Heaps of fun this week! And pics..you're welcome mom :)

Let's see Monday and Tuesday was tradeoffs OHHHH MY  best day ever. I went with Sister Rollins who's from Arizona and we had so much fun! She's in the Tongan program and we went to heaps of Tongans and Samoans which made my life.

Wednesday we met a potential investigator named Carly (for a week I thought it was Collie because of her accent lawl) SUCH a cool story, i'll tell you more next week! But she's way keen!

Thursday was a blur, my B.

Friday we had interviews with President which was sooo good! I was way nervous but he's so awesome. I really feel like not only was I called to the Australia Sydney South Mission, I was called to my Mission President, President Back :)

Saturday was our ward trunk or treat gig and as you can see us sisters are so lame and didn't dress up. Saipei (means all good) the elders dressed up as a Nephite and Lamanite, lawl. And the other picture there is me and Sister Clark- the senior couple missionary SHE'S DA BEST!

Sunday-wow no words to express. Sunday really is the best day for a missionary because we get to take the sacrament, think back of our mistakes from the week and start fresh again! Like my trainer says, "everthing is either a lesson or a blessing, there's no mistakes" Lot's of lessons were learned this week! Ha.

In other news: Stephanie's baptism is this saturday! Prayers would be greatly appriateted! Opposition is real, today we got a text from her saying she's in the hospital.

Love you fam! Strength and Honor!

Sister Beck

crack up week

What an odd week it has been. Don't have much time but here's a few funny stories to brighten your day :)

We've been doing a lot of door knocking and the other day we went to a flat building and the first person we spoke to was a Jew and she said, "Hi i'm a Jew we're not allowed to talk to you, bye." Hahah and then her neighbor we talked to was from Ghana and I swear the people here think we're immigration or something. The guy had his door open by like an inch and wouldn't even tell us his name haha. But we've been really trying to follow President Uchtdorf's advice "Last door on the 4th floor" We did exactly that and we met Peter who is from Zimbabwe, he was the last door of the building. He was high as but i could see in his eyes how sad he was and how desperate for help he was. We invited him to church and he came! He participated a lot in our class and even cried when one of our investigators (Stephanie) bore her testimony on repentance. It was so good. 

That's all for now here's some pics :)

We visited Thandar and her kids, Angus and Clive last night and ohhhhh boy they were crazyyy, jumping on the walls and ceiling and errything haha. If it looks like I'm in pain in these pics I am haha. It was hard to get them to sit still for a 2 sec pic. Love those boys :)

Sister Beck

It's Monday Already?

What a fast yet incredibly slow week haha. Well for starters, Stephanie is ON DATE (5th of Nov.) and is getting interviewed by our Mission president next week! Prayers would be appreciated. We also have another little guy on date for 12th of Nov, TJ. He's 9, Part member family, Mom is somewhat less active but he has such a strong desire to come to church. The mom, Theresa is a single mother of 8 kids so yeah, of course it's hard to come to church haha. But TJ can't be baptized unless he's come back to church so prayers for him and his family would be great too.

This week in my studies I've found a scripture that has literally changed my life and it's only 3 words. Luke 17:32 "Remember Lot's wife" This scripture refers to the story in Genesis 19 where the city Sodom and Gomorrah is being destroyed because of how wicked it is. Lot and his family was warned by the Lord and given specific instructions in vs. 17 to escape the city and to not turn back. Vs. 26, the family leaves, the city is destroyed, but the wife just barely glances back and is destroyed, along with the city. Crazy right?? This story is powerful! Holy shucks! Right now we're really preparing Stephanie for baptism and focusing on repentance with her. Stephanie's life has been rough, but this story in Genesis teaches us to BURN that old life! And to not look back! Why look back when there's just pain and suffering? Why look back when he's prepared a way for us to repent and not have to keep making the same mistakes? Looking back will only bring you down the hill you've been trying to climb. The only way is to look forward, UP the hill, and look to the Lord. "Look to him in every thought, doubt not, fear not". Remember Lot's wife this week!

Love you all!

Sister Beck

Pic: Me and my girl Steph

I Hate Subject Titles....

So many random things to say.

