January 3rd: So First things first, I have been transferred to Baulkham Hills. My Companion is Elder Sibbett, The same one as my companion from the MTC. It's so awesome. Sorry if I already said that, I don't remember my emails. We have been walking everywhere, and it's so hot here. Way worse than Armidale. We don't really have time to email today because the library was closed on Pday, and today we are taking our lunch hour to email. So we only have an hour. so it will be short. But just to catch up, we have 1 person, Her name is Catelyn, that will be baptized on the 21st of Jan. and this last week we had 3 investigators come to church. I can't really claim the credit for those because I just got here, But Elder Sibbett has been doing some awesome work here and I am excited to be with him this transfer. Just one quick story,
Elder Sibbett
does crazy things to get over his fears. So we got on this bus (we do a
lot of bus contacting), and It was full of people heading to the city
for a party. So Elder Sibbett gets his white board out and tells the
whole bus to listen up. Then he taught them the plan of salvation and
gave them all a card with our number on it. He told them if they wanted
to learn more to call us! Our next "bus Lesson" will be next Wednesday,
and we will be teaching the restoration! I am going to start doing some
crazing things like that to. I need to get over my fears of talking to
people.
I hope you all have a great week,
sorry if I didn't get to send some replies, Ill get to them as soon as I
can! Love you all, and remember, The Lord is in Charge! Follow Him!
Elder Mitchell
So
Seeing as how bus contacting is my new strategy, I've worked on keeping
it spiced up and fun each and every day!!! i've tried so many different
ways of talking to people!!! I'll just list two things i tried.. So i
bring a tiny white board around that fits in my bag... and when i'm
sitting in the bus, i'll whip it out and draw a picture of the person
holding a Book of Mormon... And actually, it has struck up a TON of
conversations!!! but it gets kinda boring after doing that a while!!! so
the other thing i tried was a little bit scary... So there was what we
call a "party bus" where all the party people are headed to the city to
party!!! We happened to get on one of those with a group of 20 year
olds!!! So i whipped out the white board and i hollered out for all of
them to "PLEASE TURN YOUR ATTENTION TO THE WHITE BOARD... WE HAVE A
MESSAGE FOR YOU." So I taught them all the plan of salvation... It
wasn't the best lesson in the world, but it's all about overcoming the
fears!!!! "What is awkward today won't be so awkward tomorrow!!!"
Other
than that!!! Elder Mitchell is the man!! it's so cool to get to serve
with him again, but this time in a real life scenario!!! cool stuff!!!
We have set some really high goals, and we have really high hopes for
this area!!! I think we can do it!!! we've been knocking doors a lot
actually also!!! and it's a blast!!!
We
met back up with john this week!!! he was so happy to see us again!! I
got some pictures with him!!! i'll send them here in a sec!!! Catelyn is
still on track for the 21st of January!!! She sent us a text yesterday
that made our day!!! she's the coolest!!! mannnnnn.. i wish i had longer
to email, but just know that i love you all!!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
 | |||
| Left to Right: Elder Mitchell, Caitlyn Gill, Elder Sibbett |
January 8th: This is Elder Sibbetts email. He writes way better emails than me so I figured I'd just copy and paste (plus its easier than re writing the same story)
Well I have a couple stories I wanted to share today that really let me
know we were in the right place at the right time...
1) Yesterday me and elder mitchell were knocking doors for quite some
time and we were having little to no success... We knocked on one door
and a guy steps out of his house with his 1 year old son. now
here's the miracle... He said that literally right when he heard the
door bell, he was on facebook when he saw a meme of mormon
missionaries sitting across from an "investigator" in the
investigators house.. in the picture the investigator asks just a super
simple question, and the missionaries say "I don't know how to
answer that... We've never gotten this far (referring to the
missionaries never being able to get inside someones door)"... Anyways,
so 3 SECONDS BEFORE we introduced ourselves, he saw that picture
and he felt like he should let us in... He did let us in, but he
wasn't too keen on learning more, but we left him with a SWEET
RESTORATION PAMPHLET so I guess it's all in his hands now!!!
but that was NO COINCIDENCE!!!
2) Me and elder mitchell were sitting at a bus stop when a random guy
walks up to us and says "Hey are you guys from the latter-day
saints?" and then without even waiting to hear the answer, he kept
walking... he walked all the way to the end of the bus stop... Now let
me put a mental image in your mind to kind of describe where we
were at... We were at castle towers bus stop (which is a
mall)... the bus stop is a HUGE loop... okay, at the end of the bus stop
you can take a loop and cross a huge road which will take you to a
little suburb area... okay now back to the story... So when he
got to the end of the bus stop, me and elder mitchell looked at
eachother and we just thought it was the weirdest thing! so I said
"let's sneak around the back way (the other side of the loop) and
we will follow him from a far distance to see where he lives then we
will go knock his door later this week!" so me and elder mitchell
walked off the other side of the bus stop. we couldn't see the
man anymore because there is a huge wall around the entire bus stop
loop where they are building a train or something... to get around the
loop to where we could see him again took us about a 5 minute walk.
