WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?!?!? (Oct 26)

G'day all!

 

 

I've lost my knack for catchy titles so... I'll just pretend that crazy stuff happened. Well, it really did!!

 

This week was mainly spent going and helping the north district and going on exchanges. Let me tell you... there is nothing more enjoyable then going with a fresh missionary... who is straight from China... and hasn't learned much English. It was crack up as. After every conversation with people he'd always ask "so what did they say??" I would just chuckle, but seeing him teach by the Spirit really made me miss those days as a green missionary. You don't have much, so you MUST rely on Heavenly Father!!

 

 

Wednesday we got to fly to the City and GQ! I met some people from Maryland who were less active members and had some really good conversations with them. That was a recharge. I love sharing the Gospel, even if they aren't super keen. I'm doing what makes me happy, and what makes Heavenly Father happy... giving people a chance for THEIR own happiness and peace.

 

 

Well one cool thing that happened was with one of the Recent converts named Jess. She has been working with someone for about 1 month now and he wants to be baptised!!!! I'll share more next week. His name is Luke and he is the man,

 

it was a great week. We had a district p-day [Gabe here, p-day means preparation day] and I'll attach some photos!

 

 

Sorry this is short.... Lame.

Trail of Trials Sprinkled with Blessings (Oct 19)

G'day all.

Mum, this email will be directed to you, but also for everyone as I have no time left for two separate ones!

What a week this past week has been. Let me tell you of the struggle we had but of the many many miracles as well! Cheery and cheer is the attitude I tried to have but it was stressful. We had a sad situation come up where the beloved Ebbi, Jeff's partner, could not get baptised yet. However, she will be one of these days. That I promise. The hardest bit was that it was a mix of all of us that caused it, but we had the power to stop it sooner and missed it. That's okay. Through the rough Friday-Saturday we both felt like hands were smashing our minds with stress. I remember thinking to myself "what the heck... this is terrible." Then, I had a cool experience.

I was writing in my journal, being a bit pessimistic about the situation, and then I just recalled some things that happened amongst our week of trials.

1st- Adrian, one of our progressing investigators has been SMASHING through the Book of Mormon. He loves the scriptures and finds so much peace from reading them. We were able to meet with him after he was sick with the flu and taught a good Restoration lesson to him. He was keen to watch the DVD as well haha.

2nd-- We were blessed with meeting a very nice girl at the bus mall one day named Isabel. She is 16 but looked about 25 and was so nice to us. We chatted for a bit and then started to talk about her beliefs. She wants to know what everything si all about. She believes in something because having nothing after this life doesn't make sense to her. She the bus pulled up, she gave us her number and said "Make sure you call me!"

3rd- one of our recent converts (before I got here) named Jess Roberts decided to come back to church again! That was awesome. We missed have her. It was really cool mum, because she is the type of person that you can talk to about everything and she can make it real for you. It was nice to have her back at church again.

4th-- The weather was beautiful!

5th-- We ran up the hill in back of our flat in under 15 minutes. We accomplished our goal!

6th-- We had 7 people come to church on Sunday which was really cool. 4 of them were from a family we're trying to teach. Their names are Lucy, 12, Thomas, 11, Ebony, 15, and her best friend Bianca, 15. They are AWESOME AND LOVED CHURCH!!!!

We really were blessed... even when the hard parts came. It's crazy when you are so disappointed that you feel sick inside and yet are strengthened. I felt the love of Heavenly Father for us.

55 seconds!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

There ARE blessings even in the hard days.

-Elder Sargeant

I wish I had a catchy title, but I don't (Oct 12)

G'day all!

I just had a sobering and pretty crazy experience. I was told that I only have 5 more Fast Sundays before I come home. What the heck?!?!

Well, until then, we buckle down and GO HARD.

This week was good. We had heaps of appointments that kept us busy and some little miracles that made my day. 

One thing, I have received a couple ties for my birthday and HOW AWESOME ARE YOU FOR KNOWING I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!!!! 

1-- The Bowleys. I love this family. miss you heaps. thank you for remembering I'm 21... and that I can do what I want, especially with such a legit power tie in my collection.

2-Jebbi, AKA Jeff and Ebbi, the coolest people around. They bought me, and got the tie embroidered with "The Sarge" on the front in green. HOLY COW YOU ARE THE BEST. I'm wearing it at my wedding, not question.

