Transfers are coming up again -- they will be next weekend, so the next time I email I will have found out what will happen. I'm finishing up with training (1st two transfers) and there are a number of possibilities on what will happen next--I could stay in the area, or move to the city or down to Gold Coast. My companion and I are somewhat of wild cards, in that either of us could go anywhere, while there are other missionaries where we are pretty sure they will move out of their areas and into EMP. The AP from the Chinese program will likely come out of the office as well.
This past week has been good, we continued to retain good numbers and added a few new investigators as well. Right now we have an interesting mix of investigators -- besides the one which will be baptized soon, we have one or two we meet with regularly but don't have much desire or potential, and many others who have great potential but are busy all the time. For example, just last week I met at the bus stop a student from Guangzhou (in China, near Hong Kong), who is very keen on learning from us but is currently working on a 80 page paper everyday and will go back to China for Chinese New Year ( Chinese New Year last a month, starting in early February -- it is based on the lunar calendar). Another, the miracle investigator I mentioned a few weeks ago, has been busy being trained for a job he just started, which requires him to travel back and forth from Gold Coast regularly (it takes about an hour to commute there and another to get back every day).
Nevertheless, Elder Lee and I experienced a few miracles while finding -- most of the miracles on your mission are from finding. Last week, one day we planned to visit a less active who Elder Lee had been spending weeks to track down the address of. We went to his house but he wasn't there -- but the family who owned the house was, and invited us in! They talked to us, gave us some steamed pork buns to eat (they had just finished their own lunch), and expressed interest in us coming back.
Another time, we were planning on visiting a family we tracted into previously but they weren't home. One our way walking out of the neighborhood, Elder Lee remembered a home we had tracted the first time we visited the neighborhood, where the parent's hadn't been at home at the time so we said we'd come by another time. We went their, knocked on the door, and lo and behold, the father was home and immediately invited us in! It's especially amazing because the father is rarely home. They are Christian, but have lost trust in the pastor of the church they currently attend. Elder Lee taught them how in our church, all of our leaders and teachers are members like us, without pay from tithing, and the father was very interested. He will hopefully be coming to church next week.
The biggest even of all last week, however, was the "Southern Zone Conference." All of the zones south of Brisbane city got together on Thursday and had a training with Elder Watson of the Quorum of the Seventy. Elder Watson said that he had been asked by the Twelve and the First Presidency to talk about the new Sunday School Curriculum, and gave a "doctrinal training" on the Godhead, the subject for January. We discussed the nature, roles, and more for Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, and I learned quite a bit. Sister Watson taught about how to use the Articles of Faith in our teaching, which was quite useful as well.
Elder Lee and I have decided to go out with a bang this week, since this will most likely be our last transfer together. We have our first baptism scheduled for next weekend and we hope to do well in every other area as well.
Take care, everyone! Make sure study scriptures and pray every day! If you do those two simple things, much of the stress and worries of life lose their strength.
Elder J. Colton Ladd
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