Speil Abend...Game Evening

Hi all!

Ooooh the Australian Open is on??? Man, i miss Tennis. I'll be sure to play a lot when I get home. It has actually been a lot warmer here! It's been very nice. You asked where in Australia Elder Ormsby is from... the Gold Coast. It's near Brisbane. 

Things are very very very good this week. I had some sort of spiritual fiery awakening from my self pity that I was not expecting. Your prayers and fasting really helped me this week :) I literally felt hands pushing me from behind to keep going! 

That's very interesting that you've been studying the apostasy in such depth. That's actually been a large focus of my studies this week as well!! There's an amazing talk called "Why 1820 by Hyrum Smith" (Not Josephs Brother) that I received from another missionary. It's an amazing talk that really brings the apostasy into view in a historical aspect. It's an amazing talk, you should listen to it. It really brings it into perspective. 

 

Hans after we helped clean his kitchen.

 

Thank you for sharing the thought about having our hearts in the right place. That is so important in this age. It sounds like you guys have had a good (crazy) week this week. Thank you for sharing.

I've had a bit of an adventure myself!!

Monday: Monday we did lot's of chores and things that need to normally be done on Pdays... It wasn't too special. We cleaned and shopped. I took Elder Ormsby to the airsoft store because Airsoft is illegal in Australia and he was super excited to see guns! Aside from that we went and talked to people on the street, which can sometimes be very discouraging, as it was that day. 

Tuesday: We had Zone training!! And it was actually one of the best zone trainings I have ever had. Maybe the best!! I was feeling very discouraged. I was having many challenges. But this training addressed them all and I took so many notes and after that, since then I have been having an amazing time. It was all about how we can improve our relationships with the members and how we can reach our goals for the mission. It was very inspiring and helped me get back on my feet after a tough week. After that we had lunch with the district and then headed home to have an awesome lesson with Hans. We talked to him about not smoking, and we all decided that on Saturday we would throw away every single thing he had from smoking. He's a good man, he just needs a push in the right direction sometimes. 

All set up for Speil Abend!

Wednesday: We had our Ward mission council, where we talked about all the people we have to teach and whats been going on with them, and it was a very productive time. We actually made lots of good plans and coordinated some good visits. It's amazing how much of a difference it made after Tuesday. I feel like after I had an opportunity to reflect. I rekindled the fire i had behind the work. I had a moment where I felt i couldn't go on. I knelt in "mighty prayer" like Enos would say, and prayed concerning my soul, and my ability to continue on.

 If you are ever having a hard time, I suggest you do something I've come to call: a prayer session. Stop whatever you're doing and go pray. Just speak to God. Speak to him. He is your Father. He wants to hear from you. Just express any and all feelings you have, and let the spirit guide your prayer. Pour out your entire soul to him, nothing held back. He WILL bring peace to your soul. I promise. Even in the midst of the most extreme hardships. In the midst of your fiercest battles. It will come. You just have to ask. Anyway, It brought back the fire in my soul that I was missing for so long. And I realized that not much else matters when you are concerned for the hearts and welfare of those for whom you are responsible. Those you know. When you think on it, it brings peace. It brings inspiration. And its been helping me all week. After that we went and helped out a less active Member with cutting wood and stuff. We shared with him a bit of insight that I've shared with you before. About getting over something rather than just ignoring a problem. He really took it to heart and thought about what we said. It was a good night and he agreed to come to church on Sunday. 

 

Speil Abend.

 

Thursday: This was our day to go to some random little town in the middle of nowhere and knock on doors until our knuckles are sore :) We have one day like that every week... It's always awesome. This week we went to a little cute town called Pitten. Big houses, beautiful castle, lot's of snow. It was very cool! Something we learned on Tuesday had a lot to do with that. One of my problems was I had become so used to hearing the word "no." That I had become very discouraged, and stopped trying. I would talk to people, but I wouldn't expect anything to come of it. But on Tuesday I learned a lot about effort. They explained it like this: "How often do you actually try to convince people to hear the message. To really convince? Here's another question. How often does Satan try to convince people of his ways? How much effort are you putting into it compared to him? He never gives up. Can you do the same?" That question was naturally unsettling to me, and brought me to ponder my entire outlook on life and missionary work. So on Thursday I applied what I learned. In one hour we had 3 people interested in hearing our message and ALL of them initially said no. I learned a big lesson that day. And i decided for myself that I would put more effort into it than Satan. anyway, it was awesome. After that we went to go eat dinner with the McLennan family. They are always so awesome. We all had the opportunity to bare our testimonies afterwards, and I realized for the first time how much mine has changed since I left. It has more substance. More experience. More heart. I like the person I am becoming on my mission. After that we went to German class!

