Elder Dane Sargeant: "And My Father Dwelt in a Tent" (Feb 23)

G'day!!!

Who would have thought... one simple phrase like "And my father dwelt in a tent" could change my entire view of missionary work!

I'm just grateful for tents... or OUR HOMES!!!! :) I'd explain more but... too many stories to tell.

Our home was broken into!! (But not by people..... by insects)

Well, to start out, we had to bomb our flat this Sunday. Literally, we got cans of "ANTI BUG" stuff to spray while we were gone so all the bugs would die. Summer in Australia means... Redbacks (Black Widows), White tails, Bull Ants, flies, beatles, and anyhting else you can think of... COMES INTO THE FLAT.

Elder Tojong got bit on the finger by a bull ant this week too! He woke up at about 5:35am and was walking around. Then we shook his mattress and all the bedding on top of it. I woke up a bit annoyed but soon watched as we looked around. I thought to myself "Oh dang.. if he got bit by a spider I'm flipping out of this bed." However, he shined his torch around the place and went to the bathroom to investigate his finger. Turns out, it was just an ant, no spiders... BUT THE ANT IS MASSIVE AS!!! It has pincers about 1/4 the size of it's entire body, which spans about 2.5-3cm or 1-1.4 inches or so. Thing is massive. WE found it on the curtain right above my bed. Luckily, we snipped it in half with some scissors.

THEN, we found that there was a White Tail on our ceiling. That thing is one of the most deadly spiders in Australia. It's Necrotic, meaning it eats flesh with it's poison if not treated quickly. Far out... I beat that thing to a pulp on the ground. THEN, near the Air con there was a red back, ANOTHER MASSIVE AND DEADLY SPIDER. When I say massive, it's like the size of a half dollar basically, but it's just nasty looking. We smashed that thing to pieces as well.

Boom.

Well, Elder Worsencroft and I got a bit discouraged one day, or maybe it was more me. We tracted for about 2 hours straight before our tea appointment because we got pants by our investigators, (meaning they just dropped us or dodged our appointments) and every...single...person... slammed doors in our face. We didn't give out a single thing. However, the way back up the street we talked to this guy name Adrian. He was kind, not interested... but he took a Restoration Pamphlet and let me tell you that made such a big difference. That gave me hope for the next time we went out.

Sunday came, we had some time after church to either sit around before tea, or go tracting. We decided to go tracting. Of the four houses we went to... two of them weren't home, and the other two were KEEN AS!!!! One is named Emma Wilson. She, that day, had read her scripture readings for the first time in over 2 years. She said she wanted to find God again, and that her other churches weren't for her. Boom we talked to her about what we believe, shared some laughs, and next thing you know she says what we LOVE to hear "Well, I was reading this morning... now you're here. Right boys, sign me up. Where's your church?"

BOOM!!!!! What a wonderful thing to hear!!!!! Man, I'm so grateful for diligence. Heavenly Father just flippin provides a way. When you work hard, are obedient, He always makes up for our faults and our hardships.

It was an awesome week. I'm out of time... but LOVE YOU ALL HEAPS.

By the way... here is a bull ant