"It's always a great day when you wake up in the Australia Melbourne Mission!" - 9/16/13

Melbourne Mission Moments
September 16, 2013

Am I in America or Australia?

Me and my companion

Mini-Golfing last week for P-Day

"It's always a great day when you wake up in the Australia Melbourne Mission!"

It was a great week this week! On Monday we went to the mission office for a Sisters P-day. It was so fun to be with all the sisters (except 10 who are serving out in the bush) We had a culture day so we all wore lava-lavas (spelling?) and we learned a Tongan dance, a Samoan dance, and some New Zealand games. It was really fun. :) 

Sisters P-Day

Matching Pants :)

Monday night my companion and I made a cake because 3 of the Elders in our zone had birthdays last week. Well, our oven is a piece of junk and it burned the cake so we had to start all over. It was frustrating but hilarious at the same time. We could tell that it was burnt but we tried to cut out the middle of it and see if we could salvage any of it. My companion decided to try a piece of the soft middle part and man her face was hilarious. Haha she made me try it and oh my goodness. So disgusting. It tasted like second-hand smoke. Haha we were laughing so hard we were crying. But we checked the second cake every ten minutes and it turned out well so we had a nice cake to take to district meetings on Tuesday.

Our district meeting on Tuesday was great! We had training on helping our investigators receive revelation through prayer. The spirit was really strong and I learned a ton. I love meetings :) And the best part was that we were able to apply the things that we learned that very night. We had a lesson with an investigator and it went well. We showed him the Restoration video because we thought it would help him understand the restoration better if he had a visual. The lesson went great and at the end of the lesson, we asked him to pray. He didn't want to but we applied our training from that morning and he ended up praying! And it was so good! He is doing really well. He was originally going to be baptized this weekend but we all feel like he is not quite ready yet. There's still a lot that he needs to learn and we really want to make sure he has a personal testimony before he gets baptized so now we're looking more towards a baptism at the end of October. 

Thursday was one of the best days of my mission so far. We had a mission conference with Elder Pearson who is in the Pacific Area presidency. Have I mentioned that I LOVE MEETINGS! Seriously, it was SO good. I heard exactly what I needed to and I learned so much. I feel so much more motivated as a missionary. He spoke for three hours but it honestly felt like one. It was so good. I'll just try to summarize a bit of what he taught us.

·         It's not about your mission- it's about what your mission is preparing you for. 

·         Young women serve missions so they can be strong mothers for those children who are yet to come-- some of Heavenly Father's most faithful spirits.

·         Alma 13:3 is talking about us.

·         It's one thing to have the faith to serve, it's another to have the faith to succeed.

·         We need to be aligned with Heavenly Father: be aligned in purpose, in doctrine, in behavior and in urgency.

·         You can't be who you were and try to embrace your call as a missionary. You have to be willing to change. Don't get caught between what you were and what you want to be. Let go and change!

·         Everyone has the Light of Christ. As missionaries we need to make sure that our light shows so that those we meet can recognize that light.

·         Make things happen instead of watching things happen.

·         You get what you are constantly focused on.

·         It's not about you. Forget yourself and go to work. 

·         There are no average missionaries in the celestial kingdom. Average is the enemy of excellence.

·         Heavenly Father loves His missionaries. When we feel the Holy Ghost, that is Him speaking to you, telling you that you are doing enough. He will let you know just often enough that he loves you and you are enough.

·         "It's always a great day when you wake up in the Australia Melbourne Mission."

·         Happiness has nothing to do with what's going on in your area, there is pure joy in doing this work.

·         Step up and take the mission to the next level.

·         This is a special time where there are more missionaries than ever before. If there was no harvest, why would the Lord double His laborers?

·         It's time to raise your expectations, increase your faith, and sense more urgency about this work. As you work relentlessly, the miracles here will multiply.

·          

That doesn't even do justice to his words. It was SO GOOD! Ah, I loved.

Anyway, the rest of the week was pretty uneventful. Just working hard, doing the work.

First time all eight of us from the MTC have been reunited!

I'm really excited for this week. Today we are having lunch with the whole zone and playing volleyball. Wednesday we get to go to the temple!!! I'm so excited. I feel like I haven't been in forever! Also, we have transfers next week. So we'll find out on Saturday what is happening. I'm hoping that my companion and I stay together and that I can be in this area for one more transfer but I'm really not sure what's going to happen. We'll see. This transfer has gone by SO FAST!!

Are you excited to go to the BYU vs. Utah game? I'm jealous! Cheer loud for BYU for me. They better win. I'll be praying all week that BYU beats Utah. (just kidding, kinda)

I have been doing a lot better this week about focusing on what the Lord thinks of me and what the Lord wants me to do rather than what others think.

Phillip - I'm glad you got to bear your testimony in Sacrament meeting. Here in the AMM we have a goal to always ask the bishop if you can bear your testimony in the first sacrament meeting you have in a ward because then the members will start to know who you are. Having a good relationship with the members is KEY to missionary work. Keep working hard!

Well, that's about it for this week. I love you all so much and I love this work!

Love ya heaps!

Sister Baker xxx