 

Serious ping pong paddle.

Friday: This was a busy day!! We studied in the morning, and afterwards went ot the church to set up... SPEIL ABEND (Game Evening!) It's a new thing we've thought up to try and strengthen the unity of the ward members. The members are amazing in this ward, but it's hard to get them to all come together. It's something we've been discussing together in Ward council for a while, so we decided it would take some action get things started. We set everything up. Inside bowling, Ping-Pong, Board games, Charades. It was awesome!! I even invested in a little present for myself that will last me a while... A proper ping pong weapon. It's a paddle, but I call it a weapon because It is narly. I can't wait to play against dad with this thing. Anyway after that we went to the Pinol family's house to enjoy some delicious lasagna and talk about the missionary work and how it's been going. We Invited a bunch of people to game night and left to invite some more. We went by Satpal's house to invite him, but he was sick. He hasn't been doing to good lately. After that we finished set up and started the evening!!! We had a good turn out! We had the McLennan's children, Julia, Anna, und Cian. Marcelo, a less active member came! (He's been coming back to church regularly, and it's super exciting.) Brother Pinol and his daughter Lorena came! We also had an investigator from the sisters there! And Samir, our recently baptized Russian friend!! (He grew up in Russia, but was born in the middle east somewhere) He is an excellent Ping Pong player. It was lot's of fun! But it was a little sad as well, because pretty much no other members came... But it'll get around better. We just can't give up. One of the goals of the Bishopric this year is to bring the members closer to eachother. To unify. We can't give up on that. They have lot's of love to give. We gave a spiritual thought about how the Holy Ghost can give us pieces to the puzzle of life, if we ask for them. It was very enjoyable. 

The new paddle

Saturday: This day we went to Django's house after studies! (our ward missionary) and had some good Spaghetti! after that the sister shared a thought on how we can better plant the seed of faith in our hearts and nourish it until it becomes a strong tree. An interesting thing his wife noted was that this tree is so strong, it can never fall when it's grown, unless we cut it down ourselves. An interesting observation I think. After that we caught our train to go teach GABRIELE! Our wonderful interested excited investigator. We brought Sister Pinol along, and it was very nice to have a member present. Members always help out so much during lessons. During this lesson we talked about what happens to us after we die. Gabriele is awesome. She told us straight up that she believes everything we've taught her is true. That the Book of Mormon comes from God, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I asked her why, and she said it just makes a whole lotta sense!! She's coming to church next Sunday, and I'm excited. Please pray for her. It's amazing to know something because it fits with your sense of logic, but if she's going to endure, she needs a personal witness of the truth from God. After that the sisters and us went to Hans again. We went on a walk with him, and then threw away ALL of his smoking stuff. Ash trays. Lighters. Cigarettes. tools to make them. Then we spent two hours cleaning his apartment to help get rid of the smell. It was... interesting. The man hadn't cleaned his apartment for... a while. But it was a great evening. 

 

Hans in his newly cleaned kitchen

 

Sunday: On Sunday everything was about missionary work. The talks, the classes, even the investigator class!!! It was crazy. But so cool!!! Afterwards we did some weekly planning (very effective) we have some big plans for the area. And then we were invited to the Bishops house for dinner! It was very good. Chicken with rice and vegetables. We had a great time just talking about the work and experiences we've had. We talked about his mission as well, in Taiwan! The bishop is a very good man. And he helps us out a lot. I look up to him. Haha an interesting thing... Austrians are very honest... He told me I'd gotten fatter, and i think he was only half kidding xD But that's ok!! I had been thinking it for a while... And I'd like to start eating healthier. (Any recipes would be appreciated).

And that was my week!!!

I love you all. I love you Mom. I'm very thankful for the prayers and the support you give me. Please continue to be happy and to live what you believe. And if you just happen to be reading this, and you would like to feel the joy of this Gospel to it's full potential, I could suggest a great book to read and pray about ;) 

I love you all. Have a wonderful week!!