29 Jan 2014

Good morning everyone! We had an AWESOME week this week, because last weekend we had 2 baptisms!! Here is a little bit more about them:

Their Story: Our first baptism is an Australian single mother with a baby son about a year and a half old. She had a hard life growing up, with her mother passing away at an early age, and not having a great relationship with either parent in the first place. As a result, in her teens she kind of strayed from the path a bit, and developed drinking and smoking habits. When she became pregnant with her child, however, she quit both habits. The missionaries, one of my companions and a zone leader on trade-offs with him, knocked on her door about three months ago. They were just about to finish tracting, when they saw a man across the street, they crossed the street and talked to him, and he became a potential. When he walked off, they realized they were standing outside of a small complex, which they had a referral for. They tried to see him but he wasn't home, but lo and behold the door next door was open and they knocked on it. She had just moved in the day before. She received the missionaries warmly, she was looking for a church to go to at the time.

When they tried to contact the aforementioned referral again a few days later, our second baptism was behind the door! BUT... she wasn't actually the referral, she was only living with the referral. The referral moved out of our area shortly thereafter, but our recent convert stayed. She is from Liberia originally, on a humanitarian visa she came to Australia about 7 years ago (since then she has gained permanent residency). She, too, has a baby, a daughter, just little younger than our other recent convert.

The baptism: It was at 9 am on Saturday morning (we had made it so early because we were meant to have on-the-road interviews in one of the zones, but that was shifted to another day). It was well attended. The young couple who had helped us teach and fellowship the recent converts gave talks, and the husband performed the baptisms. One of my companions also gave a talk. My companion and I confirmed them the next day.

Something awesome about both our recent converts is that they are both now helping us teach other investigators! The first invited her brother, sister-in-law, ex-boyfriend, and other brother to church, all have become investigators as well! (Most live out of our area though...). The second has struck up a great friendship with one of our former investigators (who came to the baptism!) and has also invited her friend from Sudan to church. Both of them have changed so much since they were first taught. They were really excited to be baptized.

That was definitely the highlight of the week, as you can tell. We did a few other things too this past week, of course. Last Monday was our P-day of course. On Tuesday, we drove up to Brisbane North zone to visit all of the flats and interview all of the missionaries there. In each flat, every missionary gets to spend about 10 minutes with President Henderson, and also 10 minutes with Sister Henderson. Meanwhile, in each flat, my companions and inspect the flats and give the missionaries "surveys" to fill out (a self-evaluation of their studies, exercise, and proselyting efforts), and also teach and train the missionaries while we can.

On Wednesday, the Chinese program took a hefty blow with the departure of the one and only Elder Chen, a legendary Chinese missionary who has finally come to the conclusion of his mission. I can say without reservation that he is the single best Chinese missionary that I have ever known in the mission. All of us looked up to him, yet he was also very humble. You can read his whole story here: 

Farewell Elder Chen

I had the chance to live with him for 2 transfers early on in my mission, and he made a huge impact on me, like he did on all of the other Chinese missionaries. He was the GQ King, and he was an incredible teacher (many of the analogies and tools we use in our teaching to help chinese investigators more easily understand doctrine were created by Elder Chen). He will be sorely missed, but his legacy will live on in the Chinese program. I hope to keep in touch with him, he knows more about the areas than any other Chinese missionary.

Wednesday evening was the first Brisbane Multi-stake Meeting on the Hastening of the Work of Salvation. The Ward councils of Brisbane, Brisbane North, Cleveland, and Sunshine Coast stakes all were present or watching through Skype. The purpose of the meeting was synchronizing the members and the missionaries, and talking about 

Members and Missionaries

It was a huge affair. The missionaries in each stake were all present as well, and we introduced a Standard of Excellence for them to now have. There will be more transparency between members and missionaries, President has been creating and using a lot of great new ideas. This continued on Thursday with Centenary, Logan, Ipswich, and Eight Mile Plains.

Thursday was also the first-ever "Sisters Conference". We were not involved, it was something put together by Sister Henderson and the Sister Training Leaders (Like Zone Leaders but for Sisters).

Over the weekend were the baptisms, as I mentioned above. On Saturday we also traveled down to Ipswich to watch the baptism of an investigator that both of my companions taught when they served in that area at different times. They both enjoyed it.

On Monday we had interviews up the Sunshine Coast, and yesterday we were down in Centenary (part of Ipswich). And there you have it! That was the week, and that's all for now. Take care everyone!

Elder J. Colton Ladd