but when we got to where we could see him, he was crossing the
huge road and walking in a direction that there was going to be no way
we could meet him. So we decided to take so many back roads
until maybe we could cut him off and find him again. anyways, about
20 minutes later we got kind of lost and we ended up giving up
looking for this man because it was obvious we would never find him.
but this little search brought us to one of our investigators house
named Rosh... When we got to his house me and elder mitchell
thought that maybe there was a reason we followed that man, and maybe we
were supposed to see rosh. So we knock on his door, and his
door was open... There was a huge bottle of liquor on his
table so I had a super overwhelming feeling that maybe he was depressed,
so we knocked his door and yelled out for like 5 minutes hoping he
would come to the door. Me and elder mitchell both had a strong
impression that we were supposed to wait for him so we sat down on his
lawn for like 5-10 minutes and tried calling his number. he didn't
answer but we still felt impressed that we were supposed to wait.
Rosh texted us and said he couldnt talk because he was busy, so we
just decided to leave. We then took some back roads trying to find the
main road again when all of a sudden we see a man in a red shirt
about a quarter of a mile away.. The other guy we met at the bus stop
was wearing a red shirt, so we picked up our pace... When we got
closer to him, we figured out that it was the same guy! so we hollered
out to him and went up to him... We asked what he was doing and he
said his wife was angry at him so she walked all the way from
their house down a different street to sit on that ledge, and he
followed her... so we talked with him a little bit and shared a quick
message.... Now i dont know what is going to come of that, but I do
know that it was NO COINCIDENCE!! There's no coincidence that we waited
at rosh's house so long trying to see him... there's no coincidence
that we took some back streets that we've never been on before to
get to the main highway, and there's no coincidence that the man's
wife just randomly decided to choose a ledge to sit on that is quite a
distance from their house!!! It was an absolute miracle NO
DOUBT!!!
End of elder sibbetts email.
I also wanted to tell yous that Elder
Sibbett and I have an investigator that we are stuggling to teaching. He
thinks we just want to hang out with him and its really hard to teach
anything. He'll talk about religous stuff all day, but we hadn't been
able to teach anything past faith in Jesus Christ. So we decided to
invite him to a lesson with Catelyn (Our investigator to be Baptized on
the 21st of January) He agreed. Now, This lesson was.......... The Law
of Chastity" The lesson went well and they both agreed to live it! and
Then we opened it to questions and BOY WAS THERE A LOT OF QUESTIONS! And
they were really awesome questions! Long story short, Nipun (the other
investigator) is really pumped to go to Catelyn's Baptism and He asked
if we can teach him the other lessons that Catelyn already has taken! it
was so awsome!
I
hope you all have a wonderful week, and Hey, Do some missionary work!
Help out the full timers! Trust me they will appreciate it! I love you
all heaps!
Love,
Elder Mitchell
P.S. If you have time look up the Bill Carpenter conversion story on youtube. Its really good!
January 15th:
Hello
family and Friends! I hope all is well and you took me up on my offer
to do some missionary work. If you have any miracles to share I'd love
to hear about them! I just wanted to share one miracle Elder Sibbett and
I experienced this week: We were following up with former investigators
in the area book, and were on our way to one house when I felt like we
should visit a different name in the area book. I expressed this thought
to Elder Sibbett and he felt the same so we changed our course and went
to this house. We knocked on the door and the man at the side of the
house recogniszed us and came to greet us. We told him we were looking
for Puya and He said it was him. He told us what a coincidence
that was because he no longer lived there and had just been passing by
when he had the thought to stop by. He then proceeded to give us his
Details and when we could meet with him without any inquiry from us! It
was so cool that he even recognized the miracle of that day!
We
have also been praying that one of our investigators will be able to
find his own flat so he can be free from his uncles religion(Hinduism).
This week he found a job and a flat right next to his university. He
told us it was the best thing he could have hoped for. He loves the
lessons we teach him and he love our Savior even more. He now has the
opportunity to act on his faith and be baptized!
Oh yeah and Catelyn is going to be baptized this week! Ill let you all know how it goes next week!
Love you all! Have an awesome week. If you didn't see any Miracles this week, Look harder this week. They are there!