I'll start with our investigator Stephanie. We put her on date for November 5th! We fasted and prayed hard for that date, and as soon as we said it, Stephanie said that was her year anniversary of when her Grandfather passed away. How would we have known that? We didn't. But Heavenly Father sure did! We testified to her that we know her grandfather would want her to do this (He was a member) and that Heavenly Father chose this date for her. She accepted. Yahoo! Right? Nope. Not yet. So yesterday she came to conference and right before the sunday morning session she came up to us and said that she can't be baptized. She's not ready and not sure if she will ever be because of some personal struggles she's been going through (she's had a rough past, I'll leave it at that). But we told her to not make any decisions, listen to conference, and listen to what the spirit says to her. Guys. She cried during the whole first session. The spirit worked SO much on her. Especially in Linda S. Reeve's talk about repentance. She is officially now set for November 5th. This is the Lord's work. These are his children.  We didn't convince Stephanie to stick with her date, the Lord did. Man, I love being apart of His work. He has his hand in it so much. 

One of my fave talks from Conference was President Uchtdorf's. He gave us the challenge to just sit in awe, and ponder the Lord's plan for His children. Last night I did just that and in our lesson we sang the song "How Great Thou Art" the lyrics it says, "I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed." Isn't it crazy how HUGE the world is? He created the stars, the moon, the GALAXY. Yet his greatest and most beautiful creation was you and me. We are his WORK and GLORY. (Moses 1:39) All of it was created for us. Oh man we take things for granted don't we?! I'd love to invite everyone to pray to their Heavenly Father and thank him for all that he has done. He created this beautiful world for us, he gave us families, he gave us this gospel so that we can live happy lives. WE HAVE SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR!

Fun facts of the week:

1. Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita's talk in Conference, he spoke about an Elder Cowan and he served in my ward! The whole ward has been talking about it, apparently he's a legend and served for like 7 months here. And he's cousins with my companion!

2. We did service at Stephanie's and a huge rock fell from the roof and hit my nose haha. It's swollen as with a few cuts so that's been a conversation starter for finding investigators! Don't worry mom, I'm all good. Just going to bypass pictures of that this week if you don't mind ;)

3. Last night us and the Elders had dinner with Bro. Kalonihea our Ward Mission Leader. They're tongan and they made me eat so much haha. More than any of the other missionaries because I'm white and they're all Poly haha. What a punk. He swears he's gonna make me gain 50 kilos

4. Video is of our lesson with Stephanie last night with our ward member Bro. Sadler. Him and my comp are singing How great thou art in Maori. They're so cool.

Best. Week. Ever.

THANDAR AND ANGUS GOT BAPTIZED AND MY HEART IS SO GIDDY! 

I know I'm so lucky to have gotten two baptisms right away in my mission but I also know that it had nothing to do with me. These two have been prepared by Heavenly Father! Everytime we go to teach them I see that. Ugh what a blessing it has been to be apart of it. I'd love to tell you all about the baptism because it's pretty much been the highlight of my life and week haha. 

So before the baptism there was sooo much opposition, of course right? We couldn't find Thandar a dress or anyone to baptize Thandar. Our Ward Mission Leader very much wanted to baptize her because he's been very involved with their conversion. But the day of her baptism he had to go to a work meeting in Melbourne BUT he decided this was more important and to skip his work meeting. However, his grandmother passed away the following day so he then had to leave to New Zealand to be with his family. With so much discouragement and worry that Thandar would change her mind after facing this opposition, we told Thandar and her response was, "It's okay, I can get baptized by anyone on any day" Thandar just freaking wanted to get baptized no matter what. Gahhh! I love her. She is such an example to me and has such great faith. The day of their baptism was truly amazing. SOO many kpeople in our ward came and legit brought a buffet (not even kidding) of food for afterwards haha blessed those Islanders. My ward is the bomb just saying. They do so much member missionary work. Anyways, the baptism was so humbling to be apart of. Hands down one of my favorite days I've ever lived haha is that an exaggeration?? Nope! My smile was so wide, my face hurt and my eyes were watering (not crying ;) ) when they both went down in the font. Afterwards I spoke to Thandar and asked how she felt and she said, "I feel like a new person, I"m so happy".

Before I peace out I'll quote one of my favorite movies, "The Other Side of Heaven" when the father sends off his missionary to Tonga he says, "For God so Loved the world, He gave his only begotten son. I don't know any one in Tonga to love enough to send my son, but I guess God does." Whether we have a knowledge of it or not, God loves ALL his children. He loves these people in Australia so much, that he called these powerful missionaries that I get to work with to teach His children this message. THAT HE LOVES THEM! What a privilege it is to be His instrument. To bring his children back into the fold. Thandar and Angus's baptism was truly humbling to be apart of.

I love this work I love being a missionary and I love His children in Australia!

Hurrah for Israel!

Sister Beck

Pics: 

Baptism!!

My sistas