Well, this week was pretty good. We had a cool little miracle with some people we are teaching, or trying to teach. Their names are Sharon and Michael and their 9 kids!

Yeah... 9 kids. So Ebony, Lucy, Thomas, Byron (Heath you'd like that one aye), Haiden, Harry, Archie, and Amber, and Nakita...<-- just met her so I can't remember her spelling. Anyway, they are AWESOME and love learning about God and Jesus Christ. We had a bring family prayer together, though the parents don't want to learn much, but they were so sincere and fun. We played the "guns game" to pick who prayed and they all were excited. My favorite part was when they all committed to pray together that night and every night. It was awesome!

One of my favourite experiences this week was after the Saturday General Conference Afternoon Session. We went to go see a Less active family and we watched a movie called "To this end was I born." It's a Bible video of the Savior and it touched my heart deeply to see Him and what He did for us. After, the 3 little kids all said prayers asking for help they needed and my goodness it was humbling. Their pure intents and desire to have "less bullys" and "help with spelling" was so sincere, it made me think of my prayers and if they are as sincere and heartfelt as Piper and Holly's were. 

Well, other than that... one milestone we had was running up the back of this mountain behind our flat in under 14 minutes! We shaved off like 2 1/2 minutes from our previous attempts. We were stoked.

The work moves forward each day! Conference was an awesome experience and I hope you all continue to apply those things learned. REFLECT ON THEM ALWAYS!... I never seem to do enough.

LOVE YOU ALL THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES!!!

-Elder Dane Sargeant

On our way to Zone meeting---Elder Campbell, Chen and Me!

Round 4 DING DING (Oct 5)

G'day all!!

Another 6 weeks in Heaven WOO! Got the news and we're staying here for another 6 weeks together. It'll be a miraculous time, and a growing one. We have about 3 fresh missionaries coming in to be trained and it's going to be wonderful to bask in their Spirit. I love new missionaries. I remember the time I first came to Australia and how much you rely on the Spirit in all things... and you can mess with them ;) HA jokes.

Anyway, this week was HECTIC AS! We had a MLC meeting in Melbourne and were able to fly safely there and back. Here is the fun part. On our way home, we were in the airport for 5 hours because of a delay. The engines wouldn't start! We finally got home at about 2:30am and then slept for 3 hours to go to another meeting in the North part of Tasmania. We brought our Recent Convert Sean Emerson. I love this man. He inspired us all and was able to give a speech about how he views us a missionaries.

I love what he says: "You guys saved my life. You're super heroes. You don't see the impact you do. You go out, teach, work hard, and you don't even know the impact you have on our lives. You reach people. You save them."

I was deeply touched. Never have I been called a super hero for being a missionary. It's a blessing and it has shown. We had a cool experience with one of our new investigators named Adrian! We knocked on his door about 2 weeks ago and tried to go back and see him the next day. Long story short... he wasn't there. My companion had the thought to go visit him on Friday and he opened the door immediately. He was saying how he wanted to come to church and get God back in his life again. He has had a loss of his Father in his life, his girlfriend take her own life, and he is searching for answers and forgiveness. What a humble man. We felt so much love for him and he let us come back on Saturday. We taught him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, about forgiveness, and about being baptised. I invited him to be baptised and I felt this love overcome me. I knew that it was the love that God had for him! He said Yes, and he is KEEN AS!!

He came to church and Loved every second of it. He was a bit shy, but we got him his own scriptures and he was so excited to read them. He loves the Book of Mormon already and has read 4 chapters in 1 day.

Blessings!!!!

So, crazy story about one of our Recent converts named Jeff and soon to be Ebbi!!

Jeff got up and bore his testimony! WHAT A GANGSTA!!!!1 HE was like "Fellas... should I get up?" We encouraged him and he got up and did it. He's the man. Now, Ebbi... she is AWESOME and still continuing to shed her light. She brought her sister to church and I think she enjoyed it!

Dan and Sam are good too! Dan got a Moroni tie and tie clip. He looks like a missionary.

Life is good. Blessings are rolling! I'm grateful for the Gospel. It's true... learn about it and LIVE IT!

Love you all!

-Elder Sargeant