Love
Elder Mitchell
January 22nd: We had our first baptism this week! It was a heaps cool experience! Catelyn is now a member of the church! But what I want to share is an experience I had because of that. We were tracting and we knock on this door and the guy opens it and immediately closes it. So i Decided that I wanted to ask him if he had any friends that might be interested in our message. So we put our fingers on our upper lips (so you could have a moustache disguise) and Knock again. Well long story short this guy doesn't have the same sense of humour that elder sibbett and I do. He was actually really rude. so we were feeling a little down and as we were walking we got a text from Catelyn. she told us that she was driving around and thinking about her newfound membership in the church and she felt this overwhelming spirit. She said she felt it stronger than she ever had before and that she was so happy that she decided to join the church. She said she felt she needed to share that with us. Well, that was all we needed to stop feeling sorry for ourselves about the rude guy. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways, but He is always there!
January 29th: So the beginning of this week wasn't the best, and we were definitely not on tract to accomplish any of our goals, but halfway through the week we decided to change our attitude and we smashed a couple of our goals! It was really awesome to see that it really is all about attitude. Elder Sibbett has come up with a strategy, every hour we take a break and think positivley for 5 minutes. it sounds like magic, but it actually works. I think that, along with our increased scripture study that we are doing as a companionship is really working for us.
January 22nd: We had our first baptism this week! It was a heaps cool experience! Catelyn is now a member of the church! But what I want to share is an experience I had because of that. We were tracting and we knock on this door and the guy opens it and immediately closes it. So i Decided that I wanted to ask him if he had any friends that might be interested in our message. So we put our fingers on our upper lips (so you could have a moustache disguise) and Knock again. Well long story short this guy doesn't have the same sense of humour that elder sibbett and I do. He was actually really rude. so we were feeling a little down and as we were walking we got a text from Catelyn. she told us that she was driving around and thinking about her newfound membership in the church and she felt this overwhelming spirit. She said she felt it stronger than she ever had before and that she was so happy that she decided to join the church. She said she felt she needed to share that with us. Well, that was all we needed to stop feeling sorry for ourselves about the rude guy. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways, but He is always there!
We have also had heaps of other miracles this week, Id just like to share one more, for lack of time.
We
had tradeoffs this week and I have been struggling with getting over my
fear of talking to people. well on tradeoffs I had one of the worst
days of it. It was just a really bad day for Elder Mitchell. So my
awesome District leader talked to me about ways I can try to become
better. we decided some goals for me and then the Zone leaders texted
and said they wanted to do tradeoffs with us the next day. With my goals
in mind I went finding with the most fearless missionary I have ever
met! I dont think there was a single person he had the opportunity to
talk to that he let pass by. This attitude of his motivated me to talk
to people too. I have never talked to so many strangers in my life. and I
have been doing better ever since then! I have to say it was probably a
turning point in my mission. I guess it just clicked. anyways I love
you all heaps and I am thankful for your prayers and love. I wish you
all the best week of your life! And dont for get to send me your
miracles ( Shout out to Braxton Bingham for being the only one to share
his miracle)
Love you all heaps
Elder Mitchell
January 29th: So the beginning of this week wasn't the best, and we were definitely not on tract to accomplish any of our goals, but halfway through the week we decided to change our attitude and we smashed a couple of our goals! It was really awesome to see that it really is all about attitude. Elder Sibbett has come up with a strategy, every hour we take a break and think positivley for 5 minutes. it sounds like magic, but it actually works. I think that, along with our increased scripture study that we are doing as a companionship is really working for us.
Sorry
I have run out of time. Ill try to do better next week. I love you
all. remember that it is the members job to find and the missionaries
job to teach. Dont be afraid to do your part. Love you!
Elder Mitchell
February 5th: Hello all,
I am getting transferred to a place called Doonside. It is
in a stake called Hebersham. Hebersham is where all the Polynesians
live, so I'm excited about that! I will 100% gain weight tho! I might
learn how to speak Tongan too;) My new companions name is Elder Alonzo.
He is Filipino and he is a pro boxer! He trained with Manny Pacquiao ,
so I am going to do my best to not make him mad!
I
am really sad to be leaving Elder Sibbett. I learned a lot from him
about how to be a better missionary. We also had a lot of fun. Just one
quick thing, We have an investigator named Nipun that had been meeting
with us. He kinda dropped off the radar for a while and we were really
worried about him. we finally got another appointment with him and
Catelyn (our recent convert) and played a little basketball. We also had
a lesson afterwards. We started talking about baptism and his concerns
about it. then all of the sudden Catelyn bore her testimony of baptism,
without us even asking her. Nipun then accepted the challenge and
decided to be baptized on the 25th of Feb. it was so awesome!!
We
also did service on Saturday! It was so fun! we got to use a crane and
Elder Sibbett and I were on top of a connex box hooking the crane up to
the stuff. The wife threw us up some mangos and we just had to bite into
them! it was really fun tho. Then we had heaps of tarro and it was so
good! I hope I get strong from it now!
I love you all!! wish me luck in Hebersham, I dont want to get fat!! But I'm heaps excited for the new adventure!
Ofa lahi atu!
Elder Mitchell
P.S. I forgot my camera, but there are some new pictures on the drive! Sorry!
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