expecting something different to happen when I don't eat other than what happens every time.
That evening at home I couldn't do anything--I just lied down on the floor and listened to a BYU devotional on CD. It was Mark Peterson's talk. I realized that there's almost nothing more comforting when you're feeling miserable than hearing the voice of someone you love. So thanks Mark, and I'm doing reasonably well at blossoming where I'm planted. :)
Sister Erickson talked yesterday while searching for new investigators about how thankful we are to be in this ward. I've never felt more comfortable in any other ward on my mission. Everyone is so accepting, warm, supportive. They treat us like we're members that are permanently part of their ward. I can't consistently say that about everywhere I've been. It's such a nice place to finish a mission.
We saw Ebony and Kaila yesterday. Kaila has turned into a little Primary teacher. She reads the children's Book of Mormon stories to her friend, and has taught her the plan of salvation, and they say prayers together. I tried to explain to them how Asael Smith (who was on the first page of the Relief Society/Priesthood lesson this week) is Joseph Smith's grandfather, and he's also my great-great-great-great grandfather, so I'm related to the prophet, but Kaila just wouldn't have it. Ebony kept saying "Kaila, they don't tell lies." I thought that was so sweet, because we try not to! Kids these days, they're too young to be sceptics, but they are.
Also yesterday we went to drop off our jackets to be dry cleaned in preparation for our meeting this week, and Veronica, the shop owner, initiated a conversation with us about how she's lost trust in God, but not in Christ, and how she wants her faith back. We asked if we could teach her but she thinks we're already going to her house because an older couple comes around and brings her books like the Watchtower. Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! That's the third time this week we've met someone who thinks WE are already teaching them, and we're not! We're going to pick up our clothes today so we will come prepared with something for her to read--one of my favourite articles by Elder Holland about how in everything that Christ did, he was trying to teach us about the character of God. It's called "The Grandeur of God" from the November 2003 Ensign. In fact, here's the link. http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=93d174536cf0c010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
That was a long link. I LOVE when people start talking to US, especially in businesses.
More spiders: on Thursday evening there was a huntsman spider the size of a cereal bowl, and maybe bigger, in the gym at church.
I'm getting nervous about coming home someday. This time I say that because we went to an indoor sand volleyball court last p-day with the elders in our district. The radio is on and I found myself silently hoping/praying that they would just play some fun, innocent songs because there was a sequence of several obscene songs that came on. But it's normal music, meaning songs you'd hear any day. Some did come on eventually. Sometimes missionaries find rules hard--like not listening to just any music--but I think it's nice to live as purely as possible for a little while. I think I'll always be sensitive to it though.
All of the missionaries went to the worldwide leadership training session this past Saturday. It was strange to see
Thomas S. Monson
President
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
written on the screen while President Monson spoke. I miss President Hinckley. But it was powerful to see that he really is the new prophet.
We met a lady sometime this week, the elegant and beautiful Sara, while tracting. We asked her if we could teach her and her reply was perplexing: No thanks--my husband and I are searching for a religion. The logical thing to say would have been "yes, please! my husband and I are searching for a religion."
Yesterday a member in our ward, the stake Relief Society president, took Sister Erickson and me out to lunch at a very expensive little cafe. I felt a little uncomfortable, but the food wasn't boring, so it was nice.
I want to write about Jeff and Rostel Ward a little. Jeff is this amazing cook who can eat anything at a restaurant and then recreate it at home. We had this Thai-inspired dish at their house Friday and it was the most delicious thing I'd ever had. He's SO excited about the gospel, and he's so excited that he knows our investigator Garren. His wife is a Filipina who joined the church after their marriage. I've been wondering through my whole mission how to get ahold of these several speeches that I remember as the highlights of my BYU devotional education, and we got to his house and he was talking about how all he ever listens to are BYU devotionals, and he was quite happy to find those talks and make a few CDs for me. It's really unfortunate how much I haved missed BYU over the past year and a half, and how I miss it still, and I'm disappointed that I've already graduated.
Oh, the sisters in Dandenong are teaching a lady who moved from Iran with the intention of seeking asylum and becoming a Christian. She has to keep her conversion a secret from the people she lives around. We are not supposed to work closely with anyone whose life would be endangered by becoming Christian, but she is working on it with a lawyer and seeking asylum and a visa. Sounds familiar? Maybe we could connect her with someone who has had a similar experience?
This is nearly over. Sister Erickson and I have been battling lately to get new investigators--it's been a few weeks now with not that much success. I feel like we've been working harder lately. I don't want to lose it at the end. It's hard but it's not that bad, and this is the happiest lifestyle I think a young person could lead at this time in life. That is a strange statement, and seems contradictory, but it's not because happiness doesn't directly correlate with situations--it comes from being aligned with what's right. Anyone can have access to that! Amazing!
Okay, the end. Please write!
Sister Nilsen
PS I had a dream last night that I approached the mailbox and I had several packages waiting for me. :)
On Sunday we went to some members' house for the family-and-friends potluck dinner following their baby's blessing. It was fast Sunday, and I didn't think it was going to be too hard this time, but it didn't go too well. My brain decided to slow down while tracting that morning and it was all I could do to try and think about something other than bed all through church in the afternoon. At the dinner I just felt sicker and sicker and all these moms started fussing over me, and after eating I felt even worse. The mother of the new baby reacts similarly to low blood sugar and described it as feeling like she's about to go into a coma. :) Anyway, I'm telling this story because just before we left to go to a teaching appointment I got a blessing from a patriarch and a member of the temple presidency--a Polynesian named White and a white Aussie named Brown. Brother White made the joke that President Brown got his name. Heh. I feel silly for expecting something different to happen when I don't eat other than what happens every time.
