Last P-day Elder Monsen and I toured the newly opened Brisbane City Hall and Museum of Brisbane. It was surprisingly substantial! There were three exhibits in the library: one on the Brisbane River, one of the museum's panorama collection, and one on World Expo '88 which was held here apparently. There were also tours of the clock tower, some 80-odd meters high or something. We took pictures, which will be forthcoming.
Tuesday was transfers! We didn't go of course, but we finally found out the results. The other companionship now has one of the elders in my "generation" (he came a transfer before me but we're close enough).
Thursday was ANZAC day here in Australia! As I understand it's kind of a combination of our Memorial Day and Veteran's day. ANZAC stands for Australia-New Zealand Army Corps, it's celebrated on the day they attacked Gallipoli in WWI. They lost; that's why the overall tone of the holiday is probably different from those holidays in the US. The saying is "Lest We Forget."
Elder Monsen and I were going to the city to teach that day and were surprised to find it a completely different place; the street between king george square and queen street was a thoroughfare for a big parade, where we saw soliders, policemen, and others walk past. Incidentally this made it very difficult for our inevstigators to reach us. While we waited I snapped a few pictures of the excellent bagpipe bands that came along. Pictures forthcoming.
The *best* part of the week was Friday and Saturday, when Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to Brisbane! There was a special Mission conference on Friday that he spoke at, and we also had the opportunity to attend a YSA Fireside on Saturday with our investigators. It's been many years since Brisbane had an Apostle here; apparently in 2011 Neil L. Anderson was supposed to come but there was the floods so he was rerouted to Melbourne and never made it to Brisbane.
To us missionaries he spoke about revelation and the spirit. He says he never prepares what he will speak about before coming, and so what he was impressed to do with us on the spot was something he does with perhaps 1 out of every 10 missionary audiences he has the chance to meet with: he asks us "What have you learned about inspiration and revelation through the Holy Ghost?" and after each response from a missionary he expounds and teaches. My favorite lesson he taught, though was this: no matter who we are, or what position/calling we hold, the "mantle" of our calling is always bigger than we are. We spend the period of our service (for missionaries, two years; for Elder Oaks, a lifetime) growing into the mantle.
To the YSA he expounded upon the speakers that had come before him, and then on a variety of topics he felt impressed to touch on. There were many highlights, one of my favorites was when he read an analogy from an ensign article that was brought to his recollection: Singles in the Ward Family
This week marked the last week of our Zone's challenge for April: 14 hours of finding per companionship per week (602 hours was the goal to be exact, following a little adjustment of Zones in transfers). At the beginning of the week the zone leaders informed us that to reach the goal, making up for the overall loss of previous weeks, we would need 16 hours per companionship this week! We tried hard to get our hours all week. On Saturday the zone leaders calculated everything one last time: On Sunday, each companionship would need about 4 hours each!
Sunday was hectic, Monsen and I tried to get all the finding we could. We tried getting some time between Ward Council and Sacrament meeting by walking out in front of the church and talking to a bus load of Chinese tourists that had just arrived at the Kangaroo Point lookout. During church we scrambled to organize some splits. When we arrived home at 9, we had gotten a total of 18 hours for the week.
It was a tense hour of waiting, after we called in our numbers, to find out what the verdict was. Did the zone reach the goal? We were divided in opinion between the two companionships, My companion and I being the hopefuls. At last we recieved word just a few minutes before bed: the zone had 606.25 finding hours! We did it!
The reward, ironically, is that next P-rday will be a full-day P-day; no proselyting necessary after 6:00 PM as usual. The reward for me, personally, though, is the experience I gained in getting as much finding as possible, managing time and also becoming a better finder.
That's it forth the week. Pictures in just a moment! Take care all!
Elder J. Colton Ladd
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