Melbourne Mission Moments
I feel so grateful to be a missionary. I am constantly amazed at
how much Heavenly Father blesses me. Every single day I am seeing miracles,
large and small. All of these miracles increase my testimony that Heavenly
Father is mindful of His missionaries.
Perhaps one of the biggest miracles is serving with Sister S. I absolutely adore her. Right from day one, things with her have gone so well. Our personalities complement each other so perfectly and we truly enjoy being companions. We are not just companions but we truly are sisters. Another thing that is such a blessing of our companionship is that we both want to work hard and be obedient. Being on the same page in that aspect is so nice. It's easier to stay positive and dig your heels in when your companion feels the same way. Working our hardest and trying to be exactly obedient has paid off so much. In the past 6 weeks our teaching pool has more than doubled. Heavenly Father has literally put people in our path who are prepared for this gospel.
On Monday we had dinner with a family here. They made the most delicious salad with steak pieces in it. I can't even really describe it but it was so good. Three types of lettuce, carrots, radishes, green onion, cilantro, the steak. Ah, it was so good! After that we got to go teach a guy we met at the train station and he actually started talking to us. When we got to his house, he had a lot of questions and had printed out tons of stuff from Wikipedia about Mormons. Luckily, he was willing to put that aside and listen to us and we had a wonderful lesson about the Restoration. He loves scripture and was really excited about the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately he actually lives in the other Sister's area so we have to pass him over to them.
Tuesday we had district meeting and then an investigator met us at the chapel and we were able to have a great lesson with her. She is so open with her thoughts and feelings. The Elders were able to give her a priesthood blessing which was perfect! After that we had a lesson with our 12-year old young woman. She wants to be baptized on January 4th! She is so great! I love that girl.
Wednesday we were able to do some service for a less active woman in our ward which was good. I love being able to serve people and show them that we truly love them! Our dinner appointment for Wednesday night canceled and we were STARVING but we didn't have enough Ks to drive back to the flat so we decided to splurge and buy dinner at a place called Nandos. Holy cow. Best chicken burger I've ever had in my entire life. So yummy. Haha but after that we went to see the Egyptian family. Since they speak Arabic, there is a bit of a language barrier and we only get about one and a half principles taught each time. We are trying really hard to find a member who speaks Arabic but so far we haven't had much luck. However, even with the language barrier, they have such a love for us. We have really gained their trust and they love to have us in their home. After a short lesson, they told us they had dinner for us. They put two HUGE plates of food on the table. I was thinking that was the food for everyone to share. But no, it was just for us. One big plate for me and one for Sister Stevenson. It was fried fish. So we sat down and started to eat and you better believe Heavenly Father was helping me eat that fish. But it was SO MUCH FOOD and we had already eaten dinner. And the craziest part? I'm assuming it's part of their culture but they left us completely alone to eat and went in the other room. Occasionally she would come and say, "eat! eat!" Haha it was crazy. I was honestly trying so hard not to just bust up laughing because the whole situation was so crazy. Needless to say, we both finished the food and I've never been so full in my entire life. Hahaha gotta love being a missionary and EVERYONE wanting to feed you.
Thursday night was the ward Relief Society activity and our Egyptian mom came! It was so good to see her there and for her to make friends with more women in the ward! The activity was really great too! They did food demos on how to make sugared almonds, ranch dressing, chocolate sauce, and home-made ice cream. All of the recipes were really easy and everyone loved it!
Perhaps one of the biggest miracles is serving with Sister S. I absolutely adore her. Right from day one, things with her have gone so well. Our personalities complement each other so perfectly and we truly enjoy being companions. We are not just companions but we truly are sisters. Another thing that is such a blessing of our companionship is that we both want to work hard and be obedient. Being on the same page in that aspect is so nice. It's easier to stay positive and dig your heels in when your companion feels the same way. Working our hardest and trying to be exactly obedient has paid off so much. In the past 6 weeks our teaching pool has more than doubled. Heavenly Father has literally put people in our path who are prepared for this gospel.
On Monday we had dinner with a family here. They made the most delicious salad with steak pieces in it. I can't even really describe it but it was so good. Three types of lettuce, carrots, radishes, green onion, cilantro, the steak. Ah, it was so good! After that we got to go teach a guy we met at the train station and he actually started talking to us. When we got to his house, he had a lot of questions and had printed out tons of stuff from Wikipedia about Mormons. Luckily, he was willing to put that aside and listen to us and we had a wonderful lesson about the Restoration. He loves scripture and was really excited about the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately he actually lives in the other Sister's area so we have to pass him over to them.