That evening at home I couldn't do anything--I just lied down on the floor and listened to a BYU devotional on CD. It was Mark Peterson's talk. I realized that there's almost nothing more comforting when you're feeling miserable than hearing the voice of someone you love. So thanks Mark, and I'm doing reasonably well at blossoming where I'm planted. :)
Sister Erickson talked yesterday while searching for new investigators about how thankful we are to be in this ward. I've never felt more comfortable in any other ward on my mission. Everyone is so accepting, warm, supportive. They treat us like we're members that are permanently part of their ward. I can't consistently say that about everywhere I've been. It's such a nice place to finish a mission.
We saw Ebony and Kaila yesterday. Kaila has turned into a little Primary teacher. She reads the children's Book of Mormon stories to her friend, and has taught her the plan of salvation, and they say prayers together. I tried to explain to them how Asael Smith (who was on the first page of the Relief Society/Priesthood lesson this week) is Joseph Smith's grandfather, and he's also my great-great-great-great grandfather, so I'm related to the prophet, but Kaila just wouldn't have it. Ebony kept saying "Kaila, they don't tell lies." I thought that was so sweet, because we try not to! Kids these days, they're too young to be sceptics, but they are.
Also yesterday we went to drop off our jackets to be dry cleaned in preparation for our meeting this week, and Veronica, the shop owner, initiated a conversation with us about how she's lost trust in God, but not in Christ, and how she wants her faith back. We asked if we could teach her but she thinks we're already going to her house because an older couple comes around and brings her books like the Watchtower. Nooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! That's the third time this week we've met someone who thinks WE are already teaching them, and we're not! We're going to pick up our clothes today so we will come prepared with something for her to read--one of my favourite articles by Elder Holland about how in everything that Christ did, he was trying to teach us about the character of God. It's called "The Grandeur of God" from the November 2003 Ensign. In fact, here's the link. http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/
That was a long link. I LOVE when people start talking to US, especially in businesses.
More spiders: on Thursday evening there was a huntsman spider the size of a cereal bowl, and maybe bigger, in the gym at church.
I'm getting nervous about coming home someday. This time I say that because we went to an indoor sand volleyball court last p-day with the elders in our district. The radio is on and I found myself silently hoping/praying that they would just play some fun, innocent songs because there was a sequence of several obscene songs that came on. But it's normal music, meaning songs you'd hear any day. Some did come on eventually. Sometimes missionaries find rules hard--like not listening to just any music--but I think it's nice to live as purely as possible for a little while. I think I'll always be sensitive to it though.
All of the missionaries went to the worldwide leadership training session this past Saturday. It was strange to see
Thomas S. Monson
President
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
written on the screen while President Monson spoke. I miss President Hinckley. But it was powerful to see that he really is the new prophet.
We met a lady sometime this week, the elegant and beautiful Sara, while tracting. We asked her if we could teach her and her reply was perplexing: No thanks--my husband and I are searching for a religion. The logical thing to say would have been "yes, please! my husband and I are searching for a religion."
Yesterday a member in our ward, the stake Relief Society president, took Sister Erickson and me out to lunch at a very expensive little cafe. I felt a little uncomfortable, but the food wasn't boring, so it was nice.
I want to write about Jeff and Rostel Ward a little. Jeff is this amazing cook who can eat anything at a restaurant and then recreate it at home. We had this Thai-inspired dish at their house Friday and it was the most delicious thing I'd ever had. He's SO excited about the gospel, and he's so excited that he knows our investigator Garren. His wife is a Filipina who joined the church after their marriage. I've been wondering through my whole mission how to get ahold of these several speeches that I remember as the highlights of my BYU devotional education, and we got to his house and he was talking about how all he ever listens to are BYU devotionals, and he was quite happy to find those talks and make a few CDs for me. It's really unfortunate how much I haved missed BYU over the past year and a half, and how I miss it still, and I'm disappointed that I've already graduated.
Oh, the sisters in Dandenong are teaching a lady who moved from Iran with the intention of seeking asylum and becoming a Christian. She has to keep her conversion a secret from the people she lives around. We are not supposed to work closely with anyone whose life would be endangered by becoming Christian, but she is working on it with a lawyer and seeking asylum and a visa. Sounds familiar? Maybe we could connect her with someone who has had a similar experience?
This is nearly over. Sister Erickson and I have been battling lately to get new investigators--it's been a few weeks now with not that much success. I feel like we've been working harder lately. I don't want to lose it at the end. It's hard but it's not that bad, and this is the happiest lifestyle I think a young person could lead at this time in life. That is a strange statement, and seems contradictory, but it's not because happiness doesn't directly correlate with situations--it comes from being aligned with what's right. Anyone can have access to that! Amazing!
Okay, the end. Please write!
Sister Nilsen
PS I had a dream last night that I approached the mailbox and I had several packages waiting for me. :)
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