Whew, it was a looong week. Haha, we ran out of food last Sunday because we didn't realize that it was temple P-day, so we got permission from our Zone Leaders to buy pick up a few necessities (Milk, bread, toilet paper) to last until today.
A few interesting things happened this past week. Last Tuesday was my first ever district meeting. It was funny to be holding our own little meeting at the church since we all live together anyways -- we biked to the church together, had district meeting, then went back home together. I also learned that 4 people makes for a very small meeting. I trained on working with members, because the Sunday before we had talked to bishop about creating a Ward Mission Plan for next year. We discussed how we would work with the ward council and with members as well. All in all, I at least learned a little more about how to conduct them in the future... haha.
On Sunday we had Stake conference at the Brisbane City Hall! The city hall is Brisbane's oldest and most well-known landmark, it is even part of the Brisbane City Council (the local government) logo. It was interesting to be there for a church meeting. Apparently, meetings were held there in the past when all of Brisbane was just one stake. The building has a very long history.
After the Stake Conference we had a picnic at a place called Roma Street Parklands, a park/botanic garden about 15 minutes away from the City Hall by foot. We had a few investigators there and taught them after we ate. We set a baptismal date with one for the 28th! He's one of the investigators I found during Jolt Week, from China of course, I talked to him on Queen Street the Thursday of jolt week (the second week in August or thereabouts) and we gave him a tour of the Church on Saturday if my memory serves me correctly. He has just about the most Chinese Chinese smile I've ever seen, I'll try to get a picture of him this week so you can see what I mean: his eyes crinkles up in a way that just makes you happy inside. :D
Since this week was temple p-day, we spent all of Monday GQing because we hadn't scheduled any appointments. I talked to more people that day than I have talked to ever before in my mission, it was great. This GQing helped us create a large group of people to come with us to English class on Tuesday -- we had about 15 people or so.
Yesterday we had a special training, and President Henderson talked about something very enlightening. For background, if you are familiar with the missionary schedule, every day at the end of the day we plan for 30 minutes at 9 pm (or by 9:30 if you are coming back from an appointment). President himself was wondering why this was the case -- why should missionaries plan at the end of the day, when they are exhausted, perhaps frustrated, or simply tired? Why not in the morning when they are fresh and focused? He shared with us the creation story in Genesis Chapter 1. Notice that in verses 5, 8, 13 etc. it says "the evening and the morning", not "and the morning and the evening". Days started with the Sunset. So planning was done in the evening, then preparation, then work. This is the pattern that the prophets and apostles do too, and President Henderson explained that he would do it from now on too.
That's about it for the week... unfortunately I didn't bring my journal along with me to emailing so I'm not sure if there was anything else major. Haha. Have a great week, take care!
Elder J. Colton Ladd
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