Hey y’all!
Perks of being in Australia: The library is still open on President’s Day for me to email people. Haha Foreign blessings. 🙂
This week was… good. It’s always a good week. Tuesday after P-day we were able to spend some time with our Bishop and his family. It was so much fun. I’m so grateful to be in a place where the members are so wonderful. On Wednesday we went with our beloved Evelyn (one of the YW here. She’s American and is so brilliant she just graduated High School at the ripe old age of 16!!! We’re trying to convince her to go to USU in August!) to go see some people. And we finally saw Terry again! He’s alive! We haven’t seen him or Leanne for weeks! We had a lesson with him and scheduled an appointment for next week. Hopefully he’ll keep it.
We were able to see a less active sister that we have been trying to catch for months and set up another appointment with her, so that was pretty awesome! We had a lesson with Dianna which was really great as well. Then we went and helped Sister Edwards get everything ready for the primary activity on Saturday. We made two ark posters and I drew a life size Goliath. It was really fun(:
Saturday was quite the day. It was the Primary activity so we were helping out. And we were able to join in with the kids for the final water fight between the Lamanites and the Nephites. Well, they just PLASTERED us with water balloons! We were just soaked haha by all of these little children that I thought were my friends! They even played a trick on Sister Stott where three of them ran up to her to give her a group hug, but it was so they could hold her down so they could destroy her with the water guns!! Hahaha it was hilarious!!! The elders and I could NOT stop laughing! Haha! It was actually ridiculously hot that day, and since missionaries can’t go swimming the kids were actually doing us a favour. And we dried within 10 minutes because of the heat, so it all worked out. 🙂 After the activity, we went downtown to try to find people to teach. It was a multicultural festival so we just started handing out pamphlets and talking to everyone since it wasn’t weird to do it there. It was really fun and we actually found two people that seemed pretty keen. 🙂 Then we went and saw our Nana Julie and that was nice. Her neighbour wasn’t harassing us either, so that’s a good sign. 🙂 (I can’t remember if I mentioned before, but Nana Julie has this crazy drunk lady for a neighbour. And last week when we went to visit her she threatened us and poor Nana. And she had to call the cops on her.. it was scary. But this week seems more peaceful and so all is well in zion!)
Sunday was great! It was Valentine’s Day which people don’t really celebrate it here.. and it really means nothing when you’re a missionary 😉 Church was really good though, lots of inspiration. I adore the Sabbath! Nothing beats the peace in your heart as you partake of the sacrament(: And after church a family that we’re close to invited us over for a nice Valentines dinner with them! The men were in charge, so of course we had…. steaks and potatoes (haha #exvegetarianprobs) and idk if I’ve mentioned it, but my lactose intolerance has gone through the roof here in Aussieland haha :/ I
​now ​can’t even eat a square of milk chocolate without feeling like I’m going to die haha and so dinner last night was A LOT of dairy.. with the potatoes, the gravy on the steak, and then they gave us two slices of cheesecake at the end D: it was beautiful and so so so kind and I love them for it!! But man oh man, I got so sick! haha but all for the love of the Lord right?!? lol Sister Stott is gluten intolerant too so it’s an interesting companionship haha but we don’t​ get to​ eat at​ ​member’s houses everyday like we did in Texas. There’s a rule here to keep the missionaries from bumming at member’s houses all night, so we can only eat at member’s house M-W unless they invite a non-member or Less-active to eat with us.. it’s going good haha and I’ve survived this long without eating horse or vegemite!! Woohoo! but it’s all good! the produce here is AWESOME! and because we don’t eat at member’s houses all the time it’s easier to avoid dairy and meat(: which…….. speaking of vegetarianism……… our new Elder’s Quorum President, Bro. Mahe’s family is all vegetarian and wanna know what he pointed out to me this week?? (This is for all yous who tried to use D&C section 89 against me​ during my tenure as your favorite vegetarian chick​… lol 😉
Doctrine and Covenants 89
12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;
13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.
Hmm.. would ya look at that! I guess the Lord DOES love vegetarians best 😉 ha I’m just kidding, but I’d never read it that way before and I think Bro. Mahe pointed out gold! (: haha I love the Gospel!
Well other than that.. our week has been pretty good! After visiting the family for dinner last night, we went to see a couple of our investigators that said they’d come to church and then didn’t… and we were able to set appointments with them. It was a good night. 🙂
I hope your week brings you miracles and that the Lord is with you always!!
Much love,
Sister Swan 🍍
​(sorry don’t have any pics for yous this week… next week for sure!)