Tuesday we had district meeting and then an investigator met us at the chapel and we were able to have a great lesson with her. She is so open with her thoughts and feelings. The Elders were able to give her a priesthood blessing which was perfect! After that we had a lesson with our 12-year old young woman. She wants to be baptized on January 4th! She is so great! I love that girl.
Wednesday we were able to do some service for a less active woman in our ward which was good. I love being able to serve people and show them that we truly love them! Our dinner appointment for Wednesday night canceled and we were STARVING but we didn't have enough Ks to drive back to the flat so we decided to splurge and buy dinner at a place called Nandos. Holy cow. Best chicken burger I've ever had in my entire life. So yummy. Haha but after that we went to see the Egyptian family. Since they speak Arabic, there is a bit of a language barrier and we only get about one and a half principles taught each time. We are trying really hard to find a member who speaks Arabic but so far we haven't had much luck. However, even with the language barrier, they have such a love for us. We have really gained their trust and they love to have us in their home. After a short lesson, they told us they had dinner for us. They put two HUGE plates of food on the table. I was thinking that was the food for everyone to share. But no, it was just for us. One big plate for me and one for Sister Stevenson. It was fried fish. So we sat down and started to eat and you better believe Heavenly Father was helping me eat that fish. But it was SO MUCH FOOD and we had already eaten dinner. And the craziest part? I'm assuming it's part of their culture but they left us completely alone to eat and went in the other room. Occasionally she would come and say, "eat! eat!" Haha it was crazy. I was honestly trying so hard not to just bust up laughing because the whole situation was so crazy. Needless to say, we both finished the food and I've never been so full in my entire life. Hahaha gotta love being a missionary and EVERYONE wanting to feed you.
Thursday night was the ward Relief Society activity and our Egyptian mom came! It was so good to see her there and for her to make friends with more women in the ward! The activity was really great too! They did food demos on how to make sugared almonds, ranch dressing, chocolate sauce, and home-made ice cream. All of the recipes were really easy and everyone loved it!
Friday night we had dinner and a lesson with a Romanian couple
that we are teaching. They are so funny! Seriously, they are always talking in
Romanian or saying the most random things and I just laugh. They made us some
Romanian thing but it was basically just scones but it was good! At one point
they started talking about Mr. Bean's Holiday and he said,
"you must be a genius to play such an idiot." I don't know why but I
found that so funny! Haha
Saturday afternoon we were doing some finding before our dinner
appointment and it started to rain. We only had about 10 minutes left so we
easily could have just quit and gone to the car but we decided to keep going.
As we got to the last house, it had literally started to pour. But in that
house was a family! They agreed to have us come back this week! Such a
blessing!
Church yesterday was great! Our young friend that had the brain tumor
was able to come with her Auntie which was awesome and our 12-year investigator old came
too! Unfortunately the Egyptian family didn't come because there was some event
happening at their church that they were involved in and couldn't miss.
Sacrament meeting was great. They had a lot of the seminary kids speak and the
seminary teacher. It made me really grateful I was able to go to seminary as
part of school instead of going at the crack of dawn every morning! The lesson
in RS was really great! It was on Pres. Monson's talk from Priesthood session
of General Conference about home teaching. Instead they focused more on
visiting teaching. I determined to ALWAYS do my visiting teaching, no matter
what.
Overall it was a great week! I hope you all have a wonderful
Thanksgiving this week. I wish I could be there but at the same time, I would so much rather be here!We are going to make Thanksgiving lunch at our flat on
Thursday! I am so grateful to be a missionary and to have the gospel in my
life. I am grateful for such an amazing family that is so supportive and
AWESOME! I am grateful for the atonement and the ability that it gives each of
us to change and be better.
Love you all HEAPS!
Sister Baker
Phillip- Ocean! Lucky! I hope you love your new area! Are you
having a hard time believing that it's almost December? I definitely am. I
don't think being away for Christmas will be that hard because it doesn't feel
real. It feels like people are pretending. Keep working hard! And don't swim in
the ocean. (It's in the handbook.) :)
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